Black Corporation: Joseon - Chapter 146

Episode 146: Fall of that year. (1)

The 11th year of King Sejong’s reign (1429, the year of Giyu).

Later historians said, ‘This was a time of shock and fear for Joseon’s noblemen, especially local locals.’ Enough things were happening to say that.

As spring came, the examination was postponed to June. Unlike the past, which was pushed back, the government openly attracted talented people who had stayed in the countryside to the government.

By filling the middle and upper levels of the government with talented people who were selected from outside the political circles and evaluated to have knowledge and ability, it became possible to have more leeway in the control of lower-level officials.

However, it was the bills that were subsequently announced that shocked and scared local residents.

Beginning with the Interest Restriction Act, which was announced first, and continuing through the Tenancy Act, the bills devastated the economic foundations of local communities.

“You can’t just ignore this!”

“cancer! That’s right!”

“Mr. An is good at writing sentences, so Mr. An should write appeals!” We will live long!”

“Good!”

Among the local townsfolk, those whose names were written on coats of arms took the lead in writing appeals and presenting them to the local magistrate.

* * *

“I think this is a mistake…”

Goyang County Governor Han Min-cheol, who accepted the appeal from the villagers, carefully advised. However, the reaction from local fans was harsh.

“joy! “Mistakes are yours to make!”

“cancer! “Even if you ignore people, there is a fountain!”

“The governor just needs to accept our appeal!”

Han Min-cheol held back his anger at the strong and arrogant reaction of the locals and accepted the appeals.

“I understand. “Take care of the rest yourself.”

“Hmm! “Don’t worry!”

The locals who left the governor’s office gathered at the house of Nam Jinsa, the oldest person, and raised their voices.

“The governor is so arrogant! Take care of everything yourself? “Where are you being scared?”

“We must demand the abolition of the law prohibiting residents from suing residents! “They’re not allowed to sue, so they’re so arrogant that they’re acting like that!”

While most of those gathered loudly criticized the county governor, there were some who were worried about the future.

“But it is clear that what we are doing now is against the Lord’s wishes.”

As the young scholar could not hide his worries, the middle-aged scholar sneered.

“So should I go back and look for the appeal? I didn’t write it, but the dog raised at home wrote it? ”

The scholar’s face turned red when he raised a problem with the middle-aged scholar’s sarcastic remarks. The middle -aged scholar now compared himself to a dog. The young scholar protested with a bright red face.

“That’s not true…”

However, the young scholar’s protest was blocked by Jinsa Nam, who was sitting at the head of the table.

“Don’t worry, we’re not the only ones filing an appeal. “Now those worries are groundless.”

“… yes. “I apologize.”

Jinsa Nam, who had silenced the young scholar, turned to the audience and continued speaking.

“We are not the only ones writing an appeal now. The noblemen of Yeongnam as well as Honam are already filing appeals. “There are people like us who use it for personal use, and there are also people who use it for a living.”

“Oh oh!”

“yes!”

When Master Nam explained the situation, all the noblemen gathered cheered. When the commotion inside the room subsided, Namjinsa spoke to the scholars.

“Now is the time to act boldly. Worrying about the future is just unfounded worry and the behavior of a petty person. “A risk!”

The last words were spoken to a scholar who was ‘lucky in the spirit of the Lord.’ The young scholar who was reprimanded lowered his head with a red face in humiliation.

* * *

“Whew~. “Foolish people…”

Han Min-cheol sighed when he looked at the pile of complaints in front of him.

“If I post this much, I wonder if the Prime Minister will blink an eye… I don’t know that it would be fortunate if it wasn’t used as firewood for the furnace of Gyeongbokgung Palace. Tsk!”

Han Min-cheol, who was clicking his tongue and complaining about the behavior of scholars, shouted outside.

“Is there anyone out there!”

“Yes, Nari!”

When Ajeon, who was waiting outside, came in, Han Min-cheol pointed to the mountain of complaints.

“Record all the senders of that appeal and then send it to Hanseong.”

