Chapter 159
Chapter 159
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 159
Chapter Title: The End of the Gejang Trio Rebellions (1)
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Hong Gye-hee and Waterway Guard Commander Shin Min had still been a huge help to me.
Not only did they provide detailed intelligence on Namhansanseong Fortress, but above all, they dragged away every last soldier from the Waterway Guard Office, eliminating the fortress's external guerrilla and reconnaissance forces that King Yeongjo could have used.
Didn't I just say the Waterway Guard Office wasn't even a proper army?
Well, here's the thing. If you're stranded on a deserted island and someone offers you a 2G phone, are you going to turn it down just because you want an iPhone?
To King Yeongjo, trapped as good as on a deserted island, the loss of the Waterway Guard Office would hurt like hell.
Sure, the Waterway Guard Office was barely at the level of a city phone, but even a discarded old phone contains over a dozen recoverable rare metals like gold and copper.
Just like how I'd scored 800 sets of uniforms and weapons for free. Let's make recycling a habit and save the planet.
That said, the Waterway Guard Office did have (non-farmer) military officers. With all their subordinates discharged and nothing left, they stared at me with the hollow eyes of an elderly couple whose grandkids had all headed to the city for the holidays.
Yeah. You guys don't have land, right? So I generously took them in.
With the Waterway Guard Office gone, King Yeongjo would have to burn a ton of time just figuring out the situation.
For someone as busy as me, it was the best news possible.
Waterway Guard Commander Shin Min seemed like he didn't want to be a general anymore after one failure too many. So I gave him a different assignment.
"Your Excellency must know the rebels' weaknesses inside out. The current Arrest Bureau Chief Won Gun-pil is old, senile, and notorious for his greed. If you smash the Manchus at Ganghwa Island, I can lobby the Crown Prince to appoint you as his successor."
It's a timeless truth: defectors have to prove their loyalty in the most extreme ways.
Shin Min knew full well this was the safest path for him compared to running the security apparatus. Sure enough, he grabbed my hand in gratitude.
"I'll never forget Chun-sik's grace."
"I'm just following the example of Ji Hai from the Qin Dynasty, who recommended even his enemy general and his own son based purely on merit. How could this be grace?"
"I've never seen anyone serve the ancestral shrines so selflessly, only for the kingdom!"
Of course, I'm not doing this just to boost Shin Min's favorability.
Won Gun-pil is that Won Gun-pil. The one who synced with me back when I was county magistrate under him as Chungcheong Province's Military Commander. He made huge contributions in the Gyeongbok Palace Three Idiots incident. And he's still alive.
Lately, he's even come to me multiple times bearing gifts. People gossip he's Won Gyun reincarnated, but his knack for reading the winds and picking sides is something even I envy.
But who am I?
I'm Kim Chun-sik, the Secret Royal Inspector who terrorized every corrupt official in Hamgyong Province. I don't forgive traitors.
I didn't appoint him thinking it'd boost my approval ratings like some military dictator cracking down on a corrupt official everyone hates. Nope.
Reinvestigating Won Gun-pil revealed he was responsible for the death of the Royal Guard Commander during the Gyeongbok Palace incident—as the highest-ranking surviving officer there.
So, by the Crown Prince's order, Won Gun-pil was stripped of office and thrown in jail. Prisons are starting to fill up.
The Won clan of Wonju wields massive influence across civil and military ranks (Won Gyeong-ha and Won In-son are from there), so I couldn't go further. Instead, I hammered home that justice had been served in Hanyang.
While delivering justice, I dug up evidence that Pyeongan Governor Min Baek-sang—who'd died young from a tragic illness—had exploited the province's good people.
Searching for a nonexistent Crown Prince, he tore apart every gisaeng house and beat merchants for bribes and women. Talk about a villainous magistrate.
The Pyeongan Governor was so powerful even King Yeongjo wondered if it was an independent kingdom—corruption like that was par for the course. People bought it.
For his replacement, I recommended my friend Han Ik-mo, a fellow Sheep Zodiac buddy from former Jiksan County Magistrate Song Jin-heum's crew.
Back when I was at the Office of Special Counsellors, he'd looked out for me during my second initiation ritual. He's senior rank but not a central post, so the Crown Prince appointed him "considering the border's urgency."
Noron officials suspicious the Crown Prince favored only the Soron got praise for his fair personnel decisions. And praise for me, wisely assisting him.
So no, I'm not arbitrarily firing and hiring court officials willy-nilly.
I need excuses the remaining Hanyang officials will swallow.
Like Korea's civil service with its "promotion slots" and "entry paths," Joseon has 300 years of entrenched "rules."
For example, to become a senior official, you need experience in one of four specified posts plus provincial service. To be Prime Minister, start in one of the Three Departments, Seonggyun-gwan, or the Office of Diplomatic Correspondence.
The king can't break these without direct intervention and political backlash.
That's why Han Ik-mo and Shin Min worked—their careers fit naturally for Pyeongan Governor or Arrest Bureau Chief. Anyone else, and I'd have shoved in my brother. Nah, save him for the salt pans.
