Chapter 240 — Though the Khan Withdrew the Order
The khan withdrew the order, but Yeongu did not stop preparing to depart.
An order withdrawn by words had already entered people's ears, and a thought once raised inside the council hall did not disappear.
He had already said he would go, no matter who tried to stop him.
Yeongu took off his armor.
As the metal plates came loose one by one, his shoulders grew lighter, but his insides grew heavier.
The armor and insignia of a Goryeo army commander would only be burdens to a man entering the enemy camp.
He took out an ordinary military uniform and put it on, then wore beneath it the heart-protecting armor his master had given him.
The thin armor plates touched his chest, and the cold sensation pressed against his skin.
It was invisible from the outside, but it would stop one blade.
He had survived more than once in near-death moments because of it.
He summoned the Fifth Unit.
His words were short.
He told them, one by one, which route to take if he did not return, whose orders the Goryeo support group should follow first, and how to divide the equipment, documents, and people.
The men listened, but no one found it easy to answer.
Those words sounded like both departure orders and a will.
Kim Yun-gyeong heard the news late and came running.
He was short of breath, and disbelief showed on his face.
"How did it come to this?"
Yeongu laughed shortly.
It was closer to baring his teeth than laughing.
"They are sons of bitches. I helped them, and now they ask me to hand over even the skin I'm wearing."
Kim Yun-gyeong spoke as if he could not believe it.
"Surely they did not go that far."
"It happened in the council hall, with everyone present."
Kim Yun-gyeong took one step back.
His face showed disbelief before anger.
"This is absurd. I thought they at least had a sense of loyalty. So they use people as disposable pieces after all."
Yeongu tied his waist cord hard.
"A spy. I have never done anything even close to that. I fought at the very front, sword in hand, always at the very front. I have never done this kind of work. And yet they say I am the most suitable man.
Good heavens."
He complained as the words came to him.
His speech was rough, but his hands did not stop.
At his waist he fastened an inconspicuous short blade, and into his pouch he placed dried meat, small pieces of silver, a container for embers, needle and thread, folded paper, and a small piece of ink.
He left behind the fine sword and the splendid equipment.
A man slipping into the enemy camp lived by looking common and moved by traveling light.
Kim Yun-gyeong spoke firmly.
"Refuse."
Yeongu raised his head.
"Have you ever seen me refuse? If I am told to do something, I do it. But I do not leave alone the bastard who told me to do it. Later, I will make sure he receives the same punishment."
Kim Yun-gyeong pressed his lips together.
"Who does not know Commander Yi's venomous will?"
Yeongu was furious to the very top of his head, but he also knew he could no longer take it back.
He had already said he would go.
The words had burst out in anger, but once spoken, they took their place like a blade.
"They should have told me to kill Yelü Yanxi instead. Charging alone all the way to Changchun Road and dying in battle would be a better choice for me."
Kim Yun-gyeong could not tell how to accept the present situation.
Yeongu was the head of the Goryeo support group.
During his absence, many things had already been delayed or stopped.
Even while people moved, one question remained in a corner of their minds.
Was there any need to keep treating these men well until the end?
That thought slowed their hands each time and clouded their judgment.
Kim Yun-gyeong said in a low voice.
"These men have grown arrogant from a few victories."
The criticism was right.
But the matter had already been decided.
Yeongu looked steadily into Kim Yun-gyeong's eyes.
"I am troubled by the many things I said. Those words may have made them like this. I spoke of methods, paths, and openings. So they seem to have thought they could simply push a person into that path."
He paused to steady his breath, then continued.
"I will leave at once.
I leave the rest to you."
Kim Yun-gyeong asked,
"What if you cannot return?"
Yeongu pulled the last cord of his pouch tight.
"We do everything to the end. Do what can be done, and when it can no longer be done, return."
"What does that mean?"
"If I do not return, hold out here as long as you can, then go back to Goryeo. Saving people comes first. Take the documents and equipment you can take. Burn what you cannot. If the Jin troops stop you, show them the khan's order. If they still stop you, slip out at night."
Kim Yun-gyeong could not answer.
