Chapter 65
Chapter 65
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 65
Chapter Title: Even Pirates Have Their Uses (2)
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In Ming China, there's a saying: "Mongols and Jurchens ravage the north, while wokou pirates plunder the south."
It's much the same situation here in Joseon.
The Jurchens plague us up north, and the wokou down south—it's a daily headache that never lets up.
"We really need to do something about these Japanese bastards. But what?"
The core of the Room Tax system is waterborne transport.
Among that, shipping rice and local specialties collected through the Room Tax by sea is absolutely crucial.
If Joseon can't secure maritime control, the court's tax revenue could drop by as much as thirty percent.
And given Joseon's terrain, surrounded by mountains that make overland transport a nightmare, commercial development would grind to a painfully slow halt.
That would throw a wrench into my goal of ensuring a comfortable life for all the common people of Joseon.
No matter what it takes, I have to find a solution and wipe out these wokou once and for all.
"Part of me wants to suggest another invasion of Tsushima... Nah. Even if we went to war, it wouldn't make much difference."
Right after Joseon's founding, to keep the wokou at bay, we launched two major campaigns against Tsushima.
In the process, we forced the lord of Tsushima into unconditional surrender and successfully impressed upon the Ashikaga shogunate just how terrifying Joseon could be.
But the Ashikaga shogun, unlike the later Tokugawa, had no real power to control the local warlords.
Just head over there, and you'd see massive clans like the Shoni, Otomo, Hosokawa, and Yamana constantly at each other's throats.
It's been like that even before the Onin War—Japan in this era is utterly insane.
With the whole country one spark away from civil war at any moment, controlling whether wokou show up or not is basically impossible.
Besides, Tsushima is just one of the wokou strongholds, and at this time, its lord is more like the poster child for hereditary local clans—he has zero power to rein in his subordinates even if they're out pirating.
If anything, given how impoverished Tsushima is, he'd probably encourage them, saying something like, "Just don't get caught."
So pouring resources into another Tsushima invasion just to scare them off temporarily is pointless.
Repeating something like that for the fleeting benefit of calming the people's fears wouldn't achieve much.
I need a more fundamental solution.
"What should I do?"
I racked my brains for a while but came up empty, when Minister of Defense Jo Mal-saeng approached me.
"Kim Jeong-rang, what do you think we should do about these wokou scum? Speak freely."
After my stint as a secret royal inspector, I'd been promoted to junior rank 5.
If the Japanese hadn't caused all that chaos, I'd probably be working as a Room Tax clerk in the Ministry of Finance by now...
But right before the Office of Censors could review my appointment, the Japanese invaded...
Because of that, the consensus shifted to sending me to the Ministry of Defense instead, landing me here as a Defense clerk.
"With my meager talents, it's hard to find a clear answer to this."
Jo Mal-saeng let out a deep sigh.
"Well, even if you had brilliant insight and profound wisdom, these are the same bastards who've tormented us since the Goryeo era. Figuring out how to deal with them isn't easy."
"I'm sorry, my lord."
"It's not your fault to apologize for. I was just curious if you, who laid the foundation for the Room Tax system, might already have some secret solution for the wokou."
"I'll keep searching for a resolution while handling my duties here and even after leaving the office."
"I'll put my faith in you alone, Kim Jeong-rang. If you handle this well..."
A wicked grin spread across Jo Mal-saeng's face.
The kind of smile you'd expect right before pocketing a million yang in bribes.
What the hell is this guy planning to say to me that has him grinning like that?
"I'll use my influence to pull you up to senior rank within fifteen—no, ten years. So in return, wherever I go—Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Personnel—you come with me and work under me."
Jo Mal-saeng's scheming intentions were plain as day.
He'd volunteer for all the tough jobs to boost his career, while dumping all the actual work on his subordinate—me.
How ruthless and selfish can you get?
Shoving his responsibilities onto a subordinate so he can just skim the rewards.
Just like you'd expect from a guy who nearly got hanged for corruption alone, unlike Prime Minister Hwang Hui.
