Black Corporation: Joseon - Chapter 454

Episode 454: Prophecy. (5)

“Hey, owner. “The prince of the western region here wants to buy a hat.”

“You mean God?”

The store owner, who heard what he said through the interpreter, looked at Henrik for a moment and then called his servant.

“Gap-dong! “Go and tell Mr. Jin to come!”

“Yes sir!”

An official interrupted the store owner’s words.

“Who is Mr. Jin?”

“He is the leader of the small workers who do the hard work.”

“Why him?”

In response to the manager’s question, the store owner raised his hand and pointed to Henrik and explained.

“Not only the prince of the western region, but the heads of the western region people who came with us are a little different from our Koreans.”

“Can’t we just make it and sell it?”

At the official’s words, the merchant waved his hands and raised his voice.

“Oh my, Nari! Even though that hat guy looks like he made it roughly, if it doesn’t fit the head perfectly, it’s uncomfortable to use and doesn’t look good! How picky are the local noblemen in Hanseong and its surrounding areas, so they want us to make and sell them roughly? Is there anything wrong with the store?”

“is it? “Well…”

The official who heard the explanation nodded. When buying a hat, he tried it on, touched it, and then made his choice. He also had the experience of going there when he heard that a store’s hat was of good quality.

Meanwhile, Henrik, who heard the story of the store owner through the interpreter, nodded slightly.

“Even the merchants in the market have this mindset… So are the products from ‘Kingdom of Flowers’ superior?”

The interpreter, who understood Henry’s mumbling, muttered to himself.

‘Well, let’s come… What was the rumor going around among the merchants? Are you saying that there is no better sense of truth than the people of Hanseong?’

As the capital of Joseon was Hanseong, the highest class of Joseon gathered in Hanseong. Since they were such people, they were naturally picky, and if there was even the slightest defect, word of mouth spread and the company went bankrupt in an instant.

Mr. Jin, who came running after being called a while later, looked at Henrik and his group after hearing the story.

“My father-in-law said he needed to measure his head and asked if it was okay.”

“It’s okay.”

After a while, the craftsman, who had pushed Henry’s head on the chair and measured it with various measuring tools, came to a conclusion, and the interpreter relayed this to Henry.

“The craftsman says that the shape of the head is quite different from that of the Koreans, so the frame needs to be remade from scratch. That’s why I’m saying it will take quite some time.”

In response to the interpreter’s question, Henri nodded with an expression that seemed like it was no big deal.

“I have to stay here in Joseon anyway until the wind changes, so tell them it’s okay.”

“Then how many are there?”

“Let’s start with 100 first.”

After hearing the story through the interpreter, the merchant began business in earnest with a bright smile on his face.

“Then what do you want God Ham?”

“What is God Ham again?”

In response to Henry’s question, the merchant showed him the wooden boxes in which the lamps were stored.

The moment Henrik saw the boxes, which started from simple fitting boxes polished with rosin and then decorated with mother-of-pearl lacquerware, he remembered what the official had said.

“They say you have to be prepared to spend money from the moment you buy a hat…”

In the end, Henrique had to reduce the number of hats he wanted to order from 100 to 30. As he reduced the quantity, Henri savored his meal with a face full of regret.

“There are a lot of things to buy, but I can’t just buy hats…. Sigh!”

* * *

In the process of purchasing the hat, Henrik, who went through a lot of hazing, became more and more serious as he went around the author of Hanseong.

“Of all the things you could buy in Alexandria, except for a few really top quality items, they were all mid-level products!”

Many of the things that had to be purchased for quite a bit of money in Alexandria could be purchased for 1/3 the price in Joseon, where they were produced. And the vast majority of items that were expensive and difficult to obtain even within Joseon were items that could not even be found in Alexandria. And many of those items were things that could bring enormous profits if they could be taken with them.

“If only I could take it with me…”

Henry, who returned to the empty house, muttered with a bitter look on his face.

* * *

The extremely extravagant mother-of-pearl lacquer furniture that caught Henry’s eye at a furniture store in the marketplace were luxury goods that the royal families of each country would open their wallets for without a second thought if they were brought to Europe.

But the problem was its size and transportation difficulties. Items such as the mother-of-pearl lacquerware furniture mentioned as an example were easily damaged when exposed to moisture. Even the losses had to be taken into account if the goods were transported via sea route over several months. Especially if it had to go back to Africa like the current fleet, it would have been fortunate if only one out of 10 was intact.

“If that’s the case, the price will have to be set at a huge price. Then it’s hard to sell. “There was a reason the Arab merchant gave up.”

The merchant ships driven by Arabs were small. Therefore, most of what they handled were small, expensive items.

However, among the items brought from Joseon, the items that brought the most profit were large luxury items such as candelabrum chandeliers.

And since the only ships that could transport these large luxury items were Joseon’s large sailing ships, Joseon was able to reap enormous profits.

“The problem of large ships can be dealt with to some extent with our ships, but the problem is the voyage period… It takes too long to go around Africa…”

Henrik, who had been devising various solutions here and there, let out a long sigh.

“As expected, it is an iron horse….”

* * *

Henry and his party’s purchase consultation took place over almost two months.

The reason it took so long was because on the 10th day of the consultation, the manager who was conducting the consultation hinted at something.

