Chapter 10

Chapter 10

Hehe Can’t Go

In Joseon there is a saying of the three lineages bloodline.

Literally meaning ‘the bloodline of three lineages’, it refers to the descendants of Hyojong-Hyeonjong-Sukjong.

Hyojong had three sons but two died soon, and in fact left only the only son Hyeonjong.

Hyeonjong’s son was also only Sukjong.

Sukjong had two sons, but the first Gyeongjong died eating crab soy sauce and raw persimmon before having a son, and the illegitimate son Yeongjo inherited the throne.

Yeongjo put his son in a rice chest and exorcised him then passed it to his grandson Jeongjo, and Jeongjo had two sons but the first died early and the second Sunjo inherited.

Sunjo who dreamed of a YOLO life wanted to abdicate to his only son Crown Prince Hyomyeong, but Crown Prince Hyomyeong died first and he himself died not long after.

Heonjong is precisely the only son left by the dead Crown Prince Hyomyeong.

This thin and precarious royal family genealogy that started from Hyojong’s era ends with Heonjong’s early death, and thereafter going through Cheoljong and Gojong, the legitimacy of the Joseon royal family is literally driven into the underground inner core.

And there is generally one common point among the family members of this household.

“Your Majesty!! Immediately drive out that lawless barbarian and strictly punish him!!”

“Has the Right State Councillor caught a disease of barking when seeing barbarians? Then since I am the king, are you telling me to become a petty guy who speaks with two mouths?”

“Your Majesty is different from others!”

The personalities are truly excellent.

Purge King Sukjong.

Rice Chest King Yeongjo.

White-clothed Sado Crown Prince.

Old Man King Jeongjo.

Except for YOLO King Sunjo, they all were born with awesome personalities, and this was no exception for the last successor of that bloodline, Heonjong.

“Right State Councillor, don’t get too heated. I was greatly stimulated seeing that child so I’ll try studying a bit closer.”

“At Your Majesty’s holy decision, your servant Lee Jiyeon does not know where to put his body.”

Moreover Heonjong is thirteen.

Considering the special nature of the royal family and the pre-modern era, it is not strange at all even if he is more precocious than others.

That means.

Now that famous ‘period of storm and stress’ is coming.

“Anyway the ones ruling this country are not me but grandmother and you all, right? I just have to study quietly.”

“Your Majesty!!”

“I just said it once. I worry about the country day and night as a king in form, and because I stopped the royal lecture a bit due to state affairs I hear even the sound of not studying, so my mood became a bit uncomfortable, it’s absolutely not-”

“Please understand!”

Lee Jiyeon suddenly thought that the king was not keeping the promise for such and such reasons, but just recklessly did it because he wanted to ride or give a piggyback.

This was the reasoning closest to the truth, but as a skilled yangban he quickly removed this impious thought from his head.

Meanwhile, watching the ministers roll in a group, Heonjong was truly proud. Great Kings Yeongjo and Jeongjo! Watch me!!

The young king was not a fool.

He regarded Yeongjo and Jeongjo as his role models, and at least superficially knew that those called ministers regarded the king as a folding screen and were eating the country.

But he didn’t know what to do.

There was an instinctive reluctance that his things were being taken away, but he was too young and weak to know how to get them back.

“You all only claim that a child committed rudeness so he should be punished, and do not discuss the attitude of the monarch not wanting to speak with two mouths.”

“Your Majesty!”

“Since that child is truly clever, I want to keep him by my side.”

While the ministers exchanged glances for a moment, the king’s words continued.

“Is he currently staying in Jangdong?”

“Yes, Your Majesty.”

“Seeing the appearance of skin and bones touching, it seemed he was not properly treated so my heart ached. Moreover the pain of losing his father can truly be called the same illness and sympathy, so I pity that child and want to call him to the palace often.”

Perhaps because it was so absurd, this time the understanding ceremony did not continue in a line.

