Black Corporation: Joseon - Chapter 202
Episode 202: The Chief’s Favorite – Monopoly. (2)
No matter what anyone says, the most sold products at the monopoly were candy and salt.
* * *
Candy was imported and sold from the Ming Dynasty, and was a product whose import and distribution were strictly controlled by the government.
“Demand is gradually increasing, but the catch is that all of it is imported. “I have to find a replacement…”
Hyang, who was so worried, secretly opened his eyes to Suragan’s master.
“Hey, Susu.”
“Yes sir.”
“What ingredients can make it sweet?”
“Isn’t there a request?”
“Doesn’t grain syrup consume a lot of precious grains? That’s why we bring in candy.”
“That’s true…”
Suksu, who was speechless, kept his mouth shut for a long time and searched for memories.
How much time has passed? Sooksu’s face brightened.
“ah!”
“Has something occurred to you?”
“There is radish!”
“Muju? ah!”
In response to Sooksu’s answer, something suddenly occurred to Hyang. It was an old TV program I saw while wandering aimlessly on an Internet video site in the 21st century.
The content of the program was ‘Fuck you!’ It was the origin of the word, and one of the many types of origin was related to radish.
“Muju is also sweet…”
Hyang nodded, but Sook-su didn’t have a good expression.
“But to get radish alcohol as sweet as candy, you would need a huge amount.”
“That is true. Anyway, thank you.”
“No.”
After thanking Suksu, Hyang turned around and continued to walk while muttering.
“Mu-ra… there was something… there was…”
However, because the lab and Area 51 had a lot of work to do, Hyang could no longer just focus on nothing.
A few days later. Hyang, who was sleeping with the Crown Princess, woke up screaming.
“sugar beet! There it was! You found it! “That’s great, my head!”
“Lowering! Lowering! “What’s happening all of a sudden?”
The Crown Princess, who had woken up from a good night’s sleep to the sight of the incense making a loud noise, was startled and called out to the incense.
“Lowering! What’s going on? “Did you have a bad dream?”
“Oh no. “It’s because I remembered the answer to a problem I’ve been thinking about.”
“Is that so?”
After comforting the Crown Princess, who was looking at her with an anxious face, Hyang got up from her seat and headed toward Seo-an, which was placed on one side. Hyang, who had written ‘sugar beet’ on a piece of paper lying in the library, was suddenly startled and started scratching the paper with the nib of his golden pen.
“Ahh… hey! “You bastard!”
“Lowering! “What’s going on?”
“Oh, it’s nothing.”
Although she repeatedly said that the scent was okay, the Crown Princess did not back down.
“I will call the doctor.”
“I said it’s okay….”
“No! “Look here!”
The royal eunuch who was waiting outside quickly responded to the crown prince’s call.
“Yes, Manora. “Did you call me?”
“Bring the doctor right away. right now!”
“yes. Manora!”
* * *
Eventually, this midnight commotion reached King Sejong and Queen Soheon the next day.
“Be careful about your health.”
“Yes Abama.”
King Sejong’s story was short and simple, but Queen Soheon’s story was different.
“What did Eui say?”
The Crown Princess answered Queen Soheon’s question right away.
“I thought it was because you were using up a lot of mental energy these days. So I made a decoction to restore energy and offered it to you.”
“Good job. “Hey, count.”
“Yes mamama.”
“I hope you keep in mind that everything about the crown prince does not belong to him alone.”
“I’ll keep that in mind, mama.”
After that, Queen Soheon’s nagging continued for a long time. Of course, the pressure on the second generation did not go away either.
In the end, Hyang was exhausted and had to leave the palace.
“Then I will go and take care of business, so the Crown Princess can go first.”
“yes. “Please take care of it.”
“I will.”
Hyang, who sent the Crown Princess first, let out a long sigh.
“Whoa~. “It’s hard, it’s hard.”
Hyang, who was complaining, hit her mouth with her hand.