Min Baek-sang and Won Gun-pil had plenty of enemies from factionalism and greed, making arrests easy.
Cross these lines in this yangban organization society, and you'd get smeared as "traitor Kim Unhaeng manipulating the Crown Prince"—total BS, but it'd stick.
I've said it a million times: crimes surface when you want them to.
Balancing all this is exhausting.
If the Status Window showed favorability like old times, spotting traitors would be easy. But judging by the operator's old gaming rants, it was just a ploy to "guide" me early on. That's why it vanished later.
Even if things deviated from the plan, it can't fake favorability readings like a devil—it just clams up, unable to lie.
My theory, but it fits.
Luckily, upright Han Ik-mo sent me "protection money" from Pyeongan (can't give it to the Crown Prince), which helped a lot.
With new Arrest Bureau Chief Shin Min hitting the ground running, I turned my eyes back to the Kim family troops.
Hong Gye-hee hasn't budged from Minister of the Military.
Promoting him to Prime Minister would be ideal, but if I could swing that, I'd have cleared my quest already.
Besides, keeping him at Military Minister suits me better.
I'm collaborating with the Joseon Defense Minister (Dad's friend) to "maintain" the Waterway Guard Office budget as is.
Except with no Waterway Guard Office, it's temporarily stored in our secure family warehouse.
I have plans for that money. First, arm the people around me with the guns and clothes I got.
Chun-sik Delivery boys shine more as messengers and spies than frontline fighters. Plus, an all-Joseon guard risks defection to rebels.
Countries have their specialties. Sell drugs? Brits. Mass shooting? Americans. War? Never Germans.
Street stabbing? Japanese pros. I freed Hiraga Gen'nai from SIT—longtime dragon-eye wood carver—and Team Japan.
"Rack up merits this time, and I'll petition to wipe your piracy records clean and send you back to Japan."
No one protested they never pirated. Japanese are pirates from birth. Sin Suk-ju's Records of the Eastern Empire backs it—easy to teach.
Generous terms. But Hiraga said something weird.
"No. We're about to finish a thousand dragon-eye woods. The path is opening. We want nothing else—just let us live under Joseon's bright skies."
Huh? Brain damage from beatings?
Digging deeper, this guy's seen Kaoru when I came and went.
Problematic.
As the most politically correct guy on Earth, I don't care if Hiraga likes men.
But Kaoru's straight. Needs a rich guy, not this.
Deeper issue: Kaoru's not here.
The fool got dragged off by King Yeongjo—more precisely, Princess Hwa-wan.
Truth is, Kim Unhaeng's take on Kaoru is unfair.
Princess Hwa-wan had even Prince Jeongjo wrapped around her finger. No way a mere Japanese slave slips her grasp easily.
She ratted out the Crown Prince's location, so she had to follow King Yeongjo.
And now, she's increasingly convinced that was a mistake.
Forgetting she's in mourning, Princess Hwa-wan advanced on Kaoru, grabbing his collar.
"What's Kim Chun-sik plotting? The Crown Prince being in Pyeongyang was a lie too, right? Speak! You think anyone blinks if one slave dies in this fortress?"
Kaoru wasn't that scared.
Princess Hwa-wan won't kill him.
If she planned to, she'd have done it the moment she knew Pyeongyang was fake. Flower quarter genius Kaoru read her like a book.
She wants survival. Can't kill him 'cause he's linked to Kim Chun-sik.
Kaoru hid his face in his sleeve and sank into a seductive kneel.
"My master sent me solely thinking of the royal house, to ensure Your Highness's safety. I've failed my duty—what regrets could I have in death?"
"Kim Chun-sik sent you to protect me? Then why lie about Pyeongyang!"
"It wasn't a lie. The Crown Prince was truly there then. My master just brought him back to Seoul."
Princess Hwa-wan nearly accused him of earth-shrinking magic, but Kaoru continued.
"He strictly ordered silence on Pyeongyang. The Crown Prince was just hiding briefly—if word got out, His Majesty would rage like now. But how could a weakling like me withstand Your Highness's dignity?"
Princess Hwa-wan paled. If true, she'd bungled everything by blabbing.
As Kaoru intended, she clung to one last hope in Kim Chun-sik's goodwill—not from trust, but nothing else left.
"If Kim Chun-sik serves the royal house with loyalty, what's his plan?"
Even knowing Kaoru's foreign, she didn't mistake it for helping the pretender. Her "royal house" meant herself.
"How could a lowly slave know it all? But I think..."
Kaoru thought Japanese-style.
In Japan, royal/noble marriages serve one purpose: hostages.
King Yeongjo fleeing with the Crown Princess suggested Joseon mirrored Japan's Warring States.
Hostages are extreme "middlemen." You use them to negotiate wants.
"My master's the Crown Prince's confidant, and the Crown Princess and royal grandchildren are here. As a royal lady, Your Highness sees the Crown Princess often—the plan likely lies there."
