Chapter 145
One thing about military abuses is that, if those at the top take an interest and respond properly, they can be eliminated to some extent.
That famous German army under the Nazis supposedly placed immense emphasis on the matter from above, relentlessly insisting that committing abuses was unbecoming of superior Germans.
As a result, Nazi Germany’s Wehrmacht supposedly became an army with remarkably few abuses in its barracks.
If even the Nazis led by that bald octopus bastard could manage it, there is no reason Joseon cannot.
‘We cannot eliminate them entirely, but we should reduce them as much as possible.’
“Why do people commit abuses in the army and torment their subordinates? Because the people above them turn a blind eye, they do it simply to amuse themselves.”
Joseon culture differed greatly from twenty-first-century Korea, where the idea of human rights had taken root.
When someone’s wrongdoing was clear, people regarded it as perfectly normal for a switch to come flying first.
They say that when the scholars of one district split into factions and fought among themselves, the local magistrate personally took up a switch and beat them into submission... The story was remembered as an “edifying tale.”
That was why a culture of using harsh treatment to resolve even minor mistakes became so widespread.
“When I went to the Right Wing of the Chungjwa Guard as a military official, the Hogu in charge of the Right Wing—a commander of a unit roughly the size of two companies—beat and berated the military officials for no particular reason and openly demanded bribes. So the military officials assigned to the Right Wing must have had no choice but to offer bribes somehow if they wanted to continue their careers without being reprimanded by their superior.”
“The military was like that even in my day...”
“My lord.”
Yi Sun-mong shook his head firmly when I called out to him.
“There were such pernicious practices even in my day. I meant that I had thought they were normal back then. But things are obviously different now. How could a military official beat soldiers, Gabsa guards, and the military officials under his command without cause, then force them to offer bribes? It is absolutely intolerable.”
That is what makes pernicious customs so frightening.
When I entered the army as a new recruit, I would have felt terribly wronged and angry if I had been treated like this. But humans are creatures of adaptation, and as time passed, they would gradually become stained by such practices...
When the time came for them to become corporals, they would turn into people who took the lead in perpetuating those pernicious customs, reproducing exactly what their seniors had once done to them.
The proportion of school-violence victims who later become perpetrators is extremely high, and in cases of domestic violence, many of the perpetrators turn out to have been victims of domestic violence themselves.
It is frightening how something can seep into your body without you realizing it, until you come to regard it as perfectly normal.
“And when you think about it, I was a victim too. When I first entered service as a junior military official, my seniors must have been incredibly unreasonable in demanding bribes. I even seriously considered whether, shamefully, I should take military supplies such as weapons and gunpowder to raise the money for a bribe.”
“Even Your Excellency, whose father was a meritorious founder of the dynasty, was tormented that way? How terrible.”
“When you see men who were caught tampering with military provisions and beheaded, it often began with them taking supplies because they were trying somehow to comply with the custom of offering bribes.”
Records concerning initiation ceremonies generally describe things this way.
After undergoing even one initiation ceremony, a family’s assets were liable to be completely wiped out, and people would then turn to corruption to make up for the loss.
Before I could even say, ‘Tell me everything you did wrong in the past,’ Yi Sun-mong had already begun his confession.
There was no reason for me to keep listening to it.
“Now then, if Your Excellency happened to discover these circumstances while taking a close look at the units under your command and took the proper measures... how pleased do you think His Majesty would be when he heard the news?”
Our country’s military has a pernicious practice of stripping the highest-ranking people of their positions first whenever abuses or accidents occur within a unit.
This may look good on the surface, but in reality, such a custom has the effect of making people conceal all sorts of accidents.
To put it bluntly, there is a high chance that a commander has no particular feelings whatsoever toward Sergeant Kim or Lieutenant Yi under his command.
But suppose they were beaten by a senior in their unit and died, or were injured during training and left on the verge of death.
If I would be dismissed whether I reported the matter accurately and took action or tried to cover it up...
Most people would probably decide that simply covering it up was the better choice.
An officer below the rank of lieutenant colonel would receive very little pension if they retired without being promoted to lieutenant colonel, leaving them unable to support themselves after retirement.
Thus, they could be driven into a situation where they had to cover things up for the sake of their “family.”
As a result, reports were delayed, and people who could have been saved died.
A soldier who died from abuse would be administratively recorded as having gone on leave the day before his death, leading to the lie that he had died while absent without leave.
This does not mean that the people who covered things up were in the right—they were bad people—but the system that drove them into such a corner had serious problems as well.
“This time, I will personally deal with the military officials of the Right Wing of the Chungjwa Guard who caused the problem.”
“I happen to be unwell, so I am thinking of taking about seven more days of sick leave.”
After hearing my words, Yi Sun-mong nodded.
“Seven days should be enough for me to root out every last abuse myself. Sit here and wait for a while. I will have them bring some good medicinal herbs to help restore your injured body.”
“Yes, thank you. And I have one more favor to ask. Could you take a soldier named Kim Mak-gae of the Right Wing of the Chungjwa Guard into your service as your aide, a duty soldier?”
