Chapter 378. News 1
Not long after Youngwoo returned, five carts entered through the temple gate.
They were taken around to the rear yard.
The monks and soldiers first unharnessed the animals that had done the hard pulling and let them rest comfortably.
Steam rose from the horses' backs, and their breath streamed out in long white clouds.
Then Youngwoo's eyes met those of the guest-receiving monk.
The monk broke into a broad smile.
Somehow, when a person was good-natured, the whole world seemed a little brighter.
"Where did you disappear to? People were looking for you earlier."
Youngwoo brushed the snow from his cloak.
"Whew. Worldly affairs were getting tiresome, so I came back through the alleys."
The monk nodded in complete agreement.
"Yes, that is how it is."
It was hardly profound comfort, but Youngwoo felt a little better.
Once everything was bundled together under the words worldly affairs, even the faces that had gathered at the south gate seemed, for a moment, like something happening far away.
"There seemed to be some news."
Youngwoo raised his head.
"What happened?"
"The rebellion in the Supreme Capital has been suppressed."
Youngwoo's eyes sharpened.
The rebellion in the Supreme Capital could only mean Yelü Zhangnu.
It was something Youngwoo himself had helped set in motion.
"What day is it today?"
"The twenty-fourth day of the eleventh month."
The words about not becoming obsessed with success or failure suddenly struck home.
People knowingly embarked on things destined to fail, merely for the sake of surviving a few more days.
The temptation was simply that great.
The emperor had not returned that long ago.
The matter had been settled more quickly than Youngwoo expected.
"Any other news?"
The guest-receiving monk shook his head.
"Only that. It flared up greatly for a time, but it did not last."
He organized what he had heard in a calm, orderly way.
"They say Zhangnu first tried to enthrone the imperial clansman Yelü Chun. When Yelü Chun refused, Zhangnu raised troops himself and attacked the Supreme Capital. He performed rites at the tomb of Liao Taizu in Zuzhou and declared that he would restore Great Liao. For a while, Balhae people from Qingzhou and Raozhou joined him, along with volunteer troops from the Central Capital region. They say his forces grew to several tens of thousands."
Youngwoo listened without speaking.
Tens of thousands...
Tens of thousands of people clapping in support were useless if they could do nothing more than clap.
The monk continued.
"But Yelü Maga suppressed them. Zhangnu fled, was captured, and sent to the emperor's temporary palace. The latest word says he was executed. His body was cut into five parts and sent to the Five Capitals."
Perhaps it was because he was the guest-receiving monk.
He had an excellent sense for the important points.
Whenever visitors came to the temple, he had to determine who they were, why they had come, and to whom their business should be conveyed.
He had become skilled at listening, sorting, and retelling.
"The Five Capitals? Does that mean part of him will be sent here too?"
"Surely not. Though... they may send it precisely so everyone can see."
Youngwoo let out a long breath.
"Whew."
The monk asked,
"Why? Are you worried?"
"If they have suppressed the rebellion, they will probably try to raise another army now. I am worried the war will continue."
The guest-receiving monk shook his head.
"It does not sound as though they are moving this way immediately. They appointed Xiao Temo as General Commissioner of the Marching Army and sent him to recruit Han soldiers in the Yanyun region."
Youngwoo's eyebrows shifted.
"Han soldiers?"
That meant something.
Did it not mean they could no longer recruit in Liaodong?
"There are no soldiers left in Liaodong willing to answer their summons."
Youngwoo slowly nodded.
"Ah. So that is what it means."
Suppressing the rebellion did not mean Liao had recovered its strength.
If anything, the opposite was true.
The rebellion in the Supreme Capital had been extinguished, but the hearts of Liaodong had already turned away from Liao.
To raise another army, they now had to scrape together Han troops from the south and west.
Youngwoo looked over the snow-covered temple courtyard.
The war had not ended.
Its shape was changing.
If Liao raised another army, it would no longer be the old army of Liaodong.
It would be an army gathered by force.
An army dragged in from far away.
Men unfamiliar with the roads, the cold, and the people of this land.
Whether that was fortunate or unfortunate was difficult to judge immediately.
One thing, however, was clear.
Liao had weakened.
It had lost its original roots.
Once the tribes of Liaodong, the Balhae soldiers, and the old Khitan cavalry forces began to waver, what remained was the Sixteen Prefectures of Yanyun.
That region, of course, was densely populated and productive.
Its cities were close together, and taxes could be collected reliably.
But the people there were Han.
The words Han soldiers eased some of Youngwoo's concern.
They lacked mobility.
Their armor was generally inferior, and their weapons weaker than those of Liaodong cavalry.
Their archery in particular was less formidable.
Compared with men accustomed to shooting from horseback, breaking away, circling, and striking again, they moved more slowly and changed direction more awkwardly.
In a close engagement, they would have difficulty standing against heavily armored cavalry.
That did not mean all Han soldiers were weak.
Inside a fortified city, behind a deep formation, or with carts and barriers blocking the roads, they could be dangerous enough.
But on the open fields and snowy roads of Liaodong, in long-range raids and pursuits, they were a different kind of force.
If Liao now had to scrape together such troops and send them east, that fact alone showed it was no longer the Liao of old.
For the time being, they would probably be unable to launch a serious campaign to recover Liaodong.
The great Liao Empire had now been forced onto the defensive.
Youngwoo gave a short laugh.
He had left the army, yet he was still calculating the strength of enemy forces.
Leaving was one thing.
Being unable to forget was another kind of illness.