“Yes, Nari.”

At Han Min-cheol’s command, Ah-jeon went out with a pile of petitions in her arms.

Han Min-cheol, who was holding a gold pen to handle the appeal issue and write a report, suddenly burst into laughter.

“It would be worth seeing even if the Lord lord gave me a bidap instead of presenting a question. “If I do well, are you going to end up with a vase?”

Mincheol Han was working at Ijo in Hanseong until recently.

A few years ago, through a collective protest by high-ranking officials and magistrates, the term of office of local officials was shortened and the rotation of central and local officials was decided.

And one of the first winners was Han Min-cheol, who came down to Goyang County.

Han Min-cheol, who worked as a Jeong 4th rank educator in the Joseon Dynasty, had many opportunities to watch the contests held by King Sejong and the ministers.

And it was Han Min-cheol, who had seen King Sejong or Hyang crush the ministers with verbal warfare several times in that contest.

“It’s not about scolding them unconditionally, but logically. They are people who don’t know how much it is to get rid of people by gently scratching their insides, so they decided to kill themselves.”

Han Min-cheol, who was thinking of the ministers who were so cruelly beaten by King Sejong that they were in favor of reducing the time and number of contests, urgently shook his head.

“Eek! Forget it, forget it! “If you do something wrong, you will be punished with scissors tonight!”

Han Min-cheol, who came down to Goyang County, never wanted to lose his comfortable sleep time.

* * *

“Hehe…. This is so….”

As Han Min-cheol expected, King Sejong burst out laughing in amazement as he looked at the mountain of complaints.

“I expected it, but I wonder how it couldn’t escape like this….”

King Sejong’s words caught the attention of Yeonguijeong Lee Jik.

“That’s because there are so many interests at stake.”

“It is the duty of those who have learned to let go of what they are holding in their hands… Tsk!”

Sejong clicked his tongue, opened the scroll, and read its contents.

King Sejong, who had been reading several appeals, nervously threw them out.

“Holy shit! Except for the handwriting, everything is almost the same! No creativity! Creativity!”

Each of them was an appeal, starting with ‘Someone who lives somewhere is farming for money’ and continuing with the main text, ‘The measures taken by the Lord Sang are damaging to tradition and abandoning the royal way…’. Since most of the passages quoted there were similar, King Sejong said, ‘There is no creativity!’ It was criticized.

“Please read it.”

“Yes, Your Highness.”

The ministers who read the appeals sent through merchant ships also laughed and reacted cynically. Kim Jeom looked at the appeals and reported them to King Sejong.

“Looking at these words, I can see how talented the people who were specially hired last time were.”

“That’s right.”

When the ministers agreed with Kim Jeom’s words, King Sejong sighed.

“Whoa~. If you pass the elementary school exam and say you want to study more, they give you a tax exemption for 30 years, but it’s only like this….”

‘It’s dangerous! If you do something wrong, you have to listen to the sermon again!’

Maeng Sa-seong, sensing a danger signal in Sejong’s dissatisfaction, quickly intervened.

“Therefore, the law prepared this time must be promulgated as soon as possible.”

“Yes!”

“Please announce it quickly!”

Similarly, the ministers who sensed danger sang in unison as soon as Maeng Sa-seong finished speaking.

King Sejong, who had finished his government affairs with his ministers at Pyeonjeon, sighed before facing the appeal.

“Whoa~.”

King Sejong, who was looking at the pile of appeals that were becoming overwhelming just by looking at them, gave an order to the merchant ship.

“Go and call the crown prince.”

“Yes, Your Highness.”

* * *

“Did you call me, Abama?”

“okay. “I called because I needed the crown prince’s help.”

“What happened?”

In response to Hyang’s question, King Sejong pointed to the petition with his finger. After seeing the pile of petitions, Hyang looked at Sejong.

“What is your appeal?”

“This is an appeal sent by those who are dissatisfied with the Interest Limitation Act and the Tenancy Act.”

“What will Soja do?”

King Sejong gave a simple answer to Hyang’s question.

