There Is No Sejong In My Joseon [EN]: Chapter 351

Produce Crown Princess (2)

The interviews were far more tedious than I’d anticipated.

“I grew up under a strict father and a loving mother…”

“Since childhood, I’ve been taught to always be careful in my words and actions, befitting a descendant of a prestigious family…”

“I have learned sacrifice and responsibility while taking care of my younger siblings…”

‘Are you all attending the same academy?’ I wondered.

I asked them to introduce themselves, but most of them said pretty much the same thing.

Well, there’s not much room for a different story.

Unless they come from a family where morality has completely collapsed, their family traditions are similar. And since they have all been trained to be brides since they were young, it would be ridiculous to bring up work experience or anything like that.

Rather, anyone who deviates from this blandness might be immediately eliminated.

‘Well, I guess the purpose of the selection interview is just to filter out those with serious flaws.’

From the beginning, the selection is made after some degree of internal decision-making through political considerations.

‘If that’s the case, wouldn’t it have been better to filter them out with documents first and then have an aptitude test for the second round?’

They say a child’s intelligence follows the mother’s side, right?

As for paternal intelligence, Uncle Dan has already verified it.

‘Or just pick them based on their looks.’

As I was lost in such useless thoughts, Minister Joo spoke up.

“Becoming the mother of the nation is not as pleasant a path as you think. What is the reason why you want to become the Crown Princess?”

Then, the first girl Minister Joo’s eyes fell on suddenly dabbed her tears with her sleeve.

“Sob… My father has been ill recently…”

“Your father?”

“Since I was young, he always taught me to help my husband strengthen the family and contribute to the country. Having been unexpectedly chosen in the selection and given the opportunity to put my father’s teachings into practice, I really want to deliver good news to him.”

‘Is that for real?’

Suspicion suddenly arose, but I didn’t bother to say it out loud.

Minister Joo also subtly narrowed her eyes.

However, perhaps because the answer emphasizing filial piety seemed good, the other children hurriedly began to follow suit.

“My mother also has a chronic illness!”

“My grandmother, who raised me so preciously, will surely be watching from the heavens!”

“Can you hear it…? The sound of my heart… It’s shouting…!”

Is there an epidemic spreading in the capital that I don’t know about?

Seeing the sight of the sick and the dead popping up one after another, turning the place into a sea of tears, I quietly sighed.

There was only one child who didn’t try to squeeze out tears.

I, who had been watching the spectacle of them even bringing up their great-grandfather’s coffin, asked her.

“Are there no deceased in your family?”

The child with neatly braided hair lowered her head and answered.

“Both my father and mother are healthy. My grandfather passed away in the year of Imshin, but it’s an old story, so I didn’t bother to bring it up.”

If it’s the year of Imshin, it’s 1392, the year Joseon was founded, so it’s before they were even born.

‘Wait, if it’s 1392…’

I had a bad feeling about this.

“What was your grandfather’s identity?”

“The Honorable Minister Jeong, Mun Chung Gong [a posthumous title awarded to distinguished officials], is my grandfather.”

“…”

So, she’s that one.

Well, if I were her, I wouldn’t sell the story of someone who died after a rap battle with my father.

However, Yi Bang-won took it in a different sense and said with a satisfied face.

“The fact that she didn’t bother to mention it means that she has already forgotten the old grudges. There’s no need to worry unnecessarily.”

“Isn’t that too self-serving of an interpretation?”

I whispered, but Yi Bang-won easily ignored me.

“I saw in the *Sunbo* [a Joseon Dynasty newspaper] that she also ranked first in the public opinion poll. Since the public sentiment follows, there’s nothing more to consider.”

I’ve never heard of deciding the royal marriage partner through a national vote, even in modern times.

However, Yi Bang-won, the embodiment of direct democracy who overthrew Goryeo by exercising the right of resistance (iron hammer) of the *Sadaebu* [scholar-officials], seemed to think differently.

Well, whatever Yi Bang-won’s interpretation, I was happy that I didn’t join that sea of tears.

Whether I did or not, Yi Bang-won poked my side and asked.

“Does Your Majesty have anything more to say?”

