Chapter 123
Chapter 123
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 123
Chapter Title: Breaking the Cartel (7)
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"What on earth have we done wrong that you're giving us a chance to repent?"
Pitiful, wretched fools.
No.
These are the guys at the top of the cartel pyramid, right in the middle of their guild ritual. I can't go pitying them.
They already have plenty, and they're the ones scheming to rot Joseon from the inside. Showing them sympathy would be utterly pointless.
Deep down, I'd love to say, "Oh, you don't know your own sins? Then just die," and dig up every corrupt deed they've done, letting the law judge them—wiping out the entrenched powers in one clean sweep...
But after stripping these bastards bare, the fallout would be too much for Joseon to handle. That's the regrettable part.
Instead, thanks to that cheeky mouth of yours, your fortunes are about to shrink by "half."
Do they seriously not know that staying quiet might've gotten them off with a middle-ground deal?
"During the guild ritual, a few merchants under your affiliation came to see my father-in-law just recently."
I can't name who they were. The brave soul who spoke up would end up like a soldier writing a heartfelt letter to the captain, targeted by every petty bully in the cartel.
In the army, they'd harass him to the point of suicidal thoughts, but they couldn't actually kill him. These tycoons here, though? Even if I yanked out every one of their teeth, they'd still have the muscle to physically eliminate a few merchants.
Unless I'm crazy, I'll never reveal who snitched.
Because spilling on the whistleblower's identity would be as good as me killing a righteous informant myself.
"According to them, you're colluding to pool your money and snap up every inch of the land slated for new development."
"Lord, that's a misunderstanding."
"Ah, whatever. That's fine. Pre-buying land in an area bound to skyrocket is just smart investing. Hell, I've been planning to do the same."
Up to that point, I might've let it slide.
What makes these guys unforgivable is what comes next.
What the hell were they thinking? With King Taejong and King Sejong the Great staring them down, these idiots—not in some backwater province, but right here in Hanyang—try to monopolize commerce and play at being "noble families"?
Even thinking it over again, I can't fathom how they thought they could pull this off in their right minds.
People get blinded by greed, pouring billions into villas that'll triple once built, or dumping their life savings into unheard-of coins...
'But these guys are the equivalent of chaebols if this were Korea.'
Chaebols don't climb that high on business savvy alone—they need sharp political instincts to get there and stay there. So what the hell are these clowns?
"But you didn't stop at blowing all your cash to hoard that land. You're even planning workshops on top to seize control of logistics across all eight provinces of Joseon. Ever think that's crossing the line for mere merchants? At that scale, the court would turn into your personal puppets."
"It seems like a massive misunderstanding, Lord. We were just trying to expand our operations to make more money..."
"You crooks know damn well, so why the silver tongues? Want me to lop them off with an axe right now?"
"We've never forgotten for a second that we owe our positions to Your Highness's grace. How could we harbor such impudent thoughts?"
"Cut the crap. If that's true, then why'd you tell the smaller merchants—ones operating at a fraction of your scale—to keep their hands off the new development land?"
Unable to scrape together any more excuses in the face of my words, cold sweat began pouring down the tycoons' faces.
"Oh, and I heard about the atrocities of this Kim Jang-seok, who runs the biggest rice shop in Hanyang. Gave me chills. Unless he's possessed by some demon like Ryu Jeong-hyeon, no sane man could do that."
The more bustling logistics and commerce get, the more power merchants wield.
Next door in Japan, just decades after the Edo shogunate opened, shoguns, daimyo, and samurai alike were all borrowing cash from merchants.
They'd send retainers begging, "Please don't raise the interest!" And when that failed, they straight-up offered "samurai status" on a platter.
Hell, in the late Edo period, merchants colluded to jack up rice prices multiple times, screwing over the shogunate—and their power was so immense they walked away scot-free every time.
And now this same nonsense is unfolding in Joseon. Am I supposed to celebrate?
That Joseon's commerce has boomed so much these merchant scum can band together and rig rice prices in Hanyang?
Whatever. Kim Jang-seok pulled a Goryeo-era stunt, so off he goes to face old Goryeo-style justice.
How could we let a rice manipulator live in Joseon?
"You and the Hanyang guild merchants pooled every last coin to buy up every grain of rice coming through Incheon into Hanyang and the surrounding towns... then jacked the price threefold to dump on the people?"
"Th-that... well, you see..."
"In Joseon, we call that... "
Even in the 21st century, food security is one of the ironclad pillars of national safety.
That's why the agricultural co-op buys up rice at "standard prices" through quotas, no matter how much surplus there is.
Unlike pear farming, fruit, or cucumbers—where bumper crops tank prices and they don't buy it all.
Those are treated as business ventures, so the government stays out whether farmers quit or not.
Rice is different.
If trade sanctions hit and imports dry up, Koreans are stuck eating domestic rice.
Shortage then? Everyone starves.
So the government steps in, buying it all to prevent production dips.
But messing with something that vital via price gouging...
"Treason."
The tycoons froze solid at the word.
"If I were the kind of man who chased petty gains like you lot, I'd have roped you all into treason charges and purged the bunch of you. Then filled your spots with my father-in-law's trading firms. Boom—Joseon's entire commerce under my thumb. Pheasant for dinner and eggs to boot."
Of course, pulling that would have King Sejong the Great—who gets commerce's value—chopping my head off.
No matter how loyal I am to Joseon, even I couldn't get treason forgiven.
"But you're too damn big to kill offhandedly. What a shame."
"...... Lord..."
"Ah, and now you get why I didn't summon that rice peddler Kim Jang-seok, right?"
"You've already branded him a traitor?"
"Tomorrow, his entire clan gets dragged to the Royal Inspectorate."
Kim Jang-seok will face dismemberment, his family stripped of everything and enslaved.
Because Joseon has no law treating this as full-blown treason—so only the ringleader gets the extreme penalty, others lighter sentences.
"Why bother calling in a walking corpse?"
Why waste words on someone beyond saving? Time's too precious.
"But you lot still have some use left, so I won't kill you. Just don't forget."
"Forget what?"
"That I don't hesitate to throw my life away for the innocent people—just like I won't spare mine purging those who ruin Joseon. And this time, it's not mercy; it's just that slaughtering you all seems harmful to the realm right now."
"Yes, Lord..."
"I'll remember what you tried till the day I die, and keep watching you. Confucius said even evil natures can be reformed through education. I'm not sold on that."
Pedagogy says this:
Kids, shaped right and without intellectual disabilities, can hit elite universities or pro careers even if their IQ's modest...
Adults? Education barely scratches their core nature.
These guys are already old as dirt. How the hell am I supposed to redeem that?
That's why folks say adults won't budge unless parents die or they're on death's door—no room for change.
"I have zero plans to fix you. So if you don't want to die by my hand, force yourself to at least pretend to live kindly from now on."
"Y-yes... Lord..."
"And it's only right you pay the price for me sparing you. Voluntarily offer half your assets to the court, and confess your crimes yourselves. Then I'll petition His Highness for a special path to survival."
"Thank you."
If some other fourth-rank official said that, they'd run to another minister to snitch.
But they know exactly what kind of man I am, so they'll toe the line.
"And keep your greed off the new development land."
That wraps up prepping the cartel takedown.
Now they just need to petition the guild to smash the cartel themselves and denounce that rice shop Kim Jang-seok.
Plus, King Taejong and King Sejong already know how I'm moving.
'Everything should fall into place.'
Ah, after busting my ass developing Joseon like this, it'd be nice to pick the right moment, retire, and live easy with Winter.
I sure as hell won't end up like Prime Minister Hwang Hui or Jo Mal-saeng.