He Became King Sejong’s Lifelong Prime Minister - Chapter 45

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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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Chief Minister Slayer (4)

Ryu Jeong-hyeon, this piece of trash, commits a sin just by breathing and living in Joseon.

Even if my resignation gets delayed a bit, I must definitely get rid of this piece of trash from Joseon before I leave.

Listening to the plea of this family head who is sobbing in front of me now, I feel even more convinced of this.

“Oh, my lord… We had no choice but to borrow 1 seom of rice from the Chief Minister during the spring famine to keep my fox-like wife and rabbit-like children from starving to death.”

“I see. It must have been difficult to get through the barley hump.”

“After paying the tenant fees and taxes like tribute tax and military service, there’s truly not a single grain of rice left in our household rice jar. We really didn’t want to borrow from loan sharks either… but if we didn’t borrow, my wife and children would starve to death immediately, so we had no choice. We knew very well how difficult it would be to borrow 1 seom this year and have to repay 1 seom and 5 mal next year… but how could I turn away from my children who were starving while looking only to their pathetic father?”

The main customer base of loan sharks is not the wealthy. It’s the extremely poor people.

They are people who don’t have 1 million won available right now, so their utility bills and loan payments are overdue, and they worry about when they’ll be kicked out because they can’t even pay rent for their small homes.

Even though times have changed, the fundamentals of human life are similar, so this man in front of me must have also borrowed from loan sharks with tears in his eyes for his family.

“After enduring like that for several years, this year the landlord suddenly raised the tenant fee to 50%. Because of that, I couldn’t repay the rice I owed to the Chief Minister. Then the servants working for the Chief Minister came to my house one day and took away my daughter Eonnyeoni without any explanation. They said that since I couldn’t pay the rice due this year, according to the contract written when I borrowed the rice, they were taking Eonnyeoni, the eldest of my children, as a slave.”

Tears dripped down from the man’s eyes.

Whether in Joseon or Korea, adult men try to endure without crying unless it’s something like their parents’ funeral.

Even when their household is on the verge of ruin and they’re struggling to the point of death, they usually try not to show themselves crying in front of others…

The man kneeling in front of me now began to cry, even making sobbing sounds.

“We only heard about when and how much rice we needed to repay. We had no idea there was such a clause in the contract. And although it’s been a long time since my daughter became a slave at the Chief Minister’s house, this pathetic father hasn’t been able to do anything yet, let alone report it to the government office.”

The Annals record Ryu Jeong-hyeon like this.

A capable financial expert (though his entire policy consisted of recklessly cutting budgets), but he engaged in extremely harsh loan sharking against the common people.

He was so vicious that they left records saying ‘The common people generally try not to borrow money from the Chief State Councilor. The resentment is widespread.’

And after King Taejong Lee Bang-won died, this crazy bastard once had Prince Hyoryeong borrow money from Ryu Jeong-hyeon using a borrowed-name account (a servant under his command)…

Ryu Jeong-hyeon committed the outrageous act of completely destroying the house of the servant used as the borrowed-name account, claiming that Prince Hyoryeong wasn’t repaying the money properly. It’s amazing he didn’t die in the original history even after doing that.

So I thought he was a villain among villains, but I never imagined he would be this merciless.

To think he would insert a clause about turning children into slaves by exploiting the fact that common people can’t read.

Still, in Joseon it’s legal to take people as slaves if they can’t repay debts, so they can’t even report it to the authorities.

Impressive, Ryu Jeong-hyeon. You really need to die for the sake of Joseon.

“My lord, my lord. Please help us just once, just once. I know this is a shameless request, but please, please help this lowly one.”

My eyes well up with tears as I listen.

They say that even when a child they raised dies from illness, parents can never forget that child for the rest of their lives and carry them in their hearts.

To think that because of contract fraud, his young daughter could be dragged away as a slave and he might never see her face again… Does this make any sense? If you’re human, you shouldn’t do such things.

I’d like to help him without asking for anything in return.

‘If I perform good deeds without compensation, other beggars hoping for luck will come rushing in droves.’

I’m not some god, and I can’t handle all those people.

“… I can’t help you for free.”

The man before me, Gapseok, who had been kneeling and wailing loudly, suddenly began banging his head on the ground.

He was so desperate that he didn’t even care that his forehead was bleeding from the impact.

“If I can just get my daughter back, I would follow even if you told me to die. Please, please help me.”

“… I’ll pay you generously, so from now on, have your whole family work at our house. That will be enough. Don’t spread rumors about this.”

When you extend a hand to desperate people, especially parents on the verge of losing their children, those who receive such kindness never forget it until they die.

If I help Gapseok now, he will literally not hesitate to die for me. He’ll be of great help to me in the future.

It seems like good timing since I desperately need someone I can absolutely trust.

“My lord.”

“How many seom of rice do you need?”

