Already the Axe Lies at the Roots of the Tree (3)

It was early summer now, the season when rice was at its most valuable.

And yet the enormous stockpile of rice sitting in Gangjin's Haechang was not even the most important gain Taesu had made.

Intangible assets mattered more than tangible ones in almost every case.

There were several reasons for that, but the clearest was this: through the former, you could obtain the latter, while the reverse was far harder to pull off.

The people Taesu had made connections with here were worth more to him than rice. Purely in the cold, practical sense.

Take, for instance, former commander of the Right Naval Forces, Lee Hee-jang, who had carried off the three barbarian heads Taesu had handed over as his "proof of valor" and gone to thank him for it while being dragged away in custody.

"If anything comes up in the future, make sure you come to me!"

"Ah, yes."

Taesu had been saying something along those lines, but only after Cha Un-hong jabbed him in the ribs did he finally manage a proper reply.

It was hard not to wonder what use a man would be whose ancestors had been captured by the Mongol army and who himself had been seized by the British fleet, but in the end there were precious few people in history who had never been caught by one of those two groups, and, in any case, it suited Taesu just fine.

If someone like Lee Hee-jang stayed in military service for a long time, that was no loss to Taesu.

A useless pirate was better than a competent one. It was the same logic behind Kim Jwa-geun wanting Yi Won-beom on the throne.

Beyond that, the defeated soldiers from the Jeolla military headquarters whose testimony Taesu had agreed to back up, along with the nearby naval men who had received a share of Gangsan's ships, were all exceedingly well-disposed toward Park Axe Merchant Guild.

Which meant there would be no interference in the most important work of all: winning the favor of the merchants.

That, in turn, meant there would be no pointless obstruction from soldiers kicking up a fuss, extorting, or resorting to violence.

The first Supreme River Broker, Im In-son, clasped the hand of Park Jae-bin, the first Supreme Sea Broker.

"As the descendant of a yangban house, this could not have been an easy decision. I truly thank you."

"Even if my family is yangban, in this day and age that's a laughable thing to say. My house runs a pharmacy, too, so aren't we merchants as well?"

That was a remarkable intuition, worthy of the man who would one day found Park Pharmacy.

And Im In-son valued even more highly the consideration Park Jae-bin had shown by not saying, "I can't tell my father to mingle with merchants, so I'll do it myself as the younger one."

Then he leaned closer and said something that made Park Jae-bin feel even less inclined to regret changing careers.

"Starting here in Gangjin, Gangsan will no longer be able to come to the Haechang of Jeolla Province in the future."

"Hm? Why not? Right now they're just lying low because they've been caught in wrongdoing, but that sort of thing was hardly unusual for Gangsan. They'll just brazenly come back soon enough..."

"Because the Dobansu intends to circle all eight provinces before finally entering Seoul. How could that wicked Gang Min ever get his legs under him?"

Park Jae-bin looked astonished.

It meant nothing less than a complete restructuring of Joseon's merchant order from the ground up.

He himself had just spoken of "this day and age," but now he could see that a truly different age was arriving.

He could even hear the words Im In-son had not said aloud.

The replacement for the vanished Gangsan was to be taken up by Kim Sun-won's fleet and Im In-son's Chungcheong Naval Command.

And if Park Jae-bin and Byung-sang still insisted, "We'll live independent of the Songdo peddlers or Park Axe Merchant Guild," then Park Axe could become a second Gangsan.

Park Jae-bin found it hard to believe that Park Axe would be any less dreadful than Gangsan.

In the end, there was only one course of action, just as Park Axe had said: to become allies.

That was not necessarily oppression. Gangsan had been an exploiter, not an ally.

And Park Jae-bin, too, could see the future.

"Judging from the way those Western ships have been recklessly charging into Daejin, I expect trouble for the country ahead. The merchants in the military district won't be able to make a living forever off usury from the soldiers or by selling odds and ends."

