There Is No Sejong In My Joseon [EN]: Chapter 210

Ju So-hwa lay still in bed, her eyes wide open.

The bright light streaming through the paper window indicated the sun was high in the sky.

These days, Ju So-hwa woke up at this hour every day.

‘I overslept again….’

Looking at the empty space beside her, now devoid of warmth, it seemed the Crown Prince had left long ago.

‘How can he wake up so early every day?’

If they went to bed late together, shouldn’t they wake up late together?

“Why didn’t you wake me up earlier?”

Feeling petty, Ju So-hwa scolded the court lady who brought her water for washing.

“His Highness ordered that the Crown Princess should be allowed to sleep in, as she must be tired. His Majesty and the Queen Consort also conveyed that there was no need to rush with morning greetings for the time being, so I was only following orders.”

“Still, the morning greetings….”

“Wouldn’t it be because they are being considerate for the sake of conceiving an heir?”

Ju So-hwa’s face flushed.

Washing her face vigorously to forget her embarrassment, Ju So-hwa quickly dressed and left her chambers.

Jang Yeong-sil, engaged in some strange work between the palace buildings, caught her eye.

Grand Prince Chungnyeong, who was standing next to him, spotted her and called out.

“Oh! You just woke up?”

“Huh? Yes.”

Then, Grand Prince Chungnyeong wore a smug expression.

“Hehe, I won.”

“……?”

“Today, the Grand Prince woke up at dawn and has been graciously helping me with my work,” Jang Yeong-sil added from the side.

Seeing Grand Prince Chungnyeong’s expression that seemed to say, ‘You can’t do this, can you?’ Ju So-hwa frowned slightly.

However, she couldn’t exactly argue, ‘I was up late working too,’ so Ju So-hwa quickly changed the subject.

“So, what are you doing?”

“Ah, we are wrapping silk cloth around copper wire. His Highness repeatedly emphasized the importance of something called insulation….”

‘He’s up to some strange work again.’

Seeing things like this in the East Palace [the Crown Prince’s residence] wasn’t a new occurrence, so Ju So-hwa didn’t pay it much mind.

===

‘I wonder if Jang Yeong-sil is doing well?’

Insulated copper wire was necessary to make coils.

They were handling it by wrapping the copper in silk for insulation, but since both copper and silk were expensive, I really didn’t want to see it fail.

It seemed I was caught spacing out.

“Are you even listening to me?”

At Lee Bang-won’s frustrated question, I glanced at Wang Ho before answering.

“Um… is it true that slavery is prohibited in Ming China?”

As soon as I spoke, Wang Ho quickly nodded and continued.

‘He’s quick on the uptake.’

“Yes. Except for exceptions like government offices and the gentry, owning slaves is strictly prohibited. The Great Ming Code [the legal code of the Ming Dynasty] stipulates that commoners who own slaves will be beaten 100 times and immediately released as free people.”

‘Why is this the first time I’m hearing about this?’

The Joseon legal system basically imported the Great Ming Code and adapted it to suit local conditions.

How could no one have told me this before!

“Of course, the reality doesn’t completely follow the law. Within Ming China, owning slaves is a matter of pride, and even those with a little wealth try to obtain them by breaking the law, so the practice is hardly diminishing.”

“But since Ming China explicitly prohibits it, that means we can also wield an iron fist in our country by following suit, right?”

“That’s right.”

Lee Bang-won said with a grin.

“We will start by freeing those public slaves who have unfairly become slaves, under the pretext of setting an example in the government. Then, we can perfectly justify attacking private slaves.”

Like the previous kings, Lee Bang-won was serious about increasing the population and the number of free people.

That’s why he was plotting this with Wang Ho’s advice.

‘Just thinking about the previous matter makes my head spin.’

He had barely popularized the proper method of pregnancy cycles before thinking about increasing the number of slaves.

“I need you to help me a bit.”

Lee Bang-won said that.

“If you ask for my help, of course, I will. But… how?”

“Let’s make this agenda come from the East Palace.”

This clearly meant that since there would be strong opposition, he was planning to use me as a shield.

Then, Lee Bang-won would subtly mediate and steer public opinion in the direction he wanted.

“As if you haven’t always done that?”

“It’s all for the country I’m going to hand over to you anyway, so what does it matter? The people who are cursing now will have forgotten all about it by the time you ascend the throne.”

Lee Bang-won said shamelessly.

Well, he wasn’t wrong.

