Black Corporation: Joseon [EN]: Chapter 202

202. The Apple of the Police Chief’s Eye – Monopoly Bureau (2)

Without a doubt, the best-selling items at the Monopoly Bureau were candy and salt.

* * *

Candy was imported from Ming China, and the court strictly managed its import and distribution.

“Demand is increasing, but relying entirely on imports is a problem. We need to find a substitute…”

Troubled by this, Hyang subtly broached the subject with the head chef of the royal kitchen.

“Hey, Chef.”

“Yes, Your Highness.”

“What ingredients can produce sweetness?”

“There’s *jocheong* [grain syrup], isn’t there?”

“But *jocheong* consumes a lot of precious grains, which is why we import candy.”

“That is true…”

The chef trailed off, remaining silent for a long time as he searched his memory.

After some time, the chef’s face brightened.

“Ah!”

“Did you think of something?”

“There’s radish juice!”

“Radish juice? Ah!”

At the chef’s answer, Hyang suddenly remembered something. It was an old TV program he had aimlessly watched on a video site in the 21st century.

The program was about the origin of the phrase ‘Go eat *엿*! (*Yeot meogeora!* [a Korean taffy-like candy, used as a mild curse])’ and one of the several theories involved radish.

“Radish juice does have sweetness…”

Hyang nodded, but the chef’s expression wasn’t very good.

“However, to get as much sweetness as candy from radish juice, you would need a tremendous amount.”

“That’s true. Anyway, thank you.”

“You’re welcome.”

After thanking the chef and turning around, Hyang continued to mutter as he walked.

“Radish… There was something… There was something…”

However, with a considerable backlog of work at the research lab and Area 51, Hyang couldn’t dwell on radish alone any longer.

A few days later, Hyang, who was in bed with the Crown Princess, suddenly shouted and got up.

“Sugar beet! That’s it! I found it! Good job, my brain!”

“Your Highness! Your Highness! What’s wrong?”

The Crown Princess, startled awake by Hyang’s sudden shout, called out to him in alarm.

“Your Highness! What’s the matter? Did you have a bad dream?”

“Ah, no. I just remembered the answer to a problem I’ve been pondering.”

“Is that so?”

Hyang, reassuring the Crown Princess who was looking at him with an anxious face, got out of bed and headed to the desk on one side. As Hyang wrote ‘sugar beet’ on the paper on the desk, he suddenly panicked and frantically scratched the paper with the gold pen’s nib.

“Aaaagh… Hey! You rascal!”

“Your Highness! What’s wrong?”

“Ah, it’s nothing.”

Hyang repeatedly said he was okay, but the Crown Princess didn’t back down.

“I’ll call the royal physician.”

“I told you I’m fine…”

“No! Attendant!”

At the Crown Princess’s call, the attendant who had been waiting outside quickly responded.

“Yes, Madam. Did you call?”

“Bring the royal physician immediately! Immediately!”

“Yes, Madam!”

* * *

In the end, this midnight commotion reached King Sejong and Queen Soheon the next day.

“Take care of your health.”

“Yes, Father.”

Sejong brushed it off briefly and simply, but Queen Soheon was different.

“What did the royal physician say?”

At Queen Soheon’s question, the Crown Princess immediately answered.

“He said that you seem to be expending a lot of mental energy these days. So, he prescribed a tonic to replenish your *qi* [vital energy].”

“Well done. Listen, Crown Prince.”

“Yes, Mother.”

“I hope you will be especially mindful that everything about the Crown Prince is not just for the Crown Prince alone.”

“I will keep that in mind, Mother.”

Queen Soheon’s nagging continued for a long time after that. Of course, pressure regarding an heir was also included.

In the end, Hyang had to leave the Queen’s residence feeling drained.

“Then, I will go and see to my work, so Crown Princess, you may go first.”

“Yes. Please take care of yourself.”

“I will.”

After sending the Crown Princess away first, Hyang sighed deeply.

“Hoo~. This is hard, so hard.”

Complaining, Hyang slapped his own mouth with his hand.

