Black Corporation: Joseon - Chapter 147

Episode 147: Fall of that year. (2)

The local noblemen, who saw that Sangso with his earnest heart had returned with a printed version of Bidap, immediately implemented the following method.

“Who was the person who had a relative who served in the government?”

The second method chosen by local noblemen was ‘personal connections’.

A tile-roofed house in Bukchon, Hanseong. Among the many tile-roofed houses in the Bukchon area, two scholars were having a conversation in the sarangchae of a medium-sized tile-roofed house.

“Hey nephew! So, isn’t your nephew asking you to speak directly to the chief minister?”

Kang Cheong-su, the owner of the house, responded to the old scholar’s words with an embarrassed expression.

“Uncle, it’s easier said than done. “Even though he is a junior officer who has entered the military service, he is the lowest of the low!”

“But are you going to just watch the family’s crisis? “Isn’t your nephew from our family?”

When the words ‘family crisis’ came out, Kang Cheong-su’s face hardened.

No, it wasn’t just the expression that hardened. Even his voice and the names he used became stiff.

“It’s a family crisis… uncle. I would like to ask you something. Excluding my late father and my brothers, how many of you have served in the military?”

“huh? “What…”

In response to Kang Cheong-su’s question, his uncle gave a slightly embarrassed look. Kang Cheongsu continued to argue and listen.

“How many people in my rank and above have passed the Jinsa examination, and how many have passed the Saengwonsi examination? I only know more than 20! By the way, how many people, excluding my father and my brother, have run for public office? yes? There is no one! no one!”

“That’s…”

At Kang Cheong-su’s point, his uncle trailed off with an embarrassed expression on his face. Kang Cheongsu continued to argue and listen.

“If you have become a nobleman and passed the civil service examination, it is your duty to enter the civil service examination, but what did you all do? Haven’t you been sitting in your hometown? What did you do when you sat down? “Didn’t you know that the sky was high, only that the land was wide, so you only increased the land?”

“That is for the revival of the family….”

“There are degrees of revival! I heard a rumor that you can’t even take a step within a hundred miles of where our family is without stepping on our land. “Is that honorable?”

“That’s…”

“If you don’t have enough academic skills even after passing the state exam, you are abusing the privilege given by the Chief Minister to study a little more and enter the civil service, and then you are talking about a family crisis!”

“Your words are a bit harsh…”

Kang Cheong-su exploded at the sight of his uncle saying that his words were harsh.

“What’s so bad about it? Thanks to you, do you know how much trouble the government is having right now because revenues and expenditures are not aligned? When a crisis occurs, those who caused the crisis must take responsibility! “Don’t bother me by coming here for no reason!”

“Hey nephew! “Aren’t you also from our Kang family?”

“You only come here when you have work to do and don’t talk about your family!”

At Kang Cheong-su’s words, his uncle shouted with a red face.

“Have you seen such a vicious guy! A person who ignores his roots is a subject of the Lord! I won’t leave you alone! “I will report it to the Constitutional Court!”

Kang Cheong-su also raised his voice and responded to those words.

“Let’s give it a try! Is there nothing I can say? “If you have passed the civil service examination, it is right for you to enter the civil service examination and become a pillar and beam of the country. However, let’s consider whether it is right to abuse the benefit given by the Prime Minister and get rich!”

“Egh! “Tsk!”

Hearing Kang Cheong-su’s words, the uncle immediately stood up, spat on the floor, and turned around.

“I will never talk to you again! No, you will be kicked out of the family!”

Kang Cheong-su also accepted his uncle’s words without hesitation.

“Sure! “Because I don’t want to be criticized for being from the same family as these unscrupulous people!”

After the uncle went out after shouting like that, Kang Cheong-su called the slave.

“It’s a mess! “Go to the palace and get some salt and sprinkle it in front of the gate!”

“yes? yes!”

Kang Cheong-su’s argument with his uncle symbolized the division between the nobility living in Hanseong, that is, the nobility who built the bureaucratic society, and the nobility in the provinces.

* * *

The new elites who emerged as a new power class at the end of the Goryeo Dynasty were greatly divided with the founding of the Joseon Dynasty. One side was loyal to Goryeo – rather than loyalty, it was about maintaining the system called Goryeo by fixing broken parts – and the other side was the side that supported the revolution led by Lee Seong-gye and Jeong Do-jeon.

