Why does it always turn out like this?! (2)
There are two truths that remain unchanged no matter how much the world changes.
One is that human patience has its limits. And the other is that people who are normally kind are all the more frightening when they get angry.
To the disciples of Hwasan, who were keenly aware of those truths, this situation carried somewhat different implications.
“The Sect Leader is going to tear us limb from limb…”
“He’ll shut us inside one of Hwasan’s pavilions and burn us alive along with it.”
“We’d be lucky if that were all. What if he locks us in the Repentance Chamber without any swords and gives us nothing but mountains of fasting pills and Taoist scriptures?”
“….Just thinking about it makes me want to throw up. I’d rather die.”
There was no telling what punishment would befall them if Hyun Jong’s anger reached its limit. After all, Hyun Jong had never once been that angry with his disciples.
That was precisely what made it frightening. Wasn’t it human nature to fear something one had never experienced more than something one knew all too well.
“Chung Myung-ah.”
“What.”
“Chung Myung-ah.”
“Oh, what!”
Baek Cheon’s lips trembled as he stared blankly at Chung Myung.
“Do something about this.”
“Do what! What could I possibly do in this situation?”
“……I’m not saying it because I think there’s anything you can do, I’m saying it because we have to do something.”
“…”
Thinking that this guy did manage to hit the nail on the head every once in a while, Chung Myung tore at his hair.
“Then why did you have to make such a mess in the first place! Which bastard started all this!”
“You.”
“Yep. You.”
“You did.”
“It was you, you bastard!”
Ah, it was me.
I was the one who suddenly made a fuss about finding Sect Leader Sahyeong’s descendant. Ah…
Chung Myung roughly rubbed his face.
“I must have lost my mind. What the hell got into me all of a sudden. Going around looking for some brat whose face I’ve never even seen.”
“……I don’t think it’s very decent to say that right in front of the person in question.”
“Since when has he ever had any decency.”
“That’s true too.”
Ignoring whatever the others were saying, Chung Myung shook his head vehemently and glared at Jwa Gohak, his face twisting into a fierce scowl.
“Hey.”
“Yes! Dojang!”
Perhaps Jwa Gohak, too, regarded Hwasan’s disciples as his only lifeline in this situation, for his tone had grown even more respectful.
“Do you have a plan?”
“Of course!”
Jwa Gohak nodded vigorously.
“In fact, if we look at it objectively, the situation isn’t all that serious.”
“Hm?”
“First of all, the enemy is powerful, and they’ll be storming this place very soon. And right now, there’s no way to stop them here. No matter how desperately we struggle, there’s no preventing them from breaching the city walls. The Imperial Palace? That wouldn’t even last half a day before being turned into a sea of blood.”
“…Didn’t you just say it wasn’t serious?”
“We’d be better off just running away.”
“I really want to go home.”
“However!”
Cutting through the outpouring of dismay, Jwa Gohak raised his hand sharply.
“All of this is simply a matter of time.”
“Huh?”
Baek Cheon tilted his head to one side and asked.
“What do you mean by that?”
“No matter how formidable the Red Banner Army may be, it cannot take on all the imperial troops in the Central Plains. No matter how remarkable a man Grand General Hwangbo Ung is, he will have difficulty breaching the fully fortified walls of the Imperial Capital when he has left the greater part of the Red Banner Army in the north.”
Baek Cheon frowned.
“So, the problem is that those imperial troops aren’t here.”
“That’s right. They aren’t here now. But what about three days from now?”
“Hm?”
“What about four days from now instead of three? Or five days instead of four? Will there still be no imperial troops here then?”
“Hmm.”
Yoon Jong nodded in understanding.
“What you’re saying, then, is that since you have sent word to the Great Confucian scholars and Yurim, they will naturally contact the military governors throughout the Central Plains to have reinforcements sent to the Imperial Capital, and once enough time has passed for those reinforcements to arrive, even the Red Banner Army will be unable to take the Imperial Palace.”
“Indeed. Precisely.”
“Time, is it…”
There was some sense to it.
