Chapter 164: v7c14 - Control
Volume 7 Chapter 14 – Control
Read it only at Nineheavens.org
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Having dismounted from the carriage, the Four Heroes of Hwangho, without exception, opened their eyes wide and looked around in all directions.
Although the flames visible from the command headquarters were far away.
As if they were basking before a campfire right in front of their eyes, their exposed facial skin felt hot whenever the wind blew, and the acrid smell of smoke pierced their noses.
“This way!”
People shouting from all directions, and patients writhing on the ground while letting out screams and groans.
“Get yourselves together!”
“Ah, yes!”
When a maid of Pavilion of Perfect Enlightenment pulled his shoulder with a jerk, focus returned to Gong Dam-ung’s eyes.
“Are you the people who came to help?!”
“Please come along quickly!”
Gong Dam-ung barely caught his companions, who were about to be swept away by those carrying equipment like flails and hammers to block the fire rushing past in a crowd.
“Over there!”
Because of the flames soaring here and there, the shadows were actually dark as well, making it difficult to even recognize faces.
“We must go over there!”
He pointed in the direction where the maids were gathering.
Although he was someone with a loud voice usually, under circumstances like the present, it was to the extent that conversation was utterly impossible without shouting.
Those who appeared to be messengers ran around in all directions, and crowds of people scattered here and there, merged, and ran somewhere.
It seemed as if the word directionality did not exist in this place, and in the midst of those moving in confusion, they did not know what to do.
They merely stood behind the gathered maid division, feeling as if they had become lost children.
Beside them, women clad in armor were gathered in hesitant postures.
Splendid Buddhist robes were visible between the armor; they all possessed weapons, and the internal force they held also did not seem ordinary.
“….”
Had it been ordinary times, they would have introduced themselves first, but their faces were pale, and it was by no means a situation to strike up a conversation.
‘Where is Great Hero Yeon…?’
He suddenly raised his head to search for Yeon So-hyeon, but even for him, a giant, it was impossible to find the figure of a single boy in such a situation.
‘But even for Great Hero Yeon, what on earth could he do in this situation…?’
At that moment, there was a massive voice that pierced his eardrums through all the clamor and noise.
“All managers gather in the command tent immediately!”
It was not a voice that was merely loud.
Usually, shouting with internal energy would overawe the listeners and make them feel fear, but that voice instead contained a profound truth, having the effect of clearing the minds of those who heard it.
‘Isn’t this technique Shaolin’s Lion’s Roar?’
He could soon think of the owner of that voice.
‘Great Hero Yeon!’
* * *
Accompanied by Head Maid Jeong-ah, the Eldest Young Master Yeon So-hyeon entered the command tent, welcomed by the three closest confidants of the Fourth Young Master.
“I pay respects to the Eldest Young Master of the Main Family. I am…”
“I already know who you are. We shall exchange courtesies later.”
Yeon So-hyeon, nodding his head at Elder Gwak’s words, passed the trio just like that.
His gaze rapidly swept the inside of the command tent.
It was a shape where in the rectangular command tent, a single force had set up camp at each corner.
‘Bi’s subordinates, the House of Benevolence and Love, and the Crescent Moon Pavilion.’
Behind him, the managers who had heard his Lion’s Roar began to enter the tent in a crowd.
“W-Who did that voice just now belong to?”
“The moment I heard it, my mind cleared!”
He climbed onto the platform prepared at the remaining one corner, excluding the work spaces occupied by the three forces.
Behind him, as always, stood Head Maid Jeong-ah, and Yang Tong, the Crescent Moon Pavilion manager in charge of the Valley of Sin who had entered with him, had already dashed into their work area.
“Is this it?!”
“Yes!”
Yang Tong, holding the pile of notes and reports handed to him by his subordinate, rushed to Yeon So-hyeon in a hurry and held them out.
“This is the unprocessed information gathered since my absence, and the records of the activities within the command tent after the outbreak of the fire that you requested.”
Yeon So-hyeon, who received the pile of notes and reports through Jeong-ah, sat in a chair and began to speed-read them.