“One and a half seom would be enough. With that much, I can get Eonnyeoni back.”

“That’s not what I meant. I’m asking how much rice you and your wife and children need to eat your fill.”

“Pardon…?”

“No one who works at our house goes hungry. Your children, Gapseok, will sometimes need to help with odd jobs too, and then wouldn’t they be part of our household?”

At my words, tears began flowing from Gapseok’s eyes once again.

“My lord, thank you. Thank you so much.”

“Go with our Dolsoe to pay off the debt to the Chief Minister and bring Eonnyeoni back first. And I’ll give you about 2 more seom of grain, so from now on, make sure your wife and children eat their fill. And there’s one thing you need to do for me starting tomorrow. You’ll collect stories of people who, like you, have suffered injustices at the hands of the Chief Minister.”

“Yes, my lord.”

“Go quickly.”

After finishing my words, I called Dolsoe and sent him along with Gapseok to Ryu Jeong-hyeon’s house.

After pondering what to do about Ryu Jeong-hyeon, I entered the Sarangbang and began writing a petition.

**

There is a saying: “The mouth is the gate that brings disaster, the tongue is the sword that cuts people.”

It means the mouth is a door that invites calamity, and the tongue is a sword that cuts down people.

Petitions are like that.

The ritual controversy that killed countless people during the Joseon period, and the political reversals during King Sukjong’s era all started from a single petition.

If King Hyojong were the eldest son, mourning clothes should be worn for three years, but since King Hyojong isn’t the eldest son, wearing them for just one year is correct, right? His legitimacy may be lacking, but this is fact, isn’t it?

From this one petition, Joseon was divided into Seoin and Namin, engaging in deadly battles against each other.

The petition I’m submitting is a cornerstone for uprooting someone, or more precisely, the bad people who exploit the Common People, including Ryu Jeong-hyeon.

“I must do this.”

That’s why I proposed the Bangwon Method and afterward worked day and night at the Ministry of Taxation to establish its entire framework.

So before retiring, let me do what I absolutely must do one last time, truly the last time.

Let me cut down those Goryeo ghosts who despise the Bangwon Method and try to sabotage it somehow, and those dog-like bastards who exploit Joseon’s Common People to fill only their own bellies.

“… Shall I write it?”

After steeling my resolve, I picked up the Brush.

It was a Brush I normally picked up and used countless times, but thinking that I was using it to kill someone, the Brush felt incredibly heavy.

[Former Jiphyeonjeon Editor Kim Dae-bung bows his head and prostrates twice to respectfully report.

If His Majesty proclaims the Bangwon Method nationwide and implements it widely, all the Common People will rejoice that a peaceful world has come, and there will be no more going hungry.

Recalling Guanzi’s words that the people regard food as heaven, establishing and implementing the Bangwon Method would be no different from Your Majesty opening a new heaven for the young Common People.]

Whether then or now, what’s important is the economy.

The hope that though poor now, with constant effort one can live a better life tomorrow.

The belief that if one spares no effort today, before long one can make even a piece of land one’s own.

The expectation that if I work hard, I can give even slightly better clothes and food to my wife and children.

Creating this is precisely what those in power must do.

In Joseon, the Daedong Law truly benefited all the people.

But thanks to my intervention, it changed to the name Bangwon Method and began hundreds of years earlier – how fortunate this is.

[However, upon careful consideration, I believe those who practice usury in Joseon will have no choice but to rebel against the sacred intentions of Retired King and His Majesty.]

In this world, there are people who make money better the worse the economic recession and the more severe the employment crisis.

For example, loan sharks, voice phishing, fraudsters, criminal organizations and such.

These bastards make money by stabbing people in desperate situations in the back…

So when a recession hits, their income shoots up dramatically.

In Joseon, Ryu Jeong-hyeon is the representative example.

[Because usury is when poor Common People, trying somehow to feed their wives and children, borrow rice and money with tears in their eyes.

However, just as a person who drinks seawater because they are thirsty will ultimately not escape death… when Common People borrow at usurious rates to save their wives and children, they ultimately cannot repay it and becoming Slaves to the usurer is extremely common.

Those who practice usury have accumulated wealth this way, but when the Bangwon Method is implemented, the Common People’s circumstances will improve and they will no longer need to borrow at usurious rates. In other words, they will lose their means of accumulating wealth. Would those who practice usury want that?]

Lee Bang-won said that anyone opposing the Bangwon Method was Goryeo Remnants.

And there is only one minister in Joseon who likes usury.

Chief State Councilor Ryu Jeong-hyeon.

“I will definitely kill you and send you back to your hometown.”

To implement the Bangwon Method, a clear example seems necessary, and this person is perfect for it.

On top of this, I wrote down all of Ryu Jeong-hyeon’s various misdeeds and submitted a petition.

**

Kim Dae-bung’s petition turned the Royal Court upside down.

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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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