Book 12: Chapter 4: Just in Case

Chapter 279 immediately after the successful conquest of the Valley of Sin.

Eldest Young Master Yeon So-hyeon's side headquarters.

Outside, a celebratory atmosphere for the victory was currently in full swing, but.

The atmosphere in the headquarters was different.

“Big Brother. In this basement where not even sunlight reaches, what is all this…?”

The gaze of Fourth Young Master Yeon Bi as he asked was directed toward Pavilion of Perfect Enlightenment's maids who were busy setting up the underground space.

“Can you not tell by looking?”

Yeon So-hyeon replied to Fourth Young Master Yeon Bi, gesturing to specify the location of a giant tactical map for the maids.

“It is a new command room.”

“No, this younger brother can also tell that in an instant, but…”

Fourth Young Master Yeon Bi trailed off and cast his gaze slightly backward.

“…….”

“…….”

Elder Gwak, the Crouching Dragon of Nanman; the Old Strategist of the War Advisory Council; Tactician Tang Ye-rin; and so on.

They were the leadership, clearly showing signs of exhaustion after having just finished the battle.

They did not dare to directly ask the Eldest Young Master questions, and were instead sending desperate gazes to the blameless Fourth Young Master.

“Big Brother. We have just conquered the Valley of Sin.”

Sighing inwardly, the Fourth Young Master spoke to Yeon So-hyeon on their behalf.

“Is there really a need to prepare and set up a new command room in the basement like this right now?”

Yeon So-hyeon, who was personally giving detailed instructions to the maids, cast a gaze at the Fourth Young Master as if asking what on earth he was talking about.

“Setting up a new command room?”

“Would I have called all of you here just to set up a command room?”

Yeon So-hyeon gestured to the strategists and tacticians.

“You must immediately begin drafting strategies to defend the Valley of Sin, assuming various scenarios.”

Though they were initially military strategists and tacticians who gathered near the tactical map lingering with tired expressions, they quickly caught fire and began exchanging sharp arguments, building up the strategies.

“No, if you build the defensive positions like that, will the flank not be exposed?”

“The reason for leaving this flank empty is that when the enemy pushes in, it naturally becomes an encirclement formation. It is an application of basic military strategy.”

“An application of basic military strategy? Don't make me laugh. The inside of one's head is different from reality. This is why fledglings who have not even fought a proper battle are no good.”

“Even if my age is young, the bloodbaths I have been through are not few!”

“At least speak like that after fighting a proper war, not just a battle.”

“…Big Brother. Although the old saying goes 'preparedness prevents disaster', is there a reason you are preparing so thoroughly to this extent?”

It was a question from Fourth Young Master Yeon Bi, who watched them with dumbfounded eyes.

“It seems as if you are certain, Big Brother, that the Second Young Master's side will cause some major incident.”

In the past, at the meeting held before the arrival of the Tea Fan Maidens, Sichuan investors, and the Emei Sect.

Those who attended Yeon So-hyeon's meeting had once predicted the Second Young Master's use of force.

However, they had discussed it at the level of assassination or armed provocation.

“Are you predicting that the Second Young Master's side will start a full-scale war or something equivalent to it?”

An excessively extreme assumption.

Both common sense-wise and logically, there was certainly a feeling that Yeon So-hyeon's actions were somewhat excessive.

“No matter how much I predict as if reading the future, I cannot know every case.”

Yeon So-hyeon's gaze as he watched the strategists' and tacticians' debate from a distance seemed to look somewhere much farther away.

“One must move the board to limit the enemy's options. Within that, as far as one's ability permits, one must prepare for ten thousand cases.”

He what did he see?

How far did he look?

What did the world look like when gazed down upon by the Roc?

Yeon So-hyeon spoke gently, as if teaching Fourth Young Master Yeon Bi.

“And when something breaks out among them. Even if only ten out of the ten thousand preparations can be put to use.”

Yeon So-hyeon's tone was gentle, but filled with conviction.

“Those ten preparations will bring the opportunity for victory in an event that would otherwise end in defeat.”

“…Yes, Big Brother.”

Yeon So-hyeon's preparation did not end there.

“Deliver orders to all troops not to disarm even during rest. So that they can begin battle at any time.”

“Then complaints will surely burst out. Unable to take a proper rest—” as if he had not heard the Fourth Young Master's words, Yeon So-hyeon continued his order.

“And after dinner, conduct training targeting the entire force in shifts.”

“Training…?”

