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Chapter 65: Everything Will Be Resolved When You Bring Him
The leader of the Baekse Chamber of Commerce, Lee Sechang, and the administrator, Lee Yeonbok, discussed the information provided by Yoo Jisan, the leader of the Geonhwa Chamber of Commerce.
When Lee Yeonbok heard what the Boss of the Suryongchae Bandits had said, his face hardened.
"Leader, now that you mention it, a caravan that left Jeongju four days ago has yet to show any signs of life. I thought of waiting until tomorrow, but it seems we need to confirm first with Waryong Manor."
Lee Sechang's concern deepened.
The road from Jeongju passed through the territory of the Guryongchae Bandits. If what the Boss of Suryongchae said was true, an incident might have occurred there.
"We must confront Baek Miju directly."
Immediately, both men boarded a carriage of the Chamber of Commerce and headed to Unsa.
Yeon Musang and Yeon Mumyeong accompanied Lee Sechang and Lee Yeonbok to provide protection.
The journey to Unsa would take approximately two hours.
Lee Sechang, who had been silently looking out the window, turned his head toward Yeon Musang.
"Do you know if there were any problems between Waryong Manor and the Nokrim bandits?"
"I don't know."
"Have you visited Waryong Manor recently?"
"I was there fifteen days ago and haven't returned since. What's the matter?"
"Ha ha! Waryong Manor... You'll know soon enough."
Lee Sechang clenched his teeth in silence.
If even the Yeon in the Chamber of Commerce didn't know anything, it must have been something kept secret.
Lee Yeonbok, observing Lee Sechang trying to stay calm, spoke.
"Leader, there are currently two caravans coming to Luoyang. One passes through the territory of the Guryongchae Bandits, and the other through the territories of the Five Peaks Mountain Bandits and the Jeokpungchae Bandits."
"This is madness."
If a single caravan was destroyed, it would take them three years to recover financially.
If both caravans were attacked, they would need at least six years to recover. Just when they were about to become a large Chamber of Commerce, this could bring them down.
'Baek Miju, I won't let this slide...'
Lee Sechang quickly got off the carriage as soon as he arrived at Waryong Manor.
Seeing Baek Miju, who came out to greet them, he couldn't contain his emotions accumulated over two hours and burst out.
"Hey! Today, I met Yoo Jisan from the Geonhwa Chamber of Commerce and heard something alarming. You must explain yourself clearly!"
"What...? What do you mean by that all of a sudden?"
"What do I mean? Do you really know nothing? What has happened between Waryong Manor and the Nokrim bandits? Why would the Boss of the Suryongchae Bandits say such a thing?!"
Baek Miju felt her heart sink, but she pretended ignorance.
"Leader, please calm down. What exactly did that person say?"
"According to the Geonhwa Chamber of Commerce, caravans escorted by Waryong Manor can no longer pass through the territories of Nokrim. There's even an order to loot them. How can you say there hasn't been any significant conflict between Waryong Manor and Nokrim? Come on, explain yourself!"
"That... that doesn't make sense..."
"Doesn't make sense? Do you intend to keep pretending ignorance? A caravan that should have arrived yesterday hasn't shown any signs of life. And there's another one heading to the Five Peaks Mountain Bandits. If something happens to these two caravans, will you take responsibility?"
"Two caravans?"
Baek Miju was completely bewildered.
Was the threat of the Five Peaks Mountain Bandits really being carried out?
Lee Sechang, who had much experience dealing with people, noticed something in Baek Miju's expression.
"Come on! From the look on your face, there's definitely something. What is it? What really happened between Waryong Manor and the Nokrim bandits? We need to know to take action. If you keep lying, I won't forgive you!"
Baek Miju, after hesitating, sighed deeply.
"There are eyes watching us. Let's go inside, and I'll tell you everything in detail."
"Fine. Take us inside."
Baek Miju led Lee Sechang and Lee Yeonbok to the guest hall.
