Chapter 158
Even though Joseon's Crown Prince had come all this way, the atmosphere in the Ming audience hall was extraordinarily cold.
When Prince Gyeongnyeong Yi Bi came in the past, they had treated him with the utmost courtesy, just as they had when Grand Prince Yangnyeong was Crown Prince, and the emperor had even stroked his head himself.
But now, there was not even the slightest sign of a welcome.
"The young Crown Prince of Joseon must have had a difficult time traveling such a long distance."
Munjong answered the emperor.
"I beg your pardon, Your Imperial Majesty. Although I reside in Joseon and it takes time to reach the capital, is it not a subject's duty to come running the moment Your Imperial Majesty summons him? I thought I would be able to see Your Imperial Majesty in person, so I enjoyed even the long journey here immensely."
"Joseon's Crown Prince is laying it on far too thick with his flattering words. I wish to keep sycophants at a distance and loyal subjects close. Why does Joseon's Crown Prince like dressing up his words so much?"
"I beg your pardon, Your Imperial Majesty."
"However, I felt the Crown Prince's sincerity within those embellished words, so I will not rebuke you any further."
If he found Joseon's expansion without his permission so distasteful, he could have lodged a diplomatic protest.
This lunatic was hazing a young Crown Prince in front of the diplomatic mission. What a fucking bastard!
Normally, when someone asked whether the journey to Ming had been difficult, the chief envoy of Joseon was supposed to say, 'I was so delighted to come see Your Imperial Majesty that I did not even realize how arduous the long journey was.'
So Munjong had given the standard answer, only for the emperor to reply, 'You sound like a sycophant, so I can already tell you are rotten to the core.'
That emperor bastard, who was going to die soon from illness, sure knew how to say nasty things.
Thanks a lot, you rotten bastard.
I will definitely tear Ming into several nice pieces, so just wait for me in hell.
"The Crown Prince must be tired from traveling such a long distance, and the other officials must be as well. Therefore, I shall grant you the special imperial favor of exempting you from the hama-yeon, the banquet held upon a mission's arrival and return, so go back and rest at once."
"Your Imperial Majesty's grace is boundless."
"I will read the memorial Sejong submitted tomorrow and give you a reply as quickly as possible. Until then, rest comfortably and wait. Once I have given you my answer, you may return."
In truth, Munjong, Choe Yun-deok, and I were all fairly exhausted.
So, obeying the emperor and simply returning to rest would have been comfortable and pleasant.
But what did the emperor's words really mean?
This directive from the emperor showed that he had no intention of treating our diplomatic mission like human beings.
Since formal diplomatic procedures were not worth observing with Joseon as it stood now, he had simply omitted them at his own discretion.
In other words, he was telling us to understand that and wait quietly while resting.
'This is far too great a humiliation for young Munjong to endure.'
Even I was shuddering with the anger rising from within me.
They had summoned the Crown Prince of a country to make the difficult journey here, only to mistreat him and declare that Joseon was beneath even the barbarians?
As Crown Prince, despite having done nothing wrong, he would keep wondering what exactly he had done wrong and where things had first gone wrong.
In the process, he would fall into tremendous self-loathing and despair.
"You may withdraw."
After hearing the Ming emperor's order to leave, we all exited the audience hall in the Forbidden City.
Munjong, who had grown very close to me during our journey, came over to my side instead of going to Choe Yun-deok.
"Chief Secretary, what did I do wrong that His Imperial Majesty would treat us as though we were beneath even the Jurchen barbarians? I do not understand, but if you tell me, I will correct it, so please tell me everything from beginning to end."
Munjong was deeply shaken.
His complexion had grown somewhat pale, and his entire body was trembling.
It was astonishing enough that, at only thirteen, he had shouldered the fate of his country and come all this way with such dignity. Yet as soon as he arrived, the Xuande Emperor had made sure he was treated to the earnest declaration, 'Joseon is beneath the Jurchens.'
It would have been stranger if he were still in his right mind.
"Your Highness has done nothing wrong. Nor has the diplomatic mission Your Highness led done anything wrong."
"Is that so?"
"Indeed. Think about it. If Joseon had truly committed a grave offense, they would not even have allowed Your Highness and our diplomatic mission to enter Beijing."
Furthermore, until the matter was resolved, we would have had to keep drafting and submitting memorials from Hanyang through the Liaodong Military Commander, while the emperor would have sent edicts filled with all manner of unreasonable demands.
Hand over court maidens, send us eunuchs, give us tiger skins, send us horses—the edicts would have poured in, all of those demands dressed up in the most polished language.
Joseon's court would have been completely bent out of shape trying to provide everything they demanded.
No—perhaps we could somehow have endured even the demands for tribute.
The real problem was that, just as Japanese bastards exploited women as comfort women during the colonial period, we would have had to offer Joseon's people as tribute women and eunuchs.
