Chapter 80
Chapter 80
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 80
Chapter Title: Age of Great Voyages (1)
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Park Mun-su's disposition was closer to that of a versatile technocrat than a pure politician.
He mainly reported practical matters to the king, with relatively few records of submissions on loyalty or propriety. It was unusual for a high official who had even received a military rank.
His 'rationality' went so far that if something struck him as nonsense, he wouldn't hesitate to shout it down or berate the person right in front of the king, without any regard for political repercussions. He'd even been called mad for his ravings.
This tendency played a part in why someone of his stature and wisdom ended up toying with Kim Unhaeng's slippery tongue in such an undignified way.
But while he might have been like that in his youth, the fully matured Park Mun-su of today wasn't so simple.
After agonizing for days over Kim Unhaeng's 'business' proposal, Park Mun-su went to visit Jo Jae-ho, a heavyweight of the Soron faction.
Jo Jae-ho was the one who had returned from his post as Governor of Gyeongsang Province without much to show for it, thanks to Kim Unhaeng.
Due to that incident where his words had sparked a frenzy (or so Jo Jae-ho believed), he had even been privately praised by Noron officials as possessing 'Joseon's foremost mounted talent.'
Of course, Park Mun-su wasn't visiting Jo Jae-ho for his riding skills. It was simply because Jo Jae-ho held personnel authority as the current Minister of Personnel.
However, this was a monumental decision that an ordinary person couldn't make. Even though they were both Soron, Park Mun-su and Jo Jae-ho were on the verge of being the worst of enemies.
Jo Jae-ho himself had openly stated that their 'directions and tastes in discussion were utterly incompatible.' They'd even come to blows with 'insolent words' during a policy debate before the king and both been ejected.
Sure enough, Jo Jae-ho greeted Park Mun-su with icy sarcasm.
"For Your Lordship the Eternal Sage to visit a lowly wretch like me... I suppose the sun will rise in the west tomorrow."
But Park Mun-su was even sharper in such verbal sparring.
"Since Your Excellency served as Minister of Military Affairs for all of thirteen days, I trusted you'd know something about Registrar Kim Unhaeng and came to you."
In fact, Jo Jae-ho had been Minister of Military Affairs from June 11th that year, only to be transferred to Minister of Personnel on June 28th.
The one who took his place was Kim Sang-ro of the Noron faction. Though from the same Ro clan, he was a different man from the current Right State Councillor Kim Sang-ru.
The Ministry of Personnel was a higher post than Military Affairs, so in a positive light, Jo Jae-ho had been promoted after just seventeen days.
But neither Park Mun-su nor Jo Jae-ho saw it that way.
Having his mockery turned back on him, Jo Jae-ho flew into a rage.
"I was chased out before I could even memorize all the officials in Military Affairs! Like it or not, that Kim Unhaeng must have pulled some strings."
"A mere registrar influencing a minister's appointment or dismissal? How?"
"He's no mere registrar. Of course, Kim Unhaeng couldn't have gone straight to His Majesty. But what else could it mean that His Majesty placed Kim Sang-ro—a man whose prior post was merely Junior Secretary of the Royal House—in that seat? Military Affairs no longer needs a minister or vice minister. Kim Unhaeng runs the whole show. He's gotten cocky riding the luck of that tax policy of his filling the Equal Distribution Agency's warehouses!"
"His Majesty's will, you mean?"
"What else could it be? Does this make any sense otherwise? As former personnel chief, I tried several times to have that man investigated. Do you know what came back?"
Park Mun-su fell silent. Knowing Jo Jae-ho's rough and reckless nature, he'd spill it all without prompting.
And so he did. Jo Jae-ho slammed his desk.
"They said we should handle substitutes properly and that it doesn't look good for a minister to meddle personally in some junior official's affairs. Kim Unhaeng is untouchable now!"
If all the senior ministers petitioned together, the king would surely abandon Kim Unhaeng. What the king needed was his initiatives, not the man himself.
But the Soron had no bandwidth for that right now.
Lee Jong-seong continued to refuse the Left State Councillor position.
This was a protest he wouldn't end until the king scrapped the entire discussion of stripping Yi Tae-jwa of his offices.
Lee Jong-seong's stance was understandable.