As the Yeokseong Revolution succeeded, the new noblemen who supported Goryeo went into hiding in the countryside. And the new leaders who helped Yi Seong-gye and Jeong Do-jeon succeed in the revolution created a new power group centered around Hanseong.

It was the first crack in the new godfathers.

As time passed and Joseon’s government organization was created, other cracks began to form. The reason why a new rift arose was that the government of Joseon, which called for royal politics, was an extremely small government.

“The problem was that this was a symbol of ‘the intention was good, but the reality was a gutter.’”

When preparing for the political opinion announcement, which was the starting point of Gyeongjang, the head pointed out this problem.

From the perspective of ‘royal politics’, the essence of Neo-Confucianism or Confucianism, politics based on ‘benevolence’ and ‘virtue’ did not require a large government. Rather, it was easy for a large government to interfere with ruling the people with benevolence and virtue.

Therefore, early Joseon reformers made the Joseon government extremely small.

In addition, the civil service examination system was implemented to widely find and hire talented people.

It was good up to this point.

However, a problem arose in that the seats in the government were limited and those who passed the state examination through the Sibnyeonsi and Byeolsi were produced almost every year.

The tax exemption system was created by the government to ensure the livelihood of those who could not join the government and to encourage those who wanted to enter the government to continue to do so.

‘Instead of being chased by life, focus on math and attract more talented people to the government.’

This was the original intention, but soon it degenerated into a means of enrichment.

As a result, there are even people who do not even think about entering the civil service and look at the past for enrichment. They were people who aimed to receive tax exemption benefits symbolized by the white and red trophies obtained by passing the Saengwonsi or Jinsasi exams.

When the tax exemption benefits of these wealthy people ended, their sons passed the state exam and received tax exemption benefits, and the land they inherited through bonsai became capital to acquire more land.

However, if the central officials were at fault, that was not the case. They also enriched themselves through various public trusts and bribes, and inherited power using the eumseo system.

In this way, the central noblemen began to look at the past to aim for monopoly of power, and the local noblemen began to look at the civil service examination for the purpose of enrichment.

It was not just that the local and central regions were divided over power and economic issues.

Another reason was that those who worked as government officials and left the country were ostracized in their hometowns.

This was a mistake on both sides.

Those who returned home often looked down on the nobility of their hometown – even though they were their relatives – as ‘country bastards’. On the contrary, the nobility in their hometown disparaged those who had left the country, calling them ‘snobbery-minded snobs.’

As these processes accumulated, a wall was created between the noblemen centered in Hanseong and the noblemen of the provinces.

“And that in just over 30 years.”

Hyang, who was preparing to announce his political views, had to smile bitterly and mutter.

“Was Teacher Samcheonpo like that? “The reason why Joseon became a mess due to power politics in the later period was because the power structure was an extremely small pyramid.”

-Regardless of time and history, the power structure is a pyramid. And the top of the pyramid is occupied by those with the same interests as the most powerful person.

The problem of secular politics became a problem because the powerful and those who preyed on them not only ate the top of the pyramid, but the entire pyramid. The chaos arose because the power organization itself, the Joseon Dynasty’s royal court, was too small.

To solve this problem, the government included it in its political policy, and what King Sejong adopted and actively implemented was the quantitative expansion of the central government, symbolized by the government. In addition, opening the door to the northwest region and to Westerners was a measure to block the problem of monopolization of power by certain groups.

* * *

When Hanseong and the south were in turmoil due to clashes between the center and the provinces, the north – to be exact, the northeastern region – was also in turmoil.

The reason this side was noisy was because of resolving all the trials and errors that occurred in the process of settling the Joseon people and the noble Jurchen people who were promoted through social democratic policies.

Wow! Jump up!

“You bastards! “I will kill them all!”

Almost at the same time as the loud sound of the table being overturned, the door to the administrative officer’s office opened as if torn apart.

The person who kicked down the door was Kim Jong-seo.

Kim Jong-seo, who landed in the yard as if flying, reached the place where the horses were in just a few steps and mounted the horse.

“Stop it! Stop it!”

“catch! catch!”

As soon as Kim Jong-seo got on the horse, the people around him quickly surrounded him.

“Make way!”

“oh my! Deputy Commander! What’s going on again?”

“These bastards sent the wrong documents again! I gave up on Unmok a long time ago, and I gave up on the suicide note now! What if even the numbers are wrong? “I will kill them all!”

