Chapter 346. The Problem of Liaoyang
The problem had been there from the beginning.
Whose land was this?
Jin had refused to attack Liaoyang.
In the end, the Balhae soldiers had retaken the city on their own.
Then was this land Jin's?
Or was it the land of another Balhae?
Of course, everyone knew that if a large Liao army came back, the city would struggle to hold even for a day.
But Liaoyang had been recovered by Balhae hands.
No one had ordered them to take it.
No one else had opened the gate for them.
They had entered on their own, shed their own blood, opened the gates themselves, and replaced the banners with their own hands.
A council was called.
The meeting hall of the Regent's Office stood at the center of the government compound.
From the outside, it looked like a Central Plains-style administrative hall, with broad eaves and thick pillars. Inside, however, the floor and walls had been heavily reinforced against the cold of Liaodong.
The doors opened to the south, and against the northern wall stood a raised seat.
That was where the regent had once sat.
A low, broad table occupied the center of the room.
Spread across it were a rough map of Liaoyang, lists of barracks, granaries, and government offices, and ledgers recording prisoners and provisions.
Some of the documents had been seized in haste the night before, their ink smeared. Others bore dark stains along the edges, as though turned by bloodied hands.
Lamps and braziers stood in all four corners of the room, but they did little to dispel the exhaustion or tension.
The seating had divided itself naturally.
Near the raised seat to the north sat Go Youngchang and the Balhae officers who had followed him for years.
They could not hide their excitement at taking the city.
Fatigue lay heavily across their faces, but their eyes burned with a heat that did not belong to men who had been awake all night.
Several were already talking about what would come after securing Liaoyang.
Others watched Go Youngchang's expression and adjusted the weight of their words accordingly.
To the east sat Liaoyang's leading men.
Merchants with trading houses, men who controlled granaries and stables, elders of prominent Balhae families.
They had not taken up swords and seized the city, but once the city had changed hands, they had been quicker than anyone to find seats in the room.
Outwardly, they spoke of concern.
Yet their fingers lingered longer over the numbers in the ledgers and the locations of the warehouses.
To the west sat the younger military officers.
These were the men who had fought through the alleys the night before.
Some had not yet removed their armor.
Others sat with bandaged arms and swords laid close at hand.
Near the southern doors stood clerks and junior officers.
There were no seats for them.
They held ledgers, waited for orders, and were ready to run outside whenever needed.
Their eyes were on the council hall, but their ears remained open to the footsteps and drumbeats beyond.
Liaoyang was not yet a city at rest.
Youngwoo's place was ambiguous.
A guest seat had been placed beside Go Youngchang, yet in truth he belonged to none of the groups in the room.
He was a Goryeo commander.
He had come from the Jin camp.
And the night before, he had opened the southern gate and split the course of the battle.
As he sat there, people's eyes repeatedly turned toward him.
There was respect in those looks.
And discomfort as well.
The council chamber held something far more complicated than the joy of victory.
Some men spoke the name Balhae and swelled with pride.
Others saw the throne hidden behind that name before they saw anything else.
Some worried about the troops and provisions needed to hold the city.
Others were already thinking that a banner and a name for the state had to be chosen before the day was over.
Even men who had shed blood together the night before seemed, once seated inside that room, to divide the same victory into different desires.
Go Youngchang spoke little.
But the less he spoke, the more those around him did.
One man said Balhae should be restored as a new state.
Another said Liaoyang had returned to Balhae hands.
Another argued that because Jin had refused to help, the city now belonged to them.
The words grew hotter.
The air in the hall became more stifling than the braziers.
Youngwoo watched in silence.
The faces of the soldiers who had bled before the gates were still before his eyes.
He had not forgotten Oyeon Jik opening the hidden gate, nor the blood-soaked hands of the woman who had helped him.
Yet inside this room, people were already speaking of countries, kings, and banners.
That was why Youngwoo's expression had been dark from the beginning.
The great hall of the government office was filled with Balhae officers loyal to Go Youngchang and the leading men of Liaoyang.
Their faces were exhausted from spending the night restoring order to the city, yet a strange heat shone in their eyes.
