episode_0074

Geokseong was saved.

Georok Daejeon.

A large-scale battle in which 70,000 troops led by Heng Zhe clashed with Zhang Han’s 300,000 troops.

No one could have predicted that the outcome of the battle would be this way.

“…”

The victorious warrior entered the main gate where the feudal lords were located.

Princes who led troops drawn from each country and watched the situation.

They just set up ten campsites and monitored the situation.

Among them, there were some treacherous figures from the state of Chu who were with them.

In their view, the defeat of the wake was very natural, and the right choice was to flee the moment the defeat became clear and make their own lives.

But everything changed with the wake’s victory.

The feudal lords fell prostrate in a cold sweat, not daring to look up at the wake.

They trembled like aspen trees and chattered their teeth.

They were overwhelmed by the ghostly energy emitted by the wake.

The wake just remained silent and looked down at them.

*****

Jang Yi and Jin Yeo stood facing each other.

The two loved and trusted each other, so they sacrificed everything to be together.

But their friendship was already cracked.

The two women just glared at each other without saying a word.

“…Sister.”

Jin Yeo called out to Jang in an anxious voice.

But still, Jang Yi had no answer.

Jang simply closed his eyes tightly and turned his back.

She is moving away.

Their love ended in vain like this.

Jinyeo’s body collapsed.

She cried and cried again.

However, the cry was too helpless to restore the already broken love between the two.

*****

A miraculous victory in the Great War.

However, despite such a great victory, the rebels’ work was not all over.

The Jin army located in Geyuan (currently south of Pinghyang County, Hebei Province) was still strong, and they still controlled the road to Hamgokguan.

However, that did not mean that the Qin Dynasty was superior.

Paradoxically, the size of the Qin Dynasty’s 200,000 soldiers became a weakness in itself.

“Not good.”

Samaheon muttered.

Jangsa (長史, internal affairs of the three Dukes), 440.

In Hamyang, Samahun’s last name was called ‘Jangsa’ instead, which was his official title. That’s why he was called Jang Sa-heun, and he looked at the map with a confused look on his face.

“If we continue like this, we will all die.”

There was a heavy silence in the main camp.

They had made a farmhouse in the Far East their headquarters.

They were originally operating under the command of Jang Han, but after the crushing defeat of Georok, Deputy General Samaheun was put in charge.

However, Sima Heun could not be happy about this promotion.

This is because he guessed the fate of himself and his subordinates.

‘The emperor is already fed up.’

Although it was a profane thought, it was an extremely accurate assessment.

For Samahun, whose passion is collecting information, the disgusting things happening in Hamyang were already obvious to him.

Fallen Emperor.

And the treacherous man who controls him, Jo Go.

To them, not even a single defeat was acceptable.

Even if we requested a retreat or additional support, there was no way they would listen.

‘They’ll cut my throat.’

Emperor Ise’s political theory was simple.

‘Kill the incompetent.’

That was Huhai’s only principle of action and his only governing philosophy.

‘Are you going to sit still and die?’

Jang Sa-heun had no intention of going along with the stubbornness of such a madman.

“What do you think?”

Jang Si-heun opened his mouth after a long silence.

There was no one here who was foolish enough to take his words as a suggestion to express one’s opinion straight away.

The generals frowned and closed their eyes.

“…must surrender.”

One of the generals read Jang Si-heun’s thoughts and spoke.

“Yes.”

Zhang Siheun sighed and said.

“It would be better for all of us than to lose our lives at the hands of Jo Go.”

A sense of despair spread through Jang Si-heun’s words.

It was a unique despair that mixed the relief of having lived and the frustration of living a long life.

“I will send a messenger to the Chu military.”

Jang Si-heun said.

“Let’s have a meeting.”

The messenger, aware of their situation, quickly ran away holding the letter.

The fate of the 200,000-strong army was now in the hands of the wake.

*****

The place Haengjeok chose for the interview was a bar.

It was a bar with no chairs, but that wasn’t unusual.

Until later, when the cultures of the nomadic peoples were mixed, the people of Central Plains enjoyed a sedentary culture, so chairs were not often used except in specific places.

Sima Heun looked at Hang Jeok’s face.

‘So beautiful. What a beautiful woman.’

Samaheun was inwardly impressed.

Until now, he didn’t know about the person named Hang Jeok.

All he knew about her was that she was the niece of Xiang Liang, who lost his life at the hands of Zhang Han.

