Chapter 199
They say you should strike while the iron is hot.
Since an urgent matter had arisen that needed immediate attention, I went straight to the Ministry of Rites to see Heo Jo, the Minister of Rites.
“Minister Heo Jo, I apologize for coming to see you so suddenly without sending word first.”
Heo Jo was the sort of man who grew thorns in his mouth at the slightest breach of principle or rule.
So I had steeled myself for the scolding he would surely give me for barging in without properly following the procedure for requesting an audience, but contrary to my expectations, Heo Jo did not scold me. Instead, he welcomed me warmly.
“I, too, heard the news about Zheng He’s expeditionary force and was wondering whether I should go to see Kim Eung-gyo right away. But since Kim Eung-gyo has come to see me first, I am grateful.”
I was glad to have avoided the expected lecture, but it felt strangely awkward that not a single word about principles had come from that old fossil’s mouth.
Well, at least it was better this way.
Nothing bad would happen just because the old man wasn’t complaining at me.
“Thank you, Minister.”
“So, what do you think the problem is?”
“Whether Ming wipes out the wokou living on Ilgido—the island they call Iki—or not is not something Joseon needs to concern itself with.”
Iki was indeed the biggest customer for the steel Joseon sold, purchasing most of it through Tsushima.
Those bastards sold silk, porcelain, rice, and other goods obtained by raiding Ming’s coast to buy steel, then used that steel to make weapons and raid Ming’s coastal areas even more fiercely.
‘The more those Iki bastards run wild, the more Joseon benefits.’
However, unlike other goods, steel was something an absurd number of people wanted, while supply fell woefully short of demand.
That meant finding other buyers would not be particularly difficult.
This was why high-value-added industries using advanced technology were so important.
If it had been an ordinary product, losing an important customer would have made it difficult to find someone else to buy it...
But since steel was something only Joseon could produce in large quantities, it sold like hotcakes wherever we offered it. What could be better?
“Although the wokou of Iki are effectively the biggest customers for Joseon steel, if they can no longer buy it, we can simply find another daimyo in Japan and sell it to him instead. Interrogating them certainly will not reveal that Joseon is trading with the wokou.”
“Then we can simply let the wokou in Iki be wiped out while we have the chance.”
“Tsushima is different. You must protect the lord and people of Tsushima, considering them Joseon subjects. I believe you understand the reason well enough without me having to explain it.”
The people of Tsushima knew that Joseon was supplying them with steel, and the Tsushima lord had long since become a slave who would even pretend to die if Joseon ordered him to.
If this fact reached Ming’s ears, Zheng He’s great fleet would not set out on a grand expedition beyond India toward Mecca; it would prepare for war with Joseon.
No matter how vast and powerful Zheng He’s great fleet might be...
it would not be able to turn Joseon into a wasteland, as the wokou had done during the Imjin War, because its supply capacity would be limited.
But what if Zheng He’s great fleet were combined with the mainland strength of Ming, which could mobilize no fewer than a million troops at once?
Joseon would suffer a devastating blow, one so severe that it would make the Imjin War look trivial.
‘Our young subjects would be slaughtered in droves.’
“Yes. Joseon must protect the Tsushima lord and people. But there is one problem.”
Heo Jo stopped midway through the conversation and sighed.
“Joseon cannot fight Ming in their place to protect the Tsushima lord and people. Then we would have to move them somewhere other than Tsushima and hide them so Zheng He’s great fleet could not find them. How will we persuade them to flee elsewhere, and is there even a place where we can accommodate them, at least temporarily?”
“Persuading them to evacuate will not be particularly difficult.”
Tsushima is a barren place where farming is utterly impossible.
That was why the lords of Tsushima had depended desperately on trade with Joseon since ancient times.
Looked at from another angle, this meant that being unable to farm while evacuating would not hurt them at all; if they simply decided to evacuate, they could leave without much burden.
“If we merely tell the Tsushima lord that a great Ming fleet, incomparably larger than the one His Majesty deployed when he launched the expedition to Tsushima, is coming to attack, he will try to flee immediately.”
During the Tsushima expedition in the first year of Sejong’s reign, Sejong did not achieve any astonishing military results.
However, he mobilized an army so large that Tsushima hardly dared to resist and laid the island to waste.
When they saw their island reduced to a wasteland, their morale collapsed, and the Tsushima lord eventually declared his surrender.
It had been less than ten years since they had begged for their lives before a Joseon expeditionary force numbering just over ten thousand.
