Great Fire of Hanyang (2)

Good omens often miss the mark, but for some reason, bad omens always come true.

A fire had broken out in Hanyang.

And it was near our house, of all places.

"What crazy bastard set fire to Hanyang? Tearing him limb from limb wouldn't be enough."

I said that, but I was only human.

A fire nearby meant that our house could be engulfed in flames at any moment, and in the worst case, Gyeoul and I could burn to death.

The fear of dying... For the first time in my life... No.

Once, when I was hit and killed by a truck in my previous life.

And once more when I submitted a jibusangso to Yi Bang-won, so technically, this was already the third time I had faced it...

The first time, I died before I had a chance to feel anything, so I didn't know what it was. The second time, I had done it out of a sense of responsibility as someone who knew the future, for the sake of Joseon's people, and I had been prepared to die. But this time was completely different from the first two.

Now I had made no preparations and had no resolve, and I had Gyeoul and the child in her womb to protect.

Once I thought that far, fear came rushing over me.

My hands and feet trembled, and terror that my family and I might be in mortal danger at any moment made my entire body seize up.

"Fuck, seriously."

A curse I normally never used slipped out of my mouth.

Yet even just cursing made me feel my body, which had gone rigid under the grip of panic, slowly beginning to loosen.

I called the household slaves around me together.

"Makrye and Chilsun, take Gyeoul toward Noryangjin immediately. She'll be safer farther away from central Hanyang."

"Wouldn't it be more dangerous over there?"

"I don't know the exact situation right now, but if the fire had started by accident, we should be able to hear the homeowner wailing in despair. Yet there are no such sounds anywhere nearby. And judging from the fact that fires have broken out in more than one place, someone must have set them deliberately."

I had heard that the first thing to do when a fire broke out was to keep your head.

If you kept your wits about you, you could somehow survive, but if you panicked, you would die even in a situation you could have survived.

So, if only to save Gyeoul and the child, I had to make sure that Gyeoul and the servants of our household kept their heads.

To do that, as the head of the household, I had to put on a dignified front and act as though this little fire were nothing, giving them the confidence that 'If you just trust me and follow my lead, you can survive.'

"Men who set fires like this might be traveling in gangs, don't you think? Like bands of bandits."

"Yes, my lord."

"They may have set fires throughout Hanyang, where people live packed together, intending to loot homes amid the confusion. And if we happened to run into the men who started the fires, they could kidnap us in the chaos and subject us to something shameful."

In Joseon, if real estate ranked first on a household's list of assets, and cows and horses second, people ranked third.

Among people, a beautiful woman like Gyeoul was worth at least as much as ten tiled-roof houses in Hanyang.

Converted into white rice, that meant several thousand seom.

But arson in Joseon was normally punished by death. If men who had committed such a crime came across Gyeoul, would they really hesitate to kidnap her?

'Why wouldn't they kidnap a beauty who could make them money?'

Once she was kidnapped, the chances that even I would ever find her were exceedingly slim.

"Our house may burn down, so Gapseok, dig a hole one ja deep and bury the book listing our assets, the land register, and only the most valuable jewelry."

"Yes, my lord."

"And bring out my official robes."

"Why are you suddenly asking for your official robes?"

Even just outside our house, people were shouting wildly and running about in confusion. It was utter chaos.

And judging from the smoke and the acrid smell in the air, I could tell that the fire had spread frighteningly close.

As I experienced this utter madhouse, one word naturally came to mind.

'The Great Fire of Hanyang.'

The worst fire in history, the one that burned roughly fifteen percent of Hanyang.

According to the Annals of the Joseon Dynasty, thirty-two people died in this fire.

In reality, several times that number—or perhaps even dozens of times that number—might have died.

That was because the figure of thirty-two counted only the identifiable human-shaped corpses found after the fire.

Just because fifteen percent of Hanyang burned did not mean that fifteen percent of its residents burned to death, but the fire known as the Great Fire of Meireki, which burned half of 'Edo,' reportedly killed at least 100,000 people...

Thousands of people might have died in the Great Fire of Hanyang as well.

"Even if we combined everyone's strength to put out the fire, it would barely be enough, yet everyone is scattering and running around in confusion. At this rate, the flames won't be contained—they'll only spread farther. I must go calm the people and lead them so that everyone can devote themselves to fighting the fire together."

During the Imjin War, Wakizaka Yasuharu won a crushing victory at the Battle of Yongin with a mere 1,500 Japanese soldiers against 50,000 Joseon troops.

The reason was exceedingly simple.

The Japanese attacked and fought with the resolve to die, frightening the unprepared Joseon volunteer army + regular army, while the chain of command was a complete mess, making it impossible to organize the Joseon forces.

The current situation was similar.

