Threat
“As it happens, there was something I meant to discuss with you.”
“Oh? And what might that be?”
“It concerns the tax-exemption privileges granted to gentlemen of your rank, Master Hwang.”
“Pardon? What privileges?”
When the conversation failed to turn toward the bribe he had been expecting, Hwang Jinsa’s face crumpled in open disappointment.
Hwi-yeom only smiled, bright and easy.
“I have been appointed Lecturer of the Hanlin Academy.”
“…Well now. Quite an achievement for one so young. And?”
“Do you know what a Lecturer of the Hanlin Academy actually does?”
“I can’t say I do, not precisely…”
“It is a post that lectures the Emperor on the errors of current policy and guides him toward wiser measures. In a sense, it is not unlike the role of Imperial Tutor. The difference is that we do not merely expound classical learning; we offer practical counsel drawn from real administrative knowledge, so that His Majesty may judge rightly.”
Hwang Jinsa’s expression said, plain as day, that he was wondering what this insolent young man was building toward with such a long-winded preamble.
Hwi-yeom continued.
“I am considering delivering a lecture to the Emperor on the structural defects of the tax exemptions currently granted to successful examination candidates and provincial licentiates.”
“…Structural defects?”
“What was the original purpose of those exemptions?”
“Well… so that scholars might devote themselves wholly to their studies without the distraction of taxes or livelihood, and thus prepare properly for the metropolitan examinations, was it not?”
“You understand it well.”
Hwi-yeom smiled and let his gaze wander the room. It settled on the sprawling tile-roofed mansion, the lacquered red furniture, the obvious marks of wealth. Hwang Jinsa cleared his throat.
“Does any of this look as though it still serves that purpose?”
“…What exactly are you driving at?”
“Among the holders of those ranks, there are indeed men who truly live in hardship, who cling to the exemption while farming by day and studying by night. And then there are those who, for decades, deliberately avoid sitting the higher examinations so they may use the status itself as a tool for tax evasion and illicit enrichment.”
“How dare you—!”
“How dare I?”
Hwi-yeom’s eyes flared a vivid green. As he drew upon his inner energy, the aging scholar—who was no more than an ordinary old man—shrank like a rat before a predator and dropped into his seat in pure terror.
“How dare I? Who do you think you are, that you dare say those words to me?”
“…Ugh… I… ugh…”
“Listen carefully, Hwang Jinsa. Mind your tongue. You are a man who has passed only the preliminary provincial examination—the lowest rung on the way to the metropolitan exams. I am a Lecturer of the Hanlin Academy. If anyone here has the right to say ‘how dare you,’ it is I. Is that not so?”
“….”
“The provincial administration may have to humor you when you start your petty scheming, because you can interfere with the work of governing the people. I am different. Well-digging? I can simply refuse to do it. But if I set my mind to it, how thoroughly do you think I could ruin you?”
“On—on what grounds are you threatening me like this?”
“Grounds? Threats? Are you simply slow, or have you enjoyed the privilege so long that you now regard it as your natural right?
For forty years after passing that examination, you have idled under the pretext of scholarly pursuit, growing fat on the nation’s tax exemptions. I am telling you that I can make you disgorge every last coin of that fortune.”
“Th-that is preposterous…!”
“Why? The Code of Daegyeong states that any property a merchant or landowner has unlawfully seized in violation of the law is to be confiscated in full for the state treasury. If your lifelong fraud against the realm is proven, every asset you possess can be seized.”
“I have committed no fraud!”
“Is that so? Then tell me—when did you last sit for the metropolitan examination?”
“…! Khh… that is…”
Hwang Jinsa stammered, his face a ruin of humiliation, rage, and fear.
“Forty years without so much as taking the test, yet still claiming an exemption meant for the pursuit of learning… What a fortunate life you have led.”
“I—I merely judged that my scholarship was not yet ripe enough!”
Realizing who held the hilt of the knife, he abruptly switched to a more deferential register. Hwi-yeom gave a short, amused snort.
“If a man’s learning has not ripened in forty years, one suspects he was never cut out for study in the first place.”
“Urrrgh…!”
Hwang Jinsa had no idea what to do. Ordinarily, when some ignorant upstart made trouble, a few strong servants would roll him in a straw mat and bury him quietly on the back hill. But this one was a Lecturer to the Emperor himself, and he practiced some bizarre martial art that made his eyes glow green like a demon’s.
Even a man who knew nothing of martial arts could see that sending servants would only produce a growing pile of corpses. Influence? The moment Hwi-yeom submitted a memorial on the tax privileges, every scrap of influence Hwang Jinsa possessed would evaporate like mist.
Hwi-yeom watched the old man’s wretched terror for a long moment, then slipped his salesman’s smile back into place.
“Master Hwang.”
“Y-yes… yes…”
“Do you know why I did not bring this up from the start?”
“I… cannot say…”
“To be honest, I had no desire to threaten anyone. Better for everyone if we stayed on good terms—your cooperation would make the construction work go smoothly. Wouldn’t that be nice?”
“….”
“But the moment you started fishing for a bribe, I thought: Ah. If I don’t put this man in his place right now, he will keep overstepping and spouting nonsense for years to come. So I pressed down. Hard.”
“….”
“Doesn’t feel good, being on the receiving end of a power play, does it?”
Hwang Jinsa had never heard the modern term, yet the moment it was spoken he understood it perfectly. It was, he had to admit, an unnervingly precise word.
“Ah—no, not at all.”
“Of course it does. That is exactly how everyone you have ever squeezed has felt.”
“….”
“Besides, I am not bullying you. I am simply reminding you of the crimes you have already committed.”
“….”
“Now that you understand, let’s get along. All right? Understood?”
“…I will cooperate to the fullest.”
“Good. Then nothing further will happen.”
