He Became King Sejong’s Lifelong Prime Minister - Chapter 139

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Matchlock Gun and Northern Expedition (3)

King Sejong disliked the Jurchen tribes.

It was true that they had once greatly contributed to establishing Joseon by helping his grandfather, King Taejo.

However, that was merely a thing of the past.

Now they were nothing more than stray dogs catching scraps of meat thrown by the Ming Dynasty bastards…

But those stray dogs didn’t stop there—they constantly kidnapped Joseon Common People living in the Northern Region, enslaving them, selling them, and even massacring them.

They were people he absolutely could not stand by and watch, scoundrels who must be completely annihilated.

In a gathering where all the ministers were present, King Sejong opened his mouth.

“I despise the Jurchen barbarians.”

At these words, the ministers swallowed nervously and grew tense.

“The Jurchen barbarians should be content picking up and eating the meat scraps thrown by the Ming Dynasty bastards, yet after picking up those scraps, they cross over into Joseon to plunder our people, kidnap them to make them slaves, and even kill them for entertainment. As the king of Joseon, as the father of all the people, I can absolutely never forgive those scoundrels. Someday I will surely rip out their livers and chew them up.”

King Sejong consistently cherished and loved his people.

This was what he had learned from his Father, King Taejong Lee Bang-won, and his innate nature was also very benevolent.

Moreover, after meeting Kim Dae-bung and realizing that only the king could care for the poor and wandering people who had nowhere to go, that love grew even greater.

As heavy as his love was, his hatred toward the Jurchen barbarians also grew.

“However, to achieve victory against them and make their territory not barbarian land but Joseon land, we must make thorough preparations. If we attack without a plan, it would be no different from throwing our soldiers as food to the barbarians.”

Operating an army well is very difficult, but causing one’s own forces to be massacred is quite easy.

Even a small disruption in supply transport or slight negligence could cause frontline soldiers to starve for over two weeks, and even slight negligence in reconnaissance could result in friendly forces being routed by a small number of ambushing enemy troops.

King Sejong himself didn’t know much about military affairs, but looking back at history, he was well aware that armies were often annihilated for truly trivial reasons.

“What does the Minister of War think?”

“I think the same, Your Majesty. No matter how many soldiers we have, what use would they be without weapons to arm them and food to feed them? Furthermore, as State Council member Kim Dae-bung said, if we don’t thoroughly manage hygiene, even an army of tens of thousands could be wiped out by a single epidemic.”

The most famous battle in Romance of the Three Kingdoms, the Battle of Red Cliffs—usually people think this battle was won because Zhuge Liang used Fire Attack to burn all of Wei Kingdom’s ships…

But in fact, what dealt a more fatal blow to Wei Kingdom than that were endemic diseases and epidemics.

Just like the Wei Kingdom’s army collapsed, if the Joseon army went to fight the Jurchen and happened to catch an ‘epidemic,’ they could be completely annihilated without even engaging in battle.

“What would be needed to subjugate the Jurchen?”

“I believe matchlock guns are needed above all else, Your Majesty.”

“How many would be needed? Tell me the number.”

“The more the better.”

“You mean the more we have, the better?”

“Yes, that’s correct. As Your Majesty knows, most of Joseon’s soldiers are simple farmers who have spent their entire lives farming. They don’t know how to shoot bows, and even when they hold spears, they can only pretend to aim at enemies… For such men to stop cavalry with long spears is practically impossible.”

People often say that among all weapons, spears are the easiest to handle and most powerful, but that’s only true until ‘guns’ appeared.

Because stabbing someone to death with a spear requires its own technique, and stopping an enemy charge with spears requires quite a long period of training.

Of course, it’s true that the barrier to entry is low since it doesn’t require at least 10 months of training like archery or years of learning like equestrian arts…

But matchlock guns can be fired by anyone who knows how to load them, and anyone hit by one shot is finished…

So matchlock guns, which require incomparably less effort to train with, can be said to have much higher utility.

“But if they have matchlock guns, whether it’s Xiang Yu, Lu Bu, Jurchen, or Japanese, they can defeat them all with one shot! What a wonderful and excellent weapon this is!”

Choi Yun-deok’s face had turned bright red, and his breathing was becoming rough.

And in his mind, a scene was being painted.

Soldiers who were farmers until yesterday receiving drill training and being reborn as proper soldiers, then killing Jurchen cavalry with a single matchlock shot.

Just thinking about it made his heart pound wildly.

“To subjugate the Jurchen, we must make as many matchlock guns as possible no matter what, Your Majesty!”

Jo Mal-saeng, who was beside him, stepped forward and supported the Minister of War’s argument.

