It Became a Symbol of the Bronze Age - Chapter 340



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Episode 340. The North opened on the first day of retirement (2)

The first day of retirement was bright.

Birds were chirping and flowers were blooming.

I should have known it the moment I saw it.

On a nice day like this,

People like me who are like this.

That I’m burning out from work.

***

I was honestly dumbfounded.

‘Kang So-baek, you crazy bastard.’

I’m not talking about being greedy or having a desire to expand.

The same was true of Jiang So-baek, Duke of Yuan in the history of Yuan. He was a greedy and power-hungry author.

The emperor’s inherent right to establish the Fengshen Emperor and the promise made to the state of Lu were also things he attempted to do in the history of Yuan.

It’s just that Guan Yi stopped me, so I didn’t do it. Since I quickly took Guan Yi out, I can understand why he rushed at me like an 8-ton truck with broken brakes.

What I can’t understand is what happens next.

‘You’re waging war here, leaving Asadal behind? And neglecting us all the way into the summer?’

Isn’t this the same as asking Asadal to ‘crack the back of my head!’?

Why on earth would you do something like that? The Kang So-baek I know may be greedy, but he is by no means a stupid author.

So, at least, the judgment was made that Asadal would not attack even like this.

‘Why on earth?’

While doing this nonsense, did you think Asadal would stay still? I racked my brain to figure out what he was thinking.

And the result was obvious.

‘It’s a coffin.’

The corner that my country believes in is Guan Yi.

***

In the history of Yuan, Jiang Xiaobai was called ‘Jehwan Gong’.

However, in this history, he will not be called Duke Huan of Qi.

The reason is simple.

Because I praised you.

He is now the king of my country.

He declared that he was advancing as the new ruler of the Central Plains by performing the Fengshen Festival, which was an inherent right of the Emperor.

If a title is created, it is more likely to be King Mu or King Mun of Je rather than Duke Hwan of Je.

That’s not all that’s changed.

In the history of Yuan, Duke Huan of Qi saved Yan from Shan Rong. The current Jiang So-baek joined hands with Shan Rong and Asadal to help Qi destroy Yan.

Duke Huan of Yuan kept his promise to Noh.

The current Kang So-baek broke that promise.

Duke Huan of Yuan cherished talented people and valued righteousness.

The current Kang So-baek values ​​his own words more than those of his subjects.

Duke Huan of Yuan considered himself a hegemon and protector of the order of the Zhou Dynasty.

The current Jiang Xiaobai ignored the Zhou Dynasty, annexed the Song Dynasty, and even declared himself king.

Kang So-baek didn’t stop there.

After proclaiming himself king, he attacked the surrounding states of Lu, Geon-la, Qi, Zhou (a small state near Qi, different from Zhou), and Lu (a small state south of Mount Tai, different from Lu, where Confucius was born), and expanded the state of Qi.

like that.

He was one of the five hegemons of the Spring and Autumn Period in the history of Yuan.

In this history, we have become conquerors, not losers.

The battle was a succession of victories.

It was as if he had been given a destiny.

The powerful ministers, including Donggwak-ah, who had pushed out Posuk-ah and effectively become the most powerful minister, and the newly hired chef Yeok-ah, praised Kang So-baek’s decision to the end.

– In the past, the Lord received the mandate and destroyed the Shang. And now, the Lord’s mandate has ended, so shouldn’t I be the nation that received the new mandate?

-Besides, Your Majesty has married a woman from the Zhou Dynasty, so the Mandate of Heaven of the Zhou Dynasty is with Your Majesty!

It was truly a collective madness.

It was worth it. Jiang Xiaobai subjugated Yan, took away half of Lu’s territory, and this time he completely destroyed Song, a descendant of Shang.

This is roughly what it must have felt like when Hitler succeeded in annexing Austria.

However, not everyone was like that.

-Asadal might move.

His expression grew more and more worn-out as the days went by. Po-suk failed to make Kang So-baek keep his promise with the state of Lu, and he also failed to stop the Bongseonje.

In this way, he watched his lord’s tyranny. However, his lord was still his lord, and he was still the prime minister of his country, even if only in name.

-You should be wary of Asadal. At the very least, you should get closer to the women of Asadal. You should not give them an excuse.

-Nonsense!

To this, Donggwaka replied.

-Asadal won’t move.

-Why are you so sure?

-They fought the Wol-in a while ago. They won’t have that much power. Besides, the next leader of Asadal is Gwan-o.

-So, does that mean that since he is from my country, he won’t attack my country?

-no.

Donggwaka said. I know that such soft things cannot prevent war. His words came from somewhere else.

