Black Corporation: Joseon - Chapter 104
Episode 104 Hwang Hee, crisis overlapping! (2)
May, 9th year of King Sejong’s reign (1427, Jeongmi year).
An incident occurred in which Seo Dal, the son of Seo Seon, the chief judge, beat and seriously injured Pietro, a glass maker.
The beginning of the incident was truly absurd.
The reason was that Raphael and Pietro just passed in front of Seodal, who was walking down the street, without showing any courtesy.
“Have you seen such a cheeky guy? Know who I am! “Bring those bastards in right now and put them in the water!”
Gyeom-in (nowadays’ deacon), who had been obeying Seodal’s orders, stepped forward to stop him.
“The author, West, is a foreigner. Haven’t you heard the rumor? “It means that His Majesty the Crown Prince loves him!”
“I don’t want to hear it! No matter how much the Crown Prince cherishes him, he cannot ignore this kind of rudeness! “Catch me now!”
“Mr. West.”
“hurry!”
At Seodal’s command, Gyeomin sighed softly and gestured to the servants who followed him.
At the Gyeomin’s gesture, the servants chased after Pietro and Raphael with clubs in their hands.
“Stand!”
Pietro and Raphael, who were heading towards Area 51 without thinking, started running without even looking around when men with clubs ran towards them.
Raphael shouted to Pietro as he ran for dear life.
“You damn bastard! “This time, you played a trick on a woman from a certain house again!”
As he became accustomed to the Korean language, Pietro found the inside of Area 51 too stuffy and rented a house outside.
While living abroad with Raphael, Pietro clearly revealed the Italian man’s playboy nature.
Thanks to this, I was beaten or chased several times. That’s why they ran away as soon as the men with sticks came running, and Raphael argued with them.
Pietro responded to Raphael’s words with an expression of resentment.
“Not this time! “Probably not!”
“Amarani! “What bullshit!”
* * *
“Gotcha!”
“I feel bad that I was the first to tease him…”
“What bullshit!”
After a chase, Seodal’s servants caught Pietro and began beating him with clubs.
At that very moment, the soldiers of Area 51 came rushing in, along with Raphael, who ran away first.
“You guys! What are they doing, beating up officials wearing official uniforms? Hello! “Arrest them all!”
Upon hearing that Pietro had been beaten and seriously injured, Hyang immediately sighed.
“Whoa~. “Are you saying that you were tricking a woman from a certain house again this time?”
“They say that’s not true, they just beat me up for not being polite.”
“What does that mean?”
After receiving a report from Area 51’s security commander, Hyang dug into the case in detail. Hyang, who found out the whole story, hit the desk.
“Is there such a damn bastard! Where have you been acting like a bully? “I will respond to abuse of power with abuse of power!”
Hyang ran straight to Sejong.
“Have you heard, Abama?”
“heard. “This is a truly nasty incident.”
“The criminal Seo Dal must be severely punished. Beating an official in uniform in broad daylight is a serious crime! In addition, there are ongoing reports that the sinner’s daily behavior was that he believed in his father’s authority and committed all kinds of evil deeds, so this is also a serious crime!
“We must eradicate it from the root before the social situation of ‘innocent by authority, guilty by no law, guilty by inheritance, guilty by no law’ takes root!”
“Hmm…”
While King Sejong was pondering Hyang’s words, Seoseon, whose face was pitch black, approached King Sejong with a scroll.
“Something?”
“This is Sajikso. “I feel deeply responsible for this happening because I failed to properly discipline my child, and I would like to resign to take responsibility for my child’s sins.”
“I would like to refute the words of Abama Soja’s sentence. Please grant it.”
“Hehe.”
When King Sejong gave permission, Hyang criticized Seoseon.
“The sentencing sentence is truly shameless! Do all sins disappear through resignation? Even if I resign and return to my hometown, I am certain that I will live off my fortune and power. Is that punishment? Abama! I’m asking for you! Please punish the criminal as prescribed by the law!”
Hearing Hyang’s words, Seo-seon immediately bowed down on the floor and cried out earnestly.
“Your Majesty, the sinner is God’s only son! Please have mercy!”
In the end, Seoseon was dismissed from office and his official title and title were restored. And Seodal, the convict who committed the crime, was given 100 lashes, demoted to a Seoin, and banned from office for three generations. And for the crime of assaulting a government official wearing official uniform, Seodal’s slaves and butlers were all executed.
“The small people are being treated unfairly!”
