CHAOS IN THE CITIES

"Rather than die in disgrace, For Shilla I shall take my own life and leave you without satiety." The young man added as he raised his sword while General Yunchung trying to reach him as fast as he could he stubbed himself in his abdomen and he slit his bowels.

He fell to the ground and General Yunchung shouted with so much rage.

"To the very end he wouldn't hold his enemy's life in his own hands.

Kim Chunchu's daughter dragged herself across the ground towards her husband and she looked at him.

"Wake up." she shouted as she shook him violently but he showed no signs of movement he had already breathed his very last.

She looked at the sword that was in her husband's eyes right when General Yunchung looked the other side disappointed.

"I loved you with all my heart I was so ready even if to die for you, without you my life is meaningless as well." She said as she took the sword into her hands and General Yunchung turned to look at her.

"If there is another life, I want to be there with you, even in death or we are burning in flames of eternal Nirvana I want to be there with you because to the very end I have loved you even Paekche was nothing much that could ever come between us." She added as she also raised it into the air and she stubbed herself through the chest she fell down right by her husband's side.

Her face facing his and her eyes looking at his closed ones, it was as though he was sleeping he was nonetheless the most beautiful man that she had ever seen.

Tightening her hands around his and shedding her tears she slowly closed her eyes as she smiled having died so happily.

"Your Excellency, Daeya is ours." One of the soldiers said.

"We are victorious." Another added.

"Nevertheless, with heavy resistance we have heavy casualties only three thousand and five hundred of us survive." General Yunchung said as he sighed.

"Send word to his Majesty the King and tell him that Daeya is now ours." General Yunchung ordered.

"Yes Your Excellency." The messenger replied as he bowed his head and he walked away.

"What should we do about these people?" One of the soldiers Asked.

"Sever the heads of that pitiful couple and along with their other body parts hang them on the walls of Daeya.

Let it be a message to Shilla that this time around we are determined and the Queen's head is next." General Yunchung replied.

"Yes Your Excellency." The soldiers replied as they carried away the two corpses while the angry General clenched his fists.

He'd captured the Fortress but he'd lost for if he couldn't kill the enemy with his sword and the enemy committed suicide right in front of his eyes, he had perished with his Honor.

Queen Seondeok still sat within her Chambers along with Kim Chunchu in silence as their minds were lost in thought.

Her Majesty's wandered off to the last words that Seungman had said before she had departed for Tang as they lingered at the back of her head.

"If we do not so anything sooner or later to the eyes of the people the Calamity of the Female Ruler Jin shall be upon our land reigning as an inconsolable scourge." She'd warned.

"For decades those that preceded me tried and they never surrendered, they fought to their last breath that when I think of it is much better if I had Paekche to vanquish me rather than give up the wealth and the pride of my people.

If in his eyes I am just a woman let me be so but the rest of the world won't call me too weak my pride is just as much as his and I as well consider myself to be just as stubborn as he might be." She'd shown so much confidence in herself.

"Was letting you go to Tang really the right thing for me to do?" Queen Seondeok asked herself when through the doors of her Chambers her Sister Princess Cheonmyeong walked through.

"Your Majesty." She said as she approached her sister slowly that even Kim Chunchu was surprised.

"Mother?" He called.

"Cheonmyeong, what's wrong?" Queen Seondeok asked.

"Disaster has befallen Shilla." Cheonmyeong said as she turned around and she looked at Chunchu and walking closer to him she held his cheeks.

"Chunchu." She cried.

"Mother, what's wrong?" Kim Chunchu Asked.

"My dear son." Princess Cheonmyeong cried out bitterly.

"Has anything happened to father?" Kim Chunchu asked.

"Kim Yongsu?" Queen Seondeok asked.

"Daeya..." Princess Cheonmyeong replied.

"Mother, what happened at Daeya?" Kim Chunchu asked.

"Daeya was held under siege yesterday evening and today at dawn, she has fallen." Princess Cheonmyeong replied.

"If Daeya has fallen then does that mean....?" Kim Chunchu asked.

"No." Queen Seondeok said very much surprised.

