The Might of the System
We slipped out of the merchant inn and headed down a secluded forest path. Our destination was a massive boulder halfway up the mountain, the prearranged rendezvous point where I was to meet Jincheol.
We waited in the darkness, holding our breath, for about half an hour. *Rustle.* Without so much as the sound of a single dry leaf being crushed, a massive shadow dropped silently from the branches above. It was Jincheol.
"Brother. I have returned safely."
"Were you spotted?"
"Of course not. Their security is tight on paper, but their discipline is nonexistent. The guards were nodding off on their patrols. You know how it is—not even wild beasts can hear my footsteps." Jincheol grinned as he approached, but his expression quickly sobered. "But brother, the situation is grave. What lies beyond those walls is no mere estate. It is practically a massive military encampment."
"A military encampment, you say? How many private soldiers did you count?"
"At least three hundred, just counting the ones in plain sight. What is worse, they are not armed with clubs or farming tools. They carry razor-sharp hwando sabers and composite horn bows. Their equipment is far superior to that of any local magistrate's patrolmen."
Simply because they were the in-laws of the Chief State Councillor, they had slipped beyond the reach of state authority, operating a private militia that bordered on high treason.
"Did you locate the hidden land and the storehouses?"
"Yes. Behind the main quarters, there is a narrow path leading up the mountain, cleverly disguised with a fake rock wall. When I looked down from above... an entire village had been built inside the mountain. Over a thousand slaves, not a single one of whom is recorded in the official registries, are clearing and farming the entire mountain."
Jincheol swallowed hard before delivering the crucial detail. "And at the entrance of that hidden village, I confirmed the existence of a massive underground storehouse, guarded two and three layers deep by dozens of sentries. Without a doubt, that is where they have been stockpiling the embezzled taxes and slush funds."
"..." Gaetdong-i, who had been listening intently, gasped. He clutched the bundle of ledgers slung over his back and whispered in an excited flurry.
"M-My Lord! The ten thousand maji-gi of hidden land we predicted from the blacksmith's iron consumption, and the thousand ghost slaves we calculated from the merchant inn's salt distribution! The data I extracted and the reality Lord Jincheol saw with his own eyes align perfectly!"
"Excellent work, Jincheol. You too, Gaetdong-i." I patted both of them on the shoulders. That familiar, electrifying rush I used to feel back at the National Tax Service—when months of corporate due diligence finally paid off with a perfect match—surged through every cell in my body.
A flawless cross-verification of data and field intelligence. This was the perfect noose to tighten around the neck of Chief State Councillor Hwang Hui.
"But brother, I am worried," Jincheol muttered, his hand resting on the hilt of his sword. "Throwing myself into the fray to break through the guards at the storehouse is nothing. But if over three hundred armed soldiers pour out, not only Gaetdong-i but you as well will be in grave danger. Their numbers are too vast for the three of us to storm the place."
"Who said anything about the three of us storming it?" I looked up at the moon hanging in the night sky and smiled. "A battle of capital isn't fought with raw numbers alone. The truly terrifying thing is the power of the system."
"The sys...?"
"The most overwhelming, legitimate power in this land of Joseon—one that a mere aristocratic clan wouldn't dare look in the eye. We are going to borrow that power." I reached into my robes and felt the royal decree and the Left Tally—the royal token of military mobilization—personally bestowed upon me by King Sejong. "As soon as dawn breaks, we head to the Chungcheong Provincial Office."
The next morning, after spending the night at the merchant inn, I flung open the door to the backroom storehouse where Jincheol had kept watch all night.
"Eek! P-Please, spare my life!" Shivering from the cold and paralyzed with fear after a night in confinement, the bound innkeeper began slamming his head against the floor the moment the door swung open.
"Who said anything about killing you? As of today, you are a key state witness. But if I leave you tied up here, there is no telling when your subordinates might break in and bust you out."
"My Lord! Even if I have to sew my own lips shut, I will stay here as quiet as a dead mouse...!"
"But I do not trust you, so what choice do I have? Let us go. I shall escort you to a suite with far tighter security." I gestured to Jincheol. With a swift motion, Jincheol grabbed the innkeeper by the scruff of his neck and hoisted him up like a sack of grain. Gaetdong-i followed, carrying the bundle of ledgers we had seized from the inn. We immediately mounted our horses and rode toward the Chungcheong Provincial Office, the administrative and military heart of the province.
"Halt! This is the residence of the Governor! Who dares cause a disturbance at the break of dawn?" At the main gate of the provincial office, guards wielding spears blocked our path, shouting menacingly. Dragging a bound innkeeper behind us, we must have looked incredibly suspicious.
Jincheol glared at them, his hand drifting toward the hilt of his sword, but I raised a hand to stop him. "Easy, Jincheol. Save your strength for when we raid the estate. This is a legitimate state institution."
