Chapter 61. The Return of the Nine Fortresses — A Change in the Situation
The next day, Youngwoo reluctantly agreed.
He decided to remain among the Jurchens for the time being.
He agreed to answer their request and help with what was needed.
The state had told him to do so.
He had also been told that it would aid the peace negotiations.
He had not believed all of it, yet if it could bring some benefit, then it had to be done.
Who was he to stand there and argue?
Still, he knew one thing clearly:
his own strength was not yet deep.
There were things the Goryeo army possessed that he could teach to the Jurchens.
If he trained them in martial skill and helped them display strength in the guest camps, it would be of use.
To live as a military man, he had to learn more.
Study was the thing he hated most in the world.
Even so, it had to be done.
Around that time, the Jurchen army did not withdraw.
Instead, the return of the Nine Fortresses was decided.
The Khan requested cooperation, and the King of Goryeo ordered that all the fortresses be returned.
These were fortresses in lands that had taken more than ten years to occupy and pioneer.
Many generals opposed it.
Yet the desire for peace was stronger.
"The Jurchens are not strangers."
That phrase passed from mouth to mouth more than once.
After fighting one another as though bent on death, it was hard to accept such words now.
Old memories still remained, from long ago when they had been together in Liaodong and Liaoxi.
Within the Nine Fortresses, Goryeo soldiers and Jurchens mingled together.
Stories of the days when they had crossed blades came out over cups of wine.
Some laughed.
Some lowered their heads.
At last, sovereignty over the Nine Fortresses passed into the hands of the Jurchen chieftain.
And on that day, Youngwoo entered Seonchunryeong Fortress together with the Jurchen army.
The soldiers at the West Gate were startled when they saw him.
A few ran forward and dropped to their knees.
"We have sinned."
Youngwoo smiled.
"I will repay you the same way next time."
The soldiers could not lift their heads.
Youngwoo added,
"Still, remember this. Even if those above command it, if it is not righteous, do not do it."
The Khan, having gained an unexpected advantage, actively cooperated with Goryeo.
He even personally assisted with the withdrawal of the Goryeo army.
A few soldiers laid down military duty and remained in that land.
Merchants from Gaegyeong also came north.
The road opened all the way to Seonchunryeong.
Once trade began, things that had not existed before began to appear.
Books came.
Cloth came.
Medicine came.
Wild ginseng and furs went down to Gaegyeong.
The air of the Nine Fortresses was peaceful.
The Khan said,
"It is the broad-heartedness of Goryeo."
Tribute goods went toward Gaegyeong.
Gaegyeong, too, sent things back.
The goods flowing back and forth at last began to overflow.
The winter of Liaodong grew a little less harsh.
The return of the Nine Fortresses was changing many things.
A great part in this had been played by the sages.
They persuaded the King of Goryeo and emphasized that peace must be made to endure.
They persuaded both sides, saying that they were one and must not fight one another.
The one place that found the relationship between the Jurchens and Goryeo unwelcome was Liao.
It was the empire that held the north and the steppe in its grasp.
If trade flourished, the Jurchens would revive.
What they feared most was the bravery of the Jurchens.
Masters of the steppe, they feared above all the rise of the Jurchens, and so they crushed them with severity.
Their gaze could not be ignored.
It was an uneasy peace.
With Goryeo behind them, they could not simply strike at will.
Yet if they left matters alone, they feared the Jurchens would grow and one day devour them.
—*
Even when the world changes, an individual life continues in its own way, holding to what came before.
Youngwoo's life was like that.
He lived just as he had in his days as a unit commander in the Goryeo army.
He rose early in the morning and studied by himself.
In the forenoon he went out to the military camp and attended to his duties.
In the afternoon he went to his master and learned martial arts.
At night he returned to his lodging and sat in meditation.
They say that study has its proper season.
Yet more important even than that is the environment.
Time free of burdens, an outstanding master, and companions in study—or rather, seniors far ahead of him—these allowed Lee Youngwoo to devote himself fully to learning.
That the difficulties surrounding him had all at once been removed also meant that an environment fit for study had been created for him.
He spent a fixed part of each day in the Jurchen camp, saying that he must not lose his sense for such things.
The Khan had him sit near him and watch, listen, and learn how matters in the camp were conducted.
Youngwoo took the lead in doing the menial tasks.
It was what people called leading by example.
When he did the sort of work Jurchen nobles had never done, one or two began to follow.
It began with his walking back and forth in idle moments, pointing out the differences between them and the Goryeo army.
Once every two or three days he wandered the nearby hills and fields, gathering medicinal herbs and asking the physicians about them, learning how to prepare and process them.
Later, he would remember that period as the most peaceful time of his life.
No—he would also say it had been the most difficult.
That was because of study.
It was study he had chosen as the means to overcome the recurring hardships.
Yet that study was no simple thing.
It was not something just anyone could do.
It was a discipline that demanded a man go beyond the limits of what is human.
There is a fixed path, yet doing the same thing does not bring the same result.
For it concerns the operation of qi, which cannot be seen and cannot be held in the hand.
Numbers and forms can be seen, so somehow one follows them.
If one learns them roughly, repeats them, and becomes practiced, one may manage something similar.
Yet what does not yield in that way is the inner method, the mental art that runs along the hidden circuits within the human body.
When the mind-method changes, the operation of inner energy changes with it, and without that, one can never truly follow.
Take, for example, burning a sheet of paper laid upon the palm with the true fire of samādhi.
If you have seen it with your eyes, can you then do it yourself?
If force is infused into a sword, the power to cut or shatter grows greater.
Even if one has seen sword-energy wrapped around a blade, or sword-force rising and breaking things apart, that does not mean one can imitate it.
Even if one copies with the fingers the motion of pressing the acupuncture points, the effect cannot be the same.
To press the meridian points of the human body with greater precision than a physician's needle, and to control the depth with exactness, requires that I myself have mastered qigong to a high degree.
For me, the study of qigong made up more than half of it all.
It cannot be seen, cannot be touched, and if concentration lapses, it scatters without leaving a trace.
Sensing something smaller than a mustard seed, something that seemed on the edge of appearing and vanishing, of being grasped and slipping away, he devoted himself every day to the study of breath.
He practiced the Great Circulation, protecting the body safely while in motion and at the same time driving physical exertion to its utmost limit.
That is why he later said it had been the happiest time, and also the hardest.
The one who remained at his side through all of it was Baek Eun.
From the time he returned from Gaegyeong onward, he lived constantly beside Lee Youngwoo.
He was a senior, a companion, a teacher, and a guide.
When Youngwoo went to the military camp, he accompanied him.
When Youngwoo studied, he studied beside him.
It seemed as though he matched himself to Youngwoo's schedule.
No—in truth, it was Youngwoo who matched himself to his.
The two moved together like twins.
Yet there was one strange thing about him:
he never spoke first.
If Youngwoo asked, he answered, but in one sense he seemed remarkably passive.
It was the attitude of one trying to preserve a state of stillness.