“Mmh.”
While Yeon So-hyeon was reading them, the command tent was bustling with managers who gathered one after another.
“That gentleman is the Eldest Young Master I have only heard of through rumors.”
“Did the Eldest Young Master tell us all to gather?”
From those who glanced at Yeon So-hyeon, whom they were seeing for the first time, with eyes as if looking at something marvelous.
“Gathering everyone in the midst of this hectic situation, what on earth is this?”
“Ah, if we do not return immediately, the scene will be paralyzed…!”
Those who looked at Yeon So-hyeon with anxiety, doubt, and even irritation, their faces covered with black soot.
“Isn’t now a time when we should move even one more thing somehow…?”
“Mmh. Even we, who are nothing more than desk-bound scholars, know at least that much…”
The scholars also began to click their tongues as they watched Yeon So-hyeon, who was flipping through the notes and reports at a rapid speed without a word.
At least the Crescent Moon Pavilion agents were about to say some complaint, but shut their mouths after receiving a sharp glare from their manager, Yang Tong.
Standing in the middle of those gathered, Elder Gwak swallowed a sigh inside.
“…I hope it does not rush toward the worst-case scenario I was worried about.”
“….”
The buzzing gradually grew louder, and the three closest confidants of the Fourth Young Master felt their concerns and worries growing as they looked alternately at Yeon So-hyeon and the gathered crowd who began to show dissatisfaction.
And when complaints began to burst out here and there.
“Silence, everyone!”
This time, it was not the Buddhist Lion’s Roar that cleared the mind, but the Daoist Lion’s Roar that overawed and drove away evil spirits.
When a sensation that went beyond ringing in the ears to make their internal organs shudder swept through the crowd, everyone looked at Yeon So-hyeon with astonished gazes.
‘Did the Eldest Young Master just use martial arts?!’
Before they could even feel confusion between the rumors about the Swordless One they well knew and the martial art Yeon So-hyeon currently used, Yeon So-hyeon stood up abruptly from his seat.
‘The identification of the problem is finished.’
His gaze sought Elder Gwak.
Although the command tent was bustling with people, looking closer, it was a situation where they were clumped together by their respective forces.
Therefore, finding her, who stood in a shape protected among the Fourth Young Master’s subordinates, was not a very difficult task.
“Elder Gwak!”
“Yes, Eldest Young Master!”
As soon as she answered, Yeon So-hyeon’s instruction fell.
“From now on, you are the general manager of the fire suppression.”
As his gaze turned to the crowd, his words continued.
“Therefore, let all managers who were responsible for fire suppression report the problems of the current situation to Elder Gwak.”
When the tent sank into silence for a moment at the sudden instruction, Yeon So-hyeon shouted briefly.
“Immediately!”
As soon as his voice fell, the fire suppression managers who had been gathered on the House of Benevolence and Love side clustered toward Elder Gwak.
Elder Gwak, who was flustered at first, soon began to skillfully synthesize their opinions.
‘Elder Gwak. Known as the Crouching Dragon of Nanman, she was a master of chaotic warfare who had been like a thorn in the eyes of the military commanders of the State of Yue in the past.’
If it was her, she could be called the optimal person to suppress the fire, the greatest threat in this chaos.
“Tang Ye-rin!”
“…Y-Yes?! Me?!”
Startled by Yeon So-hyeon’s gaze, Tang Ye-rin answered.
“From now on, you shall set up and update a comprehensive situation board along with the scholars. You are the manager!”
“A c-comprehensive situation board, does that mean to gather all information in one place…?”
“Correct.”
Yeon So-hyeon pointed to the temporary wall prepared behind him and shouted.
“What are you doing not coming up and starting immediately?!”
“Yes! Yes! Understood!”
She and the Fourth Young Master’s scholars rushed over and began to attach a large piece of paper to the temporary wall.
“Listen!”
Yeon So-hyeon shouted toward everyone.
“From now on, all information regarding the current situation will be shared centered around this comprehensive situation board! No organization is an exception!”