If I didn't want the damage to grow even worse... I had to gather the scattered people together somehow.

What I needed then was the authority I possessed, and the official robes were how I would display it dramatically.

'Joseon is a country where even a virgin ghost goes to find the magistrate to have its grudge resolved.'

I took the official robes from Gyeoul and quickly changed into them.

"My lord..."

"I'll definitely come back alive, so don't worry too much. You're carrying a child now, so take care of yourself above all else. Don't overexert yourself."

Sejong and Yi Bang-won were currently away from Hanyang to observe a gangmu, a large-scale military exercise.

So, just as in the original history, the heavily pregnant Queen Soheon would have to step forward and take overall command of fighting the fire in Hanyang.

Queen Soheon, who had accomplished such a feat while heavily pregnant, was truly extraordinary and worthy of respect, but...

'There is no reason, and no need, to make Gyeoul undertake something so strenuous.'

Gyeoul tried to hold me back, but I left her behind and ran quickly outside.

The situation was far worse than I had imagined.

"Somebody save us! Fire! Fire!"

"Get out of the way! I said get out of the way! If you don't, you die and I live! Got it? Unless you're itching to die, move!"

Judging from the clothes worn by the groups milling about over there, they were mostly wearing cotton hanbok.

That meant they weren't people from particularly wealthy households.

My house was, nominally, the residence of a Chief State Councilor—in modern Korean terms, somewhere around Hannam-dong or Seongbuk-dong—but there wasn't a single person in this neighborhood wearing clothes made of cotton.

Household slaves wore worn-out or poor-quality clothing, while yangban like me wore clothes made of silk.

That group wearing cotton clothes wasn't from this neighborhood. And if people like that had come all the way here...

'The fire must have spread quite far.'

The situation seemed far more serious than I had thought.

"Get a grip!"

When I roared in a loud voice, everyone running wild in the area turned to look at me at once.

They looked ready to punch me, as if to say, 'What the hell are you?'

However, when they saw the official robes I was wearing, they abandoned the thought of throwing a punch.

Though the situation was extremely urgent, seeing someone of a much higher status than themselves had miraculously cured their anger-management disorder.

"I am Kim Daebung, Jegum of the Directorate of Warships. I am that very Kim Daebung who submitted a memorial staking his life to the Grand King Emeritus."

Authority worked extraordinarily well when it came to controlling a situation like this.

"Do you really think you can survive by running away now? No matter how hard you run, you'll only burn to death because the fire has spread elsewhere too."

In truth, I didn't know where the fire had started or what places were burning.

Judging from the circumstances, arson attacks seemed to be breaking out simultaneously throughout Hanyang, but I couldn't even guess exactly where.

"All the men over fifteen here are to follow my orders. If you do, we can put out the fire and you can survive as well."

A yangban whose face I recognized questioned me.

He was Kim Saengwon.

"No matter how hard you try, Jegum, you won't be able to put out that huge fire. But if we join forces here, will it really help?"

"There is some merit to what you say, Kim Saengwon. However, if we leave the fire as it is and run away, both your house and mine will burn down. Isn't that right?"

That fellow Kim Saengwon had gotten where he was thanks to having a good grandfather and father. Although all he had accomplished was passing the preliminary examination, he lived very comfortably as a wealthy idler in a house as enormous as a whale's back.

From what I had heard, he had two pretty concubines besides his principal wife, and was even secretly sleeping with one of his household slaves.

At this point, he was unquestionably a silver-spoon bastard who had everything.

He didn't work at all and did nothing but enjoy himself.

In any case, there was no time to concern myself with that bastard's private life right now.

"Please lend me the slaves from your household for a moment."

"I will."

"Good. From now on, all men aged fifteen and over here are to follow my orders. I will use my own fortune to give rice to those who follow my orders and work to stop the fire from spreading."

"Really?"

"Would I lie to you people?"

If I had been the Hansung Magistrate or a military officer from an institution responsible for Hanyang, such as Chungmuwi, I would have drawn my sword and threatened to enforce 'military law.'

In the current situation, a coercive threat backed by state power would probably have been far more effective than promising rice.

The words 'Put out the fire if you don't want to die right now' would have a much stronger effect than 'Would you like to risk dying for money?'

Confucius himself had said that, when a fire broke out, it was far more effective to threaten to kill those who did not put it out than to promise rewards to those who did.

"I will certainly bestow ample rice on everyone who participates in putting out the fire here. I will give it to slaves and commoners alike, so follow my orders."

Never mind Queen Soheon's command of the firefighting effort; I first had to put out the fire at my own feet.

Then I had to rush to the court and advise them on how to catch the culprits.

I couldn't let the bastards who started the fires get away with it... I would catch them no matter what.