The profit of the military-market merchants ultimately rested on the fact that the Jeolla military headquarters had always been an economic complex, not merely an army post.

For four hundred years, since the reign of King Taejong, that had never changed.

But it would change now.

The military-market merchants would have to find some other path as well.

Im In-son laid out the first blueprint.

"That's right. In accordance with the Dobansu's grand principle that the peddlers of the whole country should help one another, the markets of Jeonju and Namwon will soon come under the Dobansu's banner as well. And if not the military-market merchants, then who will take the lead?"

The fact that the markets of Jeonju and Namwon were large meant there were many places from which goods could be brought in.

And if Taesu had taken control of Gangjin in the south and Hongju in the north, then he had effectively seized all the sources ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠of that wholesale trade. The Gyeongsang Province route was difficult to travel because of Jirisan.

Park Jae-bin could hardly believe that the man who had once split a writing table apart with the edge of his hand right in front of him had planned, and then accomplished, such far-reaching schemes.

He turned to look toward the military district.

There stood the Honam Baekimbang headquarters building that Byung-sang had provided.

"The Dobansu is probably in there, plotting another grand strategy?"

"Most likely. He said he'd be leaving for Jeju Island soon, so he was leaving the rest to us. We'd better hurry."

"Quite right."

Indeed, Taesu was plotting something grand.

He was reading the secret correspondence of a foreigner in foreign letters—an act that, except for someone like Kim Dae-geon, ordinary people wouldn't even dare imagine.

And Cha Un-hong was sprawled comfortably across Taesu's lap like a cat.

"Isn't this the first time it's just been the two of us in one room since we left Songdo? It's not as if we're about to light the wedding candles and drink the cup of union in a room laid with paired mandarin-duck bedding, what with us both being motherless and fatherless and all, but now that we've finally escaped that life of sleeping in seaside sand or at some filthy inn stuffed with all sorts of riffraff, I do feel better."

As she rolled around like that, there was no choice but to lend her his knee.

Cha Un-hong closed her eyes as she listened to the sound of Taesu's voice translating the letter.

The vibration of it, felt more in her cheek and neck than in her ears, brought a languid sense of ease.

She rather wished the letter were longer.

When Taesu first received his letter, Colonel Belcher had thought that Faskes was not especially skilled at writing English.

It was no wonder; at a glance, he was clearly from the East and impossible to mistake for anything else. Belcher, ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠thoughtful as ever, had thankfully replied in neat script instead of a hurried scrawl that Taesu would have struggled to read.

"So once the shipwreck mess is sorted out a bit, he wants to see us again. Surely he isn't so clueless as to come back around Gangjin, is he?"

Cha Un-hong spoke in a drowsy voice.

"If that man uses his head, he'll probably look into the French side and come to Ganghwa. From what Choi Yang-eop told me, there are diplomatic legations in China that keep the countries on friendly terms or whatever."

As she spoke, Cha Un-hong suddenly opened her eyes wide. She turned halfway over so that she was ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠facing Taesu.

"But that fellow Belcher—was he really someone you knew when you were abroad?"

Taesu had no desire to shatter Cha Un-hong's understanding of him, so he had left the "my childhood abroad" part unchallenged. Korea was abroad, too.

So he only denied the rest.

"I've never seen those men before in my life."

"How strange. Between the way they're clinging to you now and the feeling I got before, it seems like they think very highly of you."

Neither of them could possibly imagine Her Majesty's 007, so there was nothing to be done about that.

Cha Un-hong thought for a moment, then returned to the practical matter at hand.

"In any case, I think it'd be better not to mention this to Lord Heungseon or anyone else."

This monopoly on foreign intelligence could become a tremendous asset.

Domestic affairs might seem to be led almost entirely by Yi Ha-eung, but in truth that kind of leadership wasn't worth all that much.

Once the king and Kim Jwa-geun were removed from the picture, domestic leadership of any kind was meaningless, no matter who held it.

