Chapter 224
When you live in this world, truly absurd things occasionally happen.
For instance, Won Gyun, a legendary, utterly incompetent bastard, heard a report that a Japanese fleet was approaching, sank dozens of panokseon warships himself, and then fled.
Or perhaps there was a king who put his own son in a rice chest and conducted a quantum mechanics experiment.
As though there had been a king who, even after his own country had fallen, researched coffee-making techniques while saying, 'Admit it, I'm practically a barista, right?'
"Chief State Councillor, I think I have developed an illness where I mistake utterly nonsensical rumors for things I have heard with my own ears because I have been working far too much lately. I should submit a memorial requesting my resignation and take at least a year off before returning."
Hwang Hui sighed once after hearing me, then shook his head and said,
"You did not imagine it, so simply accept it. How can a person prevent something on the scale of a natural disaster?"
"No, unless His Majesty is suffering from a serious illness. But that is not the case, and His Highness the Taesangwang, albeit only temporarily, is going to guard the throne..."
"Watch your words, man."
Hwang Hui leaned close to my ear and whispered quietly.
"Do you want to run your mouth once, spend several days locked up in the State Tribunal, then be exiled to your hometown for a month, and finally be released through His Majesty's grace? Are you saying this because you are fully prepared to go through that entire sequence of events?"
Just because I had not yet adapted to this absurd situation did not mean anyone was going to torture me.
They would merely warn me to watch my words from now on, and after my State Tribunal experience, I would probably be exiled just as Hwang Hui had said.
There was no problem up to that point, but the trouble began when I was released through His Majesty's grace.
The Great Demon King who loved the people would gain a weakness he could exploit for the rest of my life, and my chances of becoming like Hwang Hui would shoot up.
"His Highness the Taesangwang and His Majesty the King have ordered us not to carry out even the 'ritual opposition' that must normally be performed whenever something like this happens. So simply accept things as they are. And..."
A smile spread across Hwang Hui's face.
"His Highness the Taesangwang makes us work far less than His Majesty the King."
After hearing Hwang Hui's final remark, I decided to neatly erase every question in my head.
Of course, Sejong and Yi Bang-won were not fighting a bloody battle to seize power from each other.
There had to be a reason Sejong had suddenly claimed to be seriously ill for no apparent reason and shut himself away in his room.
And when I pieced together the general context of the current situation, it seemed highly likely that Sejong was pretending to be sick so he could focus on researching Hunminjeongeum.
Anyone who knew this and still made an issue of the fact that Yi Bang-won had merely declared he would guard the throne for a while in place of the busy Sejong would be talking complete nonsense.
"His Highness the Taesangwang has arrived!"
The sound of a gong announcing the king's procession from outside the gate rang through the main audience hall.
Yi Bang-won sat down atop the throne where Sejong always sat, as naturally as if it belonged to him.
"Since I, who became the Taesangwang, have suddenly come to guard the throne, I am sure the ministers must be terribly bewildered. Therefore, I wish to explain the circumstances. First, three days ago, the King suffered a serious health crisis. The royal physician said that if he did not rest, his life might be in danger."
It was a lie.
And Yi Bang-won did not seem willing to show even the minimum sincerity necessary when telling one.
Our Iron-Mace King had become a king who loved his children, his family, and children in general after suffering the shock of losing three sons in succession before Grand Prince Yangnyeong.
For such a man to mention that Sejong was ill enough for his life to hang in the balance without showing even the slightest sign of sorrow made no sense at all.
"Therefore, as a father, I sternly admonished the King, who wished to continue attending to state affairs, not to make me suffer the death of a child. However, the throne cannot be left vacant, so I had no choice but to guard this position for a while."
If Sejong's life had truly been in danger, Taejong Yi Bang-won would have built a temple somewhere inside the capital and ordered prayers to be offered.
When the life of his own wife, Queen Wongyeong, had hung by a thread, he had told the monks at Hoiam Temple, 'If she does not recover after your prayers, you will all die,' forcing them to pray with desperate fervor...
'Of course he would.'
Even so, the reason he had brought up the word 'death of a child' was exceedingly simple.
I knew this made no sense too, but he was threatening that if anyone gave him trouble over this from now on, he would cave in their head with his iron club.
"Therefore, out of consideration for my anguished heart, do not discuss minor matters of protocol any further."
"We shall obey your command, Your Highness the Taesangwang.“
Of course, there would be officials in places like the Saheonbu and Saganwon who wanted to submit memorials.
Because Joseon was a country where offering loyal remonstrance in the form of 5,700-character comments—or rather, memorials—could become the achievement of one's life.
Since leaving one's name in history by submitting such loyal remonstrances was considered as precious as one's own life, it would be difficult for them to suppress the urge to submit a memorial about this tragic situation of the Taesangwang guarding the throne.