Because of that, Samaheun secretly expected that Haengjeok would be a female girl with bulging muscles.

Therefore, the moment he encountered the wake, Samaheun had no choice but to panic.

Far from being rugged, she is a beautiful woman with an aristocratic beauty.

A woman with the beauty of a cunning man rather than a general who had defeated hundreds of thousands of armies at once was looking at him.

“Give the leather to that general.”

Hang Jeok had a soldier bring a leather rug to Sima Heun.

‘…thank god!’

Samaheon sighed in relief when he saw the leather rug the soldier brought.

The soldier brought something similar to the leather that the wake had been sitting on.

‘It would be safe to interpret this as a favorable signal.’

Samaheun sat down thinking that.

“Will you surrender?”

Heng Jeok quietly sipped his drink and asked.

“Yes, General. I will leave the fate of our military in the hands of the general. I just ask that you please show mercy.”

Samaheun lowered his posture and said that.

It was a direct way of speaking that was not appropriate for a diplomatic situation.

And fortunately for Samahun, it was a speaking style that suited Hangjeok’s tendencies well.

Wake preferred honest talk over euphemism.

However, her preferences did not have much influence at the meeting.

Haengjeok just kept his mouth shut.

Feeling anxious, Samaheun tried to lighten the mood by telling various stories, but the situation was not at all friendly to him.

“Would you mind leaving for a moment?”

Simahun’s body trembled at the request to wake up.

But he had no right to veto.

Samaheun grumbled and withdrew from the meeting.

“What do you think, Gyeongpo?”

Wake asked Gyeongpo.

“…Do you have anything to think deeply about?”

Gyeongpo answered so bluntly that it was annoying.

“The only option given to the defeated general from the whale is death. The same goes for the soldiers below them. Showing mercy to them is only a sign of weakness. Kill them all and spread the majesty of the general over the Dead Sea.”

“…”

Haengjeok kept his mouth shut.

Surprisingly, it was a thought that matched her inner thoughts.

Haengjeok was originally a character who hated cowards and did not place much value on mercy.

To her, the sight of the Qin soldiers surrendering without a fight was a vivid picture.

‘Limited world.’

But strangely enough, what came to her mind now was the face of a man.

‘What would you have done?’

Heng Zhe quietly looked down at his glass of wine.

‘The place where you first hugged me was also at a bar.’

First murder in a bar. Yugye ran away holding her to save her.

Strangely enough, when I remembered that scene, I burst out laughing.

The Yugye that Hangjeok knew was not a merciful person.

He was also far from a person of character.

He was just an overly honest person.

He was honest about his desires and sincere about his feelings.

Therefore, Yugye was the most natural and the most humane person she knew.

‘If it were you…’

Hangjeok wet his lips with alcohol.

‘I would never have killed them.’

Yu-gye would not do such a thing out of benevolence or tactical insight.

But the Yugye in Haeng Jeok’s heart would answer like this.

‘Is that necessary?’

The most popular world will certainly say so.

A person who does not avoid a fight, but does not trample on a discouraged opponent.

A general with the courage of a professional.

That was the world that Haengjeok knew.

“…I will accept their surrender.”

That’s why the wake said that.

Because it was clear that Yu-gye would say that, and because the man who would become her spouse was that kind of person.

“Orders four to forty soldiers into the Shang Army and recruits those soldiers into the Chu army. We will advance towards Hamgokwan together.”

There was no one who could refuse the miracle-working man.

The Chu generals bowed their heads and respected Haeng Jeok’s choice.

The background to her being able to make this choice was a trend that was different from the original history.

In Yuan history, by defeating Song Yi, Hang Jeok was placed in a situation where he could not receive support from the state of Chu.

This is because he incurred the wrath of King Chohoe, who stayed in Paengseong.

For this reason, until Georok’s victory, the rebel army always suffered from a lack of supplies due to the checks of King Chuhoe, who made the excuse that ‘the situation was not favorable’.

This food shortage was one of the major reasons why the wake caused the Shinan Massacre in Yuan history.

However, now King Chuhoe is with Yugye, and those staying in Paengseong are people who originally belonged to the Hangryang army.

They had no reason to be angry about the choice of wake and were ready to support wake at any time.

Although supply has not been smooth until now due to the Jin Dynasty army that took control of the Zhao Dynasty, it is obvious that the supply route will be established quickly after the great victory at Georok.

There was no need to commit massacre.

‘It would be the right choice.’

Wake was sure of that.