And the cause of this whole affair lay entirely overseas.

Which meant the situation, unlike Yi Ha-eung's wishes or the court's misunderstanding, was far more likely to be steered according to Taesu's will.

Taesu stroked Cha Un-hong's hair, now loosened because no one was watching.

"Speaking of Ha-eung... then I suppose I really do have to take him to Jeju Island as promised."

"Yes. ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠And it's not wasted effort, since we'll be making our own Yangtae trade on the way there. More than anything, we ought to pay our respects to that scholar they call Chusa."

Taesu had no particular interest in Kim Jeong-hui himself.

It was a tendency he'd developed after coming to Joseon, but Taesu hated literate men. He hated highly literate men even more.

That said, he had no trouble understanding Cha Un-hong's point.

In terms of Yi Won-beom, using Yi Ha-eung to secure the support of the royalist camp in the provinces was one possible route. It was absurd, in a way, that the cornerstone of such a move happened to be the wreckage of the British navy's Royalist.

"Ha-eung said he'd be heading to Jeonju to bargain—no, consult—with the provincial governor while the paperwork was moving around, so he should be arriving soon. We ought to get ready too. Let's get up."

"No."

"……."

"You can stare at me like that all you want; I still don't want to."

Taesu smiled with the same sort of expression Cha Un-hong wore.

"Fine. Then don't get up."

"Huh? What do you—ah! You're... ah..."

If she simply wanted to escape Taesu's hands, all she had to do was roll off his lap.

But Cha Un-hong didn't do that. Even as her face turned red and her waist twisted, she stretched herself further out over his knees instead of pulling away.

"Honestly..."

A little later, Cha Un-hong grabbed Taesu's hand and pulled it toward herself.

Love was understanding intention without needing words. When Taesu applied strength to his hand instead of letting himself be dragged along, she rose and sat facing him.

Her flushed face wore a complicated expression, half angry and half laughing.

Across her small shoulders, the clothes Taesu had loosened had slipped precariously, together with a spill of hair.

Cha Un-hong did not fasten them again. Instead, she wrapped her arms around Taesu's neck and kissed him.

"I really did mean to just lie down for a moment."

"Really?"

"Not right this second, though."

As she said that, she tugged at the ties of Taesu's robe and pulled them loose.

With that force, the clothes on her own shoulders slipped down as well.

Leaning her body toward Taesu, she tilted her chin and looked up at him from just beneath his jaw.

Then she lightly ran her tongue over Taesu's Adam's apple.

"What if we're late?"

"Doesn't matter."

Cha Un-hong rather liked the low rumble she felt through his lips.

Lord Heungseon, Yi Ha-eung, also didn't particularly mind being delayed by half a day.

So he was looking over the HMS Royalist, which had now become part of the Chungcheong Naval Command.

Its mast had been broken and many of its cannons were no longer usable, but at the end of the day it was still just a sailing ship.

Perhaps 16th-century Koreans would have found it strange, but not men of 19th-century Joseon. Catholics who had seen many Western things in the promised land would have found it even less remarkable.

Yi Ha-eung turned his gaze away from the Catholics repairing the ship and looked to his side.

"I didn't have a spyglass then, so I couldn't see well, but did Park Axe really kick that mast and break it?"

Ha Jeong-il answered.

"He did. I saw it with my own two eyes. He even battered it while a man was caught in the middle of it, and snapped it clean in two."

"Good heavens. Is that man really human?"

Yi Ha-eung was still young. Even by Joseon's standards, he was a man in his youth.

So he could let out the sort of exclamation that the later Heungseon Daewongun never would have permitted himself.

"Since the advent of the musket there have been no great generals, and before the Western great cannons and artillery, even China's million-man armies were useless. Yet this man alone stands aloof like one of the warriors of old."

To be honest, he wasn't all that interested in how many cannons the Western ships carried or how quickly they could sail the sea.

What caught his eye more was the broken mast.

