There Is No Sejong In My Joseon [EN]: Chapter 236

“Your Highness, what is the meaning of all this!”

“Sob, sob, Minister Hwang…!”

Hwang Hee, upon finding the Crown Prince, hurriedly prostrated himself. He was shocked to see the Prince confined in an even smaller rice chest, looking like a contortionist.

Tears welled in Yi Je’s eyes, his head barely sticking out of the rice chest.

“The Crown Princess petitioned Father to move me into this rice chest, so I can’t even move an arm properly. I was wrong, please get me out.”

Frankly, it was his own fault, but Hwang Hee, unaware of the whole story, first tried to appease the Crown Prince.

“Your Highness emulated the story of Shennong [a legendary Chinese ruler and deity in Chinese mythology], who personally consumed seventy-two kinds of poisonous herbs and created 365 kinds of medicine to defeat the Princess, so how can you say you are at fault? The Confucian scholars are praising Your Highness.”

Of course, Hwang Hee didn’t mention that Shennong eventually died after eating Gelsemium elegans, literally severing his intestines.

‘It’s enough that he lived.’

If the Crown Prince had crossed the River Styx [a river in Greek mythology that formed the boundary between Earth and the Underworld], Hwang Hee, as a close aide, would have been in a very awkward position, but he survived after all.

Then there’s no problem.

Hwang Hee had unknowingly become influenced by the way of thinking of the superior he served.

“But my family has all turned their backs on me, so the only people I can trust now are you.”

Yi Je nodded in agreement.

“I will meet with the Chief Censor and the Vice Minister of Rites to discuss this.”

“Ah! You are truly a loyal subject!”

Indeed, Hwang Hee is the best at his job among the Black Ox and the Yellow Ox.

There was a reason why Hwang Hee left his name in history as an incorruptible official and a great statesman of Joseon.

Hwang Hee nodded, wanting to repay his superior’s trust.

“In this state, it would be inconvenient for Your Highness to conduct official duties or even to sleep and eat. Do not worry. We will definitely move you to a wider rice chest.”

“…You’re not saying you’ll get me out?”

Yi Je stared at Hwang Hee in disbelief.

“How can I reverse what His Majesty has decided?”

“You, you traitor!”

Hwang Hee simply chuckled good-naturedly at the Crown Prince’s scream.

‘Well, even if we don’t step in, he’ll be released soon if we just wait quietly.’

That political monster Yi Bang-won would not fail to use the political material of his son recreating the story of Shennong.

He has locked him up now to give his son a shock treatment, but behind the scenes, he must be working hard to embellish this incident.

The results will soon surface, and then he will have no choice but to release him, even if he doesn’t want to.

However, Yi Je, unaware of Hwang Hee’s calculations, could only grumble resentfully.

“There’s no one in the world to trust!”

===

“Your body aches? Oh dear, that’s terrible. I should have the royal physician prepare some herbal medicine.”

After Hwang Hee’s betrayal, when I feigned illness as a last resort, Yi Bang-won said this nonchalantly.

Then, the royal physicians really did prepare and bring out herbal medicine.

The physicians who brought the medicine surrounded the rice chest, grabbed my hands, and shouted.

“Your Highness capturing the Princess is comparable to the achievements of Emperor Yan!” [Another name for Shennong]

“No medical book has ever described a method of curing people with horsepox. Even if Hwata [a famous Chinese physician during the late Eastern Han dynasty] or Pyeonjak [a legendary doctor of ancient China] were alive, it would not be possible!”

Their eyes are sparkling too much to be just flattery.

They almost died with me, but seeing that there is no particular resentment about it, it seems that admiration and curiosity are greater.

Indeed, I heard that smallpox vaccination stopped the spread of smallpox in Pyeongan-do, and the number of deaths has greatly decreased compared to before.

I think I heard a rumor that strange shrines are being created as a side effect of that…

A shrine where I and Ttaeng-gu are worshiped together? There’s no way such a thing exists.

Above all, we’re both alive.

‘Let’s not think about such wicked nonsense.’

All’s well that ends well.

“Oh, you people. Stop chatting and quickly offer the Crown Prince the herbal medicine. Shouldn’t we nourish His Highness’s body as soon as possible?”

“Ah, that’s right. We are sorry, Your Highness. All we can do is prepare the herbal medicine with the utmost care…”

The physicians bowed their heads and handed me the herbal medicine.

The problem isn’t the herbal medicine, but getting me out of this pirate roulette barrel.

‘This probably won’t have any effect even if I drink it.’

I sighed and accepted the herbal medicine.

Something slippery and viscous felt different from ordinary herbal medicine.

I asked the physicians.

“What kind of medicinal ingredients are in this?”

“Eucommia ulmoides [a species of small tree native to China]. It helps with longevity and is especially good for bones and muscles.”

“The texture is strangely sticky.”

“Eucommia ulmoides originally has such properties. You can see sticky threads stretching out when you cut the leaves or bark.”

The royal physician took out Eucommia ulmoides from the medicine bag he was wearing around his waist and demonstrated it.

Indeed, when crushed, it stretched out elastically…

“Huh?”

I felt like I had been hit on the head.

I snatched it away and completely crushed it.

My hands were covered in sap, but I didn’t care.

“No-bun!”

“Yes, Your Highness!”

No-bun rushed over at my shout.

“I need to go to the Royal Infirmary!”

“Wh-What’s going on?”

Fear was written all over No-bun’s face.

I know why, but isn’t it too obvious?

“Just go if I tell you to, why so many questions?”

Then No-bun reluctantly lifted the rice chest with a groan.

The physicians also joined in and got on the cart, and I shouted, pointing to the Royal Infirmary while still inside the rice chest.

“Let’s go!”

