Black Corporation: Joseon - Chapter 355

Episode 355: People are the problem. In many ways.

While shipbuilding industry officials in the Mediterranean region were twisting their heads and muttering, in Area 51, incense was picking their ears and muttering.

“Who is going to curse at me? “Why are my ears itching so much?”

“Lowering.”

Hyang, who had been picking his ears with his little finger, straightened his posture when he sensed the presence of the inner coffin outside.

“What’s going on?”

“Grand Prince Anpyeong has arrived.”

Hyang frowned at the notice from the inspector.

“This bastard again…”

His mouth continued to growl, but his scent soon forced him to allow him to enter the room.

“Please stop by.”

“Yes sir.”

Anpyeong came in a moment later and bowed to Hyang.

“I would like to see you.”

“I saw it yesterday, and what else… If it’s a matter of the entertainment industry regulation office, I have nothing to say.”

As soon as Hyang came to a conclusion, Anpyeong immediately raised his voice.

“Brother, no, you! “The ceremonial office is the vocation that a minor priest should hold!”

Hyang nodded at Anpyeong’s words.

“If you think about what you’ve done since you were young, that’s true.”

When he was 4 years old, he was beaten on the calf because he wanted to become a sadang troupe, and when he became an adult, he went around the country to see all the shrine troupes and made King Sejong hold his back.

Anpyeong added strength to Hyang’s words.

“You just admitted it! A person must do his or her vocation to achieve the best results! So, please allow me to move it to the inspection office!”

“Personnel matters are decided by Abama.”

“Isn’t it a problem that Abama doesn’t give permission? So, if you could help me just a little bit….”

“Have you ever thought about why Abama didn’t allow it?”

“….”

Anpyeong suddenly closed his mouth in response to Hyang’s question.

* * *

As soon as he heard the rumor of the establishment of the ‘Entertainment Industry Control Office’, Anpyeong jumped up from his seat.

“Jechalcheong is the place where I should bury my bones!”

After hearing Anpyeong’s request as he visited Geunjeongjeon, King Sejong briefly asked:

“Have you finished arranging local music and secular songs?”

“I still have some left.”

“Stay where you are until the job is done. “Once that’s done, I’ll prepare a place for you at the Entertainment Industry Control and Inspection Office.”

“Abama!”

“I won’t tell you twice. “It is not permitted until the task is properly completed.”

After being rejected by King Sejong, Anpyeong came to Hyang and was having a hard time for several days.

* * *

“If you complete your work properly, Abama is the one who will move you without you having to say anything. When it comes to personnel issues, Abama Masi is more certain than anyone else.”

In response to Hyang’s words, Anpyeong presented the mediation plan he had come up with.

“Then even if it’s a concurrent job…”

“Hey, you bastard!”

Before Anpyeong could finish his words, Hyang shouted.

“What was the first principle that Abamamaghe established while carrying out the sutra? Concurrent employment is prohibited! But are you trying to destroy the principles that have barely been established because of you alone? Get out now! “If you want to move to the Jeong Printing Office, complete your work as quickly as possible!”

“Yes yep!”

“Why don’t you leave right away? “Check this out!”

“going!”

Anpyeong, overcome by the scent of incense, left the room as soon as he answered.

Looking at the back of Anpyeong running away, Hyang sighed and grumbled for a long time.

“Whoa~. The situation is already at a standstill because there are not enough people…”

* * *

As Hyang said, the first rule that King Sejong set when he started serving as a police officer was ‘no concurrent positions.’

Until then, it was standard for government officials, especially party superiors and higher, to hold concurrent positions. Because the officials under the party were short of people, one person had to take charge of the work of several ministries at the same time.

This was also related to the founding ideology of Joseon.

‘If the king follows the path of the sage and realizes royal politics, there is no need for a big government. The king’s virtue will shine everywhere, and the people will follow his virtue and live righteously and beautifully. If there is discord among the people, the learned and generous noblemen will enlighten them.’

* * *

After getting rid of the senior ministers through a great purge, King Sejong immediately began to increase the size of the government.

“When one person handles multiple tasks, the results are sluggish and lack depth.”

Under this justification, King Sejong banned concurrent positions and began to increase the number of people.

In addition, the forgery and embezzlement of official documents carried out by Hwang Hui’s sons provided justification for the ban on holding concurrent positions.

Of course, in order to run state affairs smoothly, there had to be people who would look at the overall framework, adjust policies, and advise the king, and party superiors took on this task.

However, as the scale of coordination increased significantly, the first problem to be solved was the lack of talent.

* * *

Although the past system was modified and the gates were widened to attract more and more talented people, the amount of work handed over to Sejong was easily surpassing the supply.

As the situation progressed, the pace of progress in the field began to slow down little by little. Therefore, what the ministers, prime ministers, and King Sejong were most concerned about was adjusting policy priorities.

And all kinds of methods were used to obtain talent.

* * *

Among the methods mobilized, the most useful was ‘appeal’.

Appeals were filed every time an unconventional policy was implemented by King Sejong. And every time an appeal came up, the officials got excited.

“This time, we have to rescue a large ship…”

“Wouldn’t it be okay since it’s Gyeongse’s side?”

What’s interesting is that those who submitted appeals seemed to have their own areas of expertise. The amount of appeals raised varied depending on which field King Sejong’s unconventional policy was related to.

