Doctor’s Rebirth - Chapter 812

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 812
The confiscated wealth of the powerful families flowed at an astonishing rate, and naturally, as it belonged to Nanking, it should have gone straight into the pockets of Nanking’s Governor, Ju Wang-ya… or so it should have been.
However, Ju Wang set aside a considerable portion and sent it to Prefect Jin Cheon-hee as his budget allocation.
“Kahahaha! At last, the balance has shifted! That detestable Imperial Eight Families has finally become the Imperial Seven Families!”
Ju Wang-ya burst into raucous laughter.
She hadn’t shown it on the surface, but it seemed quite a bit had been weighing on her mind.
‘It appears significant turmoil is erupting in the imperial capital.’
All this time, the Imperial Eight Families had obscured the Emperor’s eyes and ears while fabricating evidence.
Even someone as remarkable as Pung Ha-geum at reading hearts—if the physical evidence itself is tampered with, there would still be those pointing fingers at the Emperor for overstepping his authority based on his own judgment.
Moreover, it’s physically impossible for Pung Ha-geum to traverse all eight directions of the empire reading everyone’s hearts.
‘That’s the terrifying aspect of bureaucracy.’
While strict hierarchical obedience is both the strength and weakness of bureaucratic systems, conversely, there exists no bureaucracy without factions.
How wonderful it would be if they truly followed Confucius’s teachings and gazed only upon the Emperor, offering their loyalty solely to him.
Since that’s impossible, this chaos unfolds.
‘That’s right. To become a bureaucrat, one must pass through the civil service examination, and even that examination belongs to Ga Wan, one of the Imperial Eight Families.’
When the Emperor first ascended the throne, though he defeated other imperial relatives, I heard his maternal relatives’ power wasn’t particularly strong either.
He began with his hands and feet bound, and has come this far.
‘The surface must be in chaos.’
Yet even when storms rage above, the depths remain tranquil.
Jin Cheon-hee immediately launched massive civil engineering projects the moment he received the funds.
The employed population alone numbered a staggering hundred thousand.
‘Civil engineering—isn’t that the New Deal policy?’
President Roosevelt, take a look!
I’m conducting developmental authoritarianism in this distant alternate dimension.
With a hundred thousand people employed, mind you!
After employing a hundred thousand, I finally understand why the Romance of the Three Kingdoms features armies of a million.
I once thought such numbers would be impossible in ancient times due to limited populations, but on the Hua continent, it’s achievable.
Coming to Nanking and trying it myself, a hundred thousand fills the ranks in an instant.
‘Wow, look at how fast the taxes drain away.’
Like a surge-priced late-night taxi, money flies away with every breath I take.
But this can’t be where it ends.
Someone must oversee this.
“Let’s deploy all the administrators sent to Baekrin Guild.”
“That won’t be sufficient, Prefect!”
“Then let’s try employing those from Nanking and Jiangsu who weren’t originally appointed!”
The administrators swept up by the Phantom Angel’s middle-aged exploits are all either being worked to exhaustion or under investigation.
Between being investigated by the Embroidered Uniform Guard and offering bribes to their superiors, they must be incredibly busy—attendance would naturally be impossible.
Moreover, with the Miga Family, one of the Imperial Eight Families, erased from the map, administrators affiliated with them were submitting resignations en masse and transitioning to unemployment.
I heard that the Head of the Miga Family came before the Emperor, offered all the family’s wealth, and requested that only the family name be preserved before taking his own life.
It was the head of the family taking all the blame and bearing the responsibility in their stead.
In the customs of the Hua Empire, when such matters occurred and someone died, investigations tended to proceed gently.
But I simply sent all the evidence up the chain of command.
The head of household’s sorrowful silhouette and all that nonsense—the money he’d embezzled was enough for his descendants to live in luxury for generations.
I simply wished he’d lived long enough to disgorge every last coin.
The Emperor would handle the rest himself.
‘It is regrettable that the Gaju must bear this burden, but we cannot abandon our duties because of it, can we?’
