Chapter 245 — Captured at Changchun Road
Yeongu reached the mustering ground at Changchun Road and was captured that very day.
Before he could even say he was a Balhae soldier, a junior officer approached him with a very bright smile.
The smile was so radiant that Yeongu knew at once something had gone wrong.
The officer lowered his head politely, as though offering a formal greeting.
Then he immediately gestured to his men.
Soldiers rushed in and twisted Yeongu's arms behind his back.
They bound his wrists behind him, then wound rope around his arms and shoulders as well.
It was the sort of binding made for dragging a man around.
The officer smiled and said,
"Welcome, Jungnangjang Yi Yeongu of the Goryeo army."
Yeongu was speechless.
A curse rose first inside him.
Damn it. How does this fail to miss my expectations by even a single step?
The mood was so perfect that it would have suited them to hang a banner with words of welcome written on it.
They gave him no time to explain.
They had known and waited.
They confirmed his name, tied him up, struck him a few times, and immediately dragged him away.
The place he was taken into was a prison attached to one of the many temporary field camps.
For something made in a field camp, the walls were solid, and a thick bar lay across the door.
It was rough, as befitted a prison built inside a military camp, but it was sturdy enough to hold one man.
As Yeongu was taken inside, he said,
"At least untie this. A man has to relieve himself and all."
One jailer snorted.
"A corpse talks."
Along with those words, a fist flew.
It struck Yeongu in the chest, then in the stomach, and a kick followed into his thigh.
Yeongu twisted his body with his arms still tied.
He shifted slightly away from the places where the blows would sink deep.
He appeared to be taking the beating, but he avoided the vital spots and let the force glance off to the side.
Yeongu said defiantly,
"Ugh, damn. He hits a corpse."
But as he listened, he realized the man was speaking in Goryeo speech.
He was Balhae.
The jailer saw Yeongu's expression and smiled.
Yeongu said quietly,
"Stop. You will die."
"What? You'll kill me? This bastard. Kill me, then. Go on, kill me."
The man slapped Yeongu across the cheek.
Slap. Slap.
The sound echoed through the prison.
There were men who insisted on doing more than the task given to them.
Such men were always found in places like armies and prisons.
They went one step beyond the orders they had received and crushed people for the sake of it.
Their authority was small, but before a bound man they swung that petty authority like a blade.
"Kill me! I said you can kill me."
Yeongu deliberately spoke so the men standing behind him could hear.
The jailer snickered.
"Hey, hey, you. Do you know how long we've been waiting for you to come?"
Waiting.
Yeongu's eyes narrowed.
This matter had been decided only the previous day, yet these men already knew.
That meant there was a spy inside the Jin high command.
Or, at the very least, someone had leaked word to the Liao side.
Yeongu took a few more blows.
Then he twisted his shoulder and shouted,
"Stop! Do only what you were ordered to do. Do not use more violence than necessary!"
"Listen to this bastard. Fine, kill me then."
The man's fist drove into his stomach again.
Yeongu twisted his body and kept the blow from landing deep.
He stepped half a pace forward and raised his body.
At the same time, as the man's side opened while he thrust his fist, Yeongu drove his knee up into the man's ribs.
Crack.
He felt something break against his knee.
The man folded at the waist.
Yeongu knew the feeling.
A rib had broken.
The man grabbed his side and collapsed.
Before his body even reached the ground, Yeongu turned and brought his heel down toward the man's back.
"Hup."
A choked, clogged breath burst out.
The man fell flat to the floor.
Yeongu took one step back.
The prison wall touched his back.
The jailers standing a little distance away rushed in.
Yeongu caught his breath and said,
"It sounded like this bastard told me to kill him."
The words meant nothing.
What mattered to them was the fact that their companion had been struck down.
Fire entered the jailers' eyes.
Yeongu moved his legs.
His arms were tied, so he could not use his hands.
But his feet remained.
One.
Two.
Three.
He struck the face of the first man rushing in with the top of his foot.
It was a high attack.
But to cut off the flow all at once, he had to strike the head.
With a dull crack, the man's mouth twisted aside.
Several teeth flew out with blood, and he pitched face-first into the ground.
The next two were too close.
Yeongu bent his body and stepped half a pace forward.
The man rushing in blindly stumbled over Yeongu's lowered height.
In that instant, Yeongu drove his bent shoulder under the man's stomach.
Then he straightened his shoulder and snapped his waist upward.
The man's body lifted into the air.
He fell straight to the floor.
Yeongu drove his right knee into the man's chest as he dropped.
"Kuhup."
The man tried to twist himself up, then went limp.
A third man, seeing that he could not overcome Yeongu's strength, wrapped himself around Yeongu from behind.
He clung with arms and legs, locking down Yeongu's limbs.
With that weight hanging on him, it became difficult even to keep his balance.
Yeongu's arms were bound, and his movement was cramped.
He twisted his upper body left and right, but the man clung tightly with all four limbs and did not let go.
The man shouted,
"The prisoner is escaping! Prisoner!"
Killing intent flashed in Yeongu's eyes.
He pulled his head back, then drove it forward with force.
His forehead smashed straight into the man's face.
"Aaaagh!"
A loud scream burst out before the prison.
The man's nose collapsed, and hot blood splashed onto Yeongu's nape and cheek.
The force holding him loosened for an instant.
Yeongu did not miss the opening.
He twisted his body and threw the man off to the side.
The inside of the prison turned upside down in an instant.
Men lay groaning on the floor, and the remaining jailers grabbed their spears.
Yeongu stood with his back to the wall.
His wrists were still bound behind him, and the rope around his shoulders kept his movements from opening wide.
But his eyes had changed completely.
The man who had been a prisoner dragged inside moments before was now calculating every person in the prison.
Who would come first.
Who would thrust with a spear.
Who would lose courage and step back.
In that brief instant, Yeongu had returned to being a man of the battlefield.