“A-and the matter of the tax privileges…?”
“I will decide after I see how cooperative you prove to be.”
“…Yes.”
Hwang Jinsa bowed his head, drained of strength.
On the way back after putting Hwang Jinsa firmly in his place, Sama Yun asked,
“My lord husband… do you truly intend to raise the issue of those tax privileges in open debate?”
“Hm?”
She looked worried.
“Your reasoning is entirely sound, of course… but it might create far too many enemies all at once. If you are not careful— Ah.”
Hwi-yeom grinned. Quick as ever, Sama Yun read his true intention at once; her tension drained away into an expression of pure exasperation.
“It was a bluff?”
“Of course it was. You don’t tear down the outhouse just to swat a few flies.”
What he had said was entirely feasible. That was precisely why Hwang Jinsa had reacted so violently. But the fact that a threat is feasible does not mean one must use it.
“The power of the local great houses has to be eroded slowly. If this country is ever to have a healthy economy, we must dismantle a structure in which a handful of landlords who barely consume anything sit on everything and refuse to let go.”
“Then what do you plan to do?”
“Boil the frog. If I come at them with a heavy hand from the start, they will thrash about in panic. Suppressing that thrashing is exhausting work. I have already made enemies of the Eight Great Houses of the Empire; I cannot afford to make enemies of every provincial clan as well. Of course, if a provincial house belongs to one of the Eight, that is a different matter.”
“So this particular incident will not harm them?”
“Not harm—teach them the joy of submission.”
Hwi-yeom laughed.
“The great houses themselves are divided: the Eight Great Houses of the Empire, the provincial aristocracy, the martial families, and so on. I intend to set the imperial Eight against everyone else. What we are doing now is drawing the non-imperial houses under my influence—more precisely, under His Majesty’s. We hold the chain of their weaknesses and offer the carrot of profit, until they learn that obedience to the Emperor brings great rewards. That old Hwang will grind his teeth for a while, but once he tastes real money in a few years, he will come wagging his tail.”
“I understand.”
Sama Yun’s expression shifted at once. Brilliant as she was, she was already calculating how best to advance his design.
“We will need a strategy of division so that the great houses cannot unite against you. I will see to it that rumors of discord and distrust circulate among them.”
“Do you have a good method?”
“You haven’t forgotten where my family comes from, have you? The Heavenly Intelligence Sama know everything.”
She preened a little; Hwi-yeom found it charming and answered with a soft laugh.
“Heh. Very well. I’m counting on you.”
“What in heaven’s name are we supposed to do about this?”
After Hwi-yeom had left, Hwang Jinsa summoned his son and poured out the whole miserable episode.
“That wicked creature says he will overlook us for now, but he will hold the threat over our heads forever after…”
“Father, why waste time fretting? Set the servants on him and be rid of him.”
“You fool! Do you think I hadn’t considered that? You never saw the man—that demon-eyed monster…”
The son, who had glimpsed Hwi-yeom only from a distance, privately thought the fellow looked more like a pretty boy who kept company with courtesans, but he kept the opinion to himself.
No workable plan emerged. In the end Hwang Jinsa decided he would have to meet other great-house heads and put their heads together; he dismissed his son.
Just then, a presence approached from outside.
“Master Hwang, may I enter? It is Ivan of the Ice River Fist.”
At the name, Hwang Jinsa brightened at once.
“Ah, Hero Ivan! Come in, come in!”
“Yes.”
The paper-paneled door slid open and a white-haired man of imposing build walked in—a foreigner with the features of the western lands. His name was Ivan Novikov, a Russian martial artist from the place known in the Central Plains as the North Sea Ice Palace, near Lake Baikal. In the Central Plains he simply used the name Ivan, written with characters that sounded the same.
At present he was living as a house guest under Hwang Jinsa’s roof.
The custom of the house guest was an old one in the Central Plains: a wealthy household took in men without condition, feeding and lodging them as a mark of generosity. In ordinary times such guests idled and ate free rice; in return, it was considered a virtue to aid their patron when he fell into trouble. History was full of remarkable men who had begun as mere house guests and later left their names in the annals.
Ivan, a foreign martial artist from the North Sea Ice Palace, was one to whom Hwang Jinsa had shown particular favor. That he should appear at this exact moment filled the old man with sudden hope.
“Master Hwang, I did not mean to eavesdrop, but I happened to pass nearby and overheard your conversation with your son. You seem troubled…”
Hwang Jinsa’s brows drooped.
“It is all my own unworthiness. The truth is…”
He then retold the encounter with Hwi-yeom, carefully omitting every detail that painted himself in a bad light and embroidering the rest. In his version Hwi-yeom became a cunning sycophant who had beguiled the Emperor with a silver tongue in order to pursue unjust gain.
Ivan’s indignation was magnificent.
“Such a lawless scoundrel exists? Master Hwang, set your mind at ease. I, Ivan of the Ice River Fist, will take full responsibility and erase that man from the world.”
The thought that a true master of the martial world could dispose of that green-eyed freak—Hwi-yeom or Wi-yeom or whatever he called himself—made Hwang Jinsa want to grin until his face split. He forced himself to speak with careful gravity instead.
“I shall treasure Hero Ivan’s friendship deep in my heart. Yet the man is an official who draws a salary from the court, and the scion of a famous martial house. I fear the trouble may rebound upon you.”
Touched that the old man worried for him, Ivan struck his chest.
“After all the kindness you have shown me, how could I turn a blind eye to such a villain?
Do not worry. I will deal with him so that no one ever knows, and then I myself will leave Guizhou. Even if something goes wrong, no harm will ever reach you, Master Hwang.”
“Hero Ivan…”
“I have been deeply indebted to you. May you always remain in good health.”
“I… shall never forget Hero Ivan’s friendship.”