Chapter 228
I am not a vending machine, nor am I ChatGPT.
Therefore, you should never casually demand that I come up with a way to implement an unreasonable policy.
Yet King Sejong the Great, who loves and even enjoys working late if it means feeding the people well, and King Iron Mace Yi Bang-won, an expert at exterminating Goryeo ghosts, seem to treat me not as a person but as an all-purpose search engine when dealing with me.
Last time, they demanded that I not only find a way to procure 200,000 sheets of paper every day but also come up with the budget needed to procure it.
In truth, this is not the sort of demand one can reasonably make of a person.
Unless they think I am a magical goblin club, there is no way they could make such a demand.
“I’m a person too, you know!”
Grand Academician Byeon Gye-ryang of the Jiphyeonjeon overheard my spontaneous outburst as he passed by me and shook his head vigorously.
Then he looked at me with pity.
“Hang in there. They say that when you are young, you willingly buy hardship for yourself. His Highness the Grand King is entrusting you with so many difficult tasks now because it is part of the process of turning you into a great vessel, is it not? Try to think of it positively.”
I do not want to become an even greater vessel.
If I become even more capable than I am now... the future awaiting me is painfully obvious.
Since I am twenty-eight years old now, there is a high probability that in about twenty years I will rise to the ranks of the Three State Councillors.
My fate after becoming a chief councillor is obvious.
“Getting Hwang Hui’d.”
The only difference between me and Hwang Hui, at least, would be that I have no record of accepting bribes engraved in scarlet letters.
I feel as though tears might pour from my eyes just thinking about it.
And comfort has to suit the situation and place, yet I was being comforted with words like, ‘This is a trial meant to turn you into an even greater person later.’
As the bleak future awaiting me took shape with absolute clarity, I felt terribly sorry for the version of myself who would have to live through it.
‘You little loyal subject! Once you overcome this hardship, you’ll go from a pathetic third-rank recruit to a spirited Chief State Councillor, an able man capable of working three times harder—how could this not be good for Joseon and for you!’
Receiving encouragement like that made it feel as though a thousand flames were blazing inside me.
Meanwhile, a thought suddenly popped into my head: I should share the hardship—or rather, the joy—I was enduring for loyalty to the king and love of country with others as well.
‘They say joy doubles when you share it, right?’
“Your Excellency, His Highness the Grand King has issued me a royal command.”
“What command did he issue?”
“He ordered me to examine whether we can feed one chicken a week to the soldiers serving in the north, where they shiver in the cold, and, if possible, devise a plan to implement it.”
Byeon Gye-ryang’s expression hardened instantly upon hearing my words.
“His Highness the Grand King has demanded that you solve a very difficult problem indeed. Even though poultry farms have recently sprung up throughout all eight provinces of Joseon and chicken prices have fallen considerably, chicken is still quite a precious food.”
“No matter how much the country’s finances have improved, chicken is still an expensive ingredient.”
Chicken prices had fallen considerably by now, so ordinary commoners could somehow afford to eat about one chicken a month.
Nevertheless, chicken was still a fairly expensive food.
“However, Joseon is not so poor a country that it cannot feed one chicken a week to soldiers who shiver in the extreme cold of the north while fighting the fear of not knowing when they might have to face the barbarians.”
“Are you thinking of raising taxes?”
“Some of the military grain rations rot, do they not? If we used that grain to raise chickens inside the military camps, we could greatly reduce the cost of raising them.”
“I heard that when Zhuge Liang expected to remain somewhere for even a little while during a war, he planted turnips for the soldiers to use as side dishes, and if he stayed longer, he had them cultivate military farms. Are you adapting that idea?”
“Yes, that is correct.”
In the twenty-first century, the only army whose soldiers had worse provisions than those of Joseon was the North Korean People’s Army, and it was apparently still raising livestock inside its military units.
They raised goats, chickens, and rabbits to slaughter and eat, and apparently even organized something called a military-farm platoon within their company structure to plow fields.
We will set those bastards’ supply situation aside, since it was seriously far worse than that of the Joseon army in the early fifteenth century.
Even in the South Korean military, there was a time, up until the early 1960s, when operating facilities such as fish farms and poultry farms was considered more important than training.
Even the soldiers of Joseon stationed in the famously frigid north did not train every day of the year or stand guard twenty-four hours a day...
I thought it would be a good idea to build and operate poultry farms or something similar to improve their nutritional condition even a little.
“And by now, poultry farms should have appeared in every county throughout the country...”
I rapidly worked out some figures in my head while clicking the abacus I had received from my father-in-law.
“Without greatly increasing budget expenditures, we should be able to distribute one or two eggs a week to the soldiers serving their military terms.”
“Where exactly will you get that budget?”
“I understand that after the Bang-won Method was implemented, tax revenue increased and local government offices gained a fair amount of room in their budgets. Therefore, we should be able to distribute one or two eggs a week to each soldier without difficulty.”
“His Highness the Grand King will be delighted to hear that.”
“It is only right to do this for soldiers who have given three precious years of their lives to the country and endured every kind of hardship. When the people show loyalty to the king, it is only proper for the king to repay them by making their food supply abundant.”
