Roots Spreading Out (1)
The insam daewang go-eun that had been included in Taesu’s service fee through Dongrae-bu at Waegwan was also called teukcho-eun, or “specially minted silver.”
In other words, it was Tsushima Domain’s special silver.
The message behind it was clear enough: this was being given by Tsushima, so don’t go running your mouth about it anywhere you shouldn’t.
And as a bonus, it was also a pretty transparent invitation not to make Tsushima an enemy in the future.
Taesu had no intention of doing that anyway. At least not until the sashimi and wasabi had aged into something truly magnificent. For now, Tsushima still mattered more.
The Naesang, now within Taesu’s sphere of influence, still had to trade through Waegwan.
And the goods of the Naesang were Joseon goods. The regional products each merchant house had once sourced through its own private channels were now linked to the Bobusang, Taesu’s main force.
For example, the cowhide from Jeonju was handled by the Jeolla Baekimbang in Gangjin, while medicinal herbs were coordinated by the Gyeongsang Baekimbang in Daegu, allowing more goods to be carried more efficiently.
The same went for seafood, including sea cucumbers. Kim Sangro, the chief of the southeastern bureau of the Bobusang Shipping Office, was already deep in thought over how to open markets for Jeju’s native products.
Of course a commission would be taken, but that was still enough so long as the outrageous profits once skimmed off by the old Naesang power brokers were gone.
More than anything, the gains in integration and speed more than made up for the cost.
And naturally, the practical details of making all that real were handled by Cha Un-hong.
She knew the various paper trails used among the Song merchants inside and out.
Through Kim Sangro at sea and Bak Seol-chae on land, the Dobansu directives spread quickly. Since the signature was written in Western letters known only to the Dobansu, no one could question it.
The system Taesu had changed truly made “rapid dissemination” possible.
No need to send things through half a dozen stops. No need to worry about messages being lost somewhere in the middle. They only had to be delivered to Daegu and Gangjin.
Bak Seol-chae in Daegu and Park Jaebin in Gangjin were both more than capable of applying Taesu’s orders to the local branches under them.
That was why ancient states had once bothered to try feudalism in the first place. The fastest centralization, in the end, could actually be achieved through feudalism.
While Cha Un-hong was hunched over the veranda, writing furiously, Taesu was in the yard packing supplies for the trip up to Gangwon Province.
If your body was strong enough, there was no need to use your brain. To Cha Un-hong, it looked like a scene where, if only he’d existed, Jeong Yak-yong might never have bothered inventing the hoist.
By her taste, it was a very pleasing sight. Then, coming to her senses all at once, she said,
“That side’s done for now. The rest depends on what the others do. It’ll take some time before everything settles into place completely, though….”
Taesu finished the thought for her.
“What matters to us is that all the local branches are now moving in and out through one another. There’ll be mistakes in the middle, and we’ll see failures too, but that doesn’t matter.”
Business was business. Some days you lost money.
What mattered more was that the Bobusang were finally breaking free of their regional limits and beginning to form a true nationwide distribution network.
Once that was complete, the old commercial houses’ attempts to “keep us in check” would become useless. The large merchants would have no choice but to rely on the Bobusang’s network instead of their own.
Cha Un-hong, who had overseen the practical process, didn’t think it was impossible.
“From what I can see, the groups seem more united than the Song merchants, where each one has a different patron. Is that because of you?”
Just then, one of the ropes holding the luggage gave a sharp snap under the weight.
Without bothering to mind, Taesu retied the load with a twenty-first-century climbing rope.
Once the burden was loaded, the porter groaned and staggered. Taesu gave the bundle a little pat, then, instead of sparing a thought for the poor beast’s suffering, turned back to Cha Un-hong.
“No. It’s because of ‘us.’”
Cha Un-hong burst out laughing.
“Your tongue is sharper than the eloquence of a scholar who’s read a thousand books.”
She stepped lightly down into the yard. Then she tested just how sharp Taesu’s tongue was by sampling it with her own lips.
