Chapter 179
Hwang Hui was unable to resign this time either.
In truth, his resignation memorials up to now had been nothing more than showmanship: after serving as Chief State Councillor for too long, he would submit one and pretend he was stepping down, since some people below him would grow dissatisfied, and then...
It was merely a performance meant to solidify his position, since the king would acknowledge, 'I am keeping this fellow in that position because he is absolutely necessary, so everyone had better understand that.'
'This time, I really was trying to retire.'
"How can the world be so cruel to me?"
Before Hwang Hui, who wore the expression of a man who had lost everything, lay the memorial submitted by the energetic Censor Choe Man-ri of the Office of the Inspector General.
It stated that Hwang Hui had used his authority to cut the taxes owed by one of Hanyang's great merchants in half.
"I merely used the authority I possessed to set matters right and help a commoner who had been unfairly forced to pay an excessive amount of tax."
The tax owed by the supposedly aggrieved commoner Hwang Hui mentioned amounted to less than 5 pun (5%) of the man's total income for the year, so Hwang Hui's claim was clearly mistaken.
In any event, from Hwang Hui's perspective, he had simply taken pity on a poor commoner who, despite having plenty of money, had been placed in a difficult position by an excessively high tax assessment, and reduced his crushing tax burden.
Of course, he had technically broken the law a little in the process.
He had accepted a gift worth 1,000 seom of polished rice from the great merchant Kim Ho-gwan, along with lavish meals featuring all sorts of rare delicacies.
But that was merely a voluntary expression of gratitude toward Hwang Hui for relieving his grievance.
He had done it because, by Joseon standards, where propriety sometimes took precedence over the law, he had judged that there was almost nothing wrong with it.
"How on earth did Censor Choe Man-ri find out about this?"
When one serves as an official, one frequently encounters commoners pleading that they have been wronged, and when one resolves their grievances, they voluntarily offer 'a small gift' out of gratitude.
Since refusing a gift brought in as a gesture of sincerity would also be impolite, accepting it was only natural...
And he himself, as Chief State Councillor, had correctly rewritten the man's tax ledger. How could this matter possibly have come to anyone else's attention?
"If I resign now, I will not be going home after retirement. I will be exiled to some distant provincial town yet again."
Sejong and Yi Bang-won loved talented people.
Thus, even when someone had blemishes, if he was exceptionally capable, they protected him rather than punishing him, allowing him to continue working at court.
They had even appointed a man like Ryu Jeong-hyeon, who recklessly practiced usury, as Chief State Councillor, while Jo Mal-saeng had been involved in the Kim Doryeon affair, yet they had spared him punishment by turning him into a man who could never resign.
Although Hwang Hui had been implicated in corruption several times, Yi Bang-won and Sejong had rescued him as well, sparing him exile and allowing him to work at court.
There was only one price for the favor those two bestowed.
'Lifetime service.'
Since he had committed crimes, he had to work for the country until his body was worn down to nothing, atoning for his sins in place of receiving punishment.
Even so, working without being allowed to resign was better than being exiled.
"The world is truly cruel to me. So cruel..."
Indeed.
Joseon, the world in which Hwang Hui lived, was a country that made capable but corrupt officials work until they died so that they could atone for their crimes instead of sending them into exile.
And Sejong was now silently threatening him: if he did not want to be exiled, he had better conduct himself properly.
Hwang Hui had no choice but to take up his brush and submit a memorial withdrawing his resignation.
It was a truly beautiful sight in Sejong's eyes.
A minister who had devoted himself to the court for many years had a blemish, yet the king covered it up for him...
An elderly chief councillor, moved by the king's grace, voluntarily asked to be allowed to devote himself to the state until the day he died.
"...... What on earth is this supposed to be?"
Even as he said that, Hwang Hui had no choice but to move his brush for the sake of his survival and write a 'memorial volunteering for lifetime service' in his own hand.
Carrying it, he left the State Council and trudged toward the Royal Secretariat...
While he was on his way, Minister of Punishments Seo Seon, who was related to him by marriage, hurried over and spoke to him.
"Chief State Councillor Hwang, something terrible has happened. Truly terrible."
"What is it, exactly? Why? Have Japanese pirates invaded?"
He was already so aggrieved and furious that merely submitting the lifetime-service memorial he had written with his own hand felt enough to make him die of frustration. Hearing his in-law say that something terrible had happened pushed his emotions beyond control.
'And my mood was already foul enough as it was.'
"My son has caused an incident. As he was passing through Sinchang County, he beat a local clerk in a drunken rage because the man failed to bow to him, and killed him..."
"Why are you telling me that my son-in-law killed a clerk in Sinchang County? Are you asking me to cover it up?"
"Yes, that is right. He is a wretch who deserves to be torn apart, and he certainly committed a crime, but he is still the Seo family's only son and the son-in-law of the Chief State Councillor."
"Seo Dal refuses to study, refuses even an official post when I offer to secure one through eumseo, and now he has gone and caused an incident like this."
"Chief State Councillor, please help us just this once. What sort of relationship do we have?"
In the twenty-first century, there are occasionally cases in which in-laws cut ties and live as strangers, but in Joseon, in-laws were almost the same as blood relatives.