"Yes Chunchu." Princess Cheonmyeong replied, "Your child, you dearest daughter and her husband were murdered." Princess Cheonmyeong added.

"No." Kim Chunchu said, "No mother." He added.

"Yes Chunchu." Princess Cheonmyeong replied, "as if that was not enough General Yunchung had their bodies cut to pieces and they were hung at the walls of Daeya." She added.

"No, no, no." Kim Chunchu said as he nodded his head in disbelief while his became teary.

He hurriedly got away and he strode out of the room leaving his mother shedding tears while Queen Seondeok who I'm trying her level best to hold hers back was unsuccessful she eventually let the drop.

Kim Chunchu got outside where Geumyang had been waiting and seeing his master running away he followed him.

"Your Highness." He cried after him but Kim Chunchu didn't halt in his footsteps as he continued further and further away towards his own residence.

"What?" Bidam said.

"The scouts have reported that Daeya was under siege by yesterday evening and today morning, the Paekcheans conquered it." Yeomjong replied.

"Our Primary stronghold in the south has been lost." Bidam remarked.

"General Yunchung to exert his anger on the resistance that had taken the lives of very many of his men had the son in law of Kim Chunchu along with his daughter killed and cut to pieces which were displayed on the walls of the Fortress." Yeomjong replied.

"I am sure that by now Kim Chunchu should be burning with so much rage and so much grief at the same time." Bidam said.

"Who wouldn't Your Excellency, after all the daughter he lost was his favourite from his first wife who died." Yeomjong remarked.

"Forget it, by now I suppose that the Queen should be suffering so much." Bidam said.

"Isn't this the right time for you to visit Her Majesty?" Yeomjong asked.

"Finally the time is right." Bidam replied.

"Then shouldn't we be on our way?" Yeomjong asked.

"You take care of something else." Bidam said.

"What Your Excellency?" Yeomjong asked.

"Shouldn't you arrange for my meeting with the others tonight?" Bidam asked.

"Yes Your Excellency." Yeomjong replied as Bidam stood up from where he was seated.

"I'm in my way now." He said as he patted Yeomjong's left shoulder and he walked out of the room leaving him inside alone.

"Up to now I can never understand his thoughts like I'd expected to." Yeomjong remarked as he nodded his head while he too walked out of the room.

Kim Chunchu had ran for a very long distance he hurriedly stopped in front of his late wife's tombstone and there he looked at it as he went down onto his knees.

He was crying bitterly as he stretched his hand and he felt it but bowing his head down his tears fell onto the offerings there.

"Boryang?" Kim Chunchu said as he caressed the tombstone.

"I failed." He added as he sobbed their quietly.

Geumyang who had followed stood by and watched from a distance.

"How could I have not kept her alive all along?" Kim Chunchu asked himself, "I loved that girl and I cherished her more than anything because she was the last thing that you ever left behind for me in this world." He added.

He bowed his head.

"As a father how can I live without her, I hoped that with her husband they'd give me children but sadly so young as she is she was departed from this world and in that distance there is Daeya.

She stands unmoved having feasted on her blood and with her pale grey walls she is the fortification that deserted me and you and has let us down." Kim Chunchu cried.

He raised his head gently and he looked at the words that were written on the tombstone.

As I had loved you, I cherished you, along with yourself you have taken our daughter and left me all alone.

Cursed is that land that has quenched it's thirst with her life, cursed are the walls wherein her remains lie not even granted a proper burial that is befitting of a Princess and a true born blood.

In an instant as it is right now have I anything left to defend that was yours?" Kim Chunchu asked as he nodded his head and looked up at the sky.

"Do you watch from up there then I won't blame you if you find fault in me but I assure you that I shall pay back tenfold for the loss that I have suffered here today and for the life of our daughter.

Be my strength and I shall march up and claim a million lives in her place, and I shall tear down Paekche from top to bottom and leave nothing for General Yunchung.

I'll turn King Uija and his entire household into slaves they'll curse their lives, dismantle all their tombstones and their graveyards as well as burning down the homes of those Generals.

