Chapter 356. The Moment She Saw the Paper, She Truly Understood How Careless She Had Been
The moment she saw the paper, she understood how careless she had been.
She had stood amid beautiful words and burning ideals without noticing how shallow the ground beneath her feet truly was.
They spoke of a country without thinking about the bones needed to hold one upright.
They spoke of Balhae without asking how the name itself could be protected.
Okjeong remained silent for a long time.
A single sheet of paper settled over the room more heavily than the scent of tea.
Snow continued to fall outside, covering the estate roofs and courtyard in white.
Beneath that snow, for the first time, she saw clearly how precarious Liaoyang truly was.
Youngwoo spoke in a low voice.
"Can you solve even one of those problems now?"
Okjeong could not answer.
The words on the paper seemed sharper than before.
Not one of them could be dismissed lightly.
She knew it.
Liaoyang did not fully possess even one of the ten.
And yet somewhere inside her, resistance stirred.
Why should only Balhae be judged by standards this harsh?
Had other states risen with everything already in place?
Okjeong raised her head.
"Then what about Jin?"
Youngwoo narrowed his eyes.
"Jin?"
"Yes. How did they solve these problems?"
Youngwoo did not answer immediately.
It was not a question he could brush aside.
Okjeong's objection was not unreasonable.
Every new state began with something close to empty hands.
Yet some became states, while others ended as rebellions.
He had to explain the difference.
Youngwoo set down his teacup.
"Jin may look as though it rose from nothing, but in truth it was a state long in preparation."
Okjeong listened without taking her eyes off the paper.
"First, they bound people together. The Wanyan clan gathered the Jurchen tribes around itself and established whose orders would be followed. Each tribe had its own chiefs and its own interests, but when they fought, they were made to look in the same direction. That is the first difference."
Youngwoo placed a finger on one line of the paper.
"Troops. Jin did not begin with the soldiers of a single city. Men who already rode horses and shot bows across mountains, rivers, and villages became soldiers as they were. They lacked armor and weapons, but there were plenty of men who could fight from horseback. Liaoyang gained a city. Jin gained plains and tribes."
Okjeong's face tightened.
Youngwoo continued.
"Their provisions were different as well. Jin did not rely only on agricultural granaries. They hunted, drove livestock, raided, and moved by tribal units. It is not something to praise, but they had ways to sustain war over time. If Liaoyang's granaries are cut off, the city starves."
His words were cold.
But together with the ten points on the paper, they pressed heavily against Okjeong's thoughts.
"They had alliances as well. Jin gathered the resentment of tribes oppressed by Liao. They drew in those willing to turn against Liao, and every victory brought more people to their side. Liaoyang, by contrast, has only just taken one city. Talk that the surrounding prefectures will answer is still no more than hope."
Okjeong asked quietly,
"What about legitimacy?"
"Jin's claim was simple. They had risen against Liao oppression. And then they won. Legitimacy spoken only in words does not gather people. Jin kept winning on the battlefield. Victory proved the claim."
Youngwoo's voice dropped further.
"The name Balhae is great and beautiful. But a name is not enough. Behind that name there must be provisions. There must be troops. There must be faith that victory is possible. Jin showed those things on the battlefield."
Okjeong said nothing.
What she had wanted to say was that Jin too had once been small.
But Youngwoo's answer was that the nature of their smallness had been different.
Youngwoo spoke again.
"And there is one greater difference."
Okjeong looked at him.
"Jin looked first to war, not to the throne. Aguda spoke of a state, yes, but before that he meant to destroy Liao. The state came as part of what was necessary to bind the tribes together. They reformed the military structure, appointed commanders, united tribes, and established the order in which they would fight. They did not create a country because they wanted to become kings. They gave themselves the form of a state because they needed it in order to win."
Okjeong's fingers stopped on the paper.
Youngwoo added,
"Liaoyang is doing the opposite. Nothing has been done, and already people are talking about a state name and a throne. The order is reversed."
The room fell quiet.
It seemed as though only the snow could be heard outside.
Okjeong wanted to argue.
But no answer came to her immediately.
The difference between Jin and Liaoyang was not merely the size of their armies.
It was the depth of preparation.
The strength with which people were bound together.
The means to sustain war.
The experience of proving themselves through victory.
Youngwoo gave his final point.
"So if you want to learn from Jin, do not begin by imitating its state name or titles. Look first at the things they solved before that. Bind people together. Stockpile provisions. Train troops. Gain allies. Choose only battles you can win. Only after that do you give it a name."
Okjeong slowly exhaled.
The ten points on the paper no longer looked like words.
They looked like walls standing in front of Liaoyang.
If those walls could not be crossed, then the name Balhae, Go Youngchang's dream, and the hope she herself had been holding would soon vanish like footprints in snow.
Youngwoo suddenly missed the people of Hoeryeong.
They treated even his smallest suggestion as though it were a precious maxim.
When a weakness was exposed, they tried somehow to correct it.
When something lay beyond their strength, they asked for help.
They tied tribe to tribe with lines of cooperation and extended those ties through diplomacy as far as Goryeo and Song.
They were not perfect people.
Their words were rough.
Their decisions were often too swift.
Once they chose a direction, many of them never looked back.
But at least they asked what they needed to change in order to survive.
They listened to wise men.
They summoned brave ones.
If someone was useful, they did not hesitate over his origins.
They tried to learn with their own bodies what it meant to wage war and what it meant to build a state.
Youngwoo noticed the resistance in Okjeong.
It was only natural.
People did not easily bow their heads when harsh words were spoken about their own land and their own people.
But speaking at length to someone who was resisting often only closed the heart further.
At such times, it was better to step back and let them do as they wished.
Why should he be the one begging them not to, struggling to persuade them?
At that moment, his taciturn master, Baek Ingyeom, came to mind.
His master had always spoken little.
Yet that silence had been stronger than ten thousand words.
He could sit nearby, look once, move a single finger, leave one sentence behind—and the whole situation would change.
People would feel ashamed on their own.
They would correct their path on their own.
Youngwoo tried to imitate him.
Remembering his master, he leaned back slightly.
A faint smile appeared at the corner of his mouth.
"Well... they have plenty of problems they have not solved either..."
He let the sentence trail away.
It was exactly the sort of silence that made a listener anxious enough to ask.
Okjeong could not endure it.
"But?"
Youngwoo answered slowly.
"They try. They listen. They discuss. When someone points out a flaw, they struggle desperately to correct it. They respect wise men and do not hesitate to invite capable warriors. They are candid, decisive, and very clean in the way they act."
Okjeong raised an eyebrow.
"Do they not also change what they said before?"
Youngwoo gave a quiet snort of laughter.
"They do have that tendency. Once they turn, they do not look back. I know. I have said myself that they often change what they previously promised."
He paused for a moment, choosing his words, then added,
"But I would rather say that circumstances changed so much that keeping the old promise became impossible. Whew. What use is there in deciding now who has done well and who has done poorly? I only want to say this: if things continue as they are, disaster will follow. So prepare a path to survive."