High-ranking officials like me had to rein in the idiots who wanted to surrender themselves to that uncontrollable impulse.
'You risk your life to offer loyal remonstrance when the country is on the verge of collapse, not over something this trivial.'
Honestly, so what if I failed to leave my name in history? It all ended when you died anyway.
"Minister of Revenue."
"Yes, Your Highness the Taesangwang."
"How much budget can the court use right now?"
"The granaries, including Pungjeochang and Gyeongchang, contain approximately 150,000 seom of white rice."
"Does that mean we can use that much apart from the hwangok reserves?"
When I worked at the Ministry of Economy and Finance, I occasionally had to visit the Ministry of Health and Welfare, and once I heard an official there say something.
He said that Joseon was a country that had sold its soul to social welfare.
When I asked what he meant, the official told me this.
During the reign of Taejong, hwangok reserves alone exceeded four million seom.
Considering that hwangok was, when all was said and done, a means of preventing the people from starving to death during the spring famine, and taking into account the area of fields registered in the administrative ledgers of that era...
With a little exaggeration, it led to the absurd conclusion that twelve percent of GDP had been a social welfare budget.
"There are approximately 3,789,000 seom remaining in the hwangok reserves."
"That is slightly less than before I reorganized the hwangok system."
"Before the Bang-won Law was implemented, fewer than two million seom remained. However, after its implementation, tax revenues increased, and the hwangok reserves have gradually grown."
In Europe during this era, unless a great famine struck, rulers paid almost no attention to whether there was a poor harvest or not, saying, 'Not my problem.'
Joseon, on the other hand, had gone all out at the national level to provide relief.
"The hwangok system must be maintained to prevent poor people from selling themselves into slavery. The Ministry of Revenue must pay especially close attention to it."
"Yes, Your Highness the Taesangwang."
"And you said that 150,000 seom can be used right now. How much of that budget can be spent on preparing for population resettlement?"
"Since the Pajeo River Campaign, we have spent 250,000 seom purchasing agricultural implements and oxen, and we intend to spend another 80,000 seom this year."
"To spend the previous court's entire annual budget on resettling people north of the Pajeo River... I am truly moved beyond words."
From what I had seen while working at Jiphyeonjeon, it seemed that we could now begin resettlement in earnest.
Yeonbyeon and Hunchun, designated as Joseon's northern border, had at some point come to be recognized by the Jurchens, to some extent, as Joseon territory.
We had also managed to establish a reasonably serviceable road network leading to those regions.
Would it not be all right to proceed with the resettlement in earnest from now on?
"Then that means we can spend 70,000 seom."
Minister Jo Gye-saeng's complexion turned deathly pale.
A reserve budget had to be left behind to prepare for contingencies, so hearing that it would all be spent without leaving anything behind must have made his eyes go dark.
"Vice Director Kim."
Yi Bang-won called out to me.
"Isn't it terribly regrettable that we can produce only 20,000 sheets of paper a day?"
At Yi Bang-won's question, every minister in the main audience hall turned to look at me.
Some of the senior ministers even mouthed silent pleas, pressuring me.
'Please say this is enough for now.'
'If His Highness the Taesangwang spends every last bit of our surplus funds, the Ministry of Revenue will be finished.'
They placed enormous expectations on me and pressured me accordingly, but unfortunately, I had no intention of meeting those expectations.
If it were anything else, perhaps, but how could I possibly resist Hunminjeongeum and compulsory education?
It was like telling a man who had never even held a woman's hand in his life to resist the temptation of a province's SS-rank, F-cup, twenty-year-old virgin beauty who had eyes only for him.
I was not a saintly sage like the Buddha, so I could not resist this.
Sorry, gentlemen.
I had tried my best not to give in to Iron-Mace King Yi Bang-won's temptation, but...
"This subject's heart aches and is distressed every day as well. To prepare for the day when every one of Joseon's people wishes to learn and needs books, even producing twice 20,000 sheets a day would not be enough... Yet we still find ourselves able to produce only this much, and I am filled with regret at my own inadequacy every day."
For the past few months, I had been throwing myself into overwork with the intention of taking revenge on the world that had made me a senior court official.
And recently, now that my anger had cooled, I had been trying to work at a more leisurely pace...
'Of all things, he took Hunminjeongeum hostage... Damn it, I'm screwed.'
"Then we must greatly expand the scale of Jojiseo and enable it to produce many more type blocks. That will require us to secure a larger budget. Do you happen to have any ideas?"
When he brought up the hwangok system, a very good idea occurred to me.
But this fell within the private sector.
More precisely, it was something I needed to discuss with my father-in-law, who had been dispatched to Jiphyeonjeon...
"After giving the matter careful thought, I will submit a memorial."
For the sake of spreading Hunminjeongeum, we would all bear the burden of overwork together in harmony.
That was a scholar's duty, after all...