Chapter 57
Chapter 57
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 57
Chapter Title: Secret Royal Inspector Kim Dae-bung (7)
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A secret royal inspector and work-life balance just don't go together under normal circumstances.
That's because there's simply way too much work to do.
In my current situation, I have to handle all the lawsuits pouring into Anseong County in place of the county magistrate I sent off to Hanyang, manage the administrative duties, and inspect whether the magistrate and his clerks committed any illegal acts or falsified documents.
On top of that, I have to personally oversee and manage the land surveys under the Square Field Law...
"There's no end to this work."
But all of this is for the sake of the ancestral temple, the state altar, and the people living in Joseon.
If I endure just a little hardship, I can give hope to thousands, even tens of thousands of people. I can't half-ass the job just because it's tough for me.
It's like how a surgeon's hand trembling even 0.1 cm during an operation can kill a patient instantly or leave them with permanent damage they'll never recover from.
A single minor mistake by Secret Royal Inspector Kim Dae-bung could plunge one family—no, countless people—into ruin.
The most infamous example of an administrative failure that led to pointless deaths among the people was the currency policy pushed by Iron Fist King Yi Bang-won and King Sejong the Great.
"Inspector, sir."
"Oh, Yi Bang? Yes, how's the land survey going?"
"Of course, sir. As you instructed, we've divided the areas into 18 myun and 282 chon, then split each chon into 64 sections for the measurements."
"Well done."
The Square Field Law starts by dividing all inhabited land into grids and assigning addresses.
Next, it measures the area of every type of land at those addresses and records it in the ledgers.
The most important paddy fields are noted precisely: 1 kyeol if it's 1 kyeol, 30 du-rak if it's 30 du-rak, while subtracting areas taken up by roads, mountains, and so on.
Once all the fields are surveyed this way, the ledger reads something like this:
Anseong County, Samjuk-myeon, Jukbang-chon, Section 12: Owned by Kim Dae-bung, paddy fields 3 kyeol 20 du-rak.
In this Square Field system, dividing the land into grids is the most crucial foundation, so it absolutely cannot be neglected.
"So, how far along are we?"
"Hemcheon-chon, Gari-chon, Sipjang-chon, and five others—eight villages in total have been completed."
"......That's a bit slow."
The greatest strength of the Square Field Law is its ability to uncover every last bit of hidden land that people deliberately omitted from the registers to evade taxes.
Another major advantage is the speed of the surveys. Records show it took two months to survey three counties in Hwanghae Province.
Yet here, a full week after I arrived as secret inspector, and they've only done eight villages...
"Yi Bang, you're not slacking off, are you?"
"No, sir. Absolutely not..."
"Then why is the progress this sluggish? I can only assume it's not being done properly. If you can't give me a good reason, I'll have no choice but to harshly punish you and all the clerks from the six offices."
Anseong's county magistrate, Yi Seok-do, has been rotting in a Hanyang prison for a while now, just waiting for his execution day.
The silver lining is that he's not charged with treason, so his family won't be exterminated, his assets won't be confiscated, and his children won't be barred from the civil service exams or anything like that.
Here's the key point.
Can the clerks involved in such a horrific scandal—where a high-ranking yangban official up to junior rank 4 was sentenced to flogging—possibly survive unscathed? Of course not.
Yi Bang and the other six-office clerks will be summoned to Hanyang for flogging, and even the low-level ones could end up exiled (with a standard set of 100 cane strokes) if they're unlucky, or at best fired and forced to disgorge every bit of embezzled wealth.
In other words, the life or death of every clerk in the Anseong county office is entirely in my hands.
"Magistrate, sir, the problem is that the villagers don't look kindly on the Square Field Law. We're not getting much cooperation from them, which is slowing things down."
The key to implementing the Square Field Law is getting voluntary cooperation from the people.
They need to tell us whose fields are where, where the fields end and the woodlands begin, to help with the surveys...
If that doesn't happen, and we have to rely only on clerks, constables, and public slaves, it's bound to drag on.
No matter how corrupt these guys are, if the people hassle them with nonsense, administrative efficiency tanks.
