Namgoong the Sword Ghost - Chapter 71

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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 71. The Swordsman’s Tea Has a Name
“Tax buildings and people will tear down their homes. Tax trees and forests will become barren. Tax livestock and they will slaughter the young. Tax children and the population will dwindle.”
As Eun Cho Ae spoke in a clear, ringing voice, the ministers’ attention converged upon her.
Her air of refinement made it possible.
“Tears and sweat are salty. Why is that? Because a person cannot live without salt, taxing salt amounts to confiscating the people’s right to survive.”
Ho Bu Panseo, who had been listening numbly to Eun Cho Ae’s words, suddenly snapped back to attention and raised his voice.
“But Your Highness, the Princess! The Salt Monopoly System is a necessary precaution at minimum! One must not carelessly release strategic resources!”
Ho Bu Panseo belonged to the First Prince’s faction. At his words, Eun Cho Ae fixed her gaze upon him with eyes like phoenix wings and spoke.
“Salt is an essential commodity.”
“In other words, that is precisely why it is a strategic resource. One cannot move an army without salt.”
As Ho Bu Panseo spoke in a didactic tone, Eun Cho Ae smiled and posed a question.
“Then what of water? Water is also an essential commodity, and it is necessary to move an army. Should water not also be managed by the center through a monopoly system?”
“Heh, Your Highness. Water spreads across heaven and earth in all directions—how could one control all of it?”
Ho Bu Panseo shook his head as if the notion were absurd, and Eun Cho Ae’s smile deepened.
“Then your meaning is that if salt, like water, were abundant across all directions, there would be no need to control it?”
“……Ah, yes, that would be so.”
Momentarily flustered, Ho Bu Panseo soon let out a hollow laugh and conceded to her point.
Salt abundant like water? That would be impossible even with the greatest number of private salt production facilities.
“Then I shall tell you of a method by which I can make salt as plentiful as water.”
“Pardon?”
At Eun Cho Ae’s next words, all the ministers, including Ho Bu Panseo, opened their eyes wide and stared at her.
Eun Cho Ae continued, her smile laden with meaning.
“First, one constructs an outer dyke near the coastline. Create a reservoir to store seawater, concentrate it through an evaporation pond. Then send it to a crystallization pond to dry it under heaven and sun—thus you shall obtain what is called solar salt.”
The ministers did not understand Eun Cho Ae’s words and murmured to one another, exchanging glances.
“What is she talking about?”
“How can you make salt without firing a kiln?”
“Solar salt? Salt of heaven and sun?”
At the ministers’ murmuring response, Ho Bu Panseo scoffed and spoke.
“Hah, it seems you have read something from some book, and such bewitching tomes are what we call worthless literature.”
“This is not knowledge from a book.”
“Pardon?”
“I heard it from a warrior named Heuk Ya, who came from a place called Chung Seung in Dong Ying. He said that in Chung Seung they make salt by this very method, and that every household has salt sacks piled up.”
At Eun Cho Ae’s words, Ho Bu Panseo furrowed his brow and cried out.
“Are you now proposing we follow the methods of those barbarous pirates?”
“The barbarism lies in the evils of a monopoly system that sells government salt to the people at more than twenty times its worth.”
Eun Cho Ae spoke in a resolute tone, turning her gaze across all the ministers.
“If we transform boiling into drying to increase efficiency and expand production, salt shall become as common as water, and the people’s suffering shall be greatly relieved.”
“Transform boiling into drying……”
“Change what is boiled to what is dried?”
“Huh, is such a method truly possible?”
“If the pirates can do it, why should we not?”
“But……”
As Eun Cho Ae presented a third path entirely different from the existing way, the ministers were left bewildered and without direction.
At this, the Emperor regarded Eun Cho Ae with evident delight and opened his mouth.
“Heh, if salt production becomes easy as Cho Ae suggests, then we need not quarrel at all, eh?”
“But, but Your Majesty! If that comes to pass, tax revenue will decline and the palace treasury will surely face ruin!”
Sensing danger, Ho Bu Panseo spoke aloud the fact that all had been hushing up.
It was all about money.
Did they not all know this already?
The Salt Monopoly System had been an excellent pretext for fleecing the people.
“If the Salt Monopoly System is abolished, the flow of revenue will cease and both nation and people shall suffer privation!”
At Ho Bu Panseo’s outcry, Eun Cho Ae spoke with a quiet fury.
“The nation’s finances are insufficient and the people are impoverished not because of necessity, but because unnecessary officials build wasteful bureaus and indulge in extravagance, squandering the state treasury, is it not?”
“……!”
“Then we must first purge those parasites who feed upon the nation’s stipends through the sale of official positions.”
