Chapter 70
Chapter 70
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 70
Chapter Title: Military Reforms (1)
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Early summer of the 28th year of King Yeongjo passed peacefully without the funeral of the Grand Heir.
Thanks to that, Yi Geum was able to enjoy his hobby about a year earlier than in the original history.
"Yuanliang (the Crown Prince) shall handle the chaedae meetings with the ministers of the Royal Secretariat and the censors as his daily routine."
Hearing that news, not only did the Crown Prince's face drain of color, but so did the faces of the ministers.
What Yi Geum had mentioned was the chaedae.
It was a procedure where the high officials of the State Council and the Offices of Inspection gathered before the king every five days or so to report on important matters.
If one viewed the morning assembly or grand audiences as cabinet meetings, and private audiences or daily reports as one-on-one or daily briefings, then chaedae could be seen as something in between—a sort of "weekly report."
The preparation process was similar to that of 21st-century civil servants or office workers.
The ministers had to bring agenda items for the chaedae, along with various "background" materials needed for them.
Follow-ups on previously reported items were also essential. Of course, for high-ranking officials who attended chaedae, their subordinates in the Bureau of Scribes would naturally compile and present everything neatly.
In such meetings, it wasn't just the underlings who suffered.
If one debated who bore the heavier burden, it was usually the superiors.
Subordinates only had to handle their own tasks, but at the top levels, all those reports piled up.
Moreover, with greater responsibility and fewer people, slacking off like Employee No. 23 at the bottom would immediately stand out. It was like the situation where everyone thinks, "That bastard didn't even read the report," when a parachuted outside director spouts his half-baked philosophy.
And in an absolute monarchy, there was no bigger parachute than the Crown Prince.
Crown Prince Sado, who was a parachute from birth, hated reading such reports.
But now he was being told to hold these chaedae every day, so he had no choice but to throw a fit.
It wasn't just laziness. The Crown Prince, already lacking experience, couldn't tell whether the matters reported by the ministers should be approved or not.
Even if he handled things well, his father might throw a tantrum. If he made a mistake, it would be a full-blown meltdown.
Besides, the ministers knew the Crown Prince's state all too well, so they brazenly pulled off the "fooling the crown prince" ploy.
"The Equal Land Tax Law was established from the beginning with His Majesty's utmost benevolence for the people. As you can see, there were previous cases like this ...(omitted)... Moreover, Gyeonggi Province has important garrisons ...(omitted)... Therefore, reducing the tribute grain for the areas hit by famine here and here aligns with the original intent."
"Furthermore, His Majesty has repeatedly and strictly instructed that the funds of the Equal Tax Bureau are the hard-earned blood of the people and cannot be diverted at will. Even if there are sycophants urging its use for the royal carriage, you must not comply."
It sounded like something a Confucian monarch would say, backed by plausible evidence. And it aligned with the father's will, so there was no hesitation. Thus, the Crown Prince approved it.
"Do as reported."
Then the king had no choice but to rage at his fool of a son who only did good deeds for the yangban.
For other matters, he might say, "What does the little brat know? Cancel it!" But raising taxes again was burdensome even for Yeongjo. It would be seen as tyrannical oppression.
Yi Geum, of course, was well aware of this situation.
If even regular chaedae had issues, doing them daily would naturally multiply mistakes on the job. The Crown Prince was bound to cause a major incident.
Yet despite that, Yi Geum issued the order.
The reason was obvious.
He was hoping for a blunder.
That way, he could criticize, torment, and scold the Crown Prince.
In this "fivefold chaedae" order, the ministers whose workloads had also increased five times like the Crown Prince couldn't just go on strike as they pleased.
Given their positions, they had to sigh deeply while preparing materials and visiting the Crown Prince.
Still, they had some comfort. There was hope that they could fool the easygoing Crown Prince and snag some small perks.
But the Crown Prince betrayed the ministers' cheeky hopes.
He made the wisest choice in this situation.
He went on a "manli je," imitating Joseon's favorite emperor whom the royal family emulated with grand sacrifices every year.
No one could meet the Crown Prince. The ministers despaired, buried under mountains of work.
The Crown Prince was no longer a child. Even beatings had become something he endured shrewdly after all this time.
Going out now would only earn him blame no matter the outcome. If he was going to get scolded anyway, it was more cost-effective to get it for doing nothing than for doing something wrong.