However strong the Red Banner Army might be, it was ultimately only a regional army. The very idea that they could seize the Imperial Capital so easily was absurd.
The key was not military strength, but the gap in the defenses. If they could just buy enough time to fill that gap, there was certainly hope.
“I suppose that makes sense.”
“…I wouldn’t call it entirely wishful thinking.”
“Even if it is wishful thinking, isn’t that our only option now?”
“Amitabha. I agree that we must at least put up a struggle.”
Sensing that he had almost won over Hwasan’s disciples, Jwa Gohak turned to Chung Myung with a confident look.
“What do you think, Dojang?”
At Jwa Gohak’s confident question, Chung Myung smiled.
“What do I think?”
“Yes.”
“Want me to teach you how to fly?”
“….Pardon? Where did that suddenly come from?”
Jwa Gohak asked in bewilderment, but Chung Myung paid him no mind and continued his explanation.
“Now, watch closely. You spread both arms out like this. Like a bird’s wings. Then you flap your outstretched arms up and down like crazy. See?”
“…”
“If you can do this just thirty-two thousand times or so in a single breath, even a human should be able to fly. Well? Want to give it a try?”
“H-How could anyone possibly do that!”
“That’s my point, you bastard!”
Chung Myung leaped up and kicked Jwa Gohak in the chest.
“Aaaaargh!”
Jwa Gohak went tumbling across the floor from the kick. Chung Myung jabbed his finger at Jwa Gohak as he kept rolling, unable even to come to a stop.
“What? Buy some time? Easy for you to say, you moron! How are we supposed to buy time against an army?! You said yourself that the man leading that army is one of the greatest generals under heaven! Do you think he’d have started this without considering that?”
“W-Well……”
“He must have calculated every last detail before making his move because he was sure it would work! And is he the only one involved? Doesn’t the fact that that sly scheming bastard, the Grand Eunuch, is helping him tell you anything?! He must have joined him because he thought it would work too! Do you think everyone here is a complete idiot?!”
At those words, Hwasan’s disciples hastily nodded.
“Of course, exactly. Anyone could see it made no sense.”
“Who would fall for something like that?”
“Amitabha. Words can save lives or take them. Deceiving and misleading others is a grave sin. How do you intend to atone for it all.”
“…You hopeless fools.”
With a deep sigh, Chung Myung scratched his head vigorously.
So this was what they meant when they said incompetent allies were more frightening than the enemy.
“Let’s just go home.”
“Yeah.”
“W-Wait a moment. Dojang, please hear me out!”
“Why, you little bastard, have you still not learned your lesson! Even those beggars from the Beggars Sect have more of a conscience than you. Trying to get people to work for free with nothing but a few words!”
“A thousand gold pieces!”
“Huh?”
At those hastily blurted words, Chung Myung instinctively paused.
“Now. Think carefully. You mustn’t think of this as a matter concerning only Yurim. This is about averting a national crisis.”
“….That’s true.”
“Then if we succeed, who will bestow the reward? The Great Confucian scholars of Yurim? Or the high officials whose lives we save? Certainly not! How could such insignificant people possibly hope to satisfy you, Dojang? Utterly out of the question!”
Chung Myung’s ears began to perk up.
Seeing this, the disciples of Hwasan narrowed their eyes.
“Looks like he’s interested.”
“He’s already sold, never mind interested.”
“Perhaps it’s because he’s such a well-educated scholar… He certainly knows what matters. He has practically tailored this whole pitch to him.”
“…Well, he did spend his life preparing for the imperial examinations. He’s bound to be a cut above the rest.”
Though he could hear the disciples of Hwasan whispering, Jwa Gohak desperately ignored them and focused all his efforts on Chung Myung. He knew perfectly well whom he needed to win over to get these people moving.
Jwa Gohak shouted at Chung Myung with all the force he could muster.
“Think about it. If we pull this off, none other than His Majesty himself will personally bestow the reward.”
“…H-His Majesty? The Emperor?”
“Yes! The Emperor! The Emperor!”
Every time Jwa Gohak emphasized the word, Chung Myung visibly trembled.