"Sigh... Have you heard of the Five Heroes of Luoyang?"
Lee Sechang and Lee Yeonbok shook their heads, confused by Baek Miju's sudden mention.
"It's a group formed by the children of five martial clans of Luoyang who came together to seek adventures."
"And what does that have to do with Nokrim?"
Lee Sechang grew impatient, wanting to get to the point.
"These youngsters left home against their families' will. They ran into trouble with the Five Peaks Mountain Bandits and were captured as hostages."
"And?"
"My daughter was also one of the Five Heroes of Luoyang. She was taken hostage by the Five Peaks Mountain Bandits."
Lee Sechang, who had been murmuring, fell silent upon hearing about the Nokrim bandits.
"However, one of the Five Peaks Mountain Bandits began particularly harassing my daughter. While other families paid a hundred or two hundred taels of silver, Waryong Manor had to pay a thousand."
"Ha! Did you manage to gather a thousand taels of silver?"
Knowing well the financial situation of Waryong Manor, Lee Sechang couldn't help but ask.
"Fortunately, one of the families of the Five Heroes of Luoyang helped us. I thought it would end there... but my daughter returned and told me that bandit had threatened to ruin Waryong Manor. At first, I thought it was just a threat. There was no reason for a serious conflict between Waryong Manor and Nokrim. So I dismissed it as a tantrum."
"..."
Lee Sechang and Lee Yeonbok looked at Baek Miju with astonished faces.
If what she was saying was true, it would be difficult to hold Waryong Manor responsible.
Lee Yeonbok asked to confirm.
"Were there no other conflicts with Nokrim?"
"None. As you know, Waryong Manor has never been involved in martial activities. We only have the escort teams of the Baekse Chamber of Commerce. If there had been any conflict with Nokrim, you would have known first."
Lee Sechang and Lee Yeonbok couldn't refute her words as they were true.
After thinking deeply, Lee Sechang spoke.
"For Waryong Manor, this is like a bolt from the blue, but now that it has happened, what can we do? We need to fix this."
"What if the caravan is delayed for other reasons? Honestly, it's still hard for me to believe."
"I've given instructions to all other caravans to avoid passing through the territories of the Nokrim bandits. I'm worried about the caravan coming from Jeongju and the one from Tapha, but we'll have to wait and see what happens."
Lee Yeonbok added an explanation.
"The caravan coming from Jeongju should have arrived yesterday, but we haven't heard any news. The one coming from Tapha will pass through Five Peaks Mountain in a few days..."
Baek Miju's face immediately tensed.
"I'm not sure about the Jeongju caravan, but the one passing through Five Peaks Mountain might have problems. Can we send a message for them to take a different route? Ah, it might already be too late..."
Lee Sechang pressed his temples with his left hand and said:
"It's late. I wish we had known this a few days earlier... Why didn't you inform us about the Five Peaks Mountain Bandits?"
Lee Sechang stared at Baek Miju.
At least they could have avoided passing through the Five Peaks Mountain Bandits, but they didn't even have that chance.
"As I said before... I thought the bandit was just making a threat in a moment of anger."
"Damn it!"
Lee Sechang slammed the table with a loud bang.
For a while, the three of them remained silent.
Suddenly, Lee Sechang asked:
"Did your daughter have any personal matters with the Nokrim bandits that you can't tell?"
He thought that Waryong Manor might have had a conflict with the bandits due to a relationship between Yeon Seolju and one of the bandits.
It was hard to believe that a woman could stay so long in the bandits' camp without anything happening.
Baek Miju immediately jumped up.
"Absolutely not! If you knew the families of the Five Heroes of Luoyang, you wouldn't think that. Even the Nokrim bandits didn't dare to mistreat the children of those families."
"What kind of families are the Five Heroes of Luoyang?"
"Besides my daughter, there are the children of the Uicheon Sect, the Palseon Sect, the Chilryang Sect, and the Uicheon Sect."
"If the children of the Uicheon Sect are involved, could it be...?"