Accepting Left State Councillor would force him into the stripping debate. Better to die than let it pass, but protecting his father and uncle would invite unavoidable attacks. Participating in such a discussion would stain his name for a thousand generations.
Impossible to guard against. No good options. Lee Jong-seong's only choice was a strike.
Fine for him, but it was hell for the Soron officials still in office.
They were scrambling just to block the Noron onslaught, with no time for Chun-sik or whatever trivialities.
And the Soron weren't even united, which frustrated Jo Jae-ho even more.
"They're increasingly pushing to give patrol posts to concubine sons from flashy households or nephews and grandsons with no exam prospects. But cross Kim Unhaeng, and suddenly your patrol slots get split into pieces or vanish altogether. Impossible to rally the mainstream."
"The court's senior statesmen afraid of a single junior official? And over mere money?"
Park Mun-su couldn't believe it. Jo Jae-ho's eyes blazed as he replied.
"That's exactly what worries me most. Kim Unhaeng isn't just arrogant and insolent—he's single-handedly corrupting the capital's customs!"
What Jo Jae-ho meant, in modern terms, was class formation and perceptual shifts from visible influxes of wealth.
Among the Gyeonggang merchants, many who had been crushed and scattered by the Patrol Corps spat on the nation's fate in their resentment.
'Let's see the capital thrive without us! They'll be lucky if they don't end up picking twigs from broken bowls to eat within a month!'
But they were mistaken.
The Joseon people thrived without government offices, and they did so without the Gyeonggang merchants too.
Led by Chun-sik Delivery, countless small operators carved out territories. Remnants of Gyeonggang merchants, slyly inserted Song merchants, and all sorts of peddlers formed frantic alliances.
Hanyang truly led Joseon's latest trends.
Commerce along the Han River advanced at a pace rivaling the murderous tech of the World Wars.
Beyond the traditional view of 'removing monopoly harms,' other factors were at play.
Seoul's total economic output hadn't actually grown.
It had merely become more 'visible.'
But economies are heavily swayed by such visibility.
With the Gyeonggang merchants' rigid guild monopoly shattered and reorganized around the Patrol Corps and Equal Distribution Agency, the shadowy distributions they'd hidden and divvied up surfaced.
The more people involved, the harder to conceal. It was inevitable.
To the people of Hanyang, it looked like a goblin's magic club had suddenly appeared in the capital.
Under normal circumstances, social change in Joseon wouldn't accelerate this fast. But the New Year's illusion effect, combined with the massive consumer group of the Patrol Corps, amplified it.
When money flows heavily, some inevitably seize opportunities to become wealthy.
Others fail investments and go bust.
Polarization accelerates.
And deprivation hurts more when relative.
Jo Jae-ho, who harbored much negativity toward Kim Unhaeng, could point out modern commercial shifts that even Park Mun-su had overlooked.
"Patrol officers profit when business booms, so they're pulling strings to lure merchants from all eight provinces. Now the capital overflows with luxury goods. Even Your Excellency must have heard the rumors: send dried pollack or a few pounds of beef for New Year's, and you'll lose face instantly."
As Jo Jae-ho said, the so-called 'frugal faction' that Kim Unhaeng had dubbed found their usual New Year's propriety suddenly undervalued relative to society—precisely because they stuck to it.
Of course, these were isolated cases. The Patrol Corps was just getting started.
Was it a fleeting New Year's fireworks display, or the start of long-term economic acceleration? Too soon to tell.
For Joseon's bureaucrats, scripts mattered more than horses, politics more than economics.
Jo Jae-ho spat it out.
"Anyway, Your Excellency, don't meddle lightly. The Noron claim it as their home turf and they're corrupt rabble anyway. But he's dragging in Southern rabble too, and that young upstart from the Treasury Office petitions rebelliously whenever he gets a chance. Step out rashly, and you'll be branded anti-compromise. Our Clear Stream Party—that is, the Soron—will take all the heat."
At that moment, a realization flashed through Park Mun-su's mind.
Kim Unhaeng was 'actually' pursuing compromise.
The Soron's compromise was more self-defensive than the Noron's or king's.
And thus more desperate.
If Kim Unhaeng had roped in not just Noron and Southerners but even some Soron as Jo Jae-ho said, the king could hardly discard the Soron lightly. It would count as Soron cooperation on post-Equal Distribution measures.
Park Mun-su murmured blankly.
