Chapter 235 — O Geolmae's Visit
Late that night, O Geolmae came.
The firelight of the Goryeo camp, where the small feast was still underway, lit his face.
He was a man who always carried a smile that made people feel at ease, but that night his expression was quite heavy.
Yeongu asked first.
"Did something happen? Why does your face look so troubled?"
O Geolmae looked around for a moment.
The men holding cups, the men sharing roasted meat, the light laughter of the late night slowly faded before his silence.
"My elder brother has made an excessive request."
Yeongu knew who he meant by elder brother.
The Great Khan.
What had he said?
Yeongu set down his cup and waited for his explanation.
"What did he say? What did he ask?"
"He told me to establish a diplomatic connection with the Goryeo army and request the dispatch of troops."
Yeongu nodded.
"We already knew that much."
O Geolmae's face hardened further.
"And he told me to discuss the matter of joining the countries together."
Yeongu cleared his throat.
"Hm, hm."
The eyes of several men seated at the feast widened.
A country was not something easily joined to another.
It was not something to bring up like a drinking-table joke, nor was it something to throw out in haste before a war.
Yet Yeongu soon continued with a calm face.
"You said the ancestors originally came from there.
You also said Lord Hambo came from Goryeo, that the country was named Jin after the Kim clan of Gyerim, and that there was some connection to the last prince of Silla.
Whether all of that is true must be examined, but it is true that many traditions are shared.
I am not a scholar, and I cannot verify those things.
I only feel in daily life that we are not greatly different."
Yeongu opened his hand lightly.
"So the matter of joining the countries together, well, would it not be good if it could be done?"
O Geolmae did not accept those words immediately.
He looked straight at Yeongu.
"You said that if we joined, we could last a thousand years. Like Gyerim."
"That is not my story."
Yeongu immediately waved his hand.
"It was the prophecy of the recluse of Oryang Mountain. I merely delivered it as it was. Without adding or removing anything."
"I see."
O Geolmae let out a low breath.
"So that must have tempted him."
Yeongu laughed softly.
"Heh heh. I was tempted too. It is no wonder the Great Khan feels that way."
He soon corrected his expression.
The laughter disappeared, and the order of urgent matters returned to his face.
"But right now, the most urgent thing is to obtain cooperation.
A diplomatic and military agreement must be made.
When they march out, news of Goryeo's deployment must reach their ears.
This is truly urgent."
O Geolmae asked,
"And the matter of joining the countries?"
Yeongu thought for a moment.
"That will not be something His Majesty the King of Goryeo can decide alone.
If the discussion reaches that point, it will be enough to leave as topics for public debate that we are one people, that we share the same traditions, and that though history has pulled us apart, we were never completely strangers."
"Just make it a subject of public discussion?"
"Yes. Do not try to obtain an answer immediately. Saying that countries should be joined is too large a thing.
At first, you must open the way through brotherly countries, the same root, a common enemy, military cooperation, exchanges of envoys, marriage ties, and trade."
Yeongu looked at him and asked,
"You will meet Lord Kim Busik, will you not?"
O Geolmae shook his head.
"No. If I do that, I may put him in difficulty."
"Ah."
Only then did Yeongu understand the circumstances a little.
Kim Busik was someone who could be reasoned with.
But precisely because of that, he was dangerous.
If too great a matter were placed upon him first, the burden he would have to bear would become excessive.
Once the word merger leaked out in court, it would ride people's mouths and grow in any shape it pleased.
If that word spread wrongly, it could block even the path of cooperation.
"If you face difficulty, seek out General Park Geunsu.
Tell him you came with my introduction. He will help you with all his strength.
He was my direct superior."
"Will I perhaps be beaten a few times?"
"Ahaha. That may happen. His hands are not exactly well-behaved."
O Geolmae straightened his body.
It was the face of a man who had made up his mind.
"I intend to leave now."
Yeongu looked at him in surprise.
"It is late at night."
"This is a matter in which every moment is urgent.
I have already sent messengers and scouts ahead."
"Good grief."
O Geolmae tried to smile lightly, but the smile did not last long.
