What I Truly Want (3)

It had already been a month since I spent my first night with Winter.

Up until now, I had approached office life thinking I'd resign once I finished the work at hand.

When I passed the civil service palace examination, I planned to stay in office for just a few years, and when I went to Jinhae as county magistrate, I thought I'd simply finish out my term and be done with it.

I'd always been that way, even during the Jibu Sangso and the Bangwon Law...

Looking back now, even if I ended my official career like this, I probably wouldn't regret it much...

"But I'd still keep feeling a sense of regret, wouldn't I?"

Once the Bangwon Law was implemented, the people's lives would become clearly more prosperous than they were now.

Because it would completely overturn the current tax system, which effectively burdened the poor with 30% to 40% while leaving the rich with an effective tax rate of under 10%.

The rich would end up paying 16% in taxes, and the poor's effective tax rate would fall below 10%.

Lowering taxes wouldn't suddenly increase the poor's income.

But if someone earning 2 million won a month had 1 million won taken as rent and, after paying taxes to the state, was left with only around 200,000 won... what if, in the future, even after paying taxes, they still had 600,000 to 700,000 won left?

The monthly income the poor commoner felt they had would seem to have tripled overnight.

Joseon's poor commoners would live a better future because of the Bangwon Law.

The people of Jinhae County had thrown a celebration when I came to the market and said things like this.

'With the money I make selling greens and straw sandals at the market, I'll feed my children three meals a day.'

'I can endure being a little hungry now and buy a small patch of land next year, then farm my own fields.'

'These days I get up at dawn, hurry to finish the tenant work in the fields, and then head into the mountains to gather medicinal herbs. Thinking about what to do with the money from selling them is so much fun.'

But if the Bangwon Law had an even greater effect on the people than simply opening a market, just how great would that be?

Without anyone ordering them, without anyone forcing them, the people would gather and shout, "Long live His Majesty!"

"If I've done this much, I've pretty much done what I needed to do."

But this time, the farmers' toil I'd seen on the way home kept weighing on my mind.

The sight of them threshing with inefficient farm tools like the gaesang, wooden blocks, and flails.

If I had Jang Yeong-sil make a Holteoni treadle thresher, they could finish the work much more easily and quickly.

Then farm work would become easier, and their quality of life would improve.

If I proposed that the farming tools made by Jang Yeong-sil be rapidly distributed and repair facilities expanded across the country?

Joseon would be able to grow rice in paddies.

Once the rice-transplanting method spread, double-cropping would become possible in Jeolla, Chungcheong, and Gyeongsang, doubling food production.

Other regions wouldn't be able to double-crop, but rice yields would increase, so the food situation would be far better than it is now.

Furthermore, surplus labor would arise, and industry and commerce would develop as well.

"There's no one but me who can do this..."

If I stayed comfortably in my hometown, I'd keep repeating that thought. In other words, I'd live in constant regret.

Better to keep grinding a little more, then.

And besides, I have to be the most dashing man in front of Winter...

Having made up my mind, I immediately submitted a memorial requesting to be reinstated.

I don't know how much longer I'll work for Joseon, but if it ever gets so hard I can't keep doing it, I can just submit a resignation memorial like this and head back home...

I mean, I haven't committed any great crime or anything, so surely King Sejong wouldn't work me like he works Hwang Hui, would he?

"Ah, and I should write up and send the things to watch out for—the kinds of things wicked magistrates might do once the Daedong Law is implemented."

The Daedong Law was an extremely beneficial law, but there were plenty of people in the world who would exploit loopholes and do bad things with it.

Taxes only matter if they're collected properly and sent to the central government without a single leak.

Deliberately sinking grain ships, using intentionally oversized rice measures, falsifying documents, hiding the land of the rich, and so on...

It would be unforgivable to use those methods not for legitimate tax reduction, but for tax evasion.

"......If I'm going to do it, I might as well do it right."

**

Yi Bang-won believed.

That the man named Kim Daebung, a junior scholar at the Hall of Worthies, was a loyal subject afflicted from birth with a disease that meant he couldn't live unless he devoted himself to the state shrines and altars.

Otherwise, when he was Jinhae County magistrate, there'd have been no reason for him not to take even a single bribe except the 'gifts voluntarily offered by the people'...

And when he was a junior scholar at the Hall of Worthies, even though he enjoyed the favor of all six ministers, there's no way he wouldn't have made some request on his own behalf.

Furthermore, after submitting a resignation memorial, there's no way he would have done something crazy like impeach the Chief State Councillor, who would become an obstacle to the Bangwon Law.

