Ch.122Journey (2)

“I want to leave my body as a sculpture.”

In other words, he wanted to use me as a model.

I looked at Liam with an incredulous expression.

Seeing my face, Liam prostrated himself on the ground with an expression of transcendent peace, as if he could now die without regrets.

I couldn’t say anything in response to Liam’s words.

I wanted to ask him what this was all about, but his resolute posture made it clear this wasn’t the right atmosphere for questions.

As if sensing my thoughts, Munglig stepped forward in my place.

“Do you understand what you’ve just done?”

“I… I do. Not only have I been disrespectful to Gurkhan, but I’ve also shamelessly revealed my desire to preserve the great Khagan’s body as a sculpture. I… I know my crime well, so I can now d-die without regrets.”

At this, Munglig approached Liam with a serious expression.

Then he grabbed Liam’s shoulder with his thick hand and lifted him up.

Forced to stand by Munglig’s brute strength, Liam trembled as he looked at him.

The atmosphere suggested Munglig might crush Liam with his fist at any moment.

I felt I needed to intervene and stop Munglig.

“Munglig. I was the one who first asked what his request was. So assaulting him…”

Just as I was about to stop Munglig, unexpected words came out of his mouth.

“My body is quite good too. Would it be possible to sculpt me as well?”

Munglig pointed at his own pectoral muscles with a serious expression.

Liam looked at Munglig as if he couldn’t believe what he’d just heard.

“My pectorals are no less impressive than Gurkhan’s. Wouldn’t this be worthy of being preserved as a statue?”

“Uh… well…”

“Answer.”

“Y-yes, it’s possible. Of course it’s possible! It would be an honor for me!”

Liam nodded repeatedly while rubbing his hands together.

Munglig smiled with satisfaction and put Liam down.

“Brother. Please grant this fellow’s request.”

“…Don’t tell me you just want your body preserved as a statue?”

“If your excellent physique is preserved as a sculpture for all to see, the people here will surely praise you for your sturdy pectorals and lower body. That’s why I suggest we accept this sculptor’s proposal, not for my personal gain.”

“I just heard everything, what kind of nonsensical excuse…”

“Haha! Brother, you’ll benefit too. Besides, how could your right-hand man and Kheshig captain be missing from beside your statue? Hahaha!”

Munglig was speaking to me with such fluency.

I was about to refuse, but as if reading my mind, Munglig’s face quickly turned sullen.

“Are you really going to refuse?”

“Of course I should refuse. We’re busy on our way to the Jin Dynasty.”

“Don’t we still have two months left? And since we’re at the edge of the Mongolian steppe, we can arrive quickly if we just look around the village on our way.”

After saying this, Munglig immediately turned to the sculptor.

“You there, Semu person.”

“A-are you talking to me?”

“Yes. How long does making that sculpture take?”

“U-usually about two months…”

As he trailed off, sparks flew from Munglig’s eyes.

Liam bowed his head and changed his answer.

“O-one month should be enough.”

“I’ll give you two weeks.”

“T-two weeks is too sho—”

“Tsk.”

“I-I can do it. No, please let me do it.”

“Good. That’s the attitude.”

Having successfully persuaded (?) Liam, Munglig turned back to me with a pleading expression.

“Brother. Haven’t I refused all the rewards you’ve given me?”

“That’s because you said you wouldn’t accept them.”

“Couldn’t you grant me this instead of those rewards?”

“…Do you want this that badly?”

“Yes.”

Munglig nodded firmly.

I could only sigh at this. And reluctantly nodded my head.

* * *

We ended up staying in this village for two weeks.

While staying here, I had to stand for half of each day to help with Liam’s work.

“Sigh…”

Maintaining a side chest pose for so long made my shoulders feel stiff.

After my time was up, it was Munglig’s turn.

“Thank you for your hard work, Brother.”

Munglig said this while handing me some Buroktan.

I took a drink and spoke to him.

“Have you been conducting proper Kheshig training while I’ve been here?”

“Of course, Brother.”

During our two-week stay, it was impossible to remain idle.

So while I was posing for Liam in the mornings, I had instructed Munglig to lead the Kheshig in training.

Of course, I had some of the Kheshig assigned to protect me in case anything happened.

“Go rest now, Brother.”

“There’s no time to rest. I need to tour around this village and observe how people are living.”

