Chapter 38
Our rotten currency policy in Joseon is gone now.
The people of Joseon no longer have to worry about the economic hardship caused by those coin-shaped pieces of trash. I’ve saved all the people of Joseon.
At this point, wouldn’t future historians call me a hero who saved Joseon? No, wait—I saved Joseon from the Great Depression, so yes, I am a hero.
When I first entered government service, I had only planned to pass the wartime military exam, submit a proper resignation memorial, and hole up in my hometown...
"There’s really nothing in this world that goes the way I want it to."
I complained that Joseon’s tax policy was a problem, and of all people it was His Majesty King Sejong who overheard me, so I ended up winning first place in the civil service exam back then.
Then I was appointed magistrate of Jinhae, and by making the rich pay a little more while the poor paid less through a tax policy that promoted commerce, I became a magistrate beloved by everyone in Jinhae County.
The moment my term ended, I was summoned to Jiphyeonjeon, turned into a human search engine shared by the ministers of the Six Ministries, and made to endure an appalling workload.
"And I only barely stopped them from implementing currency by submitting Joseon’s first-ever prostrate memorial."
After talking with Kim Mandeok, even knowing the fate of the currency, if I still didn’t even submit a memorial to stop it, I’d regret it until the day I died.
So when I got home, I wrote a long memorial, more than 5,700 Chinese characters—no, more than 10,000 characters—explaining why currency must not be implemented.
The next morning, during the hour when all the officials were coming to court for work, I laid out a mat, axe in hand, and submitted my prostrate memorial. Along the way, Yi Bang-won said he would promote me if I bent my will at once, but I told him he should either kill me or scrap the currency...
In the end, I thought I’d be transferred to Jeonokseo and spend my days waiting to die, but Yi Bang-won came and let me go.
"Instead of currency—the Daedong Law. No, the Bangwon Law."
Just thinking about it makes me smile. To be able to enact a law that gives the people a better tomorrow instead of killing them...
There probably isn’t anything happier than this for someone who knows history.
In actual history too, Kim Yuk implemented the Daedong Law in Chungcheong Province, and I heard the people of Chungcheong even came in person to pay tribute to him out of gratitude.
In other words, it shows just how much hope and strength to live for tomorrow the Daedong Law gave them. Of course, in the process, I’ll die too, and so will the officials.
If the more I work, the more only Joseon’s common people die meaningless deaths, then it’s better to make things harder for myself and do something for everyone.
When I went into Jiphyeonjeon, the officials there came toward me with bright smiles.
"Kim Suchan! You’re a loyal subject who will go down in Joseon history!"
"Thanks to you, we no longer have to search for copper mines all across Joseon just to make coins, or figure out how to levy corvée on the people to mine them."
"Before you submitted your memorial, we had the state mathematicians calculate the demand for coins, and they said that even melting down all the Joseon artillery wouldn’t meet it, so I was worried about how on earth we were supposed to submit a memorial about it... but now that I don’t have to worry about that anymore, what a glorious occasion, a truly glorious occasion."
The Jiphyeonjeon scholars all crowded around me and started praising me.
Choe Manri, who was almost exactly my age but notoriously strict, also came up to me.
As soon as he got close, he bowed deeply and showered me with praise.
"Lord Kim Suchan, your loyalty is in no way inferior even to Wei Zheng, who assisted Tang Taizong, or Yue Fei of the Southern Song. Knowing full well that minting coins would make the people suffer, this humble official still failed to submit a remonstrance to stop it."
One thing the victims who died because of Taizong’s jeohwa and the “coins” Sejong had just tried to introduce had in common was this: not a single official, nobleman, or rich man got caught up in it.
Even though there was an openly proclaimed law stating that if you didn’t use jeohwa or coins you’d be beaten to death, they still traded just fine with rice and cotton cloth.
Even so, I can’t really curse them... If they took jeohwa or coins at face value, their wealth would disappear in an instant. If they wanted to survive, those nobles probably had no choice but to grit their teeth and barter, and to look out for one another.
"Filial piety means respecting one’s parents, but also telling them, in polite words, to correct themselves if they do something wrong, thereby setting their faults right. The duty of a subject is the same: if the king enacts a wrong policy, one should remonstrate even if it means risking one’s life... But I was afraid of losing this worthless life and didn’t remonstrate. I am truly ashamed."
The warm, cheerful mood in Jiphyeonjeon suddenly sank.
Because Choe Manri had cowardly used the facts to point out their mistakes. Still, since those words themselves left absolutely no room to argue...
Jeong Inji, the Deputy Chief Scholar of Jiphyeonjeon, merely coughed while staring off into space instead of saying anything in response.
