Chapter 11

Chapter 11

First Contagious Free Trade

The story of the Opium War is very famous.

Because the story of ‘a war started to sell opium’ is truly nonsensical from the beginning.

But as with most historical events, behind it all sorts of complicated circumstances and people are densely intertwined.

Even if British people with somewhat lacking conscience, the only satanic devil who could boldly shout ‘Fuck we can start a war to sell our opium, opium is better for the body than alcohol’ was Foreign Minister Lord Palmerston or so, and in Qing there were extremely few reckless ones who shouted ‘Anyway cut all the Westerners’ necks!’.

Yet the reason the war broke out.

“The barbarian bastards keep acting up?”

“The barbarian guys are looking at us with their dicks?”

In the end, if traced to the most fundamental, it can be said to be the cultural difference between East and West.

Qing regarded all who came to them as barbarians, and saw even their allowing trade as bestowing the grace of the Celestial Dynasty.

British people, as a result of long-continued exchanges, were gradually increasing those who thought ‘Qing guys can absolutely not do proper trade until we grab them and beat them to death’.

Opium is not good for the body.

Smuggling is of course bad, and cracking down on smuggling is also the right of a sovereign country.

But without opium there is no proper way to fill the deficit.

Just as a person gets angry when at a loss for words, a country starts a war when it has nothing to say.

For the beginning of the long decline and tragedy of Qing who boasted of ruling the world falling to a famous restaurant, it was truly crude.

***

But for the Joseon people of the year turning from 1839 to 40, especially the envoy group who came to Beijing, such complicated matters were not their domain.

“Let’s burn this.”

“Yes, Chief Envoy sir.”

They first destroyed the document about ‘the British drifter detained in Hanyang’.

Something no one knows.

At this moment.

The orbit of history has already begun to derail.

The Joseon government of the original history also made efforts to find out the direction and results of the Opium War.

But their information sources were Qing’s official diplomatic channels or official gazettes, and Qing of course gave information like ‘we appropriately soothed the British barbarians and sent them back’.

But now it was different.

Every few days the young king was calling the Western boy to the palace.

And that Western boy is precisely British.

“Everyone keep your mouths tightly shut and be careful. The moment the story that there is a British person in the palace, in Hanyang leaks to this Yanjing ground, we all... you know?”

“Yes.”

“Properly control the servants!”

The envoy group who arrived in Yanjing had a light heart of digesting the set order without much thought, and performing the side quest given by the Andong Kim clan who can be called the practical boss. Until just a moment ago.

But the moment they heard the news that Qing and Britain began frontal collision, in their heads new phrases of the history books to be written later began to be updated in real time.

‘Because the Joseon king colluded with Britain, the Celestial troops advanced, burned Hanyang, and captured the Joseon king and returned’

‘British people plundered the coast and burned grain transport ships under the pretext that their country’s child was captured’

Either way it’s fucked.

And in the worst case, not one but both were possible.

British people appear by ship and threaten to return the child, and after returning the child as wished, Qing quietly appears and swings a bat saying ‘What did you talk about with Britain?!’.

The envoys who were chattering to keep mouths well shut suddenly felt a sense of powerlessness.

‘Even if we make this fuss now, if a Qing envoy just comes near Hanyang the story of that prodigy British child will be full in the whole country, right?’

‘Isn’t it just buying a few months of time? In the end it’ll be discovered obviously?’

But they can’t not do it.

Even if Qing later hears the rumor and holds them accountable, if Qing finds out now it unconditionally becomes the envoy group’s responsibility.

The envoy group investigated this collision very diligently as if their necks were on the line, and not long after heard a shocking story.

“The Qing army lost?”

“To say they lost-”

“To block two British merchant ships the Qing army put out thirty ships and were annihilated! If that’s not a great defeat what is it!”

As the story of Arthur and the young king lengthened, and Arthur began to fully unfold the Western stories he knew, one or two of the royal lecture officers came to attend that place.