“No matter how much you sleep and wake up, this guy’s group is the problem. This guy’s group is the problem!”
“Lowering?”
“I’m just talking to myself! Let’s go!”
When the eunuch, who was looking at the situation with a worried expression, called out, Hyang walked briskly as if nothing had happened.
* * *
That night, King Sejong sang Hyang. In a situation where not only the officers but also the internal officers were sent away, King Sejong confirmed the facts to Hyang.
“I didn’t speak in the morning because it was like that, but is it because of what I wrote on paper last night?”
“I was writing down what came to mind, but I wrote it wrong…”
“You said it was because you wrote it wrong?”
“yes.”
“Hmm…”
When Sejong narrowed his eyes and glared, Hyang secretly looked away.
Sejong, who was glaring at that scent, asked a question again.
“Have you looked at the phonetics book we brought in recently?”
“yes.”
“Good. “I’m going to borrow it soon.”
“yes.”
“Go and rest.”
“Yes, Abama, please enjoy your meal in peace.”
Sejong muttered softly as he watched Hyang politely bow and leave.
“I need to catch that bastard someday and shake it off…”
Meanwhile, Hyang, who came out, let out a long sigh.
“Whoa~. “I guess I’ll have to be busy for a while.”
It was a fierce battle of wits between the father who wanted to make him work and the child who did not want to work.
* * *
Although there was such a commotion, the county that remembered the sugar beet sent a proclamation not only to the entire Joseon Dynasty but also to the eastern frontier.
Of course, it was natural that there were various difficulties while making the proclamation.
“What is the Chinese character for Muju?”
As Hyang was writing a document and struggling with the word for radish, Jeong Cho, who came to report, intervened.
“It’s called nabok (蘿蔔). “I use the character mu bok (蔔) for pine mistletoe (na).”
“ah! okay! thank you!”
As Hyang was delighted and looked up the Chinese character dictionary, Jeong Cho asked a question.
“Why are you suddenly looking for Chinese characters?”
In response to New Year’s Day’s question, Hyang quickly explained the reason.
“Hmm…”
After listening to the explanation of the fragrance, Jeong Cho stroked his beard and was lost in thought. After reminiscing for a moment, Jeong Cho opened his mouth.
“Now that I think about it… I remember eating similar vegetables in Myeongguk. The name is probably… Ah! “I would have written it as cheomchae (甜菜)!”
“Is that so? thank you!”
When Hyang expressed his sincere gratitude, Jeong Cho smiled. Although he was his superior and the crown prince of this country, Hyang was someone who sometimes felt like his own grandson.
Jeong Cho, who was smiling so warmly, soon remembered the purpose of his visit and held out the book he had brought.
“This is a report that records the development status of steam engines so far.”
“ah! thank you Were there any good results?”
“Performance is slightly better than last quarter, but there are still many areas that need further improvement.”
The scent of Jeongcho’s answer whetted my appetite.
“Tsk! I’m glad that performance has improved a bit. Although there are many different sayings coming from all directions, there is a saying that goes, ‘You can walk a thousand miles at the pace of an ox. Even if it is slow, you can still walk at the pace of an ox.’ Please encourage the craftsmen and officials not to give up.”
“Yes sir.”
Jeongcho bowed his head and responded to Hyang’s request.
* * *
In this way, a proclamation to search for ‘cheomchae’ was distributed throughout the country. However, there were many types of vegetables with that name. This was because the word ‘cheomchae’ itself meant ‘sweet vegetables.’
“The bottom line is that the body has to suffer.”
After seeing the vegetables that had come up like that, I divided them into different types and started tasting them one by one.
Through that process, Hyang was able to find sugar beets – to be exact, raw sugar beets before breed improvement took place.
Hyang shook his head after tasting the result of boiling down the juice from the beets he found.
“It’s bland. “There was a reason the sugar cane broke.”
