Chapter 205
Though I had returned to Hanyang, I still had not been able to leave the office.
It was because His Majesty King Sejong had ordered emergency overtime.
As a result, all the officials had to set aside, for a while, the beautiful, happy life of arriving at and leaving work on time that I had introduced.
Of course, these officials had all passed that arduous civil service examination and risen to their current positions, so I did not think they would complain about having to work late in such troubled times.
Now that every official in the court was working overtime, surely we were all united, inwardly or outwardly, in cursing the culprit, Great Ming, for making us work late when we normally did not.
While I was briefly lost in idle thoughts, I heard someone shout loudly.
“His Majesty the King is entering!”
At those words, the ministers who had been gathered in groups of three or five to curse Ming hurried back to their proper places.
The analogy may be a little odd, but it reminded me of a scene in which, instead of quietly studying during self-study period, I had gathered with like-minded classmates to chatter and fool around, only for the friend keeping watch to announce that the teacher was coming, making us hurriedly find our seats, sit down, and open our books in silence.
As I was having that strange thought, the drums announcing the king’s procession began to echo through the main hall.
Sejong entered, sat upon the throne, looked down at me, and asked,
“Were you not injured from traveling such a long distance by ship?”
“Thanks to Eunuch Zheng’s thoughtful consideration for this humble subject, who was unaccustomed to ships, I suffered no injuries.”
“I worried greatly that sending a loyal subject like Kim Eung-gyo to a distant foreign land might damage your health on the sea voyage, or that you might be injured while suppressing the Japanese pirates. It is truly fortunate that you have returned without any problems.”
“The royal grace you have shown by worrying about such a foolish subject as myself is as vast as the sea.”
Sejong frowned when I called myself foolish.
No, this was a conventional expression used by officials standing before the king in Joseon, so what was wrong with it to provoke such a reaction?
Ah, I felt a little aggrieved.
This was no different from asking one’s boss after lunch at work, “Did you enjoy your meal?” only to be subjected to a lecture about how asking that reminded him of the unappetizing meal he had eaten and ruined his mood.
“You introduced the Bang-won Act to Joseon, planting hope in the people that they could escape hunger; you straightened the nation’s tax system through the Bangjeon Act; and you even eased the suffering of the people burdened by military service. Whenever there was something that could help the royal ancestral shrine, the dynastic state, or the people of Joseon even a little, you have always volunteered to sacrifice yourself without the slightest hesitation.”
I could not exactly say this to His Majesty King Sejong, but seeing those absurdly malfunctioning systems right in front of me had made my stomach churn.
That was why I had no choice but to step forward and do something.
I knew that taxes could be collected more evenly if the land were properly surveyed using the Bangjeon Act, and I had calculated that the suffering the people could barely endure because of the military service system could be prevented if Joseon’s increased budget were put to good use.
So I had merely done what I could.
I had shared a little of my wealth with the people while living in Joseon, but Gyeoul and I had never been so short of money that we had to eat millet rice instead of white rice.
Nor had we ever lacked warm winter clothes and firewood and shivered in the cold during winter like the people.
‘Anyone can see that what I have done hardly counts as a sacrifice.’
“You have always devoted yourself to Joseon. Therefore, do not put such words as ‘foolish’ or ‘disloyal’ into your mouth, even as empty modesty.”
“Yes, Your Majesty. I shall bear that in mind.”
“Your loyalty will remain in the annals of history and shine beautifully, and the path you walk from now on will also serve as an example to everyone.”
If the greatest success in the twenty-first century was earning a great deal of money and dying respected by everyone...
the greatest success that the yangban literati of Joseon sought was to leave behind a beautiful name and reputation in history.
Therefore, the praise Sejong had given me could be called the highest compliment one could offer a yangban literatus.
To be honest, I was extremely flustered.
And for some reason, when I heard Sejong’s words, I thought of that man wearing a golden mask and wailing all the time.
It must have been my imagination.
“In order to repay Your Majesty’s sea-like grace from now on as well, I shall not lose sight of my original intentions and will devote myself to serving the country with loyal service.”
“Do so.”
A smile appeared on Sejong’s face.
It was a smile ten times more pronounced than the one he wore when looking at Hwang Hui.
Although I had always been careful before, I would have to make absolutely certain from now on that I never became greedy for wealth, accepted bribes, and allowed anyone to find a weakness in me.
If Sejong got a hold over me, I would become someone unable to resign until the moment before death, like Hwang Hui, who was summoned to court even while mourning his mother.
“I suspect that docking the great fleet led by Eunuch Zheng He in Joseon before taking it to suppress the Japanese pirates was intended to display Ming’s military power to Joseon. Accordingly, some have even suggested that, seeing how rapidly Joseon has developed over the past few years, Ming deliberately sent the expeditionary force to keep our country in check and threaten us.”