And Arthur had always said that their country was very powerful, no, one of the strongest countries in the world.

‘The missionaries caught this time are people of a country called France, and they started a war not long ago to conquer all of Europe.’

‘An enormous hegemon called Napoleon appeared and led a million-strong army to fight, but several countries including Britain joined forces and defeated Napoleon.’

In Beijing there are of course Westerners, and their books.

And among Westerners there is no one who does not know that terrifying Napoleonic Wars.

Not long after they reached the fact that the million-strong army Arthur mentioned might not be Chinese-style exaggeration numbers but really a force of 1 million.

“Lee Aseul said Britain is an island country so they staked the national fate on large ships and a powerful navy, so two huge ships that can come from their land to Qing would be able to handle thirty of our small ships.”

“Then if they invade us? How should we block them?”

“······.”

The military power of the Western barbarian countries much stronger than expected.

Overwhelming combat power that crosses the distant sea and swats the Qing navy like flies.

The fact that Qing’s official position and the stories heard among the people were completely different also awakened the Joseon envoys’ alertness.

And.

“Is this... that good for men?”

“Let’s eat a little.”

“Oh! Oooh!! I can’t sleep! Even at this hour my eyes are wide open!!”

With the effect of caffeine added.

Joseon people finally had their eyes opened toward the international world not the Celestial Empire of the Middle Kingdom.

Of course the neighboring Qing was still scary.

***

1840.

The envoy group that headed to Qing Beijing returned.

Completely gone crazy.

“War broke out! Britain, British barbarians war with Qing!”

“Calm down.”

“Cases where barbarians cause trouble if the price is cheap or they can’t secure their own interest have been too frequent throughout history books. The only difference is that they are barbarians who rode ships not barbarians who rode horses.”

The Joseon officials were all indifferent to the envoy group’s report.

Even those Qing guys were ones who used to ugauga on the Manchurian plains in the past, and weren’t there countless cases where they took out swords instead of money at the horse market saying the horse price was beaten down. What’s the big deal if they get a bit of what they themselves did now?

They allocated much more time to savoring the coffee and chocolate they brought than to the words of the envoy group who were anxious and stamping their feet.

“Oh, ooooo!!”

“Strength surges! I can read all the books within today!”

“The aroma is truly first-class! The words that it’s good for the body were not empty!”

Coffee and chocolate.

To any Joseon person this is clearly...

“It’s a decoction.”

“It’s a decoction.”

It’s a decoction.

The profound aroma flowing from the black water that comes out if well decocted. This was clearly medicine.

The young king put a little coffee in his mouth and immediately said ugh and ordered to distribute it to the great and small officials, and the officials of an age interested in things good for the body joyfully sucked coffee.

And chocolate.

“My goodness. Truly a rare taste.”

This period was a time when chocolate was seriously changing from ‘beverage’ to ‘solid’, and heretical groups who wanted to eat it with hazelnuts appeared, etc., a great upheaval was happening in chocolate too.

Those who gulped the chocolate drink with lots of sugar according to the learned recipe all tasted the sugar spike effect and thrilled.

Humans were instinctively drawn to coffee and chocolate.

Like people of the global village who first encountered the monster called cat all fell to the intense temptation of wanting to raise these guys.

Like remote tribes who first encountered the new weapon called gun all shot the heads of the next-door guys and walked the path of conquest.

Coffee and chocolate also had a strange magic that subjugated everyone regardless of Confucian scholar or scholar.

Those who fully sucked caffeine and became endlessly HIGH fully operated their much more spinning brain cells.

“The possibility that the Qing emperor picks a fight saying our Joseon is taking Britain’s side-”

“Shouldn’t we see it as very high.”

“If we send that child to Qing right now and inform the truth-”

“You bastard!!”

“Yielding to Qing barbarians and offering a young scholar who is accumulating learning, are you still a scholar doing that!!”

