Chapter 422: Reform (3)
After the new members of the Embroidered Uniform Guard joined, Mujin’s life gained a little breathing room as well.
At the very least, he could now sleep not beside Emperor Jianping, but in temporary quarters prepared next to the palace where the emperor stayed.
Even during the day, he gained two double-hours in which he could move separately from Emperor Jianping.
And Mujin made excellent use of those two double-hours.
“Hup!”
Which meant he devoted himself to lifting iron.
“Haah.”
Of course, lifting iron did not mean he had gone anywhere far away.
Around the time the sun began to set.
In the broad open space before the palace where Emperor Jianping stayed.
The sight of Mujin alternately lifting various pieces of iron had somehow begun to become one of the Forbidden City’s famous attractions.
The palace maids, who could never leave again once they entered the imperial palace, watched Mujin’s muscles with flushed faces.
“Oh my. Just look at those arms.”
“You really know nothing. A man is all about the lower body. The lower body. Look at those thighs. His clothes are going to tear apart.”
“And how would you know something like that? Have you ever been with a man?”
“There are some things you can say and some things you cannot!”
Meanwhile, the military officials responsible for guarding the Forbidden City watched Mujin’s iron lifting with a mixture of curiosity and suspicion.
“Hmm? Does exercise like that truly help in combat?”
“Did you not see the Commander during ‘that incident’? He was practically the Hegemon-King of Western Chu himself.”
“Was that not because of his innate talent?”
“Oh, please. If that is what you think, why do you train at all? It will all be decided by talent anyway.”
“Ahem.”
How long had so many people been showing interest in Mujin’s iron lifting?
Eventually, trouble finally occurred.
“Commander.”
“Yes, Your Majesty.”
Since it was not time for lifting iron, Mujin answered while standing guard behind Emperor Jianping as usual.
“I hear rather strange rumors have recently begun circulating about the Commander?”
“......Strange rumors, Your Majesty?”
“Perhaps because the weather has grown hotter, I hear rumors that the Commander sleeps while embracing lumps of iron. Just as other men embrace bamboo wives in their sleep.”
“Ah.......”
Having thought of something, Mujin cleared his throat once before answering.
“If iron is left somewhere filled with cool energy, it is actually far cooler than a bamboo wife. And while the coolness is part of the reason, the truth is that I continued exercising before sleep because it seemed wasteful not to use the time, then simply fell asleep like that.”
For some reason, Emperor Jianping wore an expression that seemed to say, ‘As expected.’
“Hmm. I thought that might be the case with the Commander. The problem is that people who tried sleeping while embracing iron in imitation of you have been injured after being crushed beneath it.”
“!?”
While Mujin stared in disbelief, Emperor Jianping added,
“Come to think of it, that is strange. Every one of those lumps of iron you lift looks exceedingly heavy. Are you not afraid of being injured by them while sleeping?”
“Ahahaha....... My skin and muscles have already achieved the Indestructible Vajra Body, so even if iron presses down upon me, my bones will not break and I will not bruise, Your Majesty.”
“I see.”
Emperor Jianping nodded as though satisfied, then continued.
“However, even if you remain unharmed, it is troublesome for people to keep injuring themselves while imitating you.”
Naturally, Mujin’s face darkened.
'Why did those bastards have to copy something so pointless?'
It would be troublesome if this ended with some ridiculous ‘ban on nighttime iron lifting.’
Fortunately, Mujin’s concerns proved groundless.
“In that case, why not properly teach your exercises to the military officials? Those who know nothing are imitating only the rumors they hear and what they see from the outside, leading to accidents. Would it not be better to teach them correctly?”
Mujin considered Emperor Jianping’s suggestion for only a brief moment before answering readily.
“I shall do so.”
Starting with Shaolin, then Wudang and the Zhuge Family, followed by the Zhongnan Sect and finally the Zhengmu League, Mujin’s exercise methods had already spread quite widely throughout the orthodox martial world.
There was no reason to act precious and try to hide them.
Once he decided to teach iron lifting to the military officials, something else occurred to Mujin, and he spoke.
“Then, Your Majesty, how about beginning rehabilitation exercises once more as well?”
“Rehabilitation exercises? My leg has already recovered, so is there truly any need?”
Emperor Jianping asked while recalling the treatments he had received at the Muscle and Bone Treatment Clinic, and Mujin grinned.
“I lacked skill at naming and called them ‘rehabilitation exercises,’ but in truth, those exercises are extraordinarily effective for maintaining one’s health. In particular, they are very good for the waist.”
Rehabilitation exercises.
