Chapter 284: The Park Brothers

With their bellies full, the Park brothers finally managed to stumble home, leaning against the walls for support. They were government slaves of the garrison and lived within the walls of Jeju town.

The two brothers were originally from a middle-class family. Their father had been a minor military official in the Royal Stables Office. Seven years ago, the current king launched a coup, deposing King Gwanghae—an event known in history as the “Injo Restoration.” The Park family was implicated. Their grandfather and father were executed, and the women and children were demoted to government slaves and exiled to Jeju Island.

On the journey, the two generations of women in the Park family succumbed to the hardships of the road and died one after another. Only the two Park brothers survived, struggling to reach Jeju Island, where they managed to grow up amidst hunger, cold, and hard labor.

Their so-called home was just a small, low house built from the abundant volcanic rock of Jeju Island. The gaps between the stones were filled with a mixture of yellow mud and dry grass. The roof was thatched with a thick layer of straw. Inside, there was no floor, only packed earth. In a corner, a wooden plank served as a bed, covered with straw. In the middle of the house was a sunken hearth.

The house was newly built and very damp. A faint glow emanated from the hearth—fire was hard to come by, so common folk usually kept a few embers smoldering under a layer of ash. As a result, the room was also filled with smoke.

A person from the 21st century wouldn’t be able to stand it for a minute, but for the poor people of that era, this was their daily dwelling.

Even this humble house was something the two Park brothers had built with great difficulty. They had bribed a minor official with the copper coins they had saved over many years to obtain a piece of government land on which they were permitted to build. They carried the stones, mixed the mud, and cut the grass themselves, building their home bit by bit in their spare time from tending the garrison’s horses and fields, like swallows building a nest. Having their own house meant they no longer had to live in the longhouse dormitory for the garrison’s government slaves. It also made it possible for Park Deok-hwan to get married. Even for a government slave, it was impossible to get married in a collective dormitory. As the elder brother, Park Deok-hwan was already twenty, an age that made him an old bachelor in ancient society. Moreover, there was the entrustment of their elders: their grandmother and mother, who had died on the road to exile, had urged them to “carry on the family line,” even if they were reduced to government slaves.

Although it was still uncertain where Park Deok-hwan’s wife would come from, he was a man of great foresight. His wife would have to be a government slave from the garrison. A man must marry when he comes of age, and a woman must marry when she is old enough. As long as he had a house, he could always find a suitable wife.

The Park brothers sat down on the straw mat, burping contentedly—this was the best and most filling meal they had had in over a year. In recent years, due to constant famines, days when they could eat their fill were few and far between. There were probably fleas or something similar, as they both began to scratch themselves vigorously. While scratching, they discussed Park Deok-hwan’s marriage prospects.

Government slaves were equivalent to state slaves. However, apart from being forbidden to leave their assigned garrison and having to complete the work assigned by the garrison on time, there were few restrictions on their personal lives. They were free to marry and have children, as long as they submitted a report to the garrison—after all, the children of government slaves were also of the lowborn class and would continue to serve the state.

The two of them discussed the possible candidates for a wife. There were many female government slaves in the garrison. Due to the constant famines over the past decade, every family was short on food, and families with daughters were eager to marry them off as soon as possible to save on rations. There was a wide selection. However, the prettier women were not for them; they were already considered the private property of the various officials.

“…What about Jo Seong-yi? Her ancestors were originally yangban…” Unlike his younger brother, Park Deok-hwan was thirteen when he was exiled and had clear memories of his family’s past, so he cared about a female slave’s original status.

“I heard she’s in poor health and might not be able to work. Being from a yangban family doesn’t put food on the table—besides, isn’t she just a government slave like the rest of us?” Although Park Deok-maeng was only fourteen, he had already become worldly and cynical.

“What about Kim O-sun?”

“Too ugly—even Master Liang from the household registry office, who’s not picky at all, wouldn’t have her. Brother, do you really want to marry her?” Park Deok-maeng said with dissatisfaction. Although it was his brother getting married, if his sister-in-law was too bizarre-looking, it would be embarrassing for him too.

Master Liang, the household registry clerk, was a lecher who was insatiable when it came to women. He had no chance with the truly beautiful government slaves, but any ordinary female slave who was even slightly presentable would be summoned by him to “accompany him for drinks.”

“With the lamp blown out…” Park Deok-hwan was about to say, “they’re all the same with the lamp blown out,” but the image of Kim O-sun made him shudder.

They then discussed the daughters of several other families, even considering the young widows. Suddenly, Park Deok-maeng said:

“What do you think of Yi Man-hui?”

“She is the daughter of a middle-class family, and the crime she was accused of is rather unsavory…” Park Deok-hwan hesitated. Yi Man-hui had been recently exiled to the island. It was said that she had fornicated with a man before marriage, a scandalous affair. However, some also said that this charge was fabricated to attack her family—Yi Man-hui’s family belonged to the Southerners faction, which was currently under attack by the Westerners faction.

