Chapter 254 — Persuading the Junior General and the Junior Officer 1
The prison, now turned into a complete mess, fell quiet.
Groans rose here and there, but even those were cautious.
Fear pressed down on their throats.
If they made too much noise, that monster might come back and strike some point on their bodies with the tip of his foot.
Not a single person had died.
Yeongu had used no weapon, and he had avoided the fatal spots.
Those who had been struck simply could not stand.
Their breath had been cut off, their backs had folded, and the strength had left their arms and legs.
Yeongu sighed in the middle of the yard.
"Whew. They all went down. What now? I was supposed to deliver the document and persuade them. Has it all become useless?"
He did not go back.
He slowly walked among the men lying on the ground and groaning.
The junior general was sitting on the ground when his eyes met Yeongu's.
He hurriedly lowered his gaze.
Yeongu made a gesture with his hand.
The junior officer turned around for no reason.
He sincerely hoped Yeongu was calling someone behind him, not him.
But there was nothing behind him except the prison wall.
His shoulders and back showed how badly he wished to remain inside the cell.
He gave a small tremble.
Yeongu gestured again.
This time, he crooked his finger.
The junior officer came out as if he were a man being dragged by a cord tied to Yeongu's fingertip.
Yeongu pointed to the outer gate.
"Close it."
The junior officer closed the gate with trembling hands.
No one outside would think it strange for a prison gate to be closed.
From the outside, it would merely look as if the prison was being guarded.
When the junior officer turned around, Yeongu pointed to the place beside the junior general.
The junior officer hurried over and knelt beside him.
It was a force he could not handle.
Before such a force, following was better than asking.
Yeongu said,
"Shall we talk now?"
"Yes."
"Yes."
The junior general and the junior officer answered almost at the same time.
The men who had barely managed to raise themselves began, one by one, to kneel behind them.
No one had ordered them to do so, but everyone knew they had to.
One by one, they went over there and knelt.
It was overwhelming force.
Yet if they listened properly, it seemed he would not kill them.
Yeongu looked them over.
"You new ones over there, straighten your rows."
"Yes."
"Wouldn't five lines be better?"
"Loyalty."
They were soldiers.
That much, they understood quickly.
Even the fallen men helped one another up and knelt in five horizontal rows.
A strange formation took shape in the middle of the yard.
Jailers, archers, the junior officer, and the junior general all sat like students.
Yeongu's lesson began.
For those listening, it was close to torture.
Yeongu slowly opened his mouth.
"Let us organize this first. I am not someone who came to attack you. I am not a prisoner who fled in here. I walked here on my own feet and said I wished to defect. But you tied me up, beat me, and threw me into prison."
The junior general said quietly,
"That was a matter of procedure...."
Yeongu raised a finger.
"You should not use the word procedure lightly. A procedure is a procedure only when there is someone who takes responsibility for it. When men with no authority and no responsibility tie someone up and beat him, that is not procedure. That is an accident. Shall I act according to procedure too? I have subdued enemy soldiers. What comes next? Shall I kill the man who gave the order first, cut off the heads of those who resisted, break something on the ones who refused to listen, string them together, and sell them in the slave market?"
"No."
"You caused an accident."
The junior general closed his mouth.
The junior officer only looked down at the ground.
Yeongu continued.
"Second. The letter I brought is not something for you to judge. It is not a letter for a junior general to read and sit on. It is not a letter for a junior officer to tuck away and forget. That letter must go up to a Yelü or a Xiao, or at least to someone in this camp who can move troops."
The junior officer cautiously asked,
"To whom should it be sent?"
"It would be best if it reached Yelü Zhangnu. If that is difficult, one of his close men. If that is also difficult, then a commissioner or clerk on Xiao Fengxian's side will do. But it must be someone who can read the meaning, not just the characters."
The junior general's face reddened slightly.
Yeongu pretended not to notice.
"Third. The message I am trying to deliver is not that Jin is strong, so you should surrender. You would never listen to that. I would not listen either. You are soldiers of Great Liao. If someone tells men like you to abandon your country, you draw your blades first."
Someone in the back nodded faintly.
Yeongu looked that way and said,
"Yes. That reaction is normal. So listen carefully. What I am saying is not that you should abandon Great Liao. I am saying you should save Great Liao."
The junior general raised his eyes.
"Save Great Liao?"
"Yes. I am telling you to separate one man, Emperor Tianzuo, from the altars of state of Great Liao. If the emperor preserves the country, serving the emperor is loyalty. If the emperor brings the country down, a subject must look first to the state. That is true loyalty."
The junior officer swallowed.
"That is... a dangerous thing to say."
"That is why I came all this way and took a beating from you people. If it were not dangerous, I would have sent it in a letter. Why would I be sitting here like this?"
Several of the men listening lowered their heads.
There was a strange persuasive force in those words.
Yeongu lifted the rope still hanging around his wrists.
"To your eyes, I am a prisoner. Fine. Outwardly, I am a prisoner. But this prisoner came here and brought up the name Yelü Chun from the very beginning. Why do you think that is?"
The junior general's eyes widened.
"Do not say that name lightly."
"I am not saying it lightly. It is a name you already know. The late emperor once considered him, and there are people in the court who know that name. If Emperor Tianzuo had governed the country well, that name would have no reason to appear again. But Liao lost at Ningjiangzhou, lost at Chuhedian, and even lost Huanglongfu. At this point, someone must ask. Can Great Liao be preserved by His Majesty's judgment? If that man had become emperor, would Jin have come this far?"
The junior general clenched his teeth.
"His Majesty will personally lead the army this time. The army numbers in the hundreds of thousands."
Yeongu nodded.
"Yes. That is the last pillar you believe in. Then let me ask you. If you lose again this time, who will take responsibility?"
The junior general could not answer.
Yeongu looked at each of them and said,
"Will the emperor take responsibility? Will the court take responsibility? Will the people who hunted and feasted take responsibility? No. The vanguard will take responsibility. The dutong will take responsibility. The deputy dutong will take responsibility. The men in charge of provisions will take responsibility. The generals will take responsibility. And beneath them, junior generals, junior officers, and military officials will all be made to bear the crime."
The junior officer's face hardened.
He already knew.
He knew it well.
It had always been that way.
Yeongu saw his face and spoke in a lower voice.
"The mistakes committed above come down as the necks of those below. Do you not know that? Anyone who has been in the army long enough knows. Orders come from above, and death is received below."
The yard fell silent.
Even the men who had been groaning closed their mouths.