141
Toqto'a's Thoughts
Dangerous.
Toqto'a rolled the word over once more in his mind.
"Dangerous" was usually used for men whose blades were fast, whose armies were large, whose backing was powerful.But that boy did not fit any of those categories.
Fifteen.
At that age, he said he could shoot me.
There was no hesitation in his words.It was not fearlessness—it was a judgment already completed.Not recklessness, but eyes that had accepted responsibility.
That child knows what must be done.
Toqto'a had seen countless generals.Some wielded the sword for ambition.Some fought for honor.Some chased merit.Some hid behind orders like shields.
Most of them moved for a single reason, and when that reason broke, they collapsed with it.
But that boy was different.
When an order did not reach him, he judged for himself.Once he judged, he had already resolved to bear the outcome.
That was why he said he could shoot me.
Those words were not treason.They were the logic of the battlefield.
Toqto'a knew it well.A man like that understands both loyalty and betrayal.He chooses the one he deems necessary.
What made him more dangerous was that he did not hide it.His speech was direct. His manner unblocked.He did not lie. He did not make excuses.
"I received no order."
The meaning was clear.If there had been an order, he would have carried it out.
Toqto'a slowly flexed his fingers.
Killing the boy would not be difficult.Even here, even now, enough justification could be created.
But it would not end there.
The boy would not remain an individual.There were those who followed him.Those who moved because they watched him.Those who learned from him.
Not how to swing a blade—but how to decide.
Then Toqto'a understood.
The boy's danger did not lie in his present strength.It lay in the fact that he already knew how to become strong.
And beside him stood Yi In-jung.
That commander deliberately placed the boy at the front.He did not block him. He did not break him.He showed him the battlefield and let him decide.
That was not training.
It was succession.
Toqto'a murmured inwardly.
The King of Goryeo had played a frightening card.
For now, it was only a single sword.But one day it would become an army, a cause, a name.
That was why he let him live.
For now, the boy still had value.
But the moment he began to move outside the empire's calculations—then he would become the first enemy to be eliminated.
Toqto'a let no expression touch his face.Like a proper Chancellor, he calmly lifted his tea.
The most dangerous things always wear the quietest faces.
---*
Victory Reports and the Formalization of Distortion
Dawn in the Beiping court was quiet.
The smoke and stench of blood from the battlefield could not reach here.Inside the halls, the calm scent of paper and ink settled evenly.
The Secretariat was a place where events were turned into sentences.
When its doors opened, officials entered one by one.Their silk robes were neat.Not a speck of dust clung to their boots.
These were bodies that had never stepped onto a battlefield—and so they could choose their words with precision.
A draft already lay on the table.The first report on the Battle of Gouwu Fortress.
Before the ink had even dried, hands were already moving again.
"This phrasing would be appropriate,"one official said, tapping the paper with his brush tip.
"Under the command of Grand Marshal Toqto'a of the Yuan court,the allied Goryeo forces participated jointly in the siege."
Another nodded.
"Let the main force of the siege be the Yuan army.Goryeo as auxiliary strength.Acknowledge their contribution, but do not yield the initiative."
After a moment's hesitation, one man spoke carefully.
"But it was the Goryeo troops who opened the gate.That fact has already spread through multiple messengers."
A brief silence fell over the hall.
An elderly official chuckled softly.
"That is why we refine the wording.We do not erase facts—we relocate them.Everything depends on how it is phrased."
He lifted his brush and revised a single line.
"The Goryeo troops, acting under Yuan command,applied pressure near the city gate."
The word pressure was added.The word opened did not appear.
"This will suffice," another official said."Zhang Shicheng fled. The main force collapsed. The city was secured.All elements necessary for a victory report are present.We can even say the gate fell easily due to Zhang Shicheng's escape."
"And Zhang Shicheng's escape—how shall we record that?"
After a brief thought, the elder replied.
" 'During the chaos of battle, his whereabouts became unknown.'No more, no less.With no subject, no one knows who did what.He simply disappeared."
The brush moved again.
On the paper, Zhang Shicheng's name lost its weight.
At that moment, a courier entered and dropped to one knee.The marks of a long journey clung to his clothes and breath.
"A report from the Goryeo army."
The sealed document he presented was crusted with dried blood and mud.
One official took it and unfolded it.As he read, his eyebrows shifted—just barely.
"Bridgehead secured.Imperial Guard collapsed.Urban combat concluded.Yuan forces withdrew in the later phase."
The report was dry. Military.It neither hid merit nor exaggerated it.
The air in the hall sank for a moment.
The elder closed the document.
"Archive this.Only the wording we have approved will remain in the official record."
He rose slowly.
"The Battle of Gouwu Fortress is over.The Great Yuan Empire has eased its burdens.Supplies from the south can now flow freely—that is what matters."
After a pause, he continued.
"What remains is to decide who won.Now is the time to unite our efforts toward the final victory."
Outside, the morning bell rang.Sunlight spread across the tiled roofs of the palace.
At that same hour, atop the walls of Gouwu Fortress,on stones where the blood had not yet cooled,the banner of Goryeo caught the wind.
The battlefield had created a victor.The court was creating a record.