“Write a response to the appeal.”

“yes?”

Hyang’s eyes opened wide for the first time in a long time.

Sejong explained in more detail.

“There are a lot of appeals, but they are not worth reading. However, it is our responsibility to provide an answer to the appeal.”

“It’s such an important matter. If you leave it to Soja, won’t the Saheonbu speak up?”

“Wouldn’t it be okay if only you and I knew? no. If you take charge, neither the Saheonbu nor the Saganwon will say anything. No, you probably can’t do it.”

“Is that so? “The secrets of the officials are…”

When Hyang kept mentioning the officials, King Sejong responded with an expression that it was no big deal.

“Either I compete with you every morning and evening for a month, or I have to keep my mouth shut and say nothing. The officials are the ones who will shut up when asked to choose between the two. “Has it happened to you once or twice?”

“Haona…”

As the scent continued to escape, Sejong’s expression became fierce.

“Choose.”

“yes?”

“Are you going to clean up the records on my behalf until I use up all the replies to the appeals that I uploaded, or are I going to organize the records at the records office?”

As soon as Sejong finished speaking, Hyang came closer to Sejong and asked.

“Which one should Soja do?”

Sejong, who looked dejected at Hyang’s quick change of attitude, silently pointed to a pile of appeals piled up on one side.

“Huh…”

Hyang, who was reading the appeal, had an expression of bewilderment.

‘I understand why Abama called me.’

As King Sejong evaluated during the day, the handwriting was diverse and the composition of the sentences was diverse, but the content was largely the same.

‘It’s not Ctrl+c or Ctrl+v…. Is the difference in rhyme (a rhyme that is added regularly at the end of a poem or sentence)? No creativity! Creativity!’

‘There is no creativity!’ Although his hometown and King Sejong criticized him, this was something that could not be helped.

Making sentences with Chinese characters required strict rules to be followed. Among the rules to be followed, the most basic and most important was rhyme. Regardless of whether it was verse or prose, this rhyme had to be kept well to be called a masterpiece.

In order to write sentences while maintaining this rhyme, rhyme (a list of Chinese characters allowed as rhyme) was a necessity for Chinese writers as well as Joseon writers.

Not only was it a matter of luck, but most of the quoted passages were also there.

‘This is it… It’s a hassle to write the answers one by one. In the 21st century, the autocomplete function….’

“Ah!”

With an idea that suddenly occurred to her, Hyang began to classify the appeals she had read into several groups.

“Crown, what are you doing?”

After seeing Hyang’s behavior, Sejong couldn’t help but ask a question.

Hyang responded to King Sejong’s question by continuing to classify the appeals.

“When I read the appeals, there were several appeals written on roughly similar topics. So we gather them together.”

“What are you going to do with that?”

“We will create answers according to the categories and then print them.”

“huh?”

In response to Hyang’s response, Sejong moved to sit next to Hyang. Sejong, who sat next to Hyang, looked closely.

Sejong, who carefully examined the appeals classified by Hyang, nodded.

“I see. “There may be several sentences, but the meaning contained within them is the same, so there is no need to write a response individually.”

Sejong, who was nodding his head and appraising it, sighed softly.

“Whoa~. The problem is sincerity. “It means that they carelessly responded to the appeals raised by the people.”

“If we are talking about sincerity, have they ever shown sincerity to Abama? If you have passed the civil service examination in the past, it is your duty to apply for the civil service exam. “But they only drank sweet water under the pretext of studying mathematics, so this isn’t in good faith, is it?”

“That’s right.”

In the end, most of those who submitted appeals had to receive a printed response.

“Such rudeness!”

“No matter how much you are the chief minister, it is not right to treat us so poorly!”

Many people shouted loudly, but those who looked at the contents had somber faces.

‘Even though it is printed, the content is clear!’

‘I was pushed out of the cause!’

Meanwhile, there were a very small number of scholars who received the reply written by King Sejong in his own hand. And those few scholars soon received an order to come to Gyeongbokgung Palace.