Sowing Chaos in the Ming Dynasty (1)

People say that when the U.S. president changes, the international relations and economic structures of every country on Earth change.

So after I passed the civil service exam, I spent every day agonizing over things like who would become the next U.S. president, or what impact Candidate A would have on our country if he were elected.

But now that the emperor of the Ming Dynasty, the world's greatest power, has kicked the bucket, it is as if a fire has fallen on Joseon's feet.

The situation was so serious that Jo Mal-saeng, the Minister of War, was called to the State Council to discuss countermeasures and could barely make it to the Ministry of War, and an imperial order even came down saying the Six Ministries could work overtime.

From what the eunuchs said, His Majesty King Sejong had been unable to go mountain climbing lately and was deeply disappointed...

Would His Majesty King Sejong really be sad that he could not go mountain climbing?

Of course not. He'd probably be thrilled inside that he didn't have to exercise.

"Director of the Military Armaments Office, sir."

"...... You mean you're thinking of making new weapons in this situation?"

There is an old saying.

'The more it seems like your life is ruined, the calmer you should be.'

If, in your twenties, you invested the 20 million won you'd saved up so far into crypto and lost 50 percent of it, you should treat that as a sign to stop at a reasonable point and quit.

Ten million won is by no means a small amount, but it won't ruin my life because of it.

All I have to do is think of it as a painful experience and never touch crypto again while living a decent life and saving money.

But if, thinking that I'm already ruined anyway and that it's all or nothing, I throw in everything I can to try to recover the lost money, then I'll be faced with a truly irreversible disaster.

In the same vein, the Ming emperor has kicked the bucket, so that's that; what I have to do is my own job, so I should do it properly.

"If we prepare in advance before a crisis hits, we won't have any worries, won't we? The Ming Emperor has passed on, and as for the newly enthroned Emperor, we don't know what he'll do. We can only do our best from our own positions and pray that Heaven sees fit to make things work out."

"As expected of Kim Jeong-rang. But why are you suddenly trying to make new weapons? Is that related to the Ming Emperor's passing?"

The newly ascended emperor of Ming is the Xuande Emperor.

He was deeply favored by the Yongle Emperor, and thanks to that, he took part in many of Yongle's expeditions and received direct instruction, making him an exceptionally capable emperor in many ways.

Historians even call the period of Xuande's reign the Ming Dynasty's golden age.

The unfortunate thing, though, is that if that bastard runs Ming well, Joseon's northern frontier will turn chaotic.

When Ming was a mess, most of the Jurchen powers were busy pillaging Ming, so the big powers didn't bother Joseon much.

But if Ming grows strong, they'll try to turn their arrows toward the comparatively easier target of Joseon.

It's similar to how, when I opened trade with Tsushima and the Japanese, the Japanese pirates who had been harassing Joseon would swarm over to Ming's coastal waters.

"From what I hear, His Majesty now has the bearing of the Great Emperor Yongle and is deeply learned in scholarship as well. Then won't Ming politics become stable from here on out?"

"That's right."

"A stable Ming will cleverly pursue its loose-rein policy, turning the barbarians against each other, and it will seek to fortify the northern defenses. Then some of the starving barbarians will likely set their sights on Joseon."

When people are pushed to the extreme, they'll really do anything.

Not only will they start stealing things when they never used to, they can even end up threatening people with knives or killing them.

But for barbarians who were never even taught what order is in the first place and whose only moral code is that they shouldn't stab each other from within, there's not much more to say.

"And the best thing to use against them is gunpowder weapons. If we make spear formations, we can stop cavalry charges, but it's hard to counterattack properly."

"Kim Jeong-rang, what you say is true. But looking at the design and explanation of the matchlock you've just presented, it seems similar to the hand cannon each soldier uses. Wouldn't it be enough to mass-produce the hand cannon?"

Before the development of the matchlock, Joseon used many personal firearms such as the ilchongtong, ichongtong, and sajeon chongtong.

To explain what that is: it's a hand cannon for firing arrows at the enemy.

The small cannons used as personal firearms are usable enough, but they have one problem: compared to a matchlock, they're terribly inefficient.

If there's any way to improve efficiency even a little, it's better to improve it.

"The matchlock I want to make has several major advantages as a weapon compared to the ilchongtong."

"As a weapon, it has several advantages, you say. Go on."