With her arms still around his neck, Cha Un-hong whispered,
“Anyway, now that we’ve taken charge of the branches in Gyeonggi and the Three Southern Provinces, even without Seoul we’ve got most of the country’s market towns in hand.”
About seventy percent of Joseon’s population lived south of the Imjin River. The north, however, had its own value apart from population because it bordered China.
“Chungcheong seems to be settled, and once the spring tax, autumn tax, and the quarter dues from the southern provinces—Jeolla and Gyeongsang—start coming in, the number of people under the Songdo branch’s direct control will be nothing like before.”
At that, something occurred to Taesu.
As Cha Un-hong went inside to pack a few things of her own, saying she should get ready too, Taesu summoned the Mountain Spirit.
Is Yi Seong-nyeo still doing divinations now?
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In terms of stabilizing the home base, there was another major reason I could head far away with peace of mind besides Choe Je-u.
Yi Seong-nyeo, who provided real-time communication.
I hated calling him a mountain spirit, so let’s leave it at that.
Whenever Yi Seong-nyeo was linked to the Mountain Spirit while casting a reading, the spirit could also know what she was thinking.
Conversely, it was possible to send a message to Yi Seong-nyeo by appearing in a dream or something like that, but since there was always the problem that other people might not believe her words, I’d only used that method once so far.
So it wasn’t exactly two-way communication, but the advantage of being able to learn what was happening in Ganghwado quickly from far away was enormous.
For that kind of live reporting to keep coming in, people had to actually visit Yi Seong-nyeo’s shrine.
So over the years, while traveling through the south, I’d sent instructions whenever the thought struck me through any Bobusang heading back to Ganghwa.
Things like fixing up Yi Seong-nyeo’s divination hall so it didn’t look ramshackle, or driving off any men who came prowling around because they’d heard a young widow was living alone there.
Of course, if I only took care of Yi Seong-nyeo, that would look suspicious.
So I couched it as part of Ganghwa branch’s welfare project and loaded the wagon that way.
Since the Ganghwa branch, under my direct control along with the Songdo branch, was making good money, if it didn’t also provide relief for the poor and contribute to local development funds, we’d lose the goodwill of the neighborhood.
And Yi Seong-nyeo was, after all, a widow—the very image of a Joseon welfare recipient. It all fit together naturally.
I couldn’t consult Un-hong about it, so I wrote the letter in English. Choe Yang-eop would translate it. It would also serve as proof of my identity.
So if this communication system was running smoothly, that was thanks to my meticulousness.
But the Mountain Spirit seemed to think it was all thanks to him.
[Indeed it is. These days, thanks to my divine power, the people come crowding in so fast I don’t even have time to eat, let alone rest. Ho ho. If so many now worship me, then surely my divine strength will grow mighty indeed. “Misfortune turns to fortune,” as they say—why, it seems the business of axe-swinging is worth taking a blow once in a while.]
I turned my eyes away from that utterly revolting outlook. Sorry. Gods are on their own.
If there’s any news from Ganghwa or Songdo, tell me.
[If it were urgent news, I would already have told you. Let me see…]
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
The letters Taesu had occasionally sent, telling the Ganghwa people to spread goodwill and so on, were being put into practice in Joseon style while he was away traveling.
First of all, at this point in the year, the most important form of welfare in Joseon was matchmaking. If the process didn’t start now, people would be getting married in the autumn.
Being single in Joseon was practically a crime.
Back in the day, the famous clown Dalmun nearly got executed by King Yeongjo just for having gray hair and still wearing his hair ribbon braided like a maiden’s.
Of course, local magistrates weren’t lunatics on Yeongjo’s level, so according to Hommindam they settled for beating people up instead.
But even if you were already miserable from having no partner, what good was getting beaten on top of that? Someone had to help them.
Yi Seong-nyeo played a crucial role there.
Unlike Taesu, who honestly thought it was perfectly natural, Choe Je-u had already “known the whole situation” since the very first psychic transmission in Chungcheong Province.
So Choe Je-u made the Ganghwa branch’s wedding-planning course include Yi Seong-nyeo’s divination hall for auspicious date selection as a basic option.