At Eun Cho Ae’s cutting words, the ministers’ expressions stiffened.
Among them, those who had engaged in the sale of official positions bore particularly grim looks.
Just as the atmosphere was taking a curious turn.
An elderly scholar in purple court robes, who had been listening quietly to the exchange, opened his mouth.
“In this humble official’s view, Your Highness’s words are indeed sound and just.”
“Hmm, you think the same, Grand Commandant?”
“First, let us test Her Highness the Princess’s method, and if it truly demonstrates such outstanding yield, then implementing the Gae Jeon Wi Sae would be only natural, or so I humbly submit.”
When even Grand Commandant Yu Un Gong agreed with Eun Cho Ae’s opinion, the Emperor nodded and issued his command.
“Very well. Let it be so.”
……
……
……
Both the First Prince’s faction and the Second Princess’s faction found themselves caught off guard by this wholly unexpected turn.
Grind, grind.
And in the back, watching how matters were unfolding, Yu Hee Sung ground his teeth in silence.
‘That accursed woman……!’
From Yu Hee Sung’s position, preparing a new salt works as he was, the Gae Jeon Wi Sae struck like a bolt from the blue.
If that method truly bore fruit, one of the organization’s revenue streams would dry up entirely.
And so Namgung Ho Yeon’s thoughtless advice, swelling like a snowball, had dealt a crushing blow to the hidden enemies lurking in the shadows.
* * *
“Your Highness, it has been far too long!”
“You are lovelier than ever.”
“Is it true that the hot springs of Hwa Cheong Ji are so beneficial to the skin?”
“Has Her Majesty the Empress recovered well?”
A dozen women chirped around Eun Cho Ae like fledglings finding their voice.
It was an afternoon tea gathering that Eun Cho Ae had arranged after the court session ended.
The guests present were nothing short of splendid.
The daughter of the Minister of War, a cousin of the Inspector General, the daughter-in-law of the Minister of Personnel, the granddaughter of a General of the Imperial Guard—and so on.
All the women present were close relatives of high officials.
“Hehe, Mother grows stronger with each passing day. Thanks to that, I felt at ease returning to the palace.”
As Eun Cho Ae smiled and spoke, the women gazed upon that luminous laugh with eyes full of longing.
‘My, she’s not wearing a single ring? I ought to remove mine as well.’
‘What is that jade ornament? Did she purchase it from the market again?’
‘Oh my! Even without her hair styled in that elaborate way, she radiates such refinement. Should I wear my hair loose too?’
The women observed Eun Cho Ae’s every movement—her garments, her ornaments, the arrangement of her hair.
There was even a saying that to know the next fashion, one need only look to the Third Princess, for she was an object of universal admiration, coveted equally by both men and women.
“Your Highness the Princess, is what you said about the Gae Jeon Wi Sae in the court session truly real?”
“Oh, you heard about it too? I was quite startled myself when I learned of it.”
“My elder brother told me about it—apparently the salt works are a method that even the Grand Commandant was unaware of!”
As one woman broached the subject, the others chattered over one another, each claiming they had heard something too.
“It is true. I learned of it directly from a trustworthy source.”
Eun Cho Ae nodded as she spoke, and the women began conversing among themselves.
“You mean that Heuk Ya, the warrior from Dong Ying?”
“Isn’t Dong Ying a barbarous place?”
“He must surely be some vulgar ruffian with crude manners.”
“My, Your Highness is gracious enough to even listen to such people’s tales?”
Listening to the women’s prejudiced chatter, Eun Cho Ae found her thoughts turning to the free-spirited Namgung Ho Yeon.
‘How I envy you. Wandering the vast world as you please, you were able to forge friendships even with warriors of Dong Ying?’
Namgung Ho Yeon was one of her dearest friends, and he had told her of salt works when mentioning that one of his closest companions was from Dong Ying.
While the people of the Central Plains were inclined to shun outsiders, such prejudice was utterly absent in Namgung Ho Yeon.
She found that quite admirable.
‘Since I have seen the fruit of your virtue, I shall repay it however I can.’
Eun Cho Ae smiled gently and signaled her attendants with her eyes.
Thereupon the attendants began carrying out teapots that steamed softly.
“I have been drinking only the Fujian Iron Goddess of Mercy tea lately.”
“But surely the West Lake Dragon Well of Zhejiang has deeper flavor?”
“Oh, aren’t those two so passé? These days it’s the Hunan Yunwu Black Tea that—”
As the attendants brought forth the teapots, the women discussed which tea was most fashionable nowadays.
“Hmm? This is…… the Huangshan Maofeng?”
“Taiping Houkui?”
“Mine smells like a Keemun black tea?”
“I…… cannot quite tell.”
