Chapter 25: Chapter 25
Even at Yang Goeng’s meaningful proposal, Jang Geon did not react much.
Instead, leaning back against the chair’s backrest, he tapped his fingers on the table with a tok-tok sound, looking at Yang Goeng with calm, untroubled eyes. Yang Goeng, who had brought up the topic with a reasonably relaxed smile, gradually stiffened his expression under that gaze that remained silent for a long while.
He eventually pulled his leaning body back slightly and lifted his cup to drink. Then, puffing out the hot alcohol heat with a phew, he spoke.
“Say whether you like it or dislike it. It’s embarrassing for me who brought up the topic.”
Jang Geon looked at his embarrassed expression and asked.
“What kind of job?”
“Ahem. A job with both money and justification.”
“Explain what kind of job it is, you scammer bastard.”
However, Yang Goeng did not fall for it easily.
“This is a job you cannot easily pull out of once you hear the explanation. So I must hear a definite answer first.”
Jang Geon chuckled softly.
“Can you stop me if I pull out?”
Yang Goeng slowly shook his head.
“This job is quite a big affair. Besides Brother Jang, there are already three others. They are fellows with decent skills, so even Brother Jang would not be able to fight all three at the same time.”
“Already three, plus you makes four. But why am I needed there?”
Yang Goeng smirked and thought to himself. Naturally, it was to uncover the true identity of that martial art of unknown origin, which even the Martial Alliance Patrol was wary of and suspected of being secret Imperial Army. However, it was also true that a trustworthy martial artist was needed.
“Didn’t I already tell you? Because a trustworthy swordsman is needed. I’ve only seen you draw your sword once in Amjugol, and other than that I’ve only seen you use fists, but even that was enough. If I can’t trust Brother Jang’s skills, what martial artist could I trust? It’s better to bring in one reliable expert than gather three or four riffraff.”
Jang Geon quietly stared at Yang Goeng, who was passionately explaining. What kind of scheme was this gambling scammer cooking up this time?
“Explain it first.”
“Ah, are you doing it?”
“I’ll do it if it sounds decent after listening.”
Yang Goeng smirked at Jang Geon, who was not easily swayed, and refilled the cup again. Downed the filled cup in a single gulp, he leaned forward again like before and spoke.
“Good. There’s no point in weighing it further. This isn’t a story to blabber about in a place with so many people. Let’s go up to the room and talk quietly.”
Jang Geon followed Yang Goeng, who picked up the liquor bottle and stood up, intending to listen first. Standing up, Yang Goeng first approached the female innkeeper.
“Is the special room vacant?”
The female innkeeper handed over a room key without a word. Yang Goeng accepted it with that same relaxed smile and led the way up the stairs. After climbing the stairs and entering the 3rd floor special room, Yang Goeng casually took off his bamboo hat and outer robe, tossed them onto the bed, and set the liquor bottle down on the table in the center of the room.
Then, sitting down on a chair, he spoke to Jang Geon.
“Now then, what should I explain first?”
Jang Geon chuckled softly at those exaggerated actions meant to maintain his momentum somehow. Seeing actions that were plainly obvious, he seemed to be quite nervous. If he was showing it intentionally like that, he was no ordinary fellow.
Jang Geon sat down across from him.
“Everything.”
“Everything? All of it? Then the story will get a bit long?”
“Work without knowing the context? Then forget it.”
Yang Goeng smirked.
“Heh. Who said they wouldn’t do it? I will calmly tell you everything one by one.”
Jang Geon nodded as if telling him to try, lifted the liquor bottle on the table, took a sip, and set it down. Seeing that, Yang Goeng gently wetted his lips with saliva and spoke.
“First, the target is a transport carriage. A transport carriage filled with gold and silver coins.”
Jang Geon’s eyes instantly knit together.
“A transport carriage? The Merchant Guild’s transport carriage?”
“Ehey. Hear me out a bit more before getting angry. I know full well that raiding carriages is something evil practitioners do. But while this is headed to the Merchant Guild in Gamsan City, it is not the Merchant Guild’s transport carriage. To be precise, it is the personal property of Son Gwang of the Guild. Do you know Son Gwang?”
Jang Geon’s knit eyebrows did not unpleat. He urged an explanation with his eyes.
“Ahem. Son Gwang is one of the five Guild Leaders of the Gamsan Merchant Guild. They say he’s from a collateral branch of the Jiangnan Son Clan, but there’s no need to explain that. At any rate, Son Gwang, as fits a Guild Leader, possesses an enormous fortune. And most of that fortune is in this area. Remember what I said earlier? In this area, there are few villages, mostly ranches, and only one mine.”
He asked back, then startled slightly at Jang Geon’s sunken gaze and opened his mouth again.
