Chapter 125
In addition to his post as Chief State Councillor, Hwang Hui also serves as the Hansŏng P'anyun, the mayor of Hanyang, Joseon's capital.
So, while Hanyang's development is ongoing, he naturally has a duty to inspect it from time to time and point out areas for improvement.
“Kim Sain, you young people have it nice. You can walk around on two good legs without your knees hurting, can't you?”
If Hwang Hui were walking alongside me now, I would have played along with his remark.
After all, it is only natural for elderly people to suffer backaches and aching knees whenever they walk.
But Hwang Hui is currently exercising the privileges of a high-ranking official.
That is why he is riding in a choheon, the most comfortable of all sedan chairs.
I, meanwhile, am riding a horse.
“Still, riding a horse is much more comfortable.”
“Ah, I see. Then hurry up and become a dangsanggwan. Once you hold a dangsanggwan's position, no one will complain even if you travel around in a sedan chair.”
Hwang Hui recommends that I become a dangsanggwan, exaggerating only slightly, about once every three days.
Like some man covered from head to toe in blue tattoos, he keeps going, ‘You become a dangsanggwan!’
I have no intention of rising through the ranks in a hurry.
Kim Jong-seo passed the civil service examination twenty years before I did and is still only Senior Fifth Rank. No matter that I placed first in the examination, becoming Junior Fourth Rank already is ridiculous.
This is completely insane.
And if I were promoted to Senior Third Rank and became a dangsanggwan, the seniority system would become thoroughly tangled.
“Wouldn't Kim Jong-seo also secretly find it uncomfortable that a youngster like me is Junior Fourth Rank?”
“Jeoljae is certainly a remarkable talent, but he cannot compare with Kim Sain. He is rather jealous and stubborn, but he would never dare say anything about your promotion.”
Come to think of it, after I became their superior, neither Kim Jong-seo nor Hwangbo In ever made a single complaint to me.
The only exception was the clerk I personally punished after he brought up the matter of the myeonsinrye when I entered the State Council.
The myeonsinrye was a custom in which clerks and slaves could join in humiliating a yangban, and yangban society considered it common sense that one had no right to complain about it.
“I've been too busy to visit newly developing Yongsan until now... I wonder how much it has changed.”
“According to the report, it has changed so drastically that not a trace of its former appearance remains.”
To put it in modern Korean terms, it was like confirming the development of a new city in a place that had previously contained nothing but a highway tollgate, a rest area, and a few inns, then filling it with apartments, shopping districts, and department stores.
I heard that Yongsan's ferry landing had been expanded into a port, and that so many taverns, shops, and workshops had been built that it had become an entirely different place.
“You haven't been there either, Kim Sain?”
“I leave work on time and go see my wife...”
“Good grief, that's an illness too. The very illness they say has no cure.”
As we walked along chatting about this and that, we soon arrived at Yongsan.
It had once been a small ferry landing where only a few boats passed through, but now every trace of its former appearance had vanished.
Dozens of Hanseon—small boats operated on the Han River—were moored where the ferry landing had been, and I could see more than a hundred ships passing along the river, even by a rough estimate.
All kinds of fruit, handicrafts, luxury goods, meat, and dried seafood were being unloaded in great quantities, and the place was bustling with all sorts of people.
It was a sight that made one's heart swell merely by looking at it.
Watching this, Hwang Hui muttered in a surprised voice.
“They say people gather wherever there is money, but I never imagined Yongsan, which used to be so deserted, would change this much.”
“It will be bustling with far more people in the future, Chief State Councillor.”
“Looking at this scene makes me think once again how utterly despicable those merchant magnates were. If they had seized control of this entire flow of goods, Joseon truly would have fallen into their hands and then some.”
“But that did not happen, so isn't that enough?”
Hwang Hui gave a crooked smile at my words.
“That is true. We discovered their wicked schemes in advance and made them surrender their wealth. Not only did we prevent Yongsan from falling into their hands, but we can also use the money they surrendered to feed the soldiers suffering in the north. In a way, things turned out well.”
While we were talking, the Jinseung of Noryangjin, the man responsible for the port, hurried over to us.
The Chief State Councillor—someone ranked higher than four stars—had come in person. What else could a mere Junior Ninth-Rank Jinseung do?
Even if he could not mix toothpaste in a place where people were constantly coming and going, he could put razor-sharp creases in his cheollik, the military uniform he was wearing, and make the soldiers wash their clothes so that he could polish his appearance as much as possible.
“I am Kim Hang-gu, Jinseung of Yongsan-jin. It is a true honor to have you visit, Chief State Councillor.”
