[The Three Kingdoms] Golden Sun Exhibition

196 – Geum Taeyang, the thief (5)

Plop, plod.

Wonsul walked forward aimlessly.

As the emperor of the Middle Kingdom, he did not have a palanquin to ride around Suchun and Yeonam, and at least he could not personally ride a horse because he had to pull the cart.

There are no people, no words.

Those who escaped Yeonnamseong, including Wonsul, numbered in the hundreds by the time they left Yeonnam, but each time they spent the night, a percentage disappeared.

At first, it was soldiers.

Some soldiers said they were going to urinate and never came back.

Next were the officers.

The officers who left in excitement to go catch the soldiers no longer returned.

As the officers who oversaw the soldiers disappeared, warlord-level generals who were renowned in a region quietly disappeared along with their subordinates.

In the end, the only people left were Won Sul, his younger brother Won Yun, his family, and people like Jang Hoon who had trusted and followed them for a very long time.

Wonsul touched his lips.

My lips were so dry that I didn’t even know when I had drank water, and the hand that was touching my lips was so skinny that I couldn’t even lift anything.

Fortunately, Wonsul’s condition was the ‘best’.

Until they passed through Western Zhou and reached Hebei, they could only survive by relying on Yuan Shao with Yuan Shu.

Like it or not, if you want to live, you have to keep Wonsul alive.

With that thought in mind, I had to pick up fruit from a tree and feed it to Wonsul, and I had to draw water with my hand and feed it to Wonsul.

“Cluck, clack.”

Wonsul was suffering from illness.

Whether it was because of his age, or whether his body and mind had weakened due to his downfall as emperor, Yuan Shu was clearly dying.

“Cheer up, Your Majesty. We only have to go a little further.”

“…You’re not even Zhou Ju yet, so what are you talking about?”

“But we just have to go a little further…!”

Therefore, Wonsul’s health was even more important.

Because it felt like I was going to collapse and die at any moment.

Still, the monarch who now leads a force of less than 200 people is none other than Wonsul!

“Let’s go a little further forward. There…”

Sssssseu!

Suddenly, people ran out of the forest.

They were thieves with swords, and Jang Hoon blocked Wonsul’s path and shouted.

“Stop! Do you know who this is? His Majesty Yuan Shu, the Emperor of Zhong!”

“…sh*t.”

One of the bandits with their faces covered frowned at something.

Jang Hoon tilted his head with his familiar frown.

“…Qinran? General Qinran. Are you a general?!”

“…I am not a person named Jinran.”

“The voices are the same! No way…”

Jang Hoon swallowed his saliva as he looked at Jin Ran and the others.

The man who was Won Sul’s subordinate and rose to the position of general was making a living as a shabby thief.

It didn’t seem like they had come to specifically attack Won Sul, and that actually made Won Sul miserable.

The man who was struggling under him betrayed him and became a thief to make a living.

Wonsul pointed to the luggage compartment.

“…I will give you a valuable treasure. Provide us with food and a place to stay for a while.”

“your majesty!!”

“request.”

Wonsul lowered his head heavily.

In response, Jang Hoon and Won Yoon covered their mouths and sobbed silently, and the thief also closed his eyes and raised his hand to his subordinates.

“Go down there. Leave your stuff behind.”

“…….”

Wonsul left with his gasols to the place where the bandits were leading.

The remaining thieves took the treasures that Wonsul’s gasols had taken, and Jinran, the leader of the thieves, pointed to Wonsul, who was going down with a confused look on his face.

“…But he wasn’t as bad of a person as Dong-tak.”

“Captain, then what will you do?”

“I have agreed to provide you with a place to stay for a while, so in return for this treasure, I can give you a place to eat and sleep.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Why? Isn’t there an abandoned manor on the side of the mountain?”

Although the owner of the house had disappeared and the manor was almost like an abandoned house, it was literally enough as a ‘place where people could stay for a while’.

“It’s the perfect place for the fallen emperor to stay. By the way, he’s an amazing person in many ways. He abandoned several residents and ran away, but he also took this with him.”

Jin Ran quenched her appetite as she watched Yuan Shu heading towards the manor.

“…I guess I’ll have that myself.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Well, hmm, do you think it’s a really valuable treasure? But if we take it, we’ll get in trouble.”

Jinran opened a box piled in the luggage compartment.

There was a pile of expensive-looking accessories that seemed to be for the empress or concubine.

“It’s a shame that I brought these things when I didn’t have enough food. Tsk tsk. If I had brought honey water with me, I would have eaten it instead of rice. Hey, do you have any honey water?”

“No. There’s no way we can afford something that expensive, right?”

“Is that so? Tsk. Tell the kids and send them plenty of meat with scaffolding. Still, he is our old master and a member of the Daewon family.”

“But what should I do if the government army comes?”

“Then it’s simple.”

Jinran picked up the treasured sword placed next to the box.

“…We can’t die because of Yuan Shu, right?”

* * *

“A festival for those who survived Yunsul!”

That was the basis of the Shinya First Martial Arts Competition.

It was an unspoken pressure for those who escaped and came to Shinya to gain motivation to live their lives, and at the same time, to stay here with peace of mind because these strong warriors are protecting you.

Refugees from Yeonam settle in Shinya Land.

They settle on the land of the Chae family in Shinya.

Even if the land of the Chae family remains idle, the wasteland will be developed, and many people will take root, live on the land of the Chae family, and give birth to children.