In truth, considering their route and the fleet’s ability to secure supplies and sustain operations, they had no need to stop in Joseon at all.
Even so, the reason they had gone out of their way to stop here was likely, as the ministers had guessed, to show off their military power.
There were several giant vessels with displacements exceeding 1,300 tons, while the hundreds of ships serving as escorts were also larger than, or comparable in size to, the Fuchuan ships commonly used in Joseon...
Since I had merely been dragged along with them, I had been too distracted to know much, but surely many Joseon people had been so astonished by the majesty and scale of Ming’s grand fleet that they could not help but be stunned.
“I, too, was worried that Ming might find some pretext to attack Joseon. What are your thoughts on this, having personally accompanied Zheng He to the site of the campaign against the Japanese pirates?”
“In my opinion, Ming will never attack Joseon.”
“Are you saying that the concerns shared by me and the ministers are groundless?”
“I beg your pardon for saying so, but that is how it appears to me. Conversely, even if Joseon were to declare war on Ming, they would only threaten us verbally, saying that they would send a great army. In reality, they would not be able to send one.”
“Why do you think that?”
“Because if Ming went to war with Joseon, it would have enemies on both its northern and eastern fronts.”
If Ming and Joseon each drew upon every ounce of their national strength and went to war, Ming would of course win.
Even during the Wanli Emperor’s reign, when the Ming army became truly incompetent garbage, Ming could still mobilize hundreds of thousands of troops to suppress a rebellion if it truly set its mind to it...
During the Imjin War, it also had the strength to send an army numbering tens of thousands to Joseon and provide more than a million tons of grain, keeping the people of Joseon from starving to death.
And the Ming of today was a far stronger and more advanced nation than it had been during the Wanli Emperor’s era...
How could Joseon possibly defeat those bastards in a head-on confrontation?
Even if General Gang Gam-chan came back to life, it would be extremely difficult.
“From what I have heard, Northern Yuan is still capable of mobilizing tens of thousands of cavalry.”
By the standards of Ming or Northern Yuan, tens of thousands of soldiers were not actually that impressive.
But tens of thousands of cavalry were an entirely different matter.
To exaggerate wildly, it would be like being able to deploy tens of thousands of tanks; viewed realistically, it would be like tens of thousands of special forces soldiers akin to Navy SEALs, fully armed with cutting-edge weapons, taking the field.
Tens of thousands of elite special forces soldiers with extensive combat experience moving around and causing havoc wherever they went?
Just thinking about it was truly horrifying.
And in a premodern army with no asymmetric strategic weapons, missiles, air force, or armored units, twenty thousand cavalry could...
depending on how they were used, literally annihilate hundreds of thousands of infantry.
“And when I went to Ming and heard about its Weisuo system... I learned that the system they have implemented contains extremely serious contradictions. As a result, apart from a small number of elite troops, the soldiers Ming conscripts are all nothing more than a rabble.”
“How can you be certain of that?”
“They, too, order soldiers to provide all their military equipment at their own expense, just as Joseon did in the past. Do you really think the equipment obtained in that manner would be properly made?”
Even cavalrymen like the Chunguiwi, who volunteered to enlist (for real) from yangban families descended from meritorious subjects in order to preserve their families’ social standing and advance into military offices (actual government posts), were often poorly equipped.
That was because providing a horse, lamellar armor, and various weapons cost enough money to buy a tiled-roof house in Hanyang.
Therefore, because they did not want to purchase such expensive equipment...
it was said that they often took turns using the same armor and horses.
Would Ming infantry be any different?
“Considering these circumstances, the Ming troops deployed in the north, including Liaodong, and the forces of Northern Yuan are essentially evenly matched, with Ming only slightly superior at best. But if Joseon also became its enemy, Ming would be unable to handle it.”
“Indeed, that is so. It would be difficult for them to cope with such a situation.”
“Therefore, they dare not attack Joseon—unless Joseon draws its sword first and tries to stab them in the throat.”
Even Ming, the strongest nation in the world, had things it could do and things it could not.
What the hell did those bastards mean by conquering Joseon when they had to fight Northern Yuan to the death?
They should spend that time fighting the Northern Yuan barbarians and Jurchen barbarians with all their might.
“However, if Ming begins to suspect Joseon, there will be no end to it...”
The way to avoid arousing Ming’s suspicions was surprisingly simple.
We merely had to do exactly what they were doing.
“To allay Ming’s suspicions, would it not be wise for us to send envoys to Wa as well and sternly reprimand the King of Japan, ordering him to control the Japanese pirates?”
How wonderful would it be if, while pretending to go reprimand them, we used this opportunity to join hands with the daimyo of Wa?