The Rising Tide (2)
It was only a half day’s walk from the Imjin River to Kaesong, and that was more than enough time.
If there’d been cars, it would have been too short to even call a drive. Taesu, being Korean, was stunned to learn that Kaesong had once been this close.
There was no Kaesong Industrial Complex, of course, but in its place stood scenery you’d never see in the twenty-first century.
After passing the ruins of the old wall that would have been the equivalent of Seoul’s Hanyang Fortress, Kaesong’s inner citadel came into view.
It was a UNESCO World Heritage site preserved exactly as it had been, never having suffered through Japanese colonial rule or war. Even Namdaemun, its gate, did not stand there forlornly as nothing but an orphaned door the way it did in the modern age; it was properly embedded in a full stretch of wall.
Rather than marvel at that priceless historical blessing, Taesu glared viciously at Namdaemun.
The Mountain Spirit looked taken aback.
[What now, are you planning to fight the soldiers of Songryu, the Kaesong magistrate?]
As if. No matter how much Joseon had declined, Kaesong was still the kind of city that could “summon seven thousand soldiers in the morning and send them marching by evening.”
The one who cut to the heart of the matter was Cha Un-hong. She burst out laughing.
“You’re worried I’ll try to demand tolls like at the Imjin River, aren’t you? Don’t worry. We’re not going in.”
Taesu noted that she had not said anything about not shaking him down for money, and asked, “We’re not going in?”
“Our house is outside the walls.”
“You’re rich, but you live outside the city?”
Taesu tilted his head, but in Joseon, being rich did not mean you had to live inside the walls. Just because someone was a bourgeois did not make them a noble.
“Inside those walls there’s nothing much besides government offices and a few temples that have been around since Goryeo. The land’s cramped, and whenever they decide to borrow the scenery of Manwoldae and turn it into a test site for an examination, they drag people off to work and tear up the ground. There’s no reason to live inside the inner city if you don’t have to.”
Ever since the reign of Sukjong, when Joseon’s defense strategy was decided as an absolute stand on the Bukhan Fortress line, official processions and military examinations in Kaesong had become more and more frequent.
The court had come up with various schemes to reduce the burden, like rotating labor duties and the like. But all that amounted to was, “This hurts if they hit you on the head three times, so let’s help by hitting your head, chest, and stomach instead.”
That sort of thing had become difficult after the great famine under King Sunjo and the Hong Gyeong-rae Rebellion, but the current monarch, Yi Hwan, was an ambitious king.
In truth, Cha Un-hong’s words were about the current madness of the Total Military Command, which kept holding the world’s greatest martial arts tournament in Kaesong. Like all dueling contests, it caused plenty of trouble here too.
Taesu’s impression of the Joseon military had already hit rock bottom from his experience at the Imjin River, and he looked equally displeased. Cha Un-hong smoothly turned his feet away before anything else could go wrong.
“If you’ve finished sightseeing, let’s go. The sun will set soon.”
* * *
Once we entered the main gate, Cha Un-hong casually turned her head and called out to someone.
“Butler Gong. We have a guest from the master of the house.”
The middle-aged man called Butler Gong answered with equal ease.
“A peddler, are you? Go over there to the servants’ quarters, take off your bundle and rest your feet for a moment. You, go with Jappyeon over there and report to the master.”
Cha Un-hong scampered off just like an errand boy.
I didn’t know much about Joseon society.
But I knew enough not to blurt out something like, “Aren’t you the homeowner?” in a situation like this. So I kept my mouth shut.
So the outwardly male adult Cha Un-hong existed separately after all.
[Well… if she were a widow, perhaps, but if an unmarried girl had this kind of wealth, every relative, neighbor, and government office would rush in to tear into her. If she’s unlucky, they’d force her into marriage with some dissolute wastrel and strip her of everything.]
It was a lot like a minor in Korea being unable to exercise property rights.
Some of my old classmates who had no parents and drifted onto the dark path early got into trouble for that reason. It was hard to get help from civic groups.
So in those cases, there were times when the so-called “brotherly connections” set up fake guardians using identities bought from homeless people.
Cha Un-hong seemed to have made something similar: a fake master of the house. Not for subsidy fraud or mule-bank-account scams the way they’d do in Korea, but still.
And if her family was going along with such an obviously fragile performance…
[Most likely Cha Un-hong’s father and ancestors rendered some great service. That is why the underlings serve the descendants with sincere loyalty.]
Then it should have been her father’s name that was famous, not Cha Un-hong’s. There may have been inherited wealth, but the fact that it had grown this large now was probably due to Cha Un-hong herself. Better to assume people were following her because they trusted her ability.
Of course, judging by Cha Un-hong’s age, she couldn’t have inherited the household more than three or four years ago at most. Even if she’d been an adult man, it still would have been impossible by normal means.
Dressing as a man and coming out in public, talking about changing the country—she was the sort of woman who liked gambling. The reason she’d succeeded so far was probably that her head worked incredibly fast.
So was I supposed to pretend not to know and go along with her?
