When the Axe Has Already Been Laid to the Roots of the Tree (2)
This case was a nightmare in every sense of the word—nightmare in its complexity, nightmare in its gravity.
Dreams, after all, are not supposed to have any coherent story.
Because they are nothing more than random information replayed by the brain, events in a dream have no order, no logic, no before or after.
That is one reason dreams are so hard to remember as they were. A dream, which cannot be converted into the currency of logic, does not fit well with the memory centers accustomed to causality.
But with a little self-deception and a knack for storytelling, perhaps it could be done.
Anyone who has ever tried knows that a dream notebook—the kind mostly filled in by what one invents after waking—is made that way.
The hand holding the pen over this dream notebook called “The Eulmi Western Disturbance” was Heungseon-gun Yi Ha-eung.
It was hardly unnatural.
The military officials were either dead, like O Chi-hyeon, or in a state worse than death, like Yi Hee-jang. Within a radius of a thousand li, there was not a single person whose rank alone stood above Heungseon-gun Yi Ha-eung.
Of course, that was only rank. Just as Kim Jwa-geun was more powerful than the king, rank and power were different things, and Yi Ha-eung had no actual authority to report to the court.
But he did have the authority to “meet with those who reported.”
And so the court was fortunate enough to face a “sorted-out nightmare.”
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First came the testimony of Yi Hee-jang, the Jeolla naval commander who had been ordered taken into custody as a defeated commander.
Shamefully, I was caught by Yangchu’s scheme and scattered the fleet to ruin…… I intended to kill myself on the spot, but could not do as I wished, and was dragged from Mokpo to Gangjin…… The English barbarians threatened to execute me themselves if I did not provide food, but I, instead, rebuked them loudly, whereupon the barbarians were frightened and withdrew.
……
Then battle broke out, and I, taking advantage of the moment when the enemy rushed the main camp of the military commissioner, resolved to die and charged the barbarians, snatched a sword, and cut down three men…… Yet, being outnumbered, I was exhausted, when a strong man leapt aboard the ship, hacked Yangchu down at will, and rescued me. His name was said to be Park Ga, a peddler from Ganghwado.
Then came the emergency report from the Jeolla naval station, submitted by the vice-commander and the other subordinates after losing their military commissioner.
Originally, in accordance with the court’s command, we were purchasing grain to aid the English ship, but the merchants of the river market hoarded it and drove up the price, just as in the late king’s Gyeongsul year incident.
The naval station did not spare its money, yet the bastard Kim Deuk-seong, a merchant of the river market, accepted payment and then gave nothing to the Englishmen, thereby creating a dispute between the two countries’ people.
……
At that point, a peddler named Park Ga, who had come from Ganghwado to trade, said that on his way he had discovered another foreign ship at Geokpo and, fearing it might bring harm to the country, had gathered righteous volunteers, seized their guns and blades, and thrown them into the sea; thus he again stepped forward to raise volunteers.
……
When the cowardly Yangchu suddenly brandished a gun and killed the military commissioner, the soldiers of the naval station also rallied. Leading Park Ga’s companions, the peddlers of the naval station, and the Chungcheong naval forces sent by His Majesty’s enlightened foresight—the fleet of Im In-son—they fought with all their strength, and Yangchu was fully suppressed.
Thirty-eight heads were severed and taken, and the remaining spoils are listed separately. The English ship they brought has been temporarily attached to the Chungcheong naval station.
……
Still, how could this be to boast of merit? By law, when the commander dies, the deputy is to be beheaded, so we merely bind our hands and await punishment.
And then there was the memorial from the Confucian scholar Park Cheon-ik of Gangjin, the father of Park Jae-bin.
This affair is truly the maneuvering of the river-market merchants. Park Ga of Ganghwado came to trade and exchanged many goods with us, among them provisions originally meant, according to the court’s orders, to aid the English ship and supplement the naval station’s supplies; these are recorded in the books of the naval merchants.
