I Became the Crown Prince of a Ruined Country

6 – Pyeongwongun

“You kid! You know where you are!”

People flocked to the loud voice out of nowhere.

The appearance of the guards patrolling Handan was immediate.

The mansion of Pyeongwon-gun, a key figure in the country of Jo, is a high-risk area for the guards to look at with all their might. As soon as a commotion arises, it sets out to suppress it.

Certainly, it is commendable for them to be doing their duty, but today it felt like a joke to me.

‘Let’s work a little bit!’

The unbearable dissatisfaction echoed in my heart in frustration.

Seeing that she was wearing silk clothes, the guards hesitated for a moment, but did not stop walking.

I could have run away, but I didn’t. It was a foolish decision that went the exact opposite of the purpose of meeting Pyeongwon-gun, because he would have to run away anyway to avoid the guards before he would be caught.

Instead, I bluffed.

“Stop it! You know who I am!”

“Well, it seems like a child from a nice house, but then why is someone who knows something making such a fuss?”

“We don’t intend to see blood either, so please follow me. If you want to send a communication to the family, tell me.”

But I wonder if the guards in the capital dealt with one or two people like me who believed in their status and stood firm. As if they were used to this situation, they naturally tried to arrest me.

I shouted something more, but they just focused on their work. With both arms caught and lifted up, all I could do was scream.

Even if I tried to shake it off by moving my body, only my two short legs that didn’t touch the ground struggled. It was impossible to escape from their strong arms.

‘This is the end? Mr. Lee… Shouldn’t I be given a privilege if I suddenly reincarnated into a strange world?’

If you read something like a novel, somewhere they give you some kind of superhuman strength, or even give you a cheat ability like a status window, but why don’t I have one?

The futility came. Still, I struggled to break through this and that, but I thought it would end without starting anything properly.

Now, do we really have to go to the King of Gunsin or the King of Jo and pierce his head and beg for help…….

The moment when I fell into discouragement and stopped struggling.

I heard a voice that was like a light shining through the dark clouds.

“Hey guys, what are you doing. He’s a guest from Pyeongwon-gun, so please let go of that hand.”

A clean face in neat clothes. I guess the expression of aging gracefully is appropriate. He was a middle-aged man with the impression that anyone could see that he was a man of letters.

The guards put me back on the ground and asked if they knew his face.

“Aren’t you Chuyeon-nim? Are you sure you’re a guest invited by Pyeongwon-gun?”

“Ugh, where am I going to sell Pyeongwon-gun’s name privately? Pyeongwon-gun is waiting inside.”

Chuyeon? It was a name I knew. I didn’t get to know Pyeongwon-gun together, but I had seen it in my previous life. Not from a history book, but from the story of a magician boy with a lightning bolt scar.

‘Did he appear as an oriental alchemist there?’

Master of the Yin-Yang song who established the theory of Yin-Yang and the Five Elements. The cycle of dynasties following the Five Elements in Romance of the Three Kingdoms was based on this person’s thoughts.

Maybe it’s the first time I’ve seen a celebrity I’ve known in my previous life. I really felt that I was in the history of the past, and I was dazed for a while.

Meanwhile, Chuyeon and the guards seem to have finished directing traffic, so the guards released me and took a step back.

“Keuheum, that, Yeon’s Young master? Next time, don’t act so frivolously and just tell me that you’re a guest of Pyeongwongun from the beginning.”

“Ah? Ah…yes. Excuse me today.”

Suddenly, the answer came out. The guards greeted me with a more polite attitude and went back, as if they liked my polite response.

“Then let’s go too, Young master.”

“Are you really going to Pyeongwon-gun?”

“hehehe, didn’t Young master look for it? The guest calls the master, so the master welcomes the guest.”

Ah… It worked!

I was worried about what would happen if it didn’t work out well, but when I heard that I would see Pyeongwon-gun through Chu-yeon’s mouth, a sense of relief came over me as if it was the opposite of all my worries.

Chuyeon said to me, who let out a long sigh as the tension was relieved.

“It’s a poem by Young master in Yan.”

“Yes, it is.”

“It is hard to be a hostage. Not only is there no freedom, but it is difficult to overcome external influences on your own.”

Chuyeon seemed to know the situation I was in right now.

Where did he hear about the hostages of Yan, or did he figure it out by inferring it himself?

Either way, it was something to keep an eye on. If it is the former, it means that Chu-yeon is close to the power class or has information, so it is worth paying attention to his social skills.

Networking has always been a powerful force throughout all times and places.

Needless to say about the latter.

As expected, it is not easy as someone who has left a name in history as the leader of a school. How great would Pyungwon-gun be if he had such people as his diners?

I started to get nervous again.

“It’s worth putting your hopes on meeting Pyeongwon-gun, but it won’t be easy.”

“This is what I was prepared for.”

“Is that so? But in my opinion, Young master’ resolve seems a bit lacking.”

Chuyeon’s stare staring at me seemed to point out that I was too easily relaxed.

However, I did not come without knowing that it was me. The determination to save my people is by no means light-hearted.

All of the people I took care of since I was a child. They don’t know if I remember that time, but I did.

