Mok-ho canal gate at late afternoon, misty docks, grain barges, public tribute notices, and Wen arriving with luggage and a ledger case.

Wen crosses the market path from docks toward the prefecture office while villagers gossip around grain and salt stalls.

Wen enters the abandoned prefecture office, finding sealed shelves of old accounts and an empty desk.

Night falls as Wen reads the previous prefect's books by oil lamp.

Wen reconstructs the khanate tribute calculation from public records and old audit marks.

Wen finds hostage records tied to tribute arrears and imagines the children in the khan's camp.

Wen marks the hostage names on the wall map beside their villages, including Han Mujo.

Dawn comes. Wen prepares a summons for the seven headmen.

The seven village headmen assemble in the prefecture hall, including Ma Duksu and Seo Biran.

Wen rejects ceremony and asks whether the old accounts are accurate.

Wen spills salt on the hall floor and draws two arrows to explain the routes.

The headmen challenge the plan, and Wen explains the price difference in plain terms.

Wen shows how the khanate formula turns honest trade into increased tribute demands.

The headmen ask whether the plan will bring the children home. Wen refuses to lie about what it can do.

Wen clarifies that the plan requires real shipments, not forged papers.

Wen explains the audit blind spot and the consequence if they ignore it.

Five villages agree to the downriver plan and put their seals forward.

Ma Duksu refuses because Won Yul has a private upriver contract.

Seo Biran refuses because Heuk-su cannot trust another official promise and has its own obligations.

The five agreeing headmen push back against Ma and Seo, but the resisting villages hold to their private concerns.

Wen explains that coercing the holdouts would make the market movement look staged and therefore unbelievable.

Wen lets Ma and Seo leave rather than poison the index.

Wen gives immediate practical instructions to the five villages that accepted the plan.

After the meeting, Wen is left alone with the salt arrows, ledgers, and map of hostage names.