Black Corporation: Joseon

“I will give the issue of personnel further thought. The research staff is working so hard, it’s only right to provide adequate support.”

“Your Majesty’s graciousness is boundless!”

Upon receiving an affirmative response to his lament, Sejong and the officials embarked on a serious inspection.

“Here are the account books.”

The officials began to scrutinize the ledgers documenting all the expenses used in the institute.

While the officials conducted their inspection, Sejong went around the institute, looking at the devices in use or under construction with an expert eye.

“We are done.”

“Is that so? How was it?”

Hwang Hee answered Sejong’s question, “There are no discrepancies in the books.”

“Is that so?”

“However, 60% of the funds have been directed to Area 51. We need to inspect Area 51.”

At Hwang Hee’s words, Sejong looked out the window. Having seen the sky transition from afternoon to evening, Sejong made a decision, “Crown Prince, we will inspect Area 51 tomorrow.”

“Understood.”

The next morning, Sejong left the palace with his officials.

“Area 51… what does that mean exactly?”

Sejong’s question left Hyang slightly embarrassed.

“Is there some unspeakable hardship there?”

“No, not at all. It’s just a name borrowed from the research institutes in the Western countries, which boast excellent research achievements. I was ashamed to tell you. I was afraid we’d be accused of relying too much on Western things without fully understanding our own.”

‘While there were rumors about aliens in Area 51, how come there’s not a single alien dropping in Joseon?’ 

At Hyang’s reply, Sejong nodded, “Indeed. There is an old saying: too much is as bad as too little. You must make sure you don’t go overboard and maintain moderation.”

“Yes, Your Majesty.”

“Anyway, it feels good to be able to move around on horseback like this.”

“Yes, Your Majesty.”

Both Sejong and Hyang were riding horses, dressed in full armor with helmets.

Sejong was on a white horse, while Hyang, on a brown one, moved side by side toward Area 51. The officials, too, followed Sejong and Hyang on horseback.

The Area 51 that Hyang had arranged was a little to the southeast of the military headquarters. In terms of 21st-century geography, the military headquarters was near Seoul City Hall, and Area 51 was in the Hoehyeon-dong1 area.

“It’s a rather large site.”

“Yes, so we had to spend a considerable amount of money to purchase the land.”

“Well done. Even if it is for the state’s affairs, we should not arbitrarily seize people’s properties.”

Sejong did not spare his praise, apparently pleased with Hyang’s work.

‘At least they only took the market price, considering it’s a state affair!’

When Sejong, Hyang, and their party arrived at the main gate of Area 51, the commander of the soldiers guarding the gate stepped forward.

“Halt! Only authorized personnel are allowed in! Show your identification!”

At the commander’s words, Hyang led his horse to the front. Upon reaching the commander, Hyang pulled out a small wooden plaque from his attire and presented it to him.

“Here it is.”

After confirming the emblem on the wooden plaque, the commander stepped back and saluted respectfully.

“Long live the king!”

“Open!”

At the gesture of the commander who gave the military salute, the soldiers guarding the door swung open the main gate.

Hyang, who had returned to Sejong’s side, guided him. “Your Majesty, please enter.”

“Very well. The security is indeed thorough.”

“Without a pass, even I cannot enter.”

Upon Hyang’s response, Sejong looked surprised. “Really? Our Crown Prince certainly has put a lot of effort.”

“It’s because this is the most important place for security.”

Sejong, who had passed through the main gate, shook his head as if exhausted, and looked at Hyang.

“To the point of obsession.”

Contrary to expectations that they would go straight into the interior after passing the main gate, Sejong’s party moved along a white passage to the right. Both sides of the passage were blocked by high wooden fences, and soldiers stood at regular intervals behind the fences, watching the passage.

Sejong, seeing the soldiers saluting him, looked back at Hyang.

“What on earth are they doing inside to require such strictness?”

“Matters where confidentiality is life itself.”

“Ugh…”

Meanwhile, the officials following behind Sejong and Hyang looked serious.

“Such a strict facility for a research institute?”

“What on earth are they researching?”

“This is definitely a waste of budget!”

In the midst of these various remarks, Hwang Hee glared at Jeong-cho.

“Your Excellency! What have you been doing while the Crown Prince was doing all this? Aren’t you also a subject of Joseon? If the expenditure is this large, even you should have stepped up and reported!”

Jeong-cho calmly brushed off Hwang Hee’s criticism.

“I just stood by because I am a subject. Even I feel this is still not enough. Ahem!”

“What?”

