Chapter 202: The Monopoly Office's Darling (2)
The best-selling products at the monopoly office were, without question, candy and salt.
* * *
Candy was imported from Ming and was a product whose import and distribution were strictly managed by the court.
"Demand keeps increasing, but relying entirely on imports is troubling. We need to find an alternative..."
Having such concerns, Hyang subtly brought up the topic with the royal kitchen's head cook.
"By the way, head cook."
"Yes, Your Highness."
"What ingredients can produce sweetness?"
"Isn't there jocheong (grain syrup)?"
"Doesn't jocheong consume a lot of precious grains? That's why we import candy."
"That is true..."
The head cook, trailing off, fell silent for a while and searched his memory.
How much time passed? The head cook's face brightened.
"Ah!"
"Did you think of something?"
"There is muju (radish)!"
"Muju? Ah!"
At the head cook's answer, Hyang suddenly remembered something. It was an old TV program he had seen while aimlessly wandering on an internet video site in the 21st century.
The program's content was about the origin of the phrase 'Eat yeot!' and one of the various origins was related to radishes.
"Muju has sweetness too..."
Hyang nodded, but the head cook's expression wasn't good.
"However, to obtain sweetness comparable to candy from muju, an enormous amount would be needed."
"That may be true. Thank you anyway."
"You're welcome."
After expressing his thanks to the head cook and turning away, Hyang continued mumbling as he walked.
"Radishes... There was something... something..."
However, with the work at the research institute and District 51 considerably piled up, Hyang couldn't dwell solely on radishes.
A few days later. While sleeping with the Crown Princess, Hyang suddenly shouted and sat up.
"Sugar beet! That's what it was! I found it! Well done, my brain!"
"Your Highness! Your Highness! What's suddenly wrong?"
Startled by Hyang suddenly shouting and sitting up while sleeping, the Crown Princess, who had also woken up, called out to him in alarm.
"Your Highness! What's the matter? Did you have a bad dream?"
"No, no. I just remembered the answer to a problem I've been worrying about."
"Is that so?"
Hyang comforted the Crown Princess, who was looking at him with an anxious face, then got up and headed to the writing desk. As he wrote 'sugar beet' on the paper, Hyang suddenly panicked and frantically scratched out the paper with his golden fountain pen.
"Aaack... Hey! You brat!"
"Your Highness! What's wrong?"
"Ah, it's nothing."
Though Hyang repeatedly said it was fine, the Crown Princess didn't back down.
"I will call the royal physician."
"I said it's fine..."
"No! Attendant!"
At the Crown Princess's call, an attendant waiting outside promptly responded.
"Yes, Her Highness. Did you call?"
"Bring the royal physician immediately. Immediately!"
"Yes, Her Highness!"
* * *
In the end, this midnight commotion reached Sejong and Queen Soheon the next day.
"Take care of your health."
"Yes, Father."
Sejong passed over it briefly, but Queen Soheon was different.
"What did the royal physician say?"
At Queen Soheon's question, the Crown Princess answered immediately.
"He said it seems His Highness has been consuming a lot of mental energy lately. So he prescribed medicine to preserve his qi."
"You did well. Listen, Crown Prince."
"Yes, Mother."
"Please keep in mind that everything about the Crown Prince is not the Crown Prince's alone."
"I will keep that in mind, Mother."
After that, Queen Soheon's nagging continued for quite a while. Pressure about having children was naturally not left out.
In the end, Hyang had to leave Junggungjeon feeling drained.
"Then, I will go attend to my duties, so Crown Princess, please go ahead first."
"Yes. Please take care of yourself."
"I will."
After sending the Crown Princess ahead, Hyang let out a long sigh.
"Huu~. It's hard, so hard."
Complaining, Hyang slapped his own mouth.
"No matter that I woke up from sleep, this damn body is the problem, this damn body!"
"Your Highness?"
"Just talking to myself! Let's go!"
When the attendant called out with a worried expression at the sight, Hyang walked briskly with an expression saying nothing was wrong.
* * *
That night, Sejong called for Hyang. With both the scribes and attendants sent away, Sejong confirmed the truth with him.
"I didn't mention it this morning because it was awkward to say, but what did you write on the paper last night that caused such a scene?"
"I was writing down something I remembered and wrote the characters wrong..."
"You made an error in writing?"
"Yes."
"Hmm..."
As Sejong narrowed his eyes and glared, Hyang quietly averted his gaze.
Watching Hyang, Sejong asked another question.
"Did you finish reading the phonology book brought in recently?"
"Yes."
"Good. I'll send for it soon."
"Yes."
"Go and rest."
"Yes, I hope Father also rests well."
Watching Hyang leave after paying proper respects, Sejong muttered quietly.
"That kid... I need to catch him one day and shake everything out of him..."
Meanwhile, Hyang, who came outside, let out a long sigh.
"Huu~. I'll have to work myself to death for a while."
It was a fierce battle of wits between a father trying to make his son work and a son trying not to work.
* * *
Despite such commotion, having remembered sugar beets, Hyang sent proclamations throughout Joseon and even to the eastern development territories.
Of course, creating the proclamation came with various difficulties.
"What is 'muju' in Chinese characters?"
Seeing Hyang struggling to find a word meaning radish while drafting the document, Jeong Cho, who had come to report, interjected.
"It's called nabok (蘿蔔). It uses the character 'na' (蘿) from pine mistletoe and 'bok' (蔔) for radish."
"Ah! I see! Thank you!"
As Hyang brightened and searched for a character dictionary, Jeong Cho asked a question.
"May I ask why you're suddenly looking up Chinese characters?"
