Chapter 62
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Translator: Ace
Chapter: 062
Chapter Title: Reverse Unyo-ho (2)
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Japan, Edo.
Some utterly clueless fools might claim that Japan's capital is Kyoto since that's where the folding screen (also known as the Emperor) resides, but come on—does that really make sense?
Of course, Japan has that shadowy island-nation politics where the shogun turns the Emperor into a figurehead, only to become a figurehead himself while the underlings handle the real work. But even if the shogun is a figurehead, that doesn't mean the Emperor's court takes over governance from the bakufu.
"Hahaha!"
"Wahahaha!!"
And Yi Ha-eung, who had come as the chief envoy of the Joseon communication mission...
Partied hard.
He reveled to his heart's content in the bakufu's top-tier hospitality.
Yi Ha-eung was a member of the royal collateral line to begin with.
What’s a collateral royal? A natural monument of the Joseon Dynasty, kept alive solely to crank out heirs and preserve the royal bloodline without doing much else.
Yi Ha-eung had been a clever one among them, hobnobbing with thugs and drifting through life. Mastering drinking, dancing, and every vice under the sun was only natural for him.
Even for him, though, Edo was a shock.
'Japan is this advanced? This developed?'
A capital more bustling and vast than Hanyang.
Freshly caught sashimi delivered straight to the heart of the city.
Streets brimming with vitality, bubbling over with every kind of culture.
Even as he indulged in all the entertainment, Heungseon Prince's mind grew ever more tangled.
'A bigger island than Joseon. Better farmland. Thirty million people.'
Once he set aside the disdain for barbarians ignorant of civilization and faced reality head-on, what hit him was fear of the sheer difference in weight class.
Meanwhile, the bakufu officials hosting Heungseon Prince were just as mentally overwhelmed.
"A member of the Joseon royal family?"
"Not just any royal. They say he's one of the top three powerhouses in Joseon."
"There was this guy called Kim who was Joseon's supreme power broker, but apparently he got a secret imperial order late at night, smashed Kim's head in with an iron mace, and rose to a position second only to the king as a reward."
"Then isn't he like a tairo? The Joseon tairo himself came to Edo?"
This was several levels above the envoys Joseon usually sent.
No— the bakufu was stunned from the very fact that one of Joseon's top power players had sailed over personally.
If it had been some mid-level bigwig, they could've strutted around boasting, "Haha! See how much Joseon reveres our bakufu!" But with Joseon's number two showing up, this was now a high-stakes reception where one slip could spark a major diplomatic incident.
So they probed indirectly, trying to figure out just why he'd come, but Heungseon Prince slithered out of every question like a sly fox—or an oiled eel, you couldn't tell which.
"We were shocked to learn Joseon possesses such massive Western ships."
"We just commissioned a few. With the fate of nations now clearly tied to the seas, Japan may outdo us, but Joseon is a land surrounded by water on three sides too, no? We're stepping up our maritime efforts as well."
"No one knows the sea better than Japan. If Joseon needs aid, we could certainly provide it—provided it's not presumptuous—"
"Presumptuous? Weren't Joseon and Japan comrades-in-arms against Toyotomi? We're short on sailors, so if Japan has any to spare, borrowing them would only deepen our bond."
What?
Joseon willingly asking for help?
Comrades against Toyotomi? What the hell?
'These Japs are so tough and prosperous despite themselves. Gotta be more careful.'
'What are the Joseon bastards scheming? Why come all the way to Edo? Showing off?'
Blood drained from their faces on both sides, but no one let it show.
The welcome banquet for the communication mission only grew more lavish.
Im Sang-ok.
Joseon's greatest merchant.
In a Joseon that despised merchants just for breathing, Im Sang-ok was a singular figure.
Being Joseon's top merchant meant he'd crushed all rivals and enemies, all while staying spotless in the eyes of the elite.
But Im Sang-ok went further: he earned immense popularity among the common folk and underlings, avoided offending the powers-that-be without groveling, and even held office.
A master of social navigation at a divine level.
A war god who triumphed in every battle.
The legend of the Beijing ginseng fire, Korea's first national pride content exported abroad.
"This is Joseon's Ginseng King. The richest man in the land, one who could make birds fall from the sky."
"Come now, that's too much flattery."
"Heavens! A merchant in the communication mission's entourage?!"
"His Majesty cherishes him greatly. Now that merchants can hold office in Joseon, their status will surely rise."
Among those accompanying Im Sang-ok were plenty of Dongnae merchants and inner traders long involved in trade with Japan.
Im Sang-ok toured Edo everywhere with their interpretation, pondering how to navigate future trade with Japan.
"Any issues trading with Joseon?"
"...May I speak freely?"
"Of course. I've reached this position on trust alone my whole life. As long as I'm involved, you'll never get stiffed on a deal."
"Joseon traders default on payments like it's breakfast, promise top-grade ginseng then ship junk roots glued with glue, and even swap in radishes when ginseng's on order! What kind of people are these?!"
"...Any explanation?"
"Ahem! The fool who gets duped is the idiot... Isn't spotting that part of your skill? In the marketplace, it's seller versus buyer in a showdown—"
And so Im Sang-ok realized Joseon's brand trust in Japan was at North Korean levels of abysmal. Why would 21st-century Joseon merchants, who treat their own people like suckers, play straight with barbarians?
Not his place as a Manchu trader to meddle in inner trade affairs, so setting that aside, the shifts in Joseon-Japan trade were worth watching closely.
Joseon used to profit nicely as a middleman between China and Japan, but once those two started direct trade, Joseon's Japan commerce tanked.
Top Chinese goods now direct.