The Crown Prince's prediction and judgment were spot on.
Yi Geum reproached him in exactly the same way as in history.
"In ancient times, Pang Tong of the Han dynasty handled a hundred days' worth of work in one day. Even after I set an example with my own body and guide you on how to proceed, if Yuanliang does not follow, what use is it?"
Yi Geum didn't know, but the Crown Prince had already mastered the essence of Chinese hegemons through lectures from his confidants. Spouting basics from Romance of the Three Kingdoms wouldn't work on such a Crown Prince.
The Crown Prince merely cited illness as an excuse or sent a palace eunuch with a voice message app playing "I humbly apologize."
He never hastily held chaedae, giving his father more reason to thrash the Crown Prince.
Yi Geum clicked his tongue in slight dissatisfaction.
How could he entrust the country to such a weak and incompetent man?
An ignorant successor amid greedy ministers was a straight path to national ruin.
As expected, he had to wrap everything up himself until the next generation.
He couldn't die even if he wanted to before completing that.
Yi Geum was now at an age where he wondered why he wasn't dying, but it could only be explained as heaven's will.
Tangpyeong must be completed in my reign.
To that end, there were two ministers who were currently low-level but would become important in the future.
It was best to summon them now, while the Crown Prince was completely sidelined from state affairs.
The king could personally handle minor matters that were originally the Crown Prince's prerogative.
At this point, the ministers wouldn't suspect why the king was paying attention to low-level figures like Kim Unhaeng and Chae Je-gong.
Seeing the Crown Prince sprawled out upon arriving at court, Kim Unhaeng would roughly guess where Joseon's future lay.
Just as the Deputy Minister of the Board of War handled its duties, personnel matters in the Board of Personnel were handled by the Minister of Personnel. Yi Geum ordered Minister of Personnel Lee Cheol-bo.
"Summon former Ye mungwan Inspector Chae Je-gong and former Office of Censors Junior Inspector Kim Unhaeng."
In Cheonan and the surrounding areas of Mokcheon and Jiksan, the beautiful seeds I had sown in the past were now blooming.
Choi Bo-heung, the magistrate of Jiksan who had received my meticulous manual, was maintaining a regional economic revitalization system centered on gold mining.
Jeong Ok, the magistrate of Mokcheon, had clashed with the local clerks due to his strict personality and was quickly transferred out (not by my impeachment), but the current magistrate, Kim Chang-un, seemed like a reasonable man.
Likewise, Kim Sang-yeol, who had been appointed county magistrate of Cheonan around the time I left, was still serving.
The system I had originally created was at best a short-term one that would last only until the next magistrate.
But combined with the fact that the Namyang Hong clan of the local gentry here was my wife's family, a sustainable economic system began to take root in the region.
As I had felt in Hamgyeong Province, just ten ri outside the capital, no one even knew what the alcohol ban was. I wasn't sure if history had already diverged or if the crackdown would intensify later.
Hong Eok, my father-in-law who had followed me from Cheonan to Boryeong, had no interest in such things either.
Hong Eok got a bowl of takju from a passing farmer and gulped it down.
Then he drew the character for "earth" (地) on the field ridge with a stick.
When Yi Hwan pointed at it and shouted "Da! Da!", the father-in-law laughed heartily and tossed the stick away.
"That's right, that's the character for land! Already recognizing letters—you're quite the prodigy!"
Having a good time.
Father-in-law, you have to take the civil service exam next year too. Sigh. If you weren't my father-in-law, I could've gotten you and your nephew Hong Daeyong into a top Gangnam academy as a set.
Not because he's my son, but Yi Hwan really was fun to play with.
This brazen kid who didn't discriminate faces took all the affection from his maternal relatives.
He toddled around, hugging anyone he approached. Unnyeon, Se-hwa's maid who claimed to be the young master's nanny and was eyeing the new generation of power, chased after him anxiously.
Se-hwa, watching this, turned to me.
"Master Yi Jae-un is still supplying goods to Mokcheon and Jiksan, but it's far from Seoul. It's only natural that transporting them would be expensive. So it's best to hire people locally in Chungcheong Province or procure wood, lime, and such. They've asked our family to take charge of that."
The Namyang Hong clan had partnered with Yi Jae-un to secure supply subcontracts for the three counties, generating revenue.
