Chapter 121
Doctors sometimes say things like this.
It's easy to kill someone, but saving someone is extremely difficult.
A doctor listens to a patient's symptoms, diagnoses the illness through various tests, and prescribes medication, yet patients sometimes die because a different medicine is administered during treatment, or because the dosage or method of administration differs from what is recorded in the medical chart.
In the case of a myocardial infarction, a patient can survive if emergency measures are taken and the patient is transported to a hospital within the so-called golden period—the window in which the patient can still be saved. But a patient who misses that window and arrives at the hospital without receiving emergency treatment will die.
The policies I devise and pursue as an official of Joseon are not all that different.
If there is a difference, it is that the scale of the resulting catastrophe is far greater.
A single misguided policy could drive thousands of heads of household to throw themselves into the Han River and push the tens of thousands of family members they supported into extreme poverty.
Something similar would have happened if Yi Bang-won and Sejong had pushed through their currency policy.
That was why I submitted the Jibu Sangsso at the risk of my life.
If I wanted to, I could submit a memorial accusing the sijeon merchants who had been manipulating rice prices during the spring famine and have them all wiped out, but I did not.
‘In Joseon, profiteering from food is treason.’
If Ryu Jeong-hyeon were still alive—or if Yi Bang-won learned of this—he would call it treason, take up an iron club, and smash those sijeon merchants to pieces.
The problem was that the aftermath would be so severe that innocent people among Hanyang's more than 100,000 residents would struggle under economic hardship on the scale of the Great Depression.
“Gapseok, where are the merchant magnates who came from the sijeon?”
“They are all waiting in the sarangbang.”
“I see. Then let me give you one instruction. Until I say that people may be admitted, you must not open the door for anyone, even if the Geumbu dossa comes. Nor may you let anyone overhear what I say.”
“Yes, my lord. To repay you for saving the daughter who had been sold off to that bastard Ryu Jeong-hyeon, I will risk my life to keep anyone from entering and ensure that no one overhears you.”
It was not as though I had summoned the merchant magnates because I liked them enough to spare their lives.
I was sparing them because I thought Joseon would have difficulty bearing the consequences if they were all wiped out.
“I heard that your eldest son will be getting married next year, Gapseok.”
“Yes, that is correct.”
“I will provide all the things you need in abundance, and I will find your eldest son a house to live in and a field to farm.”
“Oh, my lord... You really do not have to go that far. You already feed my entire household well and look after us from time to time. I do not know how I could ever repay you...”
“There is no such thing as unconditional loyalty. When someone has shown loyalty, it is only right to reward him accordingly. Whenever your children marry, I will continue supporting them this way, so just keep doing as you have been.”
I believe that treating those who serve me well is the same as protecting myself.
If I mistreated them simply because they worked under me, they would abandon me and run when an emergency arose, and if a chance to make a tidy profit came along, they would sell me out.
I cannot remember whether he was the chairman of some company or just some chaebol bastard.
He was facing the prospect of having all his assets confiscated and rotting in prison for life if he was arrested by the police, so he prepared to smuggle himself out of the country, but...
There was a man who was arrested because the driver he employed, enraged that he had not been paid a single penny in hazard pay, turned himself in.
There is also that three-generation hereditary pig bastard living up there. I hear he treats the people closest to him extremely well.
Otherwise, he might be betrayed from behind in the same way.
After encouraging Gapseok, I went to the sarangbang.
As soon as they saw me, the merchant magnates handed me lucky pouches and lacquered boxes.
The lucky pouches contained what appeared to be silver, while the boxes were packed with precious things such as ginseng.
To survive as a merchant in Joseon, one had to circulate ‘gifts’ generously, so I intended to accept everything for the time being.
If I refused, they would think I intended to kill them all.
I would present all of it to the court later.
If I quietly pocketed it all, I could end up like Jo Mal-saeng, after all.
“Our sijeon dojung have never for even a moment forgotten the debt we owe you, Lord Sain, for risking your life to save the people of Hanyang and greatly expanding commerce.”
"I merely stepped forward for the sake of Joseon's people. Since I only did what was right, I do not think I need your thanks."
The Bible has a line perfectly suited to this situation.
"No slave in this world asks his master to praise him simply because he has completed the work he was supposed to do. In the same way, what I did was something anyone who was a 'subject of Joseon' ought to have done, so there is no need to thank me."
"...... Are you saying that saving the people is only natural even when one might be swept up in flames and burned to death?"
In truth, it was not something that came naturally.
Running around near the flames, swinging a hammer without even wearing fireproof clothing, and suffering minor burns all over one's body was hardly an ordinary thing to do.
