Chapter 33
Chapter 33
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 33
Chapter Title: Currency and Direct Appeal (3)
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Chief State Councillor Ryu Jeong-hyeon had made his name widely known as Joseon's foremost expert in fiscal policy.
The policies he implemented were truly innovative.
The Master had said that if taxes were collected lightly from the people and the state practiced frugality—not spending money needlessly but saving—then everyone could become wealthy. Ryu Jeong-hyeon sought to reflect this directly in Joseon's economic policies.
He abolished the policy of providing lunch to civil officials, eunuchs, clerks, petty functionaries, and public slaves working in government offices, deeming it too costly.
If they were hungry, couldn't they just make lunch boxes at home and bring them to eat?
He also believed salaries should go only to officials, viewing soldiers as mere "creatures to be fed and kept alive," and argued that paying them salaries was a waste of treasury funds that needed to be cut.
"With traitorous villains like Kim Dae-bung corrupting the court's proper ethos, the future of the government is truly worrisome."
He strove to reduce unnecessary expenditures in the court. At the same time, he considered it unacceptable to pay officials' supplemental income in the form of "salaries" using old grain... so he changed the regulation to new rice instead of aged rice.
New rice and old rice were both just rice, but considering that two seom of old rice equaled the price of one seom of new rice... paying salaries in old rice would effectively reduce officials' pay, which was intolerable.
"That villain Kim Dae-bung has blinded the Retired King, His Majesty, and the Prime Ministers alike. How could one not lament this? Even this old minister must step forward and offer loyal counsel."
Of course, when offering such counsel, timing, method, and content selection were crucial. Just as one doesn't start studying for the civil service exams with the Four Books and Three Classics but begins with the Thousand Character Classic.
To eliminate the treacherous minister Kim Dae-bung who obscured the King's sage wisdom, one had to proceed step by step.
Only then would the people focus solely on agriculture without distraction, and landless farmers who always lacked food would borrow from him at high interest rates.
That way, he could collect steep interest, and even better, impoverished farmers unable to pay it back would become his slaves, further increasing his household wealth.
As he pondered how to remove Kim Dae-bung without backlash, one of his slaves approached cautiously and reported.
"My lord, the Assistant Scholar of the Hall of Worthies is here to see you. Shall I send him away?"
There was only one Assistant Scholar from the Hall of Worthies who would come to see him: Jeong Chang-son, the outstanding talent expected by his family for his unstinting loyal counsel.
Normally, a mere rank-9 pinprick couldn't just meet the Chief State Councillor directly... but Ryu Jeong-hyeon greatly favored young men—precisely, young men with the "righteous will" (by his standards).
"It must be Jeong Hyo-jung who has come. Bring him here, and prepare a simple wine tray."
"Yes, my lord."
Jeong Chang-son offered a greeting impeccable in every etiquette.
"Chief State Councillor, forgive my unannounced and hasty visit."
"If the Assistant Scholar Jeong comes so urgently, it must be because he has urgent words for me, no? Besides, the scholars of the Hall of Worthies and even the ministers of the Six Departments have all been deceived by traitorous villains and treacherous ministers like Kim Dae-bung, lightly regarding the way of the sages... I well know that you alone walk the path of righteousness in the Hall of Worthies."
To put his words plainly: Kim Dae-bung was a scoundrel destined to become a treacherous minister like those of the Yi-sa's Betrayal, and the officials following him might as well be pro-Japanese traitors abandoning Joseon for personal gain.
On the other hand, he was lavishing praise that he and Jeong Chang-son were loyal subjects fighting to the end for the nation's independence.
Otherwise, the Chief State Councillor wouldn't call "Kim Dae-bung" a traitorous villain and treacherous minister to a low-ranking official's face.
"That wretch Kim Dae-bung boldly declared to the Retired King that the policy of minting and distributing coins would inevitably fail. How can a subject presume to declare failure before it even begins for a policy the Retired King has poured his heart into? He passed the exams as top scorer at a young age and luckily succeeded in benefiting the people of Jinhae County, but isn't his arrogance and insolence truly unmatched?"
"Ha ha, our Assistant Scholar Jeong is full of youthful vigor."
"Forgive me, my lord."
"Boiling with hot blood is the privilege of the young, and guiding it rightly is the duty of the old. I know your anger stems from being unable to tolerate injustice, so how could I rebuke you?"
Ryu Jeong-hyeon, Joseon's worst budget-cutting addict and future "great usurer" who would even refuse to repay money to the father-in-law of Prince Hyoryeong, and Jeong Chang-son, the old fogey who would tell King Sejong that the people were no better than dogs and pigs incapable of enlightenment.
These two got along far too well. Ryu Jeong-hyeon genuinely liked this young man.