"If you help me, I'll unconditionally support whatever policies you're pushing, no matter what."
Here's the funny part: his absurd proposal wasn't actually bad for me.
He didn't seem interested in stealing my credit at all—he just wanted compensation for promoting me.
"Ahem, it's a bit awkward saying this, but you're so impeccably honest, Kim Jeong-rang, you probably suck at the dirty political games. I'll cover that for you. I can even show you right now. Isn't there some punk in the Office of Censors submitting memorials whining that it's wrong for your lover's father to get an official post? I can have him fired in a snap."
For reference, that censor's post is a lowly junior rank 6 nobody.
Rumor has it even the Chief Censor chewed him out for strutting around, warning him not to splash shit on the whole office.
In other words, Jo Mal-saeng was offering to do something trivially easy for him while acting like it was a huge favor.
The moment that clicked, a brilliant idea I'd never considered before popped into my head.
'The reason these Japanese bastards are such a huge problem is because they're preying on Joseon, right?'
"I appreciate your lordship's heartfelt and warm words, but my next post will be decided by His Highness, so I can't give a firm answer."
"......Disappointing."
"However, I can create an opportunity for you to claim a great achievement."
The reason the Tsushima folk—no, the wokou—plundered Joseon is simple.
They had no other way to survive.
It's telling that in 1432—about six years from now—the lord of Tsushima and his overlord, the head of the Shoni clan, turned to "livelihood piracy" just to eat.
"As expected of you, Kim Jeong-rang. So, what's this solution?"
I leaned in and whispered just a tiny piece of the plan to Jo Mal-saeng.
I skipped anything a Joseon native of this era wouldn't know—like the Shoni clan's ties to the So clan of Tsushima, the island's tangled politics, or the Ashikaga shogunate's laughably weak internal control.
I simply explained a basic piece of wisdom: even a hated child won't touch the person who feeds him rice cakes.
Jo Mal-saeng started out laughing, but by the end, his face had gone pale.
What I'd told him was borrowed wisdom from a certain country that peddled opium as a cure-all—so it must have been a bitter pill for an official of a Confucian state like Joseon.
Even so, he didn't tell me such villainy was wrong and that I absolutely shouldn't do it.
Instead, he pushed me forward.
"You want to interrogate these vile pirates yourself? No choice then. It's normally not allowed, but I'll make a special exception with my authority."
"Thank you, my lord."
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The captured wokou were still full of fight, not having been tortured yet.
And strangely enough, the Japanese they spoke was crystal clear in my ears.
I'd studied Japanese pretty deeply back in modern Korea, but I figured medieval Japanese would be totally different and we wouldn't understand each other at all. Weird how it works out.
"We're just lowly pirates, but did you think we'd fear bookworms like you Joseon nerds?"
"Go ahead, kill us if you dare!"
They shouted bravely, but the tremor in their voices gave away how terrified they were of the torture ahead.
Well, tied tight to chairs, what could they do? They'd just have to take whatever we dished out.
"Kim Hundo."
"Yes, Clerk, my lord."
"From now on, no matter what I say, don't react—just translate exactly as I speak, no additions or omissions. Think of yourself as my brush. Just relay my words calmly."
In the Foreign Ministry, officials sometimes do interpreting at international events.
I once chatted with someone who'd done protocol interpreting at one, and he told me this:
An interpreter is just a microphone.
Relay exactly what you hear, nothing more.
Even if the speaker says something outrageous no one should utter—you transmit it verbatim.
Even if a high-ranking official makes a massive gaffe that could spark a diplomatic disaster harmful to national interests, and it's obvious.
But in Joseon, they don't demand this kind of precise interpreting from translators, so 'information transmission' often falls short, or so I hear.
That's why I warned the interpreter first before opening with my first line.
"If you want to live, confess honestly why you pirates raided Joseon."
If I get the info I want straight from their mouths and then use these bastards based on that?
It'd be like eating the pheasant and the egg both.