“I don’t have anything in particular.”

It seems like everyone has roughly scored them, so we can end it here.

I clapped my hands and called Nobun.

Then, Nobun came in from outside, holding something in his arms.

Even so, I can’t send girls who are like daughters back empty-handed after coming for an interview.

I should give them some gifts and show them something interesting.

I had invented electricity with great effort, but to the Joseon people, it was treated like a toy or a torture device.

However, the gilding technology was an exception.

It had a clear advantage in terms of craftsmanship over existing gilding technology, so it was useful for industrial purposes.

For that reason, electroplating technology was flourishing splendidly.

The children were amazed as they watched the plating solution dissolved from the anode being drawn to the cathode and attached through electrolysis.

‘As expected, even children recognize the beauty of technology.’

No, perhaps they feel it more intuitively because they are children.

The children each received a gilded hairpin on the spot and giggled. They were busy showing off to each other.

However, the Jeong family’s daughter, who had stepped back from there, carefully touched the gilded part with her fingertips and said.

“I feel a subtle heat here.”

I nodded and said.

“The lightning energy that this device governs generates heat.”

It seemed she felt the slight heat generated during the electrolysis process.

Then, the children who were listening quietly shouted in surprise.

“Lightning energy!”

“Does Your Majesty gather lightning and make it with that?”

“No, not that.”

It’s been a while since I’ve heard this kind of misunderstanding to my face.

‘Is it because they’re still young?’

It’s a misunderstanding that arose because lightning struck the lightning rod installed in the East Palace every time it struck.

There were whispers that it was an ominous sign that lightning struck the palace frequently, but after the palace was fine even after being struck hundreds of times, rather, a gaze of awe poured out.

As expected, if you push forward with conviction, sincerity will be communicated.

“Lightning emits a flashing light when it strikes and spreads fire to the place where it sits.

That is the power of lightning energy, so the light from this lightning energy can illuminate the darkness, and the heat can warm the house.”

I looked around at the Crown Princess candidates and said.

Some of them will become my daughters-in-law, and some will not, but they are all friends who will become mistresses of prestigious families.

It would be good to do some sales in advance for the future.

The girls still had puzzled expressions, but I knew.

The day to achieve that much progress was not far off.

The results of investing in electricity development were finally beginning to show in earnest.

* * *

“‘I didn’t bother to bring up the story because it was too old,’ huh.”

Grand Prince Chungnyeong, Yi Do, muttered as he read the *Yeoheung Sunbo*.

The episode from the last selection was published as it was in the newspaper, borrowing the mouth of a reliable informant in the palace.

‘It must be a story that Father leaked.’

Without the approval of the *Sangwang* [the retired king], it would have been greatly hesitated to write about the secret stories of the palace in the *Sunbo*.

Thinking of his maternal uncle who had trembled and entered the palace after hearing the *Sangwang’s* secret order, a smile naturally appeared on Yi Do’s face.

It was as if the descendant of the last loyalist of Goryeo had lowered his head and entered to become a member of this family, and Yi Bang-won’s stigma of assassinating Jeong Mong-ju would be filled in this way.

‘Is it decided?’

This is a signal to completely liquidate the remnants of Goryeo and the awkwardness of the founding process.

Isn’t the fact that the royal family has stirred up public opinion to this extent already a sign that they have chosen their partner?

‘I’m glad I didn’t listen to the requests from my in-laws.’

It was fortunate that he maintained his composure despite the lobbying pouring in from all directions; if he had intervened unnecessarily, he would have been scolded.

Yi Do slammed the *Sunbo* shut and put on the black sunglasses that were next to him again.

Then, Jang Yeong-sil asked.

“Why do you wear those expensive glasses painted black, *Daegam* [a high-ranking official title]? Can you see well in front of you?”

“This way, the sunlight doesn’t shine.”

And I can’t see your eyes either.

Yi Do looked at Jang Yeong-sil over his black sunglasses.

“So, I heard it’s completed.”

“Yes. I finally made it.”

Jang Yeong-sil said with a proud face.

It had been over ten years since he had been ordered to create a generator that could supply large-scale power.

