There Is No Sejong In My Joseon [EN]: Chapter 175

As I entered Heejungdang [a building in the palace] and sat down, he stared at me with sharp eyes.

The playful atmosphere of the investiture show, which had felt like a game, had completely vanished.

Lee Bang-won spoke first.

“Are you satisfied?”

“Was Abamama [term for ‘father’ used by royalty] satisfied?”

“No.”

Lee Bang-won shook his head and said.

“You’re quite clever. Recalling those old stories of Woo-tak… Heo Jo must have taught you that.”

“Did you have to go this far?”

Even though I was used as bait to lure my maternal uncles, Lee Bang-won didn’t say a word about it to me.

That made me even angrier.

“To deceive the enemy, you must first deceive your own. It’s a tactic from the Thirty-Six Stratagems [a collection of Chinese military strategies].”

“Am I even on your side? And before that, are my maternal uncles really the enemy?”

“They are the enemy.”

Lee Bang-won said it in a flat tone, as if stating the most obvious fact in the world.

“This country belongs to the Jeonju Lee clan. That’s self-evident. But there are those who believe they also have a right to this throne.”

Lee Bang-won clearly named his old adversaries.

“First, there was Jeong Do-jeon, and then Queen Hyunbi Kang. After eliminating them, now the royal relatives and meritorious subjects are raising their heads again.”

His voice grew louder.

“Prince Hoean Lee Bang-gan, his son Lee Maeng-jong, the late King’s illegitimate sons, and Lee Geo-yi and Lee Jeo! I’ve thinned their ranks as much as I can, but it’s still not over. There are still those who dare to think the King owes them something!”

Lee Bang-won looked at me with blazing eyes.

“Do you think your mother and uncles are an exception?”

“…”

Lee Bang-won’s eyes burned with intense emotion – anger, or…

‘Fear?’

“Only you and I can truly sit on the throne.”

Lee Bang-won grabbed my hand tightly and said.

“That means you’re the only one who can understand me.”

Lee Bang-won looked at me with expectant eyes.

Did he want me to understand him?

Perhaps he wanted me to justify the path he had taken – the killings of Jeong Mong-ju, Jeong Do-jeon, and his half-siblings – through my understanding.

I shook my head.

Then, I looked straight at Lee Bang-won’s face and said.

“But you didn’t kill Prince Hoean.”

“That’s…”

“Isn’t it the same with the late King’s illegitimate sons? You even spared Bulno, who was once considered a potential Crown Prince.”

The reason Lee Bang-won hadn’t killed them was simple: they were family.

They were family in Lee Bang-won’s eyes.

Bulno was a bit of an exception, but he must have spared him out of consideration for the late King.

‘His definition of family is disgustingly narrow, really.’

Wasn’t Joseon [Korean dynasty from 1392 to 1897] a time when even distant relatives were considered family?

Why was he so modern only in these aspects?

“Are in-laws not family? Fine, let’s say that’s the case.”

Lee Bang-won had turned more than one set of in-laws into corpses.

First, during the Prince’s Rebellion, he wiped out the family of Jeongyang-gun Wang-woo, who was Lee Bang-beon’s father-in-law. He also wiped out the family of Lee Geo-yi, into which the Grand King’s eldest daughter had married.

It hadn’t happened yet, but he would probably wipe out the family of King Sejong’s wife as well, right?

‘But he left my sister out of it.’

In the process of Lee Geo-yi’s purge, Princess Gyeongshin, who was married to his eldest son Lee Jeo, was demoted to a commoner, but his second son, Lee Baek-gang, received no punishment.

That was because my sister, Princess Jeongsun, was married to Lee Baek-gang.

In other words, Lee Baek-gang was my brother-in-law and Lee Bang-won’s son-in-law.

“You brat, are you saying I should have made your sister a widow?”

Lee Bang-won asked, bursting with anger.

‘That’s what you call ‘double standards’.’

For the sake of strengthening royal power, he destroys all in-laws, but he protects his son-in-law, who is a member of that family, for the sake of his own daughter.

A tearful display of parental love, but why couldn’t he see the contradiction?

“If all my maternal uncles had been swept away, would Mother have stayed silent?”