“Even if I just woke up, this damn mouth is the problem, this damn mouth!”

“Your Highness?”

“It’s just me talking to myself! Let’s go!”

When the attendant, who was watching him with a worried expression, called out, Hyang put on a nonchalant expression and strode away.

* * *

That night, Sejong summoned Hyang. With the historians and even the attendants all sent out, Sejong confirmed the truth with Hyang.

“I didn’t say anything this morning because it wasn’t appropriate, but what did you write on the paper last night that caused such a commotion?”

“I was writing down something I remembered, but I wrote the wrong character…”

“You made a mistake?”

“Yes.”

“Hmm…”

As Sejong narrowed his eyes and glared, Hyang subtly averted his gaze.

Sejong, staring at Hyang, asked again.

“Have you finished reading the book on phonology that was brought in recently?”

“Yes.”

“That’s good. I’ll come to borrow it soon.”

“Yes.”

“Go and rest.”

“Yes, Father, please have a comfortable sleep as well.”

Sejong, watching Hyang’s departing figure after he had politely bowed, muttered to himself.

“That rascal, I need to set a day to shake him down…” [interrogate him thoroughly].

Meanwhile, Hyang, who had come outside, sighed deeply.

“Hoo~. I’ll have to be terribly busy for the time being.”

It was a fierce battle of wits between a father trying to make his son work and a son trying not to work.

* * *

Despite such commotion, Hyang, who had remembered sugar beet, sent proclamations throughout Joseon and even to the eastern frontier.

Of course, it was only natural that he suffered various hardships while creating the proclamations.

“What is radish juice in Chinese characters?”

As Hyang struggled with the word for radish while writing the document, Jeong Cho, who had come to report, intervened.

“It’s called *Nabok* (蘿蔔). It uses the character *Na* (蘿) for mistletoe on pine trees and the character *Bok* (蔔) for radish.”

“Ah! I see! Thank you!”

As Hyang eagerly looked for a dictionary, Jeong Cho asked a question.

“What is the reason for suddenly looking for Chinese characters?”

At Jeong Cho’s question, Hyang soon explained the reason.

“Hmm…”

After listening to Hyang’s explanation, Jeong Cho stroked his beard and pondered. After briefly searching his memory, Jeong Cho soon opened his mouth.

“Come to think of it… I remember eating a similar vegetable in Ming China. The name was probably… Ah! It was written as *Tiancai* (甜菜)!”

“Is that so? Thank you!”

As Hyang sincerely thanked him, Jeong Cho smiled. Although he was his superior and the Crown Prince of this country, Hyang sometimes felt like his grandson.

Jeong Cho, wearing such a warm smile, soon remembered the purpose of his visit and handed over the book he had brought.

“This is a report documenting the progress of the steam engine development.”

“Ah! Thank you. Have there been any good results?”

“The performance has improved slightly compared to the last quarter, but there are still many areas that need further improvement.”

At Jeong Cho’s answer, Hyang smacked his lips.

“Tch! It’s fortunate that the performance has improved even a little. Although there are various opinions coming from all directions, there is a saying, ‘*Ubo Cheonri* (牛步千里, A cow’s pace covers a thousand *li* [a traditional Chinese unit of distance, approximately 500 meters]. Slow but steady wins the race)’. Please encourage the artisans and officials not to give up.”

“Yes, Your Highness.”

At Hyang’s request, Jeong Cho bowed his head and answered.

* * *

And so, a proclamation seeking ‘*Tiancai*’ was spread throughout the country. However, there were many types of vegetables with that name. This was because the word ‘*Tiancai*’ itself meant ‘sweet vegetable’.

“The conclusion is that my body has to suffer.”

Hyang, seeing the vegetables that were brought up, began to divide them by type and taste them one by one.

Through this process, Hyang was able to find sugar beet—or, to be precise, the primitive sugar beet before varietal improvement.

After tasting the result of juicing and simmering the sugar beet he had found, Hyang shook his head.

“It’s bland. There was a reason why it lost to sugarcane.”