Only those who got a lucky date there—paid for, of course—could receive the Ganghwa branch’s marriage support funds.
It made no exceptions for Catholics or anyone else. Even modern Korean Christians check auspicious moving dates. Choe Je-u, this “religious unifier,” was absolutely uncompromising.
The reason people in Joseon couldn’t get married was, for the most part, the same reason as in the modern age: money.
And on top of that, romance was Mountain Spirit of Namsan’s specialty.
“So when would be a good date? The Ganghwa branch’s money may run out at any time, so I’d be grateful if the spirit could divine something soon….”
“That matter is paehye. The spirit says the son of that Kim family in the walled town of Ganghwa-bu is not a match for your daughter. He says the second son of the O family across the rice fields would be better.”
The client wasn’t even startled that he’d correctly guessed the in-laws’ address without being told. If it was the famous mystical power of the Ganghwa Namsan mountain spirit, that was only to be expected.
Instead, he was startled by something else.
“What? Why? The Kim family is wealthy—they even trade with the Ganghwa branch’s warehouses. The O family just scrapes by as tenant farmers.”
“Tut tut! How can a person live on money alone? Compatibility is what matters. Compatibility! If the fit is wrong, husband and wife won’t live harmoniously, and if husband and wife aren’t harmonious, they’ll end up being unfilial to their parents.”
This didn’t mean they’d take out their marital quarrels on their parents.
It meant they were worried about the greatest form of unfilial behavior of all: leaving no descendants.
The original meaning of compatibility includes the “union of the groin,” in other words, sexual chemistry in the bedroom.
It was an era with very few hobbies or diversions. Sex occupied a far greater place in life than it does in the modern world.
But since it was hard in such a society to test things out in a variety of ways before choosing a spouse, this makeshift simulation had emerged.
Still, things were different now.
Yi Seong-nyeo’s other divine readings honestly missed the mark sometimes.
But compatibility had never once been wrong. The same went for the “marriage compatibility” readings that matched widowers with widows.
“Rational people” who ignored the Namsan mountain spirit’s dating advice—Catholics were especially common among them—ended up feeling deprived when they saw just how blissfully happy all the other couples were.
In the end, the client decided to change his daughter’s match. Kim family wealth was only an advantage if the son-in-law didn’t toss the daughter out of the house.
The client let out a sigh.
“Very well.”
“Good. A wise decision. Those waiting outside may come in as well. I’m tired today, so we’ll stop here for now.”
Just as Yi Seong-nyeo was about to close up shop, she suddenly felt something rising up inside her.
This is….
Yi Seong-nyeo pulled her feet back under her again.
“It seems the spirit is in a good mood today. My powers are flowing rather well, so come on in!”
She had not meant to do that at all, but the people outside, seeing her shut the door only to open it again, assumed she was hinting at overtime charges.
They steeled themselves for a slightly higher fee. In any case, this spirit was no easy mark.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
You’re really going to use this scam… no, magic…? You can do that?
[If you don’t like it, don’t. If you’re not a fool, you should understand that Yi Seong-nyeo isn’t merely matchmaking for people. If you quit, you’re the one who loses.]
He was right.
Yi Seong-nyeo was already indispensable to Choe Je-u’s control of the base, and Choe Je-u was indispensable to Taesu’s.
The people and money they drew in were holding up the distant expansion of Taesu’s operations from behind, solid as bedrock.
In the end, Taesu fell silent. After all, it wasn’t really a “scam.”
The Mountain Spirit, having extended Yi Seong-nyeo’s divination time by doing something to her, also passed along other changes in the Ganghwa area to Taesu.
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In early summer, while Taesu was in Jeolla Province, the Ganghwa branch opened a relief shelter.
That was because Ganghwado’s military granary hadn’t been functioning properly. No one was allowed to say it was because the Catholics had looted the grain loan reserves.
“Good heavens, I never thought I’d live long enough to be fed by a peddler.”
“I always thought peddlers were little more than wandering beggars at the market—or maybe bandits who’d suddenly turn on you one day. Well, live long enough, and you see everything.”
“What was that you said?”
