- Training Begins 2
It was around a month later that Lee Hui’s principle of no exceptions, and Soun’s effort, began to bear fruit.
One day he shot his bow, swung his spear, chased a fleeing mock enemy, and hooked the man’s legs.
When roles reversed, he hid until sundown without being caught, and even while running away he sprang left and right to exhaust his pursuer.
In swordsmanship, because he had already learned a family style, he actually overtook the older men.
When they sparred with wooden swords, he put opponents down with ease.
The army’s sword—unbound by form and driven by momentum—was still beaten down by Soun’s precise and fast blade, and even seniors praised as skilled were dropped.
The family style he had learned, the Yu household sword method, was not a famous school, but it was faithful to the basics.
It valued form and force, and struck accurately—honestly—bringing an enemy down cleanly.
He rushed in like a squirrel, blocking and slipping away, grinding his opponent down as he toyed with them.
The Great General sat facing Lee Hui.
“How is the kid?”
Jin Mugwang called Soun “the kid.”
“The kid? You mean Yu Soun? He’s keeping up well.
At first he couldn’t even draw a bowstring and he couldn’t lift the spear, but as training built his strength, he’s been keeping pace.”
“Is that so?”
The Great General showed interest.
It was rather strange that a young boy could keep up with harsh military training.
“He’s doing exactly what the adults do…”
“Yes.
Archery, horsemanship, spear work, ambush and pursuit, swordsmanship…
He’s keeping up with most of it.”
“I saw him once, crawling on all fours around the outside of the camp.”
“It’s training to build strength.
He needed chest muscle—he couldn’t draw the string.
Once he built strength and could draw, he’s dead accurate.
He’s even hitting targets from a running horse.
You can see the makings of a master archer.”
“That would make sense.
He’s been practicing martial arts since childhood.”
“Didn’t you call him a saengwon? The others call him Yu Saengwon as well.”
“He is a saengwon, yes.
Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.
But his father hated the boy becoming soft and purely scholarly.
Lord Yu is also an heir to the Hanam Yu family sword method…
Its inner principles have probably already been passed down to the child.
I don’t know how much he’s received, but if he brings it to completion, it’s a sword method that cannot be ignored.”
“Is that so?”
“More than that—your training method is unusual. There’s much to learn from it.”
“Thank you. But…”
Lee Hui hesitated.
He wanted to say something, but it felt improper, so he faltered.
“But what?”
“He’s a talented child.
I wondered if it might be better to teach him more.”
“More?”
“I have no internal cultivation, so reaching greatness is difficult.
The army doesn’t do separate training on the side, but… if, as the boy says, he means to take revenge, I thought it might be necessary.”
The Great General looked at Lee Hui steadily.
“What is the intention behind those words?”
“If he is a child you value, I thought… perhaps you might guide him directly.
Our Baekryong training is meant to train ordinary soldiers, not to raise exceptional martial men.
Shooting well, riding well, hiding well, pursuing well—
and of course, as you said, we must be able to meet the enemy as heavy cavalry and drive them back—
but in reality it isn’t without difficulty.”
“Are you saying, make him into a commander?”
“Yes.
He has the aptitude.
His weapons are large and heavy, that’s all—but he’s a boy who already knows martial arts.
He showed it once with his small sword: a complete sword path, proper allocation of strength, even anticipating the opponent’s lines…
He had learned form and force well.
Military training may benefit a child like that, but it could also make growth harder.”
Jin Mugwang smiled faintly and turned his head.
“I’m busy.”
All that explanation was dismissed with a single sentence.
All his talk about the child suddenly felt pointless.
If the Great General was busy, what could be said?
It did not mean he refused, but it cut off further speech.
The fingertips of Great General Jin Mugwang, resting on the table, began tapping lightly—tap, tap.
He was likely thinking of something else.
These days, his work was to assume a battle with Gacheukrip, align countless strategies and tactics, and make them collide in his mind.
“Then you do it, Lee Hui.”
“That would be difficult.
I must treat all soldiers fairly and without private bias (公平無私), and it could be seen oddly by the others.”
“Then is it acceptable if I do it?
Are you saying I don’t have to be fair and without private bias?”
“No.
Only… you do not command the troops directly on the ground every moment.
You stand one step removed, so I thought it might be less noticeable.”
“You’ve grown quite talkative.”
“Hah…”
Lee Hui stopped speaking and drew in a breath.
Before the Great General, he always shrank.
The man always grasped the point, then brushed aside clumsy requests.
“I support training children into soldiers, but I never gave an order saying not to train them into outstanding commanders.
Baekryong is a special unit, so even if you train beyond that, I will not object.
Your belief that there is no need to do so seems farther from my intent than you realize.
I do not dislike the idea of them becoming masters of martial skill.
I’m the one who frets that we cannot make them so.
There is no way for us to win by meeting a mounted enemy head-on while firing bows from horseback.
The reason is simple.
We do not have horses.
Ambush and raid.
A frontal battle, and heavy infantry… well, if they run, that’s that.
The fact that a fight doesn’t happen is the reality we live in.
If we can build a Baekryong that is one against a hundred, and if the number of our horses steadily increases, then we can dream differently.
To defeat the enemy.
Train the children.”
Lee Hui understood the Great General’s intent.
He had spared no support for Baekryong, and he could clearly recall again why additional duties had been assigned.
Train them more—that was Jin Mugwang’s intent.
Jin Mugwang picked up a booklet from the table behind him, flipped it open roughly, then tossed it to Lee Hui.
“It’s from the imperial armory archive.
It began from what the martial world uses, but it isn’t the same.
It aligns with the study you’ve learned as well.
Teach it to the boys. Immediately.
And for that child—don’t be self-conscious. Raise him.
He’ll become an example to the others.
He’s upright, a saengwon, and though young he works hard.
He has talent.
Don’t flatten them into the same level.
Another method is to gather the exceptional ones separately and train them.
Starting tomorrow, teach this.”
Receiving a martial manual was an extraordinary thing.
Lee Hui knelt and accepted the book with both hands.
On its cover was written an absurd title:
Dongseo Gogeum Muye Chongram (東西古今武藝總藍)*
*A book that compiles all martial arts of the East and West, past and present.