Chapter 80
In the military, there are certain assignments you have to go through if you want to rise.
To earn stars, you have to pass through command posts like platoon leader, company commander, and battalion commander, as well as staff positions in a regiment or division.
The same is true in Joseon: if you want to become a high-ranking court official, you have to go through a number of good posts.
I mean posts such as officials of the Three Offices, scholars of the Hall of Worthies, local magistrates, and so on.
I had already gone through all the posts needed to become a high-ranking official, so I had no reason to be fixated on going to the State Council.
“If I can use my meager ability to serve the Royal Ancestral Shrine and State Altar, then I’d be fine spending my whole life drifting through the lowest of posts.”
“If another official had said that, it would have sounded like nothing more than false humility. But when our Kim Jeong-rang says it, it feels completely sincere. The same words mean something entirely different depending on who says them.”
Unlike when I first entered government service, these days my dream had changed to working only until retirement age, then moving back to my hometown and living happily with Winter.
Ever since His Majesty King Sejong decided that overtime was one of the rotten practices poisoning public service and cut all officials’ working hours down to about eight or nine hours, the work environment had become much more comfortable...
Still, anyone would dream of working for a while and then retiring.
I, too, wanted to retire at a sensible time and live in peace without ever having to endure Hwang Hui.
“When the Left State Councillor tried to persuade Jeoljae (Kim Jong-seo) after dragging him over to the State Council examiner’s office, he probably used wealth, glory, and power as bait. But are you the sort of man who’d move for that?”
Right, if you knew that, give up already and just go to the State Council by yourself.
Don’t drag me in too and make me follow a career path that ends with me as Chief State Councillor for life.
These days, with Yi Bang-won seeming to have had his lifespan extended by at least ten years beyond history, and with His Majesty Sejong getting healthier every day thanks to mountain climbing, I was worried they were going to chain me up in the court and keep me there...
At this point, how was applying to the State Council any different from some fool seeing Marines in red underwear and saying he’d volunteer to enlist?
I’m not that stupid.
“Let’s speak frankly and open up.”
Jo Mal-saeng’s eyes flashed.
If this were a fictional world, like Romance of the Three Kingdoms or a Japanese war-romance story, where His Majesty Sejong or the ministers had all turned into women...
It felt like I was about to be abducted straight to the bedroom.
Of course, the world I’d been reincarnated into was fortunately a perfectly normal Joseon, so that kind of thing would never happen.
“You’re highly capable, but you don’t covet power, and you don’t lust after wealth and glory either. You’re like Zhuge Liang or Yue Fei, a loyal subject of the highest order. That’s why you were able to rise this far at such a young age.”
“That’s far more praise than I can deserve. Please take it back.”
“No minister who has served the court would deny what I’m saying. Even Minister of Rites Heo, who’d come away spotless even if the Censorate tore him apart, says he feels ashamed when he sees you.”
A wicked smile spread across Jo Mal-saeng’s lips.
The way he kept grinning looked just like a movie villain plotting some evil scheme.
Ah, come to think of it, Jo Mal-saeng was also one of those villains who were spared execution thanks to their competence and instead sentenced to lifelong service in Joseon.
“Still, Kim Jeong-rang, you’re only human. How could you not have any greed at all?”
There isn’t anyone in this world without some kind of greed.
There’s even an anecdote about Gandhi, who preached nonviolence and non-possession; although he was a vegetarian, he drank lemonade like water, so his food bill was actually pretty high.
As for me, it’s not as if I have no greed at all.
“Isn’t your greed, Kim Jeong-rang, simply to look after Joseon’s people broadly and benefit them?”
“...Yes, that’s right.”
“Then you must rise in the world, Kim Jeong-rang. Just as I’m soon to rise to the office of State Councillor thanks to you, you should use me to climb even higher and fulfill that purpose.”
I couldn’t refute his words.
The reason I remained in office was because I wanted to personally see and hear how the policies I carried out benefited Joseon, and to confirm that the people’s lives were getting better.
For that reason, I had set aside my greed for wealth, and I kept putting off my wish to resign.
‘To achieve my goal, ironically enough, I have to climb the ladder first.’
“I just received a memorial from the commanders of the Ten Units. According to them, whenever summer got hot, the soldiers tended to fall ill easily, and many also came down with disease. Normally, more than a hundred people nationwide would die during the summer, but this year, only about five people died.”
The doctor who first discovered the importance of hygiene, Semmelweis, kept his maternity ward as clean as possible.
At a time when other hospitals treated blood-smeared instruments like medals of honor, and it was normal to deliver a baby and, still covered in blood, help another mother give birth.
People called him a madman, but his zeal drove maternal mortality down to an overwhelmingly low level and proved he was right.
He cut the death rate in hospital births from over 18 percent to under 2 percent.
Just like that, once hygiene started being properly managed for the soldiers of the Ten Units, they probably got sick less often.
“If the common people were made to wash themselves clean just like the soldiers, the number of people dying of disease in Joseon would drop sharply.”
“That would be so.”
“......But isn’t that a shame?”
Jo Mal-saeng whispered into my ear quietly, like the devil himself.
