Chapter 391. Changes in Hoeryeong Fortress
Aguda had returned after a great victory, but he was not especially pleased.
Yi Youngwoo, who had helped shape the entire course of the war until now, had left.
Youngwoo had been right.
Liaoyang should have been attacked first.
Aguda knew that as well.
If the Eastern Capital, Liaoyang Prefecture, were shaken, Liao's entire eastern region could collapse at once, and the Balhae troops would have room to move on a much larger scale.
Strategically, it was clearly the correct choice.
But there had been too many reasons not to do it.
The disposition of the troops, the condition of supplies, the exhaustion of the tribal forces, the reactions of newly surrendered groups, and the still-unsettled rear areas were all intertwined.
The moment Jin struck Liaoyang, Liao's main forces might move again.
And before that happened, the loose bonds inside Jin itself might begin to crack.
So Aguda had refused.
The problem was that his refusal might have looked very different from the outside.
He might have seemed ungrateful.
Youngwoo had risked his life fighting for Jin.
He had opened its road forward.
He had even connected Jin with Song and Goryeo.
Yet when he finally made an earnest request of his own, Jin had refused him.
One had to distinguish between what lay within and what lay without.
The circumstances inside Jin and the way those circumstances appeared from outside were different.
But the tribes that had only recently submitted could hardly be expected to make such a careful distinction.
From their point of view, thoughts like these could easily arise.
If Jin would not even grant the request of a commander who had worked that hard, would it truly listen to ours?
Jin may speak kindly now because it needs us, soothing us and treating us well, but will it behave the same way after the war is over?
We submitted to Jin just as we once submitted to Liao.
We can always change sides again depending on how they treat us.
Aguda feared such thoughts.
Winning battles was easier than winning people's trust.
A sword could seize a city.
Trust could not be gained that way.
Once suspicion appeared, it remained as a narrow crack.
And the moment circumstances turned difficult, that crack would widen.
Youngwoo's departure was not merely the loss of one man.
It showed everyone how Jin treated those who had submitted to it, how it responded to the requests of those who had rendered great service, and whether its words matched its actions.
There had also been deep disappointment over how the Balhae troops were treated, even though they had submitted at a decisive moment and played a major role in the Battle of Hubodagang.
Aguda knew that.
That was why the joy of victory did not last long.
They had shattered Liao's army.
They had won a great victory.
The tribal chiefs came forward with words of congratulations.
Yet somewhere in Aguda's heart, the empty space left by the departed commander remained.
That empty space had already become a problem of trust that Jin would have to face from now on.
The absence left by one person could linger for a long time.
There was much to do.
But when Aguda thought about it, there had rarely been a time when he was not busy.
He had always been busy before.
War was always driving men forward.
The difference was that, in the past, there had been a clear direction.
At the very least, he had understood what role the work before him played within the larger current of events.
Now it was different.
It felt as though they had lost their sense of where they were going.
Everyone remained busy.
Commanders counted their troops.
Tribal chiefs spoke of their achievements.
Clerks came and went carrying ledgers.
But each person seemed to be moving separately.
The sense that all of them were bound into one line had weakened.
No matter how difficult the moment, Youngwoo had always made clear what had to be done next.
Even his strategic plan—to shake the Supreme Capital, the Central Capital, and the Eastern Capital in succession, then rest the army—had constantly changed as circumstances changed.
He had always said that plans had to change when the situation changed.
But now a different mood had begun to spread.
For the time being, they should do nothing more.
They had won.
What more was there to worry about?
Had they not won enough to deserve some rest?
Such words came too easily.
In a violent current, it was difficult to know exactly where one was.
When the water ran fast, it felt as though the boat itself were making great speed.
But once direction was lost, a swift current did not carry the boat toward its destination.
It drove the hull into rocks.
It dragged it toward whirlpools.
Youngwoo had always forced them to recognize their present position.
Where were they standing now?
What had they gained?
What had they lost?
What had to be done first?
He returned to those questions again and again.
He emphasized the important points so that no one could easily forget them.
His words still remained in Aguda's ears.
"We must draw every tribe into the war to destroy Liao.
Tell them that only then will a new world open."
"Sending men without armor onto the battlefield is murder."
"What good is victory?
If you have no ability to govern, what remains besides plundering the cities you capture?"
"Strengthen diplomacy so that Jin does not become isolated.
Open relations with Song.
Send envoys to Goryeo."
Those words had not remained simple advice.
At some point, they had become the standard by which Jin judged itself.
Aguda could feel the place where that standard had disappeared.
Only one man had left, yet the weight of every council had changed.
One person spoke of victory.
Another spoke of spoils.
Someone else said the army needed rest.
But no one asked, at length, what this victory meant for the next war or for the state that would come after it.
That was how an absence remained.
Long after the face of the departed man faded, the standard he had left behind endured.