Yeongu said no more.
He threw his cloak over his shoulders.
His outfit was much lighter than usual.
There was no armor, no bannered spear, no conspicuous sword.
The man who had seemed larger than anyone inside Hoeryeong Fortress had suddenly become small, like an ordinary soldier.
Yeongu grumbled as he headed toward the west gate.
"A spy. Me, a spy. Live long enough, and you see everything."
His tone was still light.
But the people watching him from behind could not laugh.
At the west gate, Balhae soldiers were already gathering.
The darkness had not yet lifted, and the road toward distant Changchun Road was long enough to swallow a man.
Balhae soldiers had already gathered at the west gate.
A few torches burned low, and the firelight passed over people's faces, then caught red on horses' eyes, bridles, and worn armor plates.
They were Balhae-lineage soldiers who had lived mixed among the Jurchen troops.
There was little difficulty understanding their speech, and their faces did not feel unfamiliar.
Even when they murmured at a distance, the meaning of their language came through.
Their eyes and cheekbones, the way they tied their hair, the breadth of their shoulders, and even the hand movements with which they fastened their belts seemed like those of people he had seen somewhere before.
Yet when he came closer, things were slightly misaligned.
They seemed to speak the same language, but the endings bent differently, and unfamiliar sounds were mixed between familiar words.
There were words that touched Goryeo speech, but the language of Liao offices and the speech of the steppe had settled over them in several layers.
He understood one phrase, and the next slipped away.
Their smiling faces felt familiar, but the timing of their smiles was slightly different.
They were close enough to be called brothers, but they did not carry the air of brothers raised in one household.
Their walking pace, the pitch of their speech endings, the way they met eyes, and the moment they withdrew a smile were all slightly different.
Yeongu wondered if people who split from the same root became like this after living for a long time under another country's law, taxes, and military service.
The Balhae soldiers quietly straightened themselves when they saw Yeongu.
They did not fully know Goryeo military courtesy, but their desire to show respect was clear.
One placed his right hand on his chest, another bowed his head, and a few lifted their spear shafts diagonally in the Jurchen manner.
Goryeo courtesy, Jurchen courtesy, and the habits of a Liao military camp seemed to misalign within one body.
Their equipment was the same.
The iron lamellar armor tied with leather cords bore marks of repair from a Liao army camp.
Their bow cases were short and firm like Jurchen goods.
Their swords held the straight taste of weapons that seemed to have been made by artisans from the old Balhae lands.
Their horses were small and tough.
Their coats had grown rough after passing through winter, and their saddles showed repairs tied here and there.
Everything felt familiar, yet no single thing was purely Goryeo.
Low voices passed among the soldiers.
"They say he is a commander from Goryeo."
"They say he can speak with us."
"They said he was looking for Balhae men."
They looked at Yeongu with eyes mixed with curiosity and caution.
A foreign man who resembled them.
A commander who spoke of the same roots while receiving orders from a different king.
Faces that had yet to decide where to place their hearts, between the years they had served Liao and the day they came under the Jurchen blade.
Yeongu also found it difficult to speak easily as he looked at them.
They were neither enemies nor complete allies.
They were people with the same characters, similar speech, and overlapping old memories.
But the years they had lived were different from Goryeo's.
After Balhae fell, they entered Liao registers, performed military service under Liao commanders, and when the Jurchen power grew, they stood again beneath the Jin banner.
Every time the country changed, the name remained, and the heart must have changed little by little.
The darkness outside the west gate was withdrawing easily.
Beyond that darkness lay Changchun Road, and there the great army of Liao was gathering.
Yeongu had to enter among those Balhae soldiers.
Borrowing their speech and faces, he had to approach other Balhae-lineage people inside Liao.
This group, carrying closeness and strangeness at once, was the only gate that could open that road.
One Balhae soldier stepped forward and asked carefully,
"Is the commander going with us?"
The ending of his words was somehow unfamiliar.
But the meaning was clear.
Yeongu looked at that face for a long time.
It was a familiar face.
And a strange face.
"Yes."
He answered briefly.
"I go with you."