Chapter 355. The Moment He Speaks of Kingship, I Leave
Youngwoo looked out the window.
Snow continued to fall over the estate courtyard without pause.
Even Liaoyang, only just reclaimed, was slowly disappearing beneath it.
For a while, the snow covered the weakness of the walls, the ambitions of men, and the bloodstained stone roads alike.
Youngwoo spoke slowly.
"Lady Okjeong, do you truly believe a country will stand simply because I help?"
Okjeong could not answer.
Youngwoo asked again.
"If General Go becomes king, will Jin simply stand aside? Will Liao? If you gather people beneath the name Balhae, where will the grain come from to feed them? Where will you find fodder for the horses? Where are the craftsmen who will repair the walls? Who will supply the soldiers to guard all eight gates?"
Okjeong's lips tightened.
"You need answers to those questions first. A royal title comes afterward. The name of the state comes afterward. First, you survive."
Okjeong spoke quietly.
"Then give us those answers."
Youngwoo smiled bitterly.
"The moment I give those answers, people will say I have recognized General Go's state."
"Then we make sure they cannot say that."
"Can you stop people from talking?"
Okjeong fell silent for a moment.
Words were difficult to contain.
People heard what they wanted to hear and spread what suited them.
Youngwoo said,
"I will not make a king. But I can tell you how to defend the city. I can tell you how to gather provisions. I can tell you where the line lies if you wish to avoid antagonizing Jin. I can tell you how to handle prisoners and civilians."
Okjeong raised her head.
Youngwoo lightly tapped the tabletop with one finger.
"I have conditions."
"Please tell me."
"Do not speak of a state name. Do not speak of a throne. First stabilize Liaoyang. Reopen the markets. Sort out the prisoners. Stockpile provisions. Repair the gates. Send envoys to Jin. Protect the Balhae people, but do not go around proclaiming that you are founding a new state."
Okjeong listened without breathing.
"And the moment General Go speaks of becoming king, I leave."
Relief and anxiety appeared on Okjeong's face at the same time.
It was consent.
And a warning.
Youngwoo added,
"When I say I will help, I do not mean that I am lending you my sword. Nor will I lend my name to someone else's ambition. But if I can help the people of Liaoyang suffer even a little less, then I will."
Okjeong slowly bowed her head.
"Even that much... thank you."
Youngwoo watched her and felt his heart grow heavy.
At one moment she looked like a woman pleading for her betrothed's throne.
At the next, she looked like someone desperately trying to keep Liaoyang itself from slipping away.
That made it all the harder.
Youngwoo reached into his robe and took out a folded sheet of paper.
Without showing her what was written on it, he asked for another blank sheet.
Then he copied out the ten points he had jotted down earlier at the command post by the south gate.
His handwriting was not elegant.
The strokes were a little rough, and the density of the ink was uneven.
But there was a warrior's strength in every movement of the brush.
The characters looked as though they had been carved into a wooden board with the point of a blade.
Youngwoo slid the paper toward Okjeong.
"These are reasons given to me by a truly extraordinary Immortal. These are the reasons such attempts fail. If founding a country is to succeed, then at the very least these ten problems must be solved."
At the words ten problems, Okjeong gave a faint smile.
There was the slightest trace of lightness behind it.
For a moment, a thought passed through her mind.
How much could a military man like you really know about founding a country?
Being good with a sword and understanding the affairs of a state were not the same thing.
But the moment she read the first line, the smile disappeared from her face.
By the second, her breath caught.
By the third, the tips of her fingers had gone cold.
The words on the paper struck her like lightning.
That bolt passed through her eyes and chest and seemed to pierce her entire body, overturning everything she had been holding onto.
The wealthy lived surrounded by pleasant words.
It will be fine.
It will work.
There will be hardships, but overcoming them is our duty.
Now is the time for decisive action.
The name Balhae will rally the people.
If Liaoyang rises, the surrounding prefectures and counties will answer.
Those were the kinds of words that had filled the air around her.
People spoke as though everything would fall into place once Xiao Baoxian was driven out.
Raise a banner over Liaoyang, they said, and the Balhae-descended prefectures nearby would submit as though they had only been waiting for the signal.
Jin was too busy fighting Liao.
Liao was too distracted by Yelü Zhangnu's rebellion.
Therefore, now was the perfect time to found a state.
Those words were pleasant to hear.
They made the blood run hot.
They made a name suppressed for generations seem alive again.
The thought of restoring a lost nation intoxicated people easily.
It was much harder to see that a throne was mixed into that dream while questions of granaries, provisions, manpower, and diplomacy had been left out.
Youngwoo's paper was different.
There was not a single pleasant phrase on it.
Grain before a state name.
Alliances before a royal title.
Troops before legitimacy.
Control before enthronement.
Public order before revenge.
Secure the roads.
Buy time.
Protect people.
Put sequence before dreams.
Okjeong went back to the beginning and read the paper again.
Of those ten points, Liaoyang possessed not a single one in full.
Its provisions were not abundant.
Its troops were barely enough to hold one city.
Its relationship with Jin remained unsettled.
It was unprepared for Liao retaliation.
Public order inside the city, the treatment of prisoners, the reopening of markets, and control of the granaries had only just begun.
What frightened her more was something else.
They had hardly even considered that these were problems that had to be solved.
There had been endless talk of founding a country.
Almost no one had asked what that country would need to survive a single day.
As though taking Liaoyang, choosing a state name, and accepting the allegiance of nearby prefectures would somehow complete the work.
Youngwoo's sheet also listed the names of earlier Balhae restoration states and movements.
Later Balhae.
Jeongan.
Ol-ya.
Heungnyo.
Go Yok, who had styled himself Great King.
It briefly noted where they had arisen, what they had gained, and why they had fallen.
Okjeong knew some of the names.
But she had never seen their failures laid out this way, one after another, in a single line of thought.
Only then did she understand.
They were standing at a crossroads history had already visited many times.
They were not the first to invoke the name Balhae.
They were not the first to seize Liaoyang and speak of founding a country.
Those before them had felt the same fervor, carried the same name, and fallen in the same way.
Okjeong's eyes remained on the paper for a long time.
Only moments ago, she had been asking Youngwoo to help Go Youngchang.
She had believed that Liaoyang needed him if it was to survive.
Now the meaning of that request had changed.
It was no longer a matter of helping one man.
It had become a question of whether they could bear the weight of all ten problems.