Chapter 196
Sejong ordered the wealthy yangban who did not perform military service to pay ten seom of white rice every year.
However, several stingy yangban stepped forward and submitted memorials crying that they would rather die than pay taxes and that it was unbearably unfair.
Thus, Sejong, who always looked upon the people of Joseon with compassion and concern, gave them an opportunity to experience military service firsthand and repent their mistakes.
Thanks to Sejong's grace, even Kim Seosaeng of Gwangyang-hyeon in Jeolla Province received the royal favor of reflecting on and repenting for his mistaken thoughts and actions, earning the honor of enlisting in the Gyeongsang Right Naval Station.
“Do I really have to serve in the military here?”
The escort officer who had brought him sighed deeply, then struck him on the back of the head.
For a mere escort officer, no more than a commoner, to commit such an outrage against a yangban—even one sentenced to decapitation—was unthinkable, but...
From the moment Kim Seosaeng was specially granted Sejong's royal favor until his sentence ended, he had become an ordinary commoner—no, a lowly and despised naval soldier of the sinnyangyeokcheon class, just an old ajusshi.
The escort officer could freely throw his weight around with the former yangban.
“His Majesty has confiscated all your yangban privileges. Did he not also order you to serve as an ordinary soldier in the naval forces for five years? Yet you still cannot stop acting like a yangban because you have mistaken your own status. You really have not come to your senses, have you? What an appalling bastard!”
“......Even so, I am technically a yangban...”
“Are you defying the solemn royal order by arguing with me right now? You senseless fool. Get your head straight and understand your place properly. That is the only way you will survive. Behave yourself from now on. I am only letting you off with a smack to the back of the head because it is me. If you said something like that at the naval station, you would not escape being wrapped in a mat and beaten, so get your head straight.”
Kim Seosaeng had regretted his past actions dozens of times already and repented deeply in his heart.
He had also been warned hundreds of times by the escort officer and others never to act like a yangban.
But the reality he faced was unbearably harsh:
No matter how deeply he repented his sins, the fact that he had to serve in the navy for a full five years would not change.
If only he had known this would happen, he—whose inherited lands were so abundant that he harvested nearly 600 seom of grain every year—should have simply paid ten seom of white rice without saying a word, thinking of it as a handout to the ignorant and foolish commoners...
He bitterly regretted his past decision to submit a memorial demanding that the privileges of the yangban not be taken away, all because he begrudged the money.
Of course, the reason he had come to repent so deeply was that he would have to suffer like a dog in the navy for the next five years without even the status of a yangban...
It was not because he believed that paying for his wrongdoing was the right thing to do.
Regardless, he was being punished as Kim Daebung had intended while undergoing a reasonably proper process of re-education.
Even if a person's character did not change, his body would at least remember not to commit such a foolish act again.
“Until your military service is over, never forget that you are not a yangban but merely an ordinary soldier dragged into the navy. If you forget that fact and throw your weight around, you will end up meeting His Majesty the Retired King at the State Tribunal. Do you understand, Kim Seosaeng?”
Hearing a mere escort officer casually call him by his name once again made Kim Seosaeng feel as though his heart were collapsing.
Whether his feelings were crushed or not, Kim Seosaeng was now enlisted in the Gyeongsang Right Naval Station, where time passed so slowly that people even said it moved backward.
Having received thorough mental instruction from the escort officer throughout the journey, Kim Seosaeng immediately reported to the Gyeongsang Right Naval Commander and was then shown to the living quarters of the station's soldiers.
More than thirty men were sharing a single room.
“Newly transferred recruit Kim! Seo! Saeng! reporting! Please take care of me!”
Having been thoroughly disciplined both mentally and physically by the escort officer, he understood that if he let on that he had once been a yangban, he might be dragged to the State Tribunal and see the Iron-Mace King himself...
So he was able to treat the naval soldiers he once would not even have regarded as equals with humility, setting aside his pride.
Every soldier already knew what crime had brought Kim Seosaeng here, and they also knew that while he was here, they must neither treat him as a yangban nor even bother to do so.
Ojang Kim Deok-su, the second-most senior man in the living quarters, kicked off the hazing of the new recruit.
“Are you that recruit who supposedly threw away all his common sense? The rich yangban who submitted a memorial protesting His Majesty's order to pay ten seom of white rice instead of serving in the military...?”
“I'm sorry! I am repenting!”
“Will apologizing bring your military service to an end?”
“No, it will not! I'm sorry!”
“Stop saying you're sorry.”
Kim Seosaeng was sincere.
Even now, if he were only granted a pardon, he was willing to contribute 300 seom of white rice every year toward feeding the soldiers.
Of course, if he were pardoned now, who knew how long that attitude would last...
Regardless, his determination to start a new life was extremely strong.
For now, anyway.