……
But after the merchants of the river market overawed Park Ga with their power, took the goods away saying they themselves would provide them, and then gave not a single thing in fact, this calamity occurred. How could they have deceived those above, oppressed those below, and lost the goodwill of foreigners to such a degree?
……
We hear that Park Ga also raised righteous volunteers in Ganghwado. That he spared not his life for the country three times over—at Ganghwado, Geokpo, and Gangjin—is something even a foolish commoner must admit was a singular talent bestowed upon our royal house by Heaven.
Heungseon-gun Yi Ha-eung had sealed off dream and reality, truth and falsehood, and crafted his dream notebook into something easy to understand.
Everything had been neatly arranged.
In the end, the Gyeonggang merchants were the villains. Their business, as always, was nothing but to meddle with rice.
But Kim Deuk-seong was already dead, so what was there to do?
The Gangsang guild promptly cut him loose. The court grandees, who could no longer press the river merchants any further, also closed the matter under “no right of prosecution.”
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As for the Englishmen, the greater villains of all—here, the wisdom of the would-be monarch Yi Hwan, who steadfastly maintained a policy of financial self-strengthening, shone brightest.
“As I consider the matter carefully, the ship called Samarang at Geokpo was not an English vessel. According to the inquiry made in Buan County, there was not a single English flag aboard. And did they not say themselves that they were subjects of the country called the United States of America?”
In fact, Colonel Belcher had said exactly that.
The captain of the Samarang, Belcher, had received contact from Taesu immediately after the battle.
This was Cha Un-hong’s idea, not Yi Ha-eung’s.
I’ll see that it reaches them somehow. We need to hold one rein in our own hands, too. You’re the only one who can do it.
Saying that only Taesu could do it was true enough. The Mountain Spirit snickered.
[You shall at last be freed from the long suffering of illiteracy.]
“Shut up. No, wait—come to think of it, wouldn’t there be a Chinese interpreter aboard the Samarang too?”
[Would that not be disastrous if anyone happened to see it? By now, government ships are probably already swarming around Geokpo.]
That much was true.
The warships under Uisuyeong, summoned at the call of O Chi-hyeon—the man who answered to no jurisdiction—had rushed to Gangjin and paid for it in blood.
So the Buan magistrate had no choice but to assemble a golden fleet, and many of the Geokpo fishermen mobilized for it belonged to the “Geokpo Cha Un-hong Songbang.”
Taesu’s letter was delivered to Colonel Belcher.
HMS Royalist was engaging in piracy at Gangjin and has been shot down to the last man. Let us agree to describe the Samarang as unrelated.
Colonel Belcher agreed enthusiastically.
Because, in truth, it had nothing to do with him. What a lifelong blunder it had been to recommend and bring in a captain who looked like some damned Irishman.
It was not just because of Taesu’s misunderstanding of his status or because of Belcher’s own ambitions.
If the home government were to judge this a military defeat, the first man to stand before a court-martial would be Colonel Belcher. Who else would bear responsibility for the destruction of a convoy under his command?
Colonel Belcher proved his worth as a fitting partner for Her Majesty’s 007.
Before the Buan magistrate who came to investigate, a desperate reinvention of nationality was set in motion.
We are a scientific expedition from the country called America…… ah, I should clarify, we are not slave traders……. What? You say someone called Ogle wrote in a letter sent by hostage that the Samarang was an English ship? That is a false accusation. We were attacked by that very man and ended up like this.
The second verse may be difficult, but nonsense comes easily. To add a veneer of truth to his words, Colonel Belcher kept layering on empty promises.
The conflict is regrettable, but now that things have come to this, I can arrange reconciliation and trade with Britain. The United States shares the same roots, for Britain was the country that first spread civilization to create it. Do we not even speak the same language? What? What is this Giza you mention? Does Joseon also know of Egypt?