“Mobilize the strategists, tacticians, and the warriors of the War Advisory Council.”

Sometime along the way, Yeon So-hyeon's words had become commands rather than teachings.

And those commands were so solemn that the Fourth Young Master did not dare to raise any objections.

“Through them, deliver the post-battle review of today's fight and train the entire force on the defensive strategies currently being researched in this place.”

“Yes, Big Brother.”

Though he had answered that way at that moment.

Afterward, even in the meeting regarding the Imperial Capital.

“…What is the possibility of them launching a physical attack?”

Kang Ho shook his head.

“If that happens, will the Second Young Master's side not give too great a justification to everyone? They will be bitten from all sides.”

The Fourth Young Master crossed his arms.

“Then, is it indeed a political offensive…”

“It should be that way.”

In the end, the Fourth Young Master of that day could not understand Yeon So-hyeon's arrangements.

* * *

Perfectly.

The Fourth Young Master of now understood.

“…If we had still remained over there.”

The new underground command room Yeon So-hyeon had prepared.

In the place now designated as the Allied Command, the scholars of the Fourth Young Master's side who were looking out the small window at the situation outside were buzzing.

“By now, we would have all been crushed to death.”

Rumble—.

Far away in the lower stream, the building of the Joint Business Headquarters was collapsing with a loud roar.

“…To think there is bombardment.”

“I knew those Second Young Master bastards were madmen, but this…”

However.

The new command room Yeon So-hyeon had prepared on that day was in the upper stream, and since it was even underground they were safe from the bombardment.

“The forces deployed in the lower and middle streams are retreating according to instructions!”

“What about dispersion?! Surely they are dispersing enough?!”

“All forces have completed dispersion! The warriors of the War Advisory Council are controlling the situation on the scene!”

“The arriving forces are regrouping in the upper stream!”

Amidst the tidal wave of reports and instructions flying back and forth in confusion, the middle-aged woman standing beside the Fourth Young Master let out a sigh.

“Good grief. There is a mountain of work piled up, and these madmen…!”

The owner of that aggressive tone was none other than Red Venom Spider.

She, who was in charge of Yeon So-hyeon's administration building, had visited the Valley of Sin for a report, only to get stranded.

“The Eldest Young Master told me to come report, so I rushed here in the middle of the night without even being able to wipe the sleep from my eyes! Yet the Eldest Young Master himself is said to have gone to the Main Family…!”

Did she have no sense of tension?

Even in this situation, her tone was exceptionally casual.

“Still, you see.”

The Fourth Young Master, who had been lost in thought, spoke to her.

“In this situation, if a force like you had been inside the Main Family, it would have been a great waste.”

Red Venom Spider nodded with a lukewarm expression.

“…That is true.”

Although she was outstanding enough in administration for Yeon So-hyeon to entrust his administration building to her administration was not her 'specialty'.

Was Yeon So-hyeon's action of calling her to the Valley of Sin at this hour simply a mistake or a coincidence?

“What if.”

“What if?”

The Fourth Young Master's eyes narrowed.

“Yes. What if.”

He spoke to her, looking at the strategic map where tokens were being arranged in a busy manner.

“What would it have been like if we had not drafted defensive strategies in advance, trained the troops, and placed them on standby so they could fight at any time?”

“Why even say that? It would be annihilation.”

Red Venom Spider shrugged her shoulders and pointed toward the direction where their business headquarters had been located.

“No doubt, by now, the entire command would be buried under there.”

Even if those with high realms or the lucky ones, including the Fourth Young Master, had saved their lives the function of the command would have been paralyzed.

“Then, you see.”

Fourth Young Master Yeon Bi's words were not finished.

“What would it have been like if we had not conquered the Valley of Sin so quickly?”

“Ugh.”

Red Venom Spider shook her head as if she did not even want to imagine it.

“If so, by now, we would have to deal with enemies coming from above and below, from both sides.”

There would not have been the leisure to regroup in the upper stream safe from bombardment and reorganize the ranks.

“If so.”

Again, the Fourth Young Master's words continued.

“What would it have been like if the Dark Venerable had not cleaned up the Valley of Sin once beforehand?”

While everyone's attention in the Luoyang Sword Family was focused on the book price incident in the Inner Courtyard and the movements of the secluded Eldest Young Master the Dark Venerable had cleared the Valley of Sin.

“If so…”

Red Venom Spider pondered deeply, then answered cautiously.

“…Would the conquest battle of the Valley of Sin not still be ongoing by now?”