“The Jurchen barbarians have been riding horses and shooting bows since birth, so they’re all just like elite soldiers except they don’t wear armor. However, most of Joseon’s common people are farmers for generations, so they don’t know how to handle horses or bows and have never fought. But now with drill training and matchlock guns, anyone can be made into an elite soldier with strong combat power. To make Joseon’s soldiers into elite troops as the Minister of War says, matchlock guns to put in their hands are absolutely necessary above all else. We must produce as many matchlock guns as possible.”

“I understand. Then I will start by ordering the Royal Treasury to provide all available funds, so I hope you ministers will follow my example.”

Choi Yun-deok was too excited thinking about pouring lead bullets at the Jurchen to notice, but Jo Mal-saeng could sense the many sharp gazes directed at him.

Starting with Chief State Councilor Hwang Hee, all those who had received many legal gifts (which by Kim Dae-bung’s standards were bribes) were now facing a situation where they had to cough up enormous amounts of wealth…

All the anger this would cause was about to pour down on him.

‘But this is all for the sake of the country and the people.’

However, he knew this well too.

Working for Joseon was one thing, but having his own wealth plundered was an entirely separate matter.

“The Jurchen are very skilled at operating horse archers, so wouldn’t it be difficult to counterattack them with just matchlock guns and long spears? Does the Minister of War have a plan for this?”

“We have only two strategies to overcome horse archers. One is to use archers to counterattack when they approach, and the other is to train cavalry to strike the horse archers.”

Heavy cavalry put armor on their horses as well, so arrows don’t pose much of a threat, but most horse archers only wear very light armor made of leather.

Since they need to flee in all directions while mounted and shoot arrows, keeping their bodies light is advantageous.

Therefore, they are vulnerable to arrow attacks and also poor at close combat.

Thus, Joseon has dealt with them by either striking them with cavalry or sending out archers to counterattack.

“Then we must also put effort into training archers and cavalry.”

“Give generous rewards to archers and cavalry who achieve merit, and among the commoners currently performing labor service throughout the nation, there are many skilled horsemen. If they achieve merit, please specially recruit them as armored soldiers.”

The commoners performing labor service throughout Joseon were exactly those people.

Those who were previously called butchers.

Among them were many who had not abandoned their nomadic way of life, and many who were skilled at riding horses and shooting arrows… so there would be many who could serve as elite soldiers.

“I shall do so. Then how many troops would be good to mobilize?”

“We must mobilize at least 25,000 to kill all the traitors who have turned their backs on Joseon, including Lee Man-ju.”

Among the court ministers, even if they didn’t know Lee Man-ju, there was no one who didn’t know his grandfather Ahapcul.

Because Ahapcul was someone who could have once sat in the position of founding merit subject of Joseon for his service in helping Lee Seong-gye, but he returned to his hometown saying he couldn’t do that since living in Joseon would mean farming for a living.

And after returning to his hometown, he clung to the Ming Dynasty and took the lead in tormenting Joseon.

Ahapcul had tormented Joseon for three whole generations…

Everyone who knew him thought he must be killed.

King Sejong asked Minister of Finance Jo Gye-saeng.

“Minister of Finance, is the budget sufficient?”

“Since the taxes coming into the court have greatly increased, we can sufficiently handle up to 25,000.”

Jo Mal-saeng and Choi Yun-deok thought.

The fact that the Minister of Finance said he could ‘sufficiently’ handle up to 25,000 means we could add 10,000 or even more on top of that, and we could push it a bit further if needed…

This is the perfect opportunity to go really big.

“Your Majesty, as Minister of Finance, I believe that the most important thing for achieving victory in war is, above all, supply lines. Even the most brilliant general cannot make soldiers fight while starving them.”

“That is correct.”

“Please send Kim Dae-bung, who serves as State Council Secretary, under the Supreme Commander’s command to assist him.”

Minister of Finance Min Gye-saeng still had vivid memories of having his budget squeezed by Kim Dae-bung.

Anyone would think his policies were excessive, and it was true that he took massive budgets.

But strangely, he had the skill to take exactly up to the point where it wouldn’t cause problems for Royal Court operations.

If such a person were attached to the Supreme Commander’s side, he would surely refrain from bankrupting the National Treasury.

‘This is all about protecting the National Treasury.’

“I will appoint State Council Secretary Kim Dae-bung as Colonel of the Five Guards and have him oversee all Subordinate Departments of the Ministry of War (direct subordinate departments, similar to ‘bureaus’ in Central Government Offices).”

Kim Dae-bung, who was working at the State Council at that moment, suddenly shuddered from an inexplicable chill.

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