King Yeongjo's frenzy over the Waterway Guard and Military Minister vanishings couldn't be hidden. That's why she's desperate.
Kaoru's advice assumed Kim Chun-sik wins: butter up the sister-in-law. Basic.
Cornered Princess Hwa-wan took it differently.
Hiraga didn't explicitly mention Kaoru, so I didn't agonize long.
I promised Hiraga Joseon registry and recruited Team Japan as first Kim family troops members.
Not trusting Japanese alone, of course. Mixed in stranded Royal Guard stragglers and sharp young Moon Clan underlings.
With Eoji and Sambok, assassins won't touch them. Reassured, I went to see the Crown Prince today.
One perk of this mess: private audiences with the Crown Prince, no historians or palace diarists (Crown Prince keeps a daily log like the Office of Royal Decrees).
Whatever. I can fix it anyway.
Abuse of power? Even without me, Jeongjo erases his dad's crimes. Stick "filial" on massacres, rebellions, history rewrites—they're all fine here.
Annals and diaries are official—uncensored? Lies. Plenty precedents beyond Jeongjo.
Like Taejong's records of ambushing and imprisoning his father, the real backer and commander in the First Strife of Princes.
Of course, the Crown Prince harbors no such dark ambitions as Yi Bang-won.
His hazy mind wept for his father suffering in Namhansanseong. As a son, he was girding for the rightful counterattack. That's what I'd tell him.
Departure was imminent.
Following Lee In-jwa's Rebellion and the Hyungchip-dang Uprising came Yang Ro-won's Rebellion—already underway.
The Gejang Trio Rebellions' final war wouldn't end like the first two, where Yeongjo won. It had to be different.
The Crown Prince's voice was surprisingly calm.
"You're not trying to stop me? Many ministers already have."
"The elders' concerns are valid in part, but on loyalty and filial duty, one cannot prioritize safety. Since this serves Your Imperial Highness's sovereign, the late king, I won't dissuade you."
"Only you understand my will!"
A leader personally leading troops usually gets called idiot or moron.
But here, he had to go.
Dad sick in peril, send underlings? Worse than Yi Bang-won.
Yi Bang-won went to Hwanghae himself to "serve" Taejo—'cause he's family royalty.
That was likely the Crown Prince's politics—and good for me.
No Crown Prince, no Kim Seong-eung and Crown Prince faction troops. Our shaky power is 80% from him.
No joy in him splitting off for expedition. Now I could conscript Training Command and Palace Guards without extra convincing. Relieved.
Me? Not going. Gentlemen die on marches.
I'm the Eastern Yue Fei, but just in loyalty.
My bureaucratic role? Humbly, like Xiao He.
I'll stabilize the rear better than any general and snag #1 merit over them.
Anyway, no fighting. What if cannonball hits my hilltop perch? Joseonites might actually aim true.
As I mentally listed "projects fully delegated to Kim Unhaeng during Crown Prince's absence," he said:
"Prepare to march too."
"Pardon?"
I blurted in shock. Technically, grounds for exile.
But he wasn't fazed.
"When else to use that mighty martial prowess? I've had a strong bow, arrows, and halberd made specially. A propaganda officer's duty is displaying valor alongside the vanguard—why so surprised? Merits here could make you army commander."
Not a dream. Never dreamed it. Forgot—I'm a scholar, top exam grad.
I stressed my rear-guard importance and capital risks if emptied. He smiled faintly.
"Training Commander Hong Bong-han will handle that. He can't go to Namhansanseong anyway. Says can't detach a trusted limb."
Damn, Hong Bong-han as father-in-law meets Crown Prince without my say-so. Outside my gatekeeper power.
But his daughter's hostage with the king. How trust him? Crown Prince must've thought that far.
'Ah.'
Wait—the Crown Prince is the same. Wife hostage.
Hard to call him henpecked, but kids too, sans Crown Princess.
That clicked a blind-spot option.
If Crown Prince wins, Hong can't betray—daughter returns secondary; no one sides with him.
If loses, Hong must "betray"—to save daughter, grandson, Yongdu-gun.
Crown Prince insured his family.
He's not fighting for throne now.
First his life, then family's.
Next, everyone's maybe.
Isn't that kingship?
The Crown Prince said,
"Let's go together. Ensure no one dies in vain."
Sometimes you do foolish things knowingly.
I heard my words as if another's.
"I obey."
One consolation: the Crown Prince's aura now filled the Citizens' Hall.
Author's Note
1. Won Gun-pil appeared in Ch. 31 'Gold Rush'; Han Ik-mo in Ch. 44 'Golden Age of Bad Guys'; Song Jin-heum and Sheep Zodiac pals from the Gye-mi Eastern Journey Spy Report arc in Ch. 32 'Triumphal Return.' Total mobilization of Kim Unhaeng's network, so lots of returning faces.
2. Sin Suk-ju deemed Japan extremely belligerent in Records of the Eastern Empire: 'Placated, they trade; otherwise, they raid with swords.' Unlike Kim Unhaeng's twist, Sin Suk-ju thus advocated amity with Japan.