Chapter 55
In movies and dramas, it’s treated as a given that a secret royal inspector can display his horse badge upon announcing his arrival and immediately issue a “seize-and-dismiss” order.
Seizing the storehouse and all ledgers and documents from the moment he declares his arrival and begins the investigation is indeed within a secret royal inspector’s authority, but...
But dismissing an official who passed the civil service exam and became a Joseon bureaucrat is beyond that authority and counts as an abuse of power.
In other words, it’s exactly the sort of thing that gets you beaten to death with a cudgel.
So in reality, a seize-and-dismiss order doesn’t exist.
The moment a secret royal inspector enters a government office, he gains the authority to literally beat everyone except the magistrate into submission.
As long as he doesn’t beat someone to death with the punishment rod, it doesn’t matter whether he administers dozens of lashes or seizes property without the provincial governor’s permission.
He can turn the whole district upside down if he wants.
“Inspector, sir, we’re truly innocent.”
“What exactly is it that you claim is unfair?”
“We only did as the magistrate ordered. So please, show us mercy.”
“I’ll decide whether to show mercy after reviewing the district’s tax ledgers. If it turns out you really were threatened by the former Anseong magistrate and forced to extort the people, I’ll take that into account, so don’t worry.”
The chief clerk’s face turned deathly pale. Then he looked as though everything was over.
He must have understood exactly what my words meant.
Right. It’s not as though I enjoy killing people, either. If it was forced, or just a petty offense on the level of a common crook, I planned to let it slide.
As for public slaves, soldiers, and low-ranking clerks, if they cooperated diligently with what I had to do next, I would usually give them a stern warning and let them off.
But the heads of the Six Offices—men like the chief clerk and finance clerk—were roughly equivalent to municipal bureau chiefs in Korea. Could the crimes these guys committed really be considered minor?
I smiled brightly at the other heads of the Six Offices—men like the military clerk, finance clerk, and ritual clerk—who were tied up alongside the chief clerk.
The men who saw my million-dollar smile froze solid.
Among them, the Anseong County finance clerk must have gone out of his mind from the fear I was giving him, because he started babbling like he’d been possessed by a Goryeo ghost.
“Inspector, you’ve come a long way, so I’m sure your travel fatigue hasn’t fully worn off. How about resting a little before carrying out your official duties?”
His scheme is blatantly obvious. He wants to treat me to all kinds of delicacies, make me drink a lot of hard liquor, and get me thoroughly drunk.
On top of that, he’ll probably even assign a pretty courtesan to attend to me through the night.
In Joseon, that wasn’t exactly considered a blemish, so they couldn’t really blackmail me on the pretext of hospitality. But while I was being entertained, these fellows would be fighting tooth and nail to destroy the evidence.
If I were some man obsessed with selfish gain and hoarding wealth, I might have let it slide...
Not a chance.
I immediately stood up and pointed at the finance clerk.
“You’re truly out of your mind. What are you all standing around for? Hurry up and bind that bastard to the punishment rack!”
The finance clerk was immediately bound to the punishment rack.
“Give him ten blows of the punishment rod! He had the gall to try to bribe me, an inspector, so even if he dies, he’ll have nothing to say.”
“Please spare me, Inspector! I only thought your body might be tired...”
“There’s no value in hearing any more of it. Bind that bastard to the rack and beat him!”
Bound to the punishment rack, the finance clerk was given ten blows of the punishment rod by the men I had brought with me.
“One!”
With a firm shout, the punishment rod came down.
The finance clerk’s groans echoed through the magistrate’s office.
“Ugh!”
“Two!”
After all ten blows, the finance clerk fainted.
That bastard had the audacity to try to bribe and buy off a secret royal inspector, so his crime is extremely grave. Even after the investigation is over, I’ll punish him very harshly.
The other clerks trembled as they watched the finance clerk get beaten into a bloody pulp.
In that instant, they must have realized it.
That I, Kim Daebung, unlike other officials, was a madman who wouldn’t take a single penny in bribes.
In modern society, it’s only natural for a civil servant not to take bribes, but to those used to Joseon common sense, I’d look like a heartless devil.
Let’s see. From the ledgers alone... you really helped yourselves, didn’t you? Out of 19,432 seom of white rice, only 3,122 seom went into buying the tribute goods actually presented to His Majesty. So you skimmed 16,310 seom.
The chief clerk and the other clerks all started hiccuping at once.
And if you take into account that the measure used here is 5 pun (5%) larger than the Hanyang standard, that means you skimmed nearly 17,000 seom. Amazing. Truly amazing.