If this were the twenty-first century, I’d be able to comfort them by saying that everyone has a family to protect, and even the slaves they keep, so how could they treat their lives so lightly?
I really don’t know what I’m supposed to say here.
"Wasn’t it only a difference in method and order? Lord Kim Eunggyo had already calculated that more than several thousand people would have to be sent to Joseon’s copper mines, hadn’t he? Didn’t Lord Kim Eunggyo also submit a memorial saying that implementing coins would be difficult?"
"I suppose so."
Even in the Annals of King Sejong, His Majesty looked centuries ahead and still tried to force currency through.
But the ministers submitted memorial after memorial, explaining in painstaking detail why it wouldn’t work and trying to reduce the side effects as much as possible.
However, since they didn’t know economics, they couldn’t oppose it with solid evidence, so no one came forward to submit a prostrate memorial.
In the somewhat awkward atmosphere, Jeong Inji called out to me with a smile.
"Kim Suchan."
"Yes, Deputy Chief Scholar, sir."
"So I hear... you still aren’t married yet."
"Yes, that’s correct. I’ve just been far too busy."
Jeong Inji let out a sigh as he looked at me and said.
"It’s a shame that such an outstanding talent as Kim Suchan is still unmarried. What a heartbreaking thing. No, this won’t do—there happens to be a girl in my family who has just reached marriageable age... How about marrying her?"
"...... Pardon?"
"You and I are only seven years apart in age, so if we’d both entered office around the same time and had roughly the same rank, we might even have been friends."
In Pak Jega’s case, he and his closest friend Yi Deokmu had an age gap of a full eight years, yet they remained very close friends. Not the kind of friend you address like a close older brother, just a friend you spoke to casually.
Because in Joseon there was a saying, “eight up, eight down,” meaning that if you’re eight years apart and get along, you can just be friends. So Jeong Inji wasn’t wrong.
"From now on, you may think of me as your older brother. And I have no siblings, but when I look at you, you feel like a younger brother to me, so I’m making this proposal."
...... Marry a relative of Jeong Inji? For some reason, if I accepted that marriage, it feels like I’d be worked to the bone until the day I became Chief State Councillor. I really, absolutely hate that.
I’m going to resign quickly, even date through the winter, and then bring home a pretty wife from my hometown and live comfortably.
Right after Jeong Inji’s proposal, the Jiphyeonjeon scholars—average age in their forties, and most of them already with children old enough to marry—strode toward me.
"I hate to say this, but my daughter is quite beautiful and virtuous. I think she’d suit you rather well..."
...... Damn it, seriously. Why is it only old men who like me?
In anime and manga, it’s always beautiful girls who obsess over the protagonist, so why are only old men obsessed over me? Is this even a country?
"My marriage probably needs to be discussed with my parents according to proper etiquette..."
"That makes sense."
If my parents gave their approval, I’d have to hold the wedding right away.
While my mind was getting tangled in every possible way, Minister Hwang Hui entered Jiphyeonjeon looking utterly miserable.
One slave behind Hwang Hui was carrying books and scrolls on his back in a carrying frame.
The expressions on the faces of the Jiphyeonjeon scholars who saw that instantly soured.
Seeing that, Jeong Inji pinched his own thigh and asked.
"Minister, what on earth are all those documents?"
"...... They’re documents related to the new law being implemented instead of stopping Kim Suchan from introducing currency."
"Just what kind of law are you trying to implement that there are this many documents..."
"His Majesty the Retired King wants to implement the Bangwon Law."
Jeong Inji’s expression stiffened. Calling the king’s real name outright is about the same level of crime as praising communism in the military while selling military secrets.
"Ah, the Retired King liked the law Kim Suchan had memorialized so much that he even attached His Majesty’s personal name to it. That’s why the law came to be called the Bangwon Law, and he ordered that the name taboo would not apply when writing the law’s name."
"Bangwon Law..."
Hwang Hui quickly explained the gist of the Bangwon Law, the law I had proposed to Yi Bang-won.
The expressions of the Jiphyeonjeon officials listening to him hardened one by one.
"...... It’s a very good law, but..."
Hwang Hui shook his head.
"You’ll have a rough time. For the time being, it looks like royal food will be sent to the officials of the Six Ministries. His Majesty has ordered an ox slaughtered so all six ministries can eat their fill."
Everyone’s resentful eyes turned on me.
Hwang Hui suddenly pulled me toward him.
"Kim Suchan has been assigned to the Bangwon Office temporarily set up in the Ministry of Revenue. So let our Ministry of Revenue take that loyal subject over there."