Chapter 195
Chapter 195
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 195
Chapter Title: Joseon-Style Standing Army (5)
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This world is full of foolish people who defy all common sense.
Even in the modern society of the 21st century where Kim Dae-bung had lived, there were idiots who seriously believed the Earth was flat or that chocolate milk came straight from cows with brown fur.
Likewise, in yangban society, there were those who had barely escaped illiteracy through book learning but lacked the discernment to tell right from wrong.
The man spouting ignorant opinions at a gathering of Andong Grand Commandery yangban was a prime example.
"To be honest, don't all of you gentlemen feel wronged by this?"
"Wronged by what, Juksan?"
The scholar with the pen name Juksan vented his grievances.
"When Joseon was founded, wasn't the reason King Taejo exempted us yangban from military service so that we could maintain order in the countryside and devote ourselves to scholarship?"
Excluding periods of extreme corruption in the three taxes, even yangban paid taxes.
However, because yangban held a superior status to commoners, they were exempted from military service.
After the Equal Service Law was implemented during King Yeongjo's reign, it looked unseemly for yangban to pay military cloth taxes like commoners, so they paid an equivalent tax called "exemption rice" instead.
"So why is His Highness now demanding that we yangban pay 10 seom of white rice per household each year in lieu of military service? This is an outrageous act that tramples on King Taejo's recognition of our role and the consideration he showed us!"
A few scholars chimed in agreement with the idiot named Juksan.
"Juksan is right. We yangban lend grain to the people during famines to keep them fed. If we didn't, countless commoners would have starved to death. Every year on holidays or ancestral rites, we gather the villagers without fail and set out lavish banquet tables. For the women who help prepare the food, we send them home with generous packets so they don't feel shortchanged. Haven't we faithfully fulfilled our duty as yangban to care for the people?"
"Let us draft a joint petition to His Highness on behalf of us yangban of Andong Grand Commandery and ask him to correct this misguided policy!"
"Juksan, if you write the petition, I'll join you."
From the yangban perspective, having to newly pay 10 seom of white rice annually—a tax they hadn't paid before—was like getting clubbed over the head with a mallet in the dead of night.
So it was understandable to a degree that some harbored resentment...
But Andong Grand Commandery Seomyon Township Chief An Jae-ho sternly addressed Juksan.
"Have you perhaps been possessed by a Goryeo ghost?"
The moment the township chief uttered the phrase "possessed by a Goryeo ghost"—something you absolutely never said to a person in Joseon—the atmosphere in the gathering turned ice-cold in an instant.
Juksan protested the grave insult.
"How can you say I've been possessed by a Goryeo ghost? That's something you tell a madman who's begging to die! Be honest—don't you find this new measure unfair, Township Chief? King Taejo clearly exempted us yangban from military service so we could educate the people and focus on study. Now they're saying we must pay extra taxes instead? Does that even make sense?"
"Do you think I enjoy suddenly having to pay more taxes?"
No one in this world likes paying taxes.
Whether it's money earned through one's own sweat or rent collected from inherited land, handing over part of one's income to the state...
feels like the country is straight-up robbing you blind.
'Still, if you have more, you should pay more—that's something we have to accept.'
"But do you think the commoners are thrilled about sending their sons to the army? They don't like it any more than we yangban would enjoy sending our sons off at age fifteen for three years of service."
"How can they be the same as us?"
"They're people just like us. You don't want to send your son to military service, and commoners don't want to send theirs to the army either."
As he listened to the township chief, Juksan—no, Kim Jang-ho—found himself running out of counterarguments.
"And if we yangban refuse to pay this tax, do you think we can live comfortably in this county?"
"What do you mean by that?"
"Unlike them, we only have to pay about 10 seom of white rice a year to exempt our sons from the army. If there are yangban who refuse even that, do you think the commoners will look kindly on us?"
In pre-modern society without labor laws, the reason farming—the occupation of most Joseon commoners—maintained a certain quality of life was because customs of villages and communities protected the people's lives.
Rent could be squeezed to 70% like Japanese colonial landlords did with covert taxes, if collected ruthlessly.
But doing so would get even a yangban's head bashed in or stabbed with a spear by the villagers, so they maintained an appropriate line under the name of "custom."