What would they do if they heard that a Ming expeditionary force far larger than Joseon’s was coming?
They would try to flee so they could survive, even if only a minute or a second sooner.
“Joseon did not foolishly drive all the people living along the coast out of their coastal villages just because we feared the wokou, as Ming did. But did we not move everyone living on tiny islands to the mainland?”
“Indeed. When His Majesty the Grand King was on the throne, we moved everyone living on Ulleungdo to the mainland.”
Taejong had moved all the people living on Ulleungdo to the mainland not long after ascending the throne.
That was why Ulleungdo had become an administrative district that did not legally exist, and it was now a completely uninhabited place.
“What if we temporarily evacuate the Tsushima lord and people to Ulleungdo, while stationing Joseon troops there as well so they cannot try any foolish tricks? In addition, if we make them reclaim fields like oxen in exchange for food while we protect them, Ulleungdo will become an island where people can live.”
“Hah, that is an excellent idea. If the Tsushima lord or people are captured by the Western Ocean expeditionary force—the name Ming uses for Zheng He’s grand expedition—it will become a great disaster for Joseon. And these days the Tsushima lord has become a very docile lamb thanks to Kim Eung-gyo... We ought to protect him just as Joseon protects the beonho—barbarians living along Joseon’s borders, half-Joseon themselves. Besides, if we make Ulleungdo habitable, it will amount to expanding Joseon’s territory.”
If Tsushima stabbed Joseon in the back, the reason would be extremely simple.
It was because Joseon merely used Tsushima for its own purposes without treating it sincerely.
Of course, the men of Tsushima were so devoid of loyalty that, even among the Japanese, they would be offended to be called second-best at it; if we treated them well out of goodwill, they would be liable to screw us over.
‘There is no benefit in blindly treating them well.’
And when Ulleungdo became an empty island with no people living on it, those Tsushima bastards had even tried to pull a shameless trick on Taejong Yi Bang-won by telling him to entrust Ulleungdo’s administration to them.
I understand why that policy was implemented, but rather than turning it into an empty island, I think we should have forcibly settled people there, as we did when developing the Four Counties and Six Garrisons.
“And there is something else. Does it not seem that the wokou’s raids along the Ming coast have slackened somewhat these days?”
“What dreadful thing are you saying now?”
“Dreadful? Since Ming treats Joseon like garbage beneath even barbarians, I am merely devising a strategy, as a subject of Joseon, to repay it in kind.”
‘When the other side acts like an ass, I have to act like an ass right back.’ There is a timeless maxim that runs through the ages.
In truth, Joseon was using Tsushima’s wokou to lay waste to Ming’s coastal regions and prevent Ming from entering maritime trade, but...
It was a little unfortunate that we could not reveal everything and laugh as we declared, ‘We were the ones controlling it all from behind.’
We could not reveal it, but we were repaying them in kind with something terrible all the same, and that was what mattered, was it not?
“Ahem. But you see, the art of war is inherently cruel, is it not? Sunzi said that the art of war was deception, and Ming is, after all, a country that may turn against Joseon at any time.”
A wicked smile spread across Heo Jo’s face.
He had the expression of someone from a certain island nation who had caused many of the world’s worst historical incidents.
“Moreover, they call themselves Zhonghua while looking down on Joseon as an uncivilized barbarian land, which is truly pathetic. They disparage the Yuan as an uncivilized country, yet imitate and practice the very vile custom they themselves followed—burying consorts alive when the emperor died... Just how barbaric is Ming, then? These people claim to champion civilization while completely ignoring how much Confucius despised live burial, and they still bury people alive.”
Confucius hated customs such as human sacrifice and live burial more than anyone.
He must have hated live burial terribly to curse that the person who first devised the method of making clay figures to use in place of people would never see descendants.
“I am delighted that Your Excellency thinks the same way I do. Then what do you think of this plan? When Ming conquers Iki this time, suppose it turns the island into a completely empty island. We can then give the empty Iki to the Tsushima lord.”
“Joseon has no need to covet that tiny island, but the Tsushima lord will be greedy for that palm-sized patch of land and immensely pleased to have it, so there is no harm in the idea.”
“Please submit a memorial to His Majesty with this proposal, Minister. Then I will go win the Tsushima lord over.”
I have no intention of casting aside every personal interest and working solely for Joseon’s endless glory and prosperity.
But I could hardly pass up the chance to give Ming a massive middle finger while looking after Joseon’s national interests.