For the feud of blood that is between us I can't be consoled in my search for vengeance, one thing is certain I'll be the very bane that shall drag them all to hell they'd forever die cursing my name." Kim Chunchu said.

"Your Highness." Geumyang called.

He didn't turn and instead he chose to ignore the call.

"General Yushin and all the others have set a frontier at the East of River Naktong and there they shall subdue the Paekcheans from advancing further into Seoraebeol." Geumyang added.

Kim Chunchu stood up as he wiped his tears abd slowly, he turned around and he faced Geumyang with a very bitter look in his eyes he was enraged.

"Geumyang?" He called.

"Yes Your Highness?" Geumyang replied.

"I want you to prepare for me the fastest horse." Kim Chunchu replied, "Along with it get me my suit of armor." He added.

"Your Highness, shall I come with you?" Geumyang asked.

"Before me the battlefield awaits, behind there is Seoraebeol along with my very own children." Kim Chunchu replied.

"Regardless of the situation Your Highness, you are master and I chose to follow you all the days of my life." Geumyang said.

"Then ready yourself because we ride to the East side of the Naktong River." Kim Chunchu commanded.

"Yes Your Highness." Geumyang replied as he bowed his head and turned around leaving Kim Chunchu standing there alone.

He turned around and looked at the tombstone.

"I shall redeem the remnants of our daughter and I shall rest them all together with her husband by your side." Kim Chunchu said, "For upon the dawn of that war, for Her sake and yours to exact my vengeance, I shall return Victorious." He vowed so coldly.

Queen Seondeok was walking around the Palace so lifelessly as she remembered the words that her sister had said to her.

"Your child, you dearest daughter and her husband were murdered." She'd mourned for Kim Chunchu. "as if that was not enough General Yunchung had their bodies cut to pieces and they were hung at the walls of Daeya." She'd added.

She halted at the balcony that overlooked the pond that was within her courtyard and there she raised up her eyes towards the morning sky as she shed a few tears.

Bidam Rang walked up to her.

"Your Majesty." He said.

"Tell me Bidam." Queen Seondeok said.

"What is it Your Majesty?" Bidam asked me.

"Has everything that I had ever worked so hard for come to this?" Queen Seondeok asked.

"Your Majesty, in life there is both good and bad, fortune and misfortune." Bidam remarked.

There is nothing more uneasy than this, there is no burden much greater." Queen Seondeok said.

"Your Majesty, I do believe that the Empire hasn't come to an end and if you can confide in me your deepest thoughts I am more than willing to bear them with you." Bidam said.

"My predeccessors were all very great men that fought so hard to enlarge this our heavenly kingdom and here I am only fighting so hard to sustain it." Queen Seondeok said.

"Conquest is not the most difficult task because with it you help a Nation grow, rather, to sustain us the most ordurous cause because with it there is a standard that you must maintain and there is a strength that you must grow to take the country through a storm." Bidam said.

"Is this all because of me?" Queen Seondeok asked.

"The world itself Your Majesty was never fair to begin with." Bidam remarked.

"I can't help but worry, if there is a day that I am gone, with such opposition and pressure that is amounting into chaos on both sides and our borders are crumbling, who is fit enough to inherit my Glorious Kingdom?" Queen Seondeok asked.

"Your Majesty, all my life ever since you asked me to follow you I complied because I knew that you weren't just a Princess or a Hallowed bone daughter of the King, it was because I knew that you represented the people pf Shilla and each and everyone of their interests as well." Bidam replied.

"I know that to govern is not easy, up to now I wondered why my father never had time to tuck me into bed but now that I can hold not a child of my own and do the same I realise how awful a mother I would have been." Queen Seondeok said.

"How certain are you?" Bidam asked.

"I am afraid that historians looking back would attribute all the success to my great grandfather King Jinheung and say that I inherited a glorious empire from which I gained my fame." Queen Seondeok remarked.

"Yang Guang inherited a glorious empire from Yang Jian but what happened?" Bidam asked.

"Your too sweet at your words, aren't you bring so sympathetic?" Queen Seondeok asked.

