Chapter 33: Nightfall at Heojeongdang
The night at Changdeok Palace's Heojeongdang ran deep. King Jeongjo sat at the center, flanked by Right Prime Minister Chae Je-gong and the fourth-rank Gigi-cheong Director Yi Si-woo. Behind them, a select group of young Nam-in officials, secretly summoned by the king, held their breath and kept watch.
The table was strewn with books and worn Eight Provinces maps that Si-woo had documented from his time in Onseong. King Jeongjo spoke heavily.
"Every time I try to touch the Geumnanjeonkwon privileges, the court erupts. The Noron block my eyes and ears, claiming it's shaking the foundation of the nation. Director, what do you make of this unbreakable chain?"
Si-woo looked up.
"Your Highness, what I saw on the road to Hanyang was no foundation of the state—it was organized plunder."
The room fell silent as if doused with cold water. The Nam-in officials exchanged uneasy glances and swallowed dryly.
"I saw it at the capital's gates. Guild merchants from the Yukui-jeon dumping and ripping apart the poor peddlers' bundles on the ground. They were in league with constables, using the Geumnanjeonkwon as their shield. The people had to pay five times the market price for a single seu of rice just to eat that day, and that blood money flowed straight into the Noron pockets. Your Highness, how is this law and order? It's nothing but a parasite sucking the people's lifeblood to cling to power."
Si-woo pulled a report from his robe and slid it toward Chae Je-gong.
"This records what happened when I opened a free market in Onseong. Deregulate, open the paths for anyone to trade, and prices halved in just half a month while volume surged tenfold. Instead of scraping by on bribes from guild merchants, transparent detailed taxes filled the treasury threefold. Your Highness, unleashing the market's flow—that's the true kingly way of economy."
Chae Je-gong examined the neatly inscribed figures on the paper before speaking slowly.
"But Director, no matter how clear the numbers, the capital's guild merchants aren't mere peddlers. They grip the arteries of this nation's economy. What if they shut their doors in a boycott? Rice prices would skyrocket in three days, and starving unrest would storm the palace gates in a week. If your reforms spark a revolt in the capital before they even begin, how do you plan to handle it?"
A nearby Nam-in official, pale-faced, chimed in.
"The Prime Minister is right. They control the lifelines—rice, salt, cotton cloth. Touching the Geumnanjeonkwon is like poking a sleeping tiger's eye. One misstep, and the people swayed by their agitation will lose faith in the court, shaking the nation's very roots!"
Another slammed the table, raising his voice.
"This isn't reform—it's gambling! Hanyang's commerce isn't just about money; it's centuries of power structure. How can you upend it all at once?!"
All eyes turned to Si-woo. Arrows of blame, fear, and doubt flew at him. But Si-woo didn't flinch. He met their gazes head-on and pressed a finger firmly on one spot on the map.
"That's why Hwaseong."
"...Hwaseong?"
"Attacking the capital head-on would kill the patient first. Don't fight—change the board. Your Highness, declare Hwaseong a free trade zone without Geumnanjeonkwon. No need to spill blood with the capital merchants. Lure them away with profit until they abandon Hanyang for Hwaseong themselves."
King Jeongjo rose and leaned over the map.
"How do you draw in those cunning traders?"
"Three methods, Your Highness."
Si-woo extended his fingers one by one.
"First, seize the waterways and roads. Exempt all tolls at Hwaseong gates forever for caravans using Gigi-cheong standard wagons. Show them carts that carry more and cost no tax—who wouldn't come?"
Si-woo raised a second finger.
"Second, the flow of wealth. Build massive official warehouses where merchants can safely store goods, guarantee their value, and lend low-interest Gigi-cheong funds against them. Once money and goods flow freely, Hwaseong becomes the great scale drawing all Joseon's riches."
Si-woo's eyes pierced the king's.
"Third, technological primacy. Distribute Gigi-cheong's high-performance farm tools and daily goods first only in Hwaseong markets. Peddlers from across the nation will flock like clouds for those wonders, forcing the capital's Yukui-jeon to drop their privileges and follow."