-He was elected president even though he is from my country. But in this situation, he would be an enemy of my country? That would be impossible. He would try to reconcile with my country somehow.

-Uh…

-Besides, the president is the monarch of a country after all. The authority of a monarch is by no means small. They will never exercise their authority in a way that will lead to a war with us. Besides… Guan-o is also your friend.

At that point, Posuk-ah realized why she was still a prime minister even though she had lost all of her power.

Here, Kang So-baek intervened.

-I think so too. They have a strange tradition of electing their leader, but he is still a monarch. Once he is a monarch, he is a monarch from then on.

Throughout history and the present, there have been those who attacked their own families’ countries, but no one has ever destroyed their own country. Would you carelessly invade our country?

The Central Plains people consider themselves the center of the world.

This is especially true for my country, which occupies half of North China.

Therefore, they judge the world by their own common sense. Asadal is also the target of this.

So, Kang So-baek.

I understood the position of ‘President’ of Asadal as being the same as a ten-year monarch.

As long as Gwan-o was in that position, Asadal would not have anything to do with them… that was what they thought.

***

As soon as I heard the news, I ran straight to Haedongseong. This wasn’t something I could solve with a letter or something.

It’s urgent.

Because it’s a chance to eat Chinese chives?

no.

That’s because it’s a rebellion angle.

As soon as I arrived at Haedongseong, I looked for Guan-O.

“Here comes the coffin!”

“…You came.”

The coffin could not be seen from the castle.

Because he was no longer the treasurer.

Guan Yi is now the elected official.

While I was away, there was a presidential election.

Guan Yi threw away his finance ministerial post and went all-in on the presidential election and was elected.

So now he was sitting on the hill with thirty bodyguards.

Despite the overwhelming victory, his expression was not bright. Rather, it would be more correct to say that he was dead.

I asked after taking everything out of context.

“What is the situation?”

“Well, it’s ruined.”

Guan Yi didn’t usually say things like ‘it’s ruined’. If Guan Yi said it was ruined, it meant that if something really happened, it was a big mess.

It was worth it.

‘Because I am from my country.’

Asadal’s public sentiment has been quite pessimistic recently.

Roughly speaking.

-They say my country has gone crazy and is waging war here and there?

-The states of Lu and Zhou have requested that we join the war. We are the brother states of Zhou.

-Then, isn’t this our chance to eat North Korea?

This is only half true.

Asadal was recently involved in a naval battle with Wol. It is difficult to raise an army at this time.

To be honest, a better plan would be to watch the fire across the river and reap the trade profits.

But the problem is that this is rationality.

Politics doesn’t always run rationally.

When Clausewitz said that “war is an extension of politics,” he did not mean that politicians only start wars.

It is close to the meaning that since war itself is not rational and there are many irrational variables, officers must also have political capabilities. It was the same even then.

-Why is there no news of war?

-You say you don’t have money?

-What did you do that you don’t have any money?

-I was building a boat a while ago…

-What are you talking about? Isn’t this just… saying that Guan Yi is from his own country and won’t attack him?

People did not understand it as, “We can’t go to war because we don’t have money,” but as, “President Guan Wu is a citizen of our country, so he hesitates to go to war.”

And that’s not all the problem.

-Aren’t those guys just taking advantage of trade these days?

-After annexing the country of No, there is no place to sell Asadal goods except for them!

After annexing the state of Lu, my country openly exerted its influence over Asadal’s trade.

-These days, there is a rumor going around that Jiang So-baek of my country avoids Yeoreum, the woman of Asadal, and only gets close to women of the Zhou Dynasty!

-These guys, they won’t ignore us!

This time, after declaring himself emperor, in order to gain legitimacy for the Zhou dynasty, he avoided summer and only accompanied the newly-inducted Zhou women.

This time, the salvation of the country of Noh was used as an excuse to explode all the discontent that had built up until now.

What is happening is not a partisan dispute.

That’s a very 21st century idea.

“I haven’t even sat in the presidential seat yet, and there’s already an uproar over my impeachment.”

The basic principle is impeachment.

So, if he gets impeached and Guan Wu steps down, is that the end?

That can’t be true.

“I am ashamed to say it myself, but I recruited many powerful people to become president. Those who are now calling for impeachment are ‘non-powerful.’”

At this point, those who do not belong to Guanwu are a minority and not sufficiently unified.

A hastily formed force with no clear plan is likely to suffer from internal strife.

Does that mean we can put a Guan-O faction member in the presidency?

That’s just blindly pretending not to see.

So Nana Barang declares a state of emergency and becomes president once again?

That is also enough of a pretext for civil war.

Because it would be considered breaking Asadal’s law.

