Chapter 164 — Wanyan Xiyin's Visit
The military tent was enclosed with animal hides and thick cloth to keep out the wind.
The outside was rough, but the inside was neatly arranged.
As the sun slanted downward, light passed dimly through the fabric and spread in a hazy glow.
That light cast long shadows across the floor.
There were not many things inside.
A folded suit of armor lay to one side, and weapons, including his sword, leaned within reach.
A small bundle tied with leather cord and a single water flask sat quietly in their places.
It was a simple arrangement of belongings.
Everything had been placed according to need, without disorder.
The air inside the tent was still.
Sounds from outside entered thinly, as though filtered.
Far away came the sound of horses stamping their feet and soldiers speaking in low voices.
Those sounds lost their strength before reaching this place and scattered softly.
Youngwoo sat in the center.
His back was straight, and his breathing was even.
His hands rested on his knees, and his gaze stayed on the floor.
There was no movement.
There was no trembling.
Time in an isolated place flows more slowly than expected.
The lamp flame trembled faintly, and shadows stretched long.
Inside the tent, only quiet breath and steady breathing filled the space.
Outside, war remained.
Inside, paused time lingered.
Wanyan Xiyin came.
Before he arrived, he gave a few deliberate coughs as he walked.
Stopping his horse at a distance and entering on foot was a kind of courtesy.
"Loyalty!"
The guard at the entrance offered his salute, and Youngwoo lifted the tent flap and came out.
"Welcome."
"Have you been inside all this time?"
He seemed to mean the time from the council until now.
"Yes."
Youngwoo's expression was not good.
It seemed he had not gone around because of the matter they had discussed all along.
In the past, he would have walked from place to place and interfered in everything.
"Is something the matter?"
There was no need to repeat a matter both of them already knew.
Youngwoo looked toward the far sky and smiled faintly.
"Nothing else."
It sounded like he did not wish to say more.
Xiyin changed the subject.
"May I have a cup of tea?"
"Ah, of course. I came out after a long while and looked around, so I forgot my manners."
"Between us, what manners are needed? Please."
Youngwoo went inside and prepared tea.
He often served tea to the Jurchen commanders.
Many people knew that he enjoyed tea and brought it to him, and he used it to recreate the time he had shared with his master.
When he repeated that time, he felt as if he had returned to the person he had been then.
Or, to put it too strongly, perhaps everything we do is a repetition of earlier time.
"Have you come to say that again?"
Youngwoo asked while gauging the temperature of the tea.
"No. I know persuasion is impossible. You are a man who studies the way of the immortals. We forgot that you are not different from them. I still want to ask you to help us, but I do not wish to disturb your quiet with that subject."
Youngwoo poured the tea.
"I am sorry. I simply cannot bear to watch any more."
"You know, do you not, that the great work is impossible without their cooperation?"
"You may win, but it will end quickly."
They had returned to the original matter again.
Wanyan Xiyin changed the subject.
Wanyan Xiyin: A staff-type commander of the early Jin. According to the History of Jin, he served as an adviser of the Wanyan clan in the early Jin period. He assisted Aguda in organizing state institutions and script, and played an important role in the transformation of Jurchen society into a state.
Xiyin shook his head.
"I do not wish to make that the subject."
Youngwoo nodded.
Their hearts were not turned in the same direction, so there was little to say.
"Please drink the tea."
Youngwoo poured the tea, and Xiyin quickly received it with both hands and drank.
The Goryeo camp, when there was no battle, was profoundly quiet.
The voices of men reporting their entry and exit after returning from work at the main camp sounded far away.
"Are you leaving?"
Youngwoo's eyes narrowed.
For Xiyin to ask in that way meant, in reverse, that they had not accepted Youngwoo's request.
Youngwoo had never once decided his own life for himself.
He had been swept along by someone else's needs.
"Perhaps."
"Many will feel regret."
Youngwoo shook his head.
"I will feel more regret. I asked to go forward in a sound way, and they said they would not."
"There was discussion."
"The Great Khan must have had no other way. But is that not why he is Great Khan? Is he not in that position in order to solve such problems?"
Xiyin cautiously restrained him.
"Your words go too far."
"He said he would spare no effort to establish an empire, yet he refuses something so small. It is right for me to withdraw."
"He must have reached that point for a reason. Without the submission of the tribes, war is impossible."
"I suppose so. This discussion has gone around in circles too long. I want to stop now. I will say it firmly. Violence, plunder, and atrocities cannot be tolerated."
At words that sounded like a final declaration, Xiyin lowered his head.
An outsider was staking his life on something they considered almost trivial.
Because Youngwoo did not think of the Jurchens as strangers.
"Then where will you go?"
"I must go to my master. I will continue the studies I could not finish and look at the world again."
"You will go to Goryeo, then."
"I do not know where my master has gone. I have not seen him since the establishment of the state."
Baek Ingyeom had claimed himself as a warrior of Goryeo.
Many immortals followed behind him.
That was the greatest reason the Jurchens had been unable to attack Goryeo until now.
Xiyin asked again.
"Would he think the same?"
"He is not a man who says yes or no plainly. If I tell him I quit for this reason, he will not blame me."
Perhaps this was what it meant for a rat to crawl into the hole of an ox horn and find itself unable to go forward or back.
Xiyin had stopped in just such a place.
"Hyu."
His sigh was long.
Youngwoo comforted him.
"There are many people like me. Do not regret it too much. There will be men who obey well, work well, and lead wars to victory."
"You said that even if we do that, we will soon fall."
"That is right. Violence calls forth more violence, and cruelty calls forth greater cruelty. Another Jurchen will rise."
"What should we do?"
"That is the task before you. If Liao had done well, why would it be walking the road to ruin?"
The phrasing was strange.
He spoke as if he knew the future, and did so as if it were entirely natural.
"Did you just say that Liao is going to fall?"
Youngwoo answered.
"Yes."
"Then we win."
"Perhaps… if this… trend continues."
"Ah, how could you know the future?"
"The rise and fall of empires is simpler than one might think. There is one final battle left."