Chapter 162 — Shall We Hold Him Back?
When Aguda heard that Youngwoo meant to leave, lightning flashed in his eyes.
"What? Leave? Why!"
Wanyan Zonghan spoke carefully.
"He thinks of himself as a soldier, not a murderer."
"A soldier? A murderer? Is that how we appeared in his eyes?"
"Even after battle ended, men kept killing. There may be grudges from the past, but much of it was resentment poured out on people without distinction. He sees acts meant to release old hatred as murder. He says that if we are to build an empire, we must take in Liao's legacy in an ordered and planned manner. He says we must take in everyone, from craftsmen, officials, and soldiers, to the common people. They are the ones who made up the empire. If we destroy their experience and their systems, he says the great design of our state will fail. He says some must still die, selectively, but even that must be done within the bounds of law. He also said we should at least keep the law made by our ancient ancestors, the law Your Majesty spoke of. He knows and respects the old laws, such as the punishment for murderers being paid in donkeys and years of labor."
Aguda was a very stubborn man, yet as a ruler he was also gentle in society.
When he suddenly rose to act after a long silence, people said his nature was cold and harsh, but in ordinary times he was soft.
On the battlefield he was fierce, but elsewhere he was remarkably mild.
For a moment, fire had flashed in his eyes.
Then he sank into thought.
What had to be acknowledged must be acknowledged.
Yet was that a thing to say to the Great Khan?
He surely knew that he had come not as a private man, but as a representative of Goryeo.
Aguda turned to Ogemai seated beside him.
"What do you think?"
"We must avenge our wrongs. How much have we suffered all this time? But the Jungnangjang's words also make sense. We must raise an empire in a land where people are scarce. We may dislike looking at them, but we must use their resources. Grain, horses, fields, slaves, soldiers, officials—we need them all. I fully agree with his point that we must absorb them systematically, and that if we kill them all, nothing remains. Even so, the first feeling in my heart is still the desire to avenge our grudges."
Aguda nodded and asked the commanders.
Those who had no experience running an empire said it was absurd.
Those who worried about the future agreed with Ogemai.
Aguda asked each of the Wanyan clan members and the other generals one by one.
The tribal chiefs were not persuaded.
Most of them said they should kill them all.
The road ahead was long.
If the atrocities were not stopped, Lee Youngwoo would leave.
And they could not fight Liao without him and his men.
Aguda asked Wanyan Zonghan, who oversaw strategy.
"Where is the next battlefield?"
"There is no plan yet."
"No plan? That is not something the commander-in-chief should say."
Zonghan answered with dignity.
"I have been told that I only fill a role. I am not the commander-in-chief. I am the bad man who plans and carries out strategy."
Several meanings were mixed in that answer.
Humility.
The self-awareness of a man who helped commit ugly deeds.
And the idea of office as a role.
Whenever Aguda looked at him, he found him an excellent young man.
Aguda lifted his chin.
"Speak."
"This time, they will rise. They will gather their full force and come here. The battlefield will change accordingly. It will be a great field battle. We have won until now, but from this point on we must stake everything. No one can be missing. Jungnangjang Lee Youngwoo is necessary to us. Therefore, we must accept his rightful request. The tribal chiefs will oppose it, but they too are necessary. I think we should persuade them by saying that atrocities must be brought under the law of the new empire."
"You are saying Lee Jungnangjang is more important."
"For the number of soldiers, of course the tribal chiefs matter. But even if we gather them all, we remain outnumbered. To win, we need his unusual ideas. Our traditional iron cavalry, the Cheolbudo, he made it possible for us to produce ourselves once the materials were provided. Production and supply are separate. The making is done by the warriors themselves on the battlefield, with craftsmen assisting them. Each iron lamella is laced together with leather thongs. When damaged, the armor is repaired directly in the field. Warriors equipped like this keep their bodies whole even under a harsh rain of iron arrows. We must make more of them."
"Then do that."
"We are doing it. But it happened because Lee Jungnangjang insisted fiercely and shouted as he followed men around. Who else would say, 'Anyone without armor does not join the battle'? Before, in front of Huanglongfu, when we destroyed the enemy reinforcements, one tribal chief came out lightly equipped. Do you know what the Jungnangjang shouted at him?"
Aguda showed interest.
"What did he say?"
"He shouted, 'Go home!' In the end, that man could not take part in the battle, and he received no share of the spoils. From then on, he armed himself with stubborn care. Who else would shout such a thing at a tribal chief? Because he is an outsider, he is a little freer from the measures of our customs. But he has something we lack. We must hold on to him."
Aguda turned to Ogemai.
"So they say."
"Ah, I do not know. Truly, this will be hard. If we stop them, they may really go home."
Aguda asked Wanyan Xiyin.
He could be considered the foremost among the advisers.
"They say he will go home. What do you think?"
"I do not mean to argue against Uncle. We fear that, but that man does not weigh things that way. He says they are only numbers. He says we need elite troops, and that they must remain pure even after the empire is established. He says that the moment we become mixed into their civilization, we will lose the spirit of the grasslands, just as Liao did."
"Liao did that?"
"Yes. Lee Jungnangjang says Liao lost the three battles because it had lost that spirit."
Aguda asked,
"So they divided north and south. The Northern Privy Council was made to govern the grasslands, and the Northern Privy Council held priority in every way…"
"But they weakened after drinking the water of the south. Lee Gong says we will become the same."
"A prophet, then."
Wanyan Xiyin defended Youngwoo.
"He says he sees things from another place. He says he himself can look from a third-person point of view, so he sees before and after events quite objectively. He also says our vision is only confused, not that we lack the eyes to see properly."
"A sage, then?"
Even at Aguda's mockery, the young men of the Wanyan clan defended Lee Youngwoo.
He asked several others, but the answer was much the same.
The Great Khan had risen by the recommendation of many people.
He could not discard those who had raised him.
Telling them not to do something was not the same as discarding them, but they would think so.
"Let me ask you. Do you think he will abandon his present glory and go back?"
Aguda asked and glared sharply.
It was the attitude he took when teaching inexperienced young men.
No one knew whether Youngwoo would truly do it.
Who could know?
How could anyone know the future?
People have their tendencies, yet they are easily swallowed by the profit before their eyes.
How many abandon their humanity for small gains?