At Jeong Cho's question, Hyang soon explained the reason.
"Hmm..."
Having heard Hyang's explanation, Jeong Cho stroked his beard and fell into thought. After searching his memory for a moment, Jeong Cho soon spoke.
"Come to think of it... I remember eating a similar vegetable in Ming. The name was probably... Ah! It would have been written as cheomchae (甜菜)!"
"Is that so? Thank you!"
As Hyang expressed sincere gratitude, Jeong Cho smiled. Though he was his superior and the Crown Prince of this country, Hyang sometimes gave him the feeling of his own grandson.
Jeong Cho, who had been wearing a warm smile, soon remembered the purpose of his visit and held out the book he had brought.
"This is a report recording the development status of the steam engine conducted so far."
"Ah! Thank you. Were there good results?"
"Performance has improved a bit compared to last quarter, but there are still many areas that need more improvement."
At Jeong Cho's answer, Hyang clicked his tongue.
"Tsk! At least it's a bit better, that's fortunate. Although all sorts of talk is coming from all directions, there's a saying 'Ubocheonri' (A cow's steps cover a thousand li - slow but steady). Please encourage the craftsmen and officials not to give up."
"Yes, Your Highness."
At Hyang's request, Jeong Cho answered with a bow.
* * *
And so, a proclamation to find 'cheomchae' was distributed throughout the country. However, there were several types of vegetables with that name. This was because the word 'cheomchae' itself meant 'sweet vegetable.'
"The conclusion is that the body has to suffer."
Seeing the vegetables submitted, Hyang began tasting them one by one, dividing them by type.
Through this process, Hyang was able to find the sugar beet—precisely, the primitive sugar beet before variety improvement.
Having tasted the result of boiling down the juice extracted from the discovered sugar beet, Hyang shook his head.
"It's bland. There's a reason it lost to sugar cane."
In reality, sugar cane showed an insurmountable difference from sugar beets in terms of profitability, which was why it maintained its dominant position even in the 21st century.
Having confirmed the results, Hyang made a decision.
"This won't be profitable as is. We need to improve the variety."
Hyang passed the sugar beet to the department in charge of improving various grain varieties.
"This is really..."
The researchers in the department given a new assignment by Hyang wore troubled expressions.
"Last time it was melons too, why is he so obsessed with finding sweet things?"
"Whether it's melons or this, it's all pie-in-the-sky work."
The officials who received assignments from Hyang whispered with embarrassed expressions.
* * *
Anyway, the monopoly office's main products were, without question, salt and candy.
However, with the coming of the Giyu Year, a powerful product emerged that threatened the status of these two products.
The product's name was 'goyak' (medicinal plaster).
The invention of the medicinal plaster was also Hyang's work.
* * *
In the 10th year of Sejong's reign (Musin Year, 1429), on a hot summer day, Hyang came outside to take a break and spotted a Naegumwi gapsa (royal guard).
"Why are you walking like that?"
At Hyang's question, curious about the wobbling gait, the guard answered with an embarrassed face.
"Recently a boil appeared on my buttocks, and it's grown quite large..."
"Oh dear! Go see the royal physician immediately."
At Hyang's words, the guard answered with a troubled face.
"I already went, and they said it needs to be lanced..."
"Ah..."
At the guard's answer, Hyang unconsciously nodded.
"I'll write you an order, so go home and rest to recover."
"I am most grateful!"
At Hyang's words, the guard expressed sincere thanks and bowed deeply. However, due to the pain from the boil, his posture was awkward.
Returning to his room immediately and writing the order to hand to the guard, Hyang muttered with a serious face.
"I forgot about this..."
At that time in Joseon, boils were a fatal disease. The best treatment was to squeeze them out, but considering the sanitary conditions of Joseon at the time, this was a dangerous gamble.
"A little safer, a little cleaner!"
Shouting like this, Hyang spread methods of disinfection using alcohol and distributed soap to improve sanitary conditions. However, surgical procedures were still the last resort.
This wasn't just a problem in Joseon.
In the West as well, until modern disinfection methods spread in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the situation was similar. Surgical operations or procedures were 'acts done with one foot in the grave.'
"Come to think of it... Father also suffered from boils, right? And I heard Jeongjo's cause of death was boils?"
Hyang muttered with a serious face.
Hyang didn't know, but in the history before his intervention, some scholars cited back boils as the biggest reason for Munjong's short life.
As for how much Munjong suffered at the time, Sejong, unable to bear watching the Crown Prince writhing in pain, ordered the unconditional pardon of all criminals nationwide who had committed crimes punishable by labor or less, with a heart praying to heaven. (Note 1)
However, Munjong's boils kept recurring, and he eventually died two years after ascending to the throne. (Note 2)
"I need to find a solution..."
Walking around trying to find a solution, Hyang soon stopped and snapped his fingers.
"That's it! Goyak!"
* * *
In the 21st century, the place where Hyang had set up a forge was in the rural outskirts of Yangsan.
Since it was a place where many elderly people with an average age easily over 70 were gathered, people suffering from various ailments were common.
If you went out a little, there was a hospital in Yangsan City, but what the residents used most was a nearby traditional Korean medicine clinic.
Run by a Korean medicine doctor who was 'aging together' with the residents, the residents visited this clinic whenever they felt even slightly unwell.
The most famous thing at that Korean medicine clinic was the medicinal plaster.
* * *
Note 1) That very thing that made Joseon's kings tremble. Hankyoreh News. July 25, 2014
Note 2) Joseon, Fighting Against Boils. Written by Bang Seong-hye. Era's Window.