"Not so far from the Palace lies Cheomseongdae, the land for it has fluorished, you have enabled some of the best scholars who are underprivileged rise to power in the court and compete regardless of their birth status.

You have been benevolent and generous and you have given people power, even peasants have had the chance to become land owners and on top of that when I look back ever since you ascended the throne, even in war your people don't starve to death they have plenty to eat and there us gold that has been showered upon the land." Bidam said.

"You make me realize I have done too much." Queen Seondeok said.

"There is still so much more that you have to do for Shilla." Bidam said.

"Can you Bidam stand by my side and help me guard this Glorious Kingdom even to my tomb?" Queen Seondeok asked.

Bidam sounding so surprised he looked the Queen in the eye.

"Your Majesty?" He said.

"Perhaps you think that you have done too much already but when I look around when there is no Alcheon, no Yushin, no Cheonmyeong and no Seungman you are all that I have left to lean on and share these too precious tears of mine." Queen Seondeok said.

"Your Majesty, I don't fault them because they love this Shilla as much as you do and for you even I am so willing to do the same." Bidam replied.

"Your innocence and your concern Everytime leaves me in tears, I gave laid into your shoulders a burden that should be mine you might age much faster than I can." Queen Seondeok said.

"Your Majesty, I am glad and if guarding this Kingdom for you us all that I could ever do to give you a peace of mind then I'd be more than willing to acquisce to your offer and embrace that demand." Bidam said.

Queen Seondeok looked up at the sky.

"Perhaps when all this is over and we still have Shilla I shall smile heartily if I must." she said.

"I hope that when you do so Your Majesty, on that very day I am standing right there by your side." Bidam said.

"I'm sure that you'll be." Queen Seondeok remarked as she smiled mildly with innocence Bidam where he stood too was moved by it.

"All my life I have been betrayed your Majesty I never thought that there was never any happiness that was cut out for me.

Now I realise that the world is too small I am the one to give comfort instead as it feels that I don't need it." Bidam said as he dared to so tightly hug the Queen that she herself was moved by him.

"Bidam?" She called.

"You do so much and you don't care about yourself and yet you give so much to the people around you." Bidam said.

"Calm down?" Queen Seondeok said.

"You told me once Your Majesty that there is no one that could ever hug you in the world and not even your sister could be the shoulder for you to cry on that even now I can tell in your sadness your heart is exploding with so much pain." Bidam replied.

"Thank you." Queen Seondeok said.

"For once even if I must lose my head, I wish you too could have that shoulder coming from me and my heart along with it Your Majesty." Bidam said.

"I accept it." Queen Seondeok said.

Bidam eventually pulled apart and he looked at the Queen in her eyes.

"You don't have to be alone because even when you worry so much about the others, rest assured I am right here and I shall walk with you all along." Bidam said.

"Yes." Queen Seondeok replied.

Gopheung Rang suddenly walked up to the both of them.

"Your Majesty?" He Said as he bowed his head.

"What is it?" Queen Seondeok asked.

"I carry with myself a message from Yushin Rang." Gopheung replied.

"What does Yushin wish to say to me?" Queen Seondeok asked.

"General Yushin and all the others have set a frontier at the East of River Naktong and there they shall subdue the Paekcheans from advancing further into Seoraebeol." Gopheung Rang replied.

"Setting a Frontier at the East of River Naktong?" Queen Seondeok asked.

"Yes Your Majesty." Gopheung replied.

"What about Sokham Fortress?" Queen Seondeok asked.

"I am afraid that Yushin Rang orchestrated a Scorched earth policy at Sokham Fortress." Gopheung Rang replied.

"Scorched earth policy?" Queen Seondeok said, "On whose order?" She added.

"Your Majesty even I don't know." Gopheung Rang replied.

"Bidam, I'll talk to you later." Queen Seondeok said.

"Yes Your Majesty." Bidam replied.

"There's a more important matter for me to deal with right now." Queen Seondeok said as she walked away leaving Bidam standing there alone and watching as the Queen vanished from his sight.

Eventually, he turned around and looked at the sky.

"Bidam, I believe that we were just in time." He said to himself as he smirked a little.

