There Is No Sejong In My Joseon [EN]: Chapter 187

< Upholding the Lineage (2) >

“The Crown Princess said that Yi In-im is an ancestor of our royal family!”

As this statement spread, the atmosphere in the court turned icy.

For an ordinary Crown Princess, this would have been enough to question her qualifications, but there were two reasons why no major issues arose.

“Well, the Crown Princess is from a great country, so she may not know much…”

One was that Zhu Suhua was the younger sister of the Ming Emperor.

No one here had the guts to suggest expelling the Crown Princess and risking a diplomatic crisis.

They wanted to let it pass by saying, ‘She’s a foreigner, so she doesn’t know.’

The second reason was related to their own safety rather than the Crown Princess.

“Our royal family is descended from Yi In-im!”

“Wasn’t this resolved before?”

The court was thrown into turmoil when the issue of the lineage was revealed.

Those who had been to Ming as envoys regarding the lineage issue turned pale and didn’t know what to do.

“If we investigate this thoroughly, more than a few people will die.”

“Who can disagree?”

The high and low officials of the court gathered in small groups, anxiously wondering if they would be affected.

While everyone was cautiously observing the King, the Crown Prince’s statement barely thawed the icy atmosphere of the court.

“The Crown Prince, His Highness, has saved this old man!”

“To think I would be helped by His Highness while working as a government official. Is this a dream or reality?”

Of course, some people were dissatisfied with this smooth approach, but,

“I feel uneasy about letting the lineage issue pass like this…”

“Now that His Highness has declared that we should not make an issue of it, why stir up trouble?”

Wasn’t this an opportunity to avoid the storm of interrogation that would sweep through the officials?

In a situation where a strong wave of denial was prevailing, their voices were insignificant.

No, now that things had come to this, even the officials were somewhat in agreement with the Crown Prince’s logic.

“Even so, shouldn’t we at least petition the superior country’s genealogy, since it’s not just any other country?”

“Who would benefit from that? Frankly speaking, isn’t this mess because of Ming? I can’t believe they’ve been acting high and mighty without fixing a single genealogy until now.”

As the seasoned ministers began to calculate politically, the political situation flowed in a strange direction.

‘The court is like the calm before a storm, but the royal family is rather calm?’

‘Does the royal family mean that they don’t care what Ming says internally?’

With the conquest of the north and Tsushima, and the country’s finances visibly improving day by day, the authority of the royal family was incomparable to the previous dynasty.

They could only come to one conclusion.

“A memorial has been submitted to the Seungjeongwon (Royal Secretariat) to abolish the Circular Altar (圜壇, a sacrificial altar used by the emperor).”

“Tear it all up! Why not? Our royal family can also perform sacrifices to the heavens!”

“The etiquette of a vassal state? Even the sages said not to be bound by etiquette and to take authority when necessary!”

The officials of early Joseon, who still had a somewhat flexible sense of serving the great power.

And the sense of betrayal that they had been thoroughly deceived by Ming.

Combined with the political situation where they had no choice but to comply with the will of the royal family.

“Your Majesty! Our country has been offering sacrifices to the heavens and praying for grain and rain at the Circular Mound Altar (圜丘壇) since the Three Kingdoms period, so we cannot rashly abolish it!”

“The disheveled Confucian scholars who want to abolish the Circular Altar are trying to ruin the country, so do not listen to them!”

Changes began to occur little by little.

===

However, it wasn’t as if Joseon was immediately trying to regain its independent etiquette and implement an imperial system internally while maintaining the appearance of serving the great power.

‘Then the Yongle Emperor really wouldn’t stand still.’

Just as the public opinion in the court, advocating for national pride, was starting to become excessively heated, our envoys who had returned from the capital brought shocking news.

“Ming has finally suppressed Annam (安南) and established the Jiaozhi Provincial Administration Commission (交趾承宣布政使司), and in the process of destroying the country, the people of Annam were killed helplessly.”

The atmosphere in the court was truly subdued by the news from Ming.

‘How long has it been since the war started?’

Even I couldn’t help but be surprised, so how would the other ministers feel?

‘After all, the difference in realistic national power is unavoidable.’

We helped by sending the Shoni clan prisoners, but for a country to be destroyed in such a short time… It would be proof that the Ming army is that powerful.

It would be appropriate to congratulate the suzerain state of Ming for conquering Annam, but it’s not like we have any animosity towards Annam.

Rather, the current situation in Vietnam seems to overlap with ours.

“Annam has been a country for a long time, passing down through generations, but in an instant, it has become a mere territory of the great power, which is truly terrifying.

With the army of the world conquering this small country, who would dare to oppose it?”

Minister of Public Works, Yi Nae, said.

“That is not so. The military lies in being elite, not in being numerous. How can you say it with only one aspect?”

Yi Bang-won said this to calm the ministers of the court for a while.

“However, if our country were to lose the etiquette of serving the great power, the Emperor would surely raise an army to ask for our sin (罪) [to punish us for our transgressions].

I think that on the one hand, serving with sincerity (至誠), and on the other hand, strengthening the castle (城) and storing military provisions (軍糧) are the most urgent tasks (急務) today.”

In other words, we must prostrate ourselves politely on the outside, but in case something happens, we must strengthen our defense capabilities behind the scenes.

“Indeed, you are right. The current Emperor likes war, so how can we guess that his blade will not be directed at us?”

Ming’s conquest of Vietnam did not only bring negative effects.

The ministers living in these difficult times had to be prepared with extraordinary determination.

We can’t be destroyed like Vietnam.