On both sides of Kim Jong-seo were two mounted gun barrels, shining viciously.

Seeing Kim Jong-seo come out armed and determined, not only the civil servants but also the soldiers around him rushed to stop him.

“Oh hey! Hold on! “Hold on!”

“Hold on!”

“Whenever you go, leave the presidents behind! Leave the Fuhrer behind! “I’ll attach guards!”

The chaos that unfolded was stopped by a gunshot that came out of nowhere.

bang!

At the sudden sound of a gunshot, Kim Jong-seo and the people who were trying to stop him stopped and looked at the place where the gunshot was heard.

Hwang Hee, who had come out of the administrator’s office, was standing where the gunshot was heard.

Hwang Hee looked at Kim Jong-seo with a stiff face.

“where are you?”

“It’s Nokdundo.”

“I’m going to send a dispatch, so you come along.”

“But…”

“Kak! “Come into my room right now!”

“Yes….”

Kim Jong-seo, who was shocked by Hwang Hee’s shouting, calmly got off his horse and entered Hwang Hee’s administrative office.

The soldier who saw this spoke to a colleague standing next to him.

“Tiger Deputy Kim Jong-seo is also calm in front of Captain Hwang?”

“They say catching a pheasant is a hawk. By the way, today’s Pabal bun is with you and Dong-soo, right?”

Upon hearing his colleague’s words, Dong-su swore.

“Damn it! “If I have to go all the way to Nokdundo Island, my butt will be on fire!”

* * *

As the ‘Dongbuk-myeon development’ progressed, this word began to circulate among newly immigrated Joseon people and prominent Jurchen people, especially Jurchen people.

A flock of tigers came from far away in Hanseong.

Among the flock of tigers that came, there are two most fearsome tigers, one is Kim Jong-seo and the other is Lee Jing-ok.

Those whom the Jurchen people described as a ‘pack of tigers’ included not only Joseon soldiers but also civil servants.

The first sight of the civil servants who came up to Dongbuk-myeon with Hwang Hui were typical civil servants. However, as time passed, the temperament of these civil servants became very rough.

To be more precise, they have turned into ‘Jurchens wearing official uniforms’.

As administrative work was carried out in the Dongbuk-myeon settlement, the horseback riding skills of the civil servants belonging to the pioneer group improved greatly.

In the beginning, civil servants calmly sat at the headquarters of the pioneering corps and government offices in new settlements and did their work. However, although the number of people remained the same, the problem was that the settlement area was getting wider and the number of Koreans and Jurchen people in the settlement area was increasing.

In the end, civil servants had to ride horses and travel to all directions to do their work. In this way, horseback riding became popular.

This does not mean that they became part of the Jurchen tribe by simply increasing their horseback riding skills.

Although many Jurchen people were noble, there were some Jurchen people who refused to be noble and rebelled, and there were also Jurchen people who attacked from outside the settlement, targeting the residents of the settlement.

Thanks to this, situations often arose where civil servants had to participate in battles.

This is what the civil servants said when they were told to undergo presidential training in Hanseong.

‘If the civil servants are in a situation where they can use the President, isn’t it the end?’

but. Such situations occurred frequently in Dongbuk-myeon, and civil servants adapted to the situation. Not only was he familiar with using Gapsikjangchongtong and Masangchongtong, but when he ran out of bullets, he used the bow and arrow he had with him to catch the Jurchen tribe.

“Oh my god…”

After being honored, the Jurchen tribe of the Ollyanghap tribe, who were in charge of guarding the civil servants along with the Joseon soldiers, asked the Joseon soldiers next to them.

“Are those noblemen civil servants? “What kind of bow can you shoot so well?”

The Joseon soldier answered with a sour face.

“In Joseon, everyone shoots like that, even women.”

One of the basic skills of scholars was archery, and one of the hobbies of women from wealthy families was archery.

“Oh my…”

The Jurchen tribe could not close their mouths after hearing the answer.

“As expected, it is a country of great elders!”

As they experienced such events, the civil servants became part of the Jurchen tribe. And among the civil servants who changed that way, the most bitter person was Kim Jong-seo.

Meanwhile, after checking the contents of the reports sent from Dongbuk-myeon, Hyang clicked his tongue slightly.

“Is it the Wild Wild West?…”