I Humbly Beseech You to Repel Them with an Iron Mace (9)

As the call of the daera rang out, the grand boom of gongs joined in...

With that deafening din, the king's most elite military guards, including the Gyeomsabok and Naegeumwi, marched out through Gwanghwamun in perfect unison, maintaining precise ranks and files.

The commoners who saw them emerge began whispering among themselves.

"What, has a war broken out?"

"How should I know? Still, unless it were the king of Goryeo, surely the king of Joseon wouldn't harm us, would he?"

To the common people, Joseon was a country where life was somewhat difficult, but where they could expect next year to be a little better than this year as long as they saved and worked diligently...

Goryeo was a hell where, even if people wanted to eat one last filling meal before dying, they had no rice left to eat, and where, even if they somehow survived until the following year, they could not imagine how much more miserably they would have to live.

If Goryeo's king had come out on a procession with armed men leading the way, the commoners would probably have fled screaming to preserve their lives...

But now, knowing that the king of Joseon they served was a sage king, they seemed not to believe for a moment that he would harm them.

‘Goryeo was a country of aristocrats, while Joseon is a country centered on its people.’...