WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR
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Chapter 147: The Rear Waves of the Yangtze Push the Front Waves (21)
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“Waaaaah!”
Cheers suddenly erupted outside.
“Hmm?”
“What’s going on?”
The veteran masters of the martial world, who had been listening intently to Jin Hyeogo, craned their necks and looked down past the pavilion railing.
Then all their eyes widened.
A large ship was moored along the shore of Dongting Lake below.
Bare-chested sailors, sweat streaming down their bodies, unloaded large crates from the vessel. Each time they opened one, it was packed full of human heads.
“Why are there... heads?”
Blazing torches lit the street.
The sailors hurried back and forth, stretching a long rope taut along one side of the road like a clothesline.
Once they finished, they began taking heads from the open crates and hanging them from the rope one by one, like laundry left out to dry.
It was a truly incredible sight.
A single human head was chilling enough, yet it also made for a strange, morbidly fascinating spectacle. Here, dozens of them hung from a single rope.
The veteran masters of Hunan’s martial world stared blankly at a sight none of them had ever seen before, then suddenly came to their senses.
“Wait. Could those be...?”
“No way. Aren’t those water raiders’ heads?”
“I think so. Look how happy the people are.”
“Then has Leader Yeon already begun the campaign?”
The veteran masters in the pavilion cried out in both shock and admiration.
“Already? So after speaking to Governor Yang earlier, he went straight out and attacked the water raiders?”
“Good heavens. So he had everything prepared before making his move.”
Not one of them was left unstirred.
“Leader Yeon... has already begun the campaign...?”
Jin Hyeogo, utterly dumbfounded, turned to Shin Si-ye.
She wore the same expression, blinking at him in disbelief.
* * *
Heads kept arriving.
They came along Dongting Lake.
Creeeak, creeeak.
Whenever another large ship cut through the distant night mist, crates full of water raiders’ heads were unloaded from it.
At times, injured members of the White-Robed League disembarked as well. Other times, crates of gold, silver, and treasure looted from water stockades came down with them.
As the number of arriving ships passed five and approached six, then seven, the cheers of Yuezhou’s people grew louder.
The night had passed midnight and deepened further into the night, yet the streets remained brightly lit. The people of Yuezhou had all come outside, staring blankly across the dark Dongting Lake.
They waited for another ship to arrive.
They hoped it would unload even more of those vicious water raiders’ heads.
That was when it happened.
“Ahhh... this is good!”
Someone began drinking.
Everyone had been staring vacantly at Dongting Lake. Every now and then, they turned to look at the water raiders’ heads and spat on the ground.
Then one among them brought out liquor.
He was someone who truly knew how to enjoy a drink.
As though the water raiders’ heads were the finest delicacy in the world, he looked them over and happily gulped down his liquor.
“Ah, that hits the spot!”
He took a drink, then gave the heads a crooked, mocking smile.
There was something about it.
It felt satisfying.
As if the water raiders were nothing at all.
As if, even in death, they were only fit to serve as drinking snacks.
“Hmm.”
“That’s not bad.”
Gulp.
People swallowed around him.
In the end, deeply moved, they could no longer hold back. One after another, they rushed into the taverns and emerged carrying armfuls of liquor bottles.
After that, everything happened naturally.
“Ah, this is great!”
“This is the best drinking snack!”
They sat together in little groups, drinking as they watched the water raiders’ heads.
Time passed without end.
The Rat hour, from eleven at night to one in the morning, passed in a flash.
Then came the Ox hour, from one to three.
Then, past the Ox hour, came the Tiger hour, from three to five.
Yet the heads of water raiders continued arriving from Dongting Lake without pause.
Creak, creak.
Ships came in with the wind.
Clatter, clatter.
Sailors with bronzed shoulders shouted to one another as they unloaded crates.
There were heads in those crates.
Those heads were hung from the ropes.
The same sight repeated itself again and again.
Still, no one grew tired of it.
Instead, as time passed, the people’s cheers only grew louder.
“Another one’s here!”
“Is Hero Yeon planning to fight until dawn?”
“At this rate, the water raiders’ losses must be enormous.”
“Could this really work?”
“Hmm... I counted the heads. There are already more than four hundred. That means they’ve destroyed at least eight water stockades.”
“I told you! If Hero Yeon says he’ll do something, he does it!”
“Child, go buy some buns. We should give them to the White-Robed League members and sailors who worked so hard!”
Time continued to pass until it became the Mao hour.
Dawn began to break.
Still, another ship crossed Dongting Lake toward them.
This time, the people did not cheer.
They only swallowed hard.
They also quietly set down the cups they were holding.
Everyone felt it.
Something extraordinary was happening.
The veteran masters of Hunan’s martial world, who had gathered in the pavilion, had by then joined the crowd below. They shared in that atmosphere.
“Senior Black Spear, this...”
Shin Si-ye’s eyes widened. Jin Hyeogo bit his lip.
Unlike the others, he did not cheer. The longer this went on, the more worry clouded his face.
“I’m a little concerned...”
“You’re worried about Dragon King Stronghold Leader Yi Geuk, aren’t you?”
Jin Hyeogo nodded heavily.
“Yes. This is moving too quickly. If Yi Geuk steps in...”
At that moment, Jin Hyeogo spotted a lofty black four-man palanquin approaching from afar.
Yang Hoeam sat inside with a frown on his face as four people carried it. It seemed he had personally come out after the disturbance in the streets continued through the night.
“What should we do?”
Jin Hyeogo felt trapped between two impossible choices.
If Yeon Sowol continued advancing and met Yi Geuk, it would be disastrous.
Yet if he failed to meet him, or somehow returned alive, Yang Hoeam was waiting here.