In this countryside society bound by such tacit agreements, commoners sent their sons to the army for three years starting at age fifteen, while yangban paid 10 seom of white rice per household annually to be exempt.
But what if a yangban refused to pay?
In the worst case, they could get their head smashed—not by some distant authority, but by fellow villagers.
"I understand wanting to save money, but a yangban living in Joseon under the grace of the king must have at least a shred of conscience. What a rotten bastard. Don't even think about going around this county demanding bows as a yangban for a while. Get out. I don't even want to see your face."
Kim Jang-ho was expelled from the yangban gathering by Township Chief An Jae-ho.
Yet not one person there followed after the flushed-faced Kim Jang-ho.
Supporting a guy who showed such an ugly side just to save a bit of money would be like standing next to a shit-smeared dog and getting smeared yourself...
They'd get branded within yangban society as despicable scoundrels who begrudged paying 10 seom of white rice a year to avoid sending their sons to the army.
An Jae-ho clicked his tongue at the spot where Kim Jang-ho had left.
"I've saved a man's life today. If that fool had submitted a petition with exactly what he said, he'd have gotten his skull caved in."
Yi Bang-won hated killing people.
But his assassination of Jeong Mong-ju and purge of his wife's clan were so memorable that people imagined him wandering around smashing heads like watermelons with an iron club.
Yi Bang-won had forgiven even childish curses against the royal family, accepting a slight weakening of royal authority.
How could a king who loved children that much enjoy killing?
So Yi Bang-won probably wouldn't have caved in Kim Jang-ho's skull or lopped off his head even if he submitted the petition.
He'd just spread it across every county in the nation, eternally engraving Kim Jang-ho and his clan's name in history.
Of course, yangban feared that more than death.
"Paying taxes is one thing, but since it's come to this, how about we all form a mutual aid society, pool money according to our means, and donate it to the county office to feed the soldiers well?"
"Do we really need to go that far?"
"Other counties might not, but if it's known that us yangban of Andong Grand Commandery voluntarily formed a society to ease the soldiers' hardships... His Highness will surely bestow great favor. Like the Stele of Merit erected in Jinhae County."
For yangban who lived and died by honor, erecting a Stele of Merit in the village was the greatest achievement of their lives.
As Kim Dae-bung put it, an accomplishment worth bragging about even to their great-grandchildren's grandchildren.
The Andong Grand Commandery scholars perked up their ears at the mention of a Stele of Merit from the township chief.
"As the saying goes, pull out the iron horns while it's hot... Let's discuss here and now how much wealth we'll contribute for the soldiers."
And a week later, the Andong Grand Commandery county office received a staggering donation of 4,000 seom of white rice voluntarily collected from the county's yangban.
Yi Bang-won was so pleased by the news that he had a Loyal Subjects' Gate erected in Andong to honor their loyalty.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇ Yet even as things flowed this way, quite a few across the nation had submitted petitions whining that 10 seom of white rice was too much to pay.
"The world is wide, and there are many madmen, they say."
A famous saying often used in certain online communities, but remarkably insightful for something born from the internet.
The world is wide, and there are far too many possessed by Goryeo ghosts.
The number of yangban who filed protest petitions claiming it was unreasonable to make them pay 10 seom of white rice came to a whopping 45 nationwide.
Even gathering them from every corner of the country, 45 wasn't a huge number, but what kind of guts did it take for those fools to write such insane petitions?
"Mentioning King Taejo while protesting that it's unfair? We have to kill them."
As I was losing my mind in disbelief, Choi Yun-deok hurried over to me.
The moment he saw my face, he skipped greetings and asked straight away.
"His Retired Majesty says it might be best to send all those Goryeo-possessed fools who submitted petitions straight to Goryeo's side. What do you think?"
Killing people over protest petitions against paying taxes isn't right.
Bashing their heads won't solve anything either.
"Aren't they the ones begging to have their shameful names recorded in the annals? If that's their wish, we should make them a laughingstock as they desire."
For scum like that, letting them live forever as objects of ridicule is the proper punishment.
Make an example of them and mock them for life.
Like those who flee to America to dodge the draft and can never return to Korea.
And the one who mentioned King Taejo? Let him enjoy the pillory before sending him to Goryeo's side.