Sejong was nearly running as he hurried toward the Eastern Palace when he spotted eunuchs rushing out from the palace grounds.
"You there! Come here at once!"
"Your Majesty!"
The eunuchs hurriedly bowed, but Sejong waved the formalities aside and questioned them immediately.
"Enough with the greetings. Where are you going?"
"This servant is on the way to the Ministry of Taxation."
"This servant is heading to the Royal Secretariat."
"And why are you going there?"
"We were ordered to gather every single record listing the goods presented to Chinese envoys ever since the reign of Grand King Taejo..."
Before the eunuch could even finish speaking, Sejong exploded.
"That damn child! I indulged him too much!"
Completely enraged, Sejong gathered up the skirts of his dragon robe and broke into a run toward the Eastern Palace.
"Your Majesty!"
"Y-Your Majesty!"
As Sejong started running, the eunuchs and royal guards following him immediately sprinted after him as well.
Once Sejong and his attendants vanished into the distance, the eunuchs who had received Hyang's orders remained behind.
"What do we do now?"
"What else can we do? We simply follow the orders we were given."
"That may be true, but..."
The eunuch ordered to go to the Ministry of Taxation looked toward the Eastern Palace with deep worry written across his face.
"If things go badly... blood's going to spill."
By the time Queen Soheon and the ministers arrived at the Eastern Palace, Sejong's furious shouting and Hyang's defiant responses were already echoing from inside the Crown Prince's chambers.
"You insolent brat! Crown Prince! What madness is this?!"
"It is not madness! I am merely preparing to do what a Crown Prince should naturally do!"
"You little fool! Do you even understand your own age before speaking such nonsense?!"
"What does age matter when doing what is right? Saying someone is too young is merely an excuse!"
"The ministers exist for a reason!"
"And when the ministers refuse to move, should I not move in their place?!"
"You stubborn little...! Eunuch! Bring a switch and a smoothing stone immediately!"
The moment Sejong ordered the switch and smoothing stone brought out, Queen Soheon, who had been anxiously waiting outside, screamed.
"Your Majesty!"
"The Queen is not to enter! Eunuchs! Bring the switch and smoothing stone at once!"
"Y-Yes...!"
At Sejong's furious roar, the doors to the Crown Prince's chambers opened and the chief eunuch together with several attendants hurried outside.
The moment Queen Soheon saw the chief eunuch's pale face, she rushed up the steps and into Hyang's room.
"Your Majesty!"
"The Queen will leave immediately! Eunuchs, escort her outside!"
"Your Majesty!"
"Eunuchs!"
After a brief struggle, Queen Soheon was forcibly escorted back outside by the attendants.
Collapsing onto the ground in front of the Eastern Palace, she cried out desperately.
"Your Majesty! He is the Crown Prince! Please show mercy!"
"Chief Eunuch! Bring the switch and smoothing stone inside!"
At Sejong's command, the eunuchs carried the items into the room.
"Do you still believe your reckless behavior was correct?"
"If Father is the king of Joseon and thus father to all its people, then I am their eldest brother! Every time Ming envoys come and go, my younger brothers and sisters among the people cry in misery! How could I remain silent as their eldest brother? Father yourself saw the reports concerning the envoys' abuses! Every time they travel through the country, the wealth of local landowners along the roads is stripped away! And what happens afterward? Those landowners simply pass the burden downward, leaving the powerless common people to suffer several times over!"
"That is the ministers' responsibility to solve!"
"And yet decades after Joseon's founding, they still have no solution! Those ministers know only how to enjoy privileges! If they truly call themselves scholar-officials of Joseon! If they truly claim to study, practice, and speak the teachings of the sages! Then they cannot simply stand aside and watch such things happen!"
Outside in the courtyard, the ministers listening to the father-son argument lowered their heads in shame or stared toward the sky with long sighs.
"Haaa..."
"So you still insist you are right?"
"I believe I have done nothing wrong!"
"You stubborn child! Roll up your trousers!"
The moment Sejong shouted those words, Queen Soheon turned deathly pale.
"Your Majesty! The Crown Prince is only nine years old!"
"The younger a child is, the more strictly he must be disciplined! Roll up your trousers and stand upon the smoothing stone!"
A moment later, Hyang's voice rang out from inside.
"Eunuch Jo! Why are you stepping up there? I caused this, so I'll take responsibility myself! Move aside!"
"Your Highness!"
"I said move!"
"Your Highness..."
Hearing the eunuch's trembling voice, Queen Soheon burst into tears.
"Crown Prince! Hyang!"
A sharp crack echoed through the room.
Smack!
"Your first crime is arrogance born from shallow knowledge!"
Smack!
"Your second crime is looking down upon the ministers despite your young age!"
Smack!
"Your third crime is stubbornly insisting only your own words are correct!"
Smack!
"Your fourth crime is treating your father's commands lightly!"
Every time Sejong declared another offense, the switch struck once more.
And each sharp sound made the ministers standing outside flinch visibly.
Only after nearly twenty blows did Sejong finally stop.
"Reflect thoroughly upon today's actions and ensure such reckless behavior never occurs again."
"I obey Your Majesty's command."
Hyang's voice sounded as though he were gritting his teeth through the pain.
Afterward, Sejong stepped outside.
Emerging into the courtyard, he turned toward the chief eunuch.
"Summon the royal physician and have the Crown Prince examined."
"Yes, Your Majesty."
At the chief eunuch's signal, another attendant immediately sprinted toward the Royal Medical Office.
"Hooo..."
Releasing a long sigh, Sejong glared at the ministers standing before him.
Seeing the king's furious expression, the Three State Councillors and all the ministers instantly dropped to their knees.