Joseon had no concept of local taxes, so nearly 7,000 seom of that would have been spent for the district itself. So if they’d skimmed only about 12,000 seom, I would have counted it as them self-funding their salaries and only given a stern warning.
Joseon paid its officials so little that, honestly, it was impossible to serve in office without taking even a single bribe.
And the clerks weren’t paid at all...
Still, isn’t this a bit too much?
“And according to the Bangwon Law, all tribute goods had to be traded directly with merchants. But you violated that and dealt through a temple. Amazing, truly amazing.”
I honestly even felt respect for these guys.
The core of the Bangwon Law is collecting eighteen du of white rice per gyeol of land. They actually followed that.
Judging by what they did, since the name “Bangwon” was attached, they must have felt that collecting more than eighteen du would get them killed, so they at least kept that rule properly.
If the law had been called the Daedong Law, they would have taken it a little more lightly and frantically looked for every trick they could to collect even more tax.
They would have padded it generously with the two-doe allowance for losses to rats and birds during transport or storage, along with shipping and storage costs.
But because it bore the name Bangwon, they couldn’t bring themselves to collect any more.
And if they wanted to skim more, they couldn’t cut off their long-standing collusion with the temple, so they also showered money on those damned monks.
“Chief clerk.”
“Yes, Inspector...”
“Once the report I write after finishing the investigation of Anseong County reaches Hanyang, what do you think will happen?”
“I’m not sure, sir.”
Judging by how violently he was shaking, he clearly knew already, yet he was pretending not to.
Then I’d better make him realize it myself.
“Anseong County Magistrate Yi Seok-do will have a hard time escaping decapitation.”
Unlike Ryu Jeong-hyeon, Yi Seok-do won’t be branded a traitor.
Because this bastard at least drew the line and didn’t break the rule of collecting only eighteen du per gyeol. He just dealt through temples and took his cut...
Even Yi Bang-won, no matter how much this is about making an example of them, wouldn’t be able to apply a treason charge.
So they’ll be punished only for failing to faithfully carry out the royal command and for embezzling huge public funds.
In that case, yangban officials would usually get off by receiving sa-yak and dying with some measure of honor, but now is the time to set an example, so they’ll be beheaded and their heads displayed in Hanyang.
That is practically certain.
That’s why I was casually calling the county magistrate, who was six ranks above me, by his name. His head was as good as gone, so there was no need to respect his honorifics.
“Well then, what do you think will happen to you?”
“Are you saying that if we go on like this, it’ll be hard for us to avoid execution as well?”
I laughed heartily at that.
“You’re this clever, so why did you join hands with the Anseong magistrate and do something so foolish?”
“I’m sorry, sir...”
“There’s no need to apologize. This inspector only has to thoroughly investigate your crimes and submit a memorial to His Majesty. Then the chief clerk and all the rest of the Six Offices will probably end up in the Uigeumbu. You’ll all have a very enjoyable time.”
Even local government offices sometimes quietly or openly use branding irons, leg-twisting, or beatings on major criminals.
Of course, you’re not supposed to do it, but if it’s done under the table, everyone knows and pretends not to know.
Of course, if you use it too much and someone dies, then it becomes a problem.
But the Uigeumbu is different from a local office. There, if someone is dragged in, it’s legal to torture them to death, so when the charges are solid, they torture the bastard as casually as breathing.
“I’ll give you a choice.”
I held up two fingers.
Then I folded one down.
“One is to admit your crimes obediently right here and now. If you’re lucky, you might even avoid a trip to the Uigeumbu. Of course, you still won’t escape dying alongside the Anseong magistrate.”
Given Yi Bang-won’s temperament—no, even the merciful King Sejong himself wouldn’t spare those bastards.
So the moment they’re taken to Hanyang, they become living corpses whose execution is already decided.
I folded down my last finger.
“The other is to cooperate fully in surveying the land with the Bangjeon method. If you help me expose undeclared land, I think this inspector can feel your sincerity. What do you say?”
“...... You’re saying we should be prepared to make enemies of every yangban in the county?”
The most detestable person in this world is a snitch.
At school, a kid who tattles a lot is almost guaranteed to be ostracized, and in a company, whistleblowers are often shut out of work or shunned.
Let alone ordering something like that of clerks who live off the local community?
It would be the same as ordering them to tear down the very foundation they’ve built for themselves just to stay alive.
“Isn’t that better than dying?”
At my words, the chief clerk lowered his head.
“Please spare us.”
Then let’s begin in earnest from here—the real “land survey,” or rather, the tax investigation.