[If you were going to do that, why did you bring her along? You’re going to meet her anyway. It’s not as if the secret’s still intact. It’s late today… someone will probably come fetch you tomorrow morning.]
Just as he said, after I was guided to the servants’ quarters, I took off my pack and massaged my shoulders.
It’s a lot more spacious than Won-beom’s inner room. Maybe there’s a separate bath too? I’d like to wash up a bit.
But then I heard a cough from outside.
“The master requests your presence.”
Looking out, I saw that same Butler Gong from earlier.
“Now?”
“Now.”
It was absurd that I was being made to do this to a Joseon native, but all I could do was glance up at the sky.
The sun had already gone down. And now he was calling for a man at this hour? Even the Mountain Spirit was deeply appalled by the corruption of morals.
[I think the fellow has gone mad! Come, let us go at once!]
You seem awfully pleased about that.
* * *
Whatever the Mountain Spirit expected, Cha Un-hong could not meet Taesu during the daytime.
The talk Taesu and she had been having about Western trade was the sort of thing that, at Kim Dae-geon’s level, would count as a secret conspiracy. Once morning came and the guests of Cha Un-hong’s trading house began coming and going, it would no longer be possible to talk freely.
Still, even taking that into account, Cha Un-hong’s boldness was impressive.
And her true appearance was impressive too.
As always, the Mountain Spirit sounded like a man who had no intention of transcending the troubles of the mortal world.
[She’s dressed in silk and all dolled up—completely different from before. I have never seen a beauty like this in a hundred years.]
Taesu had never seen one either. Considering the difference in administrative preservation between modern times and Joseon, the Mountain Spirit’s hundred years meant less to Taesu than his own thirty.
[Be honest with me. You regret it, don’t you? You should’ve done something about it at the Imjin River, shouldn’t you?]
Taesu barely managed to pull himself together. He couldn’t sink to the same level as the Mountain Spirit.
“Judging by the fact that you called me out at night, you must have something urgent to discuss. What is it?”
“My, why has your manner of speaking changed all of a sudden?”
“You’re not my fellow member of the Bobusang Dongmongcheong anymore. Isn’t that why you changed clothes and came out?”
“I didn’t mean it like that…”
Cha Un-hong gave an oddly awkward smile.
“When you’re with me, I’m a peddler too. Please speak to me the way you did when we first met. And I’d like you to keep playing the itinerant trader for a while as well.”
“Why?”
“When the Westerners come here in the future, someone will need to lead them around and show them things. As you can see, it’s troublesome for me to come and go, and using my underlings would still be dangerous. And besides…”
Cha Un-hong lowered her voice even further.
“You’ll need to visit ‘that gentleman’ in Ganghwado from time to time as well, won’t you? You said clearly that he’s been studying hard, didn’t you? If he truly has such grand ambitions, then half the work is already done.”
That was where Taesu proved his worth as a partner, in a way Kim Dae-geon could never compare to. Cha Un-hong was close to Yi Won-beom, whom she had chosen as the monarch for the coming age of an open Joseon.
And yet that was exactly why Taesu felt guilty.
Yi Won-beom’s resolve to study was something Taesu had seen with his own eyes, so it wasn’t a lie.
But if you went to the gym around January 3rd, you’d find plenty of people more firmly resolved than Yi Won-beom. Well, at least until about January 10th.
By now, Taesu would bet anything that Yi Won-beom was tossing aside his books and wandering off to meet a lover.
But perhaps because of some sort of royal aura effect, Cha Un-hong seemed to believe his resolve would be forged into steel.
Or maybe it was the Taesu effect.
“If a man like you, who has such foresight about the future, is supporting him, then I’m sure you can see his extraordinary nature too. Just visit from time to time and tell me only that there are men of resolve there.”
[That woman truly has no eye for people.]
Taesu had long since learned that arguing with the Mountain Spirit only caused losses. He pretended not to hear a thing and fell into thought.
Cha Un-hong showed as much sincerity as she could.
If she’d wanted to, she could have used the fact that Taesu was a mass murderer at their first meeting to threaten him.
Instead, Cha Un-hong went ahead and revealed her own weakness first: her plans to communicate with foreigners.
She had also put a weapon into Taesu’s hands, and done so fairly.
That was very different from the people Taesu had met all his life, the ones who fought only inside a ring of rules they themselves had set and called that “fair.”
Compared to that kind of sincerity, whether someone was a rebel or not really wasn’t such an important matter.
“Fine.”
Though he’d probably be annoyed to hear it, Yi Won-beom had not had much influence on this decision.
Neither Taesu nor Cha Un-hong thought Yi Won-beom truly had kingly talent.
Taesu only knew him because he was the closest thing he had to a friend, and Cha Un-hong only found him more suitable than Yi Hwan as the king she needed.
Even Kim Jwa-geun, the power broker in Seoul whose status was far above either of theirs, was considering much the same thing.
But if all the people under heaven wanted it this way, then that too was a fine qualification for a sovereign.
* * *
The two halves of the silver candlestick Taesu had given Kim Dae-geon obviously couldn’t be used as a candlestick anymore.