Hwang Hee raised his voice, but Jeong-cho was mumbling to himself, looking far away. “A nobleman should be diligent. Being so casual like this….”

“Hey! Your Excellency Jeong!”

Hwang Hee shouted, but Jeong-cho continued to mumble, “That’s why they say desk work doesn’t work. It’s not too late to talk after seeing the field…”

“Your Excellency Jeong!”

Just as the situation was about to escalate into a fight, the second door opened, and Sejong and Hyang entered.

“Whoa…”

Sejong, who had entered, let out an exclamation. On a vast site – by Hyang’s rough estimate, about two-thirds the size of Hoehyeon-dong, Myeong-dong, and Eulji-ro in the 21st century – buildings were erected, and black smoke was rising on one side. To welcome Sejong’s party, trainees, soldiers under the Internal Security Office, craftsmen under the Military Equipment Supervisor and the Chief of the Armoury stood in rows.

“Salute!”

“Charge!”

At the command of the commander, Choi Hae-san, the soldiers saluted, and the craftsmen knelt on the ground and bowed.

“Well done, everyone.”

“Thank you, Your Majesty!”

Sejong’s praise continued, and Choi Hae-san gave an order to the soldiers. 

“Dismissed!”

At Choi Hae-san’s dismissal command, the soldiers and craftsmen returned to their places.

Sejong’s party, who had dismounted from their horses, moved their steps under the guidance of Choi Hae-san and Lee Cheon.

“What a remarkable facility.”

“Thank you, Your Majesty. But most of the facility is what His Highness the Crown Prince has been involved with.”

“Is that so? Then what is the main work here?”

“Improvement of gunpowder and development of new gunpowder, improvement of cannons and gun barrels and development of new cannons and gun barrels, development of new armor, development of tactics using newly made weapons, and so on.”

As soon as Choi Hae-san’s words ended, Lee Cheon took over. “To put it simply, we are working on everything related to the military, except for ships.”

“Is that so?”

Hearing the answers of Choi Hae-san and Lee Cheon, Sejong looked around. The color of the uniforms worn by the soldiers and military officers was significantly different from what he had seen before.

‘Do they even take care of the uniforms when they say everything?’

“Hmm….”

Sejong, who had been surveying the area with a snort, turned to Hyang. “Then let’s see what you’ve been doing so far.

“Yes, Your Majesty. Generals.”

“Yes! Your Majesty, please come this way.”

Choi Hae-san and Lee Cheon led Sejong and the ministers to a large open space.

On the open space guided by Choi Hae-san and Lee Cheon, there were a long table and several artifacts in place.

Choi Hae-san, who had guided people to the place with the table, started to explain, “The first thing we will show Your Majesty are the gunpowders.”

“Gunpowders?”

“That’s correct.”

Choi Hae-san pointed to the dishes placed on the table. Small amounts of gunpowder were contained on the dishes made of copper.

“Starting from the far left, this is the explosive that our Joseon army has been using. Our lab has named it single-round (gap-sik) gunpowder.

– The next one is the double-strength (eul-shik) gunpowder, which has adjusted the ingredients of the previous, original gunpowder. Next to that is the silver gunpowder, developed by the crown prince himself, and next to that is the explosive oil also made by the crown prince.

– And next to that is the prototype of cotton explosive made using various acids including sulfuric acid and cotton cloth, and finally, the hand shell explosive (grenade), which has been made easier to use.”

“Hmm…”

Sejong, who had been examining the explosives as Choi Hae-san explained, asked a question, “How are each of these explosives different? And you said you made them easier to use, what kind of method is that?”

“I will explain.”

Choi Hae-san explained to Sejong how they made them easier to use.

The improvement began almost the same as the existing method.

– Mix the raw materials of the explosives well, then sprinkle water on it to make it sticky, shape it like a small meju (a dried block of fermented soybeans), and dry it.

– Crush the moderately dried explosive lump and sieve it.

Up to this point, it was the same as before. The traditional method mixed clean oil at this point and went into storage, but Hyang added a few more steps here.

– When sieving the crushed explosive lump. Use sieves of various thicknesses. The powder that passes through the finest sieve is used in the gun barrel, and the powder that is sieved at the next thickness is used in the cannon.

– Mix the sieved explosive powder with graphite powder.

“Graphite?”

Sejong questioned the word ‘graphite’, which he heard for the first time. Hyang intervened at Sejong’s reaction.

“It’s a mineral I added to the list when the Resource Department was established and miners were being dispatched.”

“Really? What benefits does it have?”