The room plunged into dead silence.
"Your Highness, demolishing a sturdy dam by force is grueling, but dig a deeper, wider channel beside it, and the old stream dries on its own. By the time the Noron notice their waters waning, all Joseon's wealth will have shifted to the mighty river of Hwaseong."
Chae Je-gong chuckled wryly, shaking his head.
"How many moves ahead of Joseon do you have in that head of yours, Director? This isn't just promoting commerce—it's remaking the nation's wealth and power from the ground up."
King Jeongjo walked over slowly and clapped a heavy hand on Si-woo's shoulder.
"Very well. I'll issue the edict. I'll bear the flood of criticism and memorials. You bring the miracle—build that city fastest and strongest. Can you do it?"
Si-woo met the king's eyes squarely and bowed deeply.
"I've already marked one man. Give him a ruler instead of a brush, and he'll redraw Joseon's mountains and rivers. With him, I'll offer Your Highness an immortal fortress."
Jeong Yak-yong's second-floor design room at Yeongu-gak. Icy winds from Geumho-dong howled outside, but inside brimmed with furnace heat and ink fumes. Jeong Yak-yong had claimed a desk like it was his own bedroom, ruler against the blueprint Si-woo had given him.
"Si-woo, this blueprint you gave me."
Jeong Yak-yong scratched his tousled hair and looked up. Dark circles from sleepless nights hollowed his eyes, but they burned undimmed.
"I get the pulley principle for distributing weight. The small model proved it. But this... you're lifting the entire wall? Are you serious?"
Si-woo smirked and pulled up a chair beside him.
"Dead serious. Remember when we scaled the model weight a hundredfold? I said this was just the start."
Si-woo pointed to the blueprint's bottom: the final design of a massive crane with four fixed and four moving pulleys intertwined.
"Building Hwaseong's walls means hauling thousands of massive stones. Hundreds of strong men would take a decade. But roll out these machines on-site, and three men lift house-sized boulders. Yak-yong, can you really build this?"
Jeong Yak-yong stared through the drawing, then scrawled equations in the margins without pausing his brush.
"I can."
"No—add steel bearings to that fixed axle angle, and it bears four times the load. Si-woo, this isn't a stone-lifter. It's a monster that shortens Joseon's time. Call the artisans. We start the prototype today."
From that day, Yeongu-gak turned upside down. Si-woo set the direction, Jeong Yak-yong optimized, and the young scholars whipped themselves to match the pace.
"Director! Master Yak-yong!"
A scholar with half-singed brows and soot-smeared face dashed up clutching a flask.
"Another explosion?"
The scholar grinned wide.
"Success! Igniting the gas from iron scraps in acid gave massive thrust. We can launch heavy objects without gunpowder, right?"
"Results?"
The scholar pulled out a grubby notebook.
"Seven out of ten successes. All thrust distances and pressures recorded."
Si-woo clapped his shoulder.
"Good work. Now design a steel canister to contain that pressure."
Scholars polishing lenses nearby shouted.
"Sir! Adjusted the curve—flag two hundred paces away looks like it's in my palm! I can read the stitches!"
Yak-yong peered through.
"Si-woo, your telescope is finally shining. Survey Hwaseong terrain with this, and errors plummet."
Deep night, Yeongu-gak rooftop. Si-woo and Yak-yong stood side by side gazing at the Han River. Below, steam hammers and scholars' debates rang ceaselessly.
"Si-woo."
Yak-yong spoke.
"At first, I thought we were just making novel weapons."
"And now?"
"Look down there. They're not discovering weapons. They're uncovering new rules of the world. Hydrogen thrust, telescope vision, cranes... Combined, Joseon changes beyond recognition."
Si-woo eyed the turning waterwheel.
"We'll make weapons too. But principles change the world, not blades. A sword fells one man; these numbers rewrite centuries of history."
Yak-yong fell quiet, then chuckled and punched Si-woo's shoulder.
"I'm in. Not just Hwaseong—let's rebirth this nation."
Yeongu-gak's lights burned on.