Chapter 159 — Stop the Cruel Retaliation
"Stop the cruel retaliation and absorb the empire's legacy efficiently.
This city holds the property of an empire.
Here, there was a system they had managed.
There were men who kept the ledgers in order.
There must have been people skilled in calculation, and officials who knew the practical work.
There were hands that calculated taxes, distributed goods, and ran the warehouses.
Where have those people gone?
Someone with a grudge may have cut off their heads.
They may have burned to death.
They may have scattered.
You have thrown away something more precious than the goods stored in this place.
Without administration, how will you face the cold and hunger to come?
What is piled in the warehouses will diminish.
What comes in from outside will be cut off.
It is people who connect those things and keep them moving.
To administer, you need people, and…"
Youngwoo slipped back into his rambling mode, and Zonghan raised a hand.
"We understand well enough.
We did not come to interrupt the discussion between you two.
We came to tell you that there will be a banquet tonight, and there will be a special announcement concerning you, Jungnangjang."
Youngwoo smiled awkwardly.
"Ah, we all fought together, so what special announcement could there be?
Just listen to this nonsense I am saying.
Truly, I have nowhere to put my eyes.
That is why I have been staying inside lately.
When I go out, I go far outside the city.
I cannot endure the stench of blood."
Zongwang asked.
"The stench of blood?"
"Yes.
I cannot endure it.
Even I, with a strong stomach, feel this way.
Others feel it even more.
They are shocked.
They are frightened.
Then they grow distant.
That is how their hearts fall away.
When that flow piles up, it lasts for a long time.
I am not telling you to become gentle conquerors.
I am telling you to absorb them with calculation.
You said you would go as far as Yanjing and the Central Plains.
Before that, what matters more is conquering and governing this place.
You are strong enough now.
But later, when you drink the water of the Central Plains and grow soft, if another people rises here, will you be able to stop them?"
"Liao oppressed you.
They kept you from handling iron freely.
They bound the mines, controlled the smithies, and restricted the melting of iron into weapons and farming tools.
They feared you would arm yourselves in steel armor.
They blocked the trade of horses and cattle.
They tried to stop your warhorses from increasing.
They tried to stop your plow oxen from increasing as well.
They cut off the path by which you could farm and become wealthy.
They seized the children of nobles.
They tried to cut off the line of blood and power.
They tried to remove in advance the core men who might one day raise a banner of revolt.
That is how they pressed you down.
One by one, as though tightening a hand around your throat.
And still you rose.
It did not work.
Then will you do the same thing to others?
Will that not call forth the same resistance?
No one can know the future.
But this much we know.
Measures like these do not last.
They bring collapse together.
The end of merciless tyranny is ruin.
Do not do it.
From now on, you must not do it."
This man had spent time with the high-ranking men of both Jurchen and Goryeo, and his speech had grown.
He still rambled, but he touched each necessary point one by one.
This persuasion had its own order.
He was insisting from the heart that they must not go on like this, and somehow that too found its way in.
Wanyan Yinga, who belonged to the more moderate side, agreed.
"I think the Jungnangjang's words are entirely reasonable.
If we become drunk on victory now and fail to see the larger plan, the age to come will not be easy.
Our generation may be fine.
But our descendants will face their resistance.
We must absorb them.
That is a good phrase.
Calculated absorption."
Wanyan Zonghan took a middle position.
"Your words are entirely right, but it will not be easy.
Stopping soldiers from plundering is close to impossible."
Youngwoo said,
"In Goryeo… I am always sorry to begin with 'In our Goryeo,' but do you know how we handle it?"
"I will listen."
Zonghan leaned in.
"If a man plunders civilians, we cut off his head."
"Ah."
The men in the tent swallowed.
"Whether Goryeo or Jurchen, ordinary people must not be touched.
They are, quite literally, the people.
They are the ones we must guard and protect.
If they are torn limb from limb simply because they were subjects of Liao, how unjust is that?"
The room lost its words.
"Do not take everything from them at once.
It is better for them, and better for the new state, to receive taxes, labor service, and military service from them over time."
Youngwoo spoke of empire.
To them, the word empire carried the tone of Liao's tyranny.
Wanyan Zonghan blinked and asked,
"Empire? Us?"
Youngwoo said,
"What else, then? Did you intend to stab Liao a few times here and there and end it?"
Zonghan faltered.
"We were speaking of fighting Liao…"
"Yes. Then what is the goal of the war?
Was it to occupy a few cities and strip everything inside them bare?"
Zonghan swallowed.
Youngwoo continued.
"I thought your dream was large.
You have founded a state.
You are now taking root.
Then there must be a next step.
Who is running your Privy Council?"
The question made no sense.
There was no Privy Council yet.
Youngwoo continued anyway.
"In Liao, the Northern Privy Council oversees the affairs of the grasslands and Liaodong.
Things came to this point because the Northern Privy Council failed.
But Jin does not even have such a thing as a Privy Council.
You do not yet handle matters according to a plan.
Then can you govern better than Liao?"
Wanyan Xiyin answered.
"We are only at the beginning.
We do not yet know how far we will go.
When you speak of empire, you mean replacing the Liao Empire, yes?"
"I hope you dream beyond that."
"What? Beyond that?"
"Not only Shangjing, Zhongjing, and Nanjing.
I mean the Central Plains as well."
"Ah…"
What felt obvious to Youngwoo had not existed for them.
Perhaps the thing that determines our limits is imagination.
Perhaps they had not done it because they had never thought of it in the first place.
The word empire undoubtedly opened something in their hearts.
It belonged to a different order than revenge, absorption, or plunder.
To build an empire, they would have to stop doing the things they had done until now.