“Yes, you seem to be doing your work quite well... Let us hear what the situation in Yongsan-jin is like.”
“Yes, Chief State Councillor.”
A Jinseung of Yongsan-jin was either a former Gapsa who knew how to write, or a clerk who had managed to secure an official appointment through connections and become Junior Ninth Rank, thereby joining the lowest ranks of the yangban.
If he managed to catch the Chief State Councillor's eye, he could be promoted and aim for a higher position, just like my father-in-law, so he must have prepared with utter desperation.
“At present, between four hundred and six hundred Hanseon dock at Yongsan-jin every day and unload their goods. The cargo consists mainly of silk, fruit, rice, handicrafts, dried seafood, and fresh fish. After finishing their unloading, the ships load cotton cloth produced in or brought into Hanyang, various agricultural implements, tools, luxury goods, and other items, then transport them throughout the country.”
“If a single Hanseon can normally carry between fifty and one hundred seok of white rice, that means goods weighing at least twenty thousand seok of white rice are traded every day. Good heavens, this would have been completely unimaginable just a year ago.”
“The other ports, including Noryangjin, are probably seeing Hanseon of a similar scale come and go.”
Hwang Hui looked at me and spoke.
“If we had not developed Hanyang further as you suggested and expanded the area where people could live, the city would have been filled with huts, creating a serious problem.”
An umjip is, for ease of understanding, something like a shanty.
And since the wanderers living in such places were inevitably poor, they would be more vulnerable to the temptation of crime, just as the baekjeong had been.
To prevent that as much as possible, we had to build plenty of homes where people could live in Hanyang and allow them to reside there, even if only by paying monthly rent.
“All right, we've seen enough here... Jinseung Kim.”
“Yes, Chief State Councillor.”
“What about the workshops? I heard Kim Sain say that the workshops were the most important thing...”
As soon as Hwang Hui finished speaking, Jinseung Kim led us to a nearby workshop.
It was a workshop where the production of agricultural implements was in full swing.
Inside, dozens of artisans were working according to a thoroughly systematized division of labor.
They were making plows, hoes, sickles, and things of that sort...
Even the process of making sickles was divided into highly specialized stages.
One person hammered out the iron portion that formed the sickle's core, another sharpened its edge, and another attached it to the handle.
“As I understand it, this workshop can make up to one hundred sickles a day.”
A mechanized factory could make five thousand a day, but producing one hundred a day was an enormous output by Joseon-era standards.
Since every process was done by hand, even a lone blacksmith's shop sometimes struggled to make two sickles in a day.
“So this workshop alone can make one hundred sickles a day?”
“Yes, Chief State Councillor.”
“If we were making weapons such as hwando... then producing twenty swords a day would not be difficult.”
For reference, the Military Equipment Office had not yet introduced a division-of-labor system, so even if all its artisans were mobilized, its limit was twenty swords a day.
But this tiny workshop could produce twenty swords?
That meant the Military Equipment Office could make two or three hundred swords a day as long as it had enough steel.
Hwang Hui continued to marvel as he looked around the workshop.
He must have been extremely impressed, because the exalted Chief State Councillor himself went around patting the artisans on the shoulders and praising them.
He would never have behaved that way if he had not been excited.
“Excellent! Some people say that artisans are lowly, but I believe Joseon runs because of people like you. Continue working hard just as you are.”
After praising them once, Hwang Hui looked at Jinseung Kim and spoke.
“Jinseung Kim is doing an excellent job. Nearly fifty workshops must already have been built in Yongsan-jin, yet you have memorized how many sickles this workshop can make in a day. The reports you have submitted from Yongsan-jin so far have also been excellent.”
“I am grateful, Chief State Councillor.”
“In seven days, I shall bring you good news.”
Joseon was currently suffering from a severe shortage of officials.
Especially officials with excellent practical abilities.
So that fellow would soon be snatched away by either Hojo or Gongjo.
In the Joseon of old, people would have protested that sending some mere Jinseung straight to one of the Six Ministries was an abuse of authority, but...
Nowadays, everyone would welcome such an official, considering him as precious as rain during a drought.
“Come, Kim Sain... Let us look around a little more before we return.”
“Yes, Chief State Councillor.”
That day, I thoroughly toured Yongsan-jin with Hwang Hui before returning.
Then I wrote a set of guidelines instructing the other counties to do the same.
Normally, Hwang Hui would draw up the broad framework and I would fill in the details, but he dumped even the broad framework on me.
Being a minor official is miserable.