Chapter 115
Chapter 115
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 115
Chapter Title: Resocializing the Butchers (5)
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My butcher rehabilitation policy was being implemented across the entire kingdom of Joseon.
Even so, a significant number of people refused to accept this new policy that Joseon had put forward.
"The world is full of people who repay good intentions with malice. Don't you think so, Inspector Kim?"
Kim Jong-seo, who had once been on equal footing with me, nodded at my words.
"Yes, Lord Sain. We've taken those who were once called 'firewood carriers,' treated worse than commoners, elevated them to good folk status, given them land, even lent them oxen—and treated them well. Yet there are still those who insist they can't be rehabilitated... People are too good to them, speaking kindly and all, but they just can't accept it properly."
"What can you do? If they want to drink the poison of their own making."
The vast majority of butchers had accepted Joseon's rehabilitation policy.
How could they resist when we held a knife in one hand and the hope of living as Joseon citizens in the other, gently persuading them?
It was either die right now with their families or grovel like dogs for a few years and live like humans.
Of course, anyone with a proper mind who thought about their family and future would choose the latter.
However, a few stubbornly insisted they couldn't accept it and resisted.
"We can't kill them all, so why not just turn them into slaves? I hear the ironworkers in the mines are short on labor these days, raising a fuss. And there are plenty of other places that need slaves."
"We'll send only the ringleaders who spearheaded the opposition to the court's measures to the mines as slaves, and for the rest, we'll end it there by instilling patriotic loyalty directly into their bodies."
"You mean teach the butchers to read? I think they're rotten to the core by nature, so rehabilitation is truly difficult."
Well, anyone who rebels this far deserves serious suspicion of having a fundamentally rotten character.
Later, that Jeong Chang-son fellow who opposed Hangul creation said something like, 'The lowly commoners are rotten by nature, so even if you educate them, Your Highness, they can't become filial sons or chaste women, right?' It was wrong both Confucian-wise and as a public servant...
Honestly, these were grown adults who'd already dipped their hands into all sorts of crimes, so most were rotten to the root anyway.
'Though there are occasional cases where they turn into decent people.'
Regardless, seeing Kim Jong-seo of all people suggest sending them to the mines as slaves...
It seemed like he was venting frustration from the major financial loss in that recent fire, proposing the grueling mine slave duty as payback.
"Inspector Kim, did you lose much in that fire?"
At my question, Kim Jong-seo's eyes reddened in an instant.
He bowed his head deeply and spoke in a deflated voice.
"I'd bought a pretty big tiled house in the Northern Village to live with my parents... But those scum— I wouldn't even be satisfied eating them alive—burned it all down."
"That's unfortunate."
"It was a house worth five hundred seom of white rice. Five hundred seom turned to ashes in an instant. The silk and everything stored in the warehouse burned up too, so now I'm penniless..."
In the 21st century, unless you're exceptionally wealthy, people often keep most assets at home, so a house fire means massive loss...
But in Joseon, the top asset was still the fields you owned.
Even if the house burned, the fields remained, so holding out until harvest season would make living manageable again.
For now, all I could do was wish him luck.
"The butchers defying His Highness's decree right now are locked up in the local jails. Their number reaches a whopping three thousand."
"That's quite a lot."
"To teach them manners, we can't do it with books—we need to drill it into them through intense physical pain... How about you take that on?"
It's not like torture would be involved just because it's "drilled through the body with pain."
Rather, over several months of training even more grueling than ranger drills—training that might seem ridiculous—we'd brainwash and instill the moral values needed to live as Joseon citizens.
"It's also a chance to get away from the Executive Office for a bit."
Records say Prime Minister Hwang Hui gripped Kim Jong-seo like a mouse in his claws.
Having come to the Executive Office myself, I could see it was true—Kim was getting absolutely reamed by Hwang Hui.
If he botched a single character while handling work, Hwang would grill him: "Seeing you write like that, did you even learn to hold a brush properly?"
Or spotting him walking pigeon-toed, he'd say it must be bad shoes and offer to buy proper ones.
By modern Korean standards, that might qualify as harassment, but by Joseon norms, it was utterly unproblematic—no one batted an eye.
