Black Corporation: Joseon

Chapter 681

Episode 681 Suez (1)

Imperial Year 5 (1453). february.

Hwang Hee passed away.

He was 91 years old.

It was Hwang Hee who lived one year longer than before the intervention of Hyang.

It was Hwang Hee who was implicated in the corruption committed by his sons in the early days of Gyeongjang and was punished beyond punishment by having to work as an official until his death.

However, he had become so severely weakened a year before his death that the county allowed him to retire.

On the day Hwang Hee was allowed to resign, officials from both major and minor visited Hwang Hee’s house.

“This is it… Should I say congratulations? Or should I say it’s disappointing?”

Hwang Hee responded with a smile to the words of Kim Jeom, who had been working hand in hand with Hwang Hee for the longest time.

“Me too. Should I say it’s refreshing? It was very refreshing to think about the situation and the trouble I had been through by the emperor, but considering the empire still had a long way to go, I wanted to stay there a little longer. But now my body no longer responds.”

“Should I have given you more medicine?”

Hwang Hee, who looked sad for a moment at Kim Jeom’s joke, soon smiled and accepted it.

“There is no one in this whole empire who has taken more tonics than me, right? No, there you are. “Didn’t the situation give it to you directly?”

At Hwang Hee’s words, Kim Jeom shuddered slightly and continued.

“That’s when the saying ‘the day you get a good fish meal’ was coined.”

Just a few months after Hwang Hee retired, Deputy Prime Minister Woo submitted his resignation. Since Deputy Prime Minister Wu’s health condition was not easy, the village accepted his resignation.

Afterwards, the world’s attention focused on who would fill the vacant position created by the resignation of the Prime Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Wu.

“Of course, the Prime Minister will be Inspector General Kim Jeom, and who the left and right deputy prime ministers will be.”

“I think the Left Deputy Prime Minister is also oblivious? The Minister of Finance and Economy will be appointed. “Because our responsibilities overlap.”

“Then what remains is the Deputy Prime Minister. Who do you think will be?”

“It would be Captain Kim Jong-seo or Captain Hwang Bo-in.”

As the people expected, Hyang was weighing Hwang Bo-in and Kim Jong-seo with a serious face.

“We have similar experiences and similar abilities. “If you think about Gyeyujeongnan, their loyalty is similar…”

After pondering over and over again, Hyang finally came to a conclusion.

“Let’s go to Hwang Bo-in first. The General Affairs Department does not yet have anyone to replace Kim Jong-seo. And since he is the right deputy prime minister, Hwang Bo-in is even more qualified.”

Although the names were changed to Prime Minister and Left and Right Deputy Prime Ministers, the basic division of duties was the same as the Prime Minister, Left and Right Ministers.

While the Council of Ministers was the highest level of officials and coordinated the overall administration, the left deputy prime minister oversaw the work of departments such as the Ministry of Finance and Economy, the Ministry of General Affairs and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the right deputy prime minister oversaw the work of ministries such as the Ministry of National Defense and the Ministry of Justice.

Therefore, Hwang Bo-in was the right candidate for the position of Deputy Prime Minister.

With the decision to appoint Hwang Bo-in, the vacancy was quickly filled.

The left deputy prime minister, Kim Jeom, was taken over by Minister of Finance and Economy Park Jong-woo, and the right deputy prime minister was taken by Hwang Bo-in.

As soon as the top position was filled, the vacancies that arose afterwards were immediately filled through internal promotions.

In this way, the second cabinet reshuffle of Hyang’s reign was completed.

* * *

When Hwang Hee’s death was announced, Hyang stopped work in accordance with etiquette and visited the funeral with Wan.

The person who greeted Hyang and Wan was Hwang Soo-sin, the third and youngest of Hwang Hee’s legitimate children. His older brothers had to serve 10 years of hard labor for previous corruption, and even after returning from prison, they were kicked out of the family and lived in seclusion.

The youngest, Hwang Su-sin, was not harmed because he was not involved, but he was also deprived of the opportunity to write a secret.

The popular opinion was that Hwang Hui’s family would be able to enter the civil service world again only after Hwang Hui’s grandson grew up, and this was actually the case.

Although Hwang Hui’s death left him in a difficult situation, it was a great honor for him to be found by Hyang and Wan.

Therefore, Hwang Su-sin greeted Hyang and Wan with polite courtesy.

On the way back from visiting Hwang Hee’s funeral, Hyang looked up at the sky and muttered.

“Big stars are disappearing one by one.”

* * *

Although a great star named Hwang Hee disappeared, the empire was running smoothly.

This was because Sejong and Hyang had already completed a solid structure, and those who filled the vacant positions were not lacking in ability.

But the scent still made me feel uneasy.

“Because it has changed so much.”

It was a history that had changed so much compared to the history before the intervention of incense.

Starting with Gyeongjang, the situation was completely different from the history before Hyang intervened, but the reason he was able to feel at ease was because there was a person named King Sejong and capable subjects like Hwang Hui with rich experience.

However, as those subjects disappeared one by one, the burden of Hyang was increasing.

Therefore, the scent was still unsettling.

“I can’t help it. I have no choice but to be as careful as possible. “I guess I’ll have to bang on the stone bridge to cross it.”

While Hyang was gathering his thoughts, news came from the Middle East.

The war over Suez was over.

* * *

The war over Suez had been going on for almost 10 years.

The war fought to monopolize the transportation route connecting Suez and the Mediterranean Sea involved more countries than expected, knowingly or unknowingly.