"Please execute us!"
"Please execute us!"
Sejong answered briefly.
"By this evening, choose one of the Three State Councillors as chief envoy and two of the Six Ministers as deputy envoys for the winter solstice mission. Report your decision before sunset. If you fail, every minister beginning with the Three State Councillors shall be judged for treason."
"We obey Your Majesty's command!"
Leaving the ministers behind, Sejong approached Queen Soheon, who still sat on the ground with tears streaming down her face.
Helping her gently to her feet, he spoke calmly.
"Please take care of the Crown Prince."
Having finished speaking, Sejong turned and walked back toward his mourning hut with an exhausted expression.
Queen Soheon bowed tearfully toward him before turning a burning glare upon the ministers.
"I will never forget today. Not until the day I die."
"Please execute us!"
"Silence!"
Using that single word as her only response, Queen Soheon hurried into Hyang's chambers.
"Hyang! Eunuchs, what are you doing?! Call the royal physician immediately! Hurry!"
While the physician examined Hyang's injuries, Queen Soheon sat beside him crying heavily.
Of course, between moments of concern, she also smacked him repeatedly across the back.
"Who exactly did you inherit this stubbornness from?!"
"Why can't you just listen for once?!"
"Mother, that hurts!"
"It's supposed to hurt!"
It took five full days for Hyang's injuries to heal completely.
During that time he suspended all discussions with his scholarly attendants and spent his days alone.
"Ah! Damn..."
Sitting alone in a chair translating European texts, Hyang winced as pain suddenly shot through his leg.
Without realizing it, he had shaken his sore calf against the leg of the chair.
Looking down at his injured legs, Hyang let out a small laugh.
"These legs and this back really suffer in both lives."
Even in his previous life, his obsessive hobbies had constantly left his calves and back ruined.
Thanks to the enormous incident Hyang caused, the entire court now walked on thin ice.
The historians later recorded the situation as follows.
Second day of the seventh month, fourth year of Sejong's reign, 1422.
After sternly disciplining the Crown Prince, His Majesty ordered the Three State Councillors and ministers to immediately select the chief and deputy envoys for the winter solstice mission. By royal command, they were confined within one of the palace halls until sunset, while royal guards surrounded the building. His Majesty furthermore ordered the Chief State Tribunal to prepare interrogation procedures in case the ministers failed to produce an answer by evening.
The historian comments:
Though the Crown Prince's behavior was excessively forceful, his words themselves were not incorrect. However, because his conduct exceeded the proper path, His Majesty was equally justified in disciplining him sternly.
Likewise, the ministers were not entirely wrong in valuing tributary relations with Ming. Yet it is equally true that their devotion to such relations had exceeded reasonable limits.
Still, confining the ministers together under armed guard and threatening them was improper. Such conduct strays from governance through virtue and the kingly way, leaning instead toward rule through coercion and domination. His Majesty should exercise extreme caution.
Perhaps because of the overwhelming pressure applied against them, the selection of the envoy delegation was completed before sunset that very day.
"The Chief State Councillor shall serve as chief envoy, while the Ministers of Taxation and Public Works shall serve as deputy envoys... I approve these appointments."
"Your grace is immeasurable."
"Your grace is immeasurable."
Once Sejong formally approved the selections, the ministers all prostrated themselves again.
Afterward, Sejong issued another order.
"The Ministry of Taxation and Royal Secretariat shall compile every document the Crown Prince requested!"
At Sejong's command, officials from both departments began organizing every single report related to abuses committed by Ming envoys since Joseon's founding.
As the figures were carefully compiled and quantified, even the officials preparing the documents began sighing heavily.
"This goes too far!"
"They took this much...?"
The younger officials could barely suppress their anger while organizing the records.
After reviewing the completed reports, Sejong released a long sigh.
"Hooo... The Crown Prince truly was not wrong."
According to the reports, the amount of tribute and bribery demanded by Ming envoys had steadily increased ever since Joseon's founding.
And the frequency of their visits caused those demands to rise at an even more terrifying pace.
The years suffering the greatest losses were the first and second years of Sejong's own reign.
In order to persuade Ming envoys suspicious about why the previously invested Crown Prince had been removed and the third son placed upon the throne... and to convince them that the Tsushima expedition was genuinely intended... the Joseon court had spent staggering amounts of wealth in bribes.
"At minimum, they extracted amounts equal to two months of annual state expenditure. At worst, six months. And if one includes the wealth they extorted from local districts along the roads... the losses range from four months of the national budget to an entire year."
True to Joseon's reputation for obsessive record-keeping, local magistrates meticulously documented even the property looted from regional landowners by passing envoys.
As a result, Sejong now possessed exact figures detailing the damage.
"You ministers should review these as well."
At Sejong's order, the Three State Councillors and Six Ministers took turns reading through the reports.
"Mm..."
"Haaa..."
The ministers groaned quietly after seeing the exact figures laid out before them.
Hearing rumors had been one thing.
Seeing the precise scale recorded numerically was another entirely.
"Were the local landowners compensated afterward?"
"..."
"...It was for the good of the nation..."
"So they received nothing? Then naturally they must have recovered their losses by squeezing the people beneath them several times over. Haaa..."
After another sigh, Sejong glared toward the ministers.
"The young Crown Prince understood this much. Yet none of you did?"
"We are deeply ashamed."
At Sejong's rebuke, the ministers bowed their heads deeply.
Though many silently wished to point out that Sejong himself had overlooked the same issue, all they could do was lower their heads and repeat:
"We are deeply ashamed."
"The envoys you selected must resolve this matter properly."
"We obey Your Majesty's command!"
***
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