Datong Military Command.
Right now, a report about Ear Ghost was being made here.
"Collected seventy-two ears in the Dongsheng expedition. Collected eighty-eight ears in Baotou. In Ejin..."
"Enough. Who said they wanted to hear all that one by one? Summarize your report."
Li Zi-song cut off his adjutant's words with irritation. He was already in a bad mood from being pushed out to this harsh frontier region as if being chased, and listening to the detailed history of some insignificant mercenary captain candidate one by one didn't improve his mood at all.
But he couldn't not listen either. If this Guisui expedition failed, there would be no next chance. Even if he wanted to fail more, he wouldn't be able to. A failure that resulted in beheading would be the last failure for anyone, as it always was.
These were mercenaries he had hired by emptying his entire private fortune to prevent that. He would formally put the mercenaries under one of his adjutants, but mercenaries were originally difficult to command. Therefore, he had to select a de facto leader from among the mercenaries. Li Zi-song had once led mercenaries on a southern expedition, so he knew the psychology of mercenaries to some extent. Of course, his circumstances then and now were vastly different.
"Yes. Understood!"
After answering vigorously, the adjutant began adding up the numbers written in the expedition register. But as military officials typically were, he too was hopeless at mathematics.
After waiting for quite a while, Li Zi-song finally couldn't stand it anymore and snatched the register from the adjutant's hands to examine Kang Dal-hui's records himself. As a former civil official, Li Zi-song understood the numbers in the register much more easily than the adjutant.
Shortly after examining the register, Li Zi-song found a passage that caught his eye.
"Thirty-one expeditions in one year? Is this real?"
At Li Zi-song's question, the adjutant hemmed and hawed, then suddenly spread his fingers and fumbled with them. He looked as clumsy as a small child counting counting stones using their fingers and toes.
"What are you doing right now? Didn't I ask if this is real?"
"S-sorry! I don't know for certain either!"
Li Zi-song was at a loss for words at the adjutant's too-booming answer. Well, how could this idiot who couldn't even add properly when a few numbers appeared in succession know without looking at it?
Li Zi-song clicked his tongue with disapproval.
Then the adjutant spoke up loudly again.
"I'm not sure if it's thirty-one times, but I know that Ear Ghost hasn't missed a single harvest in one year!"
Tsk tsk tsk. He should have just answered like that from the beginning.
In any case, he seems to be far more impressive than expected.
'This Kang Dal-hui fellow...'
Li Zi-song knew well how remarkable it was to not miss a single expedition for a year. It wasn't simply a matter of being skilled in martial arts to survive long on the battlefield.
Mercenaries always fought at the very front lines of battle. Among the barbarians, especially the northern barbarians, there were often masters. If they ran into such fellows, dozens of regular soldiers being cut down was nothing. It wasn't much different for mercenaries. If he'd fought continuously for a year without rest, he must have encountered several such individuals. Doesn't that mean he overcame all those dangers? On top of that, battlefields always harbored unpredictable dangers. It also meant he avoided all of those.
'Survived as a mercenary in the north for a year.'
Li Zi-song leaned back once, then raised his head and smacked his lips. It was a habit he had whenever something piqued his interest.
"The amount of ears collected is..."
"...I, I don't know!"
"Tsk tsk. I wasn't asking Adjutant Dang. I'm holding this, so how would you know?"
The adjutant tactlessly answered without discerning whether it was a question or not, but Li Zi-song only gave him a light rebuke. His eyes never left the register for a moment.
"Hmm. Excluding direct trades with ears, the total number of ears handed over to the ear brokers is two thousand eight hundred and sixteen. Impressive. Did you say this person is called Ear Ghost here?"
"Yes, General."
"Indeed, he's worthy of being called that. To have slain so many enemies in just one year."
Two thousand eight hundred sixteen. Among those must be included the ears of women, children, and elderly from occupied territories. Or, there might also be ears of other mercenaries who died in combat. But even so, the amount of ears Ear Ghost collected in one year was tremendous.
That also struck Li Zi-song as quite peculiar.
Two silver coins per ear. So that's one tael of silver for five ears. Two thousand eight hundred and sixteen ears would be five hundred and sixty-three taels and two silver coins with one coin left over.
This was a fortune of over twenty two kilograms of silver. With this amount, an ordinary commoner could live comfortably for several generations. But why was Kang Dal-hui, who had already built up a record worthy of being classified as top-grade?
'Why is he still doing mercenary work?'
'Was it for money?'
Since he cut off about a hundred ears each time he went out, the profit would be better than escort missions for decent high-class Wanderers. However, it didn't feel right to simply dismiss it as that.
Li Zi-song gently stroked his sword hilt with his hand, then soon stopped pondering.
"Bring him."
"Pardon?"
"Bring that fellow called Kang Dal-hui, Ear Ghost, before me. I need to see for myself whether he's worthy of being made mercenary captain or not."
Only then did the adjutant understand what he meant and answered while striking his left chest with his right fist. The thump! sound was quite loud—the adjutant looked loyal in proportion to his ignorance.