“Almost all of those ranches are that gentleman’s, and the mine where gold comes out in small amounts is also that gentleman’s. Meaning Son Gwang himself is in Gamsan City while controlling this region with money. It’s probably been over ten years since he last visited here himself. It’s ridiculous. The very person exploiting this region has no great interest in this land himself. Ah, is the Empire the same?”
Yang Goeng lifted the liquor bottle Jang Geon had set down, moistened his throat, and continued speaking.
“The one practically managing those ranches and mine is a bastard named Seo Wi-ryang, appointed by Son Gwang. And that bastard has recently been acquiring all the ranches to monopolize all the grasslands and river water in this area. Using any means necessary. There are a dozen commoners who lost their ranches and houses to that bastard and his crew, and even people who burned to death in burning houses.”
“What about the Martial Alliance?”
At Jang Geon’s question, Yang Goeng let out a psha sound like air leaking and laughed.
“The Martial Alliance Branch Head? He was the first to fall to Seo Wi-ryang. And didn’t I already tell you? Gamsan Guild Leader Son Gwang is that bastard’s backer. Unless it’s an exceptionally high position in the Martial Alliance, they can’t mess with him recklessly. A patrol officer level would probably end up buried instead.”
“And we mess with such a fellow?”
Yang Goeng was silent for a moment at Jang Geon’s words. However, the relaxed smile hanging at the corners of his lips slowly changed. Not to relaxation, but to danger. With bloodlust mixed with excitement and anger.
“Who cares? We’ll cover our faces with cowls anyway so they won’t recognize us. And… the transport carriage Seo Wi-ryang sends secretly sends the ranch income and gold from the gold mine to Son Gwang in Gamsan City once every quarter. That gold and silver becomes the funding for Son Gwang’s political battles in Gamsan. What do you think happens if that funding is cut off?”
Clenching both fists tight and holding them up, he spoke.
“A merchant’s battle ends when funds dry up. Let alone a Guild Leader at the pinnacle of New Continent merchants. Son Gwang, who will lose his mind over attacks from other Guild Leaders, won’t even be able to think of searching for us. Perhaps he’ll even fall from power. We just need to hide in the alley where the transport carriage passes, wait, raid it, grab the money, and flee.”
His tightly clenched fists slowly opened, as if holding something invisible.
“Do you understand my words that there is both money and justification? The bastards escorting the carriage are all motherfuckers. Scum who threaten, beat, and burn down the houses of ranchers living normally, driving them out while paying less than a fraction of their original value. Fellows who need no mercy and can simply be killed or have the tendons of their four limbs severed. What about the gold and silver inside? From what I know, the cattle traded in this area alone this autumn number in the hundreds. Even among the five of us, we won’t be able to carry all the silver coins and will have to discard some.”
Jang Geon looked at Yang Goeng while tapping the table with his finger. Yang Goeng, as if finished explaining, shut his mouth, crossed his arms with that same dangerous smile, and met that gaze.
“I didn’t know you were a fellow who cared about justification.”
“Brother Jang. To pull off a truly big job and earn money, one must observe a certain line. There must at least be a justification like raiding the fortune of a malicious merchant for fame to be created. If you just raid anyone, what else is that but evil practitioners and a bandit gang.”
Jang Geon fell into thought for a moment. When he first met Yang Goeng, it was when he stayed for a while in a village called Amjugol. That place also had many ranches like here, and since they were all ranches of similar size, fights between cowhands were frequent.
As those fights grew severe and many cowhands were injured, the ranch owners hired bare-fist fighters to resolve matters with a brawl whenever trouble arose. Passing by wondering if there was any work to earn money, Jang Geon took the job as a fighter and won all thirteen fights.
It was a town he had lived well in until, toward the end, his money was cleaned out through gambling by this fellow Yang Goeng and a few cowhands, and an incident occurred where he killed a swordsman hired by an opposing ranch, forcing him to leave.
And Yang Goeng had looked like an idle fellow who did nothing but turn dominoes or drink alcohol in that town, yet he was a mysterious fellow from whom money continuously flowed out somewhere. Jang Geon thought it was money scammed through dominoes somewhere, just as he had done to him. Since he was a fellow who claimed to have paid a Martial Alliance bounty. But seeing him now, he seemed to be a fellow more dangerous than a scammer.
Finishing his thoughts, Jang Geon looked at Yang Goeng and spoke.
“Where did you obtain such information?”
“Haha. Brother Jang, are you trying to dig up my informant now? That is my lifeline. I could not tell you even if a blade were at my neck.”
Jang Geon, who considered whether to actually thrust a blade at his neck, simply chuckled softly.
“It’s a job where one can earn money and strike a blow against a malicious merchant. A plausible job. But there is a bit of a problem.”