Skin and bones touching? Wasn’t there oiliness on the face and plump flesh?

Is this good? Is it bad?

For now, continuously bringing the barbarian not elsewhere but into the palace seems something that should naturally be opposed, but the Andong Kim clan including Kim Jwageun had no answer.

“If Your Majesty says so...”

Heonjong wanted to snatch the trophy that the Andong Kim clan was boasting and displaying and display it in the palace.

Kim Jwageun expected that if he plugged Arthur who was very close to them to the king, he would of course tell the king stories favorable to the Andong Kim clan.

Unexpectedly.

The king’s proposal passed without particular opposition.

“What are you all trying to do? Does this even make sense as a thing right now? Your Majesty! Chief Scholar!!”

Only Right State Councillor Lee Jiyeon was going crazy and jumping.

***

The royal lecture is not simply a matter of making the king study.

The textbooks of the royal lecture were mostly Confucian classics and history books, and ministers often criticized the king’s rule or policies under the pretext of teaching them. Cases where royal lecture time immediately turns into policy discussion brainstorming were too frequent to be everyday in Joseon history.

But at this point when the omen of ruin has firmly entered the country, the royal lecture had practically lost that role.

They just do it because they have to, and if they don’t do it they can’t.

The king was young and disliked studying, and the ministers also knew well how stupid it was to say to the king that the country is wrong or this policy is wrong. Right now during regency, what’s the point of saying that to the king?

Above all, since the role of ruling this country is with the powerful like the Andong Kim clan and Pungyang Jo clan not with the king, the royal lecture also became close to empty formalities. The young Heonjong was not without sense so he disliked the royal lecture even more, and this vicious cycle spiral spun endlessly.

But when Arthur joined, the story changed a bit.

“Have you perhaps read <​Gukjo Bogam> or <​Daehak Yeonui>?”

“No, Your Majesty.”

“Just speak comfortably. Your tongue gets twisted.”

“No.”

“Then <​Jeonggwan Jeongyo>... no, you probably haven’t read <​Jachi Tonggam> either.”

“Is <​Jachi Tonggam> perhaps <​Tonggam Jeolyo>?”

“Pfft. Yes. The summarized content of that is Tonggam Jeolyo.”

“I studied a little!”

“Truly admirable.”

Whenever it was royal lecture time, Heonjong had to be surrounded by elders three to five times his age and receive cramming education about the king this and the country that. Liking this is a pervert.

But Arthur was young.

Heonjong for the first time in his life had the rare experience of ‘teaching’ something to a person younger than himself.

Moreover, if he let his guard down even a little, this child immediately caught up with what he just learned. For Heonjong to continue showing off and acting superior against Arthur, he had no choice but to diligently preview.

“I hear His Majesty is actively engaging in study recently?”

“Yes. The questions have increased and he seems to be feeling some fun.”

“What did I say. Didn’t I say that if we bring that child, Your Majesty will surely be full of motivation.”

Since the effect was clearly visible, even the ministers who opposed at first closed their mouths.

And.

“They say the First Emperor of Qin first made the word ‘emperor’ and thereafter used the word emperor when calling the Son of Heaven. Is there an emperor in the place where you British lived?”

“There is!”

“You mean there is a Son of Heaven there too? What do you call it in your country’s language.”

“Caesar or Emperor.”

“Heo. Truly difficult to pronounce. Right, why do you think that word means emperor.”

“Caesar is the name of an ancient person!”

Inside the shell of seven-year-old Arthur Lee is Park In-ho.

Speaking of Zizhi Tongjian, it is a book that Mao Zedong and Deng Xiaoping read until they were worn out and still reigns as required reading for the Chinese Communist Party. I didn’t see the original text but at least to have the culture to chat with high-ranking people I had to read even the summary version of the self-help book.

Also, this life’s father Henry Lee, mad about gifted education, attached a tutor to his son early and taught Latin. Originally he tried to teach Greek too but was blocked by his wife.