And among those who stayed in seclusion in the middle of the night and filed an appeal out of anger, the officials who received King Sejong’s command rushed to those who gave useful opinions.

“Your opinion is fine, but try and see how different theory is from reality!”

* * *

As a steady stream of people entered public office through appeals, those who aimed to enter office through appeals began to appear.

Among those who submitted appeals, there were some who had truly extraordinary insight but went into seclusion for various reasons. But there were also many people who did tricks.

Those who were called because the content of the appeal was good held a discussion with King Sejong at Geunjeongjeon in front of the ministers. While watching the discussion, King Sejong and the ministers, who noticed the character and manpower of the person who submitted the appeal, immediately assigned him to an appropriate ministry. And many of those who entered in this way started at a slightly higher level than those who entered after attending Sogwa. People who saw this and were trying to trick people appeared.

“A well-written appeal is better than a small essay!”

People who used appeals to achieve success faster than others began to appear.

* * *

When a talented person was found through an appeal, the government announced the details of the appeal to the whole country through Jobo.

“I hope that you will think about this carefully and come up with a better opinion compared to the policy implemented by the government.”

Although it was made public with good intentions, there were people who misused it.

They meticulously transcribed the appeal written in the report and then posted the appeal the next time a new policy was issued in a similar field. It was not a matter of copying a single appeal, but rather combining the contents of several appeals to make it plausible.

Because the volume of appeals submitted every year was enormous, the recombined appeals easily passed the officials’ filter.

However, what those who used such trickery did not think about was that the final gateway was Sejong, and according to memory, there was a sad scent next to it.

“Don’t you think you’ve seen this somewhere?”

“I think I mixed a few things up.”

Once the scent was confirmed, King Sejong wrote the answer in red and returned it to the officials.

‘Re-examination.’

If this was written and the appeal came back, hell would unfold for the officials. This was because I had to search through all the appeals published in the newspaper over the past few years.

“You damn bastard! Just wait and see if you get caught!”

Officials who took on unexpected tasks had to ‘search with anger.’

And those who were caught copying and pasting were severely punished.

‘Ban from office or appeal for 10 years.’

And after seeing the situation, Hyang smiled and muttered.

“I’m afraid that some people might say that we are a ‘nation of tricks’….”

However, even in this situation where ‘copying and pasting’ was banned, there were some who achieved success through ‘copying and pasting.’

-If we look at the appeal published in the monthly report of **year **… (omitted)… However, the contents of the appeal published in the monthly report of ## year ## related to the same policy are… (omitted)… The contents of the two appeals selected in this way are conflicting and not what the original policy intended…(above).

All the officials who saw the appeal, which openly disclosed the source and examined every detail, exclaimed in exclamation.

“It’s novel?”

And after seeing the appeal raised in that way, King Sejong immediately came to a conclusion.

“He is an essential person in the position of reviewing and coordinating the policies that have been implemented so far. “Bring him here now!”

“I follow your orders!”

* * *

In this way, we used all kinds of methods to attract talented people, but it became increasingly difficult to find talented people.

This was because the speed at which talent was being drained from the talent pool that had been stagnating so far far exceeded the speed at which it was supplied.

Thanks to this, King Sejong always complained about this issue whenever he discussed state affairs with his wife.

“All we have in Joseon are people, so do you mean we have no talented people?”

“There are probably still many people in hiding.”

In response to Hyang’s response, Sejong let out a long sigh.

“Whoa~. If they are still in seclusion, shouldn’t we assume that they have no intention of going to work at all? Shouldn’t we see them as no different from the ruthless people who rebelled in the year of Giyu?”

“Well, that could be true.”

Hyang responded to Sejong’s complaint with a bitter smile.

One of the biggest causes of the current talent shortage situation was the Giyu Rebellion. The number of noblemen who participated in the rebellion was not only a problem, but the number of noblemen who died because they refused or prevented participation in the rebellion was also enormous.

Simply put, the Giyu Rebellion was a fatal event that resulted in the loss of a significant portion of properly educated human resources.

“It still takes some more time for talented people to emerge from the Social Ministries and Middle Schools…”

“Yes. “It’s a bit unfortunate, but it’s something that can’t be helped.”

Hyang nodded at Sejong’s complaint. Sejong continued speaking while looking at that scent.

“Scholars came in from the West, but you swept them all away…”

“Hahaha! Aren’t they useless except for math and science? And although we have become able to communicate to some extent, writing is still uncommunicative and is therefore useless.”

In response to Hyang’s response, Sejong stroked his beard and muttered.

“The writing is definitely the problem…”

Hyang’s eyes sparkled as he heard Sejong mutter.

‘The water came in! ‘Let’s row!’

“Abama, let’s be honest, why are there no people in Joseon? How many wise people have there been when looking at examples of direct explanation of agricultural affairs?”

“That’s right.”

Sejong nodded at Hyang’s words.

At the beginning of the Gyeongjang, King Sejong mobilized officials and ordered them to create a book of farming methods.

“The farming methods of the Ming Dynasty were tailored to the climate of the central plains, so they do not suit us well! “Find wisdom from older farmers in each province and write it down!”

In this way, the result that took several years to develop was Nongsajikseol.

And Nongsa Jikseol, which was published in this way, soon became a book that was essential in every rural area throughout Joseon.