Chapter 210
They say that pride does not put food on the table.
Thus, as the chief envoy of the embassy representing Joseon, I decided to set aside a little of my pride for the sake of the national interest.
If bruising my pride a little could save hundreds or thousands of Joseon's people from starvation...
It was far better to pursue practical benefits than to indulge in useless pride.
“Lord Hosokawa Kanrei.”
Hearing me call him, Hosokawa Mochiyuki stopped in his tracks.
“Why have you summoned me, Chief Envoy from Joseon?”
“I have something I would like to present to the shogun personally.”
“What is it?”
“These are pills that His Majesty the King of Joseon also takes from time to time to maintain his health. They are not quite potent enough to raise the dead, but they are a miraculous medicine capable of saving even a patient on the verge of death.”
“A fine medicine that His Majesty of Joseon takes often, you say.”
Mochiyuki tilted his head at my words.
Indeed, merely saying that it was a fine medicine even the King of Joseon took was already rather exaggerated advertising...
And I had gone so far as to add that it could save patients on the verge of death.
My words must have sounded like those of a medicine peddler who spouted lies to sell his wares.
I could understand his feelings.
If he believed the lying Joseon medicine-peddler-turned-chief-envoy and handed the shogun some untested, strange medicine, only for something to go wrong...
The Hosokawa clan he belonged to might be ruined, and if the medicine proved utterly ineffective, even his own reputation as the middleman would fall.
So of course he had to be cautious.
“Are you wondering whether its effects are truly that remarkable?”
“Since it is an item intended for presentation to the shogun—and a medicine he must take himself, at that—I cannot help but be cautious.”
“I understand completely. That is why, to demonstrate its effects personally, I brought along a patient suffering from beriberi.”
“You even brought a beriberi patient to demonstrate its effects? That sounds like something a merchant would...”
The kanrei, who had let the word “merchant” slip out unintentionally, hurriedly covered his mouth.
Then, when he tried to apologize, I stopped him.
“Ah, it is all right. My father-in-law, who came with me, really is a merchant as well. More precisely, he was one, but his skill and ability were recognized, and he was consequently appointed to office.”
“I see.”
“Since this is medicine to be presented to His Highness the shogun, you should examine it closely, Lord Kanrei. So come with me to inspect the condition of the patient I brought. We can also discuss some confidential matters that would be difficult to bring up openly in front of others.”
We moved to a small room in a corner of the lodgings where the Joseon embassy was staying.
Inside was a Joseon convict whose entire body was swollen and who was struggling even to breathe.
He kept complaining of his suffering in Korean, saying that he felt he was going to die, begging to be saved, and saying that breathing was painful.
Well, it was only natural that he was suffering and in pain, since I had deliberately made him contract beriberi to sell medicine to the Japanese bastards.
But this bastard was someone I could afford to make suffer a little more, because...
He had beaten and murdered his parents simply because they would not give him money to gamble with, so he was not someone who deserved to be treated like a human being.
Mochiyuki looked horrified when he saw the sick Joseon man.
“Is that man suffering from beriberi? Among the kugyō, there are especially many who contract beriberi, and of those I have seen, anyone whose illness had progressed to that extent died within a few days.”
“There are hardly any cases of beriberi in Joseon, but I suppose Wa is different.”
It was not that Joseon had never had beriberi.
But it was so uncommon that, in the Annals of the Joseon Dynasty, which had been recorded for more than five hundred years, beriberi was mentioned only ten times.
In Wa, however, circumstances were different; during the Edo period, beriberi spread—putting it mildly—almost like a waterborne epidemic such as cholera, and whenever a major outbreak occurred, it was common for hundreds to die.
In Japan, around twenty thousand people still died of beriberi every year until just before World War II.
Beriberi was not quite so serious during the Muromachi bakufu period, but people recognized it as a disease that simply killed you once the symptoms became severe.
Like cancer that had reached its terminal stage.
“A month ago, Lord Takatsukasa Tokitomo, my Naidaijin, died of beriberi, and more than several dozen kugyō die of beriberi every year. If there truly were a miraculous medicine capable of curing this terrifying disease... many would be willing to buy it even at the price of a thousand nyang.”
“I see.”
The higher a person’s station—and especially the more money they had—the less they spared on their health.