In fact, sugarcane showed a ‘wall-like’ difference in terms of profitability compared to sugar beet, which is why it maintained its dominant position even in the 21st century.

After confirming the results, Hyang made a decision.

“The profitability doesn’t match up like this. We need to improve the variety.”

Hyang passed the sugar beet to the department in charge of varietal improvement of various grains.

“This is just great…”

The researchers in the department who had been handed a new task by Hyang wore troubled expressions.

“The melon from last time was like that too, why are you looking for so many sweet things?”

“Whether it’s melon or this, it’s like chasing after a floating cloud [an unrealistic goal].”

The officials who received the task from Hyang frowned and whispered.

* * *

In any case, the main products of the Monopoly Bureau were, without a doubt, salt and candy.

However, in the year of Giyu (1429), a powerful product emerged that threatened the status of these two items.

The name of the product was ‘*Goyak* (膏藥, medicinal plaster)’.

The invention of *Goyak* was also Hyang’s work.

* * *

One hot summer day in the 10th year of Sejong (Musin year, 1428), Hyang, who had come outside to take a break, noticed a *Naegeumwi Gapsa* [inner guard soldier].

“Why are you walking like that?”

At Hyang’s question about his awkward gait, the *Gapsa* replied with a troubled face.

“I recently got a boil on my butt, and it’s gotten really bad…”

“Oh dear! Go see the royal physician right away.”

At Hyang’s words, the *Gapsa* replied with a difficult expression.

“I already went, and they said they have to lance it…”

“Ah…”

At the *Gapsa’s* answer, Hyang nodded without realizing it.

“I’ll write you an order, so go home and get some rest.”

“Thank you so much!”

At Hyang’s words, the *Gapsa* sincerely thanked him and bowed deeply. However, he looked awkward because of the pain from the boil.

Hyang, returning to his room and writing an order to hand to the *Gapsa*, muttered with a serious face.

“I forgot about this…”

At the time, boils were a potentially fatal disease in Joseon. The best treatment was to squeeze them out, but considering the sanitation conditions of Joseon at the time, this was a dangerous gamble.

“A little safer, a little cleaner!”

Shouting this, Hyang spread the method of disinfecting with alcohol (ethanol) and improved sanitation by distributing soap. However, even so, surgical procedures were the last resort.

This wasn’t just a problem for Joseon.

In the case of the West, the situation was similar until modern disinfection methods were popularized in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Surgery or procedures were ‘putting one foot in the coffin’.

“Come to think of it… Father also suffered from boils, didn’t he? And, wasn’t Jeongjo’s cause of death said to be boils?”

Hyang muttered with a serious face.

Hyang didn’t know, but some scholars even say that the biggest reason for Munjong’s short life in the history before Hyang’s intervention was a carbuncle.

To the extent that Sejong, unable to bear seeing the Crown Prince writhing in pain, issued an order to unconditionally pardon criminals who had committed crimes below *Do-jae* [forced labor] among the criminals across the country, with the feeling of praying to the heavens. (Note 1)

However, Munjong’s boils recurred frequently, and he eventually died only two years after ascending the throne. (Note 2)

“I need to find a solution…”

Hyang, moving back and forth to find a solution, soon stopped and snapped his fingers.

“That’s it! *Goyak*!”

* * *

The place where Hyang had set up a blacksmith shop in the 21st century was a rural village on the outskirts of Yangsan.

It was a place where many elderly people, easily over the average age of 70, gathered, so it was common for people to suffer from various ailments.

There was a hospital in Yangsan City just a short distance away, but the place most frequented by the residents was a nearby traditional Korean medicine clinic.

It was run by a Korean medicine doctor who was as old as the residents, ‘aging together,’ and the residents visited this clinic whenever they felt even a little sick.

The most famous thing at that Korean medicine clinic was *Goyak*.

* * *

Note 1) That thing that the kings of Joseon trembled at. Hankyoreh Ilbo. 2014.07.25

http://www.hani.co.kr/arti/science/science_general/648527.html

Note 2) Joseon, struggling with boils. Written by Bang Seong-hye. The Age of Creation.