“Ah, I said that Park-Axe, famous for his bravery, had risen to become Dobansu, and the whole world has changed.”
“Louder! I can’t hear you! You think you can get through a whole barley famine with a voice like that?”
To receive a bowl of gruel, people had to go through lively testimonies such as, “There is no god but Park-Axe, and the Bobusang are his apostles,” or, “Ah! Choking on the grace of the Songdo branch,” and so on.
And no one is harder to betray than their own words.
Before long, the people of Ganghwado came to think that it was merchants, not the government, who were keeping them alive.
Word of Ganghwado’s amazing welfare system spread to the other neighborhoods too.
The Chongwiyeong, having withdrawn from the Imjin River, was instead ransacking other towns around Seoul. If you take away people’s lives, you should at least feed them—but with the same impossible swagger that they’d just strip away both, mass migration to Ganghwado was triggered.
Most people ate the gruel and ran off again, but those with enough foresight to think about next year hesitated and lurked around. Going back wouldn’t solve the land problem anyway.
The Ganghwa branch accepted them as comrades. Labor demand was exploding in the Imjin River market these days.
Children abandoned by parents who could no longer endure poverty were taken in by Son Yu-jak’s Taesu Finance.
Son Yu-jak tapped the heavy bag Taesu had left behind in front of the children.
“If you can’t bring back the interest, then figure there’ll be no meal that day either. Here’s the list of the worst scum who won’t pay even if you talk to them, so you new ones will start by shouting at their front gates. Humiliate them good and proper.”
“What if they don’t come out?”
“Then you go all the way to the person’s neighbors, relatives, friends, or the shop where they work, or the government office they go to. Anyway, it doesn’t start until they’re begging because they can’t stand it anymore and are on the verge of taking their own life. From there on, the seniors take over.”
As is always the case with regressors, Taesu’s sins were truly enormous.
One of the children raised a hand after glancing around nervously.
“Then there’ll definitely be fighting. Could we learn that martial skill the Dobansu used when he beat fifty men?”
The five manservants from the Choi family of Manwoldae, whom Taesu had once beaten down, had somehow multiplied tenfold by now.
Come to think of it, thanks to Taesu, the current Choi family was selling so much cowhide to Seogeomdo that they’d become livestock operators rich enough to employ fifty servants. Their fate was the complete opposite of Choi Ju-han, the Dongrae Naesang with the same surname and trade.
Son Yu-jak answered as if the child had heard the rumor exactly right.
“Can’t be helped. It’s still too early for you lot, but I’ll show you just a little.”
A decent-looking mid-kick smashed into the heavy bag.
The orphans’ eyes lit up.
“Ooooh!”
Even if they’d been fed well, Son Yu-jak’s weight or raw strength hadn’t improved all that dramatically.
But even just knowing how to set the supporting foot properly, tuck the hip, and rotate the waist gives a strike power that can’t be compared to a simple kick.
Honestly, Taesu was impressed too.
He hadn’t trained the boy personally or taught him one-on-one, yet from watching alone Son Yu-jak had picked up the trick. His eye for detail was worth something.
And so was his stubbornness in practicing that one thing like his life depended on it. Son Yu-jak puffed himself up with pride.
“I am training as the Dobansu’s direct disciple. If you lot work hard and fill the ledgers properly, you may catch the Dobansu’s eye too.”
“We’ll do our very best!”
The children, now little seedlings of loan-shark dreams, faithfully learned from Son Yu-jak and the veteran rowdies. Joseon-style tricks that would make even the Tower of Despair at Seoul Station gasp were being passed down.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
Unable to bear watching any longer, Taesu requested information that had nothing to do with him.
Forget Ganghwado. What are the people in that promised land next door doing?
But there was no way that land had anything to do with Taesu, right?
The Mountain Spirit told him that wasn’t the case.
Author’s Note
1. In Hommindam, it says that if someone still refuses to marry even after being set up, they should be beaten. And the recommended season is the first or second lunar month. In the story, the autumn season is mentioned because this matchmaking is unrelated to government budgets or administration, and the people are comparatively better off there.