Chapter 345
The Youngest Son of the Eunhae Trading Company Chapter 345
Chapter 345. Things Gone Astray (8)
I greeted Master Jin.
“What brings you here, Master?”
Even though Hunan is an important region, it is quite far away, so I didn't think they would send someone like Master Jin...
“His Majesty summoned me personally. He seems concerned that you are here.”
“Ah...”
At those words, I couldn't help but groan.
“You are in my hands. So don't even think about escaping. Unless you want to die while working in the imperial palace.”
I could almost hear the emperor's voice.
Ugh... That's creepy.
The Hunan Province official standing next to him looked confused, wondering what Master Jin Young meant.
However, explaining it would be complicated and long, not to mention embarrassing, so I didn't answer his question.
“Thank you for coming all this way, Master.”
As if sensing my intention to get to the point, Master Jin-yeong nodded and opened his mouth.
“Minister of Justice. I have brought the emperor's letter.”
At his words, the Minister of Justice and I immediately knelt down and bowed.
Master Jin-yeong took out the red silk scroll he had carefully tucked away and unfolded it.
He read the sacred letter, which said that he was pleased with our work and that he had sent the sacred letter to the military commander and the inspector general, asking them to cooperate in resolving the matter.
After reading the entire letter, Master Jin-yeong rolled it up and handed it to Po-jeongsa.
“We humbly accept His Majesty's sacred letter.”
He received the letter with both hands, bowed again, and stood up.
We also stood up.
I thought I knew why Master Jin-yeong had come in person. He had to coordinate between the military commander and the inspector general, who was in charge of the prison.
“The military commander has sent soldiers, and they are waiting nearby.”
The chief minister replied, “I see.”
“Actually, I don't know much about this. Eun So-dan handled it at my request. It would be better if you consulted with Eun So-dan rather than me.”
“Is that so?”
Master Jin Young looked at me with a look of satisfaction.
Oh no!
I must be careful. That look in his eyes means, “How can I make him join the Royal Guards?”
.
.
.
Two hours later.
The Hunan troops waiting nearby advanced toward Seo-unpa.
The commander of the troops was the Dao Commander of Hunan Province.
It was an important matter, so the second-in-command of the Hunan military had come out himself.
He arrived at Seounpa and shouted loudly.
“Listen, rebels! Surrender now! Otherwise, you will all die!”
* * *
At that moment.
The refugees in Seounpa began to feel uneasy when they heard the voices outside.
“What's that noise?”
“Look outside, soldiers are surrounding the place!”
“Why here?”
“What are these rebels?”
It was natural for them to be confused.
Seo-unpa had given them shelter and food when they had nowhere to go due to a famine.
And now they were being called rebels!
“Damn it! How can you call such good people rebels?”
“The country has gone completely mad!”
“We can't just stand by! We have to clear up this misunderstanding, if only to repay them for feeding and sheltering us all this time!”
“Yes! That's right!”
Thus, a mood formed among the refugees to stop the soldiers, and the man who had just spoken to clear up the misunderstanding smiled smugly.
“Fools.”
He had said that so they would use the refugees he had fed and sheltered as a shield.
“They're so kind, they'll just be used by us. Huh huh.”
In fact, there was a reason why they gathered the refugees.
They planned to use them to start a large-scale civil uprising, but somehow the empire got there first.
“If only we had a few more months! Damn it!”
There were about 800 refugees and 200 gatekeepers.
However, the number of soldiers surrounding them reached thousands.
In this situation, in order to survive, they had to put the refugees they had gathered in front of them as human shields.
That way, they would be able to create an opening to escape.
“Let's go!”
“Let's do it!”
“I'm going too!”
Just as the refugees were about to move,
“Wait a minute. Something's not right.”
Someone among the refugees spoke up.
He was a simple man who resembled a bear, but his words caught their attention.
Although they had never seen him before, he seemed familiar, as if they had known him for a long time.
“What do you mean?”
“It's something I've been wondering about for a long time. How many of us are there?”
“With you and the Daoists, there are about a thousand of us, right?”
“Then how many bags of rice do we eat a day? And how many months have we been staying here?”
Hearing this, the refugees realized how much food they had been given.
“I may be a farmer and not very educated, but there is one thing I know. Nothing in this world is free.”
Hearing this, the others nodded in agreement.
It was a simple but clear truth that they sometimes forgot.
“And where did all that food come from? We're in the middle of a famine, and people are starving to death.”
Only then did they sense something was wrong and began to murmur.
“That's why I was worried. What do they want from us, feeding us and putting us up? Now that the soldiers have surrounded us, I think I know what they're after.”
He continued.
“They were planning to use us to start a rebellion. They were going to use us as cannon fodder.”
“What?”
“A rebellion?”
“We had no such intention...”
He responded firmly to their words.
“Even if you don't intend to, if you continue to hear complaints about the country, it is human nature to be swayed.”
“...”
Then someone spoke up.
“Even so, they have fed us and clothed us until now. We must repay their kindness!”
“That's right.”
“Will the famine last for more than a hundred years? The famine will soon end, and the days when we can live comfortably will come... Don't you think about your wives and children who are here with you right now?”
Before they knew it, everyone's eyes were on him.
“If you side with the rebels, you will become rebels yourselves. Do you think the soldiers will just let the rebels go?”
He continued, sniffling.
“Don't you have to save your wives and children?”
When he mentioned their wives and children, the hearts of the refugees were drawn to his bear-like words.
And the tide had already turned.
Panicked, the martial artist from the Seo-Yun-Pa faction shouted without thinking.
“Damn it! What did we feed you for? Now you're doing this to us! You can't do this...”