===

What needs to be secured to ride the electric tech is also an insulator.

Now we use silk cloth, but it is expensive and its use is limited.

So I was primarily looking for rubber, and if that wasn’t possible, I was considering other tree sap as a substitute.

Seeing Eucommia ulmoides suddenly reminded me of that.

I had heard of it even when I was in modern times.

It is said to be the only species among plants that grow in temperate climates that contains gutta-percha [a natural latex produced from the sap of various trees].

Gutta-percha has less elasticity than natural rubber but has greater electrical insulation.

If Eucommia ulmoides only grows in Joseon…

I questioned the physician.

“Is Eucommia ulmoides a plant that also grows in our country?”

“Yes, it is. In Joseon, it mainly grows in Jeolla-do and Jeju-do.”

From what I heard, it seems that it is rare, but not something that cannot be obtained at all.

‘Then there was no need to send people to Southeast Asia to find natural rubber?’

No, that’s not right. Still, the roles of rubber and gutta-percha are different.

Gutta-percha is well preserved in water but easily oxidized in the air.

So I heard it is used as a material for submarine cables.

But it seemed sufficient for patching.

“Immediately send people down to Jeolla-do to collect sap… No. Collect branches and leaves.”

I was about to order them to collect sap, but I quickly changed my words.

Collecting sap kills the tree. We can’t waste the already precious Eucommia ulmoides in this way.

However, it seemed that enough raw material could be obtained by crushing the branches and leaves.

‘Does this mean I’ve secured an insulator?’

Still, it’s a shame there’s no rubber.

Just in case, I told our officials in Southeast Asia to look for it, but since there has been no news for several years, the probability of failure is high.

But what can I do if there isn’t any? I have to use Eucommia ulmoides.

I need to find out where I can plant it on a large scale in the Jeolla-do area.

===

Just as the capital of Rome is Rome, the capital of Majapahit [a vast archipelagic empire based on the island of Java] is Majapahit.

To be exact, it is present-day Trowulan in the interior of Java Island, also called Majakerta, which means Majapahit Fortress.

In the Joseon trading post there, Jo Wa-tong, Envoy Min Mu-gu, was jumping for joy.

“Finally! I finally found it!”

Min Mu-gu did not bother to hide his joy despite the hot air of the south.

The subordinates who would normally have told him to save face were the same.

When they thought about how they had roamed the jungles of Java to find this, tears welled up in their eyes.

“This is the rubber that His Highness spoke of?”

“Yes, that’s right.”

Strictly speaking, Crown Prince Yi Je’s idea that modern natural rubber would be in Southeast Asia was half wrong.

The origin of the Pará rubber tree, which produces modern natural rubber, is strictly South America.

Most of the rubber exported from Southeast Asia is also obtained from this Pará rubber tree species, so no matter how much Min Mu-gu in Java is told to find it, he cannot obtain it.

However, it is not that there is nothing worth calling rubber in Southeast Asia.

First of all, the gutta-percha that Yi Je discovered is widely distributed in Southeast Asian plants, and even if it is a type of latex, it is not impossible to obtain.

“I found this in Tianzhu, so I don’t know what we are doing just secretly rummaging through the territory of the Jo Wa country.”

“Thanks to that, we were able to learn the situation of this country in detail. It wasn’t entirely useless.”

Min Mu-gu smacked his lips and said.

What they discovered was the Indian rubber tree.

It is a species with strong vitality and was usefully used as an industrial resource until the Pará rubber tree became prominent.

When he discovered this, Min Mu-gu’s eyes filled with tears.

He was finally able to fulfill the Crown Prince’s order.

For Yi Je, he simply told his uncle to look for it while he was out, but from Min Mu-gu’s point of view, how could he think that way?

‘It was a long and difficult time.’

And as the eldest son, it was not easy to be in a foreign land so far away.

He had a great desire to live as a wealthy man, cultivating salt fields in Bupyeong like his younger brothers, but more than that, he had a sense of responsibility to somehow maintain the power of the Min family.

‘The only one I can trust is my nephew.’

While his brother-in-law, His Majesty, is in power, he will have to focus on keeping his head on his shoulders even if he returns.

Min Mu-gu was sweating profusely on his back just thinking about the Yangwi show [a military parade].

If his nephew, the Crown Prince, ascends the throne, he will be able to quit this job and live comfortably in his home country, receiving preferential treatment.

So, even until then, he had no choice but to do his best to prove his uncle’s usefulness to his nephew.

“Then shall we offer it to His Highness right away?”

“No.”

Min Mu-gu shook his head.

After years of investigation, the subordinates would think that the discovery alone is a great achievement, but would the Hanyang court think so?

‘His Highness said that this is necessary to block something called electricity…’

Then, more trees were needed, not just the rubber that was discovered.

‘It is questionable whether this tree can be grown in Joseon right now.’

It could result in killing the rubber tree that was barely obtained, so Min Mu-gu devised a plan to plant only rubber trees somewhere and carry the rubber by extracting the sap.

“I will talk to King Wi (魏王) to see if I can buy a farm.”

King Wi refers to Wikramawardhana, the king of Majapahit.

However, the Joseon people who heard this name soon had the same expression as liberal arts students facing Suhellivebungtanzilsan [a fictional, extremely difficult subject].

Due to the long and unfamiliar name, it was only called King Wi, taking the first letter, among the Joseon people.

This King Wi was actively involved in establishing friendly relations with Joseon to the extent that he provided a trading post in Majakerta – mainly because of gunpowder – so Min Mu-gu was confident.

He also built quite a bit of friendship by claiming to be a relative of the king.

However, Min Mu-gu, who directly visited King Wi and talked to him, soon faced difficulties.

End

ⓒ Pitkong