Chapter 180
Chapter 180
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 180
Chapter Title: Maps and Trade (1)
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Hwang Hui failed to resign this time as well.
In truth, all the previous petitions to resign had been nothing more than showmanship. They were a ploy to remind everyone that if he stayed in the prime minister's seat too long, resentment would brew among those below. By submitting such a petition as if stepping down...
...the king would acknowledge, "This man is indispensable in that position, so everyone should understand," thereby solidifying his status.
'But this time, I truly meant to retire.'
"How can the world be so harsh to me?"
Before Hwang Hui, who wore the expression of a man who had lost everything, lay the bold petition from Inspector Choi Man-ri of the Office of Inspectors.
The contents accused Hwang Hui of using his authority to halve the taxes owed by one of Hanyang's great merchants.
"I merely used my authority to right a wrong for a commoner unjustly burdened with excessive taxes."
The tax that this "unjustly burdened" commoner had owed amounted to less than half a pun (5%) of his annual income, so Hwang Hui's claim was clearly flawed...
Nevertheless, from his perspective, he had simply taken pity on a poor soul who, despite having plenty of wealth, was crushed by exorbitant taxes. He had lightened that excessive burden accordingly.
Of course, he had bent the law slightly in the process.
He had received a gift of 1,000 seom of white rice from the great merchant Kim Ho-gwan, along with lavish feasts of rare delicacies.
But that was merely a voluntary expression of gratitude toward Hwang Hui for resolving his grievance.
By Joseon standards, where propriety sometimes trumped the letter of the law, he had judged it unlikely to cause issues.
"How on earth did Inspector Choi learn of this?"
In the course of official duties, one often encountered aggrieved commoners pleading their cases. When relieving their injustices, they would spontaneously offer "modest gifts" out of gratitude.
Refusing such tokens of sincerity would itself be discourteous, so accepting them was only natural...
And he had personally rewritten the merchant's tax ledger correctly as Chief State Councillor. How could anyone else have discovered it?
"If this leads to my resignation now, I won't be retiring home—I'll be exiled to some remote village again."
King Sejong and Yi Bang-won cherished talent.
Thus, even those with flaws were shielded if their abilities shone, allowing them to continue serving at court without punishment.
They had even seated a usurer like Ryu Jeong-hyeon as Chief State Councillor, and spared Jo Mal-saeng punishment despite his involvement in the Kim Do-ryeon scandal by ensuring he could never truly resign.
Hwang Hui himself had been implicated in corruption multiple times, yet Yi Bang-won and Sejong had bailed him out, sparing him exile and keeping him in government service.
The price of such benevolence was singular.
'Lifelong service.'
Having sinned, one atoned not through punishment but by serving the realm until body and soul wore out.
Still, it beat exile.
"The world is truly harsh to me, so harsh..."
Indeed.
The Joseon Hwang Hui inhabited did not exile its talented but corrupt officials; it worked them to death to atone.
Sejong's unspoken threat: behave, or face exile.
Hwang Hui had no choice but to pen a petition withdrawing his resignation.
To Sejong, it was a beautiful sight.
A veteran minister, devoted to court for decades, found his flaws overlooked by the king...
Moved to tears, the aged prime minister voluntarily pledged lifelong service to the ancestral shrines.
"...What in the world is this farce?"
Even as he grumbled, Hwang Hui moved his brush for survival, drafting his own "lifelong service volunteer petition" with his own hand.
Carrying it, he trudged out of the State Council toward the Office of Royal Decrees when...
Seo Seon, Minister of Justice and his in-law, hurried over and addressed him.
"Your Excellency Chief State Councillor, disaster has struck. A real disaster."
"What is it? Have Japanese pirates invaded?"
Already seething from personally submitting his lifelong service pledge, hearing "disaster" from his in-law pushed his emotions over the edge.
'My mood's foul enough already.'
"My son has caused an incident. Passing by Shinchang-hyeon, he beat a clerk for not greeting him—drunk, no less—and killed the man..."
"Your son killed a clerk in Shinchang-hyeon? Why tell me? Asking me to cover it up?"
"Yes. He's a scoundrel who deserves to be devoured, and he's at fault, but he's still the sole heir to our Seo family—and Your Excellency's son-in-law."