From a young age, the child said, ‘The Chae family helped us a lot. We will grow up hearing, ‘Everything we eat and sleep is thanks to the help of the Chae family.’

If the child has outstanding ability, enroll him/her in our school.

In the distant future.

-The taxes I paid are being used for the Chae family? Then take my taxes!

-The wall of the school collapsed due to a typhoon?! I guess I’ll have to go and fix it!

The number of people who admire the Chae family and our Sugyeong Academy will increase by the tens of thousands.

Even if Yu Pyo commits something crazy in the future, the Chae family will be able to live comfortably into the distant future by establishing a foundation in two places, Yangyang and Shinya.

Anyway, that’s why I wanted to hold a martial arts competition.

“I thought even if only about a hundred people showed up, it would be a lot, but isn’t a thousand people too much?”

“I’m sorry, Master.”

“…Did you participate too?”

“I also wondered how far I could go.”

Standing there for the first time in a while, he shrugged and pointed at the sword on his waist.

“I’m pretty strong too, right? Although not as strong as others.”

“What is the goal?”

“If you make it to the top eight, at least you can earn a lot of money in prize money.”

“yes.”

The reason why as many as 1,000 participants gathered this time is simple.

Because the prize money is truly enormous.

This is because Chae Hyeon, Mrs. Chae, and various officials in Yangyang sponsored the competition.

-Oh, it’s that kind of competition. It’s unfortunate that it’s not a war of words, but if that’s the intention, you’re welcome. My gasols are quite good at construction, but since they are empty now, I will build facilities for the competition at Shinya’s parade ground. You can keep an eye out for excellent talent and appoint them as generals.

For example, the Goe brothers saw the positive aspects of martial arts competitions and invested a large amount of money in them.

-Oh, Mr. Geum! I heard a story from my son, Jun. Isn’t your son so crazy about wanting to participate in the competition? hahahaha. …what? You bet a coin and give a prize through a drawing to the person who guesses the winner? …hehehe, okay. So you’re saying it’s like that on the outside, but it’s open in the back? I’ll make the board, sir. Instead…you know?

For example, Mr. Kwak, a wealthy man living in Namgun, created a system through which huge funds flowed behind the scenes.

I didn’t think I was very good about this, but…

-Master. This will be an opportunity for those who have lost hope. Money is lent free of charge to those who do not have money. The idea is to lend a very small amount of money, about five pounds of rice, but instead use an IOU to make sure it is repaid in the future. You can repay with rice or with gold.

-What if I don’t pay it back?

-A person who knows morality will definitely repay, and a person without morality has no intention of repaying from the beginning, so it is meaningless for Jingju to continue to embrace it. Isn’t this a good opportunity to weed out those people with just five pounds of rice?

-Lee Juck, you are truly amazing!

-It’s all thanks to what I learned from my teacher.

He accepted the offer of Lee Jeok, a disciple of Sugyeong Academy, and started a gambling game in earnest.

Someone said so.

There are three things a man should not indulge in: alcohol, women, and gambling.

-This is not a gambling game that will plunge your life into abyss. This is a gambling table of hope. Isn’t it enough to harvest about five pounds of rice if you farm your family’s land for a year?

-Is that the taxes paid by refugees who came this year?

-yes. Although it may seem like a big expense now, it will come back bigger in the future anyway. Otherwise, you will become a criminal in this land of Jingju.

There will also be a lot of people who get involved in the legal gambling table that the organizer created himself – although not officially.

-And Master. Master, don’t you know very well who will be the winner? If you give me some money and information, I will make a lot of money and give you 30% of the money you earn, even after deducting the principal.

-…Try it once.

That’s how I expanded the game.

It was a situation that was bound to escalate from the beginning.

All the crops had already been planted in the fields and there were enough people to manage them, so it was an unintended rest period.

The soldiers of Yuban and Hwangchong, who had come as reinforcements, were still staying in Shinya thanks to Mrs. Chae’s secret medicine, and they were suffering from moths.

While warriors were making a name for themselves in the central region, there were so few battles in Hyeongju that warriors rarely had a chance to make a name for themselves.

and….

“A prize worth hundreds of millions of dollars.”

The size of the prize money, which was worth hundreds of millions of dollars, inevitably turned the eyes of not only me, but also those who thought I was wasting my energy.

“It’s also a scale that will make you feel like you’re making hundreds of millions of dollars when you win.”

“If you look at the total prize money… it’s about 2 billion won.”

Where did this seemingly billion-dollar total prize money come from?

“It’s all thanks to Master.”

“…It’s not because of me, it’s because that guy is crazy.”

The best sponsor for hosting competitions.

Mr. Hwang.

-Let’s see. A martial arts competition in which Seo, Munbing, Gamnyeong, Huang Chung, and Zhao Yun participate? Wow, I can’t stand this.

-Do you know exactly who they are, father?

-Cheonmyeong (天命) is shouting. On the day when the winner of this martial arts competition is decided, it will be widely known who Lu Bu of Jingzhou is.

-…….

-Can I do the opening ceremony? huh? I bet this much money as a prize. You can do that much, right?

-…Do as you wish. Do you need anything else?

-Can you make the funnel you used last time a bigger one?

…He earned a huge amount of money from somewhere and invested it all in this Shinya First Martial Arts Tournament.

and.

“From now on! Shinya’s first martial arts competition! Let’s start—Ahh!!”

The curtain rose with the cheers of numerous participants.

“I will do it ㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡ!!”

Seung-Eon Hwang, with the opening ceremony.