Chapter 92
Wangpal, the kingpin of the slums, first swept his gaze over the clothes Hwang Su-shin and the interpreter were wearing.
By carefully examining exactly what that man was wearing and how he carried himself, he could roughly tell whether he was someone safe to mess with or someone who would cause trouble if you crossed him.
Their clothes, made of extremely lavish top-grade brocade silk and embroidered with gold thread, made it obvious at a glance that they were obscenely wealthy, and from their confident posture and easy smiles...
'These are not people you can mess with lightly.'
"Why are you looking for a shipbuilder?"
At his words, the interpreter, who had once run up a huge debt to Hwang Su-shin, answered with complete confidence.
"Do you think the imperial family, the ministers, the scholar-gentry (the Ming term for yangban), or the rich are going to stop using precious imported goods just because a sea ban has been declared? Leave the sea ban be; luxury goods are luxury goods."
Even if you're running a brothel, only the place that serves random riffraff gets caught and dragged off; if you're serving the truly high-born, you don't get caught by crackdowns that easily.
The reason is very simple.
It's intolerable when lowly scum run wild, but when the high and mighty indulge themselves, it becomes an extremely refined pastime.
So the magistrates don't dare crack down on the high and mighty's sophisticated amusements.
It's no different just because it's a sea ban.
The high and mighty, who are closer to luxury than anyone else, want to keep enjoying the luxury they had before the ban, so trade in smuggled luxury goods has no choice but to continue.
Of course, trade and transport become absurdly dangerous and difficult, so prices skyrocket.
"Since the Yongle Emperor passed away, the court has been enforcing the sea ban very strictly, so every shipyard has shut its doors. The men who used to build ships are either wasting away doing odd jobs in Beijing or, like us, doing dirty work. So finding them isn't hard."
Wangpal held out his right hand and beckoned with his fingers.
The interpreter handed Wangpal a box containing a few ginseng roots.
After checking the contents, Wangpal's eyes went wide as if they might pop out.
Goryeo ginseng is one of the most prized medicines in the Ming, and the highest-grade kind is an exceptionally rare item that, in practice, is produced only in Joseon.
But if this was the kind of person who casually handed that over as payment for information...
That meant he was either someone backed by a high-ranking Ming official and able to trade with the Joseon envoy delegation, or at the very least a big shot rich enough to bribe border-region military officials.
"If you introduce the right person, I'll give you another half-geun of ginseng."
"Half a geun?"
"You just make the introduction properly. If you do, I'm willing to sweeten the information fee even more."
Wangpal nodded while rubbing his pressed-together palms.
"I'll mobilize every connection I can and introduce you to every shipbuilder living in Beijing. If we round up all those bastards, making dozens of ships will be nothing, so don't worry."
"I'll trust you with it."
And before long, in Beijing, poor people who weren't even on the household register were hired en masse by some nameless merchant caravan.
Hwang Su-shin led them and set off for Hanyang with great confidence.
**
During my stay in the Forbidden City, I spent my time giving the Ming bastards everything I had, down to my liver and gallbladder.
I was summoned to the homes of ministers who wanted to meet the 'loyal subject of Haedong' in person, and I kept catering to their every whim.
It was as if I had become a 21st-century jingoistic TV program.
Whenever I ate Ming food, I'd praise it as the best in the world, and I'd keep sighing in worry about how much longer backward Joseon would have to work to even reach Ming's feet.
The Ming people, already so steeped in Sinocentrism and trapped in a chronic addiction to it, absolutely loved that reaction.
If they gathered among themselves and said, 'Chinese goods are the best' or 'Chinese food is the best,' it would just feel a little good and that would be it, but if I, a man from Joseon, shouted, 'Ming is amazing! Ming is the best!'?
They end up falling for that delusion.
'As expected, Ming is objectively the best at everything.'
Well, by early Joseon standards, Ming really was the world's number one power in technology, science, and the economy, so that's all true.
It seems they feel all over again just how great they are when even someone from another country says it.
That's why every jingoistic TV program has a foreigner on it.
And now, at long last, it was time to leave.
The filthy water, the abundance of good goods, the flood of knockoffs, and these arrogant bastards who call everyone but themselves barbarians—we'll be parting ways as soon as we get one more imperial edict.
Before reading the edict, the Xuande Emperor gave the Joseon envoy delegation a long once-over and then smiled with satisfaction.