Seungman walked through the doors of Taiji Palace right down the aisle while being accompanied by Alcheon Rang and there she halted in front as she looked at the Tang Emperor Taizong who was seated on his dragon throne.

"Greetings Your Majesty." Seungman spoke fluently in their language.

"You are most welcome." Emperor Taizong said.

"I am here to convey a message from Her Majesty our female King to You the Great Emperor." Seungman said.

"You are much younger but given that she sent you over you must be very smart." Emperor Taizong said.

"Regardless of the institution that I represent abd perhaps humbling myself in your presence Your Majesty, for all this time I was hoping just as my master that you would change your mind." Seungman said.

"Her Majesty has already sent me way too many envoys I can't even recall the number abd clearly when the first time was, as it is you are desperate at this moment to seek our assistance to crush the enemy that is knocking at your doors." Emperor Taizong said.

"There is no hospitality from us and neither is their kindness from the enemy, I believe that the enemy is rather intending to break the door down." Seungman said.

"I am not as heartless as you might have been to try and go and seek assistance from Gorguryeo to turn against me." Emperor Taizong said.

"In every world we must survive because it is the Paramount purpose for which we live, kill or be killed, hunt or be hunted down our Loyalty is as long as we can save our necks." Seungman replied.

"That means so much coming from you but now over thirty battles ever since your female King ascended the throne if I am right, she might have done a great deal winning the past ones on many occasions but now everything including the stability of your peninsula is at stake and your lands are threatened all because your enemies hold no fear in their hearts for a female Ruler." Emperor Taizong remarked.

"But if we stand and we resist then to us the female Ruler is not just a female Ruler, she represents an institution that is united, she represents our families, she represents our affinity with one another.

To us she is a nother, a daughter, a sister, a cousin and a best friend, all in all she is like an army and she is Shilla herself that it is more to have seen her than to have seen the whole of Shilla." Seungman said.

"You speak so profoundly, you must be so close." Emperor Taizong said.

"With everything that she had she cherished Shilla, it was herself even as a Princess that gave us the victory at Sokham Fortress, she took on as a good regent and sge has enriched the country our people never starve once and they can never go a night or a day without food." Seungman replied, "She is generous, benevolent and smart and she represents herself an age of revolution one that even future generations themselves shall concur with and history itself shall forever remember." She added.

"Since you say so much about her I shall give you a Chance but with three conditions which I desire should be fulfilled." Emperor Taizong said.

"Please Your Majesty." Seungman acquisced as she bowed her head.

"Firstly, for your sake I shall attack the Liaodong region and carry out a naval Campaign on the west to occupy the lands of Paekche, secondly I shall provide for you thousands of Tang Uniforms and flags to help your army disguise themselves as Tang troops and thirdly I shall send a male Royal of Tang descent to serve as a new King of Shilla and then considering the meritorious service of Her Majesty Your Queen she shall fall to regent over the realm." Emperor Taizong replied.

Seungman stood upright at him.

"Your Majesty?" Seungman said.

"I am offering my benevolence to another benevolent monarch." Emperor Taizong said.

"Then allow me Your Majesty, to resign from your presence, I carried with myself too many expectations I suppose that I should return to Shilla with them.

However shall we forget you benevolence and however shall we be thankful to heaven for having given you to us." Seungman said.

"When I was young and starting to fluorish in my arts I heard the saying, all Courtiers look to Cháng'an and all states Worship Tang.

I'd pride that there on the continent there was a monarch who had the interests of his people at heart, when everyone would look at the Suzerainty of Tang they'd be thankful because to them you represented the grace of heaven as the son of Heaven Your Majesty is.

My plea wasn't for myself or for the old who had strived so hard to sustain our Kingdom, it was for the children that they had nurtured and raised and for the wives that we ourselves have cherished without any hesitation.

We loved our land and our only fault was that even in our own sight there was nothing as vital and nothing worth living for like it's itself but now here we are now falling slowly we turn to the hand of heaven but it is also deserting us." Seungman said.

The Courtiers were moved.