He even wanted to pull him up all the way himself, if possible.
"Frankly, I can't stand seeing a loyal subject like Assistant Scholar Jeong sidelined while that pack of treacherous scum rises. But heaven aids us. Because his roots are rotten, he overestimates his own talents and is now digging his own grave, isn't he?"
"Are you speaking of Kim Dae-bung's grave?"
"Indeed. He's heading straight to his death. Strutting about as if he's the Prime Minister himself—what else explains his exemption from court attendance rituals if not the favor of the Retired King and His Majesty? But now he opposes their long-cherished currency project. Isn't he mad with a death wish? Well, they won't cast him out over one opposition..."
Ryu Jeong-hyeon's eyes gleamed.
"Spread the word of his opposition to the currency policy through a memorial. Then I'll step forward to restore discipline in the court."
Kim Dae-bung had opposed the currency policy purely for Joseon and its people.
But Ryu Jeong-hyeon's aims were different. He dressed it up as being for Joseon too, but the reality was otherwise.
He knew Joseon's people needed to remain poor as they were for his own wealth to grow.
If Kim Dae-bung implemented sound economic policies and the people grew rich enough not to borrow from him at usurious rates, what would become of him?
"The Retired King is the sort who, for staunch loyalists, sends them into exile or sternly rebukes them to mold them rightly. Soon enough, Kim Dae-bung will be exiled to some backwater like Pyeongan Province."
"......"
"Don't rush it. When bodies are far apart, hearts grow distant too. This isn't just about men and women keeping apart. Even if we can't stop him from setting up markets in every county he targets, we can block assigning officials there."
Jeong Chang-son was deeply impressed by the Chief State Councillor's seasoned cunning, which let him ride political currents without loss to himself while sending opponents to ruin.
To think he planned to dispose of that future treacherous minister Kim Dae-bung so cleanly. He aspired to become a politician as shrewd as Ryu Jeong-hyeon someday.
"As expected, Your Excellency's wisdom rivals that of Zhuge Liang."
"Ha ha, are you flattering me now? Not that I mind hearing it."
A wine tray was set before Ryu Jeong-hyeon and Jeong Chang-son.
In a warm, congenial atmosphere, they exchanged views on their ideal vision of Joseon.
Until late into the night.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
Kim Man-deok said to me.
Losing one's integrity is like death.
One would suffer endless pangs from one's own conscience, of all things.
I deeply agreed with him.
More frightening than death is carrying regrets to one's grave.
If only I had submitted a memorial properly opposing the currency policy...
The sight of the Jongno markets entered my mind. Seeing them reminded me of Jinhae County's market.
Much smaller in scale, but everyone there had looked happy.
Poor though they were, they thanked me for creating the market and shared their precious food with me.
They had been so delighted giving me their finest dishes.
I, too, found their hearts so pure and grateful that I shamelessly gorged until my belly nearly burst.
"Implementing currency will bring an economic depression to Joseon."
Of course, the depression Joseon's people would experience would be infinitesimally smaller than the Great Depression.
Yet countless would die or suffer death-like agony from misguided economic policies and flawed currency.
The Annals of King Sejong record that Ryu Jeong-hyeon, as superintendent of the Markets Office (the institution managing Hanyang's markets), had a commoner flogged to death for refusing to transact with trash coins.
And similar incidents must have been commonplace in provincial towns.
All those sacrificed in this era were society's weak; the wealthy and powerful emerged unscathed, not a hair out of place.
Only the poor masses perished in the depression.
"I must step forward."
I wasn't sure if I'd ever return to Jinhae County.
But if, by some wild chance, I visited and heard that the people of Jinhae—who had thanked me, even cursing heaven and erecting a stele of merit for me—had died out because of the currency I failed to stop... it would be utterly heartbreaking.
That fear of eternal regret.
"Aren't you Assistant Minister Kim? It's not yet time for duty... No, why are you wearing plain white mourning clothes instead of official robes? And what's that axe in your hand... and why have you brought a slave carrying a mat?"
"...... I'm not planning to enter Gwanghwamun with an axe."
"Of course not, but..."
I stopped talking to the gate guard at Gwanghwamun and ordered the slave to lay out the mat.
I placed the axe atop it.
Yi Bang-won might kill me for opposing the currency.
He and King Sejong were the sort to stake their lives pushing the policy exactly as planned, looking centuries ahead.
I could well be removed.
Yet even if I died, I didn't want regrets. That's how I felt.
"Your Highness, making coins legal tender now will ruin Joseon! Have mercy!"
The gate guard's face turned ashen white at my words.
Even an ignorant fellow like him would know what opposing currency meant.
"Hear my memorial, I beg! If not, strike off my head with this axe!"