Without their help, I would have fallen into an escape from reality without being able to adapt properly in this unfamiliar world.

Even if it was because of their unavoidable status that they followed me, the fact that I was breathing here with their help was a clear fact.

It was hard to accept even empty words to belittle my determination to protect such people.

Unpleasant feeling that I could not hide came to the surface. After reading the dissatisfaction expressed on her face, Chuyeon calmly told me what she had done.

“Does Young master know that Pingyuangun tried to attack Yan?”

“Yes? When are you talking about?”

At Chu-yeon’s out of the blue words, I forgot the displeasure and asked again.

“Immediately after Handan was threatened by the tragedy of Changping, Prince Pyeongwon guessed that Yan would be looking for a gap in Zhao’s weakness. So he had the intention of preemptively attacking.”

In short, the Pyeongwongun was preparing for a preventive war.

However, if it was a defense battle based on the castle, Jo Nara’s circumstances were not easy to launch a preemptive attack. In the end, Pyeongwon-gun relents and chooses to prepare for defense.

“Because Yan’s attack was so immediate, Changjeong was taken, but even if the predecessor King Yan didn’t die prematurely and continued the attack, he wouldn’t have been able to capture other castles. In this way, the Pingyuan army had a strong wariness against Yan, So it won’t be that easy to achieve the will of Young master.”

“That was to be expected.”

It was the first time I had heard that Pyeongwongun had planned a preventive war, but I had assumed that he would not be friendly to me.

Anyway, would you like me, a person from the Yan Dynasty, who was beaten in the back by Pyeongwongun, a member of the royal family of the Zhao Dynasty?

It seems that the difficulty has become more difficult than I thought, but the work I do doesn’t change anyway. I just do my best to convince him as I prepared for the first time.

But if the situation is different, then the response must be different. I quietly slowed down my steps and continued the conversation with Chuyeon.

“But why did Pyeongwon-gun give up on the preemptive strike? He must have thought that there was some possibility that he had made a plan in the first place.”

“That’s a good question. Pyeongwongun believed that even if supplies were scarce, if the army and spirits were kept alive, they would be able to block the Yan invasion in advance. However, there was someone who opposed such an opinion.”

“Can you hear his name?”

“It’s not difficult. The person who stopped Pyeongwongun at that time was Punggi.”

“Punggi…”

Choo-yeon was known through novels and Yin-Yang and the Five Elements, but it was the first name I had heard of Pung-gi.

I remembered the name. Opposing the war against the Yan Dynasty would have been a reasonable decision considering the situation of the Cho Dynasty, but it felt like the words could communicate well.

If Pyeongwon-gun is persuaded, he must be a person with a great standing among diners. Enlisting him as an ally would surely help.

Slowly, the front door appeared. Is the beneficial conversation with Chuyeon up to this point?

Before going through the door, I asked one last question.

“Can I ask you one more question?”

“If it’s short, I’ll answer.”

“Why are you helping me?”

Chuyeon gave me information I hadn’t even asked, and even though I deliberately slowed down in order to get information from the conversation with him, he passed on without saying a word.

His attitude was obviously friendly to me.

Chooyeon smiled and immediately brought up another story.

“Outside, malice, extreme god. The public called them Maegol Gyeomjae (買骨兼材).”

These were famous names.

Actually, Malice was the only name that remained in the memory of my previous life, but Kwak Oe and Geuksin were names that were often heard even in the Yan court.

King Soyeonyang, a Ming general who achieved the heyday of the Yan Dynasty.

Taesa Kwak Oi, who became the eldest son of King Soyang.

Gwak Oe answered King Soyang, who wanted talented people, through an old saying, and that was the old saying of Maesamagol (買死馬骨), which says, ‘If you want to save a Chollima, buy the bones of a dead Chollima at a high price.’

Talented people from all over the world flocked to Yan with the thought that if a person like Kwak received hospitality, I would be treated better.

Among them, the person who was Gungye Ilhak was evil.

Later, in Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Zhuge Liang compared himself to evil, and the ability of evil belonged to the best ranks of the Spring and Autumn Warring States Period.

Geukshin is inferior in ability compared to Malice, but after Malice left Yan, he was regarded as the representative of the Yan military.

Maegol Gyeomjae, ‘talented person who bought bones and embraced them,’ was what the public called the junior girls who were hired by King Soyang through the story of Maesamagol outside Gwak.

This is what I know so far. But what followed was something I didn’t know.

“I too went to Yan after the bone of a horse. Do you know that? Young master has a similarity to His Majesty King Soyang. It is a prize that people will flock to.”

Choo-yeon talks as if she is talking about old memories.

I now understand why Chu-yeon had been so kind to me.

‘Chuyeon was also a maegol gyeomjae.’

It was the moment when I felt the love of my great-grandfather, whose face I didn’t even know.

“Oh, that’s too long to say. I’m lost in emotion. Now, let’s go in. It’s time to meet Prince Pyeongwon, whom Young master wanted to see so much.”

I pushed the faint feelings I had for my great-great-grandfather, Young Yeon-wang into a corner and looked straight ahead.

The door opened.

Among them, there was Pyeongwon-gun.