"First, it's easy to make the ammunition. For things like the ilchongtong, ichongtong, and sajeon chongtong, making the arrows you load and fire takes quite a lot of labor and cost. By contrast, the lead bullets for a matchlock can be made simply by pouring lead into a mold and letting it harden, so even an ordinary soldier can make them easily. To exaggerate a little, for the price of one chaesejeon arrow, you could make 100 matchlock bullets."

A lead bullet is nothing more than a pellet made by melting lead.

So as soon as the matchlock was developed, medieval soldiers and line infantry alike made their own bullets by melting down lead whenever they ran short.

The chaesejeon arrows used in chongtong are things that can only be produced when arrow craftsmen secure precious feathers, carve bamboo, and make iron arrowheads.

Which is more suitable as a weapon can be seen from this alone.

The one that gives you overwhelmingly more numbers for the price is always better.

"The second advantage is that a soldier can easily control when to fire. Pulling the trigger here ignites the powder in the flash pan, causing the bullet to be fired."

"With the hand cannon, if you lit the wick, it would fire at a completely unexpected moment, so the military officers used to complain that while its power was quite useful, it was hard to suppress several barbarians at once."

"The reason bows and long spears are effective against barbarian cavalry is that everyone moves as one body. Hundreds or thousands of arrows are fired at once, attacking the enemy like a net, and the soldiers in square formation hold the line like a steel wall."

1,000 soldiers arrayed in square formation can score a crushing victory over several thousand infantry charging blindly.

It's because by moving as one body, both defense and offense improve greatly.

Conversely, infantry that cannot form a proper square formation are nothing but horse fodder.

According to the records, 2,000 Song Dynasty infantry were completely wiped out by just 17 Jurchen cavalry.

Therefore, if we can form a square formation with matchlocks, which military scholars jokingly call spears that take a minute to thrust once...

the Joseon army would be able to wipe out the Jurchens and still have plenty left over.

"Everything else is good, but does this matchlock really have to be made of iron?"

"It has to be made of iron so it can be as cheap as possible. Copper is precious, isn't iron cheaper than copper?"

Iron is a metal, but copper is an expensive material that is still classified as a precious metal even in modern times.

They say one reason Yi Bang-won and His Majesty King Sejong failed to get the currency widely circulated was that they couldn't properly secure the precious metal copper...

If we're going to put matchlocks in every soldier's hands instead of spears and swords, then of course they have to be made of iron.

Ah, come to think of it, I should stop by the Ministry of Public Works too.

If I could get them to build an ironworks there, how nice would that be?

And while I'm at it, I'd completely tear out that utterly botched iron management system.

"I understand. As you say, what should our Military Armaments Office be doing right now? Isn't it to make better weapons in greater numbers?"

"Thank you for your cooperation."

"No need. But in this situation, the Ministry of War probably has its hands full looking for you..."

Right now, at the Ministry of War, there would probably be a heated debate and plenty of scolding going on over how to deploy soldiers in the north and how to support their military service.

Meanwhile, while everyone else was getting chewed out, I had boldly shown the blueprint to the Deputy Minister and made a clean legal exit.

"The gentleman avoids danger."

The best thing is not to go anywhere near dangerous places.

If I got close, I'd get swept up in it too.

"And if I were to be there, the Deputy Minister would compare me with the others. I judged that would be less favorable."

The most detestable person in the world is the one who gets praised while everyone else is getting scolded.

The U.S. military apparently even uses this psychology to correct troublesome recruits.

They keep the problematic trainee in a comfortable position and make him watch the other trainees getting punished.

Then, out of guilt toward his fellow trainees, he ends up correcting most of his useless behavior.

If that still doesn't work on someone, then that person is simply beyond saving.

"Then this humble subject will take his leave for now."

Xuande Emperor was a wise ruler of Ming.

But the emperor who came after him was no less incompetent than Won Gyun.

He was like someone who combined the worst traits of Injo and Won Gyun.

If Joseon ever created such a combination, it would be a terribly sad thing, but...

Since in diplomatic relations someone else's happiness is my misery, and someone else's misery is my happiness, if Ming collapses, there will only be good things for Joseon and nothing bad.

So I will personally go to Ming to meet the fine gentleman who will become Ming's Won Gyun in about ten years.

While he's still cheap to win over right now, if I go there now and plant a Joseon obsession in him, he'll pay it back to me a thousand or ten thousand times over later.