When the tea had been served all around, the women who lifted their cups to smell the aroma blinked in surprise at fragrances entirely unexpected.
Then Eun Cho Ae spoke.
“I have taken to enjoying the famous teas of Anhui these days.”
“Oh my!”
“Come to think of it, they’re all teas from Anhui, aren’t they?”
“Is there a particular reason?”
When the women asked with obvious curiosity, Eun Cho Ae smiled gently as she carefully cradled her teacup.
“Reason? There’s no grand philosophy to it. Fashions change so quickly these days that keeping up with them has become tiresome. I’ve simply decided to enjoy the teas I love.”
She took a sip.
There was something achingly beautiful about the way Eun Cho Ae drank her tea, speaking no further.
“Anhui has been renowned for its tea since ancient times. When I think of the centuries contained in each cup, my heart finds peace.”
“Yes, that’s true!”
“Now that you mention it, didn’t Anhui have four of the Ten Great Teas?”
“I’m embarrassed to say it—I’ve been chasing novelties and forgotten the true taste of tradition.”
Eun Cho Ae’s smile deepened with meaning as she continued.
“My mother and I drink only the tea cultivated by the Namgung Clan at Seo Ok To in Hapbi. Once I tasted it, no other tea would do.”
“Hapbi!”
“The Namgung Clan!”
“Seo Ok To?!”
The eyes of the women gazing at their teacups began to sparkle.
* * *
“Send all the materials to Seo Ok To! We need to expand the warehouse by next month!”
Sang Gwan Hae hurried through documents inside the newly established Haehu Sangdan in Hapbi, barking orders as he went.
The Haehu Sangdan was an independent merchant house bearing his name—a name that symbolized what he valued most, using characters meaning “to meet” and “to encounter.”
“Busy, so busy! I wish I had ten bodies!”
A broad smile lit Sang Gwan Hae’s generous face as he spoke.
For a merchant, being busy was a blessing.
‘The Baekun Sangdan, Hapbi’s greatest merchant house, has fallen. Now the competition to fill that void begins!’
The Haehu Sangdan had no foundation in Hapbi and should have stood no chance against the local trading houses.
But Sang Gwan Hae worried not.
“Hehe, you see, I am the sworn brother of Namgung Ho Yeon, the treasure of the Namgung Clan!”
“Sang Gwan.”
“Eek!”
Sang Gwan Hae, his sinister smile still painted across his face, started at the voice from the entrance and lifted his head.
Ho Yeon stood in the doorway, a Mandarin Orange Candy Jar in each hand, staring at him directly.
“Are you very busy?”
“Ha, haha. Of course! Thanks to our brother, I’ve gained connections to the imperial court itself!”
“Come on, would sales really jump just because we sold a few cartloads?”
“You underestimate it! Being supplied to the imperial palace is tremendous prestige. And to be chosen by the Retired Empress Eun Cho Ae?”
Sang Gwan Hae’s eyes gleamed with certainty.
“Never underestimate the power of reputation. Within six months, we’ll need to double the cultivation area at Seo Ok To!”
“Who drinks so much of that bitter brew? I can’t fathom it.”
Ho Yeon shrugged indifferently and began popping the Mandarin Orange Candies into his mouth one after another.
Crunch, crunch!
“By the way, hasn’t Yul come here?”
“Yul? Why would you look for your shadow here?”
“My shadow?”
“That one clings to you like glue, never letting you out of sight for a moment.”
“Hmm…”
Ho Yeon mumbled something indistinct at a truth he could hardly deny.
“Tch, not here either, it seems. Where did that bastard go? I went through the trouble of buying these.”
Ho Yeon gazed at the Mandarin Orange Candy Jars he’d brought for Mo Yong Yul with a mixture of resignation and affection.
* * *
Thud, thud, thud.
Mo Yong Yul walked along Yeo Yang Gu Suchun Road, located in the northeastern part of Hapbi.
Being on the outskirts, far from the city center, it was a quiet place, untouched by splendor.
Halt.
After walking for some time, Mo Yong Yul’s steps came to a stop before a grand estate.
It was a foreboding place, with a raven drawn upon its gate.
“…Here it is.”
Mo Yong Yul read the plaque above the entrance with bright blue eyes gleaming beyond his fringe of hair.
Soyo Jang.
Gulp.
Mo Yong Yul swallowed once, then moved forward as if his resolve had crystallized in that instant.
It was just as he reached toward the gate.
Creeeak!
The door swung open of its own accord, accompanied by a sound like a ghost’s wail.
Mo Yong Yul paused for a moment, then stepped through into Soyo Jang with an expression as rigid as stone.
Thud!
The door closed behind him.
The eyes of the raven painted on the gate were smiling.

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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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