There is a saying that is always heard among yakuza and organized crime gangs.
‘A rich man is a big brother, and a poor man is an enemy.’
Loyalty to one’s country cannot, and should not, be placed on the same level as the filthy mentality of such gangs.
Yet historically, that was always how things worked.
Loyalty is maintained when people are fed properly, and when they are not, the enraged people and army overthrow the country.
Conversely, if a country makes every possible effort to feed its people properly, then even when a crisis strikes, the people will step forward of their own accord, making it possible to overcome the crisis with ease.
“I will draw up a concrete framework for the system and submit it within a few days.”
Byeon Gye-ryang shook his head, then pointed upward.
“Submit it directly to Uijeongbu. What use would there be in having an old man like me, who has devoted himself solely to scholarship, review it?”
“Understood.”
After sending Byeon Gye-ryang on his way, Heo Jo suddenly appeared and strode toward me.
Because he was a hunchback, the nobleman’s back was severely bent, and when he glared at me with fierce eyes, I even felt as though a real peregrine falcon were approaching me.
Was that why his nickname, Songgolmae, would live on throughout history?
“Minister of Rites, what brings you to the Jiphyeonjeon?”
Heo Jo spoke in a voice filled with discontent.
“I am deeply disappointed.”
“What are you so disappointed about this time, Your Excellency?”
Why had a Minister who was not even my company commander suddenly come looking for me and started making a fuss about being disappointed?
“Ha, even if you have a disease that makes you unable to live without immediately tearing down and fixing every unnecessary or even slightly inefficient tradition or institution you see, there are still things a seonbi must uphold, are there not?”
“What do you mean?”
Heo Jo let out a deep sigh as he looked at me.
“If the country’s finances and paper are plentiful, and printing the classics has become easy thanks to improvements in printing technology... should we not devote ourselves above all else to printing more of the classics? Confucius himself said that learning should be extended to everyone. Yet even though we have room in the budget... how can you be moving so slowly?”
Confucianism is a school of thought that argues education should be provided to as many people as possible.
Thus, when Heo Jo, that Confucian old fogey, served as Vice Minister of Rites, he worked hard to establish schools throughout the country and spread Confucian-style rites.
On top of that, this lunatic had made such an extreme remark when the Crown Princess was chosen last time that I was amazed he had somehow escaped with his head still attached.
‘When the first Crown Princess was selected, the Crown Prince avoided her because she was extremely unattractive. It seems that when choosing a Crown Princess again from among the royal concubines, His Highness intends to judge their appearance. That must not be allowed. She must be chosen solely for her virtue, regardless of her appearance.’
Seeing him interfere in royal affairs like that, I thought Heo Jo might lose his head...
But Yi Bang-won had said that Heo Jo was right and rewarded him instead.
Emboldened by this, the man devoted himself even more strongly than before to Confucian principles and moral edification.
“You know that we are already making type to use when printing not only the Elementary Learning but also the Four Books and Three Classics, do you not?”
“No, that is not enough. Even if I have to contribute my own fortune, this is something we must expedite even further. Since it is for the edification of the people, we must not be stingy with our wealth.”
For reference, that man Heo Jo possessed only enough wealth to barely maintain the dignity of a yangban.
In other words, even if he emptied his fortune, it would not amount to much.
The problem, however, was that if the Minister of Rites, a senior second-rank official, emptied his coffers, everyone else would have to do the same...
“Your Excellency’s intentions are admirable, but if the Minister of Rites donates his fortune, it will place a tremendous burden on the other officials.”
If Heo Jo donated one hundred seok of polished rice, a wealthy official like Kim Mandeok would have to put up at least ten thousand seok—no, twelve thousand.
The other officials would also be saddled with an enormous burden.
“Grand Academician.”
Grand Academician Byeon Gye-ryang flinched in surprise when Heo Jo called out to him.
“Yes, Minister of Rites.”
“Would you join me in this beautiful undertaking to spread moral edification throughout all eight provinces of Joseon?”
Byeon Gye-ryang was such a terrible miser that even if he could not eat all the food he received as holiday gifts and had to let it rot, he would begrudge giving any of it to his servants.
There was no way such a man could like the suggestion that he donate his own fortune.
Nevertheless, with Heo Jo asserting that the dissemination of books was an absolute value in Confucianism, it was difficult for Byeon Gye-ryang, who held the post of Grand Academician at the Jiphyeonjeon as Joseon’s foremost intellectual, to oppose him...
Byeon Gye-ryang rose from his seat without a word, then quickened his pace and fled to Uijeongbu.
“Minister of Rites, please do not be so hasty.”
“Does your heart not burn with impatience?”
“If one wishes to achieve a great goal, one must also know how to wait, must one not?”
"A great goal? What could possibly be more precious than printing more books so that even one more person can read them?"
Soon, King Sejong the Great would proclaim Hangul.
Then Joseon would be able to lower the barriers to education considerably.
I knew that, but I could not announce here that His Majesty was going to create Hunminjeongeum...
“The hyanggyo, which only yangban and the wealthy can enter, will not be enough.”
His Majesty King Sejong’s goal was compulsory education.
That was why I was laying the groundwork for him first.
Because that was a subject’s duty.