There Is No Sejong In My Joseon [EN]: Chapter 27

Hwang-hee was startled by my question.

“Ah, no, Your Highness. How could I dare to do such a thing?”

“Then explain why you did everything Song Merchant asked.”

“As I said, Song Merchant was the only place that could meet the deadline and handle the silver, so I just made a reasonable compromise······!”

Hwang-hee said, hitting his chest as if he was truly wronged.

His earnestness almost made me doubt my suspicions.

“Really, you didn’t take a single bribe?”

“They brought me a small gift and begged me to accept it, so I just kept it.”

That’s a bribe.

So you drank, but you didn’t drive drunk?

“Warmth blooms in the exchange of human kindness, and it wouldn’t be right to refuse it outright, would it? I am wronged!”

Hwang-hee cried out with tears welling up in his eyes.

Hwang-hee seemed genuinely wronged.

So, he’s arguing that he didn’t take a bribe, but just accepted the amount of kindness that others receive.

‘His way of thinking is different from ours.’

I shook my head.

I trusted him······ I trusted Hwang-hee······!

I thought he would be better than Maeng Sa-seong, who rides around on an ox, or Heo Jo, who is so stubborn, but I get backstabbed like this.

I was dumbfounded.

‘These people······ Weren’t they Sejong’s Avengers?’

More like a villain alliance than the Avengers.

How could such an absurd thing happen?

“Bring the head merchant who conducted the negotiations right now!”

===

Hwang-hee was truly troubled.

The head merchant from Song Merchant pleaded, asking him to consider the circumstances of the trading group.

His theory was that you can’t get water from squeezing a dry towel.

With the ban on gold, Song Merchant had nowhere to use the silver right away, so it made sense to ask for a price that would compensate for the loss.

In the end, Hwang-hee, befitting his reputation as a great statesman who left his name in history, soon made an excellent judgment, choosing between meeting the deadline and concluding the contract even if it meant raising the price, and reporting to the Prince that the negotiations had been disrupted.

‘If I have to choose between the two, wouldn’t it be good to show mercy to these merchants?’

Of course, the small token of appreciation that Song Merchant offered was reflected in the decision-making process, but it was ultimately done out of a benevolent heart.

However, he didn’t expect the Prince to know the price of the paint in such detail.

Hwang-hee felt like the sky was falling.

Wasn’t this a situation where a man of integrity like himself could be misunderstood as a corrupt official?

‘You’re dead.’

Especially after seeing Prince Yi Cheon looking at him and drawing his finger across his neck.

===

I was jumping up and down, yelling for the head merchant to be brought in.

It was out of the question for a lowly merchant and the Prince to sit down and discuss profits, but since there was no one to calm the Prince’s anger, the head merchant was eventually caught by Yi Cheon.

“What do you take me for, playing these kinds of tricks on me?”

The head merchant prostrated himself before me without saying a word.

“Your Highness. For a merchant like me, not making a profit is as good as death. Even if you order me to provide enough paint to cover the entire city of Hanyang, I would naturally have to comply, but please understand that it is truly impossible to obtain it.”

“Then you should have readily told me about those circumstances. How can you try to bribe officials to make things easier?”

It may be natural in this era, but I couldn’t tolerate it.

Especially since I could see right through their intentions.

Meanwhile, Yi Cheon, who was examining the samples of paint that had been brought, said,

“The ones stacked on top are high-quality, but the ones stacked at the bottom are of lower quality.”

‘Yi Cheon, you have a good eye for a martial artist.’

I thought.

But now was the time to question the poor quality first.

“Were you trying to present inferior goods?”

“Y-yes, but to meet the amount you ordered, I had no choice but to use even the inferior goods.”

“That may be so. But isn’t the price you quoted the price for all high-quality goods? How dare you try to deceive the court and make a profit!”

They could mix in inferior goods when delivering, but fill the samples with high-quality goods. I was suspicious of that point, but I started to press them.

“It seems the lower ones made a mistake. P-please kill me.”

The head merchant said, trembling.

Blaming the lower ones is just a common excuse.

‘To try to conclude such a fraudulent contract, you must have a lot of guts.’

I’ve seen a lot of swindlers like this even in modern times.

When there’s a defect and you return it, they don’t think about properly reworking it, but just mix it in with the good ones and redeliver it.

The original contractor is in a hurry, so they use it, but it’s something that can be completely ruined if you catch them, so it’s something that can’t happen without an order from above.

“This is something that the head of the company must be questioned directly! Imprison the head merchant in the Hanyang prison and summon the head of the company!”

“What about Vice Minister Hwang?”

‘Sigh, that bastard······.’

The image of Hwang-hee, the man of integrity I knew, collapsed in an instant.

‘I can’t kill him.’

But I couldn’t imprison him as I pleased, since he was an official.

“I will report to His Majesty myself.”

That was the only way to settle it for now.

The head of Song Merchant, Oh Jong-soo, arrived less than a day after the news was delivered.

===

The head of Song Merchant, Oh Jong-soo, who had rushed like a thunderbolt, immediately visited Gyeongbok Palace to have an audience with me.

He bowed his head below the stone steps.

He probably couldn’t dare to face the Prince directly.

“You must have worked hard to come all the way from Gaeseong.”

He looked 60 years older than me, but I spoke informally without hesitation.

‘Just because you’re old doesn’t mean you’re above me.’

It’s ridiculous to apply modern values now.

There’s no need to be polite to Song Merchant.

