Chapter 91
“Coming all this way on such a long diplomatic mission and enduring hardships you had never experienced in your life, you must have had a rough time, Deputy Envoy Hwang.”
"No, sir. My father always said that hardships in one's youth are worth seeking out. Since I am only eighteen, naturally, this was something I had to endure."
This man's father was none other than Chief State Councilor Hwang Hui.
And this young man's name was Hwang Su-shin, who would one day become the only person in Joseon history to serve as chief state councilor without ever passing the civil service examination.
Looking back over his career, he was also a dark reflection of Hwang Hui.
When it seemed that Danjong would lose to Sejo, he stabbed King Sejong, who had elevated him to senior rank despite his never properly passing the civil service examination, in the back and sided with Sejo...
He had been sent to help restore a disaster-stricken area, yet he falsified the land registers and appropriated farmland, then shamelessly claimed it had been for the country when he was caught.
‘In short, he was a man crazed by money and power.’
Yet judging only by what he said, he sounded every bit as loyal as a devoted subject.
So this was the kind of man who would later rise to become a treacherous minister and ruin the country.
“Because my father is the chief state councilor, I entered office at a young age through a protected appointment and was given the opportunity to serve the country. After receiving such excessive grace, how could I shrink from a little hardship like this?”
“The Chief State Councilor raised his son very well. Deputy Envoy Hwang, you will one day become a great pillar of the state, just like your father.”
Treacherous ministers like Han Myeong-hoe and Gwon Ram would never have even dreamed of staging a coup if King Sejong and Munjong had simply lived long, healthy lives.
Therefore, I intended to put this man's shadowy talent to good use: even while bearing the stigma of having entered office through an eumseo appointment and being disgustingly money-hungry, he had risen all the way to chief state councilor.
“Let's end the pointless chatter here and get straight to the point. From now on, make haste, take an interpreter, and slip out of the Forbidden City. Then find the craftsmen who built treasure ships, spirit them away, and bring them to Joseon.”
Hwang Su-shin's expression instantly hardened.
It can't have been easy to spend all this time serving as a porter for the embassy.
But what I was ordering him to do now was on an entirely different level.
Getting out of the Forbidden City, whose security was fairly tight, would require risking one's life.
If he failed, he would lose his head on the spot.
“Can you do it?”
Hwang Su-shin thought it over carefully, then answered with a determined look.
“It won't be easy, but I believe I can manage it.”
“Why do you think so?”
“The Forbidden City is watched by Jinyiwei guards, soldiers, and eunuchs with their eyes wide open, so an ordinary member of the envoy delegation could never get out unless he had wings on his back. However, the merchants accompanying the embassy are free to leave the Forbidden City for trade.”
Joseon and the Ming, both Confucian states, looked down on commerce.
So merchants who joined the envoy procession naturally conducted their trade outside the Forbidden City.
Of course, even then, a fair number of guards were mobilized to watch them... but compared to the Forbidden City's ironclad surveillance, it was quite manageable.
“So if we wait for an opening, it should not be too difficult for two porters to slip out.”
“Leaving is one thing, but what really matters is finding and bringing back the craftsmen who built the treasure ships. Can you do that?”
Hwang Su-shin smirked as soon as he heard me.
“From what I have heard, after the Yongle Emperor passed away, the Ming closed every shipyard in the country and drove out the craftsmen. Judging from that, I believe they did not bother managing those craftsmen at all afterward.”
“I heard much the same: they closed the shipyards and drove stakes into the sites where they had stood. They also moved all the fishermen living in coastal villages to Liaodong, where they were registered as military households.”
The Ming histories would probably record only that a ‘sea ban’ had been imposed.
Yet when the sea ban was implemented, the people living along the Ming coast suddenly became wanderers with nowhere to go, and the technology for building ships capable of sailing as far as Africa was completely buried.
During the Imjin War, Ming warships were such utter garbage that General Chen Lin ended up borrowing a panokseon to use in battle.
A wicked smile appeared at the corners of Hwang Su-shin's mouth.
“They say the people regard food as heaven. Put a slightly different way, if Joseon gives them food, would they not come to regard Joseon as heaven?”
They say you can tell a great tree from its first sprout; perhaps because this fellow was a budding corrupt official, he was already an expert at finding ways to exploit people.
“For those without wives and children, we can promise to arrange marriages; for those with families, we can entice them by promising to provide for their families if they come over to Joseon. I do not think there will be much trouble. However, since we will need to move a large number of people, it would be best to set up a merchant caravan so as not to arouse suspicion. To do that, I think we will need quite a lot of money.”
“I will ask the Minister of Personnel to provide us with plenty of money.”
