As Prophet - Chapter 18



Only Krnovel

Episode 18. I’m going to the mountain

Do you think he’ll be used as an unmanned escort? Why would he want to take you with him to Hanyang? If not, you shouldn’t go there.

“No. I came down because I thought that if you live only in the mountains, you might lack social skills and become narrow-minded, so I told you to learn by mixing with people. It’s only been two years, but I have to go back to the mountains.”

This was the expected answer. Baek I-jeong did not back down, but simply stopped the discussion.

“Anyway, we need to ask for it separately and discuss it. Your father and uncle will also ask for it. I am just asking you to think carefully about it because there will be such a request in the future.

The politics of Hanyang are very complicated and difficult. It is not easy for an official to settle down properly because there are frequent fights between factions. It will be a difficult time for my father, who has just turned 40, to handle. Therefore, there are opinions in the family that it would be better for him to move around as a local official.

Without a clear foundation and no one to support you, if you are left alone with the credit for this work, it will not be long before you fall from your horse. Despite your past achievements, the reason you have not been able to go to Seoul is because there are people who do not like it.

If I think about it again, I think this time I might be going to Hanyang-haeng Yongdamhohyeol. I have great concerns. He is someone who is not trustworthy at all, but if someone like Musa is by his side, I don’t think there will be much trouble. I will ask again, so please don’t say no again.”

After finishing speaking, Baek Yi-jeong bowed his head deeply. Dal-cheon turned his head and looked up at the dark sky without saying a word.

“You must be tired. Please rest. I said something unnecessary while you were resting.”

Sibi brought warm water in a basin, and Dalcheon washed his hands and feet and ran into the room. He closed his eyes and fell asleep before the small noise of them packing up their weapons disappeared.

* * *

A few days passed, but the routine did not return. After the battle, more work was needed. Almost all of the Jeongyeok were mobilized to collect the weapons and armor issued, make a list, repair them, and store them in the armory.

They helped with the funerals of the deceased, comforted the bereaved families, and delivered the awards from Hanyang. The elders of the county came up with the idea of ​​making a monument with their names. They found someone who was good at writing and wrote a sentence to comfort them for their hard work, and then they found someone who was good at writing and wrote the letters in the same size as the actual ones. They hurried the work, but it took more than two weeks to hand over the letters to the stonemason.

Jeong Gwang-pil, who was investigating the results of the suppression, stopped by the county to hear detailed news of the battle and wrote it down. He was called in there and questioned for quite a long time, and it took more than two days to tell us about the battle before and after. He asked very specific questions, but the battle as a whole did not enter our perception, and we could not see who did what. Since he was an investigator of merits and demerits, he mainly wrote about who did what, but he could not remember the names of the people. Although there was courtesy for those who had merits, he was still an important person in Hanyang, so he could not express his discomfort.

‘Why did Udo’s troops suddenly come at that time? And is it true that Yudamnyeon Gong led them?’ It was really difficult to answer questions like these.

‘Which unit rushed in first when the gates opened?’ I don’t remember. I had the friendly forces rush in, and they came in waves. How can I distinguish each of those waves?

Since everyone else pointed to Dalcheon as the one to answer, Dalcheon had to stay by his side and help him answer for the entire two days he stayed.

As spring grew lush, flowers bloomed in the mountains and rivers. While I was spending my busy and fruitless time, I heard the news of the county magistrate’s resignation. I don’t know who said it or how they knew it, but they said that he was riding quite high on the train to Hanyang.

When you ride a horse and take a leisurely stroll, your thoughts will flow very well. Dalcheon took out his horse and went far into the mountains and fields. He went past the rice paddy path and up the embankment of the riverside to find a place where there were no people. He went to a place where green grass was spread out like a carpet and where the nameless wild grasses showed their small faces in various colors.

Since he did not listen to Baek Yi-jeong’s words lightly, he told Baek Ui-hyeong in advance. He firmly stated that he would not go to Hanyang and that he would return to the mountains on this occasion. Baek Ui-hyeong, who was hundreds of times busier than Dalcheon, was half-hearted in listening, but he made it clear on two occasions that he would absolutely not go.

“What are you going to do in the mountains?”

“I have to study.”

“Isn’t it already finished?”

“As long as you don’t cross the line, it’s where it is.”

“The realm… … ahem. Hasn’t that already been surpassed?”

Dalcheon swallowed hard. He was less educated than me, but death is death. He had a keen eye, and he was particularly skilled at judging people’s levels. He had to explain something that was beyond his realm.

“Once passed, it is nothing.”

“Oh, that’s true. I was hoping it would happen, but it’s already passed. So is it what you call a flower mirror?”

“What do you mean by ‘Hwagyeong’? That’s nonsense. Should I say that the five energies do not oppose each other?”

“Oh, oh, it’s the Five Spirits Morning. It’s true.”

For some reason, they try to express the realm with words they learned from the book of the Central Plains. It is not necessarily wrong, but it is just a standard distinguished by the overly schematic tradition of the Central Plains Taoism. It is expressed as if the Im-Dok-Yang-Maek suddenly burst one day, but that does not happen. If it is blocked, people cannot live, but die. However, I do not intend to agree with the explanation method of the Central Plains, which speaks as if something that was blocked burst.