===

Increasing the number of slaves to augment wealth was a time-honored wealth management method for the Joseon aristocracy.

The Crown Prince’s book, ‘Family Health Education,’ also sold like wildfire for this very reason.

“To increase the number of slaves….”

“We can’t just work them day and night, can we?”

The aristocrats who had thoroughly studied ‘Family Health Education’ displayed benevolence by granting holidays to their slaves, decades ahead of even King Sejong.

They felt proud and gratified for having generously shown such kindness, but the news that soon followed shattered their good mood.

“The Ministry of Justice’s investigation department shall investigate the slaves in each government office and release all those who have unfairly become government slaves.”

Investigating the origins of public slaves first meant that the government would first remove any troublesome elements, and then turn its attention to private slaves.

“Ugh… again!”

“How many times is this reform happening!”

However, the aristocrats were not surprised by these measures.

Rather, the emotion they felt was closer to weariness.

That was because Joseon had been actively trying to reduce the number of slaves since its founding.

“The Office for Reforming the Slave System was established once during the reign of the Retired King, again during the reign of the Former King, and His Majesty also tried to set it up again a few years ago but stopped, right?”

Every time the Office for Reforming the Slave System was established, they would rummage through their homes, investigating their slaves and questioning their origins, driving them to the point of neurosis.

“They want us to release slaves who were rightfully inherited from our ancestors, claiming that they were free people several generations ago….”

“Being summoned to the government office every few years to do this! Ugh, it’s tiring, so tiring!”

The aristocrats, fed up with the situation, soon became furious, wondering who had suggested such a thing this time.

“Who else could it be? It’s an order from the East Palace.”

“It’s the Crown Prince again….”

Since the Crown Prince was known for his unconventional behavior, the aristocrats could only assume he was up to something similar again and suffer in silence.

However, those who knew the more intimate details of how the policy was being implemented were different.

“Ming China only allows the government and meritorious subjects to have slaves, so it’s strange that Joseon, which follows the Great Ming Code, doesn’t adhere to this. Is it really true that such a story came out of the palace?”

“That’s right. Although it might not be the first time His Highness has brought it up.”

“Indeed, His Highness wouldn’t have paid attention to the Great Ming Code.”

Wasn’t the Crown Prince someone who didn’t care what Ming China said or did?

“Then who on earth is it?”

“If there’s someone in Joseon who can speak like that, there’s only one person, isn’t there?”

At the question from Kim Yu-on, a Junior Secretary in the Ministry of Public Works, that answer came back.

“Then…!”

“The Crown Princess?”

At those words, everyone gathered was greatly astonished.

This was not just about the issue of slaves.

“A woman, and a foreign princess at that, interfering in state affairs!”

When the empress seized power, the Tang Dynasty fell, and when the maternal relative Wang Mang gained power, the Han Dynasty fell.

Later dynasties guarded against this by strictly separating the domains of the Queen Consort.

‘And it’s even a princess from a great nation.’

The scholar-officials, remembering the tyranny that princesses had wielded during the Goryeo Dynasty, felt as if they were about to faint.

“Even in the former Goryeo Dynasty, the princesses of the great nation regarded this country as their own home and wreaked havoc.”

Yeom Chi-yong, a Deputy Commander, could not hide his bitter feelings and muttered.

Such a thing had happened long ago.

Kublai Khan, the Yuan Emperor, had issued the four characters ‘不改土風’ (bù gǎi tǔ fēng) [meaning ‘do not change the local customs’], allowing Goryeo to maintain its customs, but the Yuan princesses and traitors who came later did not respect this at all.

They seized the real power in Goryeo and arbitrarily meddled in state affairs, and Hwalri Gilsa, who was the Vice Director of the Eastern Expeditionary Army Headquarters, was one of those Yuan traitors.

“Even someone like Hwalri Gilsa arbitrarily tried to change the system of this land and release slaves.”

“But we protected it, didn’t we?”

At that time, the local gentry risked their lives to resist the pressure from Yuan and upheld the banner of ‘不改土風’.

That memory of glorious victory had been passed down through generations and remained deeply ingrained in the hearts of their descendants.

The scholar-officials gathered there looked at each other and nodded, filled with overwhelming emotion.

A burning determination was rising in their hearts.

“Comrades, we must once again display our firm will for independence.”

They had to sternly rebuke the foreign princess for interfering in state affairs, and prevent the recurrence of the Goryeo Dynasty’s precedent.