It was like a symbol of the final triumph of barbarism over civilization.

There were no shortage of fists-and-knuckles men like Park Axe.

In fact, Seoul teemed with even more reckless bastards than that one, in every alley. Yi Ha-eung knew that well.

But all of them were only good for posturing in back alleys; the moment they stepped into the sunlight and faced government power, they vanished without exception.

After Pyo Cheol-ju, who had built a reputation no weaker than Park Axe's with nothing but a steel club, fled in terror from the pursuit of the Achilles Tendon Cutter, Robocop Jang Bung-ik, and then returned in old age to seize his thug friend Dalmun by the collar, what had been the first thing he asked?

Has Sergeant Jang died?

With his head full of grays and his teeth gone, all he had become was someone who, in terror, kept asking, "Is Qin Shi Huang still alive?"

Anyone who relied on violence could never fight someone stronger than himself.

But Park Axe was different.

He had shattered two of the great strongholds that had never been beaten by anyone else, and from what Yi Ha-eung had heard, he had even stood face-to-face with the regional forces in Gimnyangjang.

The same was true of the Western warships, which were even more powerful than anything Joseon possessed.

Of course, Yi Ha-eung did not know the word "romance."

And yet he felt something very much like it.

Before he himself had been stained.

Before he had come to despise the world because of his son, an Yi Won-beom Mk. 2, a puppet king from the common people who had forgotten his place and imagined himself a true sovereign, and because of that daughter-in-law who was his match made in heaven.

How could a young man like Yi Ha-eung, even if restrained by his own prudence, completely hide his admiration?

Even if it was merely bitter liquor brewed by Park Chun-ik because he couldn't withstand the pressure from his son Park Jae-ik, as the saying went, Park Axe might truly be the sort of talent Heaven had sent down to assist the dynasty.

In any case, ever since the Byeong-o-year foreign disturbance, the navy had been collapsing one after another. In the present state of affairs, someone like that was...

Wait, what?

Yi Ha-eung was shocked by the notion that had suddenly surfaced within him.

Come to think of it, Park Axe had practically dismantled the Jinmuwang naval forces on Ganghwa Island.

He had heard little about the Chungcheong Naval Command, but when he saw the men who had come calling themselves officers from the Wonsanjin garrison fraternizing with Park Axe like old brothers, that place was suspicious too.

The Jeolla Right Naval Command, which had no direct connection to Park Axe, was the same.

It had been defeated and scattered, lost its commander, and then Jeolla Provincial Military Commissioner Oh Chi-hyeon had illegally dragged its fleet over here and wrecked it.

The remaining vested interests would become prey for the neighboring Jeolla Left Naval Command and Chungcheong Naval Command. Whoever was appointed in the future would have to feel Yi Sun-sin's anguish and rebuild that supreme naval command from the ruins all over again.

The military district was no exception. The Gangjin garrison had collapsed to the point that the local merchants had to devise a complete business transformation.

Yi Ha-eung snapped his head around toward the Jeolla Baekimbang building where Park Axe had not yet appeared.

Where Park Axe has passed... the entire military is disappearing.

Yes. Like blows struck with an axe, the dignity of the nation was being chopped away and erased.

And who would fill the emptiness left behind?

The answer was always hidden in the question itself.

The person who would fill the void left by the collapse of the Joseon army was already doing exactly that in Ganghwa Island.

"What's the matter?"

When Ha Jeong-il asked, Yi Ha-eung glanced at the luggage he was carrying.

Inside were the crab and abalone canned goods that Park Axe's attendant had given him.

At first, Yi Ha-eung had only intended to meet his teacher, Kim Jeong-hui, and present those as a gift.

But now the people who made them mattered more.

Yi Ha-eung decided to follow Taesu further than Jeju Island.

He only hoped it wasn't too late.

Perhaps, as the Western scholars said, it was already after the axe had been laid at the roots of the tree.

Author's Note

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