Her Majesty’s Secret Service

082. Distant country, neighboring country

April 2, Gyeongsin Year

After a three-day voyage, we arrived in Tianjin, a large city. The Ming Dynasty naval general who first discovered us mistook us for Japanese pirates.

During the three days we came here, we met seven times with Japanese pirates, and we soon resolved the misunderstanding by showing them the supplies we had prepared separately in case we needed to use them.

Among the members of our envoys, there was a person who experienced the Eulmyo Rebellion. He lamented that it was the same thing for a great country or Joseon to suffer from Japanese pirates.

April 5, Gyeongsin Year.

After arriving in Beijing, the capital of a great country, Jonghyeong spent several days inquiring about who the most powerful authority in the Ming Dynasty was, and eventually went to see ‘Eom Soong.’

When I asked Jonghyeong why he was visiting Eomsung, who was widely reputed to be a traitor even in Hanyang, Jonghyeong answered, “I am looking for him to meet the emperor.”

Jonghyeong, who was visiting Eomsung, held in his hand a root of wild ginseng that the Lord Sang had given him. Although it was the smallest thing, I was afraid that such a precious thing would fall into the hands of such a petty person. I tried to stop Jong-hyeong, but he asked, “Then will you let me meet the emperor?”, so I couldn’t answer.

It is deplorable. With petty people in power and shaking up the country, whether it is a country or a great country, isn’t the whole world in ruins and infested with pirates and thieves?

April 8, Gyeongsin Year.

I met the emperor. I was in charge of the interpretation when meeting the emperor and the ministers of the Ming Dynasty.

The bell that bowed down in front of the Emperor spoke about a monument called ‘Padran’ that had been erected by merchants from a country called Portugal. Upon hearing the contents engraved on the monument, the Emperor became furious and demanded to know the exact contents of the monument erected in a place called ‘Oju’. ordered.

No matter how ignorant they may be of the law, are the merchants of the country of Portugal worth two lives by erecting a monument with an inscription engraved on it saying that their king’s authority extends to them on the emperor’s land?

June 3, Gyeongsin Year.

By order of the emperor, Portuguese merchants were transported to Beijing. Indeed, when I searched all over Oju, I found that just as Jong-hyeong had said, there were monuments erected all over the empty island, and on some of them the phrase ‘Land where the authority of the King of Portugal reaches’ was engraved.

When I asked Jonghyeong how he knew that they had erected such a monument, he answered, “I found out about it when I stayed in Cheonchuk for a month.”

The Emperor acknowledged Jonghyeong’s contribution to the ‘treasonous plot’ and granted him the authority to pay tribute to England’s envoys once every three years and the authority to build a city in Tianjin for the English to stay.

Jonghyeong said that the treacherous spirit Um Soong was of great help in this matter. Originally, the Emperor intended to end the compensation by paying tribute once every three years at the request of the government officials, but Eomsung persuaded the Emperor to allow him to build a place like Waegwan in Dongnae in Cheonjin.

How true is it that even dog poop can be used in medicine?

July 12th, Gyeongsin Year.

I never thought I would set foot in Japan. England’s envoys made a profit by selling the silk, raw silk, medicinal herbs, and pottery they had purchased from the Ming in this town called Nagasaki.

I was curious about how much profit I had made, so I asked Jong-hyung implicitly, and he said that he would have made twice as much, but he kept his mouth shut. If you look closely, you would have easily made more than double the profit. It was truly amazing that one could increase one’s wealth in just three months.

The Jeongsa, who heard the story from me, exclaimed with admiration, saying, “Now I understand why the interpreters want to follow the tributes.” The Busa said, “They say it has been a long time since the Japanese Empire was engulfed in war, but they always deliver things like that. Can you sell it? “It’s definitely luck,” he commented.

July 14th, Gyeongsin Year

It seemed that Jonghyeong was well acquainted with the Japanese lord named Ryuzoji Takanobu, who ruled Nagasaki. When I asked him how he came to know him, he answered, “He helped save 65 Joseon people.”

