Chapter 45
Chapter 45
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 22
Chapter Title: A Toast for Us (2)
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The sovereign is the model for his subjects.
[Jun Wei Chen Gang]
So when hunter Kim Jeonggu was receiving stern punishment under the king's personal decree, a similar scene was unfolding in an nameless reed field along the Han River. A sack thudded into the reeds with a dull sound. It looked like an ordinary grain sack, but it was extraordinary in that it writhed like a living thing. Out burst a merchant who had been meticulously bound inside. As soon as his gag was removed, the merchant gasped for air dramatically, then cried out in a voice hoarse with terror.
"Y-you bastards are that money-lending outfit, the Samhwadang!"
Yi Jaewoon sighed.
"I told you to bring him politely, but didn't you treat him too politely?"
The 'Seoul Youth Assault Squad' that Yi Jaewoon had recruited at Songpa Ferry immediately bowed their heads and gripped their clubs. Once the surrounding reeds were stained red enough to look like bamboo groves, the power dynamic Yi Jaewoon desired was complete. Yi Jaewoon pulled out his bear-claw pipe with the dignity of a mid-level boss. Lowborn merchants couldn't use long pipes, but Yi Jaewoon preferred the handy bear-claw style anyway. One of his underlings grabbed the debtor by the hair and yanked his head up. Matching the debtor's eye level, Yi Jaewoon spoke amiably.
"Hey, Choi. You thought you could stiff us on the money and get away with it?"
With half his teeth missing and his face swollen beyond recognition even by his own wife, there was no way he could answer. Of course, Yi Jaewoon was more interested in compliance than a reply.
"If you'd just run off, I might've understood, but you strutted around chasing flies in your shop like nothing happened. You must think Chun Sam has your back, huh?"
The Youth Assault Squad members burst into roaring laughter right on cue.
"Chun Sam! You owe it to him to let that dearly missed Chun Sam show his face soon."
"He's probably floating around the riverbed somewhere. Didn't you toss him in?"
"I chopped him into bits before throwing, so who knows which piece is where!"
"Should've saved the liver. The lepers around here pay top coin for it."
"Nah, that's for kid livers. That Chun Sam's soaked in worldly filth—no medicinal value. A pig liver would be cleaner!"
"Looks like you're quite the expert in pharmacology."
"I do this gig now, but my ancestors were scholars, you know."
Choi's face had gone deathly pale from all the blood loss. The owner of Jangtongbang Grocery, Choi, had no choice but to stamp a bloodied thumbprint on the contract handing over his shop in lieu of his debt—which had ballooned tenfold—and be released. The ink had overflowed. He couldn't report this to the authorities. In Joseon, beating deadbeats who don't repay loans was perfectly legal, per the Great Ming Code. Choi was in the wrong. Sure, officials should handle the beatings, but even a lowly merchant like Choi knew how privatized justice was in Joseon. And the atrocity of using Chun Sam as fish bait? All talk, no proof. But Chun Sam really had vanished. And these guys were all walking around scot-free. That fact terrified Choi more than anything.
"That makes five. There are still seven or eight more who think their backers will save them and refuse to pay up, but if we push too hard, we'll earn the wrath of Seoul's various offices."
The 'offices' Yi Jaewoon mentioned were basically synonymous with 'organizations.'
Considering the delicate balance of power among Seoul's gangs, it wouldn't do for a newbie faction like the Dog-Beating Stick crew to run too wild.
"That was to be expected. We can write off that debt as the toll for entering Hanyang. If we can do business in the markets, the profits will surely be greater..."
Yi Jaewoon had a point.
But I had no intention of letting debts slide while sitting on my hands.
Lowlife thugs from Back Alley Street daring to extort money from a yangban noble like me?
And the low-tier clerks in those backwater offices they claim back them—places where even nepotism rejects end up—daring to bare their fangs at a Three Departments official?
I'd sweep them all away soon enough and establish the proper hierarchy.
But Yi Jaewoon didn't need to know the details yet.
So I agreed with him for now.
"That's enough. Good work."
"The liquor ban you mentioned is worth noting too. Now that we've got those groceries and granaries, shall we sell off the grain quick? If His Majesty bans brewing, grain prices will drop. We buy low after the ban lifts and sell high for more profit."
Heh. What a merchant.
How could a scholar stoop to arbitraging grain prices?
It'd be obvious to anyone. No good.