In other words, the replacement of officials had begun.
‘While we’re at it, let’s conduct special recruitment for the Baek Hwan-hu children.’
Children from Baek Hwan-hu were invariably from poor families, studying in the academy within Baek Hwan-hu rather than in the traditional academies.
Among them were those who had passed the examinations but remained unemployed due to lacking connections.
Such individuals were perfectly suited for this sort of work.
In this world, factions arose from families tracing their lineages across generations, making it nearly impossible to act with complete freedom even in a single position.
But these pure-hearted youths with no parents, no relatives, and education only in Confucian studies and arithmetic had nothing to rely on but their own performance.
So I readily hired them and readily polished them like stars.
Whether they left or were refined, it was a mutually beneficial arrangement.
A win-win relationship blooming from the hell of all-nighters.
Thanks to this, all of Namgung began to flourish vibrantly.
* * *
After the Emperor’s fury, Namgung had become a most entertaining topic for gossips.
Whenever they gathered at inns, they were eager to discuss Namgung.
“Employing all the poor stabilizes prices first, it seems.”
“With jobs available, those who stole for survival naturally decrease, and with money circulating, it benefits merchants as well, does it not?”
“I hear various merchant guilds have stationed additional personnel at Namgung’s trading posts.”
“And the finest among them is said to be Baekrin’s convenience store, is it not?”
“To be precise, I’ve heard the Golden Blood Hall also has shares in it…”
I was ruthless.
I inserted my own convenience store into my own jurisdiction and began extracting profits.
“Twenty? Truly? Twenty Baekrin convenience stores in Namgung?”
Of course, one shouldn’t imagine modern convenience stores.
The modern era doesn’t display household blue dragon crescent blades on shelves, nor does it exhibit new hoes.
These were general goods shops, pure and simple.
And places where quality wound medicines could be purchased at reasonable prices.
If commoners had to visit a Doctor for every small wound, they would go bankrupt.
Yet without proper disinfection, one might end up losing a rotted arm or leg.
These wound medicines were for such people.
“I hear Baekrin’s money house has also established itself.”
“The key to a money house is how safely it preserves funds—how is such a thing possible?”
“I’m told the Jegallim Family’s formation arrays and mechanical devices protect the money.”
“Hmm…”
The wealthy began to ponder.
The Jegallim Family’s credit held considerable value.
My Master hadn’t utilized this much until now, but I was grateful he was finally putting it to use.
“I intend to entrust them with it. Since I already have established dealings elsewhere, I’ll start with about half and observe how things develop.”
One by one, people began gathering to deposit their money.
I watched this unfold and reflected.
‘In the modern world, banks pay interest when you deposit money, but in this world, the money houses actually charge a storage fee when you entrust them with funds.’
You pay a storage fee to have your money kept safe—that’s how it works.
A modern person would think, “What kind of absurd system is this?” But one cannot afford to be careless.
The other party is a Kang Ho-in.
More terrifying than a bandit with a gun.
If an Elder like Wuying Touguai decided to break in thinking she could earn enough to cover her children’s expenses and pocket some spending money, that would be the end of it.
That’s why I made a request of Wuying Touguai.
“If there are any gaps in our defenses, please point them out.”
“Hmm, you young rascal. To ask such a thing with nothing but your words—you’ve got some nerve.”
So I remained bowed while sliding something across with my other hand.
A letter of recommendation.
“Your granddaughter mentioned that the Sword Technique is difficult to learn. This is a letter of recommendation to the finest instructor in Yeonmu City. With this, even one-on-one tutoring would be possible….”
Gulp—
Wuying Touguai swallowed.
She quickly accepted the letter and spoke.
“Well, well. You certainly know what I want. What can I do? I’ll help you out of respect for your sincerity.”
An unparalleled thief to examine the security of the Baekrin Money House.
Wuying Touguai had joined the cause.
It was a victory for education.
* * *
I stood by the river, observing the construction site.
A yellow helmet sat upon my head.