“Shut up! If he was wearing official uniform instead of plain clothes, you would know that he was an official of the country, so what is wrong with assaulting such a person? I said it was a good escort! It has been revealed that you guys have done more than one evil deed under the pretext of being rude, so what is unfair about it? Execute the sentence immediately!”
On the day that Seodal was sentenced to death with a club, the governor ordered the soldiers to beat him with a club.
“Knock it down with all your might!”
“yep!”
That day, Seodal received 100 lashes from a club with all his might and became an asshole.
Seo-seon, who received her son who had become crippled, returned home shedding bloody tears.
“Even if my son has sinned, this is too much! Crown Prince! “I will never forget this!”
* * *
Hwang Hee, who heard this fact through the butler who rode from Hanseong, let out a long sigh.
“So what did your wife say?”
“If you think about all the sadness I’ve received so far…”
“I know what you mean.”
Was it the effect of the scent? The changed history was being subtly distorted.
Hwang Hui’s daughter, who had married Seodal, was unable to inherit the heir.
If Hwang Hee had not been her father-in-law, she would have had nothing to say even if she had been kicked out, but because of Hwang Hee, her daughter was able to keep her position. However, when Seodal’s concubine, whom he had openly adopted, gave birth to a son, he was experiencing the hardships of living with his in-laws.
In the end, Hwang Hee had to write and send an appeal to King Sejong asking him to allow his daughter to divorce.
Hwang Hee, who handed over the appeal, let out a long sigh.
“Huh~ The incident has been resolved, so why am I so anxious?”
Unfortunately, an even bigger incident awaited Hwang Hee.
It was a case involving Hwang Hee’s two sons.
* * *
It rained heavily during the summer monsoon season that year when the Seodal incident occurred. Due to heavy rain, contaminated water leaked from the Gahaksan gold mine and flowed into nearby rice fields.
“Get married! Jangayaaa! Go to the rice fields quickly! There’s an uproar! “It’s uproar!”
“yes?”
Jangdolsoe, who ran to his rice field at the shout of a neighboring farmer, collapsed and sat down on the spot.
The rice fields were full of muddy water with all sorts of foul odors, and the rice plants that had been growing well were turning yellow and drying out.
“What kind of mess is this?…”
“Send an investigator immediately and find out the reason!”
King Sejong, who received the report on the incident, immediately dispatched an investigator.
For King Sejong and the government, the mines of Mt. Gahak were very valuable.
* * *
Joseon maintained maximum secrecy in the process of developing gold and silver mines to avoid interference from the Ming Dynasty.
Therefore, most gold and silver mines were located in remote areas, including Gangwon-do.
As a result, secrecy could be maintained, but transportation and storage of mined and refined gold and silver became a problem.
The problem was that it was difficult to get the timing right when there was a need to urgently mobilize a large amount of funds.
To solve this problem, King Sejong gave orders to prospectors.
“Focus on investigating areas close to Hanseong.”
The places where it was discovered were the silver mine in Bupyeong and the mine in Gahaksan Mountain.
Although Bupyeong’s silver mine was larger in scale, King Sejong decided to give up on Bupyeong for that very reason.
“If people find out that our Joseon produces a lot of silver, people will attack us. “Keep it covered for now.”
“This is an excellent decision!”
The place chosen was the mine of Mt. Gahak. Although the quantity was small, gold, silver, and copper were produced, making it the optimal mine for King Sejong to provide a suitable excuse for the Ming Dynasty.
“We found a mine, but as you can see, the amount of mining is too small! “Don’t worry about the name!”
* * *
When Hyang heard the news of the accident that occurred near Mt. Gahak, he immediately knew the cause.
“Maybe the mine wastewater was the problem.”
In the process of refining gold, silver and copper, highly concentrated acids were used, resulting in the generation of large amounts of contaminated water containing heavy metals.
In addition, large quantities of heavy metals were mixed in the leachate gushing out of the mine shaft.
In such a situation, the extremely heavy rain during the rainy season mixed with contaminated water and leachate overflowing from the mine shaft, flooding the nearby rice fields.
Hyang, who personally visited the site and confirmed the situation, reported the situation to Sejong with the investigator and proposed a solution.
“We need to purchase all of the rice fields and fields that were damaged this time.”
“I heard that the soil was contaminated with poison. “It’s a purchase. Wouldn’t it be okay to buy it as a guest house?”
“The cost of vomiting is also significant. It is better to purchase it and then build a large-scale purification facility. “There’s no way something like this won’t happen again, right?”
In the end, King Sejong ordered Hojo to purchase the contaminated rice paddies and fields.