After hearing those words, I looked at the face of the person named Takanobu again, and although he looked like a foolish bear on the outside, his eyes were so cold that it was like looking into the eyes of a poisonous snake.

July 20th, Gyeongsin Year.

English envoys received money by selling goods they had purchased from the Ming Dynasty. When the government and governors saw the amount of silver they received from the Japanese merchants, they could not help but be impressed.

The Jeongsa said, “I heard that the Japanese country is made up of three small islands, and seeing that it has so much silver, it must have all been looted from the great country.” Jonghyeong refuted that statement.

If you combine the three islands of Japan, it might be bigger than Joseon. I couldn’t believe it when I heard it.

November 18, Gyeongsin Year

Two months after leaving the province of Manila, we arrived in a province called ‘Goa’ in Cheonchuk.

Since this is the place where the teachings of the Buddha began, everyone thought they would believe in the Buddha, but it is said that the teachings of the Buddha have long since lost their influence here, and a religion called ‘Hindu’ is flourishing.

I wanted to sit down and learn about the religion called ‘Hinduism’, which suppresses the teachings of the Buddha, but I gave up on that thought because I was busy with my schedule and had to leave soon.

January 15th, New Year.

Before I knew it, I had eaten all the salted seafood I brought from Joseon, and it had been almost three months since I had seen rice. I’m sick of wheat bottles with bugs crawling out of them. I want to eat rice.

New Year’s Day, March 18th

After anchoring the ship on the coast of a country called ‘Congo’, they went ashore to get water and food.

If I remember correctly, there should be a cold wind blowing right now, but somehow it was very warm here.

A group of sailors who went to get water caught the baby of a strange animal. It had a snub nose and its entire body was covered in black fur.

When the sailors complained that they had caught a monster, Jonghyung came out and hit the sailors on the head and scolded them, saying, “Where did you catch that baby gorilla?”

When I asked Jong-hyung, he explained that an animal called a ‘gorilla’ is a relative of a monkey.

Jonghyeong told them to send the cub back to the forest right away because the mother might be worried, but the sailors made an excuse by saying that they brought it from the arms of the dead mother.

Jonghyung sighed and called his servant named Drake to take charge of the gorilla cub and raise it.

New Year’s Day, March 28th.

As the wind was blowing, I went up to the deck and was enjoying the view of the open sea, when Jong-hyung approached me and asked, “What are you holding in your hand?”

When he answered, “I was writing a travel story,” Jonghyeong asked, “Then what should the title of the book be?”

When I answered, “I haven’t decided yet,” Jonghyung smiled. “I just thought of a good title,” he said.

I don’t know why he said that, but Jong-hyung mentioned Jae Jong-suk’s name and said, “A distant country and a neighboring country would be a good fit.”

When I thought about it, I thought it would be an appropriate title since it records stories of both nearby and distant countries, so I titled the travel story ‘Distant Countries and Neighboring Countries’.

May 23, New Year

Arrived at Portsmouth, a military port in England.

I was so happy that I no longer had to eat this disgusting ‘ship disease’.

* * *

A long-term voyage is something you cannot do twice. Just looking at the disgusting sheep biscuits made me sick, and the smell of dried meat prepared as a special meal for the captain made me shake my head.

“under… Take out some pickled wild ginseng… “No, no.”

After running out of fresh food, I debated whether or not to open the jar of wild ginseng stored in a corner of the captain’s room for every meal.

A total of five roots, one 50-year-old wild ginseng and four 10-year-old wild ginseng, were cut and soaked in honey. One was to be given to the queen and the other to Jane.

Today, after much thought, I looked away from the jar of wild ginseng and took out a small mother-of-pearl box from a drawer. As she carefully opened the box with flowers and butterflies engraved on it, the hairpin inside caught her eye.

“Would you like it?… .”

The box was brought from Joseon and the hairpin was brought from Ming, and were prepared as a gift for Jane.

Just as the saying goes that you have to leave home before you know it’s good, after being away from Jane for about two years, I really missed her.