To put it harshly, Yi Bang-won regarded Kim Daebung as being obsessed with devotion to the 'state shrines and altars' the way a man is obsessed with beautiful women.

And he thought the king's duty was to let such a loyal subject devote himself to Joseon as much as he wanted.

"Doya."

Sejong replied.

"Yes, Father."

"Do you know what the duty of a king is?"

"I think it's to put all the people at ease."

"You're right. Then what should be done if there is a minister so fired up by the desire to put all the people at ease that he can't bear it anymore? I think ignoring that earnest wish is what it means for a king to neglect his duty."

The wicked slave driver—no, the sage King Sejong, who made all his ministers work like STEM doctoral students—answered.

"I agree too, Father. For a capable loyal subject like Kim Daebung to be unable to carry out his purpose is no different from me lazily failing to do something that could make the people more comfortable."

This was the funniest thing about Kim Daebung.

He thought he was no loyal subject for the ages, but rather a selfish would-be layabout, yet everyone around him thought he was a loyal subject for all time.

Even Ryu Jeong-hyeon, who left this world after having his head flattened by a mace, would call him a villainous courtier, but never once thought of him as a man soaked in selfish greed. That said it all.

"You're right. And when Kim Daebung, hurt by an impeachment over absurd reasons and worried that staying in office might burden either you or me, resigned, you told his parents to reason with him so he wouldn't give up what he truly wanted and would return to service for the sake of the state shrines and altars."

And not long after Kim Daebung retired to the countryside, the memorial he submitted was deeply satisfying to Yi Bang-won and Sejong.

They had only temporarily accepted his resignation memorial as a way of telling him to rest in the countryside for a while, so why had he been so commendably thoughtful as to spell out in detail the loopholes that would arise when the Bangwon Law was implemented, along with countermeasures they hadn't even asked for?

"There will be cases where people try to throw away grain by claiming water has collected at the bottom of the grain ship, so unless the grain ship has actually sunk or had to jettison its cargo... if there is a loss of 5% or more of the tribute grain being transported, the ship's captain and the magistrate of the county the ship belongs to must be held accountable."

There were two meanings packed into this.

One meaning was to manage things so tightly that losses stayed under 5%, and the other was to let them pocket anything under 5% on the side.

It was a rule made to establish principle while also taking into account the circumstances of those so poorly paid that they couldn't help but embezzle or evade taxes.

Having been shown such consideration, the captains of grain ships and the others would try their hardest to sail as safely and efficiently as possible in order to secure that 5% of the tribute grain.

In that sense, this clause could be used like a kind of bonus system.

Sejong and Yi Bang-won were able to understand its intent.

"Furthermore, wicked officials might try to cheat the weights and measures... yes, this also makes a great deal of sense."

The rice measure used in Joseon varied subtly in size from office to office.

That's why among the items carried by the secret royal inspectors of the system established after Seongjong was a tool called a 'yucheok.'

The secret royal inspectors used this yucheok to check whether the rice measures used by government offices had abnormal capacities or were normal.

A slightly larger rice measure might not seem like such a big deal... but one measure commonly used in Joseon held about 1.8 kilograms of rice, so if a government office used a 2.4-kilogram measure to collect more taxes?

They'd be collecting about 30% more tax, so the extra levy could be pocketed by the magistrate and clerks without leaving any evidence at all.

That was why the secret royal inspectors carried yucheok around and checked the government offices' measures.

Kim Daebung had remembered this and written it in his memorial.

And the most important part was written at the end of the memorial.

"......The Bangjeon Law, huh. This is truly a fine law. To be able to survey land without missing even a single patch. Truly splendid."

The mathematics used in the Bangjeon Law was far too difficult for Yi Bang-won, who came from a pure civil-service background.

Arithmetic and the like were no problem for Yi Bang-won, but new mathematics for an aging former civil-service exam passer like him?

But Sejong, who had mastered all knowledge in both the sciences and the humanities, was able to grasp the principle of the Bangjeon Law right away.

So the excited Sejong tried to explain the greatness of the Bangjeon Law to Yi Bang-won in a rapid-fire stream of words...

But Yi Bang-won suddenly said he wasn't feeling well and went back to his quarters.

Later, the ministers of the Six Ministries—civil-service exam graduates led by Hwang Hui, Minister of Taxation—were directly force-fed the new mathematical concepts used in the Bangjeon Law by the king during the royal lectures.

The ministers who came out of the lecture hall cursed Kim Daebung in unison.

And so time passed, and just as the full-scale implementation of the Bangwon Law was right around the corner... Sejong secretly ordered Kim Daebung to enter the palace.