Emerging and existing powers in the Middle East and Europe became entangled, and Italian city-states took sides and entered the war according to each other’s interests.

Because it was a war that involved the countries of Europe and the Middle East, historians with a European-centered view of history argued that this war was called ‘World War I.’

Of course, historians who made this claim had to be criticized as ‘racists.’

* * *

In any case, the war that lasted for nearly 10 years over the transportation route connecting Suez and the Mediterranean shifted the center of gravity toward the Portuguese-Ottoman alliance with France’s participation.

However, the end of the war was an unfinished ending.

The areas controlled by the Portuguese-Ottoman-French alliance included the Arabian Peninsula, the eastern coast of Egypt bordering the Red Sea, and the southern Mediterranean region bordering the Suez transportation route.

In this way, the Suez transportation route was secured, but it had to be an unfinished task because the Mamluks still controlled the granary region of the Nile River.

“It’s a bit disappointing, but let’s stop here.”

Henrik Cosimo de’ Medici and the messengers of Charles VII all nodded at the words of Mehmet II, who succeeded his father as Sultan of the Ottoman Empire.

“It is a bit puzzling that the Mamluks are controlling the Nile River region.”

Henry responded to the French messenger’s words.

“But the country is already in ruins. “I don’t think it will be easy to recover.”

Intermediate trade with the East conducted through Alexandria brought enormous wealth to the Mamluks. However, the problem was that the wealth led the Mamluk leaders to indulge in pleasure.

As the leaders became addicted to pleasure, the running of the country naturally fell into disarray.

Because of this background, the Mamluks were allies who expected that they would collapse as soon as the war began.

However, the Italian city-states that were in competition with Spain and Florence intervened in the war and provided economic support, and it held out for nearly 10 years.

Although they endured like this, the corruption of the leadership still persisted, so Henrik was pessimistic about the future of the Mamluks.

* * *

Henry’s face was also full of regret as he said those words.

“It would have been nice if we had spent more money on war, but it’s a bit disappointing.”

Cosimo shrugged his shoulders at Henry’s words.

“It was something that could not be helped. “Because the war was longer than expected and I had no idea that so much gunpowder would be consumed.”

Cosimo’s words were the biggest reason why this war ended unfinished.

As the war unfolded, both armies mobilized large quantities of gunpowder weapons.

Italian blacksmiths were busy supplying the gunpowder weapons used by both armies.

The problem is that gunpowder weapons, especially firearms, were produced and consumed in quantities of at least hundreds of cases. Armor and swords were not cheap, but guns and artillery were very expensive.

And gunpowder was never cheap either.

In this war, unlike previous wars, gunpowder weapons were the key factor in determining victory or defeat. Therefore, the participating countries had to expend a lot of war effort to win.

In the end, the war came to an unfinished end as the Italian city-states that had been fighting behind the scenes became exhausted first.

* * *

“In the end, the one who benefits the most will be the empire.”

Those gathered at Henrik’s words nodded strongly.

The performance was overwhelming, even from the senior-type guns brought in in the early days of the war. The primitive hand cannons possessed by the opposing countries had incomparable performance, so the soldiers of the opposing countries worked hard to capture the Empire’s rifles.

And he attempted to create a similar Seokseok-style gun modeled after the looted items.

Because it was made in a black box format, it was not easy to replicate, but as the operating principle was learned, similar firearms of similar structure were produced in large quantities, and the situation became boiling.

When the forces of both sides became similar and they fell into a swamp of a long war, the empire that won against the Ming introduced Japanese style rifles and freight cars, and the allies rushed to purchase them.

However, Japanese rifles and freight cars were a double-edged sword. It had a performance that surpassed that of the Seokseok rifle in both range and accuracy, but it was expensive and had the problem of having to use special ammunition.

Therefore, there were opinions as to whether it was really necessary to use it, but the allies, addicted to the sweetness of victory, decided to continue introducing it. Thanks to this, the financial manager of the Medici family desperately sought God.

* * *

“So, did you find out the secret of that damn ‘pok-eun’?”

In response to the French envoy’s question, Mehmet II and Cosimo shook their heads.

“We are mobilizing alchemists to research it, but we still haven’t been able to find it properly.”

“Same.”

“Whoa~.”

“Huh~.”

In response to Mehmet II and Cosimo’s response, Henrik and the Lion of France let out a long sigh.

The reason why special ammunition had to be used in Eulsik rifles and Eulsik freight cars was because of their width.

If it were not for the width, Italy and the Ottomans would have been able to produce enough bullets in large quantities. However, because they did not know the secret to manufacturing that wide silver, they had to purchase special ammunition from the Empire at a high cost.

Therefore, Cosimo submitted a request to the University of Florence, and Mehmet II gathered alchemists and entrusted them with research on silver. Although the research was carried out with full support, the results were sluggish.

“According to those who know the Kitai script, the ‘silver’ character in ‘pok-eun’ refers to silver. So we are continuing to experiment with silver, but have not yet found the answer. “We need more time and budget.”

It was a series of failures due to wrong choices, but Cosimo and Mehmet II could not stop supporting them.

-Once you know how to make silver, the uses for it are endless!

-You don’t have to do the dangerous thing of sticking a wick into a canvas and lighting it on fire!

* * *

“It looks like the war has been roughly resolved, so let’s move on.”

“Let’s first consider the conditions we will present to Spain and the Mamluks.”

Now it was a war on the table.

It was not a war where bullets were exchanged and life and death were the difference, but a war fought with persistent verbal skills and deliberate bluster in exploiting the opponent’s weaknesses.