In fact, sugarcane maintained its mainstream position in the 21st century because it showed a huge difference from sugar beets in terms of profitability.
After checking the results, Hyang made a decision.
“It’s not profitable as it is. “I guess we need to improve the breed.”
The township handed over sugar beets to the department in charge of improving varieties of various grains.
“This is it…”
The researchers in the department who had given Hyang a new homework looked perplexed.
“Like the melon from last time, why are you looking for something sweet like this?”
“It’s like a melon or something.”
The officials who received homework from Hyang looked embarrassed and whispered.
* * *
Anyway, the main products of the monopoly were salt and candy, no matter what anyone said.
However, as the year passed, a powerful product emerged that threatened the status of these two products.
The name of the product was ‘salve’.
The invention of salve was also a work of incense.
* * *
On a hot summer day in the 10th year of King Sejong’s reign (1429, the year of King Sejong’s reign), Naegeumwi Gapsa (甲士) came into the sight of Hyang, who went outside to take a short rest.
“Why are you walking like that?”
Gapsa answered the question asked by Hyang, who was curious about the way he was walking erratically, with a puzzled look on his face.
“I had a boil on my butt not long ago, and it made me really angry…” “
Oh my! “Go see a doctor right away.”
Gapsa responded to Hyang’s words with an embarrassed expression.
“I already went to see him, but he said he had to cut it off…”
“Ah…”
Hyang nodded without realizing it at Gapsa’s answer.
“I’ll write up an order for you, so you can go home and get some recuperation.”
“I am so sorry!”
At Hyang’s words, Gapsa expressed his sincere gratitude and bowed deeply. However, he looked awkward due to the pain of the boil.
Hyang immediately returned to the room, wrote the order, handed it to Gapsa, and muttered with a serious look on his face.
“I forgot this…”
At the time, boils were a fatal disease in Joseon. The best treatment was to squeeze it out, but considering the sanitary conditions in Joseon at the time, this was a risky gamble.
“A little safer, a little cleaner!”
With this cry, they spread the method of disinfecting using alcoholic ethanol and distributed soap to improve hygiene. However, surgical procedures were still a last resort.
This was not just a problem in Joseon.
In the West, the situation was similar until modern disinfection methods were spread in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Surgical operations or procedures were ‘done with one foot in the coffin.’
“Come to think of it… Abama also suffered from boils, right? And did King Jeongjo say that the cause of death was boils?”
Hyang muttered with a serious face.
Although they did not know about incense, there were even scholars who talked about Deungchang as the biggest reason for King Munjong’s short life in history before the intervention of incense.
King Munjong suffered so much at the time that King Sejong, who could not bear to see the crown prince struggling in pain, prayed to the heavens and issued an order to unconditionally pardon all criminals in the country who had committed crimes below the level of punishment of hard labor. It was about that. (Note 1)
However, King Munjong’s boils recurred frequently, and he eventually died two years after ascending the throne. (Note 2)
“We have to find a solution…”
Hyang, who was walking here and there while looking for a solution, soon stopped walking. He stopped and snapped his fingers.
“That’s it! salve!”
* * *
The place where Hyang opened his blacksmith shop in the 21st century was in the countryside on the outskirts of Yangsan.
Since it was a place where many elderly people with an average age of slightly over 70 gathered, it was common for people to suffer from various illnesses.
There was a hospital in Yangsan City just a short distance away, but the place that residents used most was the Oriental Medicine Clinic located nearby.
It was run by an oriental medicine doctor who was as old as the residents and ‘aged with them’, and the residents visited this oriental medicine clinic when they felt even the slightest bit ill.
The most famous thing in that Oriental medicine clinic was the salve.
* * *
Note 1) The very thing that made the kings of Joseon tremble. Hankyoreh Ilbo. 2014.07.25
http://www.hani.co.kr/arti/science/science_general/648527.html
Note 2) Fighting against the Joseon Dynasty. Written by Bang Seong-hye, Window of the Times.