“If you were the magistrate of Hanseong, you could mobilize all of Hanseong’s manpower and force everyone in Hanyang to wash themselves. Then think how many lives you could save.”
There was one thing I learned after passing the civil service exam and working as a bureaucrat.
A world-class scoundrel and traitor like Yi Wan-yong wasn’t the sort of thing you could become just by wanting it.
The reality was that unless you were an exceptionally capable man, you wouldn’t even get the chance to become famous as a traitor.
Jo Mal-saeng was also an exceptionally capable man, which was why when the Kim Do-ryeon incident broke out he could seize the chance to line his pockets.
When a man like that stirs up my greed, even I can’t control it.
If I keep climbing higher and end up working with Hwang Hui or the other ministers, what’s going to happen to me then...
“And because you don’t want to leave even the slightest loophole, you’re deliberately refusing a young lady from a distinguished family, aren’t you... I can arrange that too. I have a second cousin who never even passed the first state exam, and his daughter is said to be remarkably beautiful. It sounds like she’d suit you, so would you consider it?”
It’s a hard offer to refuse, but there’s no such thing as advancement without a price in this world.
Well, Jo Mal-saeng probably wasn’t the kind of man who’d say, ‘Wanna be buddies?’ and drag me into corruption, but still.
“To build something great takes time. The same goes for my career, I suppose.”
Jo Mal-saeng shook his head with regret at my refusal.
“What a shame. I truly believed you would become the next Chief State Councillor after me.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Well, Kim Jeong-rang, even without my help you’ll surely rise all the way to the position of one man above ten thousand. So let me ask you one more thing.”
“Yes, Minister.”
“Kim Jeong-rang, what is your real dream?”
My dream was this.
“To benefit the people of Joseon far and wide. Once I’ve accomplished that, I plan to go straight back to my hometown and rest in peace.”
Jo Mal-saeng listened to my words and looked troubled.
Then he got up and left.
**
Minister of War Jo Mal-saeng really liked Kim Daebung.
No, really, there wasn’t actually any minister who disliked Kim Daebung—unless he was some senile old fossil obsessed with usury like Ryu Jeong-hyeon.
As long as you put him under you and let him work freely, he could solve most problems in an instant.
Above all, he was the kind of subordinate who helped his superior rack up achievements.
Who in the world wouldn’t like someone like that?
Jo Mal-saeng wanted to force-promote Kim Daebung all the way to the fourth rank after he rose to either Left or Right State Councillor, make him a State Council secretary, and then keep him as his own man.
“The good stuff should be mine and mine alone.”
Then, if the other ministers complained, he could negotiate with the other Six Ministries ministers and Hwang Hui over who got to use Kim Daebung.
Then he could pocket another profit.
Carrying that boundless regret with him, Jo Mal-saeng slowly made his way to the State Council.
Though he was there to report the results of the strict hygiene measures implemented in the Ten Units, of course.
“Chief State Councillor.”
Hwang Hui snorted when he saw Jo Mal-saeng.
“What’s with that gloomy face, you young brat?”
Hwang Hui could say that because he was a full seven years older than Jo Mal-saeng.
“I’m already 56. I’ll be sixty before long.”
“You’re younger than me, aren’t you?”
“I’m sorry, Chief State Councillor.”
“Enough. So what brings you to the State Council?”
“The Ten Units have started washing their soldiers thoroughly, and it’s brought good changes, so I came to submit a memorial to His Majesty. I wanted it reviewed before I turned it in.”
After reading the memorial he’d brought all the way through, Hwang Hui motioned for Kim Jong-seo, who was serving as State Council examiner, to come over.
“Examiner Kim, when I was your age, I worked so frantically it was almost as if I were using the art of shrinking the ground... These days, though, you leave right on time every day. Haven’t you gotten a little too slack?”
“I’m sorry.”
“If you’re sorry, then at the Ministry of War give me just half as much as Kim Jeong-rang... no, that’s not it. If you want to become a minister, you have to keep redoubling your efforts, no matter what.”
“Yes, Minister.”
Seeing Hwang Hui chewing out Kim Jong-seo right in front of him, Jo Mal-saeng said,
“Do you know something?”
“What do I need to know?”
“Kim Jeong-rang says that, just like Zhang Liang, once he finishes all his work he only thinks about resigning and returning to his hometown.”
Hearing that, Hwang Hui’s expression crumpled.
Right now, the Six Ministries were pushing ahead with rapid reforms, so they were always being chased by work.
And every time he so much as pulled an all-nighter in the middle of that, His Majesty would personally give him encouragement (read: a scolding) to make sure his retainers were managed properly as chief state councillor...
The day Kim Daebung disappeared, it would become even harder to handle the problems he solved for them.
Then the overtime would increase, and he himself would be the one getting scolded by Sejong.
So Hwang Hui quietly slipped that fact into the memorial he was drafting.
[Just as Han Gaozu’s strategist Zhang Liang did, Kim Daebung says that when the time comes he will know the right moment to step down and retire to his hometown. Truly, his mindset could not be more admirable.]
Sejong read this and fell into deep thought.
Because it was a serious report that Kim Daebung was thinking of taking off—resigning.