Chapter 66
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.
Joseon knew that if the real Jeong Do-jeon went to Beijing to explain himself, Ming intended to kill him under its lovely criminal law.
And Ming kept throwing its weight around, testing how well the Joseon bastards could keep their heads in the dirt.
It threw a tantrum, demanding gold from a country with no gold or silver mines; shaking down the counties along the route of Ming's envoys for tribute; trying to suck Joseon's spine dry by demanding 10,000 war horses every year instead of gold and silver; forcing it to offer tribute women; and so on.
Sejong and Yi Bang-won had never forgotten that humiliation and disgrace for even a single moment.
[However, Mencius also said this: for a great nation to serve a small one is to delight in Heaven's principle, and only the benevolent can serve a small nation as a great one. Yet Ming demands that Joseon serve it while doing nothing but oppressing and exploiting Joseon... How could that be said to delight in Heaven's principle, or to be benevolent?]
Saying it was not benevolent was a pretty way of saying, "That bastard isn't a human being. He's a beast."
In Kim Daebung's memorial, he disparaged Ming as a country of petty men.
That looked very good to Sejong.
As he read the memorial, he resolved to make Kim Daebung devote himself to the court until he was a hundred.
And it wasn't because Kim Daebung had suggested to Yi Bang-won that he be made to climb Bukaksan every day and go hunting often.
It was just that, thinking about it, if an able minister said he wanted to offer his dog-and-horse labor to the ancestral shrines and the state, what could be more heartbreaking than refusing him?
[In this humble servant's view, Ming is no different from the Yuan in Goryeo's day. Therefore, Joseon must regard them as a potential enemy and respond accordingly.]
Sejong frowned at the suggestion that Joseon prepare for war with Ming.
But just as one never knew when the Japanese pirates would suddenly come raiding, one never knew when Ming might launch an attack on Joseon or tighten the noose to impose disadvantages...
We should prepare, I suppose.
[Therefore, this servant believes we should set Wa and Ming against each other and make them wear each other out fighting. Of course, it is no easy task to manipulate the Japanese pirates into fighting Ming. However, if we simply give Wa a little of what it wants, they will be so eager to bite at Ming on their own.]
Sejong got goosebumps all over for a moment as he read this line.
Joseon also used a policy of making enemies fight one another when dealing with the Jurchens.
In Ming, this is called the gimi policy.
So the phrase itself was not unfamiliar.
Barbarians should be made to fight other barbarians.
Even so, the reason it sent chills down his spine was that this was basically a proposal to unleash the Japanese pirates on Ming in order to solve the problem of them invading Joseon.
He was surprised, but he didn't dislike the plan.
Joseon would be safe, and Ming would be driven mad by the Japanese pirates!
[After questioning the Japanese pirates, this humble servant found that they were retainers of local clans under the lord of Tsushima. When I asked why they engaged in pirate raids, they answered that Joseon and Ming had completely forbidden trade with them, leaving them with no way to make a living. They also said that if Joseon would simply allow trade with them, they would never again raid Joseon as pirates.]
Sejong tilted his head.
Ming barbarians or Japanese bastards, they were all the same sort—people who never kept faith.
And yet Kim Daebung was listening to what the Japanese bastards had to say...
[This humble servant does not believe everything they say either, but if we can obtain things like pepper, sulfur, water buffalo horn, and sugar through trade with them, it would greatly help Joseon. And if, while permitting trade, we attach the condition that if the daimyos of Wa cannot properly keep the wokou in check we will cut off trade entirely, then they would not dare come to Joseon to commit pirate raids. For even the Japanese would know that trading back and forth regularly would be far more profitable than coming to Joseon to raid and obtain a small amount of precious goods.]
From a Confucian standpoint, there was something unsettling about using trade to govern the Japanese bastards.
But if Joseon could buy up their various valuable goods that are hard to obtain there, and even get things like sulfur needed to make gunpowder... in the end, it would be a huge gain for Joseon.
The Japanese bastards are indeed treacherous, but they value profit above all else.
Even the daimyos of Wa would likely recognize that continuing trade would benefit them.
That is ruthlessly pragmatic.
[If you open a market in Jeongui County and allow the Japanese to trade as freely as they want, they will have no reason to send Japanese pirates to Joseon. In addition, they will try to plunder Ming's various precious goods and sell them in Jeongui County. That would be a major headache for Ming.]
And the captured Japanese pirates were skilled sailors, so rather than simply killing them, they should be worked to the bone for the development of Joseon's seafaring.
That way, the Japanese pirates would profit by passing along goods plundered from Ming to Joseon, and Joseon would profit by obtaining more of the Ming goods it had previously relied on only a little through smuggling and official trade.
On top of that, it could also hurt Ming... truly a splendid plan.
And one of the most important issues in the Bang-won Method—ocean-going navigation—could probably be solved to some extent by putting the Japanese pirates to work.
It's an excellent plan in every respect.
A smile spread across Sejong's face.
It would be a wicked deed no gentleman should ever do, but it would be a huge help to Joseon's national interests.
Just thinking that Joseon could sit back and make Ming and Wa fight each other was intoxicating.
"Today—no, at least until the day after tomorrow—I can use Kim Daebung's memorial as an excuse to work overtime."
Working overtime meant he wouldn't have to climb Bukaksan.
What a wonderful thing.
And it also gave the court officials a chance to work more for the ancestral shrines and the state; wasn't that the king's grace?
And Kim Daebung hated working overtime, so this was also a chance to legally get back at him for daring to make him exercise every day.
"You there, go to Father right this instant and tell him that I have urgent official business to handle, so for now I cannot climb Bukaksan with him."
An eunuch hurried off to pass this news on to Yi Bang-won.
And about half a shichen later, Yi Bang-won came in person to where Sejong was.
"Doya."
"Yes, Father."
"I know that the matter written in the memorial Kim Daebung submitted under the Minister of War's name is important. Still, is it really that urgent?"
"It isn't absolutely urgent, but it will greatly benefit the country. So we need to implement it as quickly as possible..."
Sejong couldn't bring himself to lie to his father.
"You're right. But in my view, looking after the king's body—your body—is a bit more urgent. Your stamina is still too weak, isn't it? Even a father in his fifties doesn't find it hard to climb all the way to the summit of Bukaksan, but you still can't get past the halfway point... For now, you should devote yourself to taking care of your body."
A cloud passed over Sejong's face at the thought that he had found refuge in overtime and wouldn't have to climb Bukaksan today.
"Yes, Father."
"I am training my stamina and honing my martial skills purely for your sake."
"According to rumor, you're trying to make up an excuse to go hunting with me often..."
Yi Bang-won whipped his head around. He'd hit the nail on the head.
If he could first get himself into shape under the pretext of taking care of Sejong's health, then being able to drag Sejong out hunting often would be wonderful.
And if Sejong came to enjoy hunting itself, going once every ten days instead of once every fifteen days would no longer be just a dream.
"This is all for your own good."
Yi Bang-won was determined to drag Sejong out hiking again today as well.
And during their pleasant hike, Sejong and Yi Bang-won reached an agreement.
They would send Kim Daebung to Tsushima to persuade the lord of Tsushima, who was in charge of Joseon-Japan diplomatic relations.
And it would be impossible to say that Sejong's petty grudge over being made to exercise every day because of Kim Daebung wasn't mixed in there too.