"Sir!"
The adjutant left the command office.
Left alone, Li Zi-song leaned back and continued smacking his lips, thinking about something.
***
At that moment, Dong Bong-su had left his wooden house and was walking through Datong's entertainment district.
"Come on, come play. The goods are fresh today."
"Young master with the covered eyes over there! Come play for a bit Just show me your eyes. I'll lick your eyeballs nice and pretty~"
"Ahaha!"
"Handsome fellow. Have a drink before you go. The finest liquor from Nanjing arrived today!"
Should it be said to truly live up to its reputation as a decadent city?
The afternoon in Datong's central district was distinctly different from that of other cities. From broad daylight, courtesans from red houses and blue houses were openly soliciting customers, and taverns were already full of Wanderers who were thoroughly drunk.
Courtesans and tavern touts competed to seduce Dong Bong-su. Perhaps because most of them were retired courtesans much older than him, Dong Bong-su showed no interest and simply passed by them, continuing forward.
He could hear them calling him a eunuch bastard and castrated servant from behind, but Dong Bong-su paid no attention and went his own way.
Past the taverns appeared a commercial district densely packed with fabric shops, weapon shops, and leather workshops. True to a city of Wanderers, most of the items handled were weapons or armor. Even the fabric shops were fabric shops in name only, as most of what they sold were auxiliary equipment not made of iron or leather, such as armor paper, cotton armor, and battle hats.
Dong Bong-su didn't glance at any other place and entered a weapon shop with an old signboard that read Eight Directions Armory.
The interior was as worn as the signboard, but the weapons displayed inside looked quite excellent, their blades sharply honed. On one wall hung weapons like swords and spears, while on the other side, armor such as iron and bronze mail were displayed on shelves. And opposite the entrance Dong Bong-su had just entered was another entrance that looked identical, from which the sound of hammering could be heard loudly—it must be the owner's workshop.
Clang! Clang!
The sound of striking metal was noisy.
Dong Bong-su entered the forge without much hesitation.
The blacksmith who appeared to be the owner didn't notice a customer had arrived and was still hammering away at metal. Dong Bong-su didn't disturb him and quietly went to stand behind the blacksmith.
Having hammered so diligently and for so long, the blacksmith's entire body was heated bright red and sweat poured down like rain.
His hair was so long and shaggy that one couldn't tell when he'd last cut it, and his beard had grown out messily as well. It wasn't just dirty—it was unkempt to the point of being unsightly. Moreover, though it didn't show well due to his bright red heated skin, his body was also blotchy as if he hadn't washed in a very long time. Naturally, the body odor emanating from him was at a serious level.
However, Dong Bong-su paid no attention and continued to quietly watch his hammering.
Clang! Clang!
What could he be making to be hammering so enthusiastically to this extent?
In fact, at a glance, it looked as if his work was already finished. In front of the blacksmith stood an iron statue almost as tall as Dong Bong-su—no, exactly the same height. It was so exquisitely crafted that if one encountered it on the street at night, anyone would think it was a person.
But why was the blacksmith continuing to bring down his hammer on the finished iron statue with a chisel?
Clang! Clang!
The hollow metallic ringing sound, as if the inside of the iron statue was empty, echoed incessantly throughout the workshop. Tendons bulged prominently on the blacksmith's red arms. That forceful hammer was transmitted through the chisel to the iron statue. But not a single scratch appeared on the iron statue.
One hour had passed since Dong Bong-su appeared here.
During that time, there had been thousands of hammer strikes, but the iron statue remained the same.
Two hours later.
During that time, two chisels had broken, but the iron statue was still unchanged.
Three hours had passed since Dong Bong-su arrived here.
The clang clang sound of the blacksmith's hammering was still rhythmic, but the iron statue maintained its afternoon appearance, and only the day had grown dark.
Dong Bong-su also remained unchanged from his appearance when he arrived here in the afternoon. Only his shadow had faded as the sun set.
"I'll come back next time."
When the moon gently rose and gradually expanded its domain, Dong Bong-su opened his lips for the first time since arriving here.
Clang! Clang!
The blacksmith's answer was still only the sound of hammering.
Dong Bong-su turned his body and left the Eight Directions Armory. The regular sound of his step-stepping footsteps mixed into the hammering sound that was as steady as his footsteps.
The blacksmith's hands still didn't stop.
Probably when he came next time, that beard and hair would be much longer and dirtier. Perhaps....
That iron statue's height might also be shorter....
Dong Bong-su slowly retraced his path. And only then did the warning sound from Spirit Eyes that had been making his head noisy cease. At that moment, the distance between him and the Eight Directions Armory was exactly 20 meters. No, more precisely, the distance between him and the blacksmith was exactly that much.
21, 22, 23....
The distance between Dong Bong-su and the Eight Directions Armory grew farther, and just as Spirit Eyes had ceased, Dong Bong-su also disappeared from view at this distance.