“Repentance, shmentance—this is the military. From now on, I will be watching you especially closely with both eyes wide open, so behave yourself.”
“Yes, I understand.”
“Hey, Private Kim Byeong-nam.”
“Yes, Ojang.”
“Keep an eye on that guy. The Right Naval Commander said it does not matter whether he used to be a yangban or not—work him as hard as you like and turn him into a proper man. You are responsible for him.”
At Ojang's words, Kim Byeong-nam, the actual most senior man in the living quarters, answered while standing ramrod straight.
Several soldiers knew the whole story and had to forcibly suppress their laughter, but Kim Seosaeng, who could not even begin to guess Kim Byeong-nam's identity, did not realize that he was the highest-ranking man in the room in terms of seniority.
“Yes, I understand!”
“We are going to work now, so get ready immediately. Recruit, change your clothes and follow us!”
Kim Seosaeng prepared to go to work while brooding over his miserable circumstances.
And he was immediately dragged into civil-support work.
“From now on, our company will begin building an embankment here at Dongnyangcheon. I heard the Right Naval Commander may come to inspect us. Pay special attention, do not even think about slacking off, and work hard.”
The moment those words were spoken, Kim Seosaeng had to start shoveling, something he had never done in his entire life.
Since he was not a yangban while he was here, and might lose his head if he swaggered around claiming to be one, he had no choice but to do it.
“If I had known this would happen, I never should have written that memorial.”
Tears of regret flowed freely from his eyes.
At the same time, he felt to his bones how difficult life was for soldiers serving in the military.
He also learned what an enormous privilege it was to be born a yangban in Joseon and receive exemption from the army by paying only ten seom of white rice each year.
While regretting his actions and making a reasonably diligent effort at shoveling, one of the soldiers tapped him on the back of the head.
“Hey, recruit! Are you going to shovel like that? You don't know how to use a shovel?”
“I do not know how.”
“Good grief, are you a complete idiot? Watch carefully while I teach you. First, drive the shovel into the ground, then press down hard with your foot. That way the blade goes in deep enough for you to scoop up the soil. Then you lift the dirt like this. You can see the other seniors working beside you, can't you? If you do not know how, you should watch them and imitate them. What the hell are you doing? Are you such a bookworm who has spent your entire life at a desk that you cannot even read the room?”
“I'm sorry.”
“Hah, I will be watching you.”
Although he was not beaten, Kim Seosaeng had to endure every kind of bullying and abuse.
Even so, he devoted himself to shoveling in order to survive.
He also had to endure all kinds of abuse in between.
They had thought that a well-educated yangban would at least know how to shovel, but seeing how badly he did it, they asked what he had studied for and said it had all been a waste, and so on.
For a former yangban, these were unbearable insults to hear.
Even the chogwan who had passed the military service examination and happened to be nearby pretended not to notice the abuse Kim Seosaeng was receiving.
If he had come here after committing a serious crime, such as stealing or beating someone, and was paying for it through military service...
then they might have protected him on account of being a yangban, even if he had committed a crime.
But he had submitted a memorial because he begrudged the ten seom of white rice he was supposed to pay instead of serving in the military, insisting only on the privileges he was entitled to as a yangban.
‘Serves him right.’
As a result, he was subjected to relentless hazing without a moment's respite from the beginning of the work until its end.
While Kim Seosaeng was being thoroughly hazed, Kim Byeong-nam, the most senior soldier in the room where he stayed, approached him.
“Our Ojang and the other seniors are pretty damn nasty, aren't they? That Ojang Kim has a habit of picking pointless faults and riding new recruits whenever one arrives.”
“Is that so?”
Although he had been a yangban until very recently, Kim Seosaeng had fallen into the army, where only ordinary commoners went, and was receiving all kinds of abuse. Thus, Kim Byeong-nam's single kind word became a tremendous source of comfort to him.
He was even thinking that, if he safely completed his military service and returned to being a yangban, perhaps he should give Kim Byeong-nam a plot of land.
“That Jeong over there, when he first arrived, the first thing he asked was whether I had an older or younger sister. Then he asked me to arrange a match if she was unmarried.”
“......Isn't that taking things a bit too far?”
“Right? Looking at that man's face, he looks like the sort who will never get married in his life... Heh heh, don't you think?”
“That is true as well. Honestly, his face is a bit... It makes you feel sorry for him.”
Thus, Kim Seosaeng worked for quite some time while badmouthing the senior soldiers with Kim Byeong-nam...
That day's work forced Kim Seosaeng to shovel for a long time, something he had never done in his life, and rewarded him with a voracious appetite, deep sleep, and incredible muscle soreness.
The next morning, when he learned that Kim Byeong-nam was the most senior soldier in the barracks where he lived, he was so shocked that he could only foam at the mouth.
And Joseon was on the verge of implementing conscription in earnest.