“It prevents moisture penetration and prevents the explosives from self-detonating. It has many other benefits, but I will explain that part later.”

Sejong looked at Hyang with wide eyes at Hyang’s roundabout answer.

‘What is this brat up to again….’

“Hmm… Okay. General, continue.”

“Yes, Your Majesty. As per your explanation, when the process that is closer to coating, no, applying graphite is done, storage becomes very easy. Of course, we’ve also added a process of making a double-layered box for storing explosives, filling the space between the inner and outer boxes with charcoal, and covering it with oil-soaked paper to prevent moisture penetration as much as possible, but it’s a fact that graphite is doing the most work.”

“Coating?”

Sejong expressed confusion at another unfamiliar term. Immediately, Hyang jumped in. “It’s the language of the scholars. They’ve been deeply involved in the refinement process of gunpowder, and thus, their terminology has been frequently used. We’re currently in the process of translating them into our language…”

Sejong raised his hand to stop Hyang’s explanation. “I see the situation. That’s not the important part, General, please continue.”

“Yes, Your Majesty.”

Hyang, who had been watching Sejong’s reaction, clenched his fists behind his back.

‘Success! We’ve passed the 80% mark of laundering the origin!’

As he became more engrossed in his hobby, Hyang had unwittingly begun to consider solutions for dealing with the sudden emergence of English words. And thus, the Western and Roman books that filled the library had emerged.

From then on, every time English words popped out unknowingly, Hyang navigated the crisis by saying,

“My apologies. I’ve been reading too many of the scholars’ books…”

The issue was that as such instances became more frequent, those working with Hyang also became accustomed to using English, Latin, and German words.

Anyway, Choi Hae-san continued with the explanation.

“Next is our improved sulfur-free gunpowder. The key focus was changing the raw material composition. We’ve removed sulfur.”

“Removed the sulfur?”

At Choi Hae-san’s statement, Sejong and the other ministers began to murmur.

“Can gunpowder explode without sulfur?”

“It can explode.”

At Choi Hae-san’s response, the eyes of the Minister of Taxation began to sparkle. Miners had found a few sulfur mines, but the locations weren’t good, and the mining cost was nowhere near insignificant.

‘We can save on budget! Wonderful!’

Contrary to what the Minister of Taxation liked, Sejong, with a serious face, asked, “Are there any problems with removing sulfur? For example, does the explosive power decrease?”

“The explosive power remains almost the same.”

“But adding sulfur to gunpowder has been practiced since long ago, hasn’t there been any difficulty? Are we really okay without sulfur?”

“You raise a valid point.”

After taking a moment to breathe, Choi Hae-san responded to Sejong’s inquiry. “When you remove sulfur from gunpowder, one characteristic emerges which can be both an advantage and a disadvantage.”

“What characteristic?”

“With a normal fuse, the gunpowder won’t ignite.”

“So it’s useless… Ah!”

Sejong, who was about to question further, looked at Hyang and Choi Hae-san.

“So only our Joseon army knows how to ignite that gunpowder! That’s why it’s both an advantage and a disadvantage! Our army can use it, but the enemy can’t even if they capture it, so the disadvantage becomes an advantage! That’s it!”

“That’s correct, Your Majesty.”

At Sejong’s words, Hyang, Choi Hae-san, and Lee Chun bowed their heads in agreement. Sejong praised them repeatedly.

“It’s a clever strategy! So, are there any other benefits?”

“Yes. The biggest advantage is that production costs have significantly decreased by not using sulfur. Also, both charcoal and sulfur corrode the interior of guns and artillery, but by removing sulfur, the rate of corrosion has weakened. This means the lifespan of guns and artillery has increased. Lastly, it produces less smoke when fired.”

At Choi Hae-san’s explanation, Sejong, with a face full of doubt, stroked his beard. “If there are so many advantages, why didn’t Ming… Ah! Is it the ignition problem you mentioned earlier?”

“That’s correct, Your Majesty.”

At Sejong’s self-answer, Choi Hae-san, Lee Chun, and Hyang nodded. In particular, Hyang nodded even more vigorously.

‘Thank you, internet!’

The idea of removing sulfur from black powder was something she learned while searching the internet in the 21st century. But the information was only available on one site, and there were no exact ratios, so Hyang and the artisans had to go through numerous trials and errors.

After all those trials and errors, they were able to find the optimal ratio for maximum effect and choose the right wood for charcoal. And that information was classified as top-secret and stored in a vault located in the deepest part of the laboratory.

Near Nandaemum Market, largest traditional market in Korea. One of the popular tourist hotspots.[↩]