"We should call it Balhae and establish a new kingdom."
Youngwoo turned toward the man who had spoken.
He did not recognize him.
Then again, there were few faces here that he did recognize.
He remembered the soldiers who had run beside him with swords in hand the night before.
But most of those seated in the front row of this meeting had been nowhere to be seen when the gates were being opened.
Now that the city had been won, they occupied the best seats.
Go Youngchang glanced toward Youngwoo.
"What do you think?"
Youngwoo answered without hesitation.
"The successor states of Balhae all tried that, and they all fell. What Balhae is it this time? Later Balhae? Great Balhae?"
The air in the room froze at once.
Words that had been gaining heat died in men's throats.
Go Youngchang spoke as though explaining himself.
"Even so, do we not need a banner?"
Youngwoo looked directly at him.
Before Liaoyang had been taken, Go Youngchang had not answered even once when talk turned to countries or banners.
Yet the moment they gained one city, suddenly he needed a banner.
He clearly wanted to be king.
Youngwoo struck the table with his palm.
The sharp crack rang through the hall.
"I told you before. I said our first task was to destroy Liao. We can talk about nations and peoples afterward. You can lust after power afterward too. If you need banners, put up red ones, blue ones, and white ones in a row."
Go Youngchang's face stiffened.
"I do not mean that sort of banner. I mean the name of the state."
Youngwoo's voice dropped lower.
"What right do people who lost their country have to speak so grandly of founding one? You should never have lost it in the first place."
Everyone in the room drew breath.
Youngwoo did not stop.
"You make the people suffer in the name of restoring a country that was lost. Then if you truly recover that country, it should be returned to its rightful owner. Balhae's owners lost Balhae. Someone else has now recovered it. So who should be the owner? The old rulers who lost it? The swordsmen who won it back? Or you people sitting in this room today talking about what to call the state?"
The words settled heavily over the room.
The men seated around Go Youngchang avoided one another's eyes.
Those who had planned to ride the mood and acclaim Go Youngchang could do little more than swallow.
Youngwoo asked again,
"Are you the owner of Balhae?"
No one answered.
Outside, the distant sound of drums announcing the restoration of order could be heard.
Liaoyang had only just been recovered.
The blood on the stone streets had not even dried.
Yet inside this room, they were already speaking of thrones, state names, and banners.
Youngwoo found the sight deeply distasteful.
Power had raised its head before the joy of recovering the city had even settled.
And that could stain the name of Balhae all over again.
Youngwoo spoke coldly.
"Do you remember Go Yok proclaiming himself Great King and failing to last even a few months? That was only last year. How many months do you think this place would last?"
A young officer shot to his feet.
His face was flushed red.
"We can defend this place."
Youngwoo shook his head.
"Your armor, training, and weapons are all inadequate. If two thousand Liao cavalry rode in here, the city would be thrown into chaos. If Jin came, there would be nothing more to say. I do not understand why you want to establish a country that will disappear in a few months."
Go Youngchang protested, his expression rigid.
"Are you not underestimating our strength too much?"
Youngwoo answered immediately.
"I am underestimating it. Liao sent all its best troops to Changchun Prefecture. What remained in Liaoyang was only the shell. We broke that shell."
Go Youngchang had no immediate reply.
One by one, the faces around the room hardened as well.
The excitement of men intoxicated by taking the city through the night gradually began to fade.
Youngwoo planted a hand on the table and raised his voice.
"If you intend to found a country, then the king must not come from among the men sitting in this room. Find someone truly capable of bearing that burden and raise him up. If one of you starts talking about a country because he wants to make himself king, that country will collapse within months."
Silence followed.
Someone moved his lips but said nothing.
Someone else lowered his eyes to the floor.
The men who had hoped to build momentum, raise a banner, and acclaim Go Youngchang could no longer continue.
Youngwoo looked at Go Youngchang one last time.
"Do not summon me for meetings like this again. I came to lend my strength to destroying Liao. I did not come here to discuss how someone might play at being king."
He rose abruptly.
The legs of his chair scraped harshly across the floor.
Youngwoo opened the door and walked out without looking back.
The atmosphere in the council chamber turned ice-cold.