Wokou Can Be Put to Good Use (4)

Sejong was unfolding and reading the secret memorial Jo Mal-saeng had submitted.

Strictly speaking, the submitter was only the Minister of War, Jo Mal-saeng; the contents inside were written from beginning to end by Kim Daebung.

Jo Mal-saeng had reported that fact to Sejong as well.

Jo Mal-saeng was an official who loved graft and corruption, but he knew that stealing credit for his subordinates' achievements would be like gnawing away at his own flesh.

[This newly appointed Minister of War, Jo Mal-saeng, reports.]

Sejong couldn't help snickering when he saw this line.

It reminded him that Kim Daebung's rank was too low to submit a secret memorial directly to the king, so he had borrowed Jo Mal-saeng's name.

[Some foolish yangban and scholars say that great sages such as Confucius, Mencius, and Zhu Xi were Chinese, and that their culture is also beautiful, so Joseon should serve them, learn from them, and give them its utmost loyalty. They say that Mencius taught that serving a great nation as a small one is the proper course because one fears Heaven.]

Only twenty or thirty years ago, diplomatic tensions between Joseon and Ming had verged on a Cold War.

Ming had ordered Jeong Do-jeon, who was planning to conquer Liaodong, to come all the way to Beijing and explain himself over the offense of using strange wording in a tribute memorial. Naturally, Jeong Do-jeon did not go to Ming...