She added.

“Or we might not have even attempted to conquer it at all.”

The Three-Five Union, the Black River Gang, the White Bone Gang.

They had newly taken their places after the Dark Venerable's cleanup and because they were even split into three factions and competing among themselves, their defense was that much weaker.

“Or else, we would still be preparing for the conquest…”

She trailed off like that.

Because she also began to feel that the Fourth Young Master was not simply throwing 'what if' questions in this situation for no reason.

Because she also began to feel it.

“What if we.”

Watching her expression gradually change the Fourth Young Master continued the assumptions.

“Had not cleaned up the spies swarming in our interior?”

That was even a story from before the book price incident broke out in the Inner Courtyard.

What if, last winter Yeon So-hyeon, whom he met after a long time, in his meeting with the Fourth Young Master, had not given him a hint that he would move again?

And thus, if the Fourth Young Master had not completely reorganized his organization to help Yeon So-hyeon?

“…We would have left those spies alone to avoid provoking the Second Young Master's side and the Third Young Master's side.”

Since that was the tacit agreement of the Fourth Young Master's side, whose influence and foundation were poor.

“Then, and so—” now, having caught on from the Fourth Young Master's successive questions, Red Venom Spider spoke on behalf of the Fourth Young Master.

“And so, if we had left those spies alone.”

“The Second Young Master's side would have understood our movements inside out by now.”

At the situation that was dizzying just to assume, her eyes trembled slightly.

“In such a situation, if the Second Young Master's side had mobilized even extreme methods like now, we…”

Having spoken up to that point, she shut her mouth once, then reopened it with difficulty.

“We…”

But she could not speak any further than that.

On behalf of her who could not bring herself to continue, the Fourth Young Master completed the assumption.

“…If so, we would have lost everything.”

The Fourth Young Master's force was powerful in terms of combat, but.

By its nature, it was not suited for defensive battles.

Furthermore, if it was an unimaginable armed surprise attack by the enemy, the Fourth Young Master inwardly made the final assumption.

“Recovery would have been permanently impossible.”

What if Yeon So-hyeon had not made the decision to come out into the world again, how would history have flowed?

“…….”

Although all of this was nothing but a story of assumptions, in the Fourth Young Master's mind, the conclusion of the story within those assumptions was drawn as clearly as a picture.

“Big Brother!”

Perhaps, he would have wailed like that outside Pavilion of Perfect Enlightenment.

“Those bastards have destroyed my everything! Without blood or tears, they killed those who do not know a single martial art! They slaughtered them!”

Toward the heartless walls of Pavilion of Perfect Enlightenment toward his Big Brother who did not show his face and gave no answer, he would have poured out that grief.

“Big Brother! For this younger brother's sake, please show your face even just once! Big Brother!”

But.

“…….”

A smile was engraved on the Fourth Young Master's lips.

Those were all merely assumptions.

Now, the situation was vastly different.

“Enemy forces confirmed as belonging to the Six Men Association have been identified! On the scene, they are responding with delaying tactics!”

“Our forces dispatched via armored carriages have succeeded in protecting the rear of our retreating forces! They are currently engaged!”

What had coiled up in this Valley of Sin was not only the Fourth Young Master's elite combat forces.

“Our forces have the upper hand in terms of quality of troops! Tell them to utilize that point thoroughly!”

The government soldiers of the central office, the War Advisory Council, the martial monks who joined from the Emei Sect, Pavilion of Perfect Enlightenment's maid division, Crescent Moon Pavilion, the young chivalrous heroes belonging to the Spring of Luoyang, the elite forces of the House of Benevolence and Love, and so on.

The forces Yeon So-hyeon had gathered and bound together as an allied army were truly powerful.

Thus, the response to the enemies' surprise attack was taking place surprisingly smoothly.

“A report from the observation post!”

And, at that moment the report the Fourth Young Master had been waiting for came in.

“Identification of the enemy's bombardment location is complete! The enemy is a fleet near the Third Dock!”

“Deliver the firing data measured based on the identified enemy location to each artillery squad!”

On the roof of the headquarters, signallers holding flags moved their hands frantically.

“All artillery squads, ready for anti-ship firing!”

That was the moment the siege catapults, which Yeon So-hyeon had prepared for the conquest of the Valley of Sin, became war weapons for defense.

“To all artillery squads, the Fourth Young Master, who has taken temporary command, instructs!”

Fourth Young Master Yeon Bi, rising from his seat, shouted.

“Fire!”