"Yes, one of them is Lee Somin, the third daughter of the Virtue Swordsman. Now you understand why the bandits didn't dare mistreat them."
Lee Sechang didn't raise any more suspicions.
He couldn't risk offending the Uicheon Sect, especially when the third daughter of the sect leader was involved. It could be hard to survive in Luoyang if he made an enemy of them.
Capturing the daughter of the Uicheon Sect leader... what audacious bandits.
"Wow! I always thought the Five Peaks Mountain bandits were calm... seems like it was just rumors."
He murmured to himself, then Lee Sechang asked Baek Miju:
"What do you plan to do now?"
"Sigh... I don't know. I'm so shocked that my mind is blank."
Lee Sechang was quickly calculating the losses and possible solutions.
If the two caravans returned empty-handed, they had to find a way to recover.
The only thing that came to his mind was the Gonghyun-yo project of the Samjin Chamber of Commerce.
If they could take it, the time needed to recover from the losses would be cut in half.
"Let's do this."
When Lee Sechang started speaking, Baek Miju, who was on the verge of despair, paid attention.
For her, there was no choice but to accept whatever proposal Lee Sechang made.
"Waryong Manor will have to withdraw from the caravan escort business. Then, they will only have to manage the Baekse businesses. Isn't that right?"
"Yes, that's true."
"As you know, our current businesses are not large enough to need both the Blue Dragon Division and the White Tiger Division. Besides, we are likely to lose two caravans. It goes without saying that the responsibility will fall on Waryong Manor."
Baek Miju weakly nodded.
"To recover the losses from the two caravans and maintain the guards of Waryong Manor, it's essential to expand the businesses. Everything will be resolved if we take Gonghyunyo from Samjin."
When Lee Sechang finished speaking, Baek Miju sighed deeply.
It was like asking Waryong Manor to shed blood.
"Sigh... I'd like to do it, but the situation is not favorable. It hasn't been long since we suffered losses in Yeoju, and now asking our disciples to..."
"If they can't take Gonghyunyo, Waryong Manor will have to send its disciples home. We plan to hire only ten people to manage the businesses, and we'll pay them a tael of silver a month."
Baek Miju breathed heavily.
That meant their monthly income would be ten taels of silver.
'After giving five hundred mon to each of the ten, we'd be left with...'
The income of Waryong Manor would be reduced to five taels of silver.
With that money, they couldn't maintain the forty warriors of Waryong Manor nor the fifty of the Rising Star Division and the Hidden Dragon Division. Just thinking about it broke her heart.
"Madame Baek, in any case, you'll have to let everyone go. After all the effort you've put into training them, do you want to throw it all away? If we take Gonghyun-yo, we can maintain the Blue Dragon and White Tiger Divisions. What will you do?"
"I..."
When Baek Miju hesitated, Lee Yeonbok intervened.
"Madame Baek, we have justification on our side, so no one will criticize us. Although Samjin has increased their numbers with warriors, they can't compare to Waryong Manor."
Lee Sechang displayed a calm expression.
He knew Baek Miju would accept his proposal. A woman who dreamed of a martial family wouldn't easily let go of her disciples.
"Fine. But we can't do it right now. We need to evaluate the condition of our young master first and then discuss."
"That's fine. But don't make us wait too long. If Samjin grows stronger, we might have to give up."
Lee Sechang subtly pressured her.
Baek Miju understood the message and gritted her teeth. You can't sew a needle in a hurry. First, they had to treat Yeon Mubaek's wounds.
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Bobong County.
Haga Village.
At sunset, a distinguished-looking elderly man and a beautiful young woman entered the village. They were the Great Sword Master, Lee Eui-jung, and his granddaughter, Lee Somin, who had set out for revenge.
"Grandfather, that's Five Peaks Mountain. It's late, so we should spend the night at an inn."
"Ha ha. Let's do that."
Both headed to a nearby restaurant to satiate their hunger.