‘We haven’t even submitted a petition yet...’
Yeon Sowol had said three days, but he had caused too much trouble in only one.
‘If Governor Yang meets Yeon Sowol here now, he may decide on a punishment immediately... Once he says it aloud, even submitting a petition may not change his mind...’
Jin Hyeogo was truly at a loss.
Yeon Sowol returning alive from Dongting Lake came first, of course. Yet Jin Hyeogo’s heart was heavy at the thought that more trials would await him even afterward.
He felt sorry for him as a senior as well.
‘Should I submit a petition to Governor Yang now...?’
Jin Hyeogo furrowed his brow, sinking into unending worry.
“Waaaaah!”
The street erupted again.
No, could this even be called a mere commotion?
Jin Hyeogo looked at his spear.
The shaft leaning against the ground was humming.
It would not have been an exaggeration to say all of Yuezhou trembled.
The Mao hour had already ended.
The sun had fully risen, melting away the mist. Dongting Lake shone white like a silver platter.
Then a ship came toward them, cutting through the waves.
High at its prow hung a man’s head.
A man in his mid-thirties, wearing a headscarf.
Jin Hyeogo’s eyes widened when he saw it.
“Dragon King Stronghold Leader Yi Geuk...?”
Those nearby who overheard him shouted.
“Good heavens! That’s Yi Geuk!”
“Yi Geuk?”
“Yi Geuk?”
“The Dragon King Stronghold Leader!”
“Dragon King Stronghold... Isn’t that the water raiders’ leader on Dongting Lake?”
“That’s right!”
“They cut off his head?”
“Hero Yeon did?”
“Wait, then does that mean he killed several hundred water raiders and took their leader’s head in a single night?”
“Good heavens! He really subjugated them!”
“He wiped them out!”
“Three days? A full day hasn’t even passed yet...”
The ship drew closer.
The cheers grew louder.
The people gathered along Dongting Lake rose in a rush, cups still in hand, and approached the shore. They stood on tiptoe.
Then they saw a lone man standing at the very front of the ship, his white robes fluttering.
“It’s Hero Yeon!”
“The leader of the White-Robed League has pacified Dongting Lake!”
“Sole Crimson of Guangdong has won again!”
Everyone called Yeon Sowol’s name at the top of their lungs.
“Leader of the White-Robed League!”
No one needed to lead them.
All at once, they raised their cups.
Though they bumped shoulders in the crowd, they held their cups tightly in both hands and lifted them before their faces.
As though offering a fist-and-palm salute.
Hands rose everywhere, cups held high.
The entire shore of Dongting Lake looked as though it were rippling.
Yeon Sowol did not move for a moment as he witnessed it.
Standing there as if frozen, he slowly reached one hand behind him.
Won Huiseung, standing behind him, placed a liquor bottle in his hand.
Yeon Sowol raised it high with one hand.
As though returning the greeting of countless fist-and-palm salutes.
Then he slowly tipped it back.
He opened his mouth wide, and clear liquor arced through the air, pouring in a clear stream between his lips.
Gulp, gulp.
Yeon Sowol’s Adam’s apple moved as he drank.
Then, as though it were a signal, tens of thousands of people emptied their cups at once.
They clasped their cups in both hands, tilted back their heads, drained the liquor in a single swallow, wiped their mouths, and cried out.
“Good!”
“Wonderful!”
One person roughly wiped his mouth and shouted.
“Sole Crimson wakes alone through the night, while ten thousand people drink in joyous intoxication!”
It was a playful twist on a verse left behind by Qu Yuan.
Yeon Sowol, Sole Crimson, had remained awake alone through the night, and the masses drank joyfully.
While everyone else had accepted the water raiders as an unavoidable fact of life, Yeon Sowol alone awakened and destroyed them through the night, allowing everyone else to drink in celebration.
“Ah!”
“Ahhh!”
“Ooooooh!”
They compared the hero who had destroyed the water raiders in a single night to Qu Yuan?
It was thrilling.
Ecstatic.
For the people of Yuezhou, living in the old land of Chu, it was impossible to resist.
“Sole Crimson!”
“Solitary Night Awakening!”
“Solitary Night Awakening!”
“Sole Crimson!”
“Solitary Night Awakening!”
“Solitary Night Awakening!”
“Solitary Night Awakening!”
They shouted without end.
Sole Crimson.
Yeon Sowol’s epithet had begun in Guangdong, then spread to Hunan through Gaseopmyeong’s <Register of Jianghu Figures>.
At that very moment, it changed into Solitary Night Awakening.
Black Spear Jin Hyeogo watched it all in silence.
‘This... was possible?’
In a single night, everything he had believed collapsed.
Yeon Sowol had subjugated the water raiders.
Jin Hyeogo had thought he couldn’t.
He had even beheaded Dragon King Stronghold Leader Yi Geuk.
Jin Hyeogo had expected him to lose instead.
Before Jin Hyeogo could even attempt his plan, Yeon Sowol’s name had become linked to Qu Yuan on its own.
No, perhaps in some ways, he had already surpassed him.
Qu Yuan had failed, while Yeon Sowol had succeeded.
“...”
Jin Hyeogo was gripped by an emotion he had never felt before.
Thirty-odd years ago, he had first entered the Jianghu.
He had lived joyfully, fearing nothing and relying on a single spear.
He had seen all there was to see.
He had learned all there was to learn.
He had believed that nothing much could escape his understanding anymore.
Yet a junior so far beneath him in age had shattered those long-hardened beliefs in an instant.
“Heh. Hahaha.”
Jin Hyeogo let out an involuntary laugh and sighed.
The rear waves of the Yangtze push the front waves.
“The Yangtze’s rear waves push aside the front waves.”
Footnotes:
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