Dismounting, I pulled the inspector's mapae and King Sejong's red royal decree from my robes, thrusting them right before their eyes. "I am Kim Jinseong, the Right Assistant Minister of Taxation. I have come to see the Chungcheong Governor by royal decree. Open the gates at once."
Upon seeing the mapae and the royal decree, the guards gasped, threw down their spears, and prostrated themselves on the ground. "W-We shall fetch the Governor immediately!"
A moment later, the Chungcheong Governor emerged from the gates, his face twisted in deep displeasure. Even though I carried a royal decree, a senior third-rank Assistant Minister of Taxation from Hanyang was technically lower in rank than a junior second-rank Governor like himself.
"What brings you all the way to Chungcheong? It would have been polite to send word in advance, rather than making such a racket at my gates at the crack of dawn." The Governor kept his chin held high, refusing to bow, his posture dripping with arrogance.
I scoffed at his haughty attitude and pointed at the trembling innkeeper. "Save the pleasantries. First, you must lock this man in the deepest dungeon of your office. He is a key accomplice in tax evasion, so keep him quiet as the grave until this matter is resolved."
"Hmph. Even if you are a high-ranking official of the Ministry of Taxation, you are overstepping your bounds. This is the Chungcheong Provincial Office, under my jurisdiction. To order me to imprison a criminal without my consent... Next, I suppose you will be demanding my troops?"
"Precisely. Mobilize and arm three hundred of your elite patrolmen and thirty armored soldiers. I need to pay a visit to the Chief State Councillor's in-laws and raid their grand estate."
The Governor's eyes nearly popped out of his head. He let out a hollow, incredulous laugh before roaring with icy fury. "How insolent! I am a junior second-rank Governor who oversees the military and administration of this entire province! Even if you carry His Majesty's inspector decree, you cannot arbitrarily mobilize provincial troops without a military tally from the Ministry of War! Furthermore, to touch the Chief State Councillor's in-laws... Have you utterly lost your mind?!"
A classic bureaucratic response, trying to crush me with rank and protocol. Jincheol reached for his sword in anger, but I lightly raised my hand to stay him. Instead, I leisurely pulled a red silk pouch from my robes. *Clink.* What slid out of the pouch was one half of a circular copper token—the Left Tally of the military mobilization token, the King's own proof of legal military authority.
"Did you say a military tally?" The Governor's eyes shook as if struck by an earthquake the moment he saw the Left Tally in my hand. A red royal decree proving the King's command, coupled with the absolute authority to mobilize provincial troops. He realized with terrifying clarity just how much power King Sejong had invested in the man standing before him.
Yet, the Governor continued to tremble, unable to bring himself to issue the order. Even with legal authority on my side, if a local official feared the Chief State Councillor's wrath and dragged his feet with excuses, the investigation would stall. I took a step closer and whispered in his ear.
"The justification and the authority are already in my hands. However, if Your Excellency finds it truly too burdensome to strike at the Chief State Councillor's in-laws, you do not have to force yourself to mobilize the troops. Instead..." I stared intently into his eyes. "I will change my target starting today and thoroughly audit this Chungcheong Provincial Office. If I spend just three days digging through your books, do you think your head will remain attached to your shoulders?"
"..." Every ounce of color drained from the Governor's face. As the head of the province, the amount of embezzled budget and slush funds he had pocketed was surely astronomical. Now, a grim reaper from the Ministry of Taxation, armed with the King's military tally, was threatening to tear his office apart.
"Assistant Minister, a-are you threatening me?!"
"Make your choice. Will you have your ledgers audited by me and be dragged off to the Uigeumbu? Or will you be a loyal subject who willingly lent his troops to the state, shifting all the blame onto the Chief State Councillor's in-laws? Either way, I am taking the provincial troops today."
It was the classic double-bind trap I used to squeeze the necks of countless subsidiary CEOs back at the National Tax Service. Cold sweat poured down the Governor's forehead like rain. He feared the Chief State Councillor, but with a blade pressed against his own throat, he had no luxury to worry about another family's fate.
Finally, biting his trembling lip, the Governor turned and roared toward the courtyard. "G-Guards...! Throw this innkeeper into the subterranean solitary cell! And immediately mobilize thirty of our elite armored soldiers and three hundred patrolmen, fully armed... and place them under the command of the Assistant Minister...!"
"An excellent choice, Your Excellency." I offered a bright smile to the defeated Governor.
A short while later, 330 elite provincial soldiers, clad in chainmail and armed with spears and shields, lined up behind me. The rhythmic, metallic clatter of the marching regular army echoed across the courtyard. I turned to Gaetdong-i and Jincheol. "Well, we have the ledgers, and we have the army. Shall we?" I dug my heels into my horse's flanks.