Chapter 988

Episode 988: Clear-Eyed Madman (13)

In the end, this issue reached Hyun.

“Seeing as it has been brought up to the Prime Minister, it is certainly an urgent matter, hmm...”

Hyun, who was checking the report that was submitted jointly by the Ministers of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Finance, Ministry of Finance, and Education, spoke while resting his chin and tapping his fingers on the armrests of his throne. It was cloudy.

‘There’s something bothering me, what is it? ‘What was it?’

I don’t know what it is, but Hyeon felt something like a bitter feeling that was constantly clinging to his heart, and he thought about it again and again.

‘I can’t remember what it is... Should I just pay?’

No matter how much he thought about it, he couldn’t find the answer and was about to give up. Hyang’s words suddenly appeared in Hyeon’s mind.

-An emperor must think twice at the last moment.

Hyang’s advice came to mind and Hyeon once again thought about finding an answer.

‘What is it? ‘What is it?’

After thinking for a while, Hyeon turned his head and looked at the officials in Daejeon. Hyun’s eyes, which were staring blankly at the officials, began to shine.

‘This is it!’

After finding the answer, Hyun organized his thoughts and opened his mouth.

“I acknowledge that the Archives needs to select someone to handle the records, but I think there are issues that need to be resolved first.”

Han Myeong-hoe responded to Hyeon’s words by bowing his head.

“If you tell me what is sacred, I will find the answer.”

“It is the eyes of the people.”

“yes?”

“Isn’t something similar happening in the mines? Even if we give them more money, they don’t want to go down to the bottom.”

“ah!”

Han Myeong-hoe and the officials all exclaimed in exclamation at Hyeon’s point.

* * *

When the Navy was a naval force, the most avoided position among the naval forces was that of oarsman.

The perception of oarsmen was so poor that there was even a saying, ‘Shinryang Yeokcheon (身良役賤)’.

Afterwards, oarsmen rarely appeared in the navy except on tugboats, and the term ‘Sinryang Yeokcheon’ disappeared. However, there were still many cases in society that were treated as ‘Sinryang Yeokcheon’.

The most representative of them was ‘Makjang’. The word referring to the very end of the deepest tunnel in a coal mine was ‘makjang’. The problem was that this makjang was used in a very negative sense. And Hyang and King Sejong were involved in its origin. Starting with the suppression of the Giyu Rebellion, King Sejong applied the crime of treason to the noblemen who challenged the throne, made all the noblemen and their relatives into government servants and officials, and sent them to the mines.

And the place where most of these government workers were deployed was the makjang. It was pushed into a place where there was the greatest loss of life. As time passed, the number of noblemen who committed treason or other serious crimes and became government slaves decreased. Sejong and Hyang sent those who committed serious crimes into coal mines. However, unlike the nobility who became government servants and had to dig mines until their deaths, these men only worked for a certain period of time. The problem is that if you are a prisoner who has to go to prison, the default is life imprisonment.

The prisoners working in the mines were not only felons. Among those sentenced to fines, those who could not afford to pay the fines were forced to work in the mines. In this case, the period of work at the mine was determined by dividing the fine by the minimum wage investigated and announced by the Ministry of General Affairs every year. However, in general, it was common to work at least 2 to 3 years longer than that period.

While Hyun was reacting positively, Lim Soon-wook intervened.

“Your Majesty, there are still quite a few officials working at the Archives. And they all wear Danryeong. However, even those who wear Danryeong are embarrassed to work at the Records Institute, so they enter and leave the hospital through the back door. It is still like that now. “If you put the ‘Ki’ emblem on it, it will be even more embarrassing.”

“I guess that’s true too. Prime Minister, do you have a job for this?”

Han Myeong-hoe, who thought about Hyeon’s question for a while, came up with an answer.

“There is. Your Majesty can hand out the emblems directly to the officials in charge of the records office.”

“Jim himself?”

“That’s right. It’s an honor to give them.”

“Hmm...”

Hyeon, who had been looking at the profit and loss for a moment at Han Myeong-hoe’s words, smiled and looked at Han Myeong-hoe.

“I think the Prime Minister learned a lot from Tae Sang-hang.”

“That’s too much praise.”

‘Big effect with little effort.’

It was one of the words Hyang always said.

* * *

As these major accidents were resolved one by one, the empire was running relatively smoothly. Artists from Europe, painters, masons, carpenters, and even scholars gathered in Gyeongju and were constantly producing results.

And in Seoul, other painters, painters, and scholars were working together on various works, including encyclopedias. In the meantime, Da Vinci found incense.

“What is the reason for visiting while you are busy?”

In response to Hyang’s question, Da Vinci bowed his head politely and brought up his business.

“I’d like to take a break from work for a while.”

“Do you want to take a break from work? Are you asking for a vacation?”

“That’s right.”

“What’s bad about it?”

“No. There is something I want to make.”

At Da Vinci’s words, Hyang’s eyes began to shine.

‘at las!’

“There is something I want to make.....what is it?”

“It’s some kind of flying machine. Here’s a sketch of it.”

“Let’s see.”

After checking the sketch submitted by Da Vinci, Hyang’s eyes began to glow menacingly.

‘It’s a helicopter!’