Queen Wongyeong wasn’t a fool, and she couldn’t help but resent it if all four of her younger brothers were purged.

Lee Bang-won said calmly.

“That’s a burden I have to bear.”

“That resentment would have been directed at your children as well.”

Lee Bang-won’s eyebrows twitched.

“That’s not all. If my maternal family is purged this time, who can guarantee that my future in-laws or my younger siblings’ in-laws will be safe? Will Abamama’s grandchildren grow up properly?”

“It’s something someone has to do.”

Lee Bang-won’s purge may have been an inevitable event in terms of the era.

The meritorious subjects and the maternal relatives may have all been people who had to be eliminated at this point for the sake of Joseon.

When I was in modern times, I naturally thought so, but when it becomes my family’s business, I can’t think so simply.

‘I’m a person, too!’

I can’t live seeing my parents cursing each other for the rest of their lives.

A ruthless political machine might be able to do it, but the fragile mentality of the young Crown Prince Lee Je could not accept it.

‘More than anything…’

Such purges are bound to cause a backlash.

Wasn’t it the result of later kings being extremely reluctant to shed blood that the fiery man, Grand Prince Suyang [later King Sejo], appeared?

“You were so proud of yourself for blocking my actions with shallow tricks.”

“What can I do? From my perspective, I had no choice.”

Lee Bang-won spoke in a sulky tone, but my thoughts remained unchanged.

“Now that things have come to this, I will try to resolve it as peacefully as possible.”

Lee Bang-won didn’t seem convinced by my words.

But the purge of the Min clan had already been overturned by my interference.

He would have no other choice.

Until he extends his next reach.

‘I’ve gotten over one hurdle… haven’t I?’

===

In the original history, the Min clan relatives, including Min Mu-gu and Min Mu-jil, get heavily involved because of the bait thrown by Lee Bang-won.

Only a year after the investiture commotion.

Min Mu-gu and Min Mu-jil were exiled to the countryside on charges of secretly supporting the abdication and plotting to massacre all sons other than the Crown Prince. Soon after, they were ordered to commit suicide.

Lee Bang-won even found fault with their younger brothers, Min Mu-hyul and Min Mu-hoe, exiling them and then killing them, effectively wiping out the prominent Min clan in an instant.

However, things were different this time.

“His Highness opposed the abdication with an axe!”

When Hwang-hee rushed in to convey the Crown Prince’s intentions, and news arrived that Lee Jae had submitted a desperate appeal to the throne, Min Mu-gu collapsed in dismay.

“We almost suffered a great misfortune!”

For days, the abdication had been a topic of contention, and even key figures like Grand Prince Ui-an, Lee Hwa, and Kwon Geun were confused about Lee Bang-won’s true intentions.

Min Mu-gu and Min Mu-jil had drawn confidence from their reactions.

However, State Councillor Ha Ryun had calmly observed the discussions from the start, so they should have focused on his actions from the beginning.

“Brother, could it be…?”

“Yes.”

Min Mu-gu nodded in response to his younger brother Min Mu-jil’s question.

“If it weren’t for His Highness, we would all be dead.”

===

“You all know you almost died this time, right?”

I glared at my four maternal uncles as I asked.

They prostrated themselves, sweating profusely.

“Crown Prince. Your uncles are all reflecting on their actions…”

“Mother, please be quiet.”

Queen Wongyeong rarely acted flustered, but I cut her off sharply.

“We are grateful for His Highness, the Crown Prince’s grace.”

Min Mu-gu said to me while prostrating himself.

Since it was the first abdication show, probably all the officials were doubtful.

Amidst all this, some people with a keen political sense kept their mouths shut, thinking, ‘If I stay still, I’ll at least get by,’ but my uncles couldn’t do that.

‘Is the Min family a bit headstrong?’

Overall, my uncles’ personalities are similar to Queen Wongyeong’s.

“Are you just grateful?”

“We are so grateful that it is etched in our bones…”

I waved my hand.

I didn’t bring this up to hear such meaningless words.

“Uncles, give up all your honorary positions and go down to Bupyeong, and don’t even think about coming back up. Don’t even set foot in Hanyang [the capital city].”

My intention was for them to manage the Bupyeong salt fields that I had prepared for them.

