Chapter 91: Historical Verification Disputes

Why do people read novels set in historical backgrounds?

There may be many reasons, but perhaps the biggest is, “Because you can let your imagination soar, grounded in knowledge everyone knows.”

For that reason, unlike other genres where the author must first construct their own world, historical novels have maintained a long lineage.

That’s because they have the huge advantage of easily piquing the interest of those already curious about actual history.

And the more famous and fresh the historical tidbits that become the subject of a historical novel, the greater their power grows.

This unofficial rule, only recently analyzed in the modern day, was already at work in Joseon times as well.

“Give me a copy of !”

“Here too, here too!”

“I want a copy of the new book from Hanyang as well!”

“Give me that paeseol they say features the Commander!”

It was a sight for the record books.

, released nearly simultaneously all across the country, was literally selling like hotcakes.

After all, even people of this era knew full well who the great hero was who saved the nation from destruction during the war.

Add to that the famous pen name of the author, who had already penned countless hits, and a reaction so explosive it defied belief erupted.

And of course, as befitted “that person’s” novel, it was guaranteed to be entertaining.

Not to mention, with the rich trove of materials spoon-fed by King Jeongjo, and the use of historical verification as a weapon ever since the  era, the effect was immense.

Moreover, due to the content itself—

This new work even brought in an unexpected influx of readers who previously had nothing to do with novels, creating surprising effects.

For example, odd rumors began to surface in Tongyeong, home of the famous Three Provinces Naval Headquarters.

“Paeseol? You brat! How dare a yangban even think to read such trash books!”

“Aigo!! Aigo!! Grandpa!! You’re going to kill me!!”

Here in this remote region, far from Hanyang, the conservative native yangban had kept novel culture at bay.

Nearby Jeonju, Jeongeup, or Dongnae—where books had only just begun to arrive—hadn’t yet managed to spread the new culture this far.

“Please, Grandpa, just calm down! This isn’t just some trash book!”

“What did you say?? You little punk, have you lost your mind?!”

“It’s got the Commander in it! And he’s depicted so vividly!”

“The Commander? A book about the final years of that man...?”

And yet, it really happened.

The power of Chungmugong could be felt even beyond the page.

Even the grandfather who was about to punish his grandson for reading novels instead of studying paused, if only for a moment.

And with good reason.

Even in this era, Tongyeong was a region that kept the memory of Chungmugong vivid.

When the anniversary of his death came, people here would don mourning garb.

And so—

“Oh... ohhh...”

“See, Grandpa? I told you I was right.”

“Quiet, boy! You’re disturbing my reading!”

Like a figure on the throne of Changdeok Palace, even the old countryside yangban who considered novels impure media could do nothing but disarm themselves before the great hero.

Such scenes could be observed throughout southern regions like Tongyeong and Yeosu.

As the saying goes, the first time is the hardest—after that, it gets easier.

Those who had climbed this initial barrier would now become potential customers of novels from then on.

Perhaps thanks to this, “that person’s” new Chungmugong novel broke unprecedented sales records.

Meanwhile, not long after, when the book became available for rent at the paeseol rooms where people enjoyed food and novels together, something strange began happening in the comment section at the back of the book.

[-Seriously, have people gone mad reading just paeseol? Get a grip, please!]

Whereas previous works, like , had comment sections filled mostly with simple impressions and reader wishes, this time there were rough words being traded back and forth.

[……

-Does this make sense? How can one flagship hold off over a hundred enemy ships? No matter how skilled, there are limits!

└Get a grip? You’re the one who needs to wake up, daring to undermine Chungmugong’s achievements!

└Hey, are you a Japanese spy? Did you get paid off in Japanese silver or something??]

It was a kind of mysterious keyboard battle, or perhaps a war of stationery supplies.

Well, for modern people, Chungmugong’s unbelievable achievements are familiar, but for most Joseon subjects up to now, they were simply known as a victory smashing the Japanese.

Such detailed, specific historical accounts had never been delivered to them before.

For example, the Classical Chinese  depicted Yi Sun-shin smashing a thousand enemy ships at Hansan and dying in battle, diverging from real history.

The vernacular Korean  did follow historical flow somewhat, but it focused only on the victory itself with little detail.

Thus, the detailed depictions of his last two naval battles—Myeongnyang and Noryang—in  were virtually the first time such accounts were reaching Joseon readers.

That’s why a few readers, unable to believe the unfamiliar course of the Myeongnyang battle, kicked up a fuss in the comment section.

[……

-It's already hard to believe thirteen ships smashed over a hundred enemies, but holding off the whole enemy fleet with just one ship for half a day? Hasn’t anyone here even read a single military manual?

└Oh, and you have? Judging by your words, did you pass the military exam or something?

└Hey, haven’t you read ? All the records collected there say the same thing!

└Why is he not responding?]

Of course, this uproar didn’t last long.

