Gunpowder and Sanitation (4)

In the private audience hall, Sejong was dumbfounded after hearing the new memorial.

I found myself thinking, "What am I even hearing?" and then, "Is this really happening?"

That was only natural, because what he had just heard was a novel idea he had never even imagined himself.

“Chief Royal Secretary, read aloud the key parts of the memorial submitted by Kim Hak-ji, the assistant military scribe, once more.”

The Chief Royal Secretary read the key parts of the memorial again.

“Your servant Kim Hak-ji, the assistant military scribe, tested the new saltpeter-making method proposed by Kim Dae-bung, the junior secretary of the Ministry of War. Before we began, I could not shake the doubt that we could really obtain saltpeter this way, but if the junior secretary's words were true, we could gather only filth rather than latrine earth and obtain saltpeter easily and in great quantity, so I applied myself fully to the experiment.”

Kim Hak-ji wrote the memorial as though he had thrown himself into the work because he somewhat agreed with Kim Dae-bung's proposal, but the truth was a little different.

In truth, Kim Dae-bung had threatened Kim Hak-ji, telling him that if he did not cooperate, something very unfortunate would happen to him.

Some of the process was omitted and some of it was beautified, but no one cared about such things.

Because this was a crucial moment as Joseon was being reborn as a gunpowder-powered Joseon, the personal affairs of some nobody assistant military scribe who had barely scraped into office through hereditary appointment were of no interest...