“Some things are gathered in Hanseong, but there are many things that are not.”

“is it?”

Henrik’s eyes sparkled after hearing the official’s words.

‘It’s your chance!’

Ever since he became obsessed with iron horses, Henry had a strong desire to ride one. However, I had to suppress my feelings as I saw the Joseon army tightly surrounding the empty coffin.

‘This is not protection, it is a warning! A warning not to move carelessly!’

That’s why all Henry had to do was go far to see the author.

In such a situation, the manager’s words to sell as many items as possible were the best opportunity for Henrik.

“I still have a lot of time, so I want to see special products from other regions. “Can you convey my request to His Majesty the King?”

The official, whose face also brightened, nodded at Henry’s request.

“yes! “Let me make a request!”

King Sejong, who heard Henry’s request through an official, asked for opinions from the local government and ministers.

“What do you think?”

“It’s a military strategic point, but I think it’ll be okay if we can avoid it.”

“It seems that what the Crown Prince said is correct.”

The ministers did not show much disagreement with Hyang’s answer. King Sejong made a conclusion based on the positive response from the local government and ministers.

“In that case, please make it convenient for me to travel on an iron horse.”

“Shall we organize a special episode?”

“Then, since it is inconvenient for the people, let’s rent out a carriage. “Aren’t you a precious guest?”

* * *

So, while Henry was traveling around Joseon on an iron horse, King Sejong received an unexpected report.

“Is there a strange saying going around among the researchers at the research institute?”

Jeongcho immediately answered King Sejong’s question by bowing his head.

“That’s right.”

“What is it about?”

In response to King Sejong’s question, Jeongcho explained the very thing. After hearing Jeongcho’s answer, King Sejong stroked his beard and muttered.

“’A small spark that blooms in the East will set the whole West on fire.’…”

Jeongcho continued speaking at King Sejong’s muttering.

“I asked Angelo and Giovanni, the leaders of the monks, and they told me that this true saying has been passed down for a long time and that it refers to the Mongols in the past, that is, the Yuan.”

“I see…”

* * *

This word first spread when Giovanni’s disciples and Angelo’s disciples were talking.

“There’s some interesting talk going around in the Vatican these days!”

“What do you mean?”

As word began to circulate, Angelo got scared and stopped his disciples.

“Never talk outside! “Don’t you know how Joseon deals with false statements?”

In Joseon, whenever false rumors were circulated, they were pursued until the end and the slanderers were severely punished. Knowing this, Angelo quickly silenced the careless disciples, but the prophecy in question spread among other alchemists and scholars, and eventually reached the ears of the Korean people. Thanks to this, Angelo was called to Jeong Cho and had to make an excuse.

* * *

“Hmm…. If a report is made to me, the crown prince must know. What did the crown prince say?”

“At first you laughed, then you became serious.”

“It has become serious.”

“There are several things to point out…”

King Sejong and the ministers nodded at the same time at Jeongcho’s words.

“If you look at the recent surrounding situation, there are more than one thing that comes to mind…” * *

*

“There are several things that are a bit disturbing.”

After hearing the prophecy from the Vatican, Hyang looked at the map with a serious expression.

“First of all. “I’m currently preparing to film a drama.”

In the case of the Ming Dynasty, Emperor Seondeok’s health was gradually deteriorating.

The problem was Crown Prince Zhu Jin, who would become the next emperor. No matter how much I tried to package him in nice words, he had an arbitrary and reckless personality.

‘It was derailed due to the emperor’s excessive expectations.’

Although there were similar evaluations, the great and small officials of the Ming Dynasty became anxious whenever they thought of the crown prince.

Finally, since last year, Ju Ji-jin left the Forbidden City and lived in Nanjing.

At that time, Nanjing had the same administrative organization as the Beijing court, so the intention was to familiarize people with administration through this.

This was also the case with the Seondeok system. When Emperor Hongxi died, Emperor Xiande, who was learning administrative work in Nanjing, had to rush to Beijing.

However, the report coming from Nanjing was not very good, and the ministers’ worries grew deeper.

As a result, talk about ‘replacing the crown prince’ began to circulate.

If this problem existed internally, externally, tensions with Northern Yuan were rising again.

The Ming Dynasty opened a shrine on the border with Northern Yuan and established a permanent market to conduct trade. However, unlike the fact that horses and sheep were almost all that Bukwon sold, the merchants who owned various products that Bukwon needed were increasingly making profits. Because of this, the air in the border area was becoming increasingly harsh.

“If the Ming Dynasty is a place where it is not strange if something breaks out at any time, whether outside or inside, the country where it is not strange even if a civil war breaks out tomorrow is Wae-guk.”

After the young son of the assassinated former shogun became shogun, the Hosokawa family erased the family name of Mitsusuke Akamatsu, the main culprit of the assassination.

The shogunate seemed to have stabilized thanks to the efforts of the Hosokawa family, who successfully completed the subjugation and took over as guardians of the young shogun.

But in reality, there was no telling when it would collapse.

The biggest reason was that the shogun was too young. Although the families under the shogun’s tutelage, including the Hosokawa family, tried to maintain the stability of the shogunate, secretly ambitious daimyo began to appear.

Among such ambitious people, the most representative family was the Ouchi.