Soon, the rowdy readers were thoroughly trampled by the angered general audience.

Normally, such arguments might have dragged on longer, but as if in anticipation, the author had prepared a note.

[……Dear readers.

The events in this volume can be found in miscellaneous writings, records, and the War Diary included in .

If interested, you may want to look them up yourself.]

As one reader mentioned, the “Author’s Note” at the end of the volume always included detailed references for these historical verifications.

So, readers curious about the truth of the depictions of the Myeongnyang and Noryang battles in  rushed to the bookstores to buy .

Thus, an unprecedented event occurred at Changdeok Palace, where King Jeongjo could not hide his delight.

It seemed that the preparations the author had made for alternate history before returning to Joseon were finally paying off.

In this genre, after all, quelling verification disputes through the “Author’s Note” or notices was the sign of a true master.

[-Came back after reading the full set of . That guy was wrong.

-Wow, I half thought it was made up too, but it’s true. Honestly, if it weren’t for a book compiled by His Majesty, I still wouldn’t have believed it.]

Thus, the historical verification disputes that erupted at the start of publication were settled by the readers themselves.

However—

[-Still a bit suspicious. If Yi Sun-shin was that great, why was he only posthumously promoted to Chief State Councilor much later, and why was his gravestone only built up gloriously after the fact?

└Hey, are you even a Joseon subject?

└Am I not allowed to ask? If he was really that great, shouldn’t King Seonjo have personally rewarded and promoted him at the time?!

└Is Chungmugong really the thing to be suspicious of…?

└Isn’t it weird?! That book, , didn’t His Majesty at Changdeok Palace compile it because he likes Yi Sun-shin so much? Isn’t it possible the content was exaggerated on purpose?]

Perhaps it was proof of the innate wickedness of people, as shown by how the comment section had been around for a while.

Or perhaps it was just the nature of the times, when scholars fought each other fiercely over region and school.

In the end, a few people stubbornly clung to their opinions and crossed the line.

Well, in a sense, that was the karma of Seonjo—the most infamous king for treating a national hero with cold indifference.

[└Where do you live? If you’re under Namsan, you’re dead if I see you.

└I live in front of Seosomun, so what? The kinds of filials who’d sell even their mothers from the paeseol bookshelf are suddenly up in arms over this?

└Show your face at Unjongga bookstore by noon on the full moon. Let me see what you look like.

└No thanks.

└Huh... The firewood logs put in storage after  are weeping...

└Firewood!! Firewood!! Firewood!!

└Why did he disappear without replying again?]

Oddly enough, this situation that seemed likely to drag on was ended in a single stroke.

Thanks to an intervention no one expected.

[-Punished the criminal who committed lese majeste against His Majesty. Watching closely. – Left Police Commander Cho Gyu-jin

└With a signature (sujeol)?? Is this real??

└Come on, if all it takes to become Police Commander is a few lines, then I’m a Chief State Councilor.

└I asked the bookstore owner, and they said police officers really did barge into the shop.

└Let’s not write paeseol here too.

└I’m telling you, it’s real!!]

Whether their chatter was true or not, shortly thereafter, there really were reports of loud smacks coming from the Left Police Bureau northeast of Pajagyo.

After that, the rowdy trolls who had been causing chaos in the comments disappeared without a trace.

Naturally, readers began to comment more cautiously.

“Is that Police Commander for real?”

“How could the Police Commander have time to check the bookshelves at the bookstores?”

“If he’s that high-ranking, wouldn’t he just buy his own copy?”

“Gye Daebang checked, and it really is Cho Gyu-jin who leads the Left Bureau. Unless it’s someone impersonating him...”

“Then maybe it’s true that the author of  was taken away by the State Tribunal...”

Naturally, this led to all kinds of rumors spreading among readers who witnessed the event.

But, in truth...

“...These little punks?”

It was actually Kim Jo-sun, who had gone to check the bookstore just in case.

He was merely preemptively sweeping away trolls who insulted a great historical figure and the sovereign, preventing an incident that could’ve led to suppression of novels.

Still, the strange legend that those who misbehaved in the comment section would be dragged to the police bureau and beaten with a stick persisted for a long time, contributing to upright cultural activities.

“Well done.”

“Your Highness...? I was worried I might have acted on my own without orders...”

“No, Kim Seungji. If you commit a crime, you must pay the price—that is the way of the world.”

For some reason, upon receiving the report, the Crown Prince let out a deep sigh of relief.

After highly praising Kim Jo-sun’s unexpected actions, he bestowed the grace of swiftly granting the next volume’s manuscript.

It seemed the Crown Prince had a lot of pent-up frustration with people who abused the comment section.

* * *

“Ha, damn... If it’s this bad in the Joseon era, it must have been even harder in modern times...”

Meanwhile, I found myself lost in complex thoughts as I stared at the book from the bookstore that Kim Jo-sun had left as evidence.