The factional strife in the Joseon Dynasty was extremely fierce and had continued unabated for centuries. The brutality of the factional struggles was no less than that of the Ming Dynasty, and perhaps even surpassed it. What was remarkable, however, was that such intense internal strife had not led to the downfall of the kingdom, which was perhaps a testament to the superiority of the “Sadaejuui” (serving the great) policy. Many of the government slaves on Jeju Island were the losers and victims of these political struggles.

“Brother, what does it matter if she’s from a middle-class family? Here, she’s a government slave just like us. If you want to talk about being the son of a middle-class family, you and I are sons of a middle-class family too,” Park Deok-maeng said.

“That’s true. Once we’re here, we’re all lowborn.” Park Deok-hwan sighed with emotion. He had been a young man who could read and understand the world when his family fell from grace. Sometimes, when he recalled the days when his family lived together, it all felt like a dream.

“We were lucky to get so much food today. Let’s go and pay our respects to our elders,” Park Deok-hwan said.

His father and grandfather had died on the execution ground in the capital. His grandmother and mother had died on the road. Their bodies were hastily buried in unknown places, becoming lonely, wandering ghosts. This had always been a source of great unease for Park Deok-hwan. He was an educated man, deeply influenced by the Confucian ideal of filial piety. Therefore, once he had settled down a little on Jeju and was able to barely survive with his brother, he had secretly made memorial tablets. On every anniversary and festival, he would take them to the wilderness and offer simple food and water, bowing towards the north.

Today, having obtained some rare good food, he wanted to fulfill his filial duties.

The gates of Jeju town were already closed, but the town was large, with many open and deserted areas. The two brothers carried their offerings and headed to a secluded spot by the city wall.

This area, close to the wall, was almost entirely vegetable gardens and woods, with only a few small huts here and there, presenting a pastoral scene. The brothers followed a small path towards a mound near the city wall. The mound was covered with trees, a very quiet and hidden place. This was where the Park brothers usually paid their respects to their ancestors.

Just as they had laid out their offerings, several “monsters” in mottled green and brown jumped out from the bushes. The Park brothers were scared out of their wits. Before Park Deok-hwan could let out a cry, his mouth and nose were covered, and he was dragged to the ground, his joints locked so he couldn’t move. Park Deok-maeng was knocked unconscious with a single blow.

Xue Ziliang let out a soft whistle and sized up the two poor lads. Poverty was a universal language, transcending ethnicity and nationality. One look at their clothes and their gaunt complexions was enough to tell.

“You, interrogate them,” Xue Ziliang ordered a soldier under his command with a gesture. This man was not from the Special Reconnaissance Team but an agent from the Foreign Intelligence Bureau, a Korean translator specially trained for the Jeju Island landing operation.

Xue Ziliang paid no more attention to the two captives. From the time they had arrived by boat at Biyangdo and marched here, they had already captured several prisoners. Most were poor commoners like these, for whom the descriptions “not having enough clothes to cover their bodies and not enough food to fill their stomachs” were quite apt. These two were no exception.

Infiltrating Jeju Island had been easier than he had imagined. Although the city gates were closed when they arrived, Xue Ziliang was shocked when he saw the city wall. This was a city wall?

Xue Ziliang had been stationed in Korea for a while. But as an American, he had no interest in the history and culture of the “Cosmic Empire.” His leisure activities were mainly focused on his lower body. He rarely visited historical sites, and even when he did, he didn’t pay much attention. When the original city wall appeared before his eyes, he was immediately stunned!

Holy shit, this is a city wall?

The wall, built of volcanic rock, looked neat enough—square and regular. But its height was all wrong. In America, Xue Ziliang had of course not seen any city walls, but he had been on Hainan long enough to have seen many. The city wall of Jeju could at best be considered a “perimeter wall”—and a low-security one at that.

He estimated from outside the city that the wall was less than 4 meters high. That aside, with the use of firearms at the time, it was a trend for city walls to become lower and thicker instead of tall and thin. But this entire wall had no defensive structures whatsoever. The crenellations and parapets found on the walls of even the most remote and backward small county towns on Hainan were completely absent here. Through his binoculars, he could clearly see that the soldiers standing on top were exposed from the waist up.

Never mind rifles, even with bows and arrows, one could easily shoot and kill the defenders and suppress the top of the wall. As for the common defensive structures like enemy platforms and watchtowers, they were all non-existent on the walls of Jeju town.

Such a city could be taken not just by a special recon team, without needing artillery or even the Fubo Army. A labor corps with pikes and machetes, using ladders and ropes to scale the walls, could break through in a single charge.

What Xue Ziliang didn’t know was that less than forty years ago, in the 25th year of the Wanli era, a Ming general assisting Korea had said the following to a Joseon official:

“The Commander-in-Chief said that the city walls of your country are like child’s play.” (From the Annals of King Seonjo, Volume 88). This was the assessment of a Ming general on the defenses of Korean town walls after the Imjin War.