The Butcher's Broker and the Minister's Errand
Vice Directing Guard Hong Gil-dong was strolling through the Jangtong Ward of Seongjung District in Hanseong, along the banks of the Cheonggyecheon stream.
This was where the largest of the capital's licensed markets stood, and along the Cheonggyecheon in particular there were cattle and horse markets where livestock changed hands by the day.
Hanyang, built as a planned city under Jeong Do-jeon's direction in the dynasty's founding years, had been designed from the start with a population of one hundred thousand in mind — and even now, it was already a city of one hundred thousand souls.
Few cities of this scale existed anywhere in the world at the time, and within Joseon there was none at all outside Hanyang.
To feed so many mouths, the city's planners had set aside ample ground for markets. Looking at the country as a whole, logistics were far from smooth — but a capital thrives in commerce and supply at any hour, in any season.
And where there is plenty of food, the flies gather. Hong Gil-dong was one of them.
"Well now, if it isn't Lord Vice Directing Guard himself."
As Hong Gil-dong approached Jangtong Bridge, a man of middle years bowed and scraped before him.
"Ah, O Seo-bang."
Hong Gil-dong accepted the greeting with easy nonchalance.
"Business treating you well?"
"Thanks to Your Lordship's grace, I earn enough to keep from starving."
O Seo-bang grinned broadly. His clothing, however, told a different story — it was remarkably fine.
In truth, he was one of the principal moneylenders quietly working the cattle and horse markets of the Jangtong Ward from behind the scenes.
"By the way, my lord, what brings you to Jangtong Bridge? Had I known you were coming, I'd have gone all the way to Geunchunmun to receive you properly."
Hong Gil-dong answered in a lazy, drawling tone.
"Ah, I just came to buy a few pounds of beef."
"Beef it is, my lord!"
There was a cattle market in Jangtong Ward, to be sure, but beef was no easy commodity to come by.
Joseon had made agriculture the foundation of the state, and from its founding the dynasty took the shortage of oxen for farming as a matter of grave importance.
For that reason, successive kings enforced the Cattle Slaughter Ban, forbidding the private butchering of oxen — and any caught violating it were banished ninety li beyond the capital's walls. The prohibition reached its height under King Sejong, when even the meat of an ox that had died of a permitted cause could not be handled, and a special Office for the Prohibition of Slaughter was established to keep watch against the secret butchering of cattle.
"Well I never, Your Lordship coming out to buy meat yourself. If that's all it is, why not leave it to me?"
O Seo-bang bowed obsequiously.
"It's meat for feeding the lads under me, so I have to pick carefully."
"I'll take full responsibility myself. How many will you need? Hey, you there!"
"Yes, master."
At O Seo-bang's sharp clap, a brutish-looking man standing behind him stepped forward and bent his back to a full ninety degrees. He looked like he'd been carved from a mountain bandit.
"Go see if there's any good cuts — didn't you say the Yang family was slaughtering an ox today? Have them take another one. Tell them it's for Lord Vice Directing Guard here."
O Seo-bang spoke without a moment's hesitation — despite the fact that the state forbade the slaughter of cattle. In truth, the Cattle Slaughter Ban had long since become a dead letter, and to satisfy the exacting palates of the great ministers, the butchers found their work never ran dry, day after day.
Hong Gil-dong grinned.
"One ox won't be enough... They're merchants, every one of them. A whole ox apiece would suit them just fine."
"Yes, yes, have no fear on that count. Beef, and chicken if you like, or dog — anything you fancy."
"Seems the money's coming in rather well?"
Hong Gil-dong asked, and O Seo-bang waved a hand.
"Oh, just scraping by, nothing more."
At those words, Hong Gil-dong raised his shoulders in a shrug. A merchant claiming to run his trade at a loss — wasn't that about as honest as an old man claiming the old must die?
"Any trouble with the business?"
"Who in the world would dare lay hands on butchers like us?"
O Seo-bang smirked, and Hong Gil-dong nodded. True enough — what street thumpers would be fool enough to trouble the butchers?
But O Seo-bang's smile quickly faded.
"Though in truth, it's not that I have no worries at all."
"Someone's daring to trouble O Seo-bang, the finest broker under heaven?"
"Yes... there's a fellow called Kkeok-chi."
"Kkeok-chi? And what manner of man might that be?"
Hong Gil-dong's brow furrowed. "That's a name I've never heard."
"That's to be expected, my lord. He only set foot in Hanyang recently, Jangtong Ward included."
"And yet the great O Seo-bang of Jangtong Bridge finds himself outmatched? Unbelievable."