Even if they did not go so far as the insanity of Qin Shi Huang, the ultimate example in this field, and waste the state budget searching for the elixir of immortality, the rich were the sort who would cheerfully pay the price of a Gangnam apartment for a tonic good for the body or a highly effective medicine.
The daimyo of Wa were feudal lords, after all.
In other words, each was a plutocrat who effectively owned a region populated by countless people.
No one would scrimp on medicine said to be good for the body.
‘That means I can fleece them.’
“This medicine contains various precious ingredients, including ginseng, aquilaria, and deer antler. It is made by carefully processing them.”
“I cannot speak for the other ingredients, but I can believe in ginseng grown in Joseon.”
“I will give the patient you just saw three pills a day. Watch him until the day before the embassy returns to Joseon, fifteen days from now.”
Beriberi is a disease that can kill you outright if handled improperly, but even when the symptoms have grown severe enough to make breathing difficult, it improves quickly if the patient receives sufficient vitamin B1.
That is why the pills I made this time consist of tiny amounts of various fine medicinal ingredients and ninety-nine percent finely ground mixed grains.
I had to include at least a little of the precious ingredients so I could sell it at a high price and honestly name them when someone asked what it contained.
In short, I put in a little of the expensive ingredients for appearances, while the important vitamin B1 would come from the mixed grains.
I was planning to set the price at roughly one nyang of silver for five nyang of medicine.
It was an outrageously expensive price, but I had arranged for every bit of the income from selling the medicine to go into the royal budget...
That was why Sejong had allowed me to include a “death-row convict” in the embassy for clinical trials.
“That aside, Lord Kanrei.”
“Please, speak freely.”
“Would you perhaps be interested in steel?”
Mochiyuki’s ears perked up at the word steel.
“To be honest, the iron produced in our land is so poor in quality that making even a proper sword is exceedingly difficult. One must fold and unfold the metal hundreds or thousands of times to make a single sword, and... even after all that, our swords are helpless before those purchased from Ming or Joseon.”
The quality of steel produced in Wa was truly absurdly low.
Since there were almost no iron mines, they had to use satetsu, iron extracted from sand, for most of it, and its quality was terribly poor...
As Mochiyuki said, it could be used only after being folded and unfolded hundreds or thousands of times.
Some people say that the Japanese sword, the katana, reaches the level of an art piece.
Well, one could say it became art through that unbelievably complicated process, but when I considered why it had to undergo such a process in the first place, I could not help but snort with laughter.
“Joseon steel is of an entirely different quality. If you wish, we can provide Japan with 400,000 geun (240 tons) of steel every year. Once trade becomes more active, we may be able to export even more.”
“Is that true?”
“Joseon has iron in abundance. It has been a long time since even the plowshares and blades used by ordinary commoners were all replaced with solid steel.”
Deeply turning over the soil greatly increased crop yields, so I personally submitted a petition requesting this of Sejong.
The local offices then distributed plow blades made entirely of steel to the commoners free of charge.
Even after that, we still had a great deal of steel left over.
These days, people have even begun submitting petitions that both the central elite forces and the soldiers stationed in the north should be outfitted with iron lamellar armor.
The most prominent among them was Yi Jing-ok, the hot-blooded military official from Gyeongsangdo nicknamed the Boy General.
“We will also sell various precious goods from Ming at Tsuruga.”
“Apart from that, is there anything else you wish for?”
“If possible, I would like you to pay for the goods in copper. I understand that copper is plentiful in Wa, whereas it is fairly scarce in Joseon.”
“So be it. And besides that...”
As I spoke with Hosokawa Mochiyuki, we found common ground and concluded a secret agreement: except for the amount of steel that had to be delivered to the shogun’s family, the Hosokawa clan would receive priority in its supply.
Mochiyuki seemed intent on expanding his domain by distinguishing himself in the coming war with the Shoni.
Thus time passed, and just before our Tongsinsa was due to leave Kyoto, the death-row convict who had been hovering between life and death from beriberi made a complete recovery.
Upon confirming this, the shogun approached me and said,
“That medicine! Daebunghwan, I mean! Hand over every bit of it you brought!”
“Yes, I will do so.”
As expected, the high and mighty were helpless when it came to their health.
Having successfully completed our mission to Japan, my companions and I set out for home amid a warm farewell.