The problem was….

Who would bell the cat?

One spouse was the beloved younger sister of the mad Yongle Emperor, and the other was the Crown Prince, who no one knew what he was thinking.

“How about asking the Lord of Yeoheung…?”

Wasn’t the Yeoheung Min clan the family that had been beaten on the Shinmungo [a drum used to petition the king] several times for taking free people and making them slaves?

However, this was soon met with opposition.

“The Lord of Yeoheung is ill these days, and all of his sons have not come to Hanyang [old name for Seoul]. Who are you talking about petitioning?”

“Besides, the Min family is already under the watchful eye of not only His Majesty but also His Highness the Crown Prince due to the abdication incident. Who would dare to step forward?”

It was said with the intention of seeing if the Crown Prince would even target his own maternal family, but it was useless if the Min family itself could not move.

Then, Kim Yu-on, a Junior Secretary in the Ministry of Public Works who was present at this gathering, looked at someone and opened his mouth.

“How about Minister Shim stepping forward?”

He was referring to Shim On, the Vice Minister of the Left, who was right there.

The Cheongsong Shim clan was also a prestigious family, and wasn’t it a family that owned more slaves than anyone else?

“Ahem, given my current position….”

Since he was the father-in-law of Grand Prince Chungnyeong, criticizing the Crown Princess could be seen as trying to shake the Crown Prince, so Shim On trailed off.

“Since the Minister is in a special position, wouldn’t it be better to advise?”

“Surely His Majesty wouldn’t cast out his own in-law, would he?”

“…….”

‘These guys don’t care because it’s not their problem.’

There had already been quite a few in-laws that Lee Bang-won had swept away, so it was hard to confidently guarantee that there would be no problems.

Since they couldn’t force someone who didn’t want to, and Shim On kept his mouth shut, there was no way to proceed.

Yeom Chi-yong spoke with frustration.

“Ahem, why is everyone so lacking in spirit?”

“…….”

If they retorted, ‘Then what are you doing?’ it was likely to turn into a meaningless argument.

Instead, Shim On, who had been silent, spoke again.

“Then we should bring in those with spirit.”

“Is there such a way?”

Shim On nodded.

There were always plenty of young people who were courageous and thoughtless.

===

The megaphone that Crown Prince Lee Je had first invented was so easy to use and not very difficult to make, so it was being used everywhere.

Since electricity could not be used, it had to be made of copper or porcelain to amplify the sound well, and it had the disadvantage of being longer and larger than modern megaphones, making it inconvenient to carry, but it was still useful enough in this era.

For this reason, a classic porcelain megaphone was installed here at Sungkyunkwan [Joseon’s highest educational institution].

However, it was not exactly an item installed for the purpose of classes.

A well-dressed Confucian scholar put his mouth to the megaphone installed on the podium and shouted.

“Comrades! This land of Haedong [ancient name for Korea] is where Dangun [legendary founder of Korea] descended and Gija [a sage from the Shang dynasty] was enfeoffed, and its civilization is by no means inferior to that of the Central Plains [China], and with each passing year, we can feel the depth of its customs.”

“That’s right! That’s right!”

“What kind of people are we!”

At the scholar’s words, cheers erupted from the claque below the podium.

Gaining courage, the scholar clenched his fist and continued to shout.

“But recently, the court seems to only know how to serve the great powers and does not know independence! During the Goryeo Dynasty, there were pro-Yuan factions who stirred up the plot to have the country become a province of Yuan, and today, these pro-Ming factions are trying to disrupt the distinction between superiors and inferiors, so how can we, as people who have studied Confucianism, stand idly by!”

“Wow! That’s right, that’s right!”

“Not everything is right just because it’s the law of a great nation. Customs like ritual suicide are not to be followed by gentlemen, and owning slaves is evident even in the Eight Articles of Gojoseon [ancient Korean kingdom]!

How can we abolish the old laws just by listening to the words of a foreign princess!”

“That’s right, that’s right!”

“Absolutely defend slave sovereignty!”

“Oppose foreign relatives interfering in state affairs!”

The scholars, filled with spirit and resentment, shouted at the top of their lungs.

When that Hwalri Gilsa plotted to abolish the Goryeo slaves, the seniors of the National Confucian Academy must have resisted like this.

And Crown Prince Lee Je, who was watching the scene, muttered.

“Are they crazy….”

End

ⓒ Pitkong