"That fool spoke empty words, but..."
What he omitted was something like, 'they had merit after all.'
But Jo Jae-ho, slightly misunderstanding, had a new thought.
He urged Park Mun-su—in a humility he never expected from him.
"It seems Your Excellency has pierced that man's villainy. My submission might be dismissed as factional bias by His Majesty. Could Your Excellency perhaps raise it? I'm ashamed to ask this on my own behalf, but..."
Unfortunately, this sealed Park Mun-su's resolve.
Park Mun-su disliked Jo Jae-ho.
Thus, he suddenly warmed to those Jo Jae-ho disliked.
Moreover, Jo Jae-ho's urging pretended respect for Park Mun-su's compromise faction status within Soron while plainly shifting the risk to him.
So Park Mun-su promised.
"I was planning to request an audience soon anyway. Correcting the capital's customs is my duty."
"I've misjudged Your Excellency greatly until now! Truly, the only one fit to join in righteous cause in this court is you!"
Jo Jae-ho gripped Park Mun-su's hand firmly.
And as Park Mun-su turned to leave, his expression mirrored Kim Unhaeng's from days earlier, after he'd departed.
A scholar values trust above all. He would surely meet the king soon.
Psychologically distant to a modern Korean like me, but in truth, Hwanghae Province borders Gyeonggi, and by water, it's even closer.
Down the Han River, merging with the Imjin, and soon you're past Ganghwa and Gyodong Islands, heading north into Hwanghae territory.
Even so, it's no easy feat.
The fierce winds of the lower Imjin and Ganghwa's raging currents vividly showed why only those staking their lives did seafaring in this era.
I surveyed the 'naval forces' sprawled out, gasping ragged breaths or retching over the rails.
I hadn't expected much, but not this bad. Is this Joseon's naval power?
My survival wasn't due to any skill.
Motion sickness isn't a disease, right? Just my ironclad loyalty and burning resolve rivaling Chungmugong's. Yeah, that's it.
So I bellowed without a shred of conscience.
"You lot, if even a civilian like me has firmer backbone than you, what's the point? Get up, or I'll discipline you by military law!"
A few staggered to their feet pretending to recover. At least out on the open sea, they seemed a bit better. Small mercies.
As the ship rode the wind toward Ongjin County, I regretted the lack of a telescope and prodded the vanguard officer every so often.
"Nothing in sight?"
"I'll report the moment I spot something, sir."
In truth, this ragtag fleet—scraped together from Patrol Corps remnants, nearby Gyeonggi naval camps, and county patrols—looked utterly unmotivated.
So I reprised my speech several times to rally the troops.
"By His Majesty's resolve, naval camps everywhere have been dismantled—a measure for the people's benefit. Yet some see empty seas as chance to poach fish or trade illicitly with foreigners. Small scale, it's plundering the treasury; large, disturbing the borders. How meager could the rewards be for capturing such villains? All hands, exert yourselves!"
Regrettably, most of these ignorant soldiers just wore looks of 'Has the court ever honored a reward promise?'
Hey, that's not the point. I can't outright say we can skim commissions by squeezing tax-dodging fishery tax cheats under the Equal Distribution pillar.
Frustrating for me and them. Harmony between ranks in shambles from the start—if we hit a big smuggling fleet, we might lose.
Should've sent Park Mun-su himself?
Having resolved to join hands with Kim Unhaeng, Park Mun-su acted at once.
He petitioned the king.
"This year's naval camp abolitions have left many warships idle. While ships needed for county patrols carrying grain were requisitioned by the state, the handovers were sloppy, leaving the rest stolen, abandoned, or rotting."
Warships useless for anything but battle weren't coveted by other garrisons.
With traditional prerogatives stripped by the Equal Distribution Law, squeezing budgets already, who wanted extra maintenance? Some thrifty commanders stripped iron parts or cannons to sell.
But the king had a use for them.
Specifically, thanks to Kim Unhaeng's petition.
The navy abolition brought the predictable result everyone but Kim Unhaeng foresaw.
With maritime security gaps, fishermen reached the obvious conclusion.
'Can't we fish without taxes now?'
Land peddlers thrived with reduced army exactions; why not sea?
But this stemmed from poor policy transparency—intent not reaching fishermen due to inadequate publicity.
The sea differed.
