Post by ajk on Mar 30, 2014 13:23:44 GMT -5
A year has passed. And what the heck is going on? JD, working under an alias, is the bookkeeper for an influential landowner! He's accompanying the landowner's men into a village as they collect the landowner's tax--which, as we know by now, is illegal. Fortunately the local magistrate shows up with some troops and arrests them all. Takes them to the local jail where they're all lined up for flogging. Wait--this is the same local magistrate from before, when JD was in exile. So we know this is in the same general area as Sojaedong. Fortunately the guy recognizes JD and lets him go; actually is friendly to him (although he scolds him severely for what he's gotten himself into) and gives him a meal and some traveling money. We know that JD has decided the government must be torn down and rebuilt, and apparently he's spent the last year wandering around to get a first-hand look at how things are operating in the country. And he's also going around asking people which general is more popular and powerful: Choi Yeong or Lee Seonggye. As we gradually see, the answer he's consistently getting is Choi.
Gaegyeong: council ministers are meeting to discuss the ongoing famine. Now there's trouble because what little rice is left is being sold by the wealthy clans and officials at excessive prices. They're manipulating the market to get excessive profits. Choi Yeong proposes a price ceiling on the rice market to get more food to the people. Lee In Im's flunkies vigorously oppose it...but Lee shocks them (and us) by immediately agreeing to it! And then adjourns the meeting without further comment. Turns out, Im Gyeongmi got himself involved with some of the price-gouging. And if Choi Yeong finds out about it...yikes. So Lee has to make the whole thing go away...and he really lets Im have it after the meeting.
Northern territory: Lee Seonggye is preparing to fight the Jurchen Hobatu. He has a visitor: his son Bangwon, who's just passed the state examination. His proud father wants him to become a scholar now...but Bangwon stuns him by telling him he wants to be a general. Later we see his father angrily refuse him permission to do any such thing. Tells him, I don't want you to be an "animal" like I am who just kills people. "I'll be the last animal. You should live as a true human being."
Choi Yeong is serving rice porridge from his own supplies to hungry local citizens. But uh-oh, he's ran out and there's still a long line of people hoping for a meal. But look who shows up: Lady Kang, Lee Seonggye's wife, with a whole bunch of servants carrying rice. Choi is overjoyed and grateful. "It's nothing compared to the love you show my husband," she tells him, and says she'll send more if he needs more.
Oh look--King Wu has turned into a total jerk. He's sitting on a roof in the palace complex, throwing surplus roof shingles at the palace staff below him. Thinks it's funny. Choi Yeong shows up and takes him inside and actually reads him the riot act! Choi still intimidates the king a little, we can see that. The king complains because he doesn't get to hunt or party or philander like he wants to. He tells Choi to go away and lays down right then and there to take a nap. Ugh.
JD returns home after a year. His wife is so annoyed with him she can barely even be civil. And the first thing he does is forge himself a pass so he can get into the capital, which frustrates her all the more. But JD has decided that Choi Yeong is the man for him; tells himself, "I'm going to find him and make him the king of a new country." So with the help of his scholar friends, he gets a private meeting with Choi. "The country is in ruins," he tells Choi; there will be more bad harvests coming, and temporary famine relief is only a short-term fix. And then he hesitates, wondering what will happen when he tells Choi that the government must be overthrown...and in that moment, Choi gets news of a couple of small-time merchants who violated the price-ceiling law. Choi immediately heads to the jail and orders severe beatings for them--which convinces JD that Choi is too rigid and too loyal to the government to accept his radical plan. So he leaves without finishing their conversation.
Lee Seonggye's army has just defeated Hobatu! A great victory. But now does he have to go back to the capital and face those trumped-up Maitreya charges? No--because as it turns out, there have been some new incursions by Japanese pirates. So that's a good excuse for him to delay his return, and he takes advantage of it by deciding to go fight the pirates. Which foils Lee In Im's plan, right?
Not entirely...because Lee In Im send a military inspector and a team of subordinates to audit the ration and weapons records of Seonggye's army. Which, of course, haven't been updated yet because they just got back from battle. And this inspector is a total hyper-stickler--looking for any reason to create a charge of stealing resources. They guy is obviously a Lee In Im loyalist. It infuriates Bangwon to the point where he tells his father to take his army and destroy the "rotten" and "doomed" government. There's a pile of stones next to Seonggye; he knocks it over and then forcefully tells his son, "I'm not being patient because I don't have the power to crush it. If it falls, I have to stack it again, but I haven't learned how to do that."
