Chapter 314. Prelude to the Great Battle 3— The Submission of the Balhae Troops: Go Hoewon
Youngwoo stepped outside and sprang onto his horse.
The moment he pulled the reins, the horse shot forward.
He raced across the plain as if cutting through the wind.
"Ahahahaha!"
His laughter spread across the field before anything else.
Still grinning broadly, he rode straight ahead and soon left the Jin encampment behind. Once he passed the forward outposts, the land opened wide before him.
In the middle of that vast plain stood some two thousand Balhae soldiers in ordered ranks.
Wanyan Zonghan followed behind Youngwoo.
He still did not seem to understand the full situation. Even so, he kept his horse at speed, apparently determined to see for himself what had made Youngwoo so delighted.
Youngwoo pulled the reins before the front rank of the Balhae troops.
His horse kicked up dirt as it came to a halt.
Youngwoo shouted at the top of his voice.
"Welcome, Elder!"
He carried the words with his inner power, sending them rolling across the plain.
To call out "Elder" with inner force so that everyone could hear it was an astonishingly unfamiliar sound on a battlefield.
The officers in the front heard him clearly, and so did the soldiers standing far behind them.
The tension that had hardened the faces of the Balhae troops began to ease.
Go Hoewon stepped down from his horse.
He brought both hands together and bowed deeply.
Then he observed the formalities of military submission.
He unfastened his sword, held it horizontally with both hands, and raised it to the level of his brows.
"I am Go Hoewon of Liaoyang. I pay my respects to Commander Yi Youngwoo of the Goryeo army."
Youngwoo immediately jumped down from his horse.
He seized Go Hoewon by the arms and raised him back to his feet.
"Ah, there is no need for this. You have suffered greatly on such a long journey."
Go Hoewon lifted his head.
His wind-burned face showed both exhaustion and resolve.
"I intended to follow your advice and refrain from moving. But I received orders to proceed to Changchun Road. If we went there, we would eventually be forced to fight the Jin army. So we came directly here instead."
Youngwoo gripped his arm once again.
"You chose well. You truly chose well in coming here."
At that moment, Okjeong stepped forward from beside Go Hoewon.
Though she was a woman, she wore full armor.
A sword hung at her waist, and a short cloak rested over her shoulders.
When she gave a military salute, her composed beauty and upright bearing stood out even from a distance.
"I pay my respects to Commander Yi."
Youngwoo bowed his head with a delighted expression.
"You came as well, my lady. Thank you. I have been deeply concerned about our lack of troops."
Okjeong's eyes shone calmly.
The Balhae soldiers behind her finally began to look directly at Youngwoo.
They had arrived wearing Liao uniforms.
Yet now their eyes were directed toward the man welcoming them, rather than toward any commander of the Liao army.
Go Hoewon called over a young officer standing beside him.
"This man is a distant nephew of mine. He commands the troops I have brought today."
The young officer stepped forward.
He was not large, but his shoulders were solid and his gaze clear.
He brought his hands together and bowed.
"My name is Go Youngchang."
Go Youngchang: A Balhae-descended military officer of the Liao dynasty's Eastern Capital, Liaoyang. In 1116, he gathered Balhae descendants, seized the Eastern Capital, and founded the Great Balhae State. He was a figure who attempted to revive Balhae amid the turmoil of the transition from Liao to Jin. The fact that he tried to restore Balhae roughly two hundred years after its fall gives his story particular significance. In this novel, he instead submits to the Jin.
Youngwoo's gaze settled on him.
The instant the young officer's name was spoken aloud on the open plain, Youngwoo felt something difficult to define.
Go Hoewon had brought more than two thousand soldiers.
Standing before him was the next generation of men who might once again move under the name of Balhae.
Go Youngchang was still young.
His build was defined more by solidity than size. His shoulders were broad, and his back remained straight with the posture of a man accustomed to long hours in the saddle.
Beneath a Liao-style military cap lined with fur, his face showed the darkening of wind and sun.
His cheekbones were pronounced, his jaw firm, and his lips neatly closed with the habit of a man who did not speak carelessly.
His armor was an old suit of lamellar that had clearly been maintained with care.
Each iron plate carried a dark bluish sheen from repeated oiling, while the leather cords bore signs of having been replaced many times.
The scabbard at his waist was scratched from constant contact with a saddle, and road dust covered his bow case.
His equipment belonged to the military system of Liao, yet his bearing carried the rough discipline of a Balhae-descended officer from Liaodong.
The first thing one noticed was his gaze.