This is a truly mind-boggling situation.

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At best, it’s a dispute, at worst, it’s a civil war.

“…I’m sorry, sir.”

Guan Yi looked at me and shed tears.

“I should not have become president in the first place. It’s all my fault.”

“That’s overly consequential thinking.”

No one could have predicted that Kang So-baek would go out of control like this. Even I never expected that the snowball that had been taking away the government money in my country would roll this far.

“I believe you are a suitable successor to Baran.”

“But doesn’t that create the risk of civil war?”

“Just stop it. Besides, it might even be good.”

“If it were better…?”

“My country seems to have misjudged Asadal’s republic. You can tell just by looking at the fact that you started causing trouble as soon as you were elected president. But what is the situation now?”

“Rather, it became inevitable that we would have to go to war.”

“Yeah. That’s going to be his weakness.”

War is an extension of politics.

Political misjudgments always lead to defeat in war.

***

Guan Yi calculated diligently.

“My country’s army consists of 40,000 standing troops led by scholars and high-ranking officials. They are elite soldiers who make a living as soldiers.” “They are tough.”

“That’s not all. We’ve taken over the Song Dynasty and half of the Lu Dynasty. Their population alone will be 5 million.”

5 million, that number doesn’t feel real.

Asadal’s population is currently around 1.5 million.

“But wouldn’t it be difficult to recruit in all regions?”

“Even so, the number of people (people living in the capital) who often serve as soldiers in the capital city is easily 40,000 households.”

40 thousand houses.

“If we conscript just one man from one household, it would be 40,000. If we conscript three, it would be 120,000. If we combine the standing forces, it would be 160,000?”

“…Of course, it will be difficult to recruit this many people, and the country of Lu that requested our help will also fight together, so there is no need to worry about everyone, but it is by no means a small number. We will need at least 30,000 people.”

“There is an army of that size, right?”

“The current Asadal army has seven thousand soldiers as their profession, and four times as many enlist to serve for three years, so it is sufficient.”

This really feels like a generational shift.

Asadal, who had been going to the Central Plains with 15,000 soldiers, now has this many soldiers.

But the emotion ends here.

“However, we do not have enough funds to operate them. This battle will be an expedition.”

That’s worth it.

Soldiers are like money-eating hippos. If you are going to wage war, you need to stock up on food for at least a year.

“An ordinary man eats one seok of grain a year, but soldiers eat more. If there are 30,000 soldiers, they eat 100 seok of grain a day.”

100 seok a day. That’s enough to wake up one volunteer every three days, and 36,500 seok in a year.

Of course, in absolute terms, we cannot say that it is ‘a lot’.

But if there is a problem.

“Besides, this is only the amount of food. Considering the hardship of moving and the money that should be given to the soldiers, it would have to be at least three or four times this amount.”

That’s not all.

“If the war had been delayed by just five years, it would have been worth a try. By then, there would have been sufficient profits from trade. However, now that the war with the Moon has just ended… the timing is ambiguous. But… we can’t forcefully open the people’s granaries and loot their grain, or send them away without giving them even a single silver nugget.”

“That’s right. If we do that, there will be a rebellion right away.”

Ultimately, the issue is money.

But, as someone said.

“Who are you worried about money in front of right now?”

The problems that can be solved with money are the easiest problems.

“…Yes? Even if you are the oldest of the Poongbaek clans, I don’t think you have that much money, right?”

“Don’t worry, go down to Seorabeolbu right now. The Shinshiki Knights will be of help to you.”

“The New Knights?”

Guan Yu asked.

“…Why is the institution that is in charge of the money coming out?”

This time I laughed even louder than before.

Because I found something better than Guan Yi.

“You don’t know what finance is?”

It’s a given.

It was the first time I saw something called fair currency.

It seems that this function is known at best as ‘economic stimulation’, but… in fact, the value of money is much more than that.

“You’ll know when you get down there. I’ll write you a letter. By the time you get to Seorabeolbu, I’ll be in the central plains.”

“The Central Plains?”

“Don’t you have to take care of many things in the Central Plains?”

“So, does that mean you’re going directly to Jungwon right now?”

“Yes. Who better than me? I’m a former president, and I don’t really have anything to do right now.”

There are a lot of promises, but little practical implementation.

Even if I disappear tomorrow, Asadal won’t suffer much damage.

“There are two goals. Go to the Zhou Dynasty to discuss war, and then go to the Qi Dynasty to save the summer.”

“Summer?”

“Yes. If war breaks out like this, will Kang So-baek leave Yeoreum alone? It would be right to take her out before then.”

Summer is the daughter of the salt chieftain Bulgeo.