‘At least, even if a war breaks out with us, we won’t collapse so easily.’

The Jurchens are also in our grasp, and there is also the Training Command that we have painstakingly nurtured.

Yi Bang-won, perhaps out of concern, asked me quietly as the morning assembly was dismissed.

“What about the Taining Guard and Fuyu Guard? I heard they wanted gunpowder before?”

Since sending people during the last Nadam [Mongolian festival], the Taining Guard and Fuyu Guard have maintained a closer attitude towards us.

They must be trying to join the border trade and extend their lifeline.

As a result, exchanges with us have been continuing, but we have not been giving them gunpowder due to its danger.

But isn’t the reason they want gunpowder obvious?

Yi Bang-won also knew the intentions of the Taining Guard and Fuyu Guard, so he asked.

“Both guard posts are not very happy with being subordinate to Ming, but if a war breaks out right now, they will naturally side with Ming and participate in the war.”

Because they would think it is much more profitable to plunder Joseon than to fight against the powerful Ming.

“After all, it would be best if a war doesn’t break out. It’s fortunate that we have arranged a royal marriage.”

Yi Bang-won sighed and said to me.

I relieved Yi Bang-won’s worries a little.

“Moreover, don’t we have a double agent (反間) [a spy working for both sides]? It won’t be difficult to deceive Ming’s eyes.”

The reason for keeping King Ho alive was partly due to my benevolence, but also because Joseon could gain quite a lot of benefits.

Unfortunately, Yu Jeong drowned while crossing the Han River, but since King Ho remains, we can considerably dispel Ming’s suspicion of us, right?

King Ho’s role was not limited to that.

He was working hard to establish a Korean-style Dongchang (Eastern Depot) [secret police agency of Ming Dynasty].

King Ho conducted Dongchang-style training for people selected from the Uigeumbu (State Tribunal) [high court] and Hanseongbu (Capital Defense Command) [police force of the capital].

How to collect information while hiding one’s identity, how to distinguish the wheat from the chaff of intelligence, how to interrogate criminals, and how to maintain and manage an organization were flowing into the new organization through his hands.

‘I also lent a hand.’

It wasn’t much, just the introduction of one security device.

That was chemical secret history.

‘Was it the iodine-starch reaction?’

I got the idea from an experiment in science class where hidden letters were revealed by dropping iodine solution on starch.

However, it would be impossible to obtain iodine solution everywhere. Of course, some modification of the idea was necessary.

‘So I decided to use vinegar.’

If you heat the letters written with vinegar, only that part will faintly discolor, revealing the letters.

Since we are conducting quite a few confidential projects, I thought this trick might be quite useful.

“The Emperor has a bad temper, so we can’t be at ease.”

Yi Bang-won grumbled like that.

“The Crown Prince is a very gentle person, so wouldn’t it be a little easier in the next reign?”

The current Crown Prince Zhu Gaochi has a good relationship with our wife, and by nature, he is not the type of person to treat Joseon unfairly.

He was an opponent who could be diplomatically challenged.

“When will that be?”

“Hmm, I agree.”

It wasn’t something to say to my brother-in-law, but from my point of view, the Crown Prince is much more comfortable.

The Yongle Emperor is not someone who would show favor just because he is a relative by marriage.

‘With that temper, wouldn’t he be assassinated?’

I tilted my head.

Well, there are no people as sensitive to self-preservation as usurpers, so it wouldn’t be easy to be assassinated.

Unless the Ming Dynasty’s political situation turns strangely.

===

Everyone was shocked by the news of Annam’s destruction, but Yi Seong-gye was different.

Even after hearing the story of Annam, which was destroyed without being able to properly resist the Ming army’s rapid advance, the Supreme King’s reaction was not so bad.

No, Yi Seong-gye rather regarded this as an opportunity.

“The Emperor made a wrong judgment.”

“Everything went according to the Emperor’s will, so how could the judgment be wrong?”

Then Yi Seong-gye said openly.

“What is the justification the Emperor set up? The Ho clan usurped the throne, so the successor of the Jin dynasty was cut off, so he would re-establish the descendants as kings, right?”

“That’s right.”

It was a funny story that the usurper would punish the usurper, but it seemed that other people didn’t think so.

“But after occupying the country, he arbitrarily established the Provincial Administration Commission and swallowed it up as Ming territory. If he had restored the Jin clan, I don’t know, but would the people of that land stay still? This can be seen from the end of the Four Commanderies of Han and the Ungjin Commandery in the past.”

Yi Seong-gye’s insight had quite a sharp point.

‘Come to think of it, it doesn’t seem like Vietnam was under Ming’s rule for that long.’

If it had been, I would have remembered it, but I don’t even know if Vietnam was ever a colony of Ming in the original history.

Anyway, Vietnam didn’t seem to be on the Ming Dynasty map I saw in modern times.

I nodded.

“I don’t think it will last long either.”

It is not easy to rule a country with different people, cultures, and customs.

Moreover, would it be Vietnam, which even the United States withdrew from?

“There will be constant unrest in Annam, and then Ming will have to continue to expend its national power on that land. Rather, Ming’s feet are tied there.”

Yi Seong-gye explained clearly.

“Then does that mean we don’t have to be so scared?”

“That’s also true…”

Yi Seong-gye opened his mouth.

“I heard you’re doing something called the Great Voyage these days?”

To call the great project that will change Joseon’s constitution ‘something called the Great Voyage’.

“I heard the ship is going to the Jowa country, so maybe we can contact Annam?”

What is this again?

< Upholding the Lineage (2) > End

ⓒ Pitkong