Go Youngchang's eyes were striking not because they were large, but because they were deep.
When he looked at a man, his eyes swept quickly over him, then lingered where necessary.
He lowered his head when saluting Youngwoo, but when he raised it again, his gaze was straight.
There was caution learned in the Liao army, the tension of a man who had lived as a Balhae descendant, and the resolve of one who had chosen his road that very day.
He stood behind Go Hoewon.
Yet the soldiers behind him moved according to his signals.
When he lowered his wrist, the cavalrymen in the front ranks lowered their spearheads.
When he turned his head, the infantry behind them corrected their formation.
Even when his horse snorted and pawed the ground, one tightening of the reins was enough to settle it.
Though still young, he had already learned how to command both men and horses.
Youngwoo studied Go Youngchang for a moment without speaking.
A young Balhae officer wearing the uniform of Liao stood before him.
His face showed less of the exhaustion of a long journey than the resolve of a man determined to choose his own path under his own name.
Youngwoo spoke almost with a sigh of admiration.
"Oh. I have heard much about you. I had never heard your name, but whenever I heard reports about the situation in the Eastern Capital of Liaoyang, I thought there must be someone there carrying great ambitions. So it was you, Warrior Go."
Go Hoewon said,
"He is a distant relative."
Youngwoo swept his hand across the Balhae troops, then toward the Jin soldiers and the Goryeo soldiers nearby.
He infused his voice with inner power so that it would carry across the broad plain.
"We are all kin."
The words struck deeply into the hearts of the Balhae soldiers.
Some lowered their heads.
Some pressed their lips tightly together.
Others silently wiped at the corners of their eyes.
For two hundred years, the name Balhae had belonged to a scattered people.
It was a name they had often been forced to swallow carefully while serving beneath the banners of others.
And now a commander from Goryeo was looking at them and calling them kin.
Go Youngchang bowed deeply.
"Thank you."
Youngwoo answered at once.
"I am the one who should thank you. You have come well."
Go Hoewon explained,
"I told him what happened at Changchun Road. I told him how you faced hundreds alone and moved through the air as though flying. Youngchang said that must be the martial art of the Guryeo Immortals. That too is part of our tradition. We believed that if a Guryeo Immortal stood with us, then victory would be ours."
Youngwoo gave an awkward smile.
"I am the only Joi Immortal here. My masters have returned to Goryeo.
"They stayed here for a time, but while I was traveling back and forth to Goryeo and dealing with the matter of my resignation, they departed."
His voice trailed slightly at the end.
Youngwoo himself did not know exactly where they had gone.
Even so, traces of his masters still remained throughout the military camp.
When Youngwoo introduced Go Hoewon, Wanyan Zonghan was so delighted he nearly leapt for joy.
He immediately ordered a campsite prepared for the newly arrived troops, then took Go Hoewon, Okjeong, and Go Youngchang with him to see the Great Khan.
When he heard that Balhae troops had submitted, the Great Khan came out in such haste that he scarcely had time to put on his shoes.
It was, for all practical purposes, the first time Balhae people had submitted to the Jin in such a manner.
Under Liao rule, both the Xi and the Balhae had enjoyed a comparatively favored position.
They had functioned as ruling peoples within the empire.
They served as officials and soldiers in many regions, governed local populations, and supported the administration of Liao rule.
Their influence also reached deeply into culture.
The Liao dynasty's strong embrace of Buddhism owed much to Balhae influence.
The immense Buddhist pagodas of the Liao era that still remained were part of that legacy.
Those Liao pagodas were monumental religious markers, erected on high ground where they could be seen from every direction, and were closely associated with devotion to the Uṣṇīṣavijaya Dhāraṇī.
The religious tradition behind that devotion, along with the production of related devotional halls and monuments, had already existed in Liaodong and Balhae before the Liao dynasty.
For that reason, Balhae Buddhism—particularly Balhae traditions connected to the Uṣṇīṣavijaya Dhāraṇī—could be seen as having exerted a profound influence on the development of monumental Liao Buddhist architecture.
The submission of the Balhae troops therefore carried meaning far beyond the arrival of another two thousand soldiers.
It represented the movement of one of the peoples who had helped uphold Liao rule.
It was evidence that the upper structure of the Liao empire itself had begun to shake.
The Great Khan was genuinely delighted.
He understood perfectly well that they had come because of their personal connection with Commander Yi.
Even so, he immediately seized upon their submission as proof that the Liao dynasty was collapsing and ordered it proclaimed throughout the army.