Chapter 46
In Joseon, the gathering of the king and his ministers to discuss state affairs was called a royal audience.
At such audiences, it was usually Sejong, the three chief ministers, the Left and Right Chancellors, the Associate Chancellor, and the ministers of the Six Ministries who gathered to discuss the country's affairs...
But today, there was a somewhat special attendee.
It was the man wearing a black gonryongpo, openly showing his displeasure right beneath the throne: Taejong Yi Bangwon.
The ministers did not know what matter had brought Taejong to the audience, but they had one guess.
Hwang Hui and Jo Malsaeng exchanged a wordless conversation through their eyes.
‘Looks like someone somewhere has been acting like the ghost of Goryeo, my lord.’
‘Indeed. The atmosphere is ominous; it feels like bloodshed is about to break out.’
While the two were in the midst of their silent conversation, Sejong called for the Do Seungji in a solemn voice.
“Do Seungji.”
“Yes, Your Majesty.”
“Do Seungji, read aloud the memorial submitted by former Hall of Worthies scribe Kim Daebung.”
At the name Kim Daebung, the ministers, Hwang Hui among them, were seized by a tension that made every hair on their bodies stand on end.
A resigned Kim Daebung and the Mace King Yi Bangwon, who had appeared in a black gonryongpo, of all things.
Clearly, that was not a good combination.
It suggested something sinister—something as dreadful as eating river crabs and dried persimmons at the same time.
Under everyone's gaze, the Do Seungji hurriedly began reading the memorial.
Its contents were shocking.
Because it contained, in meticulous detail, a story about usurers—the sort of people who opposed the Bangwon Law, or rather, had no choice but to oppose it.
When a famine strikes, the king and the people are filled with worry, all fretting over how they might avoid starving. But those who practice usury, when famine comes, take out fine liquor and raise a toast, rejoicing endlessly as they look forward to the enormous wealth they will make from usury. For them, a famine is precisely the time to make money and the best time to increase their fortunes.”
After hearing up to that point, Ryu Jeonghyeon felt a sinister aura wrap around him and cold sweat poured down his back.
In Joseon, usury was legal, but Joseon's laws were the kind that could be applied according to the king's mood.
Even Hwang Hui, Jo Malsaeng, and even Maeng Sa-seong had each once been tied to some major corruption scandal. Yet they had gotten off because their ability to do their jobs was recognized.
Of course, he himself was a minister with abilities just a little better than Hwang Hui's, and he had enriched himself while staying just within the bounds of the law.
Until now, whether the Office of Inspector General impeached him or not, he had swaggered through power, saying, 'I have never broken the law.' But...
‘This is extremely dangerous!’
In good harvests, the granaries in commoners' homes are full, so even when the spring lean season comes, they don't need to borrow rice from the usurers. But in a famine, there isn't even grain to eat that day, so when the spring lean season comes they are forced to borrow rice from the usurers. If they borrow rice in a famine, they have to repay it at jangni (50 percent interest) or gapri (100 percent interest). What a hugely profitable business that is.”
Yi Bangwon and Sejong's faces hardened even more.
Even though they already knew the contents from having read the memorial beforehand, hearing it again made anger surge up anew and twist their stomachs.
What was the point of spending a lifetime as king, working and sacrificing for Joseon and the people living in Joseon?
When parasites who did nothing but lend at usury were killing the people, anyway.
“From what I have heard from the people who borrowed at usury, nothing could be more tragic than this. If they borrow rice at usury just to avoid starving to death right now, they become even poorer the next year. In the end, those who have fields inherited from their parents must sell them, and those without inherited fields can only watch their own daughters be dragged away into slavery and reduced to playthings for the yangban.”
Tears fell from Sejong's eyes.
Thinking of the hearts of parents who could only watch their precious children, whom they had borne and raised, become slaves and live miserable lives as the playthings of old, ugly yangban...
It hurt as though his chest were being squeezed, and tears sprang up of their own accord.
The laws of Joseon did not regulate this, but that was because royal authority had not yet reached that far.
“In this way, those who lend at usury amass enormous wealth. Thus, they always want the people to remain poor and destitute.”
Kim Daebung truly wanted the people's happiness.
So he wrote this memorial.
On top of that, in his own mind, if he wrote this memorial and brought down the Chancellor, he would be regarded in court as the troublemaker who had cut down the Chancellor, so he could gain 'eternal freedom (resignation),' or so he mistakenly thought.
“I have never lived in Goryeo. Nevertheless, I am certain that those who have squeezed and tormented the people suffering under usury are the remnants and ghosts of Goryeo.”
When the phrases 'remnants of Goryeo' and 'ghosts' were mentioned, all the ministers flinched.
And then the memorial finally turned its focus to the one person Kim Daebung had truly resolved to sweep away.
“This incompetent subject, unable to repay the grace of Your Majesty the Retired King and Your Majesty the King, committed the disloyal act of petitioning to resign and was preparing to return to my hometown when I heard a horrifying story. That story was that the Chancellor...”
Kim Daebung's memorial contained a detailed account of Gapseok's story.
It said that Gapseok, with nothing to eat, borrowed grain from Ryu Jeonghyeon, and when the rent suddenly rose the following year, he could not repay the usury. Then Ryu Jeonghyeon's servants appeared, shoved a document in his face, and dragged away his daughter to be a slave.