This is because the tradition of Seondo (仙道) was not passed down to Joseon, but perhaps we should blame our ancestors who did not divide it schematically long ago. Our ancestors wanted to understand it as a round whole, and did not divide the study into steps like stairs. So they brought in a diagram from China that is easy to understand and ask, but it does not fit. The diagram was created by ordinary people who have never gone beyond that realm. What use would the previous steps be to someone who has already transcended? And the most important thing is that they did not proceed in that order.

“Our studies cannot be divided like that.”

In a way, it was not something that could be said to a death row inmate. It was because it seemed to firmly state that your distinction was wrong and that studying could not be divided like that.

“That’s right. What would I know? Even though he was a fellow disciple, he studied superficially and then left. His studies weren’t enough, and he had no talent, so his achievements were lacking. He may be seen as a good person among the general public after leaving the mountain, but from the perspective of the mountain people, he was a poor warrior.”

“That’s not what I meant.”

“I know. I know you have a humble and impartial outlook.”

“I wanted to tell you that my studies are not over. I am not trying to tell you that studying is an unattainable goal that you have to continue endlessly like some people. As you know, our studies are ultimately about reaching the immortal.”

“Yes, it’s the ridge line.”

“You poke holes in bamboo with a hot iron skewer. You have to use your strength to move forward and hit a node. Once you get over that node, you can move forward again, but you will get stuck at another node. It may be a goal that you can only achieve after passing through several nodes. I have only just passed one node. I have to study more. My teacher told me to come down the mountain and learn about the world because he thought I had to solve the difficulties that I faced because my thinking was limited.”

“Another bamboo joint, this world?”

“It had its own meaning.”

The answer came in the past tense, so Baek Ui-hyeong’s expression became uncomfortable. It was because he was afraid that he might be persuaded while trying to persuade. In such a case, it is better to appeal to the difficulties of the situation. Dal-cheon drew the line first when he was about to talk about Hanyang’s difficulties.

“They say there are many swordsmen in Hanyang, but none of them can surpass Bijang Nari. Their studies are focused on swinging swords and harming people. There is no way that such people can withstand the swordsmanship of a master. Your Majesty can do it.”

“What about you? It seems like you haven’t finished studying the world yet. If you go to Hanyang, don’t you think you’ll be able to study more on a bigger scale?”

“To be honest, I think studying the world means seeing the bad causes and effects of the world and being disappointed. What can we learn from the world? I think it’s about how to adjust conflicts of interest so that we can coexist without fighting each other.

If you turn everything into interests, the beauty of human society can be emasculated, but what I saw and heard when I came here was really too many bad things. It was a time when I had a hard time figuring out how my imagination should be structured, but in the end, I ended up admitting it. Same. So I decided to go back to the mountains and study and do it.”

Although he tried to persuade him to take Dalcheon, Baek Ui-hyeong’s words were not convincing. During the two years he spent here, he studied hard on his own and connected his worldly experiences to his studies. Although he was still a young boy of 15, he occasionally saw something similar to the infinite gaze in the eyes of a great monk.

“It’s really hard to persuade you.”

“sorry.”

As I nodded on the horse while walking slowly, the world seemed to recede into the distance. The faces of the people who had been trying to persuade me with various reasons passed by quickly.

‘Am I an unmanned person like the death penalty? Should I walk the unmanned path?’

He shook his head. In Joseon society, the military are treated as the servants of the civil officials. No matter what role they are recognized as, they are bound to be tools of the civil officials. Furthermore, if they are too strong, they cannot live a proper life because of the king’s restraint. They fear the military. They understand them as people with the potential to overthrow the royal family. A life with such people cannot be beautiful, and in the end, it is only a temporary expedient that must be left again.

* * *

Dalcheon, who had gone all the way to the distant border of Hyeon and returned, entered Bijangcheong. Baek Ui-hyeong was looking at the documents containing the details of the lost weapons with a troubled face. It seemed that he was preparing the Hae-yu* documents.

* Haeyu: A legal procedure for handing over power between predecessor and successor when replacing an official during the Joseon Dynasty.

The predecessor created a Haeyu Igwan (解由移關) containing the transfer of accounting and goods, etc. for the successor, and the successor wrote a Haeyu Cheopjeong (解由牒呈. Handover Report) based on this.

The records of the Haeyu document are very detailed. There are nearly 400 items of property and 300 types of weapons. There are countless items of property investigation such as irons, baby meat, and military rations.

The problem is that many of the items I received from my predecessor were lost in this battle. While there is a sufficiently understandable explanation, it could be seen as negligence to not repair what was broken. I must not be held back from boarding and going to Hanyang.

“You look like you have a headache?”

“Let’s talk about you next time! My head feels like it’s going to explode.”

“I think it would be better to just leave it as is and report the current status. If it needs to be repaired, why not write it down as ‘repair required’ and upload it?”

“But I have no intention of allowing you to return to the mountains as if you had finished your studies.”

“Oh my.”

Dalcheon spun around, letting out a dumbfounded exclamation. The military officers who were wrapping their heads around similar documents burst into laughter.