JD is packing for another trip! But he assures his wife, this is the last one. He leaves...and we see him pay a visit to the graves of Yangji and Cheonbok...and then head north. The episode ends with the sequence that started the series: JD's journey northwards, past refugees and through the remains of a battlefield, and to his first meeting with Lee Seonggye. "I will ruin Goryeo with this man," JD tells himself, "and create a new world."
Gaegyeong: council ministers are meeting to discuss the ongoing famine. Now there's trouble because what little rice is left is being sold by the wealthy clans and officials at excessive prices. They're manipulating the market to get excessive profits. Choi Yeong proposes a price ceiling on the rice market to get more food to the people. Lee In Im's flunkies vigorously oppose it...but Lee shocks them (and us) by immediately agreeing to it! And then adjourns the meeting without further comment. Turns out, Im Gyeongmi got himself involved with some of the price-gouging. And if Choi Yeong finds out about it...yikes. So Lee has to make the whole thing go away...and he really lets Im have it after the meeting.
Northern territory: Lee Seonggye is preparing to fight the Jurchen Hobatu. He has a visitor: his son Bangwon, who's just passed the state examination. His proud father wants him to become a scholar now...but Bangwon stuns him by telling him he wants to be a general. Later we see his father angrily refuse him permission to do any such thing. Tells him, I don't want you to be an "animal" like I am who just kills people. "I'll be the last animal. You should live as a true human being."
Choi Yeong is serving rice porridge from his own supplies to hungry local citizens. But uh-oh, he's ran out and there's still a long line of people hoping for a meal. But look who shows up: Lady Kang, Lee Seonggye's wife, with a whole bunch of servants carrying rice. Choi is overjoyed and grateful. "It's nothing compared to the love you show my husband," she tells him, and says she'll send more if he needs more.
Oh look--King Wu has turned into a total jerk. He's sitting on a roof in the palace complex, throwing surplus roof shingles at the palace staff below him. Thinks it's funny. Choi Yeong shows up and takes him inside and actually reads him the riot act! Choi still intimidates the king a little, we can see that. The king complains because he doesn't get to hunt or party or philander like he wants to. He tells Choi to go away and lays down right then and there to take a nap. Ugh.
JD returns home after a year. His wife is so annoyed with him she can barely even be civil. And the first thing he does is forge himself a pass so he can get into the capital, which frustrates her all the more. But JD has decided that Choi Yeong is the man for him; tells himself, "I'm going to find him and make him the king of a new country." So with the help of his scholar friends, he gets a private meeting with Choi. "The country is in ruins," he tells Choi; there will be more bad harvests coming, and temporary famine relief is only a short-term fix. And then he hesitates, wondering what will happen when he tells Choi that the government must be overthrown...and in that moment, Choi gets news of a couple of small-time merchants who violated the price-ceiling law. Choi immediately heads to the jail and orders severe beatings for them--which convinces JD that Choi is too rigid and too loyal to the government to accept his radical plan. So he leaves without finishing their conversation.
Lee Seonggye's army has just defeated Hobatu! A great victory. But now does he have to go back to the capital and face those trumped-up Maitreya charges? No--because as it turns out, there have been some new incursions by Japanese pirates. So that's a good excuse for him to delay his return, and he takes advantage of it by deciding to go fight the pirates. Which foils Lee In Im's plan, right?
Not entirely...because Lee In Im send a military inspector and a team of subordinates to audit the ration and weapons records of Seonggye's army. Which, of course, haven't been updated yet because they just got back from battle. And this inspector is a total hyper-stickler--looking for any reason to create a charge of stealing resources. They guy is obviously a Lee In Im loyalist. It infuriates Bangwon to the point where he tells his father to take his army and destroy the "rotten" and "doomed" government. There's a pile of stones next to Seonggye; he knocks it over and then forcefully tells his son, "I'm not being patient because I don't have the power to crush it. If it falls, I have to stack it again, but I haven't learned how to do that."
JD is packing for another trip! But he assures his wife, this is the last one. He leaves...and we see him pay a visit to the graves of Yangji and Cheonbok...and then head north. The episode ends with the sequence that started the series: JD's journey northwards, past refugees and through the remains of a battlefield, and to his first meeting with Lee Seonggye. "I will ruin Goryeo with this man," JD tells himself, "and create a new world."