“It is truly an honor of three lifetimes that you personally receive lowly merchants like us.”

It’s just lip service.

Unlike the blacksmiths of the Military Supplies Department, the seasoned merchants wouldn’t be moved just because I spoke to them directly.

It wasn’t like I didn’t notice that.

“I didn’t call you here for something very pleasant, so refrain from such words.”

“It is unspeakable that lowly merchants have caused concern to the precious Prince. In particular, the head merchant who committed the irregularities deserves to die ten thousand times, so please punish him severely.”

“Are you saying that the head of the company doesn’t know about this?”

“Of course. Song Merchant is not a single trading group, but a union of several merchants, so how could we have known such a thing would happen?”

Oh Jong-soo was subtly cutting off his tail, saying that it had nothing to do with them.

He didn’t care if the head merchant was killed for deceiving the king.

‘Is this bastard trying to throw him at me?’

Perhaps the head merchant involved in this incident was someone Oh Jong-soo usually found annoying.

At least he thought he wasn’t helpful to him.

Oh Jong-soo incited the head merchant to see if I would notice, and if I didn’t, the entire Song Merchant would rush in to make a profit, and if not, he was planning to have me kill him with my own hands?

‘Sigh, what a hassle to do a construction project.’

I could immediately expand the incident and turn the entire Song Merchant into dust, but it was obvious that the supply of paint would be disrupted.

Because of that burden, I had to cut off and remove only the exposed head merchant.

That was what Oh Jong-soo was aiming for.

“I am simply amazed that the wise Prince has uncovered these irregularities in detail.”

“Our Song Merchant has no intention of taking even a hair’s breadth of profit from this project. We will supply the paint at the original price.”

Oh Jong-soo pushed forward without even thinking.

‘It’s not a loss because they can give it to me in silver instead of rice or cloth. But the Song Merchant just went back to the original plan instead of taking excessive profits.’

To package this as if they were moved by me and surrendered.

His transformation is top-notch.

‘No matter how clever a child is, they tend to get carried away when praised like this.

Children are even emotional, so they might believe that Oh Jong-soo was really moved and that they were really wronged after seeing his reaction.’

But even though my body has shrunk, my brain is still the same.

I’m not fooled by such acting.

I just stared down at Oh Jong-soo.

When I didn’t say anything, Oh Jong-soo seemed to think that I had fallen for it and began to babble subtly.

“However, since the Prince has heard about the difficult circumstances of Song Merchant, I would like to ask you to show us some mercy.”

“What is it?”

“Could we receive a supply of white porcelain clay?”

At Oh Jong-soo’s words, I finally burst out laughing.

===

I flatly refused the white porcelain clay story.

Oh Jong-soo retreated without a word, as if it was just a story he had thrown out there.

‘The paint supply will now proceed without any problems, but······ why do I feel so dirty?’

I was furious when I realized that the Song Merchant bastards were trying to play me.

That anger naturally turned to Hwang-hee, who took the bribe.

“Vice Minister Hwang, while you are confined, calculate and submit the required amount of lumber and stone without omission!”

“D-do you want me to do all this alone?”

“Then who else is here besides Vice Minister Hwang?”

I was thinking of using Hwang-hee like this, rather than making fun of his administrative skills.

‘And correct his behavior at the same time.’

“Mother······.”

Hwang-hee’s wailing didn’t reach my ears.

A criminal is just someone who needs to be reformed through labor, so it’s okay to ignore his screams.

After passing the work on to Hwang-hee, I wandered aimlessly around the front yard of Gyeongbok Palace.

Then I heard my grandfather’s voice from behind.

“What are you so worried about?”

Yi Seong-gye had been out hunting for a while, but he seemed to have remained in the palace today.

“I was thinking about how to deal with Song Merchant.”

“Someone must have touched your temper again.”

I was seriously confiding in him, but Yi Seong-gye said sarcastically.

Does he think I’m his grandfather?

I explained the whole story in a fit of anger.

“That’s not it. These guys tried to deceive me with paint.”

Yi Seong-gye, who was listening quietly, said.

“The Song Merchant are bearing the burdens required by the court. That’s why they can be so bold. It’s easy to smash them, but it’s difficult to find replacements.”

“These guys, this time it’s paint, but next time, who knows what they’ll try to do. My pride won’t allow me to leave them alone.”

Damn it.

Should I consider the disruption to the construction and suggest that Yi Bang-won deal with it?

‘That’s too embarrassing.’

My image is that of a gentle and capable young prince.

What good would it do to suddenly become a daddy’s boy?

“Shall I help you?”

“Grandfather?”

I asked with a question.

I’m struggling and worrying, but what power does the retired King have?

As I was thinking that, Yi Seong-gye smacked me on the head.

“Ouch!”

“You bastard, were you looking down on me as an old man who has retired to the back room?”

“How could I have thought that? But, what can you do, Grandfather?”

“The point is, you just need to find someone to replace Song Merchant, right?”

“How can you replace Song Merchant, which has been around since the Goryeo Dynasty?”

If it were that easy, I wouldn’t be like this.

“Business is done by people. If you have the talent, it’s easy to seize the flow.”

‘So where do you get that talent?’

If it were as easy as saying it, Korea would be full of Jobs [Steve Jobs, the co-founder of Apple Inc.].

“Don’t worry.”

To me, who was looking at Yi Seong-gye with a doubtful look, he said,

“I have Lü Buwei [a famous Chinese merchant and politician of the late Warring States period].”

End

ⓒ Pitkong