Chapter 56
A secret royal inspector and work-life balance are almost impossible to reconcile.
Because a secret royal inspector has far too much to do.
In my current case, I had to deal with the countless lawsuits pouring into Anseong County in place of the county magistrate sent to Hanyang, handle administrative work, and even inspect whether the magistrate and clerks had committed any illegal acts or tampered with the paperwork.
On top of that, I also had to personally supervise the land survey under the Bangjeon Law...
"There's no end to it."
Still, all of this was for the royal ancestral shrines and the people living in Joseon.
If I suffer a little, I can give hope to tens of thousands of people. I can't afford to do my work carelessly just because I'm having a hard time.
Just like a doctor whose hand slips even 0.1 cm during surgery could kill the patient instantly or leave them with lifelong, irreversible damage.
Because even a tiny mistake by Secret Royal Inspector Kim Daebung could throw one family, no, countless people, into ruin.
The most notorious administrative failure that caused the people to die needlessly was the coinage policy that the Iron-Mace King Yi Bang-won and King Sejong had tried to implement.
"Inspector, sir."
"Oh, Chief Clerk? Good. The land survey is going well, I take it?"
"Yes, of course. Following your orders, Inspector, sir, I had the clerks divide it into 18 districts and 282 villages, then survey each village after dividing it into 64 sections."
"Very good."
The Bangjeon Law starts by dividing all inhabited land into districts and assigning each one an address.
Next, it measures how much land of every kind is at each assigned address and records it in the ledger.
The size of the most important fields and paddies is written down as is—1 gyeol if it is 1 gyeol, 30 durak if it is 30 durak—and the area taken up by roads, mountains, and the like is excluded.
After all the fields are surveyed this way, the ledger is written like this.
Anseong County, Samjuk-myeon, Jukbang Village, District 12, farmland owned by Kim Daebung, 3 gyeol 20 durak.
In a land survey like this, dividing the districts is the most important foundation, so it can never be neglected.
"So how far have you gotten now?"
"Surveying has been completed for eight villages, including Heumcheon Village, Gari Village, and Sipjang Village."
"......That seems a little slow."
The biggest advantage of the Bangjeon Law is that it can dig up every last scrap of hidden land deliberately left off the land register for tax evasion.
Another advantage is the speed of the survey itself. According to the records, surveying three counties in Hwanghae-do took two months.
And yet, even though a full week had passed since I came here as a secret royal inspector, they had only managed to survey eight villages...
"Chief Clerk, you're not just skimping on the work, are you?"
"No, Inspector, sir. Absolutely not..."
"Then why is the pace so slow? I can only conclude that this is not being carried out properly. If you can't give me a proper reason, I'll have no choice but to severely punish you and the officials of the six offices."
Anseong County magistrate Lee Seok-do had long since become a man locked up in a Hanyang prison, waiting for the day he would die.
The only fortunate thing was that he hadn't been charged with treason, so there would be no extermination of three generations, no confiscation of property, and no catastrophe such as his children being barred from the civil service exams.
The important thing is this.
As clerks implicated in such a horrifying affair, could they really survive unscathed after a high-ranking yangban official who had risen to the senior fourth rank was sentenced to beheading? Of course not.
For now, the six clerks, including the Chief Clerk, would be dragged to Hanyang and beheaded, and the lowest-ranking clerks under them would, if they were unlucky, be sent into exile—with the standard bonus set of 100 cane lashes included—or, if they were lucky, at best be fired and forced to cough up every last bit of stolen property.
In other words, whether the clerks attached to Anseong County Government Office lived or died was entirely in my hands.
"Sir, the people of the county don't look favorably on the Bangjeon Law. Because of that, they don't cooperate very well, which is a big reason the work is dragging."
The important thing when carrying out the Bangjeon Law is to get voluntary cooperation from the people.
They need to tell us on their own whose land that field over there is, and where the farmland ends and the forest begins, so they can help with the survey...
If that doesn't happen and we have to proceed with only the clerks, the government bailiffs, and the public slaves, it will inevitably take longer.
No matter how corrupt these bastards are, if I badger them with nonsense, administrative efficiency will only get worse.
At this point, I need to talk directly with the local yangban.
"First, show me the records compiled for Heumcheon Village's fields and paddies."
"Yes, Inspector, sir."
