There Is No Sejong In My Joseon [EN]: Chapter 360

361. A World All Smiles (1)

“They refused to attend court……”

The crown prince, who succeeded the Hongxi Emperor and now reigned under the era name Xuande, Emperor Zhu Zhanji, muttered to himself.

“Y-Your Majesty, it seems the Crown Prince has just returned from his tour and is suffering from fatigue,” the envoy stammered, but Zhu Zhanji only examined the matchlock in his hands.

When no rebuke came, the envoy grew even more anxious.

“Understood. You may leave.”

Finally, with those words, the envoy, relieved, retreated as quickly as possible without losing his composure.

However, contrary to the envoy’s belief, Zhu Zhanji was not angry.

He had not expected much from the start.

It was just one more reason to resent someone already resented.

– Ta-aang!

A military officer, receiving the matchlock from Zhu Zhanji, skillfully reloaded and fired, prompting the Emperor to calmly admire it.

“This is a real matchlock.”

Rather, the resentment was closer to home.

The Seungja Chongtong [a type of Korean cannon] that Joseon had been offering were decent in performance, and in the northern front, gunpowder weapons of any kind were always welcome.

However, Zhu Zhanji was more resentful of the fact that they had been deceiving the Middle Kingdom all along.

“Is this a replica of the matchlock presented by Joseon?”

“Yes, Your Majesty. Now, the Great Ming can produce matchlocks without difficulty.”

After that, there were face-saving remarks that it was not as sophisticated as the ones sent from Joseon, or that the explosive power of the gunpowder was not as great, but Zhu Zhanji paid no attention.

“You have done well. Reward the artisans with silk.”

No matter how much Joseon introduced various machine tools and mass-produced them in factories, this vast country could mobilize thousands, even tens of thousands of artisans at any time.

The perfection of the matchlock, the performance of the gunpowder?

Faced with quantity overwhelming quality, such things were minor issues.

‘Only if they are the same matchlock, though.’

As evidenced by passing off Seungja Chongtong as matchlocks, Joseon was skilled at deceiving the Middle Kingdom.

“Can this gun be used in the rain?”

“W-Well, not exactly……”

“Didn’t the soldiers who charged with the Joseon army alongside the rebel Zhu Gouhou all say the same thing?

The Joseon army clearly used firearms even when it rained.”

The fact that Joseon readily handed over the matchlock must mean they had something to rely on.

“Are there any military officers brought from Joseon? Have you asked them?”

“Yes. They said they are instructors of Joseon martial arts and do not know about firearms.”

The ones brought from Joseon were only useful for teaching group military exercises to the Jing Army [the main army of the Ming Dynasty]. They were otherwise useless.

He himself had been momentarily moved by the card section fluttering in unison when receiving the military parade, so he had no complaints.

“If we cannot find out, so be it. In the victory of the army, morale is more important than weaponry.”

It sounded like the spiritualism favored by some imperial army, but from Emperor Xuande Zhu Zhanji’s perspective, it was not necessarily wrong.

Technology in this era does not advance overnight.

The matchlock was quite different from the existing Chongtong, so he set out to secure it, but would the new guns that came out afterward really have that much of a difference?

Rather than endlessly investing in equipping every single weapon, he should focus on fostering an army worthy of the name.

Especially since he had to rebuild the army that the Prince of Zhao had ruined.

Zheng He watched his reaction with anxiety.

‘Does His Majesty intend to punish Joseon?’

It would not be a full-scale war. The Emperor was not that crazy.

Rather, the Emperor was worthy of being called a wise ruler.

The Emperor inherited the policies of the late Emperor and was proactive in internal affairs and stabilizing the people’s livelihoods.

He was frugal, disliked unnecessary spending, severely punished corrupt officials, and reduced the burden on the people.

Except for his strangely hostile attitude towards Joseon.

‘Perhaps the civil war caused by his two uncles had a great impact on the Emperor when he was growing up.’

The Emperor had a generous side, but perhaps because of that, he would suddenly apply strict standards.

This was such a case.

‘A submissive tributary state is a friend, otherwise an enemy.’

He had come to see the world in such a dichotomy.

The Emperor judged Joseon to be the latter.

Therefore, when the Crown Prince refused to attend court, he immediately tried to remove Joseon’s influence from various places.

However, Zheng He could not refuse his command.

“You shall once again go to the Western Seas and reclaim the southern barbarian countries that have fallen under Joseon’s shadow.”

The imperial order to resume the voyages to the Western Seas, which he had regarded as his life’s mission.

But how could he go against the Emperor’s policy?

Zhu Zhanji’s actions did not stop there.

“Uriyangkhai [a nomadic group in Northeast Asia] is one arm of Joseon. Did not our grandfather intend to strike Uriyangkhai before his demise due to the conspiracy of rebels?

I, too, must cut off Joseon’s arm to reduce future worries.”

Unlike Joseon, Uriyangkhai was a force that was beaten by the Ming Dynasty whenever they felt like it without much justification, and in fact, they themselves were not very innocent.

However, unlike the era of the Yongle Emperor, who routinely beat up the Mongols, there were clear concerns about resuming foreign expeditions.

“Your Majesty has also appointed the King of Annam. How can you not forgive Uriyangkhai?”

“Although Li Li was a rebel who once defied the Mandate of Heaven, his power does not extend beyond Annam. But Uriyangkhai is different.”

