Chapter 144
Chapter 144
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 144
Chapter Title: Muskets and the Northern Expedition (7)
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All the basic preparations for the Jurchen conquest—no, not quite the Northern Expedition yet—were complete.
The budget and food supplies needed for the campaign were all in place, and the Military Armory was churning out gunpowder weapons at a breakneck pace.
Meanwhile, workshops across Hanyang were mass-producing curved swords, spears, and the flails I'd newly proposed...
Now, there wasn't anything too urgent until the training wrapped up for the soldiers conscripted from all eight provinces.
"Chief Deputy Prime Minister."
"Kim Ho-gun, have you finished all your assigned tasks for today?"
"I've drawn up a flawless supply plan, and wrapped up all the other necessary administrative work."
"Kim Ho-gun, you seem to have talents rivaling Xiao He from Emperor Gaozu's era. How did you finish all that work so quickly and perfect the supply plan to boot?"
"With the officials and merchants donating so generously, we didn't have to worry about the budget at all. Made it manageable."
Jo Mal-saeng shook his head at the word "manageable."
He pointed toward Kim Jeong-rang, slumped at a desk over there.
"But that Kim Jeong-rang over there doesn't look like it was so manageable."
Kim Jeong-rang, in the direction Jo Mal-saeng indicated, looked—if anything—a bit like a mummy. No spark of life anywhere on him.
His complexion suggested that if he closed his eyes in that state, he might never wake up...
Truth be told, he'd only handled about a third of my workload, and he was already like this. Was the guy just naturally frail?
"N-no more... Please, spare me... Have mercy, Lord Kim Ho-gun..."
Seeing him like that, I couldn't help feeling a little sorry for him.
Still, he'd gotten a chance to grow through this ordeal, so I hoped he'd come out stronger from the experience.
Anyway, he'd worked hard, so I'd put in a good word with Minister of Finance Maeng Sa-seong.
Tell him Kim Jeong-rang from the Ministry of Defense was responsible and highly capable.
"Looks like I'll have to let Kim Jeong-rang head home early today. He seems to have pushed himself too hard."
At the words "head home early," Kim Jeong-rang's face lit up visibly.
It was like those kids who feel deathly ill at school but miraculously recover the moment they're sent home early...
Life flooded back into Kim Jeong-rang's body.
His footsteps grew light as a feather as he walked away.
"I don't drive people to exhaustion, sir. I just help them make the most of the strength they've got."
"......I'm truly glad I'm not serving under you, Kim Ho-gun. And speaking of which, I've had a favor to ask you for ages: please, whatever you do, don't go anywhere near the Hall of Worthies while I'm still alive."
Not just Jo Mal-saeng—all the other ministers said much the same.
Begging me not to set foot in the Hall of Worthies while they were still in office.
According to Prime Minister Hwang Hui, the reason I wasn't allowed there was because the ministers had earnestly pleaded not to send Kim Dae-bung their way...
Honestly, I had no love for the place myself.
Spend my days as a Hall of Worthies academician under King Sejong the Great—who'd bolt upright in bed at the mere whiff of new knowledge or scholarship, devouring it like it was his last meal?
Debates alone would delay dismissal by at least an hour each day.
Then home to prep for more debates, effectively stretching my workday three hours past normal dismissal.
Why would I want that?
"I have zero desire to go anywhere near the Hall of Worthies, sir. No worries there. But I do have one favor to ask of you."
"What is it? If it's something I can grant, consider it done."
"I'd like to disguise myself as a newly passed military exam officer and go on an undercover inspection."
"You want to play secret royal inspector? I can't for the life of me understand why Kim Ho-gun would say something so out of left field."
"Wherever crowds gather, scum always crop up looking to do wrong."
Especially in the military.
It's such a closed-off organization that reporting abuses is tough, so casual beatings and violence for boredom's sake get swept under the rug all too easily.
And in Joseon-era armies? After training, in downtime or on non-training days for fitness management—think beatings wouldn't happen?
Our current system is close to line infantry, so we do allow violence per set rules after minimal procedure for things like "breaking formation" or "failing to follow orders during drills"...
But beatings for no reason—just boredom, or because some superior takes a dislike? Absolutely unacceptable.
'Even if someone dies, odds are it'll get buried quietly.'
"There are people in this world who create all sorts of injustices for no reason at all, beating and tormenting others."
In the old Goryeo era, when a new official arrived, there was this "face-washing ritual" hazing for recent exam passers or those switching departments.
Especially brutal for new exam passers.
Department transfers might involve beatings bad enough to kill, or weird stunts, but...
For exam passers, it could go as far as deadly beatings if luck was bad, or forcing you to uproot your family pillar and serve it up—then getting double-cursed for it. Common stuff.
Why? Simple answer.
To liven things up and kill boredom under the guise of enforcing discipline on newbies.
"There are two ways to stamp out military abuses."
"You seem to know the army better than most officers."
I'd served as an officer before.
And I knew this stuff from stories my administrative exam buddies shared from their enlisted days.
"Knowing widely isn't a bad thing, right? Anyway, to eliminate abuses, make training grueling to the point of death, or punishments brutally severe."
We say this to guys who lose it around women: if you can hold chopsticks, you can do it.
Guys who abuse power out of boredom or arrogance? Same deal—they're the ones leading the charge on abuses and beatings if they've got the energy.
Flip it: leave them no energy even for chopsticks—think they'll pull off abuses?
'When you're half-dead from exhaustion, who has time for nonsense?'
That's why units with insane training and duties have no abuses.
But grind soldiers like that, and non-combat losses skyrocket—ten percent could drop before even reaching the battlefield.
So only one real alternative.
Hammer home: commit an abuse, and you're the one who dies first.
Won't solve it completely, but it'll slash occurrences big time.
"From an officer's view, abuses in their unit admit failure in managing subordinates. So if I were one, I'd cover it up—even if someone died. Which means even if His Highness orders no private beatings or bullying among soldiers, it'll do no good. They'll just coordinate lies and make it 'never happened.'"
Jo Mal-saeng's face went stark white.
Hard to imagine a whole group committing perjury to cover military abuses, risking clan execution.
But in a military organization? Totally plausible.
That's the scary part of closed groups.
"That's why I want to go undercover. I'm young enough that posing as a fresh military exam grad? Everyone'll buy it."
"......Perfect for the soldiers to underestimate. They'll peg you as one of those bookish yinseo officers."
"What if I nail the culprits and give those unit officers a brutal warning?"
"Planning to threaten them with an axe?"
"If they don't shape up, I'll file a branch appeal at Gwanghwamun."
Some history prof called branch appeals WWE-style political theater—no heads actually roll.
But in today's Joseon? It's literal.
'I'll say this even if it kills me. Kill me or heed my words.'
"But if I just warn them harshly and ask them to fix it quietly—without reporting to His Highness—the whole army's officers will be on fire to crack down on abuses. Fearing the fallout if it happens again."
"Extreme, but effective."
Why rotten officers cover up? Simple.
Not because they like the abuser.
Not because they hate the victim.
Cold fact: their promotions and future matter more, so they bury it.
Show them covering up leads to disaster, and they'll kill abusers in their own units themselves.
That alone nixes most abuses.
"I'll submit a memorial to His Highness. Straight to the throne, bypassing the Secretariat. If approved, you'll take sick leave."
And my request sailed through.
From that moment, I was no longer Five Armies Commander Kim Dae-bung.
I'd become Rank 9 Clerk Kim Jong-sin.