As a leader, having the opportunity to inspect civilian areas was extremely rare.

So I planned to use this chance to tour the surroundings with the Kheshig and see how the people were living.

“Understood, Brother.”

Munglig nodded and headed toward where Liam was.

I instructed the nearby Kheshig to both protect and monitor Munglig.

“Report to me immediately if he does anything strange.”

“We receive the Khagan’s command.”

Leaving Munglig behind, I took the Kheshig who hadn’t participated in the morning training and left the village.

We were currently at the edge of the Mongolian steppe, at the border between Western Liao and Mongolia.

Since this was where the steppe path continued, several villages were clustered in the area. I planned to tour those villages.

I mounted my horse and left the village.

Then I headed to a village not far from where we were staying.

Upon arrival, people who recognized me prostrated themselves on the ground in respect.

“We are honored to see the great Gurkhan.”

Among them was an elderly man who appeared to be the village elder.

I looked at him and spoke.

“Everyone, please rise. I am merely here to observe how the people are living.”

Hearing my words, the elder made a touched expression and bowed.

“We are grateful that the Khagan cares about ignorant country folk like us.”

At his words, I raised my hand to accept his gratitude.

Then I looked at the elder and asked a question.

“What is the name of this village?”

“I apologize, but our village doesn’t have a specific name.”

This phenomenon was very common in medieval times.

In modern times, administrative districts are clearly divided, but in medieval times, such divisions weren’t clearly defined.

Moreover, people born in villages often lived there their entire lives.

As a result, these villages typically either had no names or were named after specific natural landmarks in the vicinity.

“I see.”

The elder then carefully addressed me with a bow.

“If it pleases the Gurkhan, we humbly request that you bestow a name upon our village.”

“A name… very well.”

At my words, the elder looked deeply moved.

He bowed as if asking what the name would be.

This place was on the path connecting Western Liao and Mongolia.

Additionally, the soil had a blackish tint, suggesting it was rich in iron.

Combining these two characteristics, I came up with an appropriate name.

“From now on, this place will be called Har-ung.”

“Har” meant black, and “ung” meant entrance.

Even the modern Mongolian capital Karakorum was pronounced “Harkhering” in Mongolian, where “har” meant black and “khering” meant forest path.

Mongolia often named cities in this way, so it would be easy for the locals to pronounce.

* * *

I examined five more villages centered around Har-ung.

Looking at these villages, I could immediately understand the hardships the people living here were facing.

“Lack of supplies is a problem, but so is the shortage of workers.”

All men capable of wielding swords had been conscripted into the Mongolian army.

Although it was forced conscription, even though the war had ended, they chose to stay in the occupied territories rather than return home.

This choice was obvious because the Mongolian steppe was an underdeveloped region.

As a result, warriors who had achieved great victories in war didn’t return home but instead chose to bring their families from home to live in the occupied territories.

“Should we implement a large-scale population migration?”

There was a simple solution to solve this problem immediately.

That was to forcibly relocate populations, similar to what the Soviet Union had done.

However, even considering this was the medieval period, such an approach could face fierce resistance.

Therefore, it was best to avoid this method if possible.

“Then all we can do is build roads and establish postal relay stations.”

Creating large-scale transportation systems in medieval times was nearly impossible.

Of course, if there were seas or rivers, these could be used to move people and goods.

But there were no large rivers in Mongolia suitable for efficiently transporting goods.

For this reason, Mongolia had no choice but to develop the postal relay system.

“Developing postal relay stations is good… but having just one person per horse is too inefficient.”

Developing postal relay stations was good.

But having only one person ride each horse was too inefficient.

Yet we couldn’t put two people on one horse…

“Wait.”

Something suddenly occurred to me.

When Mongolians moved their gers, they modified them to use like carts, moving entire homes at once.

So Mongolians were already familiar with the concept of carts, whether they realized it or not.

If we used them not just for moving goods but also for transporting people, we could solve this problem more efficiently.

“Postal carriages. Yes. Postal carriages!”

If we used postal relay stations like bus routes and placed regular postal carriages along them, the empire could be connected as one.

Then both goods and people could move naturally, allowing for more efficient use of manpower.

In the original history, the earliest existing records of postal carriages were from 13th century England.

But in this world, that record was about to change.