301
Return to Yangzhou — "The World Has Started Moving"
Spring came late to Yangzhou.
Even if the cherry blossoms had already fallen in Jiangnan, cold wind still lived along this riverbank.
Park Seongjin's delegation had returned three days ago.
People were shocked for one reason alone—
he came back alive.
Then they noticed something else.
His face was different.
He had grown quieter.
He spoke less.
Even his steps carried more weight.
That evening, he entered Yi Injung's tent.
The senior commander had been waiting a long time.
"So."
"What did Chen Youliang say?"
Yi Injung's voice was low and rough—
the kind of tone only a man who'd waited too long for war could have.
Park Seongjin lowered his head for a moment.
"He put down that talk about Heaven… and chose the people."
"He changed."
"What?"
Yi Injung lifted his head.
Park Seongjin continued, slow and steady.
"He chose men over Heaven."
"He gathered the people, rebuilt the city, opened his granaries."
"He said he would fight in their name."
"And he promised to stand with us."
For a while, Yi Injung said nothing.
More than the outcome of the negotiation, the fact that a man had changed hit him harder.
He tapped the tabletop with one finger.
The sound was strangely heavy.
"He's a king, then."
"An actual king."
To them, king didn't mean domination.
It meant taking responsibility for the people as duty.
"Yes," Park Seongjin answered.
"The world will shake."
"Whether it helps us… or becomes another storm, I can't tell yet."
Park Seongjin replied quietly.
"It helps us."
"We gained the strongest partner we could."
Yi Injung let out a short, amused breath.
"You learned that line from Master Yoon Dam."
Park Seongjin smiled and nodded.
"Yes."
A moment later, Yoon Dam entered the tent.
His steps were slow.
His eyes were calm.
He sat without speaking, then looked between them with a faint smile.
"Chen Youliang changed?"
Yi Injung looked up.
"To move the center from Heaven to people… that means—"
Yoon Dam finished softly.
"People are like water."
"That is the Way."
His voice was low, but clear.
He always distrusted the habit of forcing every matter into one single, unified explanation.
And yet, in the end, he still tried to turn it into a path.
Park Seongjin bowed his head.
Yoon Dam narrowed his eyes slightly.
"He reached it."
"A man who served Heaven now serves the people."
"The world changes."
Yi Injung's expression remained skeptical.
"Politics often puts the people in front when it needs something."
"It's rare to see anyone keep those words to the end."
Yoon Dam smiled.
"The Way is like water."
"If it stays, it clouds."
"If it flows, it takes shape."
"What you're seeing is the moment the water begins to turn."
"Chen Youliang's change moved hearts."
"And those hearts have started touching ten thousand lives."
"The shape of Jiangnan will change now."
He glanced at Park Seongjin.
"That is your doing, Jungnang."
Park Seongjin answered at once.
"It's because of your guidance."
Outside the tent, spring rain was falling again.
Park Seongjin lifted his head and listened.
Raindrops struck the canvas and ran down in thin lines.
He didn't feel like he'd done anything worthy of being called merit.
He couldn't even guess what it would lead to.
But that sound—quiet, steady, deep—
felt like it was connecting far away,
like Jiangnan's shifting hearts.
He murmured under his breath.
"The world… has started to change."
Yoon Dam smiled.
"Not the world."
"People have started moving."
Hearing that, Yi Injung—buried in the fatigue of long war—felt something like hope.
If Jiangnan could grow a ruler of restraint instead of oppression,
responsibility instead of provocation,
a man who actually tried for the people—
Then perhaps the peace he'd carried for years might finally touch reality.
He rose slowly.
---*
Yoon Dam's Proclamation — "A War That Delivers Intent"
After the rain in Yangzhou stopped, Yoon Dam spread paper across the table inside the tent.
There were brushes and ink.
Beside them lay Park Seongjin's record from Nanjing.
Yoon Dam spoke quietly.
"Now the brush must go before the sword."
Yi Injung asked,
"You mean we can win a war with ink?"
Yoon Dam smiled.
"The war has already begun."
"I mean we fight with the mouth—through diplomacy."
He lifted the brush and wrote the first line.
The scent of fresh ink filled the tent.
---*
The Principle of Heaven's Mandate (天命之理) is rooted in the human heart (固在人心).
(Heaven is far; people are near.)
A ruler claims to govern by Heaven (君以天治), yet the people live by the earth (民以地生).
(Heaven may sit above, but the people survive below.)
Now the chaos of the southern lands (今南土之亂) has lasted long (久矣), and the people's lives have fallen into ruin (民生塗炭).
(This disorder has endured, and the people have been ground into mud and ash.)
Heaven is silent, and only blades have spoken.
Yet Goryeo's army rose for righteousness (高麗兵出於義), and Chen Youliang raised his host by the will of the people (陳友諒起於民).
(Goryeo rises by Yi—righteous cause; Chen rises by the people's intent.)
When these two just causes join (是二義合), the Way of the realm (天下之道) will settle of itself (自平).
Those who contend by blood will fall (以血爭者敗).
Those who unite by heart will flourish (以心合者昌).
Therefore I proclaim this to all under Heaven (故以此文告於天下).
All people of north and south (凡在南北之人): do not make enemies of one another because states differ (勿以國異爲敵).
Take the human heart as Heaven (以人心爲天).
Blood can be stopped (血可止).
The heart does not die (心不死).
Our war today is war for the people (今我之戰 爲民而戰).
Our soldiers today are soldiers who guard righteousness (今我之兵 護義之兵).
The great matter of the realm (天下之大) rests in one heart (一心).
Make the heart your nation (以心爲國).
Make the Way your sword (以道爲劍).
Then conflict may cease—
and even if it cannot, the blood spilled will not be wasted.
Heaven is silent, but people speak.
Heaven is far, but people are near.
Therefore: the people's will is Heaven's mandate (民心卽天命).
Post this proclamation across the commanderies,
and submit a copy to Beiping (北平).
Do not ask for Heaven's will—
follow the will of people.
Yoon Dam set down the brush and looked up at Park Seongjin.
"Send this south.
Nanjing, Huai'an, and the towns of Jiangdong."
"And send one copy north as well—into the court at Beiping."
Park Seongjin asked, startled,
"Beijing too?
They're Yuan nobles."
Yoon Dam nodded.
"They must hear it as well."
"That this war is not rebellion—it is relief."
"And Chen Youliang's host must not collide with ours."
"If they tangle, the flow turns muddy."
Yi Injung chuckled low.
"So you've abandoned Heaven… and now you send letters to the Empire?"
Yoon Dam answered evenly.
"Heaven is silent."
"So we appeal to people."
"That is what the Way has always been."
From that night on, dozens of clerks and soldiers wrote through the dark.
The same text was copied again and again onto thin paper.
When the ink dried, soldiers rolled the sheets into small scrolls.
At dawn, riders and couriers mounted fast horses and scattered in every direction.
They crossed rivers and slipped into Nanjing's alleys and Huai'an's markets.
Some pasted the proclamation on temple walls.
Some nailed it above the posts of a busy street.
"Heaven is far; people are near."
The line moved from mouth to mouth.
In Nanjing, children began to chant it.
In Huai'an, farmers gathered at night and repeated it under lamplight.
"Goryeo joined hands with the southern host."
"The northern armies won't strike us now."
"People take Heaven's place…"
In the middle of fear, the words seeped in like hope.
And people began to hold a thought they hadn't dared to hold for a long time—
That this war might actually end.