Not modern plastic, just an iron hat, but lined inside with cloth and cotton to make it cushioned.
All the workers wore these helmets.
The helmet bore these words:
Safety First.
Sama Hyeon stood beside me, exchanging various remarks.
“Hyeong, so that’s how it happened.”
“Huh…. Who came up with that?”
“Muyue.”
“…That fellow?”
Muyue, who had been completely reformed by my Master, had now begun deep learning in business.
As the Money House and Baekrin Convenience Stores expanded into Namgyeong, he had started purchasing land and constructing public bathhouses.
“Wow…. Right. Public bathhouses. Once the water and sewage systems are in place, that’s exactly what should be built first.”
It was admirable how he handled things without being told.
‘Isn’t this turning into some kind of massive conglomerate with tentacles everywhere?’
Namgung Un, standing beside me, wore a haggard expression.
“No, really. How far does the Jegallim Family intend to expand their influence? Are they truly planning to devour all of Jiangsu Province?”
“But the Namgung Family controls Anhui Province, don’t you?”
“That’s just talk. The main family doesn’t hold the rights to all the common people’s livelihoods in Anhui Province. At best, we have a few breweries producing silk, several successful inns, and cloth shops.”
Wasn’t it already more than ten establishments on their side, despite calling them “a few”?
I nodded anyway, though such thoughts crossed my mind.
Anhui Province was certainly impressive, but compared to it, Nanjing was truly a vital hub of a vast commercial realm flowing with milk and honey.
“Exactly. There’s no antitrust law here yet. Kehehehe!”
Look at me laughing like a villain.
Namgung Un sighed watching me.
‘He still speaks in difficult-to-understand ways, but these days I’ve come to grasp what he generally means.’
Thanks to this, the poor of Nanjing had begun to avoid starvation.
Hope had emerged.
The knowledge I possessed was truly a double-edged sword.
If wielded by a tyrant, hundreds of thousands would starve to death; if wielded by a benevolent ruler, it could save all the people.
It was fundamentally different from other families who simply distributed grain to the poor on designated days and called it done.
Sustainable relief.
It was a curious thing.
Yet despite this, I rubbed my hands together and laughed wickedly as if committing some misdeed.
“The cloth shops… now that I think about it, the silk from Anhui Province is quite fine quality, isn’t it?”
“That’s just processing. The raw materials must come from Sichuan, no?”
‘Shu silk has been the finest since ancient times. Even Baekrin Uiseon sources their silk from Sichuan.’
A term referring to the silk of the Shu Kingdom.
It denoted the highest-grade silk famous since the Three Kingdoms period.
While the raw materials were considered premium, the dyeing and processing techniques of the Shu Kingdom during the Three Kingdoms era were also the finest.
Even now, the raw materials still came primarily from Sichuan, where the Shu Kingdom once stood, but the Namgung Family had also earned considerable acclaim for their processing techniques.
The Sichuan Tang Family was no exception.
‘So the silk of the Sichuan Tang Family and the Namgung Family’s silk are competing evenly in the Central Plains?’
However, the Sichuan Tang Family, which sourced raw materials locally, held a slight price advantage.
“Managing a family clan is no easy task. To be honest, thanks to receiving your Master’s commission this time, we’ve finally caught our breath.”
“You sound like a young head of household. Though you’re not exactly young.”
“Call me a youthful head of household then. In truth, even though I hold the title of Gaju, my grandfather still manages the family, so this is only possible. But your resourcefulness is truly remarkable. The payment for this water and sewage project is quite substantial, isn’t it?”
“Well, yes. We’re making a considerable profit from this as well.”
“Remarkable indeed.”
I laughed broadly.
“Haha. If you work hard, everything works out.”
“Hyeong, I don’t think that’s quite right?”
Sama Hyeon interjected.
Does hard work alone accomplish something like this?
“Of course it is! Just look at the path we’ve walked since arriving in Nanking—it’s simply the fruit of our efforts.”
Not the product of madness?

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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