Of course, he had been in charge of other inventions during that time, but it was natural that his face was bright because the research he had been working on for over ten years had been completed.

It would have been impossible without accumulating electromagnetic understanding by creating batteries and lightning devices, and the experience gained from countless failures from design and parts procurement to actual production.

In the end, he was able to create the first large generator that utilizes electromagnets, passing the initial generators that used existing permanent magnets.

This compensated for the disadvantage that permanent magnets had too weak a magnetic field to be efficient and that it was also a problem to supply them.

The electromagnets that the king had initially presented wrapped in silk are now insulated with gutta-percha obtained from Eucommia or rubber imported from Southeast Asia.

However, the principle of obtaining electricity by fixing the magnet and rotating the coil is the same.

Then, what force should be used to rotate the coil?

Now that they had heard the news that the generator had been developed, they had considered power sources such as hydropower and thermal power, but in fact, there was one external force that was easiest for Joseon people to obtain.

Yi Do slightly raised his black sunglasses and said.

“Is this all? There are fewer people than I thought.”

“That’s what I’m saying. I asked them to send all the people left in the *gulrak* [a type of forced labor camp], but this is all there is.”

Jang Yeong-sil said with a small sigh.

The *gulrak*, which was crowded when the *Geumsang* [another term for Crown Prince] was the Crown Prince, has now disappeared a lot.

The mines had been developed as much as they could be, passing the initial development and infrastructure construction stages, and after securing a skilled workforce, they no longer needed manpower endlessly as before.

New mining booms were taking place in Liaodong, but even those were mainly being mobilized by refugees, and road construction was also being handled by the people mobilized every farming off-season or famine.

Thanks to the road paving movement carried out independently in each village, there was no place to put in effort other than maintenance.

In the past, if there were people with free hands like this, they were sent to the *Cheonil* salt fields [salt fields where salt is produced by natural evaporation], but those in the *gulrak* also filled their years and left, or several *gulrak* were closed after dying and falling down before that.

“In the first place, the early *gulrak* were mainly dragged to by traitors or Mansan soldiers [soldiers from Manchuria]. Now that the country is stable, there is no room for traitors or Mansan soldiers from Liaodong to run rampant.”

Jang Yeong-sil said regretfully.

It’s already been 20 years since Jo Sa-ui’s rebellion.

As the country is stable, there is no room for traitors or Mansan soldiers from Liaodong to run rampant.

Other than that, they mainly imprisoned serious criminals, but their numbers were not that large either.

“Now that we are in the stage of making electricity on a trial basis, we don’t need that much manpower, but what will happen as time goes by…”

“I don’t think you have to worry about that.”

Even in the original history, this era was a time when thieves were rampant.

The Joseon court, which had punished thieves with leniency, also switched back to harsh punishment in the late years of Sejong, imposing heavy penalties even on first-time offenders and unconditionally executing repeat offenders, prescribing extreme measures to execute hundreds of people a year.

The Joseon Dynasty, which had more stable income and administrative power spread throughout the country than in the original history, was not that extreme, but rather, organized theft and other crimes were increasing even more.

“His Majesty has newly dispatched hundreds of *Hyunggwan* (*刑官*) [penal officers] and has publicly announced that he will fairly establish the execution of *Hyungryul* [penal code].”

The introduction of the judge system is ultimately aimed at strengthening the separation of judicial power and trial capabilities, but there must be measures that the people can accept as a benefit.

Soon, a large number of people to run the generator will pour in.

Yi Do did not doubt it.

There Is No Sejong In My Joseon [EN]

There Is No Sejong In My Joseon [EN]

내 조선에 세종은 없다
Status: Completed Author: Native Language: Korean
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[English Translation] Imagine a Joseon dynasty unlike any you've read before, where the throne isn't yours by right, but by cunning and strategy. What if the most revered king in Korean history, Sejong the Great, was your younger brother? Forced to confront a destiny not of your choosing, you face a daunting question: Can you truly surrender to fate, or will you defy it to forge your own legend in a kingdom ripe with ambition and intrigue? Dive into a world where blood is thicker than water, but power is the ultimate prize. Will you yield, or will you rise?

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