And then we would have had to comfort one another by saying it was unavoidable for Joseon's survival.
Just imagining it made my blood rush to my head.
"I will say this again. Your Highness has not committed even the slightest wrong. They are merely wary of Joseon having grown too powerful."
"Wary?"
"While passing through Liaodong, I tried to build friendly relations with the military officers there by slipping them suitable gifts. Yet they all asked, with surprising seriousness, what the secret was behind the Joseon army's overwhelming victory over the Jurchens."
So I left out the core of the matter and invented a lie plausible enough for them to accept.
I told them that Joseon had squeezed its farmers dry to complete the Jurchen expedition and stockpiled provisions in Hamgyeong and Pyeongan Provinces, accepting that several grain-transport ships might sink.
I said that after advancing a large army and continuously maintaining its supply lines, the Jurchen barbarians had been unable to put up a fight.
"Judging by the fact that they asked me such a thing, I could not shake the thought that they were extremely wary of Joseon having suddenly grown stronger."
"...... Is that so, Deputy Envoy?"
At Munjong's question, Choe Yun-deok nodded.
"Was I not appointed commander in chief this time and placed in command of the Joseon army? Because the Joseon army had grown too powerful, we achieved several times the gains we had expected. It is only natural that Ming is wary."
In the original history, the expedition ended after securing the Four Commanderies and Six Garrisons—in other words, territory extending roughly to the present-day Korean border.
But now we were looking beyond southern Manchuria toward the Yanbian region, Vladivostok, and even Siberia...
'They have every reason to be wary.'
"However, Your Highness, you have nothing to worry about. I will resolve this somehow."
Fortunately, Ming had Northern Yuan as its implacable enemy, while its situation with Yue (Vietnam) was such that a war could break out at any time.
In such circumstances, they could not choose either a full-scale war with Joseon or a deterioration in diplomatic relations.
If Joseon's mission mentioned this issue in passing and submitted a plan for how we intended to crush the Jurchens, the Ming emperor would soon forgive us and stop looking down on us and eyeing us with suspicion.
The problem, however, was how to convey this.
"Chief Secretary!"
A familiar voice reached my ears.
No, I could tell who it was from the voice alone.
It was the shrill voice peculiar to a eunuch, dripping with the air of a sycophant.
This voice unquestionably belonged to that bastard Wang Zhen.
"I never imagined you would come looking for me so quickly."
The Crown Prince and Choe Yun-deok stared at me as though I were a strange person.
It was true that Joseon was in a position where it had to flatter Ming, but it must have seemed absurd for the Chief Secretary to welcome a mere eunuch so enthusiastically.
Be that as it may, to me, the man standing before me was like an ultra-high-interest fixed-term savings account.
No, more precisely, he was like a stock guaranteed to skyrocket in the future if I invested heavily in him—the human equivalent of the company run by some innovation-obsessed man who made Apple phones.
In other words, he was the man who would play the greatest role in breaking Ming apart.
"Haha, Chief Secretary. Please rejoice."
"Is there some happy occasion?"
"His Imperial Majesty has greatly praised my talent, learning, and character and appointed me Tutor to the Crown Prince. A mere eunuch like me has become the Crown Prince's tutor. Surely this is unprecedented in the history of Ming?"
After hearing his words through the interpreter, the Crown Prince and Choe Yun-deok tilted their heads in confusion, then widened their eyes and looked extremely surprised.
"Congratulations, Lord Tutor."
"Just as you said, Chief Secretary, the world has recognized my talent. Like Sima Qian, who strove to fulfill his ambitions even after becoming a eunuch, I can now display my talents throughout the world."
When it came to the talent for bringing down a country, Wang Zhen was the best of the best.
If Joseon had Won Gyun, the great King Injo who could not even flee, and Empress Myeongseong, who handed every official post to her relatives... then it would not be an exaggeration to say that Ming had Wang Zhen.
"A Ming filled with outstanding gentlemen like Lord Tutor will continue to prosper greatly."
"Haha, is that not equally true of Joseon? With someone like you, Chief Secretary, Joseon will continue to prosper greatly as well."
After lavishly praising Wang Zhen, I let out a deep sigh.
"Lord Tutor, may I ask one favor of you?"
"For the sake of the Chief Secretary, who recognized my true worth before anyone else, what could I possibly refuse? As long as it is not something harmful to the country, I will help you with anything."
I had successfully bought Wang Zhen coin at its lowest point.
Although he was not yet the Chief Eunuch of the Directorate of Ceremonial, the highest-ranking eunuch, the nature of his position as Tutor to the Crown Prince meant that his influence already rivaled that of the Chief Eunuch.
In other words, it was more than possible to use him to convey Joseon's true intentions to the Ming emperor.
"I do not know who they are, but it seems that some sycophants are clouding Your Imperial Majesty's judgment and speaking ill of Joseon. How should we overcome this?"