At those words, Yang Tong of the Crescent Moon Pavilion and his subordinates, and the information officers of the House of Benevolence and Love immediately rushed to the comprehensive situation board together and began to help update it.
“And Yang Tong!”
Yang Tong, who was personally marking the current situation with a brush, turned around in a highly disciplined posture.
“Give your order!”
“From now on, the work of tracking down the fire suspects and suspect forces is suspended. We must focus all our efforts only on sorting out the current situation. From now on, let all personnel of the Crescent Moon Pavilion focus on grasping the situation and transmitting instructions!”
“Yes! I will receive the order!”
Yeon So-hyeon, who nodded his head, turned to a man covered in scars who was standing blankly.
“Are you the mercenary commander?”
“…Yes. I am.”
“Where are the commanders of the other mercenary groups?”
He scratched the back of his head.
“That is, they have all gone out to put out the fire right now…”
“Good.”
Yeon So-hyeon cut off his words.
“If so, from now on until the situation ends, you are the guard commander.”
“M-Me?”
The mercenary commander, who had suddenly been given a title, blinked his eyes, and Yeon So-hyeon, grasping his disposition from that appearance, turned his gaze and shouted.
“Tang Baek!”
“Yes.”
Tang Baek, who was standing and quietly watching Yeon So-hyeon, answered.
“Attach one smart subordinate to that guard commander, and let him use him as an adjutant until this situation ends.”
“Yes.”
An instruction that was precise without superfluity and clear in intent.
There was no dissatisfaction.
Following Tang Baek’s nod, his ‘smart’ subordinate who was wearing black clothing quickly attached himself to the guard commander.
“From now on, all mercenary groups will take their hands off fire suppression and switch to normal guard duties.”
Yeon So-hyeon raised a brush and marked an area on the large regional map that the scholars had attached to the comprehensive situation board.
“Expand the safe zone to this area and strengthen the guard posture to the maximum.”
At those words, the expression of the physician of the House of Benevolence and Love who was responsible for patient transport brightened.
At last, space to accommodate the overflowing patients had appeared.
“Excluding the mercenary members deployed to the fire, in what normal duties are the personnel deployed?”
The guard commander rolled his head hard.
“Currently, the normal duty to which the most personnel are deployed is jailer duty at the prison holding local criminals!”
It seemed that in this Valley of Sin, where the public security of the Luoyang administration was absent, the business group was even handling public security duties.
“Release all the prisoners and have them participate in the labor of fire suppression. And turn even those who were doing jailer duties entirely to guard duties.”
“But among them are vicious criminals…”
“Behead immediately all prisoners caught red-handed for murder. Then the rest will also meekly participate in the labor.”
“T-That is…!”
Even if they were poor residents, execution without legal authority.
It was a command that was burdensome to the extreme.
Yeon So-hyeon said in a resolute tone.
“This Yeon So-hyeon will bear all subsequent responsibility.”
The guard commander shut his mouth tightly and nodded.
“From now on, there is no need to round up those of suspicious behavior or red-handed offenders as usual. Beat them all thoroughly and drive them away!”
“Yes, understood!”
Yeon So-hyeon’s gaze turned to Hyang, the captain of the Pavilion of Perfect Enlightenment maid division nearby.
“Hyang! Attach the Four Heroes of Hwangho and the Emei Sect’s martial nuns to the guard commander’s duties. And have them and the maid division personnel form two-person teams!”
“Loyalty!”
“Let the guard commander execute the order immediately!”
The guard commander, his adjutant, and Hyang exited the tent.
“Eldest Young Master!”
It was Yang Tong.
“Although we have somehow distributed the personnel for grasping the situation and spreading instructions, the personnel are insufficient to cover the entire area after all!”
“Tang Baek!”
“Yes.”
“Delegate the command authority of the ‘shadows’ you lead to Yang Tong!”
“Yes.”
The intelligence agents under the Fourth Young Master, called shadows, gathered around Yang Tong.
Tang Baek, who followed the instructions, had absolutely no complaints this time either.
