Chapter 247 — Persuasion I
There was nothing to do.
No, there was much to do, but nothing he could actually do.
Yeongu sat with his back against the prison wall, slowly shifting his wrists behind him.
The rope was tight, but its end turned little by little.
It was not a knot that would come undone all at once.
Still, it was better than doing nothing.
The officer standing outside the cell door was still watching him.
He did not seem inclined to open the door and come in.
Yeongu kept working his wrists and tossed out a remark as if nothing were wrong.
"Hey. But didn't you people choose the wrong emperor?
How is it that he hasn't done a single thing properly?"
The officer's face stiffened.
"What kind of nonsense is that all of a sudden?"
That was what he said, but his eyes moved first.
He looked left and right, then scanned the faces of the soldiers behind him.
He looked afraid someone might hear and report him.
"You lost at Yonggangju, at Chulhajeom, and at Hwangnyongbu. And yet he still hasn't responded properly. At this rate, will Liao even survive? Maybe there is something wrong with the emperor's judgment."
The officer clenched his teeth.
Yeongu deliberately went on in a lazier tone.
"I heard there was someone else they originally meant to raise as emperor.
The late emperor wanted to set up Yelü Chun, but the high ministers opposed it.
And Yelü Yanxi became crown prince because he had lost his father young and they pitied him."
"Shut your mouth."
"Now he's finally trying to mobilize the whole army, I hear. But after watching him lose again and again, people are not gathering properly, are they? Can he protect the ancestral temples and the state like that?"
The officer snorted.
"You're full of shit. Worry about yourselves. We should have just killed you outright."
Yeongu watched the officer's expression rather than his words.
His mouth was rough, but his eyes rolled sideways again.
The soldiers behind him were listening.
Some looked away.
Some pretended not to hear.
Seeing their reactions, Yeongu chose his next words.
He spoke a little lower, but clearly enough for everyone outside the cell door to hear.
"Maybe he has been sitting in one place so long that his backside has grown heavy. When Hwangnyongbu fell, I thought he would come charging straight after us and smash us. But he didn't. More than a month has passed. It is almost two months now. There must be some reason, right? The troops aren't gathering well, are they?"
The officer frowned.
"You talk too much. What kind of prisoner talks this much?"
"Why? Prisoners are not allowed to speak?"
"A prisoner of war is a slave. A man who is about to become a slave should not talk like that."
Yeongu straightened a little, as if astonished.
The rope pulled at his shoulders, but his expression remained calm.
"Why am I a prisoner? I came here of my own will. I said I intended to submit."
He paused for a moment.
Then he lowered his voice slightly.
"More importantly, the rumors are not good. People say if you lose again this time, recovery will be truly difficult."
The officer answered at once.
"This time His Majesty will personally lead the army. There is no way we will lose."
Yeongu shook his head.
"No. People are saying the emperor must be changed."
The officer's face went rigid.
The mockery that had been there a moment earlier vanished.
"Now this. Even for a prisoner, there are things you may say and things you may not say."
Only then did Yeongu look straight at the officer.
The soldiers outside the cell door also held their breath.
They were probably waiting to hear whether he would curse, make an excuse, or beg for his life.
Yeongu spoke very slowly.
"What if I told you I came to deliver that very message?"
The officer could not answer.
The corner of his mouth froze halfway through an attempted laugh.
He looked around again.
This time, his eyes were not afraid of being reported.
They were checking how many people had heard.
Yeongu did not miss that opening.
"I am not telling you to abandon Great Liao. I am saying that if you want to save Great Liao, you must look first at the emperor.
The state and the emperor are not always the same thing. If the emperor saves the state, he should be served. If the emperor ruins the state, who must stop him? The ministers must stop him. The generals must stop him. The imperial clan must stop him. Isn't that so?"
"Shut up."
The officer's voice had grown lower.
He was angry, but he could not bring himself to open the door and step inside.
Yeongu smiled.
"There is no need to be angry. Everyone is already saying it inside. It is a truth everyone knows.
Yonggangju fell, you were broken at Chulhajeom, and even Hwangnyongbu was taken. It would be stranger to claim that nothing is wrong. If you lose again this time, who will bear the blame? Will His Majesty bear it? Or will the vanguard and the generals bear it?"
The officer's hand touched the hilt of his sword.
Yeongu did not lower his gaze.
"You know it too. Mistakes made above are paid for in blood below. The emperor's misjudgment becomes the general's crime, and the court's idleness is written against the soldiers' necks. If you lose this time, who will die? Men like Xiao Temo, Xiao Salal, and Yelü Zhangnu will die first. The officers under them will not be safe either. That is why I told you to bring those men here. I came to tell them this. People must be kept alive first."
The officer's eyes wavered for an instant.
It was brief.
But Yeongu saw it.
"So bring your superior. Whether he is a Yelü or a Xiao, bring someone who can actually understand words. I did not come because I like the Jin. I came to confirm the words already moving inside Great Liao. If there are ears willing to hear those words, you live. If not, you all collapse together."