In other words, Pilates.
In modern Korea, Pilates had somehow spread as though it were an exercise for women to manage their figures, but in reality, it was beneficial to everyone regardless of sex.
In particular, if the goal was not to build a muscular body but to ‘maintain one’s health,’ Pilates was far more suitable than bodybuilding or powerlifting-style exercise, commonly called working out.
At Mujin’s explanation, Emperor Jianping showed interest.
“Good for the waist, you say.......”
“Yes. Many of the exercises train the deep muscles of the core, strengthening the waist and allowing one to endure even after sitting and reading documents for long periods. And is there not also a saying that a man’s waist is his life?”
“Oh.”
Persuaded by Mujin’s words, Emperor Jianping eventually replied that he would begin rehabilitation exercises again.
Nightly affairs were important even to an emperor.
No, precisely because he was the emperor, they were all the more important.
***
From that day onward, Mujin began gathering the military officials who came and went through the Forbidden City and teaching them exercise for roughly half a double-hour each day.
Then, several days later, once the rehabilitation equipment sent by the Tianliu Merchant Association arrived, Emperor Jianping also resumed his rehabilitation exercises.
Since these were exercises performed by the emperor, it was only natural that the news spread widely.
“Have you heard? They say that exercise is extraordinarily good for the waist.”
“Indeed. Since beginning those exercises, His Majesty has apparently been able to spend even longer sitting and working. They say he no longer becomes tired even after sitting for long periods.”
“Hohoho. I have already been struggling as I grow older. Perhaps I should learn it myself.”
The high-ranking officials who heard the news first often exchanged such conversations, but none of them immediately began exercising.
After being exhausted by work, they had no desire to exercise on top of it.
The reason they eventually learned Pilates, which was called rehabilitation exercise, was because of their wives.
A branch of the Tianliu Muscle and Bone Treatment Clinic had been built near Beijing.
Two middle-aged men of sufficiently high rank to be called high-ranking officials happened to encounter each other before it.
“......Did your wife send you as well?”
“Hohoho. It appears you cannot resist your wife’s nagging either.”
The two middle-aged men, sharing the pain of those in the same situation, let out deep sighs and stared with strange expressions at the signboard bearing the words [Muscle and Bone Treatment Clinic].
The reason they had been sold off to this place was simple.
Rumors had quietly begun spreading that rehabilitation exercise was good for the waist.
At some point, the emperor had begun taking a more active role in his nightly affairs, and the delighted cries of the empress and imperial consorts were supposedly heard every night.
Eventually, the rumor spread even into the inner quarters of every household.
The wives, who had practically been living as widows because their husbands were exhausted by work during the day and did nothing but collapse and rest or drink after returning home in the evening, finally rose in revolt.
***
Several days later.
The temporary quarters beside Emperor Jianping’s palace.
After finishing his exercises before going to bed, Mujin lit a candle and unfolded a letter.
It was a letter sent by his wife, Liu Xuehua.
It described how their still-young children were growing day by day and told him not to worry because she and the children were living well.
Faint tears gathered in Mujin’s eyes as he read it.
Even though he was relieving at least a little stress through iron lifting, Mujin had already been forcibly separated from his family for several months, so the letter could only make his heart ache.
No.
Relieving stress through iron lifting was merely a kind of compulsion born from habits ingrained in his body and his martial arts in the first place.
It could not soothe his longing for his wife and children.
Of course, he could bring his wife and children to Beijing even now, but there was still the issue of safety.
To anyone who looked, Mujin was one of the closest aides of the current emperor, Emperor Jianping.
Anyone connected to the previous emperor, Emperor Taiping, or dissatisfied with Emperor Jianping would naturally bear resentment toward Mujin.
The problem was Mujin’s overwhelming martial strength, which made directly targeting him nearly impossible.
From their perspective, Mujin’s family would be the most tempting prey.
Thus, Mujin’s family was currently spending each day under the Zhengmu League’s strict protection.
It would be safest if Mujin personally guarded them, but if Emperor Jianping died, all their efforts until now would come to nothing.
It was an unavoidable second-best option.
As Mujin read his wife’s letter and soothed his longing even slightly.
Upon checking the contents written at the end of the letter, Mujin let out a quiet chuckle.
- Recently, beginning in Beijing, the number of officials visiting the Muscle and Bone Treatment Clinic has been increasing with every passing day. When I imagine you concerning yourself with your wife’s family business even there, I can only wish that we may meet again even one day sooner.
Part of his laughter came from his wife’s affectionate words.
But there was another reason.