Furthermore, Ryu Jeonghyeon had stationed his own servants all over the country and was running usury. And those who were good at the usury business were given yeokseung posts, and once they completed their term, they were even given military posts.
At this part, Sejong clenched his teeth so hard that the grinding sound was loud enough for everyone in the royal audience chamber to hear it.
At the same time, Yi Bangwon rose from his seat.
Then he sent Sejong a meaningful look, signaling him to say what he had to say.
Understanding the meaning of that look, Sejong sprang up from the throne.
“...... Chancellor.”
“Yes, Your Majesty.”
“Is the Chancellor a servant of Goryeo, or a servant of Joseon?”
Cold sweat poured down Ryu Jeonghyeon's face and all over his body.
Because he understood perfectly what Sejong's words meant.
“I am a subject of Joseon, Your Majesty.”
Sejong shook his head.
“When I have thought it over carefully, you are not a subject of Joseon.”
“What do you mean by that, Your Majesty? I have devoted my entire life to the royal ancestral shrines and state altars. I did my utmost to use the taxes collected from the people efficiently and practice frugality. That is the path to enriching the nation and strengthening the military that Xunzi spoke of, and that is why I acted as I did.”
Before Kim Daebung came on the scene, Joseon's economic policy had deemed it important above all else to reduce tax collection. The belief was that the less tax they collected, the better the people would eat and live.
In Joseon, everyone agreed with that policy in accordance with Confucian teachings, but...
now they had come to think that collecting too little tax without a plan was the road to killing the people.
Kim Daebung's market policy in Jinhae County was the most representative example.
If taxes had gone up, the people should have fallen into hardship and complaints should have risen. Instead, when they saw people submit a thousand-person memorial praising Kim Daebung as the best and even erect memorial steles, everyone finally abandoned that misguided notion.
“Joseon is a country that embraces its people. So I wanted to reduce taxes to ease the people's burden. I thought reducing taxes was truly for the people's sake, and that is why I did it...”
Sejong looked at Ryu Jeonghyeon and smiled with a bloodthirsty grin. Seeing that, the ministers were reminded of Yi Bangwon.
Sejong's gonryongpo was clearly red, but for a moment it was as if the color of his clothing had turned black.
“Kim Daebung personally proved that collecting taxes properly is what serves Joseon and the people. That showed that the policies you had advocated until now were nothing but armchair theorizing. Even so, I did not greatly doubt your loyalty. I knew about the usury, but that is something everyone does, so I tried to let it slide.”
Sejong did not even think it wrong that Ryu Jeonghyeon had taken the lead in killing his father-in-law, Shim On. He also saw Ryu's proposal to demote him to a commoner as an act of loyalty meant to prevent the in-law clan from gaining power.
But excessive loyalty and treason are only a sheet of paper apart...
From the way he kept opposing and delaying the Bangwon Law for one reason or another all this time... Sejong's assessment of Ryu Jeonghyeon, who had lain somewhere between a loyal minister and a treacherous minister, was sealed by Kim Daebung's memorial.
A treacherous minister who ruined the country, a powerful minister.
What's more, a man who wanted to turn Joseon into a country where the powerful aristocratic clans devoured everything, just like Goryeo.
“I hear your slaves are spread all over the country, and those who are good at collecting usury are appointed as yeokseung and later even given military posts. Taking all this together, if this is not treason, then what is it? You are nothing but a Goryeo-style clan of powerful aristocrats, plain and simple.”
Ryu Jeonghyeon stiffened on the spot.
“The way you have opposed and delayed the Bangwon Law for one reason or another all this time also only looks like you did it because lending at usury was about to become difficult.”
“Your Majesty, I only did it for Joseon—”
Sejong did not want to hear his excuses.
“What are the Inner Royal Guards doing?”
“Yes, Your Majesty.”
“Have Ryu Jeonghyeon locked in the State Tribunal and strictly interrogate him to determine whether he is connected to the men who submitted memorials opposing the Bangwon Law this time.”
Ryu Jeonghyeon was dragged out, stumbling along.
“At the State Tribunal, treat that man who tried to block the Bangwon Law as a traitor and interrogate him harshly.”
And before long, it was revealed that Ryu Jeonghyeon had grown viciously rich through usury and had fabricated the memorial to oppose the Bangwon Law.
**
Immediately after the interrogation ended, Ryu Jeonghyeon and Kim Jeom were dragged out to Hanyang's market street, their bodies battered and ruined by every manner of torture.
Because of Sejong's royal decree treating them as if they had committed treason, guilt by association was also applied, so the men over the age of fifteen among the three generations of their households were dragged out together as well.
Sejong tersely and swiftly recited why these men were traitors, then proclaimed it.
“The traitors Ryu Jeonghyeon and Kim Jeom sucked the lifeblood from the people just like the powerful ministers of former Goryeo. Therefore, the two of them shall be subjected to georyeol (called neungjihyeong in Joseon), and the men over fifteen among the three generations of their households shall be executed by beheading to set the national law aright.”
Yi Bangwon watched that scene with a satisfied smile.
Solving problems through conversation is fine, but those who cross the line must be punished severely if order is to be established.
Because carrying out georyeol punishment against the ghosts of Goryeo was truly the right thing to do.
“Carry out the sentence!”
On that day, dozens of people were executed.
But none of the people of Hanyang mourned their deaths or grieved for them.
Instead, everyone was delighted.
Because the ghosts of Goryeo had been driven out.