In truth, Kim Jong-seo's personality flaws were masked by Hwang's intense prodding.
He was so headstrong it drew criticism, but seeing him get harshly dressed down by Hwang made people think, "That guy's got it rough too," pitying him and going easy.
Truly a fascinating relationship.
"Please send this lowly one, Your Excellency. I'm no military man, but rehabilitation is squarely a civilian official's duty, isn't it? I can do it very well."
"Very well, then."
"And how about taking along Inspector Hwang Bo (Lord Jibong's courtesy name) as well?"
Hwang Hui answered that one instead.
"We'll send Inspector Hwang Bo, so Inspector Kim, you stay here."
"......"
"If both you inspectors are gone, the Executive Office won't function, will it? That's out of the question. If anyone's going, it's just you, Inspector Kim."
"Yes, my lord."
And so Kim Jong-seo threw Hwang Bo under the bus.
Honestly, the Executive Office work was manageable for me since neither Hwang Hui nor Jo Mal-saeng reamed me out, but those two were dying under heaps of tasks and scoldings, forced to finish by quitting time.
If they didn't wrap up on schedule, Hwang Hui got summoned to King Sejong the Great.
Kim leaves and only Hwang Bo stays? That means Hwang Bo's workload doubles.
I shouldn't treat my subordinates that harshly.
"I've laid out the basic framework already. Since Inspector Kim is going, compile the personnel and budget needed to rehabilitate those three thousand by tomorrow and report it."
"Yes...? Did I hear wrong?"
"I said submit the report by tomorrow. You can handle your regular duties and still finish by then, right? I know you can do it, Inspector Kim. Oh, of course, no overtime. His Highness dislikes that."
From my observations of Kim Jong-seo's capabilities so far, he could write that report and finish everything else by tomorrow.
Unlike Hwang Hui and Jo Mal-saeng, I only assigned as much as they could maximally handle—what a kind superior I was.
Touched by my benevolence, apparently, Kim said nothing and returned to his seat with the framework document I'd prepared.
I then went to report something to Hwang Hui.
"Chief State Councillor."
"Speak."
"From what I've closely observed lately, calves born from mating large bulls and cows grow up to be significantly bigger than other cattle."
In truth, I'd never seen it myself.
But during Britain's Industrial Revolution, they succeeded in massively increasing cattle size through crossbreeding.
For example, British cattle in 1700 weighed only about 170kg even as adults, but by 1786, that had risen to 380kg.
The reason? Britons gathered the finest specimens and selectively bred them, improving the breed.
"Go on."
"Inspired by that, what if we gathered cattle, pigs, horses, chickens, sheep, rice, grains, fruit trees, and such from villages nationwide to Hanyang, then selectively bred only the best ones?"
"A calf from a large bull and cow grows into a massive adult... Indeed."
"Repeat this process over and over, distribute them back to the villages, and repeat breeding there—Joseon's cattle would gradually grow larger. We'd get more beef per animal and stronger oxen for plowing bigger fields."
Genetic improvement is simple at the basics if you keep it straightforward.
Just do exactly as I said.
"It'd be great to hold it like an annual harvest festival competition—village, county, province, national levels, all as contests and celebrations. Winners at each should get prizes."
"Rice: one seom for village winner, thirty seom for county, a hundred for province, and a generous three hundred for national champ."
"These contests won't just be for cattle—pigs, grains, fruits, everything. Can the treasury handle it?"
"Base it on cattle scale, adjust prizes for others accordingly. And isn't that the level to motivate farmers and yangban to really strive for bigger livestock?"
He had a point.
Besides, Joseon wasn't so poor it couldn't afford that in prizes.
And the profits from improved livestock, grains, fruits would be enormous—no losing proposition.
"The people will love the festivals and prizes, and it'll greatly benefit the kingdom."
Hwang Hui chuckled heartily.
"Even going from two hundred rice ears to two hundred ten per stalk means five percent more harvest on the same land. Keep progressing like this, and Joseon's income will soar, won't it? But this old man finds devising new systems and writing reports a real chore, so you handle drafting it, Kim Sain. I'll just review."
And just like that, my workload grew again.
Still, livestock and breed improvement were essential for Joseon's progress—what could I do but work hard?