Thanks to the alternate history novel I prepared before reincarnating in Joseon, things were going smoothly.

But even now, seeing the verification disputes in the bookstore’s comment section made my heart pound—so how much worse must it have been in the web novel world?

Not to mention, I’d heard more than enough horror stories about troll comments from modern authors.

“Well, even so... My readers so far have mostly been good people, so it’s probably okay... Maybe...”

Thinking back, even in other genres I’d written, I hadn’t received many truly harsh troll comments.

Or maybe I’d just grown numb after so many years as a web novel author?

Whatever the reason, it was clear that interpreting things in a positive light was good for my mental health.

At times like this, I knew from experience that the only solution was to focus solely on the readers who genuinely liked my work.

And so, the task of publishing my first historical novel in Joseon wrapped up uneventfully.

With plenty of reference material from the  that Father had gathered, and with more than enough modern retellings of Chungmugong’s last two battles—Myeongnyang and Noryang—I was able to blend the familiar pattern of inner turmoil and realistic battle scenes grounded in records.

As Father put it, it was a Yi Sun-shin novel that “even Sima Qian could have included in the Biographies of the  without shame.”

This new work best embodied the Confucian virtue of loyalty (忠) among all my books, so even the “Confucian Talibans” who used to grumble, “How can a scholar touch popular fiction!” were buying it in droves.

How much so, you ask?

A while later, at the final round of the regular state exam, something incredible happened.

“What the...? What is this??”

The exhibition, which determined the final rankings of the thirty-three successful candidates, was an important event where the King himself observed the exam.

Kim Jo-sun, who accompanied me as secretary, came beaming with a huge sheet of paper.

At first, I assumed it was about the corrected exam system known as “Exam Restoration,” which had emerged after my  caused a stir.

“...Though trade with Qing has increased for many reasons, smuggling of huangtang ships (smuggling vessels) remains a problem, despite some reduction.”

Well, the exam system had been normalized, and Kim Jo-sun said this was the very exam paper from the final round.

But huangtang ships were the smuggling vessels of the Qing, which had been an issue even when the Qianlong Emperor brought over a huge cargo last time.

This was the kind of problem Father might set for the final state exam.

“Your Highness, please read to the end.”

“Hmm?”

But, the important part seemed to be further down.

Father’s true intention was clearly shining in the following section.

[……During the previous king’s reign, Chungheon-gong (Park Mun-su) was sent to Hwanghae as naval commander and requested central support to build a fleet to deal with the huangtang ships.

But the previous king criticized his request as rash, saying Chungmugong was able to construct warships and fight the Japanese even during war.

Was the king right or wrong to rebuke Chungheon-gong?

Also, how was Chungmugong able to rebuild his fleet and fight during the war?]

Wow. Unbelievable.

Was Father really this much of a fanatic?

Where had the wise king who always separated public and private gone...?

Well, as a final exam question, on which the future of successful candidates depended, it was excellent.

Father was sharply questioning them about a current issue facing Joseon and a past decision of the previous king.

Of course, a wrong answer could result in permanent disqualification for insulting the “Crab King.”

But this last question.

Asking the test-takers, who probably only memorized Confucian classics, to suddenly explain Chungmugong’s greatness in detail?

Unless you knew the details about Chungmugong—unless you’d read —you could never answer this.

Of course, it was obvious that the person writing the questions had lost their objectivity a bit.

Still, since  had sold so well alongside , Father probably thought it reasonable to include it in the test.

But with the sovereign’s personal taste so heavily involved, the exam difficulty had shot straight into hell.

“Kim Seungji, did anyone actually answer this properly...?”

“Yes, there were some...”

“Some?”

“His Majesty was so displeased at this year’s candidates’ low standards that he rained down fire...”

For some reason, I could picture the tense mood of the exam hall that day.

A few candidates probably burst into tears out of despair.

Even those who barely made the top scores were harshly scolded by Jeongjo before they were officially recognized, for not praising Yi Sun-shin enough.

Haah.

If I ever become king, I’ll never let my personal preferences dictate the state exam.

Seriously.

* * *

But not long after that.

While even the yangban who had rejected novels fell, and  spread nationwide as a must-read, an unexpected problem erupted in a surprising place.

“W-what… Who dared…!!”

“P-please calm yourself, Father!!”

“This can’t be! This is an insult to our Wonju Won clan...!!”

※ Author’s Note

1.

According to actual records from King Sunjo’s reign, people in Tongyeong voluntarily wore mourning garb on Admiral Yi’s death anniversary even at this time.

2.

Though only the more civil comments are depicted in the story, in reality, books from bookstores were covered in all sorts of crude graffiti and curses.

There are even records of mother-related slurs that have survived to the present day.

3.

“Yi Sun-shin could do it, why can’t you?”

There’s a real story of King Yeongjo scolding Park Mun-su this way.