Like a man setting out on a long road, he checked the sword at his waist and his cloak once more.
The night road, the enemy's eyes, unsettled diplomacy, and a request far too large all lay before him.
"I will go and return."
Yeongu rose and gave him formal courtesy.
"I wish you good fortune in war."
O Geolmae nodded.
Then he walked out into the darkness.
Yeongu followed O Geolmae for quite a distance.
The firelight of the feast receded behind them, and the noise inside Huiling Fortress gradually died down.
They passed through the courtyard of the new palace fortress and walked south along an unfinished road.
The earth still held the footprints of the day, and the night wind blew cold through the pillars and empty ground.
When they reached the place where the southern gate would be newly built, O Geolmae's men were waiting.
Those holding the reins turned back, spotted O Geolmae, and welcomed him.
Several men in civil officials' dress were mixed among them.
They seemed already prepared to set out.
Baggage had been tied low on the saddles, and document cases were firmly bound with leather straps.
The torches bent long beneath the wind, and beneath that light the faces of the men were stiff with tension.
Yeongu stopped walking.
"Please return safely."
O Geolmae mounted his horse and shouted,
"If you start the war while I am away, I will not let it pass."
Yeongu laughed in disbelief.
"That is not something I can decide, is it?"
"Step back, avoid it, and wait."
"Ahaha."
The laughter scattered on the wind.
When O Geolmae took the reins, his horse shook its neck.
His men turned their horses one after another, and the men dressed as civil officials checked their document cases again.
They were not setting out with swords and horses alone.
What they carried was heavier than horses and sharper than swords.
Another important matter had begun.
How Goryeo would think of it was impossible to know.
A country does not move like a single person with one mind.
Just because the king made up his mind did not mean all officials would immediately move in the same direction, and just because an envoy spoke well did not mean the whole court would tilt at once.
Even Goryeo was highly layered.
There were civil officials and military officials, descendants of old meritorious houses, and men who had risen through the examinations.
The influence of families who had entered office through hereditary privilege was by no means weak.
And what of the local powerful clans?
They were tied to the royal house through one marriage connection or another, and each possessed their own land, private soldiers, and old dignity.
The work of uniting the Later Three Kingdoms and binding them into one country had been a great achievement.
But integration was not something finished once and for all.
It was a work that continued for a long time.
Several early kings had suppressed their discontent and established the framework of the state, but the basic nature of things did not change easily.
The center and the provinces, the civil and military officials within the center, the examination men and the hereditary appointees within that, and behind them the powerful clans, temples, and royal marriage networks were all tangled together in complexity.
There was no solution that could persuade all of their political interests at once from the beginning.
It was impossible.
Some would see cooperation with Jin as an opportunity for the northern advance pursued since the Founding Ancestor.
Some would see it as a danger that shook the peace by making relations with Liao difficult.
Some would watch Song's reaction.
Some would recall the return of the Nine Fortresses in the north.
Some would calculate profit, some would weigh legitimacy, and some would simply see whether their own house would suffer loss.
Yeongu did not expect much.
It would be best if the Goryeo army truly marched out, but that was too large a matter.
Still, it would be enough if only the rumor spread that Goryeo might march.
Liao was already shaking.
In such a situation, if word spread that Goryeo was moving from the east, Tianzuo would have to look behind him even while gathering troops.
His generals would have to worry about the Goryeo army in the rear even as they marched out to strike Jin.
That alone had value.
Rumors cannot stop an army, but they can slow it.
An army that doubts cannot move as one body at the moment of decisive battle.
O Geolmae turned back to Yeongu one last time.
A torch flickered beside his face.
"Stay alive."
Yeongu smiled.
"I will do my best to manage that until you return."
O Geolmae said nothing more and struck his horse's belly with his heels.
His men followed behind him, and the men dressed as civil officials set their horses in motion as well.
The sound of hoofbeats crossed the empty ground where the southern gate would stand and faded into the darkness.
Yeongu stood for a long while, looking in the direction where they had disappeared.
The night over Huiling was deep.
The war had not yet come.
And the words that would shake that war were already galloping toward Goryeo.