Jane was pregnant with my child when I left England. Because of that, there were times when she had negative thoughts about what would happen to Jane if something went wrong while giving birth to her child, but every time she did that, she would open the mother-of-pearl box she had bought to give it to Jane as a gift.

As I entered the distance in less than a day, my anxiety grew even more. Lieutenant Flint said that we would be able to arrive at Portsmouth Harbor by lunchtime.

“Okay, what’s the use of worrying? I’m sure you’ll be fine. I’m sure you’re doing well and healthy. cancer.”

As I was fiddling with the hairpin and mumbling, I heard Drake’s voice outside the door.

“Captain, we have entered Portsmouth Harbor. “I think you should come out.”

After hearing Drake’s words, I put the mother-of-pearl box back in the drawer and stood up.

When I followed Drake to the deck, I saw the Joseon envoys. It seemed that the Joseon people were also tired of life on board a ship. I saw his expression brighten so much.

“It’s been two years… .”

I muttered quietly as I looked at the English port in the distance.

On May 23, 1561, the sun was shining brightly.

‘Mary’ returned safely to England after a long two-year voyage.

* * *

The atmosphere at Whitehall Palace had been grave for several months.

After hearing that King Gustav I of Sweden was in critical condition, Mary’s companion, Archduke Eric of England, returned to his home country of Sweden.

“Whoa… It will be hard to see Eric again now… .”

Since Eric left, Mary’s face has been filled with a gloomy and gloomy mood every day. She sometimes lost that mood when her daughter, Princess Catherine, watched her play, but other than that she always maintained a sombre mood.

Since the Queen’s atmosphere is so gloomy, isn’t it inevitable that the palace’s atmosphere will also be gloomy?

Mary, who finished her work with a gloomy expression, sighed as she thought of her husband, Eric, who had left her again today.

“Haaa… Eric… .”

Today, as usual, when the atmosphere in the office was starting to become somber, Anne came into the office holding a letter in her hand.

“What is that letter?”

From noble mtl dot nete

“Yes, Her Majesty. It’s from Portsmouth… The sender is probably… .”

Mary, who received the letter from Anne, looked at the seal on the back and looked interested.

“Logan is back.”

Mary, who saw the seal of ‘Baron Grinstead’ on the letter, ordered Anne to deliver the news of Logan’s return to Jane at Whitehall Palace. She then opened the letter and looked at what was inside.

“40,000 pounds… ?”

There were several surprising details, including the news that a delegation from Joseon had accompanied them and the news that they had obtained the right to establish a trade base in a Chinese port.

Among them, what caught Mary’s attention was the ‘profit’ of this trade with the East.

40,000 pounds. Mary’s grandfather, Henry VII, spent a year’s war expenses amounting to slightly more than 6,000 pounds. The gloomy mood that had hovered over Mary’s face had long since disappeared due to the profits brought by ‘one’ ship in just two years.

“Is there anyone out there?! “Bring in Marquis William!”

Mary was planning to prepare a welcome ceremony. As far as the budget allows, the grandest welcome ceremony. The crew of the ‘Mary’ deserved such treatment.

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Portuguese Monument to the Discoveries. This is the padrao embedded in the Cape of Good Hope. Dozens and hundreds of monuments have been erected around the world, but it is said that only a few remain today.

*The monument called padrao is a monument to discovery erected on the land by Portuguese explorers.

Macau, the Imaginary City: Culture and Society, 1557 to the Present. According to the book, there is a record that a man named Jorge Álvares built a padran on an uninhabited island in Macau. The Portuguese thought that Macao, which is adjacent to the mainland, was Chinese territory, and that the other uninhabited islands were empty land, so they erected a monument, like the one at the Cape of Good Hope, proving that the land was Portuguese territory and that their king’s authority was there. It is estimated that it is.

*From 1390 to 1941, a country called the Kingdom of Congo existed. It is said to have been a huge country that included the current Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Republic of the Congo, Gabon, and Angola.