Fishery tax was as vital as land tax under Equal Distribution. The central government couldn't yield it. Separate from Kim Unhaeng's three tax initiatives, it predated them.
A supervisory fleet to punish tax evaders was clearly needed.
Normal Joseon would agonize over sourcing it, but Kim Unhaeng had (inadvertently) created surplus ships.
Especially the swift flyboats Park Mun-su had vigorously advocated, and existing wheelboats (paddle-driven by foot)—perfect for pursuing criminals on rivers or sea.
Park Mun-su was an expert on ships too.
Last year—as Gyeongsang tax envoy in Yeongjo 27—he'd noted turtle ships far less rational than Yi Sun-sin's designs and urged redesigns.
Not just that. Earlier in Hwanghae, he'd been rebuked 'Why can't you build ships like Yi Sun-sin, combined on water?' after requesting funds to build anti-pirate vessels.
Thus, Kim Unhaeng choosing Park Mun-su as partner for Tax Initiative No. 3 was genius.
Park Mun-su didn't mince words like Hong Bong-han.
"The third clause of Kim Unhaeng's tax initiatives from Military Affairs—entrust it to this humble servant, though lacking."
King Yi Geum felt utmost satisfaction.
Initiative 1, Patrol Virtue Agency: Kim Unhaeng himself (Noron initiative, Southern scholars cooperating). Even the king knew Yi Ik by name.
Initiative 2, postal system and rapid troops: Noron, but slightly deviant loyalist Hong Bong-han officially in charge.
Initiative 3: Park Mun-su, untouchable senior minister even for Soron.
One tax plan saturated the nation with compromise.
Yi Geum decreed on the spot.
"I awaited your coming. Reappoint Hanyang Governor Park Mun-su as Equal Distribution Deputy concurrently. Gather ships nationwide as you proposed and deploy flexibly."
After bows of gratitude, Park Mun-su moved immediately.
Through his alchemical 'jurisdictional shifts' only he could pull, the first fleet formed.
Targeting northern Gyeonggi and Hwanghae—the hotbed of pirates and smuggling.
Park Mun-su wasn't corrupt, but hardly a stickler for rules either.
That's why Yeongjo said, "The one who knows my heart is Yeongseong; the one who knows Yeongseong's heart is me."
Yeongjo saw Park Mun-su's wavelength matching his own, despite any displeasure.
Thus, Park Mun-su had no qualms assigning Kim Unhaeng nominal Han River Patrol management and handing him the entire fleet.
So what if he skimmed a bit? As long as the Equal Distribution Agency thrived.
Besides, Kim Unhaeng wouldn't bungle it fatally. No fool could have drawn this picture.
This late autumn, Kim Unhaeng's final tax initiative 'Age of Great Voyages' bloomed splendidly under Inspector Park Mun-su's hand.
Having braved perilous seas even to Seohwa's wails, no results here would spell trouble.
Doubting the vanguard, I scanned with bloodshot eyes.
Then, the shout I'd hoped for rang out.
"Ships to the north!"
Please, not some petty illegal fisher—let it be smugglers laden with gold, silver, silk.
Channeling Chungmugong's spirit, I straightened like a seasoned admiral.
"Launch! Oarsmen, row with all your might!"
Looking like a Joseon vessel, it spurred our domestically invincible warriors.
Kim Unhaeng's tax justice fleet cleaved the waves undaunted.
Author's Note
1. Kim Sang-ro (金相魯) may seem minor compared to Kim Sang-ru (金尙魯) in the story, but this Kim Sang-ro later becomes prime minister.
2. Jo Jae-ho's brawl with Park Mun-su before the king and his reputation for roughness are factual. His 17-day stint as Minister of Military Affairs is true, though not due to Kim Unhaeng.
3. The stripping of Yi Tae-jwa and Yi Gwang-jwa's offices was a Noron card, but Lee Jong-seong's Left State Councillor strike involved more: accusations of blocking remonstrators over factionalism, and issues with Jo Jae-ho's sacrificial text. The story simplifies historical facts for brevity—thanks for understanding.
4. Park Mun-su appears highly skilled at 'long-arming' resources. Records show him adeptly stripping other regions or offices for shortages, while stonewalling aid requests (even royal orders) until demoted. His fight with Jo Jae-ho stemmed from demanding repayment as Treasury Minister for funds Jo's department had borrowed.