At this rate, I need to meet directly with the local yangban and hash it out.
"For now, show me the sorted paddy field records for Hemcheon-chon."
"Yes, sir."
I took the newly compiled land ledger from Yi Bang and checked it over. It immediately became clear why the yangban were opposing it.
From my rough patrol earlier, Hemcheon-chon's total paddy fields came to about 10 kyeol combined. But after the Square Field resurvey, it jumped to around 25 kyeol.
That means taxes on the same land increased 2.5 times. And naturally, this burden would fall squarely on the yangban who own the most land.
Common sense says collect more tax from those with more land, but the rich instinctively hate paying more, so they're resisting for that reason.
I can understand their feelings. Understanding doesn't mean forgiving, though.
"Is this properly compiled?"
"Yes, it is."
"One last question, Yi Bang. If you want to survive after this land survey ends, you should grab all your assets and flee as soon as possible. Because those furious yangban won't let you live."
"......"
"But if you slack off and side with them, you'll end up following Yi Seok-do. Your entire family's assets will be confiscated. It's a choice you have to make for yourself and your loved ones."
Even if I torment the yangban of this county to death, they can't do much real harm to me. At worst, they'll file a petition complaining about my harsh governance.
And that petition will get a reply from King Sejong or Yi Bang-won like, "Got it. Don't waste paper and ink on useless petitions like this again."
But the lowly clerks are a different story.
If the yangban set their minds to it, feeding these guys to the tigers would be easier than eating cold porridge. Can they really survive?
"Inspector, sir, I swear it's true."
Truth be told, I'd love to take charge of the surveys myself. But reality doesn't allow it.
There's a mountain of work, and I don't have the time to go village by village directing measurements.
I'm not the Anseong county magistrate, after all. I'm a secret royal inspector who has to roam various counties inspecting.
"I'll trust you on that. And a good chunk of the current lawsuits in town are from yangban in those eight villages."
With that, I looked around.
I've been working like I did back at the Ministry of Economy and Finance, pulling some overtime but only about an hour, so I'm fine.
But Kim Man-deok, who came along to help me, and everyone else—they're all completely wiped out.
If I push them any harder, they'll drop dead.
At this rate, it'll look like I'm the one who worked my future son-in-law's father to death.
"Gyeol, my dear, your father-in-law is loyally serving the nation right now. Just watch over me."
Seeing him search for Gyeol even though she's nowhere in sight, I realized it's time to really let him sleep it off and give him a full day of rest.
Some evil corporate chairman insists that making employees work until quitting time on weekends and until 10 or 11 p.m. on weekdays is the only way to get real efficiency...
But even before ethics come into play, overworking people like that just tanks productivity anyway.
"Man-deok, and the rest of you—head out now and don't come back until the day after tomorrow."
Kim Man-deok bowed to me at once, then led the group out like they were flying. He must have been exhausted.
"Yi Bang, wrap up any urgent tasks and get off early today too. And pass the word to the village heads of the 30 farm villages near town. Tell them to come to the county office three days from now."
"The village heads, sir?"
"That's right."
There's only one reason they're rejecting the Square Field Law.
Taxes are going to skyrocket. And that's not entirely wrong.
Once the Square Field Law catches all the hidden land rented out to tenant farmers, those taxes will pass straight to the yangban and commoners.
Of course they'd resist.
But for the eternal glory, freedom, and prosperity of Joseon and its people, tax evasion cannot be tolerated.
"Inspector, sir, you don't plan to explain what the Square Field Law is to the villagers, do you?"
"No intention of that."
It's impossible to make Joseon's illiterate commoners grasp the complex principles of the Square Field Law.
So instead of making them understand it, I plan to explain why it's necessary.
It's like washing your hands: great if you know exactly which germs die and how, but just knowing it kills germs and drastically cuts your odds of getting sick is enough to live by.
I'll simply tell them that without proper implementation of the Square Field Law, the Commutation Law will be scrapped, forcing a return to the old massive tax burdens.
"I'll make it clear and simple: if the Square Field Law isn't properly introduced, the Commutation Law gets abolished, and we'll be back to paying those enormous old taxes."