"Seo Dal does no studying as told, refuses office via the yin privilege, and now pulls this stunt."
"Your Excellency, please help just this once. We're family, aren't we?"
In the 21st century, in-laws might cut ties easily, but in Joseon, they were akin to blood kin.
Joseon prized propriety and filial piety. If a family member squandered the fortune gambling—a grave sin—and the family disowned him, society would shun them all.
Thus, even if Hwang Hui despised his son-in-law, he had to save him somehow.
'But this is reckless endangerment.'
"What damned in-laws are we? Get lost!"
Hwang Hui flung Seo Seon's hand away.
Seo Seon couldn't accept his desperate plea falling on deaf ears.
"Your Excellency?"
"Want to save your precious only son? Submit your own resignation and grovel to the Retired King for mercy. As your heir, he might spare him."
Hwang Hui's gut churned at begging for lifelong service himself, and now his son-in-law had blundered too...
He loathed the situation.
Yet while the son-in-law deserved poison and death, his own daughter would be utterly pitiable widowed by her husband's crime.
'Part of me wants to cover it up.'
But he clearly foresaw the fallout if he did.
A few prime ministers, himself included, could collude to bury it—not impossible...
But if caught by Iron Fist Yi Bang-won, he'd end up like Jo Mal-saeng.
And as a fallen Jo Mal-saeng, he'd drown under Kim Dae-bung's avalanche of tasks, soon to rise as full minister.
Resigning ASAP was his only escape.
"For your daughter's sake, please..."
"You're no in-law of mine anymore! For old times' sake, I won't spread word of you asking me to abet this crime. Now scram!"
Hwang Hui dismissed the Minister of Justice and headed to the Office of Royal Decrees.
There, he personally submitted his lifelong service volunteer petition.
From the next day, impeachments against Hwang Hui ceased entirely.
Yet he found no joy.
"How many more years must I serve as Chief State Councillor? Even with my minor faults, compared to that Right Prime Minister over there, I'm a paragon of integrity."
If Kim Dae-bung or Minister of Rites Heo Jo heard, they'd scoff inwardly that paragons must be dropping dead.
Worse news weighed on his heart.
"His Majesty has appointed Kim Dae-bung as Royal Academy Junior Fellow and ordered him to lay the foundation for compiling the New Gazetteer of the Eight Provinces... The State Council will drown in work. Alas, the good days are gone."
That day, Hwang Hui drowned his grievances in drink until blackout.
The next day, the excess kept him from even attending court.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇ Some call the Hall of Worthies this way:
The graduate school where talents specially approved by King Sejong inevitably end up.
I agree a hundred—no, a thousand—times.
Currently, the Hall of Worthies not only studies and crafts policies to investigate and resolve agendas from the central Six Ministries and provinces but also pursues scholarship.
That's why, when I finished as Jinhae County Magistrate and joined as Hall Custodian, the ministry ministers unhesitatingly dumped mountains of work on me.
The Hall of Worthies is the all-purpose fixers' office, after all.
"Kim Dae-bung, starting today as Hall of Worthies Junior Fellow, greets Your Excellency Grand Scholar."
Byeong Gye-ryang sighed deeply at my greeting.
"I never dreamed you'd return to the Hall."
"Nor I, Your Excellency."
In original history, Byeong Gye-ryang served 20 years as Grand Scholar of the Hall—a true scholar.
Had events followed that path, he'd have been Grand Scholar during my Custodian tenure too...
But while I was Jinhae Magistrate, he decried market expansions as fostering luxury among the people—a bad policy—and was stripped of office.
About two years ago, he finally returned to the Hall.
"His Majesty commanded you alone to establish the entire framework for the New Gazetteer of the Eight Provinces. Thus, I'll entrust the framework entirely to Junior Fellow Kim."
"How could I handle such a grand project alone?"
"Because..."
Byeong Gye-ryang sighed deeply again, pointing to the towering pile of work before him.
"Since the Chief State Councillor's resignation was rejected, he's been roaming the ministries, nitpicking every detail and pushing reforms. Just like you."
"......"
"Even I, the Grand Scholar, am dying under it. So hurry and outline the compilation policy."