“You can live well for generations with this, so why be greedy?”

I asked sharply, and my uncles scratched their heads.

“We wanted to protect His Highness the Crown Prince at all costs…”

“Protect, my foot… I almost died with you.”

If I hadn’t ended the abdication show with the desperate appeal to the throne, it was certain that the four Min brothers would have died.

Lee Bang-won cherishes his children, so it’s fortunate, but if it were another king, even I would have been implicated.

The Min brothers trembled.

Still, they knew they had almost died, so they wouldn’t act recklessly again.

‘If that happens, there’s nothing more I can do.’

Then I’ll have to step in and offer them up to Lee Bang-won.

“Crown Prince, isn’t this too harsh?”

From Queen Wongyeong’s perspective, she would be flustered as her close and reliable younger siblings were disappearing.

They are people who brought about their own deaths, far from being reliable.

“Mother, don’t rely on your uncles anymore.”

From now on, trust only your tiger-like son.

Fortunately, the Mins seemed to have realized something, as they obediently followed my orders.

I need to keep them away from Hanyang for at least ten years.

===

Since a desperate appeal to the throne had been made, it was natural that the abdication declaration was soon withdrawn.

However, words once spoken by the king cannot be easily taken back.

It was impossible to avoid looking bad by simply saying, ‘Ah, I thought about it, and the abdication seems like too much, so I’ll quit.’

So, Lee Bang-won, a master of political maneuvering, started building up to the reversal by uttering something completely absurd.

“Recently, I saw my deceased mother in a dream, and she cried and told me, ‘Are you trying to starve me?’ What could this mean?”

The deceased mother Lee Bang-won mentioned was Queen Shinui, Han.

She was my paternal grandmother.

At the sudden request for dream interpretation, the officials widened their eyes, but as quick-witted people, they listed the answers Lee Bang-won wanted.

“If Your Majesty transfers the throne to the weak and young Crown Prince, the dynasty will not be preserved, and your mother will starve. This is truly the spirit of Queen Shinui appearing to reveal her intention to oppose the abdication.”

“Hmm, is that really what my mother means?”

Lee Bang-won sighed at length.

“I’m going to pass it on to my child, but why is even my mother’s spirit appearing to oppose it?”

“His Highness the Crown Prince even made a desperate appeal to the throne and wept, so wouldn’t Queen Shinui’s spirit see the sorrow of her descendants and appear in a dream? Please withdraw your intention to abdicate.”

“Please withdraw!”

The officials all bowed their heads and shouted—the Min brothers, who had not yet resigned, were at the forefront—and Lee Bang-won finally nodded.

“Since gods and men alike oppose it, the abdication seems truly impossible. I withdraw the edict I issued earlier.”

“What a wise decision, Your Majesty!”

“Hmm, when will I ever be able to get off this tiger’s back…”

Lee Bang-won uttered words that he didn’t really mean.

‘The officials gathered here must be thinking I’m saying all sorts of nonsense, right?’

I pouted and stared at him.

Even if there’s no justification, he’s selling out even his dead grandmother.

In a way, you could say it’s just like Lee Bang-won.

However, it was fortunate that this abdication show ended safely without anyone being caught.

Compared to that, Lee Bang-won blaming his grandmother is something I can look at with amusement.

Soon, State Councillor Ha Ryun stepped forward and said.

“State affairs have been suspended for some time, and there are many tasks that Your Majesty has not yet handled. Now that you have revealed your intention to return to the throne, how about handling them quickly?”

However, Lee Bang-won did not answer immediately.

Upon hearing those words, he stroked his beard and turned his head towards me.

I had an ominous feeling.

“Everyone has cried out that abdication is impossible, but acting as regent is not about transferring the throne, so it seems 괜찮은 것 같다 [괜찮은 것 같다 (gwaenchanheun geot gatda) – it seems alright/okay].

I must atone for the sin of causing concern to my mother’s spirit, so how about the Crown Prince takes charge of state affairs in the meantime?”

“······!”

Looking at Lee Bang-won smiling evilly as he looked this way, I sweated profusely.

‘Could it be that you’re taking revenge now?’

There must be a lot of pending state affairs; is he telling me to do them?

< Abdication Show (3) > End

ⓒ Pitkong