"Hear me, envoys of Joseon. Since the founding of the Great Ming, Joseon and the Great Ming have maintained, despite a few misunderstandings, a relationship as close as father and son. In the meantime, King Ido of Joseon has mourned the passing of my father, the Hongxi Emperor, while also congratulating me on my accession."
We came here to pay tribute because if we didn't properly mourn and congratulate you, it was obvious you'd start causing havoc, you bastard!
You rotten emperor, the ultimate boss of that filthy Ming-centric worldview—may you get sick and die.
And may your son hand politics over to the eunuchs and live like a disaster.
"Unlike Đại Việt, which rejects the world order led by the treacherous Wa country and Ming, Joseon has not done so, and so you are all the more dear to me. Thus, as a reward for King Ido's loyalty, I intend to bestow precious gifts generously."
"I am overwhelmed by Your Majesty's grace."
As soon as the emperor said he would bestow gifts generously, the eunuch standing beside him immediately rattled off the list of gifts.
The list-reading went on and on, tedious with bolts of silk, jewels, medicinal ingredients, books, and so on.
There were so many kinds and so much of each that I figured I'd only get a proper sense of exactly how much had been given by checking the list written in the emperor's edict later...
'Just from hearing it roughly, this is already about twice the amount we expected when we came to Ming...?'
As expected, all that groveling paid off.
"And I have heard that Joseon is a small country and does not have enough warhorses, nor does it produce gold or silver. Even so, until now Ming has needed gold, silver, and warhorses, so it has demanded them from Joseon as tribute."
Just thinking about it makes my teeth grind.
Joseon had gone through all sorts of hell to prepare those.
Especially gold and silver—since they were almost never mined in Joseon, we even banned mining altogether to keep Ming from asking for them.
"Joseon is a land of propriety and the foremost vassal state of Ming. Therefore, the people of Joseon are also the people of the Great Ming, so how could I make Joseon's people suffer? The Great Ming has plenty of warhorses, gold, and silver, so from now on you need not strain yourselves so much. Beginning now, the horse tribute will be reduced from 10,000 a year to 3,000 a year, and the tribute of gold and silver will be abolished altogether."
I barely managed to hold back the cry of "Long live!" that nearly burst out of my mouth.
Well, even if I'd shouted "Long live!" in this situation, it wouldn't have been a big problem.
The emperor had graciously shown Joseon great favor, so shouting "Long live!" here would still be the sort of thing a vassal state could do.
Still, interrupting the emperor wasn't a good idea.
"Since Joseon serves the Great Ming with sincere devotion, I too wish to bestow grace upon you. From now on, continue to serve the Great Ming with sincere devotion."
Why in the world should I serve Ming with heartfelt loyalty?
So what if you're being a little nicer to us now? Does that erase all the atrocities you bastards have committed until now?
Do you know how busy the people of Pyeongan Province were hiding their money and possessions every time your envoy delegation passed through, terrified their households would be ruined beyond repair?
Do you know that because you demanded tribute women from Joseon, the marriage age for women sometimes fell as low as eleven?
They had no choice but to do that so they wouldn't have to send their own daughters as tribute women.
I'd rather bite my tongue off and die than serve bastards like you from the bottom of my heart.
In my heart, I was vowing revenge once again, but for now I had to smile and hide my blade from them.
Confucius said it, didn't he?
A gentleman's revenge is never too late, even after ten years.
"Long live, long live, ten thousand times long live!"
"See that the Joseon envoys return safely."
Following the emperor's command, Maeng Sa-seong, the vice envoy, and I, the recording secretary, also left the Forbidden City.
Maeng Sa-seong and the vice envoy had smiles on their faces.
"The tribute of gold and silver has been abolished, and the horse tribute has been reduced... His Majesty will be truly delighted when he hears this."
"Exactly. Those things made Joseon suffer so much..."
"Now that one burden is off our shoulders, we can go home with our heads held high."
"Ming's sumptuous delicacies are delicious, but they're greasy and sweet; more than anything else, I miss Joseon food. I want to get home and eat doenjang-jjigae as soon as possible."
While the two of them were chatting happily, Maeng Sa-seong looked at me and asked:
"Isn't our recording secretary happy? Thanks to you enduring that disgrace of crawling between their legs, Joseon's burden has been greatly reduced, hasn't it?"
"I'm happy too, my lord. But..."
I spoke in a voice so low only Maeng Sa-seong could hear.
"We can't keep relying on their favor forever, can we?"
I will surely tear those Ming bastards to pieces.