Still, if you set a small saucer on top and poured in oil, it made a passable little lamp stand.
Because the fish oil was relatively cheap, being from Ganghwado, the smell was a bit much, but otherwise Yi Won-beom’s current appearance was the very emblem of studying by day and reading by night.
“You can take the command of an army away from its general, but you can’t take away a common man’s will” — The Analects.
The great power of a general in command of the Three Armies belonged not to himself, but to the soldiers; will, however, belonged wholly to the self. Yi Won-beom pondered that deeply.
Then his older brother Yi Uk came in, looking worried in the way of a man soon to be married.
“Did you hear? Everyone’s making a fuss that Kim Jwa-geun’s son will soon be coming to Dondeungsa to study.”
Yi Won-beom, who had become strangely dignified in just a few days—reading is important—answered, “A scholar lodging at a temple to study isn’t such an extraordinary matter.”
“That’s true enough, but do you think that’s his own intention alone? He’ll stop by the magistrate’s office too and meet the local notables, and all of them will be Kim Jwa-geun’s eyes.”
“I see. It would be a headache indeed to host him properly.”
“Do you need to say it? They’ve been hauling in soldiers under the pretense of collecting rice and meat, and the marketplace looks like a battlefield. Even if an inspector came, he wouldn’t have shown such zeal.”
If the atmosphere was that grim, then the Yi Won-beom household, which had previously been left alone more or less casually, was about to get far stricter.
“Soldiers have come to the house again today under some excuse about the law and order. It’s one thing to send them off with a sack of beans, but it’s happened day after day. So I’m asking—could you sell that silver candlestick?”
That was the real purpose of his visit. Yi Won-beom shook his head.
“This is something I vowed to keep for my studies. Didn’t you say the first time that gentleman came that even if one’s life will never amount to much, one must at least keep one’s integrity?”
“Hah. I only said it because I was frustrated. If that fellow were here now…”
It was impossible to tell whether he meant the money Taesu had been earning, or Taesu’s fists to beat the soldiers with.
Either way, it was pointless whining now.
After Yi Uk left, Yi Won-beom looked back down at the passage he had been reading.
Beside the Analects lay a manuscript copy of the Analects Ancient and Modern Annotated, the commentary by Jeong Yak-yong, a scholar who might be called the most “modern” of Confucian thinkers.
According to it, being unable to have one’s will taken away meant that wealth and rank could not corrupt the heart, poverty and lowliness could not move one’s integrity, and no force or violence could ever subdue it.
Yi Won-beom knew one such person.
With powerful will, he smashed apart everything that tried to oppress him. Judging from how Oh Bong-gil, who survived only because he happened to be laid up, fled away white-faced, Taesu had done something more than simply punch him.
These days, Yi Won-beom had also been meeting Bong-i less often.
Bong-i was sad, but neither wealth nor poverty nor swords and spears should be enough to break a man’s will; that same will could not be seduced by women’s charms.
If it was that “older brother” he knew, then no beauty would ever have received so much as a sidelong glance.
* * *
By the time Taesu had gone over the day’s immediate business with Cha Un-hong, the moon was already hanging low in the sky.
“I should probably get moving now. Is it all right if I impose on you for tonight?”
“Stay a few days if you like.”
He had no intention of doing that. If I settle in at a place that has never hosted a guest before, I’ll draw attention, and anyone who draws attention has a very hard time keeping secrets.
Even if Cha Un-hong’s compound were not as closed off as it was, I was already planning to arrange a separate place for myself in Kaesong.
I’m here to coordinate and do business with Cha Un-hong, not become her subordinate.
If I don’t build my own base, I’ll get swallowed up. Whenever friends go into business together, that’s almost always how it ends.
So I need at least one stronghold outside Cha Un-hong’s line of sight. It’s not like I don’t have enough money to buy a house, so there’s no reason to stay here.
“Thanks, but I already have some business plans of my own.”
I had already worked it out in my head enough to answer if Cha Un-hong asked what kind of business. She might even invest.
But instead of asking about my business plan, Cha Un-hong only looked at me for a moment and then brought up something unexpected.
“Come to think of it, do you know the cherished custom of peddlers?”
“What is it?”
“Bobusang and peddlers are usually people wandering without parents, siblings, or hometowns, so they treat one another like family. They follow the etiquette of cousins and never forget one another, no matter how far apart they may be.”
So this is the “we’re not strangers, are we?” prelude to asking for money, then.
Cha Un-hong said to my suddenly tense self, “That’s why when peddlers who’ve formed a good bond part ways, they exchange clothes so they’ll always remember each other even when apart. That custom is called hwanui, changing clothes.”
And then she pointed at my chest.
Under my jacket were my hoodie and T-shirt.
So, she wanted me to take these off?
And she was going to take hers off too?
Author’s Note
1. The claim that seven thousand soldiers could be mobilized at any time was made by Oh Han-won, the magistrate of Kaesong, some twenty years before the present story, during King Sunjo’s reign. The problem was that the context back then was, “We don’t have the budget for a city this big.”