Rather, one corner of his chest even felt refreshed.
The Eldest Young Master was currently pointing out and improving the problems of this business group precisely.
The Fourth Young Master, the House of Benevolence and Love, and the Crescent Moon Pavilion.
The way those three forces, occupying the three corners of the command tent, were operated was a tripartite consensual system.
In the midst of this, the tripartite consensual system, which usually ran smoothly through cooperation and coordination, was instead turning into poison under a situation like the present.
That was why the Eldest Young Master, regardless of the talents’ factions, was picking them as general managers of each field for the right places and mixing the personnel.
He was binding the entire business group into one.
“Support manager!”
“Yes! Yes! It is me!”
The support manager physician, who had been stomping his feet anxiously, stepped forward through the crowd.
“You, sit here.”
Yeon So-hyeon seated him at a desk where writing brushes, ink, paper, and inkstones were placed.
“Forget about urgent supplies for now. What is not here right now is not here right now anyway. Therefore, from now on, you shall make a list of necessary supplies, keeping in mind not only the present but also the aftermath of the fire suppression.”
“A-After the suppression, you mean?”
“Yes. I mean to identify all the supplies that will be needed to clean up the damage after the suppression.”
The Eldest Young Master’s gaze was reaching not just the immediate urgent fire, but the situation after that.
His instructions to the support manager physician cleared his distracting thoughts and he began to write the list with all his concentration.
“Medical manager!”
“Yes!”
Yeon So-hyeon instructed briefly.
“From now on, all patients are to be ‘triaged’.”
At those words, a look of dismay appeared on the face of the medical manager, but was soon filled with resolve.
“…Yes.”
It was an instruction to sort and classify patients according to their chances of survival.
Instead of him, who could not dare to make the decision to triage due to his position as a physician while fully feeling its necessity, Yeon So-hyeon had given the instruction.
“Start immediately.”
The medical manager ran out together with the physicians.
‘Heh…’
A warrior of the Luoyang Sword Family, who watched Yeon So-hyeon directing the scene like flowing water from the entrance of the tent, clicked his tongue inwardly.
He was a guard commander belonging to the Guard Pavilion.
‘That appearance is just like seeing the Grand Patriarch of the past.’
Leadership, command, control—everything of the Eldest Young Master resembled the appearance of the Grand Patriarch he remembered.
‘Though there is a difference in that he acted by instinct, whereas the Eldest Young Master acts with his head…’
The elderly shaman of the House of Benevolence and Love, who was looking at Yeon So-hyeon just like him, nodded her head.
‘That appearance is just like seeing the Medicine Fairy of the past.’
The sight of him taking responsibility without a sliver of hesitation for what ordinary people could not dare to take responsibility for, and carrying instead the burden that was too heavy for ordinary people to bear.
And a truly magical talent that bound them together, no matter what their tendencies were and how diversely they were distributed.
During the brief time they were each lost in thought, Yeon So-hyeon’s instructions went around the command tent once.
And his gaze turned back to Elder Gwak, who was the first target of his instructions.
“Elder Gwak. Report.”
Elder Gwak, who was focusing on grasping the fire situation even while writing a new fire status board, shouted in a ringing voice unbecoming of her age.
“Above all, equipment and manpower are absolutely needed more!”
In a way, it was a conclusion that could be taken for granted, but the point that it was a conclusion brought out after proper understanding by someone possessing reliable ability was important.
For proper decision-making is possible only after proper situational judgment supports it.
“There is no need to worry about that part!”
No sooner had his words ended than an intelligence agent of the Crescent Moon Pavilion dashed into the tent.
“I report!”
As the expert agents took charge of the messenger role according to Yeon So-hyeon’s order, a much ‘fresher’ stream of information began to come in.
“An enormous number of people are gathering one after another at the entrance of the valley!”
He shouted with a bright expression.
“It is the servants of the Gong family of Mount Beimang and the manpower sent by those who responded to the Gong family’s request!”
It was the moment when Yeon So-hyeon’s preparation, having received information that the fire had started from the Gong mansion, shone.