“...”
He quickly covered his mouth, but it was too late. Everyone had already heard him.
“What? What do you mean?”
“So you brought us here and fed us for a reason?”
“He's right, isn't he?”
“Oh... Damn it!”
As the crowd grew restless, he took out the dagger he had hidden and shouted.
“You useless pieces of trash!”
He quickly grabbed the child next to him, held the dagger to his throat, and said.
“Get out of here! Whether we plead our innocence or attack them, it doesn't matter! If you don't want to see this child die!”
The sudden hostage situation caused the child's parents and those around them to panic.
Shhhhh!
Bang!
At that moment, a hidden weapon flew and struck his shoulder.
“Ugh!”
Unable to withstand the pain, he dropped the dagger, and someone flew in and subdued him.
“It's a good thing I taught Pil how to throw hidden weapons.”
“Well done, sir.”
At that moment, someone covered in old cloth appeared.
He was a handsome young man who caught everyone's attention.
It was Eun Seo-ho.
* * *
The refugees looked at me with astonished eyes.
I looked around at them and said,
“Actually, we are sent by His Majesty the Emperor. His Majesty knows that you are innocent. As the father of all the people of the empire, His Majesty wants to give you a chance to save your lives.”
The thing that weighed most heavily on my mind as I dealt with this matter was the refugees.
Honestly, what crime had they committed?
Last time, they were punished for causing a rebellion, but this time, they were merely being used.
The punishment should be given to the Seo-un faction who used them.
That is why Pal-gap, my guards, and I infiltrated this place.
I continued.
“Line up and follow my attendant. We must leave this place quickly.”
At my words, they moved in unison, following Pal-gap.
But
“Where are you going?”
“You can't go like this! You have to pay back everything you took from us with your lives!”
The Seo-un faction's warriors appeared, wielding weapons, and blocked the refugees.
Of course, these guys wouldn't let us go so easily.
Swoosh
I drew my sword. I had anticipated this situation, so I didn't just send my bodyguards, but brought all my escort warriors with me.
“Everyone, get out of here!”
Chang!
Cha-chang!
While we blocked their attacks, the refugees hurriedly moved away.
And
“Hey! How dare you try to escape? Did you think you could get away by mixing in with the refugees?”
“Damn it!”
We also dealt with those who were pretending to be refugees.
While we were buying time, all the refugees managed to escape.
“All troops! Attack!”
“Waaah!”
Soon, with a loud roar, the soldiers rushed into the Seounpa compound. Of course, we were safe because we had our friendly identification marks.
They began to capture the Seounpa warriors indiscriminately.
“Let's leave this to them and go.”
“Yes!”
We moved immediately.
This was because we had to capture the most important person in order to resolve this matter.
That was the Sect Leader of Seo-unpa.
However, we hesitated for a moment.
We realized that we did not know the identity of the Sect Leader.
Should we look for the strongest martial artist?
However, the Sect Leader was not necessarily the strongest martial artist. Especially in a place like this, he could have become the Sect Leader because of his loyalty to the Martial Alliance.
That was when it happened.
“Kui!”
Geum-ryung tugged at my sleeve. At the same time, I sensed a familiar energy in the sky.
It was the energy of the bird that had delivered the letter earlier. And this time, it was Geum-ryung's subordinate.
The bird flew toward me at lightning speed, circled twice above me, and then flew off somewhere.
Was it telling me to follow it?
I used my movement arts to follow the bird.
There...
“Damn it! We have to run! I told you I didn't want to do this!”
There was a man busily gathering money. That bird had just told him where the Sect Leader was.
I saw Lee Pil-mu and he threw his hidden weapon at the man.
Shhh!
Bang!
“Ugh!”
He screamed and looked back at us. Then he shouted with a terrified look on his face.
“I don't know anything! I just did what I was told!”
“Yes, that's what I want to know. Just tell me what they told you to do.”
.
.
.
That was the end of the Seo-un-pa.
The sect leader and other key figures of the Seo-un-pa were captured and imprisoned in a temporary prison set up in the Seungjeongsa.
They were subjected to bloody interrogations.
“So... the one who ordered me to do that was a man named Ham Song.”
“Ham Song? Who the hell is he?”
“I don't know much about him. I just heard that he has a position in the Martial Alliance.”
He mentioned the Martial Alliance.
But this was not enough to take action against the Martial Alliance.
They would either play dumb or cut off the trail again.
But I couldn't let this go on.
I was satisfied that the story had come up in front of the Chief Justice. This would cause the Chief Justice to lose his trust in the Martial Alliance. That alone was a big win.
* * *
That evening.
I headed for the residence of the fourth Mister. I had requested a meeting with him.
“Please come in.”
“Thank you for agreeing to see me on such short notice.”
“Not at all. By the way, what is it you wanted to see me about?”
He looked a little disappointed. No wonder, since his servant was a spy.
However, that was not why I had come.
“Mister.”
“Yes.”
“Do you have feelings for Miss Jaryeong?”
“Guh! Cough! Cough!”
He spit out his tea. His face turned red in an instant.
This confirmed my suspicions.
Miss Ja-ryung and my third son, Yeon-myeong-hyun, were engaged, but in fact, the gentleman in front of me, Yeon-sae-mun, also loved Miss Ja-ryung.
Meanwhile, he found out that his brother was thinking about a gift for Miss Ja-ryung, so Yeon-sae-mun asked his attendant to get some tea.
He didn't know that the tea was poisoned.
It was a misguided love.
I drank the tea and swallowed the bitterness.
Thus, this matter was temporarily resolved.
But the real problem was something else entirely.