"It's just that... he has powerful backing."
O Seo-bang wore a troubled expression, and at those words Hong Gil-dong's face took on the look of a man whose pride had been stung.
"You've got this Hong Gil-dong at your back, and you say that to my face? Whose backing does this Kkeok-chi fellow have, then?"
"They say it's the Minister of Rites."
"The Minister of Rites?"
Hong Gil-dong's expression hardened. The Minister of Rites — that could only be Hong Yun-seong.
He was one of Suyang's most trusted confidants, having thrown himself wholeheartedly into the Gyeyu Coup. Accomplished in both letters and arms, bold and hearty in temperament — exactly the sort of man Suyang favored — he enjoyed the king's singular affection.
Were one to name two faults of Hong Yun-seong's, they would be that he was exceptionally savage and, at the same time, exceptionally greedy. Not long after seizing power, Hong Yun-seong had become immensely rich — wealth no minister's stipend, not even a Chief State Councillor's, could ever account for.
Moreover, rumor held that more than a few men had been beaten within an inch of their lives for nothing more than having displeased him.
'A vicious one got his hooks in, I see. Damn wretch. I hear the brute's already sitting on a fat fortune — and now he's crawling into Jangtong Bridge too?'
O Seo-bang stole a careful glance at Hong Gil-dong. To the eyes of a merchant as weathered as O Seo-bang, Hong Gil-dong was unmistakably troubled — though he gave no outward sign of it.
"Worry not. I'll see to it that Kkeok-chi never sets foot in Jangtong Ward again."
"My lord — truly?"
O Seo-bang feigned delight, letting it show plainly on his face.
"What does it matter if the Minister of Rites stands behind Kkeok-chi? No man alive can stand against this Hong Gil-dong."
"And how, if I may ask, will you manage it?"
"Watch and see."
A faint flicker of disappointment passed across O Seo-bang's face.
'His half-brother's influence alone won't be enough this time. Empty bluster, is it?'
He swallowed the bitter taste inwardly. Hong Gil-dong could rage about so freely only because he leaned on the power of his half-brother, Hong Il-dong.
But a man like Hong Il-dong — no Chief State Councillor, no Minister — could only stand in shadow before so formidable a figure as the Minister of Rites, Hong Yun-seong.
O Seo-bang had half hoped that Hong Gil-dong, being a Hong as well, might have some connection to Hong Yun-seong — but from everything he could read, there was nothing of the kind.
"Now look here, O Seo-bang."
Hong Gil-dong, it seemed, had caught that look as well.
"Yes, my lord."
"Even before I drew state wages, I made a modest pastime of punishing the rogues who swaggered about on the backs of the powerful, extorting honest folk — and of sharing what I took with the destitute."
O Seo-bang nearly burst out laughing. Sharing with the destitute, was it? Hardly the words to come from a gang chieftain who spent his days wringing seat fees and protection money out of the markets and drowning himself in drink.
O Seo-bang swallowed his bitterness and bobbed his head.
"Of course, my lord. It's because men like Your Lordship exist that wretches like us manage to eat at all."
"Set your mind at ease. Kkeok-chi's romping days in Jangtong Ward won't last long. I, Hong Gil-dong, give you my word on it — so it's certain. Do you trust me, O Seo-bang?"
"Of course, my lord. I trust you."
But O Seo-bang's thoughts were already elsewhere. He had quietly resolved to go bow his head to Kkeok-chi instead.
'That insolent brute Kkeok-chi — no help for it, though. I'll just have to pay him however much it takes.'
"O Seo-bang."
"Yes? Yes! My lord."
The next moment, O Seo-bang flinched at the expression on Hong Gil-dong's face as the man turned back to look at him.
A chill, dreadful coldness was flowing across it. O Seo-bang caught his breath without meaning to.
"I'll be going. Send the meat to Geunchunmun."
"Very well, my lord."
Hong Gil-dong said it as if nothing at all had passed between them, and O Seo-bang swallowed hard.
He stared after Hong Gil-dong's broad back as it strode away down the street. At the far end of the lane, one of the Geunchunmun guards who had been waiting for him slipped silently to his side and spoke.
"Boss."
"What is it?"
"His Excellency has sent for you. He asks that you come to him."
Hong Gil-dong stopped in his tracks. A cold smile curled across his lips.
"Well, that's convenient. I'd already made up my mind to pay him a visit."
Hong Gil-dong came face to face with the man who had sought him out: a black robe, a woven hat, an utterly impassive manner.