Besides, Yi Jaewoon was assuming a 'standard liquor ban.'
Ordinary bans get lifted after a bad harvest passes, and they're poorly enforced anyway, so hit-and-run trades work fine.
Like Yi Jaewoon here, the Joseon folks in original history figured the old king was on his last legs and prepped only for a typical ban.
But holding out doesn't always win.
Immortal Yeongjo keeps the ban going so long that holdouts starve to death in their high towers.
So we must accept the liquor ban as the new era and adapt.
"The court hasn't issued any edict yet. With eyes everywhere, no need to rush selling grain. Just tend to our new shops well and gauge the neighbors' sentiments."
Yi Jaewoon eyed me intently.
Hey, don't look at me like 'no way this guy's for real.'
He probably thinks I'm just saying that but really ordering bootleg booze indirectly.
Unfortunately, he's overestimated this loyal minister Kim Unhaeng's inconsistencies.
I have zero interest in playing Al Capone.
America's Prohibition? Break it, go to jail, done. But under Yeongjo in Joseon? Your head rolls.
Not prediction—experience. Korean history I learned had a case like that. Can't recall who, but definitely a high-ranking military officer, at least a provincial commander level.
And if memory serves, he only drank—no evidence of brewing post-ban.
The ban prohibits 'brewing and selling' liquor, not 'all drinking,' so technically innocent.
But he died.
Because the king wanted him dead.
Joseon isn't a rule-of-law state; it's a moral state.
If the guy's an insolent prick, off with his head—no nitpicking legal clauses. You just know who deserves it.
Principle of legality? Some Legalist heretic following Han Feizi? In Joseon, codes are mere references.
So no kid stuff like American mobsters claiming 'this is just spicy tea leaves' or 'these bricks are for storing grapes, not making wine.'
That doesn't fly in Joseon.
Unlike Western barbarians, we have 'morality.'
Moral states have advantages too.
Rule-of-law states can be run by anyone, like factory work—uniform standards.
But moral states demand situational savvy on the fly, so only heaven-mandated rulers can govern.
Our virtuous sovereign's judgments shift dynamically as needed.
For instance, after a couple unlucky examples like that general become dew on the execution ground, his thinking might change.
So now's the time to play 'loyal minister Kim Unhaeng.'
The liquor ban won't happen overnight.
Aside from ancestral rites, it'll cause massive economic chaos for the living.
Like banning Americano nationwide in modern Korea. Factor in Joseon, and only the commoners bleed.
Kim Unhaeng doesn't know, but in original history, even Yeongjo considered this and set it for 'next year's New Year,' not immediate.
So King Yi Geum was currently debating 'when' to start.
Meanwhile, court officials moved swiftly.
A liquor ban is like modern anti-smoking: hard to oppose on principle.
No one planned to anyway.
Joseon isn't short on smart heads beyond Kim Unhaeng.
Everyone schemed to profit off His Majesty's wise policy.
For the same reasons as me, though, they avoided bootleg booze for now.
Not tech or face-saving. Unless you're stirring vats and hauling sacks yourself, large-scale ops leak secrets inevitably.
No need anyway.
Making booze like Al Capone is for the powerless.
With enforcement power, just seize the bootleggers' profits. Low risk, high reward.
Violating the king's ban can be treason, so all subjects have enforcement rights—or rather, those with power do.
Bootleggers always pop up. Not from greed, but survival.
Even original liquor sellers like water peddlers or gisaeng house owners can't starve idly. Illicit brewing is inevitable.
So just extort them.
Why bother brewing yourself?
Thus, officials contacted their backed clerks in low offices.
Affiliates in various Seoul gangs like the Office of Equerry, Liquor Bureau, Military Supply Office realized 'that season' was back.
They quickly set up their Prohibition Disorder Offices.
The name 'Office to Ban Disorder' fools later generations into thinking Yeongjo made them official for the ban.
But no.
Prohibition Disorder Offices were ad-hoc private groups formed by Seoul offices and clerks to exploit the people. Just a collective term.
Countless in Seoul alone, like stars in the sky. Even within one office, factions made their own.
This is 'pragmatic Joseon.'
Lucky Al Capone wasn't born here.
A lightweight like that would've been squeezed dry by court power players and left a husk.
I quietly observed the chaos of these proliferating Prohibition Disorder Offices.
My 'Haeng Clan' mostly started via nepotism and had experience in those practical low offices.