And if one learns Latin, of course one of the writings one encounters first is Caesar’s <​Commentarii de Bello Gallico>.

There were many and many things for Arthur to spout.

“-So after subjugating all the barbarians in 8 years and winning the war, the Roman court sent poison to Caesar.”

“Heo.”

“At this time Caesar shouted the die is cast! and turned the army around and charged into the capital, and the civil and military officials were flustered-”

“It is no different from our Taejo turning the army around, so surely this person called Caesar also received the mandate of heaven. Did you perhaps tell this story to Kim Jwageun or others?”

“I told Your Majesty first!”

“Is that so?”

The thirteen-year-old young king remembered this story well, and confidently took it out at the royal lecture place.

“There is something unchanging from ancient to modern and even across East and West, and from what I hear, the historical records of the land of barbarians where distant Westerners live also have things to be quite wary of and keep in mind.”

“...Where on earth did Your Majesty hear such a story?”

“Aseul’s learning is deep compared to his years so he reported the historical records of Westerners that he studied.”

“Your Majesty!!”

The royal lecture officers foamed at the mouth and chattered for a long time about why listening to stories of barbarian lands when busy studying the history of the Three Hans and China, and that child might have made it up or learned wrong so what lesson from there.

This properly pressed the button of being pissed deep in Heonjong’s heart.

“In this situation where Western ships are increasing day by day and India is ruined overnight! You all do not think of exploring their historical records and being wary, and are only busy finding fault!”

Nothing special.

The young king just wanted to hear a story that even these old elders don’t know and act a bit superior.

But they bit at this as if he committed some tremendous mistake so his insides twisted.

“I will have the envoys this time bring in books on Western historical records if there are any.”

“That would be good. The great and small officials should devote themselves even more to learning.”

Meanwhile, Kim Jwageun and Kim Byeonggi who can be called professional sycophants were plotting a new plan.

“Coffee and chocolate.”

“According to Aseul, this is something that any yangban of Britain or Europe can easily encounter.”

“So is that really... that good for men?”

“He’s still young so he doesn’t know well the way of men and women heating up, but from the explanation it was surely so. Moreover there is also the efficacy of chasing sleep and concentrating on studies-”

“If brought in it will surely become a big topic.”

Doing commerce in Joseon of course means having someone as a backer.

Moreover if it’s not just commerce but trade with foreign countries, that is smuggling, it’s impossible without having a tremendous big shot as a backer.

In other words.

This Andong Kim clan is the real black curtain watching the backs of the smugglers.

Of course if one says this to Kim Jwageun he would be dumbfounded. In fact if interpreted really accurately, the tip the Andong Kim clan receives is not a price for watching smuggling or something but a kind of life insurance that attaches their necks and does not tear their limbs.

“How about bringing it in once as a test.”

“They say there’s nothing missing in Yanjing (Beijing)? Those can probably be obtained too.”

If the king shows interest in the West, of course the guy who secures Western objects first will score points.

Even without the purpose of flattery, Kim Jwageun, the son of Joseon version web novel writer Kim Josun who also wrote <​Odae Geomhyeopjeon>, also had picking up various new culture as a kind of hobby and pleasure. He was being careful lest he be framed as a heretical learning guy and get tired, but if the king gives him a justification it was not a bad thing at all for him.

Thus this Qing Dynasty envoy group was assigned much more diverse sub-quests than usual, such as securing Western books, inquiring about foods like coffee and chocolate, and repatriating the British drifter Lee Aseul.

However, the matter of Lee Aseul returning to Britain via Qing did not happen.

“His Majesty accepted what the Viceroy of Liangguang Lin Zexu memorialized and decided to cut off exchanges with all British who smuggle opium.”

Because the First Opium War was imminent.

© 명원 #1jwz2

Author's note

Thank you to psm, Seowonhada, Myeongwon Pizza, lostgi for your sponsorships!!