“How could a reward bestowed by the Emperor possibly compare to payment from some mere high official? A thousand gold pieces? A paltry thousand gold pieces? To His Majesty, even a thousand gold pieces is mere pocket change.”
“H-Hold on. I’m feeling a little dizzy.”
Jo Geol whispered to Yoon Jong.
“His eyes have turned into coins. Shouldn’t we stop him?”
“Then you try stopping him.”
“…”
Impossible. Didn’t a mad dog lose even the ability to recognize its master once it saw meat dangling before its eyes. If some innocent bystander tried to stop it by warning that the meat was poisoned, the only outcome awaiting them would be a few new sets of teeth marks in their own flesh.
“No, are you all really just going to stand there and watch? I know he loves money, but an innocent Sahyeong is falling for it!”
Unable to watch any longer, Tang Soso cried out, but the responses were as listless as ever.
“An ‘innocent Chung Myung’. Isn’t that like saying ‘hot ice’ or something?”
“Of all the words I’ve heard in my entire life, those two sound the most jarring together. It feels like the universe is collapsing.”
“…Still, she’s not wrong. We ought to stop him.”
Baek Cheon cleared his throat and was just about to intervene when Jwa Gohak spoke.
“And I’m not merely talking about money!”
“……Hm?”
“Honor!”
This time, Baek Cheon’s ears perked up.
“Though I am a Confucian scholar ignorant of Gangho, even I know that Shaolin and Wudang dominate it today. How do you suppose I know that?”
Jwa Gohak poured every bit of his soul into his declaration.
“Isn’t it precisely because Shaolin and Wudang have received recognition from the Imperial Palace?!”
“Ah…….”
“Prestige! Honor! Where do they come from! From the Imperial Palace itself!”
“…Indeed. That makes sense.”
“Sasuk!”
“Snap out of it, will you!”
But Baek Cheon’s eyes had already gone half-glazed. He seemed to be gazing at some dreamlike future already.
And once again, Jwa Gohak’s booming voice rang in his ears.
“Didn’t you all win fame at the Martial Arts Tournament of All Under Heaven. Naturally, you gained honor as well. But! Yes, but can you really be satisfied with stopping at something so insignificant?”
“…”
“Think about it. If you distinguish yourselves in this affair, what will His Majesty the Emperor say? Indeed, Hwasan truly is the greatest sect under heaven.”
“Th-The greatest under heaven…..”
“ ‘I shall proclaim it to the world!’ ”
Baek Cheon began to fidget with excitement.
“Then you will return home in glory, with the whole world celebrating you. Wouldn’t all people under heaven hold Hwasan in reverence and treat it with the utmost respect?”
It was inevitable.
The moment he heard those words, Baek Cheon pictured himself striding proudly into Xian.
Colorful confetti raining down from the sky and deafening firecrackers going off all around. Himself walking proudly through it all. And when he imagined Jin Geumryong standing by the roadside, his shoulders slumped as he watched Baek Cheon pass, and even Jin Chobaek silently applauding behind him, Baek Cheon no longer had the strength to resist.
“A-As long as we distinguish ourselves…”
“Oh, come on! Snap out of it!”
Just as Yoon Jong was about to dissuade him, Baek Cheon instead lunged at Yoon Jong and seized him firmly by the shoulders.
“No! Think it through, Yoon Jong!”
“….Pardon?”
“That old man from Shaolin who finds fault with us at every turn, those horse-faced Taoist bastards from Wudang who keep taking sly jabs at us! Even those bastards from Jongnam, whose sheer obnoxiousness is unrivaled under heaven!”
“…”
“With a single word from the Emperor, every last one of them would have to bow their heads before us!”
“Well, that’s…….”
“Hwasan would become the greatest Taoist sect under heaven! No, the greatest sect under heaven!”
Even Yoon Jong’s narrow eyes began to tremble ever so slightly.
This was precisely what it meant to deceive the world and lead the people astray [혹세무민(惑世誣民) – the idiom has negative connotation and is usually used to talk about someone spreading false doctrines, propaganda, superstitions etc].
________
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