"Who can challenge the might of Tang, who can crumble her string foundation, this is her charity that the continent must emulate and there is her example of a wise leadership.

I am proud, proud that in the wars I have seen in Shilla I have learnt what it is to dread and what it is to live in fear.

But they are not your children and they can never be your wives, they can never be your brothers or sisters and neither can they be your fathers and mothers." She added.

The Courtiers turned their eyes and looked at the Emperor.

"For once all that I was asking you was to try and give some grace to save their souls, I was asking you to try and be caring like Confucius requires of us all, because if not now that the mighty Tang can aid our cause for Defense then in future who would love it and who would cherish it and protect it as well against her enemies?" Seungman asked as she bowed her head.

Emperor Taizong was quiet while a sombre mood swept over the entire hall.

"Tang brought us hope that in it's Suzerainty it would restore peace upon the continent, Gorguryeo in her resistance is more ambitious to rebel and when she does what an immense fire she shall have set in the hearts of those of Mongolia, Qara Hoja and Paekche along with Was?" Seungman asked as she slowly withdrew from the Emperor's presence he remained their with his arm tightly holding onto his knee as he watched the young man he thought to be vanish from sight.

"Your Majesty." One of the Courtiers said.

"Please speak." Emperor Taizong said.

"The Shilla Diplomat isn't wrong and if we do turn a blind eye to this Gorguryeo itself shall be more and more arrogant to accepting your suzerainty." The Courtier replied.

"Your Majesty?" Another Courtier said.

"Please speak." Emperor Taizong said.

"If we could give our support to Shilla then she'd be a starting point in helping us in the future to conquer Gorguryeo because if she rebels then we might suffer a fate like Shilla's when the other nations around rise up in revolt." The Courtier replied.

"Your Majesty." Another Courtier said.

"Please speak." Emperor Taizong said.

"At this rate we could show other nations our might should we crush the forces of Paekche, this might not only save Shilla but it shall bring about respect to the great Tang the future Generations themselves shall call you an Emperor that was in deed too strong and mighty and at the same time one that was also too benevolent and wise." The Courtier replied.

"Your Majesty." Another Courtier said.

"Please speak." Emperor Taizong said.

"This action would best make for us friends than enemies which isn't something that we need at this very moment." The Courtier replied.

"Enough." Emperor Taizong said.

The Courtiers kept quiet and they bowed their heads.

"My Court is full of loyal officials and at the same time made up of those that are very benevolent." Emperor Taizong said.

"Since this being a very strong plea to which you have all put your names I shall consider thinking about it." Emperor Taizong added.

"Thank you so Much Your Majesty, Long Live Your Majesty." The Courtiers all said as they bowed down their heads.

"This Assembly is dismissed." The Emperor replied as he stood up from where he was seated and he walked out while the Courtiers themselves followed shortly after.

Queen Seondeok walked into her Chambers and there she found Galmunwang Gukban seated and waiting for her.

"Your Majesty." He said as he stood up and bowed his head.

"It's alright uncle." Queen Seondeok replied as she sat down right in front of him.

"What is it that brings you to me?" Queen Seondeok asked.

"Please forgive me Your Majesty but I thought that you must have heard the news." Galmunwang Gukban replied.

"Which one?" Queen Seondeok asked.

"About Yushin Rang and the Scorched earth policy that he initiated at Sokham Fortress." Galmunwang Gukban replied.

"For such a powerful stronghold that we possess as Shilla, I am in deed very curious as to how it could just be abandoned and on whose orders Yushin was working on because I remember very well that they weren't mine." Queen Seondeok replied.

"They weren't your orders Your Majesty." Galmunwang Gukban said.

"Were they yours?" Queen Seondeok asked.

"Not at all Your Majesty." Galmunwang Gukban replied.

"Then if they were not yours and I don't think that they were Sangdaedeung Eulje's whose were they?" Queen Seondeok asked.

"Pardon me Your Majesty." Galmunwang Gukban replied, "They were Seungman's orders." He added.

Queen Seondeok's eyes were wide open.

"What?" She said so surprised.

"Yes." Galmunwang Gukban confirmed.