“That much will not be difficult. Ah, I will go fetch the medicinal herbs, so wait here for a moment.”
Before long, Yi Sun-mong handed me a large box packed with all sorts of medicinal herbs.
“Get well soon. And tell Their Majesties that from now on, I, Yi Sun-mong, will be a new man.”
“Are you not already one of Joseon’s great generals, Your Excellency? If you become even greater from here, you will be a terrible calamity for the Jurchens.”
This was why Yi Sun-mong had survived despite causing all sorts of trouble.
After all, he was a killing machine for slaughtering Jurchens.
**
As soon as Kim Daebung left, Yi Sun-mong mounted a horse and raced straight to the Right Wing of the Chungjwa Guard.
He intended to personally deal with the Hogu and officials responsible for the Right Wing of the Chungjwa Guard.
By Kim Daebung’s standards, the Right Wing of the Chungjwa Guard was a lieutenant-colonel-to-colonel-level unit, whereas Yi Sun-mong, its Chief Military Commissioner, was an extremely high-ranking four-star-equivalent official...
The Right Wing of the Chungjwa Guard was thrown into chaos and fear when His Excellency the Chief Military Commissioner suddenly arrived.
“Hey, you crazy bastards! Do you know I nearly got myself killed because of you? Do you?”
Normally, Yi Sun-mong spoke politely, as befitted a Senior Second Rank Chief Military Commissioner, and made every effort to maintain his dignity...
But now he had no time to worry about such things.
That was because Kim Daebung, the Jibu Memorial, had received His Majesty’s command, inspected the abuses in the unit, and then left after asking him, ‘Shall I submit a Jibu memorial?’
It was a terrifying warning that a Jibu memorial would be submitted immediately if Yi Sun-mong’s way of handling the matter failed to satisfy him.
‘Either you die, or I do.’
In this case, there was a 99.99 percent chance that Yi Sun-mong would lose his head.
Even if he did not die, he would have to bear every kind of disgrace and spend a considerable amount of time buried in Sam-su-gap-san before returning.
“I hear there is a military official named Sajeong Kim in this unit. Where is that bastard right now?”
At his threatening words, Kim Sajeong came crawling out, trembling all over.
The instant he saw him, Yi Sun-mong delivered a flying kick to his stomach.
The Hogu in charge of the Right Wing was aghast at seeing a high official of Senior Second Rank, and a military official to boot, beating someone in such a manner in Joseon.
“What exactly do you do?”
“Sajeong Kim Mal-seong, I’m sorry!”
“Does saying sorry bring an end to everything? You bastard, you still don’t know who visited your unit, do you? It was Jibu Memorial Kim Daebung—the madman who submitted a memorial saying he would stop the issuance of currency while holding an axe. You really did a number on that Jibu Memorial Kim Daebung.”
Kim Daebung himself had never intended it, but Jibu Memorial Kim Daebung was already being used almost like a title.
Even ministers such as Hwang Hui, Maeng Sa-seong, and Jo Mal-saeng did not address him by his office, saying something like “Lord Kim Hogun.” They used the term so commonly that they would call him ‘that Jibu-memorial fellow.’
Among the common people, he was known as ‘Jibu Kim Daebung.’
Naturally, Sajeong Kim Mal-seong was also a Joseon military official—and a military official in the central army at that—so he had heard the name Jibu Memorial Kim Daebung many times.
He was an eccentric who remained at Junior Fourth Rank even when Chief State Councillor Hwang Hui grabbed hold of him and made a fuss trying to get him promoted to a senior official.
He was also a brilliant administrator whose abilities were so great that everyone would have accepted it if he became a Minister right now, and so on...
“......”
“His Majesty once said that soldiers and military officials must not privately beat, strike, or abuse one another. But I hear you did exactly that to him...? And our Hogu Jang was quite a spectacle too.”
Yi Sun-mong had no intention of letting these men off lightly.
“Sajeong Kim Mal-seong: 50 strokes under military law. Hogu Jang Ji-seong: 40 strokes. Ojang Yi Jong-gae: 40 strokes....”
More than twenty people were sentenced to flogging.
And then a very special event took place.
“I will personally carry out the flogging of Sajeong Kim Mal-seong and Hogu Jang Ji-seong. It is normally the rule that yangban are not beaten with the penal cudgel, but today I will make an exception and follow the rules without regard to noble or common status.”
Yangban were normally allowed to pay a fine instead of enduring the 100 strokes of the penal cudgel that invariably accompanied exile.
The same applied to other crimes as well.
Conversely, being beaten with the penal cudgel in person was a mark that one had committed a serious crime that could not be settled with mere exile.
“Die!”
That day, the men of the Right Wing of the Chungjwa Guard who had led the abuses and been beaten with the penal cudgel groaned throughout the night.
And Yi Sun-mong, who had personally wielded the cudgel, stayed up all night drafting measures to improve the situation and submitted his report the next day.
Yi Sun-mong was rewarded for handling the matter properly.