"The soldiers conscripted for military service in Hamgyeong and Pyeongan Provinces live shivering in the cold every day. Sometimes they lose fingers and toes to frostbite. And beyond that, countless numbers of them die fighting the Jurchen barbarians. Yet they receive neither compensation nor honor. They simply do what they must from their assigned posts because it is their duty."
When the court budget increased, the first thing I requested was an increase in the military supplies issued to the soldiers stationed on the front lines.
Even if we could not pay them proper wages, I stubbornly insisted that we at least feed them until they were full, because in Joseon, that was the greatest welfare we could provide.
Thanks to His Majesty King Sejong approving it immediately, the soldiers serving there were able to eat rice three times a day instead of mixed-grain rice from then on.
Of course, even after doing this, I did not think I had given them the compensation and honor they deserved.
"There is only one difference between them and me. I passed the civil service examination. But those suffering beyond words in the north are of low station, so everyone considers it natural for them to endure such hardship, while everyone thanks me for devoting myself to my work for just one day. Can that truly be called right?"
There was a reason I had suddenly brought this up.
The reason was that those bastards had offered me sycophantic bribes, which meant it was about time for me to make a request.
I was saying this to make it impossible for them to bring up anything resembling a personal request.
It was an important matter, but what I had just said had nothing to do with the conversation I needed to have with them, so let us leave it at that.
“I am sorry for bringing up something so irrelevant. I suddenly thought of the soldiers serving their military duty in Hamgyeong and Pyeongan Provinces, shivering in the cold.”
“Not at all, my lord. In accordance with your noble intentions, we too will pool some of our wealth and present it to the court so that the soldiers in Hamgyeong and Pyeongan Provinces can at least eat their fill.”
“His Majesty will be truly pleased.”
A warm atmosphere formed for a moment, but I promptly chilled it.
I was not here to exchange warm words of gratitude and encouragement with them.
“Then, while we are at it, let us do one more thing.”
“Yes, my lord. For the sake of the court, we would do anything. We sijeon merchants have demonstrated our loyalty since the founding of Joseon by supplying the goods the country needed in accordance with the orders issued by Great King Taejo. How could we refuse to do anything for the country?”
Since I was trying to make them do one more thing, they brought up ‘Great King Taejo’ as they subtly tried to put themselves on equal footing with me.
That was right. They were merchants, after all.
Merchants had an unwritten rule that they must never make a deal at a loss, even if it cost them their heads.
Fine. I would let that pass without comment.
But if they tried to bargain even after hearing what I was about to say, I did not know what I might do.
I had picked up a scalpel for surgery, but instead of making a 0.1-millimeter error, I could slash ten centimeters through a passing artery and commit murder by mistake.
“For the sake of the country, dismantle the sijeon dojung.”
“...... What did you just say, my lord...?”
“Dismantle the sijeon dojung, and relinquish the sijeon's monopoly over commerce in Hanyang.”
“The rights we possess were recognized by Great King Taejo...”
Rather than answer him or cut him off with a shout, I spoke toward the door.
“Bring me the axe that I always sharpen so carefully.”
“Yes, my lord.”
Before long, Gapseok brought an axe into the room.
“Ah, this is the axe I used when I submitted the Jibu Sangsso. I do not know when I may once again have to risk my life to submit a Jibu Sangsso, so I keep it maintained as though it were new. Do you know why?”
“Why is that?”
“If my memorial is rejected and His Majesty strikes my neck with this axe, I keep it sharp so that he can finish the job in a single blow. If I am going to die anyway, it is better to die with less pain.”
The merchant magnates stared at me with their mouths hanging open, as though they were looking at a madman.
Then they all began to tremble.
“I know that you are trying to amass fortunes by taking advantage of the major project the country is about to undertake. There is nothing inherently wrong with that. But I think you have gone too far. To put it bluntly, what you are trying to do is no different from the powerful clans that devoured the preceding Goryeo dynasty, is it?”
In truth, what these bastards were trying to do was not much different from what the powerful clans had done.
The powerful clans had tried to swallow all of Goryeo's land through land consolidation, while these men were trying to monopolize Joseon's commerce and become a chaebol cartel.
“Joseon's laws contained no provision forbidding you from doing so, so I will give you a special chance to repent your wrongdoing.”
There were men who melted down ten-won coins and made more than a billion won, but they were acquitted because the Korean Criminal Act contained no provision for punishing them.
They merely paid a small administrative penalty in a civil proceeding and got out.
Joseon could punish the sijeon magnates for the offense of being contemptible, but killing them all for that would be satisfying in the moment... and difficult to deal with afterward.
That was why I was giving them a chance.
I had given them a chance. If they refused to take it, what else could I do?
I would have no choice but to wipe them all out.
And that vacuum would be filled by the midsize and small sijeon merchants, including Yi Bong-sang.