China succeeding in domesticating ginseng and raw silk dropped Joseon's exports too.
So what did Joseon even export?
Rice, beans, cotton cloth, ginseng, cowhide, cattle bones, abalone, sea cucumbers—mostly agro-livestock far from industry.
"They say Japanese buy tons of dried sea cucumbers from Joseon, but I don't see many eating them on these streets."
"True? This is our first time in Edo too..."
"I smell money. Scout it out."
It took the fire horse less than three days to uncover the truth.
"The Japs buy sea cucumbers from Joseon and flip them straight to China!"
"Ho. Interesting."
At that moment, the Joseon-Nagasaki-China sea cucumber relay trade was dead. Im Sang-ok planned to sell Japan not even a bowl of broth's worth from now on.
So what to sell Japan now?
"Even swimming on dry land would be easier than this."
Im Sang-ok went straight to Arthur and cut to the chase.
"Can Geumseong Merchant Company procure more goods?"
"How much more?"
"Triple it. Anything."
"That much?"
"Sell it all in Japan."
Im Sang-ok and Arthur grinned like the Four Heavenly Kings of the demon army.
Joseon had taken spicy redcoat iron fists to the face and stamped the Protectorate Trade Treaty without hesitation, opening markets to Britain, France, and America.
But Japan, which hadn't tasted Western boots and merely bowed to a few black ships with "irasshaimase," hadn't signed any trade treaties yet.
The recent U.S. treaty was still under discussion.
Treaties were a few years away, but that didn't matter.
The key was that for those few years, Joseon could relay trade with Japan.
"You'll need lots of ships."
"Naturally, we'll use Geumseong's merchant vessels."
"I'll wire Hong Kong to treat the Joseon merchants royally."
Joseon and Japan had traded for ages, so no issue with Joseon merchants dumping massive Western factory goods into Japanese markets.
Lock the doors all you want—smuggle through the back. Block Westerners, and Joseon just pockets the middleman cut.
This is why free trade rules.
You were gonna buy anyway, might as well get it cheaper.
Arthur and Im Sang-ok raised a toast.
While Yi Ha-eung and Im Sang-ok hustled in their own ways...
What was Arthur Leigh, the blue-eyed scholar who loved freedom and justice, up to?
"I am versed in all Eastern and Western learning. With interest in Japan's scholarship this time, I joined the envoy delegation."
"We sincerely welcome you to the Land of the Rising Sun. Japan has long cultivated its scholarship, producing scholars second to none abroad."
Academic exchange first.
No stupid talk of Christianity or conversions. Purely scholarly interest.
- Not even a passing dog would buy that.
But the Japanese didn't know?
Don't know... means time to learn the hard way?
First off, I'd collected every book in Japan worth having.
From academic tomes, histories, classics, to street folklore, novels, ukiyo-e—everything. Sell 'em in London, that's pure profit.
While at it, I started the groundwork.
"These folklore collections mention Toyotomi Hideyoshi a lot?"
"The bakufu cracks down hard, but what can you do with ignorant scum idolizing Toyotomi as a hero?"
"Huh. Why?"
"Toyotomi was a lowborn who rose to rule the realm. The rabble feel a connection."
Now he's just a baby-vendor side character in folktales, but to 21st-century hero Arthur Leigh's eyes, not at all.
After the Tokugawa bakufu falls, the Meiji government rises.
They'll trash Tokugawa as "Emperor-insulting traitors" and elevate Toyotomi as the model loyalist. Imjin War? Forgotten. Not founding a bakufu? Loyalist move.
Obvious, but to Joseon folks nearly destroyed by that Toyotomi, it's a seizure switch.
Perfect pretext for intervention, right?
"How do you view Joseon's king, Lord Arthur?"
"He's a hero of the age, a great sovereign. He sees national survival hinges on enlightenment and reform, and he's sincerely pursuing national strengthening and great reforms."
"Enlightenment! So you think Japan should open up too?"
"I know little of Japan, so I'll hold my tongue. But Western powers will invade and seize interests from every nation soon. All who wish to survive must prepare."
"......"
The people I mainly met were reclusive scholars, intellectuals, mid-to-low officials—not top brass.
When someone like me—the Westerner who understood the East best—warned plainly, "Invasion is imminent," they all looked chilled to the bone.
With the groundwork laid...
Time for Yi Ha-eung to do his job.
Edo Castle.
"Are you... truly serious?"
"This is the will of His Majesty and the Joseon court."
Finally, Heungseon Prince laid out the main proposal.
"The Westerners' aims are clear. They've already conquered countless nations, enslaving them, and we're no exception."
"I propose a Joseon-Japan mutual defense pact on behalf of the Joseon court."
"Isn't this too sudden?"
"You've seen it yourselves this time, right? Those Westerners will wage war and invasion for free trade and profits."
If one of us is invaded, the other sends reinforcements!
The bakufu, with no proper army left, felt their heads might explode.
Yi Ha-eung, lips pressed tight while managing his expression, felt the same.
Joint resistance to foreign invasion?
Ridiculous. Polish the Joseon army for a hundred days, it still can't stop Western forces.
'Japan's lower classes revere Fengshen Waterway.'
'Clans showing disloyalty to the bakufu are all descendants of Imjin enemies.'
'If they win, they'll surely shout a second Jeongmyeongga-do.'
One goal.
Intervene on the bakufu's side in Japan's inevitable civil war, dispatching the new Joseon army.
The pre-reform Joseon army suppressed Hong Gyeong-nae's rebellion; fighting alongside the bakufu, how could they lose to rebels?
To face the Qing, the rear must be secure.
Joseon was pretty serious about this.