Government consumables, or embankment and reservoir projects emulating my people-friendly policies, were still quite profitable.
And above all, the Jiksan Autobahn had an unexpectedly large share.
The king's skin disease wouldn't heal from one hot spring visit. Though there had been no second incursion yet, every time people went to fetch water afterward, ominous rumors spread in Jiksan.
As a result, Magistrate Choi Bo-heung had no choice but to maintain the autobahn diligently, just like me, to send the king away quickly.
However, in Joseon without asphalt or cement, roads were practically disposable items.
They had to be repaved every year, requiring massive materials and labor. With enormous budgets poured in, inevitably huge value-added taxes flowed into Choi Bo-heung's pockets.
From the perspective of magistrates and offices, entrusting such difficult projects to ordinary merchants wouldn't work. It had to be a prestigious local family like the Namyang Hong clan.
There was a reason they needed a family with high prestige.
The common folk, uninterested in politics, would think the magistrate was truly competent if "the lady of the big house in our neighborhood" praised him.
And such rumors reached Seoul.
No matter how advanced Joseon's personnel evaluation system was, the "rumors" reported by senior officials to the king could overturn even those evaluations.
I had experienced this firsthand while in the center. Reports had come up praising the excellence of County Magistrate Kim Sang-yeol of Cheonan, Magistrate Choi Bo-heung of Jiksan, and Magistrate Kim Chang-un of Mokcheon.
I didn't know much about Kim Sang-yeol or Kim Chang-un.
However, even Choi Bo-heung, whose combat prowess was lower than Mokcheon's outsider, was reported as having a widespread reputation for good governance, which puzzled me at the time.
It turned out to be this process.
In 500 years of growling between Joseon's central government and local yangban, there had been no such harmony.
The Chungcheong Triangle of Cheonan, Mokcheon, and Jiksan prospered and developed.
I couldn't hide my satisfaction at this positive historical change brought by the small flap of the butterfly I had stirred.
Spreading favors widely is always enjoyable.
Not for petty reasons like Samhwadoang prospering and benefiting me.
I turned my gaze back to my father-in-law's side.
Hong Eok was carrying Yi Hwan and strolling among the villagers.
In this era, when an elderly man of dignified bearing carried a baby boy around solemnly, even strangers would offer congratulations like "A fine son—your line is secure!" or "He's so ugly, he'll live long!" (a type of blessing).
The point was that the father or grandfather shouldn't boast themselves. Seeing my father-in-law looking satisfied among the courteous Joseon folk, I smiled.
"So you came all this way to provide laborers for the paddies and fields in Boryeong. I'm sorry to make an old man travel so far."
"Not at all. Thanks to your help, my brother has now entered officialdom. What greater favor to raise our house? Besides, farming here will bring some profit to the family."
Yi Jae-un had to operate near Seoul and assist me, so he couldn't frequently travel to collect rent in Boryeong.
And the land here wasn't vast fertile fields worth that loss.
So we needed someone else, and it was unrealistic to exclude my in-laws in the same Chungcheong Province. Though a bit far, Boryeong was closer from Cheonan than from Seoul.
Thus, while entrusting it to the in-laws, we decided to turn it into a directly managed farm rather than tenant farming.
"Direct management" has an image of benefiting both producers and consumers, like in Mokcheon County.
But if it were truly that good, everyone would do it.
Especially in Joseon, being a direct landowner wasn't all profit.
It required mental effort and time, and above all, you couldn't pass taxes onto tenants. In other words, I had to pay the land tax and tribute grain myself.
Passing taxes to tenants—isn't that what evil landlords do?
Our great king did it first. To boost his popularity, he cut military cloth taxes in half without consulting ministers and shifted the burden to landlords as tribute grain. As I've said many times, it's royal absolutism.
Later, if I rise to high office, I could petition for tribute grain exemptions citing floods in Chungcheong (where in Joseon doesn't flood in summer?), but not now.
Anyway, for direct management, there was no reason to plant rice or barley.
We needed high-value crops. It was time for me to practice the "increase in cash crop cultivation in late Joseon" from the textbooks.
The highest-value agricultural product I knew was cocaine, but sadly, no coca plants since Europeans hadn't arrived yet. Isn't it about time for the western ships?
So I thought of something else.
"I've heard that poppy seeds and sap (罌粟) are used in medicine. Wouldn't it be profitable to grow a lot and sell them?"