* * *
In the process of compensating farmers for damages and purchasing contaminated rice paddies and fields under King Sejong’s orders, Hwang Hui’s sons conspired and plotted the matter.
“older brother! older brother! “Have you heard the rumors?”
Hwang Bo-sin, who visited his older brother Hwang Chi-sin, mentioned the rumor and attracted Hwang Chi-sin’s attention.
“What rumor?”
“The rumor that the government is purchasing the rice paddies and fields around Mt. Gahak!”
“It’s not a rumor, it’s a fact.”
In response to Hwang Chi-shin’s answer, Hwang Bo-shin looked around and quietly brought out the main point.
“older brother. Let’s have some fun.”
“fun? “What fun?”
“I just want to smell some money.”
Hwang Bo-sin’s words made Hwang Chi-sin look tempted.
“The smell of money? It’s good. “But how?”
“The lands being compensated this time. “Isn’t that under Hojo’s jurisdiction?”
“yes.”
“Brother, come forward and say that. “I heard that Hojo has a lot of work these days and is constantly crying. How much would he like it if you came forward?”
“I’m stepping forward… Are you trying to play a prank on the land register?”
“You understand! If you change the lower grade to a higher grade, wouldn’t you be able to at least double it? “Then how much is the compensation?”
Hwang Chi-shin nodded at Hwang Bo-shin’s words.
Joseon received land tax on a per-unit basis. Here, grain was the area that could produce 300 horses of grain. Therefore, the grain area was bound to vary depending on the soil quality. Approximately, the area of 1 grain of upper grade land was 4/9 of the area of 1 grain of lower grade land.
This was exactly what Hwang Bo-shin was aiming for.
“All of our money was taken away and we couldn’t even receive bribes… How long has it been since you smelled our money? Even now, when my wife asks me to give her a gold ring, I have to have money to give it to her or not!”
Hwang Chi-shin thought for a moment and then nodded.
“Okay, let’s do it!”
In the end, Hwang Hee’s two sons worked together and altered the land register documents to convert low-grade rice fields into high-grade rice fields, then collected the corresponding compensation and pocketed the difference.
Hwang Hee’s eldest son, who worked at Hojo, falsified the documents, and the second son deceived the owner of the rice field and created a receipt claiming that he had received the correct amount.
* * *
The reason the incident was revealed was because of the scent.
“You took on the work again today… I don’t know if this is going to lead to Daericheonggak…”
Hyang, who was checking the records from Hojo while complaining, tilted his head.
“Why is the cost of purchasing contaminated land in Mt. Gahak like this?”
Gahaksan was a neighboring neighborhood to the neighborhood where Hyang lived in the 21st century. Because of that relationship and because he was an important source of income for the government, Hyang knew quite a bit of information about Gahaksan.
“This is a bit strange… Nae-gwan!”
The person who called the eunuch immediately gave an order.
“Go straight to Hojo and bring back the land register for the Gahaksan area. And the copy kept in the archives.”
“Yes sir!”
After cross-checking the land ledger kept in Hojo, a copy kept in the records office, and the land records uploaded during this compensation process, the county confirmed that the documents had been manipulated.
“You damn bastards! “You have to tell Abama!”
King Sejong was very angry when he heard from Hyang that the official document had been fabricated.
“This is such an outrageous thing! Hello! “Bring Daehoon to me right now!”
“Yes, Your Highness!”
King Sejong, who summoned Daesaheon, immediately issued an order.
“If necessary, find the culprit, even if it means investigating all of Hojo’s officials!”
“I follow your orders!”
In accordance with the order given by King Sejong, the Saheonbu robbed Hojo’s officials from top to bottom.
As a result, Hwang Hee’s children were found.
Hwang Hee’s wife, who became thoughtful after her two sons were imprisoned at the same time, once again sent a butler to Hwang Hee.
Hwang Hee, who heard the news from the deacon, felt like the sky was falling. Hwang Hee, who was staring blankly at the sky, began to write her resignation letter.
“This won’t be the end, but…”
Even in history before Hyang intervened, Hwang Hui’s sons had caused a serious accident by falsifying official documents, and this time, Hwang Hui’s sons had also caused a serious accident.
——
Author’s note.
Seodal’s case was dramatized based on the actual Sinchang Ajeon murder case.
Hwang Hee’s son Geon adapted the story based on the theft of the royal palace by his illegitimate son, Hwang Jung-saeng, and the related incident of Hwang Bo-sin being dismissed from his job.
The death of rice fields due to leakage of contaminated water from the Gahaksan Gold Mine was substituted for what actually happened in the great flood of 1972.