This had quite an effect. Not that it affected Joseon’s historical scholarship.
Just as Yi Ha-eung expected, Yi Hwan did not want to see relations with either Britain or France severed completely.
And people believe only what they wish to believe.
The king’s clear judgment had already pierced through even the hidden side of the affair.
How could Park Axe have appeared in Geokpo and Gangjin in succession by coincidence?
This was undoubtedly that smuggling operation he had tacitly allowed—the distribution route for that new medicine that turned the impossible into the possible.
Trade and open ports were a little too presumptuous for his liking, so he would decline those, but guns and medicine were absolutely necessary.
Thus the king’s verdict, based on the principle of presumption of innocence, was merciful.
“That man, Colonel Belcher, merely retied his sash beneath a plum tree. Do not kill or torment him carelessly; see that he is well aided and sent away.”
And to the extraordinary peddler whom Heungseon-gun Yi Ha-eung had mentioned more than once, the king ordered a reward to be granted in a way no one would see.
“From Park Cheon-ik’s memorial, it appears that peddler Park Ga was in the end deceived by the river merchants, was he not? Give him the rice belonging to Kim Deuk-seong, left in the grain warehouse at Gangjin, as compensation. This is the utmost intention by which I look even to the lowest places.”
The national treasury was already stretched thin from being poured into Chongwiyeong, so this was a very fitting transfer of resources. It was also an indirect punishment of the river merchants, whom the king could not confront head-on.
Of course, Yi Hwan had not suddenly decided to drag Park Axe in as a private soldier.
As before, when he had supported Yi Ha-eung’s challenge to the post of Dobansu, there was no reason or intent to try anything beyond indirect methods.
The king, who must wield the righteous path as a weapon against the powerful clans, could not dirty his hands by associating with such base people. So long as Chongwiyeong existed, such irregular means would only invite risk.
From Yi Hwan’s point of view, Park Axe was ultimately nothing more than a destabilizing factor that would have to disappear someday. Unless matters were urgent, why would he tolerate a black-market smuggler who knew about the aphrodisiac?
Above all, the mere fact that he knew about the stimulant was enough reason not to let him live.
Park Axe was merely a man needed until this winter, until he (probably) delivered a son.
This “compensation for fraud” was only a safety measure to keep him from causing trouble until then.
Once a bird has been caught, if the bow is not put away, it will shoot a man.
Once a rabbit has been caught, if the dog is not boiled alive, it will bite its master.
After sweeping away the arrogant scions of the powerful clans, he would deal with the tools whose usefulness had run out, too.
As Yi Hwan steadied his resolve, another memorial read aloud by the chief secretary reached his ears.
It was from that very same “arrogant scion of the powerful clan” he had just been thinking of.
This matter differs from the affair involving the French. When the great English ship came in the late king’s day—when the Lord Amherst entered the harbor—we also made inquiry in China, so it would be right to do the same this time.
That was the gist of it.
Indeed, unlike the Eulhae incident of the persecution of Catholics, where an excuse to China had been awkward, this time the English had simply acted like “the English” out of nowhere. There was nothing to hide.
Besides, the news of victory could also serve the useful side effect of rubbing salt in Qing’s wounds after it had been trampled so thoroughly by that English fleet.
But……
Then the details of this incident would flow into China.
China was not as closed as Joseon. It was simply too vast a country to be sealed shut.
If information were cross-checked through the various open ports and legations, and the supply route for the stimulant were blocked, that would be troublesome. Yi Hwan still had no son.
Moreover, realistically speaking, since Joseon had no power to stand against China, there was no advantage in needlessly provoking it.
The reason Yi Hwan could make a judgment coldly enough to transcend the limitations of a powerless monarch was simple.
It was Kim Jwa-geun’s memorial. What matters is not who speaks, but the content; and in truth, the content matters rather little.
Kim Jwa-geun would surely have meant it as advice for him to go swallow dirt.