"Han Ga-ryeong."
"Follow me."
That was all Han Ga-ryeong said, clipped and flat. Hong Gil-dong followed him without a word.
Before long, the two of them were passing through the gates of Han Myeong-hoe's residence.
"So you've come."
"I trust you've been well, Your Excellency."
"I summoned you because I have work for you."
"Of course. What is it you need?"
Hong Gil-dong decided to wait rather than press his own demands first. Never show your counterpart that you're the one clinging to the deal — it was the most basic rule of negotiation.
"I need men. Men with real martial skill."
Han Myeong-hoe brought the matter straight to the point, and Hong Gil-dong nodded.
"If that's all it is, surely you could simply take your pick from the Inner Royal Guard under the Minister of War?"
Hong Dal-son, the Minister of War, had filled the Inner Royal Guard — the king's personal elite — with men whom he himself and Suyang trusted above all others once they held power. Nor were they merely loyal empty husks; Hong Dal-son was himself an Inner Royal Guard alumnus, and his men were properly versed in the sword.
"They'd be working in the shadows. They must be useful, and they must be trustworthy."
Hong Gil-dong flashed an oily grin.
"If you ask for only one of the two, I could rustle up something passable. But both at once? That's a tall order."
"I'm well aware of that much."
Han Myeong-hoe snapped the words out curtly. To him, Hong Gil-dong was nothing more than a run-of-the-mill errand runner, and he did not care to be lectured by an errand runner.
"Ah — one thing I left out. If it can be helped, I'd prefer men without families. No rumors must follow them."
"Hoh."
Hong Gil-dong grinned wide. "You want disposable blades, then. What is it this time — planning another little coup?"
"Enough with the jokes."
Han Myeong-hoe cut him off. Hong Gil-dong's expression stiffened slightly, but he pressed no further.
"Understood. I'll comply. But you must at least tell me where they'll be used."
"That is not for you to know."
"Your Excellency — if I'm to play the broker of men, I have to give my counterpart some rough idea of the work, don't I? If you won't so much as hint at what you intend to order them to do, what skill do I have to sift out the men who'll suit your purpose?"
Hong Gil-dong rose abruptly to his feet.
"You'd do better to find someone else."
He turned and brushed past Han Ga-ryeong. Han Ga-ryeong, without so much as blinking, silently cleared his path.
Hong Gil-dong had just reached for the door when it came.
"I haven't finished speaking."
Hong Gil-dong stopped dead.
"Fine. But I can't tell you everything. I'll give you only what you may know and what you need to know. Beyond that, neither you nor your men are to be curious — and you had better not be."
"Very well, then."
Ever since Han Myeong-hoe had drawn him into his fold and set him to running the regime's dirty errands, Hong Gil-dong had handled every filthy job the man ordered without complaint. There was nothing particularly strange about it at this point.
Han Myeong-hoe pondered a moment before opening his mouth.
"I'm sending men out to the frontier lands. Intelligence has it that partisans of the deposed king are moving among the tribes up there. They will need to stay a year, perhaps two."
Hong Gil-dong considered it briefly, then nodded.
"Ah, then that does make sense of it."
Hong Gil-dong was no fool when it came to turning things over in his mind. By Han Myeong-hoe's account, the three conditions the man had laid out fit neatly together. And at the same time, he was already scheming how to extract the most profit from this situation.
"Well? Can you find such men?"
At Han Myeong-hoe's question, Hong Gil-dong shrugged his shoulders.
"Hard to say. Men like that don't grow on trees, you know."
Hong Gil-dong was playing coy on purpose. Han Myeong-hoe's brow twitched, but the irritation passed from his face almost at once.
"I suppose not. But this is for the sake of the state. Surely you can find some?"
Hong Gil-dong sensed the hidden menace coiled inside Han Myeong-hoe's words.
"Rare, yes, my lord — but not nonexistent."
As he flipped through the roster of names in his head, one or two candidates rose to the surface.
'Jaguang and Jeong-geun, at least, would never grind filth into my face. But what a waste. Men of that caliber aren't come by easily...'
Hong Gil-dong smacked his lips inwardly. A year or two, they said — but once Yu Ja-gwang or Kim Jeong-geun had carried out whatever errand Han Myeong-hoe had in store, they hardly seemed likely to come back down and sit where Hong Gil-dong could keep and use them. Assuming, that is, they didn't die as disposable blades.
'Ah well. If Jaguang and Jeong-geun climb that high, I'll just count it as cultivating two proper patrons to lean on.'
And so Hong Gil-dong reached his conclusion.