Uriyangkhai was also a rebel who had seized Danning.

Perhaps the invaders occasionally reported at the Great Wall were also them.

Uriyangkhai would one day plunge the north into chaos again.

Zhu Zhanji’s prediction was not necessarily wrong, but the target was slightly off.

While the Emperor’s attention was focused on the east, the Oirat [another Mongolic group] were slowly stirring.

* * *

“Finally, the canal has been opened!”

“To see this sight in my lifetime!”

The reason why the construction was completed surprisingly quickly was simple.

The Venetians were originally skilled in canals, and the descendants of Emperor Yang of Sui, who were also obsessed with canals – Chinese engineers joined in, but,

“Across seven hundred years, the two seas have met again!”

Simply put, the Suez Canal, connected to the Nile, had been in operation since ancient times.

Considering that the remnants of this ancient canal were used when digging the modern Suez Canal, the difficulty was greatly reduced.

Therefore, once they succeeded in restoring the sedimented and destroyed parts, the reopening of the Suez Canal gained momentum.

It was easy to say, but it would have been impossible if the two continental powers, Venice and the Mamluks, had not rolled up their sleeves and stepped forward.

So, what was another great power, Joseon, doing?

“We have agreed that the ships of the three countries can freely pass through the canal without transshipment.”

“It should be so. If we have to go a long way to trade, how much would we have in hand if we had to go through complicated transshipment?”

Joseon, Venice, and the Mamluk Sultanate signed a treaty to regulate the rights to use the Suez Canal.

They had painstakingly dug the canal, but would they allow others to reap the benefits?

Joseon and Venice paid a certain fee to the Mamluks and obtained the right to directly pass through the canal.

From the Mamluk’s point of view, it was not a loss, as the base cities through which the ships would pass, including Suez, were all within their territory anyway.

The sailors would not stay on the ship while passing through the Red Sea, and it was calculated that they would have to go through transshipment at least once in the long and narrow Suez Canal.

Whatever the Mamluks’ calculations, as the expectation that Joseon goods would now pour in without going through complicated land routes spread, the Suez trade began to expand rapidly.

Before they knew it, Joseon’s influence, along with Joseon goods, would reach the Middle East, and through Suez, beyond the Mediterranean.

It was not only Joseon ships that began to pour in.

Joseon would also send ships to the Mediterranean, but Venice was even more thirsty for Joseon goods.

Rumors about Joseon, which had spread throughout Europe during the canal construction over the past few years, fueled this.

They could not catch up with Venice, which was close to the Mamluks and had even obtained free access to Suez, but young people with courage and a desire to make money flocked to Suez, crossing the Red Sea.

And after several years, Zheng He, who had set sail, encountered barbarian ships he had never heard of and was greatly shocked.

* * *

Zheng He had not anticipated this situation at all.

However, this voyage itself was full of unexpected things.

“Are those Ryukyu fleets? What brings them here?”

He had heard that the three Ryukyus had been unified into one.

However, he could not know the inner workings of a small country far away.

It was just a traditional tributary state of the Central Plains, but he did not pay much attention to it.

Even when he heard that Joseon had drawn Ryukyu into forming a joint fleet, he simply thought it was to establish a justification.

But could the large fleet before his eyes really come from a small country like Ryukyu?

It was because Ryukyu, which had no meaning in raising an army and had a lot of money from selling sugar, had put all its efforts into fostering a fleet, but Zheng He was freshly shocked by its power.

The reaction of the old tributary states he contacted was even more shocking.

“Ryukyu ships have appeared!”

“Raise the flag to show that we have no intention of fighting! We cannot match the Ryukyu fleet!”

The Islamic countries he had won over, those who should have been loyal supporters of the Great Ming in the south, had long been cowering.

When he found out what had happened, he learned that the Buddhist coalition army, which held up the swastika high – Zheng He was dumbfounded from here – had expelled all the Muslims.

The Chinese, who only knew about the court cracking down on heretics as a religious war, were freshly shocked.

“This is not going to work!”

Of course, there were still countries left, but they had virtually surrendered to Joseon and had long been under its control.

Zheng He seriously doubted whether he could fulfill the imperial order.

Could he really remove the influence that Joseon had scattered and achieve the great task of the Western Seas?

Several years had passed.

But it was only a few years.

In less than a decade, Joseon had completely succeeded in dominating the sea.

Of course, it was not impossible to restore the influence of the Ming Dynasty forever.

What was the reason why Joseon was able to seize power right away?

The justification of selling the name of the Ming Dynasty and ruling the tributary states on behalf of the Emperor played a big role.

Now that the directly managed store has appeared, it is only right for the agency to close its shutters and disappear.

Zheng He did not think that far, but he thought the past relationship between Joseon and Ming was more ideal.

Ming reigned as the Son of Heaven of the sea, and Joseon took care of the substance in its shadow.

To return to that time, just like when he first set out to the Western Seas, he had to remind them whose tributary state they were, and those who resisted would be ruled by force.

‘Joseon is ultimately a tributary state of the Great Ming. Blocking this means denying the Sino-centric order [the belief that China is the center of the world].’

Zheng He did not want a conflict with Joseon.

In a time when even those red-haired devils [Europeans] were slowly crawling into this sea, there was nothing to gain from fighting each other.

Zheng He earnestly hoped that Joseon would think so too.