After receiving the newly organized land register from the Chief Clerk and checking it, I could immediately see why the yangban were protesting.
From a rough look after coming out here to inspect the area, Heumcheon Village's total fields and paddies had been a little over 10 gyeol, but after this round of Bangjeon Law surveying, they had increased to around 25 gyeol.
That means the taxes levied on the same land have increased by 2.5 times. And naturally, that burden will be placed one-sidedly on the yangban who own a lot of land.
It's common sense to tax the people with more land more heavily, but it's also instinctive for those who have more to want to pay less tax, so they're probably refusing for that reason.
I can understand their feelings. Understanding them doesn't mean forgiving them, though.
"Is this properly organized?"
"Yes, it is."
"Let me ask you one last time. Chief Clerk, if you want to survive after this land survey is over, you'd better grab all your belongings and run as fast as you can. Because the angry yangban will never let you live."
"......"
"That said, if you slack off and side with the yangban, you'll go down the same path as Lee Seok-do. Your family's entire fortune will be confiscated. This is a problem you have no choice but to resolve for the sake of yourself and your family."
Even if I tormented the yangban of this county to death, those people couldn't do me much harm. At worst, they'd send up memorials claiming that I was governing far too harshly.
The replies to those memorials would be nothing but, from His Majesty King Sejong or Yi Bang-won: 'Yeah, I read it. Don't ever write such useless memorials again. It's a waste of ink and paper.'
But the easy-to-bully clerks are a different story.
If the yangban set their minds to it, feeding these men to the tigers would be child’s play, so could they really survive?
"Inspector, sir, it's true."
Honestly, I feel like going out there and directing the survey myself. But the practical conditions just aren't there.
I have mountains of work to do, and I simply don't have enough time to go around every village and supervise the survey.
Besides, I'm not the Anseong county magistrate. I'm a secret royal inspector who has to go around inspecting county after county.
"Believe me. And a large number of the lawsuits in the county right now were written by the yangban living in those eight villages."
Having said that much, I looked around.
I was working the way I used to back when I was at the Ministry of Economy and Finance, so even though I'd worked overtime, it had only been about an hour and I was still perfectly fine.
Everyone who had come along to help me, including Kim Mandeok, was already completely exhausted.
If I pushed them a little more, they all looked like they'd turn into corpses.
At this rate, I feel like I'd end up working Winter's father to death.
"Winter, this father of yours is fighting loyally and patriotically for Joseon right now. So keep an eye on me."
Watching him search for the invisible Winter, I decided I really ought to let him sleep and rest properly for a full day starting now.
Some evil company chairman says that real efficiency only comes if employees work until the last minute even on weekends and until 10 or 11 p.m. on weekdays...
But even leaving aside ethics, working people to death like that also lowers efficiency.
"Mandeok, and the rest of you, leave for the day and report back the day after tomorrow."
After hearing my words, Kim Mandeok immediately bowed to me and then rushed off with the others as if flying. They must have been very worn out.
"Chief Clerk, take care of only the urgent matters and leave the office early today as well. And tell the village heads of the 30 farming villages near the county seat to come to the government office seven days from now."
"The village heads, sir?"
"That's right."
The reason they oppose the Bangjeon Law is just one.
They think taxes are going to rise like crazy.
And that's not entirely wrong.
If the Bangjeon Law is applied and taxes are imposed on the tenant farmers and landlords who have been working the hidden land all this time, the tax burden on the yangban and commoners will naturally increase by that much.
Naturally, they can't help but feel resistant.
Still, for the boundless glory, freedom, and prosperity of Joseon and the people who live in Joseon, tax evasion can never be tolerated.
"Inspector, sir, surely you're not planning to explain to the people what the Bangjeon Law is?"
"I have no intention of doing that."
It is realistically impossible to make the common people of Joseon, most of whom are illiterate, understand the complicated principles of the Bangjeon Law.
So rather than trying to make them understand the Bangjeon Law, I was planning to explain directly why the Bangjeon Law is necessary.
Just as it would be nice to know exactly what mechanism kills what kind of germ when you wash your hands, but simply knowing that washing your hands kills germs and greatly reduces the chance of getting sick is enough to get by in life.
I was planning to explain to them, in very simple terms, that if the Bangjeon Law isn't properly implemented, tax revenue will fall short and the old tax system will have no choice but to come back.