“We will need to buy oxen and horses, carts, various Ming books, luxury goods such as sara and neungdan, and medicinal herbs in ample quantities. We will also need to pay bribes to cross the border into Liaodong and elsewhere, so we will need at least thirty geun of ginseng.”
Even if the emperor issued special orders to strengthen border enforcement, the Ming border was the sort of place one could get through in most cases as long as one paid a ‘bribe’ properly.
Conversely, if one did not pay a bribe, one was guaranteed to get caught.
So I had no intention of objecting to his saying we would pay bribes, but the problem was that he hadn't specified the ‘amount of the bribe.’
In other words, after paying one geun of ginseng as a bribe, he could wipe his mouth and claim he'd spent ten geun, leaving us in an awkward position where it would be hard to hold him accountable.
‘I couldn't allow that.’
“I will request it specially from the Minister of Personnel and the Assistant Minister of Revenue who came as the deputy envoy, both of whom know about this matter, and have it prepared. I will also hand over the ginseng I brought for my own share. In return, you must bring the craftsmen back safely, and do not pay excessively large bribes. Those gentlemen will need money to live as ministers, too; they came prepared to use this opportunity to accumulate some wealth. They are giving you ginseng in the spirit of sacrificing for the country.”
The stipends granted to yangban scholar-officials in Joseon were, with a little exaggeration, nothing more than decorations.
You absolutely couldn't make a living on that alone.
So Joseon's officials survived through ‘self-sufficiency’: quietly transferring government funds into their own pockets without making it obvious.
Maeng Sa-seong and I both had to make money by selling the ginseng we brought and live off it in the years ahead.
If this man pocketed all of it, we'd be in a very difficult position.
“I will bear that in mind, my lord.”
“And this is truly important, so I will say it once more. No matter what happens, you must bring the craftsmen who made the treasure ships safely back to Joseon. If you do, His Majesty will grant Deputy Envoy Hwang a very great reward.”
At the word reward, Hwang Su-shin's ears perked up.
As expected of Chief State Councilor Hwang Hui's third son, a man famous for his greed for money.
“You know that my father-in-law is currently effectively managing trade at the Japanese trading post in Jeongui Prefecture on Jeju Island, don't you?”
“Yes, I know.”
“My father-in-law receives enormous quantities of gifts from the merchant caravans in Hanyang and the major towns throughout the country. In addition, his merchant company in Jinhae County has grown to five times its former size. From what I have heard, he earns an annual income that would make even a ten-thousand-seok landlord envious.”
At the mention of a ten-thousand-seok landlord, Hwang Su-shin swallowed hard.
He stared at me as if lasers might shoot from his eyes... Don't look at me like that.
I've already had more than enough of that sort of gaze from the men on the State Council and the six ministers.
“But with my father-in-law handling affairs in far-off Jeju, how much worry and hardship must he be suffering? My wife is so concerned about him that she cannot sleep. So, as a son-in-law, I would like to transfer him to a somewhat more comfortable civil post, but I need someone who can work well there...”
I cast a sidelong glance at Hwang Su-shin.
"I will recommend you for the bongsa post at the Japanese trading post in Jeongui Prefecture. It isn't one of the prestigious central posts, but it is an outside appointment and will be a great help to your future advancement. Much like being magistrate of Jinhae."
"At the level of magistrate of Jinhae?"
These days, the court reportedly viewed the position of magistrate of Jinhae as:
‘A graveyard for officials or a gateway to advancement.’
My successor had gone out as a local magistrate and returned having been unable to pocket much wealth, but after returning, he was appointed to the post of Jeongrang in the Ministry of Personnel...
The post at the Jeongui Prefecture Japanese trading post would probably be regarded the same way for the time being.
The difference was that if a capable person took the post, it was a plum assignment where he could not only pocket a huge amount of money but also build the experience needed for advancement.
"His Majesty has high expectations of you."
The next day, the envoys, myself included, deeply apologized to the emperor for failing to manage the embassy properly and allowing people to go missing.
At that time, the Xuande Emperor showed us mercy and said he would not make an issue of it.
Well, realistically, with Joseon bowing its head so submissively, there was no reason to turn the escapade of ‘two porters’ into a diplomatic incident.
**
Hwang Su-shin and one interpreter, having safely slipped out of the Forbidden City, began going around Beijing in earnest, pretending to be wealthy men.
They hired a guard to protect them and bought horses, oxen, and even a carriage.
To anyone looking, they appeared to be running a very large merchant caravan.
Once they had assembled all the trappings, Hwang Su-shin went to the slums near Beijing and began digging for information.
"Do you happen to know where the craftsmen who used to build ships live?"