So networks lingered, making intel easy.
As expected, my deadbeats backed by court low-office clerks.
That's why I lent to them deliberately.
Those clerks gathered protected merchants and thugs to form Prohibition Disorder Offices.
Should I flash my Three Departments badge and 'educate' them?
Tough. Practical offices don't fear Three Departments blocking promotions—they're dead-enders anyway. Impeaching clerks is beneath us.
Clerks get the clerk treatment.
Once I had data, I sent Jangbok with gifts to the nearby Yeo Gyeongbang.
Home of Joseon's strongest unit, the Time Trouper Corps.
Not just War Ministry Vice Minister Hong Gyehui profited from my shield in the eavesdropping scandal.
Training Commander Kim Seong-eung got off lightly too, since Yeongjo got his ban.
Kim Seong-eung laughed heartily when we met.
"If not for you, Dog-Beater, I'd have been dragged out the camp gate again!"
He'd been arrested by Yeongjo before for dress code violations.
And countless times for various reasons.
Probably the most-arrested training commander. Of all kings, Yeongjo.
But his popularity was so high, soldiers rioted, storming the gates.
A scolding turned into dismissal. He was reinstated soon after.
The troops run smoothly.
That's why I like it.
No one enjoys being trussed up like a criminal before the king, no matter the charge. Time to exploit that.
I composed myself and put on a deeply sorrowful face.
"Truth be told, my house is poor, so I've been modestly lending at interest to raise the family."
"Oh ho. Is that so?"
"Yes. But some market merchants, knowing we're not power elites, scorned us, refused repayment, and even beat my messengers. As a scholar, I don't mind lacking money, but seeing my underlings hurt for my greed pains me."
"How unfortunate. The law mandates beatings for non-repayers—how dare they turn tables?"
Up to here, Kim Seong-eung spoke casually, as if of others. It was.
But now it'd change.
"Exactly—thieves unfit for the name. You know His Majesty plans to ban brewing nationwide?"
I felt Kim Seong-eung tense. No wonder—his men sparked it.
"Not set yet, but rumors, yes."
"Indeed. But sly merchants eavesdrop at palace gates, brew and hoard liquor early to sell dear later. Even soldiers involved, they say..."
"Really?"
When he questioned skeptically, I didn't overprove—instead, I artfully obscured.
"Just rumors, unsure. But preemptively catching them? That's Sun Tzu's victory without battle."
A man like Kim Seong-eung sees through tricks.
But this was a hard-to-refuse win-win.
As he said, beating loan sharks is legal in Joseon.
Flipside: not repaying is illegal.
Plus, these illegals mocking the king by hoarding for the ban? Shocking.
If Kim Seong-eung arrests them now, it's minor crooks publicly, but politically huge.
Proof of loyalty to the king. Yeongjo might ease punishments.
That's why I made my intent obvious. Uncertainty breeds caution; clarity doesn't.
Having 'read' my aim, Kim Seong-eung even smiled warmly.
"I get it. Who are these bastards?"
"Words are cheap. I'll send guides with my men."
Thus began the joint op: my Songpa Youth Assault Squad and elite Training Office troops.
Precision strikes meant strict targets. Avoid friendly fire on bigwigs like Liquor Bureau (crab gang HQ) or confirmed lord-backed spots.
The rest—'less backed than the Training Commander'—get merciless shock and awe.
My tip about hoarded liquor? Total BS, of course.
But impossible for a Joseon home/shop to lack booze entirely. One takju jug? Prime rebellion evidence.
"N-no, the ban hasn't even dropped yet!"
"'Yet'? You impudent cur, pretending to know state affairs? Who are you to interpret royal will above officials?"
"From your yapping, you hoarded to gouge prices post-ban! A sly rat like you deserves military execution now!"
"Agh! No, please! I'll give you some of the stash..."
"Traitors' assets are forfeit anyway. No need for your chump change—we'll take it all regardless. Worry not."
The Training Office elites swell my heart with pride. Enforcing pre-crime—true masters of time paradoxes.
Supreme Sovereign, do you see? Your descendants guard Joseon admirably.
I sneered at the shattering Prohibition Disorder thugs.
Traitors deceiving the king, daring to 'enforce order'?
You lack the qualification.
Only the 'new Prohibition Disorder Office' soon forming in the markets deserves to guide the liquor ban under royal decree.