And because Joseon was a country of propriety and filial piety, even if one family member committed the grave offense of gambling away the entire family fortune, the family would be socially buried if it abandoned him.
Therefore, even if Hwang Hui disliked his son-in-law, he was indeed in a position where he had to save him somehow.
'But this is the crime of deceiving the king and misleading one's superiors.'
"What kind of blasted in-laws are we, anyway? Get lost!"
Hwang Hui roughly shook off Seo Seon's hand.
Seo Seon could not accept that his desperate plea had been rejected.
"Chief State Councillor?"
"If you want to save your family's only son, submit your resignation memorial and beg His Majesty the Retired King to spare him. Since Seo Dal is the only son in your family, perhaps he might spare him so that your family line can continue?"
Hwang Hui's insides already felt as though they were rotting away from the pain of having to volunteer for lifetime service, and now that son-in-law of his had gone and caused an incident as well...
He hated this situation intensely.
But even if one set aside a son-in-law who deserved to die immediately after drinking poison, how pitiful would his daughter become if she were forced to die because of the crime committed by that man she called her husband?
'I would like to cover it up, if I could.'
He could clearly envision the repercussions that would follow if he covered up the incident.
If he and several other chief councillors deliberately coordinated their stories, it would not be impossible to conceal the incident itself...
But if he took such a gamble and was caught by the Iron-Mace King, Yi Bang-won, he would certainly end up like Jo Mal-saeng.
And if he ended up like Jo Mal-saeng, he too would soon be buried beneath the mountain of work Kim Daebung would hurl at him once Kim became a senior court official.
The only way to avoid that catastrophe would be to resign somehow, as soon as possible.
"Please, if only for the sake of the Chief State Councillor's daughter..."
"You are no longer my in-law! Still, since we were once in-laws, I will refrain from telling anyone that you asked me to commit the crime of deceiving the king and misleading my superiors. Now get lost!"
With that, Hwang Hui pulled the Minister of Punishments away from him and headed toward the Royal Secretariat.
He then personally submitted the memorial volunteering for lifetime service.
Beginning the following day, the impeachment of Hwang Hui ceased completely.
But Hwang Hui could not rejoice.
"How many more years am I supposed to keep serving as Chief State Councillor? Even with a few blemishes, I am an incorruptible official compared to that Right State Councillor over there."
If Kim Daebung or Minister of Rites Heo Jo had heard him, they would have mocked him inwardly with the absurd remark, 'Have all the incorruptible officials in Joseon died out?'
To make matters worse, news arrived that weighed even more heavily on his heart.
"His Majesty appointed Kim Daebung to the position of Eung-gyo at the Hall of Worthies and ordered him to lay the groundwork for compiling the Newly Compiled Gazetteer of the Eight Provinces... All sorts of work will come pouring into the State Council from now on. Oh, those good days are gone. Gone."
That day, Hwang Hui drank until he was dead drunk out of sheer indignation.
The next day, he could not even report for work because he had drunk far too much the day before.
**
Some people call the Hall of Worthies this.
A government office resembling a graduate school, where the talented people specially recognized by the Great King Sejong are sure to pass through.
I agree with that description a hundred times over, even a thousand.
That is because the Hall of Worthies in Joseon was an institution that investigated and resolved all sorts of matters, from those raised by the central government's Six Ministries to those submitted from the provinces, devised measures to address them, and even conducted scholarly research.
That was why, when I finished serving as magistrate of Jinhae and came to the Hall of Worthies as a Junior Compiler, the ministers of the Six Ministries could toss enormous amounts of work at me without hesitation.
The Hall of Worthies was an all-purpose problem-solving office, after all.
"I am Kim Daebung, newly appointed as Eung-gyo at the Hall of Worthies, Grand Academician Byeon Gye-ryang."
Byeon Gye-ryang sighed as soon as he heard my greeting.
"I never dreamed you would come back to the Hall of Worthies yet again."
"Yes, neither did I."
Historically, Byeon Gye-ryang had been a great scholar who served as Grand Academician of the Hall of Worthies for no less than twenty years.
Therefore, if events had unfolded as they did in the original history, he should still have been Grand Academician of the Hall of Worthies when I was serving as a Junior Compiler, but...
When he saw me expanding the market fairs during my time as magistrate of Jinhae, he argued that it was a bad policy that encouraged the people's extravagance, and was stripped of his office and rank.
Then, about two years ago, he succeeded in returning to the Hall of Worthies.
"His Majesty has ordered you to lay out the entire foundation for compiling the Newly Compiled Gazetteer of the Eight Provinces by yourself. Therefore, I will obey that command and entrust all the groundwork for the compilation to Eung-gyo Kim."
"How could a subordinate possibly undertake such a grand project alone?"
"That is because..."
Byeon Gye-ryang let out another deep sigh before pointing to the mountain of work piled up before him.
"After the Chief State Councillor's resignation was rejected, he has been going around the Six Ministries from that very day until now, pointing out every single deficiency and reforming the institutions. Just like you."
"......"
"Thanks to that, even I, the Grand Academician of the Hall of Worthies, am having a hell of a time. So hurry up and tell me what your compilation policy is."