“A problem? What is it?”
Jang Geon stopped his finger that was tapping the table and spoke quietly.
“Whether I can trust you.”
Yang Goeng did not answer immediately. Sitting just as he was with crossed arms, he erased the smile at the corners of his mouth, and only after sinking his eyes did he speak.
“Do not trust me.”
Looking at Jang Geon’s eyebrows slightly raising, he continued speaking.
“Honestly, where would trust exist in a job like this? I will not completely trust Brother Jang or the three people I have already gathered either. Though I spoke of justification like some chivalrous outlaw, in the end, what I want is money. That vast amount of money coming from the gold mine and cattle trade. That money maintaining Son Gwang’s position as Gamsan Merchant Guild Leader. Don’t you need money, Brother Jang?”
“Having lots of money is good.”
At Jang Geon’s answer, Yang Goeng smirked again.
“Whatever you do with that money is up to Brother Jang. You can go to New Sichuan or Heavenly Empress City and indulge in wine and women for several months, or like a true chivalrous outlaw, help homeless commoners. Or use it for gambling. If you use all that money on gambling, you’ll at least be able to understand the flow of how gambling tables turn.”
Jang Geon stared quietly at that face, then smiled subtly himself and spoke.
“Since we do not trust each other, there will conversely be no betrayal?”
“Heheh. Something like that. So, will you do it?”
Jang Geon’s smile deepened.
“Playing Hong Gildong, is it. Sounds amusing.”
Jang Geon raised the hand tapping the table and extended it toward Yang Goeng. Yang Goeng understood the meaning and clasped hands with him. Harboring their respective schemes, the two clasped hands in that manner.
* * *
The two left the village the next day. Yang Goeng led the way, riding his horse. The transport carriage was set to depart tomorrow, and the other three people were said to have gone ahead to wait along the path the carriage would take.
Yang Goeng’s explanation was that riding all day today to reach the ambush location, sleeping for the night, and starting the job the moment the transport carriage passed by tomorrow daytime was the plan. After riding for a long while, when they slowed down slightly to let the horses rest, Jang Geon spoke.
“Explain a bit about the other three people.”
“Those guys? Uh, the Gong brothers and a fellow named Geom Jung-chan.”
Yang Goeng slowly rode his horse while continuing to speak.
“The Gong brothers are Gong Pyeong and Gong Rang, brothers who can use swords a bit. Gong Pyeong is the older brother, Gong Rang is the younger brother. And Geom Jung-chan is a fellow pulled in because he knows how to use a bow.”
“A bow?”
“That’s right. That fellow possesses a horn bow made of New Continent bison horn, and when he shoots that from a distance, it’s unusually terrifying.”
“If it’s a horn bow, it shouldn’t be ordinarily expensive.”
At those words, Yang Goeng chuckled softly.
“Indeed. Added to that, he throws all sorts of fits to maintain it. That fellow’s entire fortune is probably that bow. So don’t ask to touch it or shoot it for no reason.”
Except for stopping to rest a few times along the way, the two steadily maintained a southwesterly direction and rode. Thus, at a time when the sun had slightly passed noon, they were able to arrive at their destination.
That place was terrain where large, red rocky mountains sprouted up abruptly in a plain without large curves. Yang Goeng slowly approached one of those rocky mountains. Thereupon, a rough voice sounded from above.
“Yang Goeng? Who’s that beside you!”
“Who else! Our last swordsman!”
At Yang Goeng’s answer, three heads popped up from atop the rock. Three lying people stood up. Two rough, heavy-set figures and one fairly handsome man.
The two heavy-set figures resembled each other, while the handsome one seemed to have no particular expression.
One of the heavy-set figures shouted.
“Damn it, Yang Goeng! I told you we were enough by ourselves!”
“Cut the crap, Gong Pyeong! I devised the plan! If you’re dissatisfied, get lost first!”
“What? Yang Goeng! Fuck, you wanna go!”
“Go or not, this is a job I started! If you’re dissatisfied, you should leave!”
Hearing Yang Goeng’s answer, the heavy-set fellow cursed to himself some more and vanished from atop the rock. A moment later, he reappeared on the opposite side of the rocky mountain. With a flushed face, huffing and puffing, he stomped up toward Jang Geon and Yang Goeng.
“Fuck! Lying face down on a rock in this scorching sun is shitty enough, fuck! What? Get lost? Yang Goeng! You’re dead first!”
Yang Goeng, who had been shouting without hesitation beneath the rock, lost color in his face upon seeing the heavy-set fellow stomping toward him. And turning hurriedly to Jang Geon, he spoke.
“H-Help me out a bit? That fellow really looks like he’s going to hit me once?”
However, Jang Geon shrugged his shoulders and answered playfully.
“Why should I?”