“As expected, no matter where you go in the world, men lose their minds the moment they hear something is good for virility.”
Mujin found it amusing because he knew why the officials were visiting the Muscle and Bone Treatment Clinic.
He never imagined that a considerable number of them had not gone there of their own accord, but had been forcibly sold off by their wives.
***
Several months passed.
Beginning with the road construction led by Mugung, various state projects were implemented steadily, and thanks to relief grain and a variety of employment opportunities, the people’s lives gradually began to stabilize.
Furthermore, rehabilitation exercises spread among the civil officials, while iron lifting became fashionable among the military officials, until both had spread throughout the Central Plains.
Around that time, Emperor Jianping was wearing a deeply troubled expression for some reason.
“Your Majesty. Is there still something weighing upon your mind?”
“I am worried about the people’s future.”
“The people’s future, Your Majesty?”
“Indeed. We can sustain the current construction projects with the money seized during the previous purge, but is what comes afterward not the problem? Once this work ends, how will those people make a living?”
There was still easily more than a year remaining before the current projects would be completed, yet Emperor Jianping was already considering what would come afterward.
'New employment.......'
Once the construction ended, some would return to their original work.
Farmers would return to farming, while those who had worked in handicrafts would return to their crafts.
And even without construction led by the empire, private construction projects would occasionally exist, so those who had learned the work during the current projects could continue working in that field.
Even so, once state-scale projects of this magnitude ended, there would inevitably be excess labor.
After considering the matter for a moment, Mujin spoke.
“How about turning our attention abroad instead?”
“Abroad? Are you suggesting that We start another war?”
Emperor Jianping frowned.
The justification through which he had seized imperial authority had been Emperor Taiping’s wars in the first place, so starting another war would be nothing less than self-destruction.
“I was speaking not of war, but of trade.”
“Trade.... Trade, you say.......”
The greatest reason Mujin had thought of this solution was the letters he had recently exchanged with Liu Xuehua.
More precisely, it was the information about the Tianliu Merchant Association written in her letter.
Thanks to Mugung’s road construction, the number of convenient routes had increased, while the presence of the Foolish Old Man Road Party had also caused the number of bandits throughout the Central Plains to decrease drastically.
As a result, merchant journeys had become far easier, but the problem was the armed escorts.
Their usefulness was gradually diminishing.
While listening to Emperor Jianping’s concern, Mujin recalled the contents of that letter and came up with a new idea.
If merchant journeys were created that traveled not within the Central Plains, but to more distant lands, perhaps they would create not only a new use for those now-unneeded armed escorts, but new employment as well.
“The Central Plains is gradually finding stability thanks to Your Majesty’s reign. The problem is that because of this, those who have learned martial arts are instead losing work. How about using them as armed escorts and increasing the number of merchant caravans capable of traveling abroad?”
“Hmm. If the number of merchant caravans increases, the number of people traveling back and forth will also increase, and businesses along those routes will multiply as well. It certainly would create more work.”
However, there was one obstacle to this plan.
Generally, trade could be divided into maritime trade and overland trade.
And among them, there was one region that absolutely had to be opened in order to establish overland trade.
“It appears the time has come to bring them into the fold.”
The people Emperor Jianping referred to as ‘them’ were the rulers of Xinjiang and Tibet, regions called the outer lands by martial artists.
The Heavenly Demon Divine Cult.
And within Xinjiang and Tibet, which the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult controlled, there existed the ‘Silk Road,’ once used for exchange with the Western world.
***
In order to absorb the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult into the people of the Central Plains, and more importantly, to use the Silk Road to properly resume trade with the West, Emperor Jianping wrote an imperial edict and sent it to Xinjiang.
Then, roughly ten days later.
A reply from the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult arrived at the Forbidden City.
“.......”
After reading the reply, Emperor Jianping looked toward Mujin with a strange expression for some reason.
“Read it.”
“???”
Puzzled, Mujin unfolded the letter Emperor Jianping handed him.
And Mujin likewise could not hide his bewildered expression.
What was written there was not a reply to the emperor’s imperial edict.
Various things had been written at the beginning of the letter, but in the end, the most important content appeared at its conclusion.
- As the Heavenly Demon of the Divine Cult, which follows the law of the strong, it is impossible for me to obey the will of the weak. Therefore, I shall exchange blows with the Commander of the Embroidered Uniform Guard, known as the strongest man in the Central Plains, and determine the strongest man under heaven before deciding whether to accept or refuse.
It was a challenge from the Heavenly Demon, Gu Yangpae, directed at Mujin.