Chapter 156 — Battle of Huanglong Prefecture
Chapter 12 — What Remained
Huanglong Prefecture was very quiet.
The sounds of battle did not linger long.
They rose briefly, then sank away.
People walked.
They did not hurry.
They made no sound.
They simply moved from one place to another.
The granary doors were opened.
Grain lay piled high.
Silver was stacked in abundance.
Bolts of silk—hundreds, no, thousands—were folded and heaped together.
Everything that had not been destroyed remained as it was.
Someone scooped up a handful of grain.
The kernels slipped through his fingers.
No one spoke.
The time contained within those things was too long.
Agolta walked slowly through the city.
He did not stop.
He did not hurry.
He simply passed through.
People stepped aside.
His gaze did not linger on the objects.
He knew what this place had been.
It was not merely where grain gathered—
it was where a nation had endured.
And now, that place stood empty.
Upon the walls, the banners still hung.
They swayed slowly in the wind.
Someone climbed up and took one down.
In his hand, the banner felt light.
Yet the moment it was lowered,
a long-standing current was severed.
The rule over Buyeo Prefecture—the symbol of the Liao—had changed hands.
Outside, the wind continued to blow.
The roads still stretched onward.
The rivers still flowed.
The plains still lay open.
Everything appeared unchanged.
But what moved across them had completely changed.
No people came.
No armies moved.
No messages traveled.
Why had the Liao not sent more reinforcements?
Not many had fallen in this battle.
The fortress had not been greatly broken.
It had not burned.
Few corpses lay cut down by blades.
Yet this war had begun in unseen places,
and it had destroyed what could not be seen.
Agolta stopped before the gate.
He looked outward.
The road continued.
But now, it led somewhere else.
He stood for a moment.
Then he mounted and rode on.
The war had not ended.
Only its form had changed.
From the next day, many tribes came to submit.
After the fall of Buyeo Prefecture, groups seeking allegiance arrived in succession.
The cavalry of the Ogo tribe came first.
Then followed the people of the Pori and Oro tribes.
The Dobo and Dora brought animals and settled outside the walls.
From the north came the Blackwater and Sumo peoples.
The banners of the Haeran tribe followed behind.
The people of Haphap and Takri arrived in lines of carts.
Soldiers of the Tieli joined, fully armed.
Even the remnants of Balhae came, carrying their belongings.
After them came countless smaller tribes, too many to name.
Day passed into day, yet the lines did not diminish.
Outside the walls, the land filled with people, beasts, and wagons.