I nearly fell for the scheme. That insolent bastard!
Yi Hwan briskly ignored the memorial.
Only Kim Jwa-geun, who had memorialized him while forgetting personal grudges out of fear the king might neglect his duty to report and cause diplomatic friction with Qing, was left stomping in place.
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Colonel Belcher also prepared an explanation for Britain that would fit the facts from start to finish.
The second part of the Voyage of the Samarang recorded an utterly unquestionable log of events.
When the Joseon people came into view, Royalist and Captain Ogle urged that we slaughter them. As a honorable naval officer and commander, I refused, but the captain attacked us and fled. This constituted flight from the battlefield.
……
Because of the sudden ambush, the Samarang suffered damage to her navigation capability and ran aground. Yet, as at Kelpart and Port Hamilton in the past, she was able to survive through trade with the good people of Joseon.
……
And indeed, according to the later notification received from the Joseon government, Captain Ogle was said to have engaged in piracy at a place called Gangjin and been shot dead. I was able to prevent a diplomatic catastrophe by insisting that from the moment he fled the battlefield, he was no longer an officer of the Royal Navy.
This was something he could stand behind even if the British government later checked with Joseon.
In fact, when one combined reports of the Royalist sighted along the coast of Jeolla-do and the route taken by the Samarang, the story was plausible enough. The two ships had been close together and then suddenly gone their separate ways.
However, Belcher was an Englishman, and no one understood England better than an Englishman.
England was not the kind of country that would stop an invasion because one of its own citizens had gone pirate and say, “Well then, I suppose we were in the wrong.” Least of all Belcher himself, who did not even understand why that would be a reason to hesitate in the first place.
So Belcher used a method that would work on compatriots without a conscience.
It was the logic of power.
The war in China—the First Opium War—was a struggle that burdened us as well. If unnecessary conflict were stirred up in Joseon, a tributary state of China, China might use the matter as an excuse to render the free trade treaty we won through blood meaningless. …… I am convinced the course I took was the best for national diplomacy.
In actual history, Britain, had it wanted to, could have snapped its fingers during the Opium War and annexed Joseon.
No excuse or justification would have been needed. Had China invaded somewhere because it had “reason,” then? What mattered was Nemesis.
But the reason they did not do so came down to two things.
The first was that they wanted to avoid direct conflict with Russia. The second was that they did not want to trample China’s face for no reason and make a mess of things.
A sudden invasion of Joseon would be, for example, like some third-rate villain raping the girlfriend of a newly recruited underling who had just been beaten bloody and forced to swear loyalty.
Britain might well be a villain, but it was not a third-rate one. There was no reason to incur such losses. All the more so if that underling kept sending in generous tribute.
Colonel Belcher sent all of this as a reply to “Pasques” as well.
He was worried his diplomacy might be judged incorrectly by headquarters.
If Pasques spoke to the “true authority,” then he would not have to suffer at the hands of some idiotic command staff.
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“The Eulmi Western Disturbance” was, for the moment, thus resolved.
The power of the river merchants was greatly diminished.
The military garrisons, too, would now have to seek change.
The system that had up to now peacefully pursued mutual gain in harmony with the garrisons had been shattered to pieces by this clash.
Unless the next military commissioner turned out to be Won Gyun, discipline would only grow stricter for at least a few years.
Just as, in the late nineteenth century, after the Jeolla garrison was destroyed by the Donghak army, merchants from the garrison were forced to wander all the way to Manchuria to trade, the merchants of the military stations, too, would have to meet a new era.
Everyone involved looked around, wondering where, exactly, they were supposed to seize hold of this new age.
And naturally, there was no other answer but Park Axe—the very center of this whole era.
This was not the first time.
The Bobusang reform set in motion by Taesu—the wave of historical change that would amount to a unification of the commercial world—was something the people of Ganghwado, Kaesong, Yongin, and Hongju had all already experienced.
And it would certainly not be the last.