“From old times losing a young scholar means death...!”

“You get out.”

Heonjong and the ministers who immediately removed the troll seed without sense from the side hall resumed the discussion again.

However, a result was not derived.

War preparation in this mess of a country Joseon? Would that be possible?

Already all armies have become soft and fallen to means of extortion long ago, so can increasing military spending a bit now block that powerful Qing army that comes determined?

When the young king entered with a very gloomy expression, Arthur who had entered the palace in advance and was preparing for today’s study also quickly noticed that deflated appearance.

“Your Majesty. Why do you have so many worries?”

“Because of you.”

“Yes??”

“They say war broke out between Britain and Qing.”

“Did Britain start the war because of me?”

“No no, it’s not that. Are you some Daji of Greece?”

Since he had heard the Trojan War story from Aseul’s mouth just a few days ago, Heonjong immediately cut off Arthur’s vain thought.

In fact, the matter of a foreign child being cute and smart and receiving favor itself is nothing.

From a weak country’s position, the fact that a neighboring powerful country gets a reason to pick a fight is already sufficiently dizzying.

Arthur who heard the rough situation from Heonjong thought for a moment and opened his mouth.

“Your Majesty.”

“Why.”

“I think I should return to my hometown now. If I am here I will cause great trouble to Joseon too.”

“What are you saying. The war will end soon, so at that time quietly go via Qing and return to your hometown.”

Amusingly, the method that Neo-Confucian scholars like Yi Hangro asserted the strongest was precisely this.

“Leave Lee Aseul in the countryside instead of Hanyang and send him back when the war ends.”

“There is my house in that remote mountain village and that place is perfect for confining and making study... no, for raising one boy.”

“Please give a little more time! Even if sending back to the hometown, he has to finish the Four Books and Three Classics and return to return as a scholar, right!!”

“Grr... I can’t endure. Let’s make him finish studying and send him home!”

Just as Chinese people became addicted to the pleasure of opium.

Just as British people became addicted to the desire for surplus.

Joseon people who were already addicted to national pride were floundering in the grand dream of ‘Joseon scholar Lee Aseul who mastered the Four Books and Three Classics civilizes Britain’. If he learned all Neo-Confucianism, isn’t he a Joseon person anyway?

“Isn’t there also a way to go via Japan?”

“Sorry, but just the rumor that you stayed here spreading can cause bad things for this country. Going to Japan is too dangerous.”

Arthur who heard from Heonjong that it would be difficult quietly finished that day’s study and tried to return to Kim Jwageun’s house.

But what was waiting near the palace was not the servants of the Andong Kim clan.

“Come here.”

“Elder. Where is the usual Maksoe?”

“If you mean that servant, he is now packing your luggage at the Kim family. We will immediately return to the countryside.”

“Yes?”

“Don’t worry. Immediately the rumor that you died will spread in all the markets so Qing barbarians won’t come to harm you. Come, hurry and finish <​Great Learning> first? Or <​Book of Songs>?”

“I, I, I’m still too young-”

“Child! When learning scholarship it was as you wished but when quitting it’s not!”

“Your Majesty! Your Majesty!! You deceived! You deceived, Your Majesty!!”

While Heonjong standing on the distant pavilion muttered ‘You were a good friend but your barbarian bloodline is the problem...’, the Confucian scholars who coveted this prodigy of the age threw Arthur into the prepared palanquin and immediately fled to the remote countryside.

As always.

One reaps what one sows.

***

1842.

The Opium War ended and Qing and Britain concluded the Treaty of Nanjing.

And not long after the conclusion of the Treaty of Nanjing.

“What? He was alive?”

“There’s a boy who was the only survivor from the sunken Claudine? Where is he?”

“He’s coming to Hong Kong now!!”

The story about <​the surviving child> began to spread from Hong Kong to all of Europe.

50 years before <​The Jungle Book> and <​Tarzan> came out, a story based on true events appeared.

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Author's note

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