If my country seizes the summer as a hostage, the salt department of Liaodong will likely give up the war. Bulgeo loved his daughter very, very much.

Besides, if Kang So-baek were to kill Yeoreum, things would get out of hand. It would be possible to boost the will to fight, but what happens after that is the problem.

Perhaps there will be a political offensive saying, ‘Guan Wu killed the summer with a hasty war!’ It would be better to prevent that if possible.

Above all, I am the one who sent my sister-in-law, Yeoreum, to my country even though she was adopted as my daughter. I have a sense of responsibility.

“Even if that were true, Zhou Dynasty… would our country remain silent?”

“I don’t think he’ll stay still.”

Even if I were Kang So-baek, you would want to catch me somehow and add one more defeat.

“But, it’s okay if I get caught.”

“…Are you okay?”

“If I am captured, my country will immediately declare that the envoy has been captured and prepare for war.”

If Guan Wu were to declare war right now, half of the people would probably be suspicious. It would mean that a person from my country would attack my country.

However, if it’s okay after I’m caught, then the excuse that “the Great Poongbaek who recognized me is more precious than the country that gave birth to me” is appealing enough.

“First of all, I don’t know anything about the Asadal Army. At best, I have information from 10 years ago, but that information is useless.”

Even if I were to be caught in the worst case scenario and use a modern search engine like Ziggle or a cold search engine like Boggle, there wouldn’t be any secrets to reveal.

“…Surely you’re trying to get caught on purpose?”

“No, I don’t think so. If I got caught, doesn’t that mean the summer rescue failed? I just wanted to say that the worst isn’t the worst.”

“It’s hard work. It’s also dangerous. The enemies might torture you or kill you.”

“Then who else will go besides me?”

I asked.

“Agol? Barang? Don’t talk nonsense. They still have work to do. On the other hand, I am now retired.”

“But…”

“If I were to save my life right now, my life would last only a few years at most. However, if I risk my life for Asadal now, and Asadal survives because of it… I would live and breathe forever in the long history of Asadal.”

As I said that, I stroked the tombstone in front of me.

[Chief of the Swallow Tribe, the first chief justice of Asadal. The god of law, Ho-ju, rests here.]

“Oh my, why did you have to go back so quickly? You won’t even be able to attend the funeral. And what’s the point of asking for a tombstone to be carved next to your own?”

“Interpersonal…”

“Anyway, if Asadal is not here, Australia’s efforts will be forgotten. Not only Australia, but the efforts of countless heroes will not be remembered. They will remain in writing, but those who admire and respect them will disappear. I do not want that to happen to my colleagues.”

After saying that, I laughed.

“So… you do your job. I’ll do mine. I’ve always wanted to travel around the Central Plains after I retired. Now I finally have the chance.”

“What on earth is history to you? Something that will last forever? Something that will be recorded in history? What on earth is it that makes you so proud, burning your only remaining life like a rag?”

Interesting question, but one thing is wrong.

I am not dedicating my only life to history.

‘I already died once while studying history.’

So, I laughed.

“History is nothing and yet everything.”

“Man, that’s… ah.”

In response to that.

Guan Yi stopped what he was about to say.

You have caught what I mean.

History is nothing special to those who live in the present age.

But to those who connect the ages, it is everything.

That’s how it is.

He slowly lowered his head and knelt down.

A person who gets down on one knee.

This is Asadal’s way.

“I am from Asadal. My country may have given birth to me, but it was the great man who recognized me.

So… please, come back alive. It’s good to live in history, but please live a little longer in front of me.”

“I told you I have no intention of dying?”

“It’s a promise.”

“Okay, I promise.”

I held out my hand.

Guan Yi took my hand.

“I will definitely survive.”

Before leaving, I looked at the Australian gravestone.

And I thought.

‘This is the burial mound I leave you.’

Said.

***

Guan Yi looked at the back of the departing Poong Baek.

An old man riding on an old white horse.

“ha.”

Guan Yi let out a sigh that was filled with a multitude of emotions. It was a sigh of worry, concern, gratitude, and regret for Poong Baek. It was a sigh that was all mixed together.

and.

There was a hint of envy in that sigh.

“Here comes the President’s coffin.”

Guan Yi laughed hollowly.

“No matter what I accomplish as president, I will never be able to keep up with that giant.”

But he clenched his fist.

And then he realized what he had to do.

‘Save Asadal.’

So that the giant’s footprints won’t be buried in Sato.

May the benefactor’s fame be remembered forever.

‘I understand you a little bit, sir.’

So, Gwan-o held tightly to the letter that Poong-baek had given him and ran towards Seorabeolbu.

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