But Se-hwa tilted her head.
"That's true, but poppies grow well even with little water, so everyone plants dozens in their field ridges. No one buys them for high prices."
Oh right.
Yeah. Drugs are expensive because the state bans them. Without prohibition now, they're not pricey.
Plus, refining poppies into opium requires the "British" method in between.
But as a liberal arts major, I don't know how to do the "British" part. For now, it's just emergency stomach medicine.
Hemp is similar. With no restrictions, hemp fields for cloth are everywhere, but trying a leaf— no hallucinations.
To turn it into marijuana for sale, I'd probably need to do "Brooklyn," but I don't know that either. Regretting not going into sciences hits hard.
Se-hwa said with a smile.
"If not paddy farming, this land will be like a large vegetable garden. Planting side dishes in ridges and gardens is women's work, so leave it to me."
"What are you thinking of?"
"Medicinal herbs too. Tobacco (南草), which people can't quit once they start and think of when turning away, would be good. Where it doesn't grow, plant peppers. Both are labor-intensive, so people buy them."
Se-hwa thinks similarly to me in many ways. Truly lovable.
As my wife and I were planning our farming business, a shout shattered the peace.
"Madam! Madam!"
Like a scene from a youth drama, Jangbok was running along the field ridge.
I waited until Jangbok knelt before me, panting, then spoke.
"You fool, what is this undignified commotion? Won't it startle the young madam?"
"Does it look like I could stay quiet? An urgent messenger from old man Song in Seoul came to the Cheonan house."
"Why from old man Song?"
"His Majesty is promoting you. You must hurry back! Even this ignorant servant knows royal commands can't be delayed a moment. If late, even the new post might be revoked... Ack!"
I tripped the chattering inauspicious Jangbok, sending him tumbling into the paddy.
Se-hwa quietly said beside me.
"It seems they're reappointing and summoning you now."
"Looks like it. Jangbok, what post?"
"Th-that... Ouch, this leech is like a loach. It was... Jeongnang (정5품)."
What? Not a promotion, still Grade 5 Jeongnang?
"Did you hear which one?"
"Yes? Isn't it a Seoul jeongnang?"
I should just strangle this slave.
Song the elder wouldn't have just relayed words. I rummaged through Jangbok's bosom, flailing in the mud, and pulled out the letter (Jangbok was heavier than the letter, so left behind).
Shaking off the mud, I confirmed the four characters "Board of War Jeongnang" in Song's note.
Oh ho, Board of War Jeongnang?
Then even as a Grade 5 langgwan, it's a key post in earnest. Probably with some influence from Hong Gye-hui.
In that case, there's essential business.
A must-do course even listed in the "Guide for Otherworldly Heroes Touring Joseon."
Military reforms.
With the expression of a man heading out for great deeds, I clasped my hands behind my back sternly.
"I entrust all Boryeong's land to your wise hands. Discuss with your family and handle it. I must go for state affairs."
Se-hwa nodded.
"Don't worry about the house. We'll meet in Seoul later."
I bellowed at Jangbok to prepare the carriage.
A commanding shout imbued with the dignity of the talent who would reform the indolent Joseon army.
Author's Note
1. Yeongjo forcing the Crown Prince to hold chaedae daily, the Crown Prince going on strike, and rebuking him with Romance of the Three Kingdoms citing Pang Tong—all true. However, due to historical changes, the timing is advanced by a year.
2. During chaedae, Left State Councillor Lee Cheon-bo reporting that way to get tribute grain discounts while blocking royal use of Equal Tax Bureau funds—also true. Likewise, originally in Yeongjo 29th year.
3. Not because of Kim Unhaeng, but Magistrate Choi Bo-heung of Jiksan, Kim Chang-un of Mokcheon, and Kim Sang-yeol of Cheonan were all actually reported to the king for their widespread reputation of good governance at the time. For Kim Chang-un, a regular personnel impeachment by censors was even overturned by "rumors" reported by Right State Councillor Kim Sang-ro.
4. Modern marijuana is bred and processed; just drying and smoking wild hemp leaves has little effect. The hemp used for marijuana isn't Korean native either.
Poppies were already internationally traded in large quantities across East Asia before British arrival. Especially high demand in China as aphrodisiacs and vitality enhancers. Just lacked systematic British-style opium production and supply.