An Encounter with Bandits
Jin Mugwang and his company drove their horses hard toward the south.
No one spoke the word flight, yet all of them knew it for what it was.
As long as the Emperor's mind could turn without warning, the only safety lay in distance.
After riding two or three hundred li without rest, the horses' breathing grew ragged, and it was Yi Hui who finally slowed the pace.
"General, at this rate the horses will collapse before we do."
"And?"
"We must eat something."
"Was there anything left to eat?"
"We left everything behind. With the uniforms."
"So we fast?"
"Is there another way?"
"We can buy food. Or hunt. I am not particular."
"There are more than a hundred of us."
The sun had tilted red in the west, and the road seemed layered with fatigue, broken only by the dull rhythm of hooves.
As they crossed a small ridge, about ten men stepped out and blocked the official road.
They wore animal hides and carried axes and crude spears.
"Halt!"
The shout was forced, the threat miscalculated.
They had counted the first five riders and thought that was all.
Then more appeared over the ridge.
And more.
When the full company crested the slope, the bandits' faces stiffened.
Ga Gyeongpil looked down from his saddle.
"Who are you?"
"We are the masters of this mountain. Leave everything you carry and you may pass."
"And if we refuse?"
"You will leave a hand and a foot behind."
"Why not the head?"
The large bandit chief tightened his grip on his axe, yet his eyes were already counting the riders behind Ga Gyeongpil.
Ga urged his horse forward slowly, closing the distance.
"You say you are the master here. Then you have a stronghold."
"That cannot be told."
The man seemed oddly simple, answering each question as though compelled to do so.
"How many men?"
"Many. These are not all."
"Then call the rest."
"You mock us?"
"Of course."
The bandits' threat weakened quickly under the weight of numbers.
"Then… just pass."
"We cannot simply pass."
"Why?"
"You tried to rob us. Now we shall rob you."
"Rob bandits?"
"One meal. Provide it, and you live."
The chief flushed red.
"You press your advantage with numbers. Fight me one-on-one."
"Very well."
"Dismount."
"Just the two of us."
"Agreed."
Ga Gyeongpil slipped from his saddle lightly.
The moment his feet touched the ground, his body leaned forward in motion.
The chief raised his axe in a broad, slow arc.
Ga stepped in half a pace sooner, twisting the man's wrist inward.
The axe's path faltered.
His left fist struck the jaw with a dull crack, snapping the man's head back.
The large body did not fall easily.
Still gripping the axe, the chief tried to drive forward with brute weight.
Ga pivoted, letting the force slide past, and drove his knee up into the man's abdomen.
Air burst from the chief's lungs.
As the axe lifted again, Ga's fist plunged deep beneath the solar plexus.
He did not yield an inch.
He drove the blow in with his full weight.
The axe slipped from the chief's hand.
The giant body wavered and collapsed backward to the dust.
Ga stepped close, grabbed the man by the collar, then let him drop.
"You lost."
The chief nodded weakly, tears leaking from his eyes.
"I lost."
"Will you bring the food, or shall we come fetch it?"
"W-we will bring it."
When all ten bandits began to move, Ga raised a hand.
"Two go. The rest stay."
"We go to fetch food…"
"Two are enough. The rest—faces to the ground."
The eight remaining bandits lay flat in the road, pressing their foreheads into the dirt.
They cast furtive glances, but there was nowhere to flee.
The riders were armed, bows visible among them.
Soon women from the mountain stronghold came down carrying bowls and baskets.
They looked no different from villagers.
There was coarse rice, wild greens, and salted meat—nothing more.
Yet for a hundred riders it was enough.
They dismounted and ate by the roadside, quickly and without ceremony.
Afterward, Ga Gyeongpil grinned at Yi Hui.
"Perhaps we should become bandits. We would do better than these."
Yi Hui replied dryly, "We leave because we will not serve traitors and usurpers, and you would turn outlaw?"
"I jest."
"This is no trade. A trade serves some necessity of the world. For them, perhaps this is necessity."
Jin Mugwang listened in silence, gazing toward the distant hills.
It had not even been a full day since he resigned.
Men who once stood beneath the banners of the capital now bargained for a meal with roadside bandits.
Without armor, reality was stark.
They mounted again and turned south.
The bandits did not raise their heads.
Thus the general who had left the capital, and the soldiers who followed him, rode on—not under the name of the court, but into dust and sweat.