My Lordship's Alliance

Chapter three : The Market Incident

A fine morning in Joseon. The day market was busy as usual, but the familiar dull colours and melancholy air were replaced by more vibrant colours, extravagant decors, crowds and bustles. Since Seollal was only a week ahead, most people were in the market buying necessary things in advance. While People of the high class were hanging around to look for costly silks, the finest quality fragrant rice and beans in one market section, the poor common class people were buying groceries and medicines in the other section.

Heeseung and Jongseong were in the market early in the morning to sell their cultivated rice to the merchant there. This year, the pair couldn't yield a considerable amount of rice as the soil became less fertile due to intense agricultural practice. One danbo of farmland had only an average yield of 0.53 seom.

Heeseung's father was a fisherman. Unfortunately, one day he and his helpers were captured and killed by the Japanese pirates in the eastern sea. His mother, who couldn't comprehend the news of her husband's demise, died of a heart attack and toddler Heeseung was left alone. Soon, one of the slave traders in the east found him, and he was immediately sold to the landlord in Yangdong village, where Jungwon and his parents also worked. Jungwon's parents were kind and couldn't stand seeing the boy live in the slave quarters without proper food and living conditions. So with permission from the old landlord, they adopted him and started living as a family with two sons.

Recently jungwon's father wasn't feeling well, and his illness was becoming severe. The village doctor asked Jungwon to feed his father wild ginseng extract daily to reduce the severity. But for someone like Jungwon, ginseng was a costly commodity. In the village market, he would sell the rice sacks and trade hemp cloth (chupo) woven by his mother for a bottle of ginseng extract. Money from the rice sale should be given to the landlord when he takes his share and provide the rest to the farmer. This money from selling rice was insufficient and could only be used for household expenses. The price of one pil of fifth-grade cotton or hemp cloth was set at two nyang, and it was also equal to one mal of rice. Therefore trading hemp cloth was the only means to obtain the ginseng extract. Jungwon had been doing this since cheoseo (mid-August) to support his ailing father. They came to exchange the cloth for ginseng in the village market early in the morning to avoid any mistakes, as this was a risky business.

The merchants had the exclusive right to trade or sell different items. Some merchants monopolised rice, while some merchants exclusively dealt with cotton. This kind of monopoly of the merchants on goods made it difficult for ordinary people to profit from their hard work. There is a geumpanjeongwon for the merchants to follow. It is a set of rules that the merchants strictly follow but is often abused for profit. No one except the merchant with a monopoly over rice can trade rice. If anyone other than that merchant sold rice or traded, they would be beaten and humiliated.

But the government had ordered the merchants not to engage in small-scale transactions to help the commoners trying to make ends meet. The government had already abolished the geumpanjeongwon for merchants except for the large merchants who dealt with the six licensed guilds and allowed them to trade the goods freely. Even so, these merchants still practised their monopoly and continued to abuse the small farmers and artisans.

Heeseung and Jungwon had to very carefully and secretly sell the hemp cloth to buy the ginseng. Therefore, they often trade early in the morning to avoid the afternoon raid. There were minor government officials in the market appointed to avoid any abuse done by merchants towards commoners. But mostly, there all bribed and made to ignore these abuses. Once a rice farmer had to trade some cotton for money for his daughter's wedding. He was later caught by the cotton merchant and was beaten in front of the whole market.

"This is a fifth-grade hemp cloth," the medicine store worker told Jungwon, "I can only give you the ginseng extract if you can provide me with ten such cloths."

"I don't have enough for now," Jungwon said rather sadly, "could you please excuse me for this time? I need the medicine. I will give you the rest of the cloth soon."

"I know what you are going through," said the shopkeeper, "I will give you the ginseng in advance. Just pay me with five jeongpo(finely woven cloth) tomorrow."

"Thank you so much," Jungwon said. Heeseung was standing guard for the cart with rice bags. The shopkeeper walked into a small warehouse-like subsidiary building at the back of the shop. That is where they keep the ginseng extracts in bottles.

Suddenly, the merchant from the pojeon (stores with a monopoly over hemp cloth) appeared shouting at jungwon and deemed his activities illegal. He approached Jungwon with some of his henchmen.

"Jungwon!" Heeseung jumped before the merchant, "Sir, please, his father is severely ill. That's why he had no choice but to trade hemp cloth!"

"What nonsense! I'm the one who has the right to sell hemp cloth in this region! Move aside!" The merchant's henchmen pushed heeseung to the ground. Jungwon saw this and came to help heeseung get up, but he was kicked and pushed by the merchant. People in the market gathered there to witness the commotion. They were all enjoying the spectacle, and none came forward to help the poor boys. The group of men then proceeded to beat them both and seized the cloth from Jungwon's hands.

"you shall not loot him! Give him back his cloth!" Someone from behind said. The crowd turned in astonishment and paved the way for a beautiful girl in a silk hanbok. Her face and head were covered in a sseugaechima (headpiece skirt).

The merchant and his henchmen suddenly stopped beating the boys. They were amazed by the lady now standing in front of them.

"Who are you, my lady?" Merchant said with a flirtatious tone, "Noble lady like you shouldn't interfere in trivial matters like this!"

"I'm no normal noble lady!" Said the girl, "I am the youngest daughter of Lord Gim!"

The crowd gasped as the merchant's face turned grim.

"The government had already abolished the geumpanjeongwon. If you don't resolve this, I must inform my father about you!"

Lord Gim is the highest authority in Yangdong village, and he is feared by everyone in the town. If this girl complained about him to the Lord, the merchant would be punished severely. He knew the outcome of such actions. He asked his men to release the boys and proceeded to leave the scene when Heeseung stood up and demanded he gives the hemp cloth back. Heeseung's eyes were fierce, and although he was bleeding from the nose and mouth and barely could stand up, he was not afraid of the merchant and his accomplices. The merchant's face turned red with anger and embarrassment. He threw the cloth on jungwon's face and strode out of there as fast as he could.

As the merchant left, the disappointed crowd slowly dispersed. But someone was watching the whole scene from afar. It was Sunghoon! He watched the two brothers closely as they walked towards the noble still there. Jungwon and Heeseung bowed to the woman.

"My kind lady, we are both grateful for your mercy." Heeseung said as he bowed, "we would be forever indebted to you."

"Remember your words!" The girl said, suddenly uncovering her face. Both Jungwon and Heeseung faced up the girl but stood there dumbfounded. It was Sunwoo in a girl's costume!

Sunghoon, standing far away observing all this, was also surprised by the girl.

'So, she is Lord Gim's daughter!' he thought. For a second, he could not take his eyes off her.