The Joseon Prince Went To America And Didn’t Return – 46



< Rescue of Korean Residents (3) >

The first thing he did after regaining full authority from Yun Chi-ho was to re-establish appointments with the Mexican officials he had previously met.

At this Yun Chi-ho tilted his head.

This is because they have already openly refused our requests several times in past meetings and told us that it could not be done.

‘Well Yun Chi-ho’s thoughts weren’t completely wrong.’

Still I wanted to meet them again.

Because I was thinking of making them a different offer than before.

“Your Majesty you must be very busy with the Korean immigrant issue. Why did you want to see us again?”

Mexican officials greeted us with a slightly colder air than when we first met.

He had an expression on his face like he was a prince who would meet me one more time but he wouldn’t listen to anything I said.

“My subordinate made an unreasonable demand in a place where we met for the first time and embarrassed you. I would like to apologize here.”

I tried to please them with a sly look on my face.

They looked at me with a slightly puzzled expression not knowing what I was thinking.

“Apologizing won’t change anything Your Highness.”

“I know. First take my gift. What are you all doing? Aren’t you bringing out the things you prepared?”

What showed up at the meeting place was the mother-of-pearl box that had been with us since San Francisco.

It was similar in size to the mother-of-pearl lacquer box that had once been given as a gift to George Pardee’s wife.

“What is it?”

At this the Mexican officials all looked at the mother-of-pearl box with curious expressions.

“It’s a box decorated with seashells. Do you want to check the contents inside?”

I opened the mother-of-pearl box that had been given to me as a gift on the spot.

There was gold in it.

Because the dollar was not the internationally accepted currency at the time.

Only gold can be considered an international currency that is accepted worldwide and I wanted to give it as a bribe.

“This much.”

The first Minister of Agriculture I met was amazed with his mouth open.

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“….”

The head of the Legislation Bureau under the Ministry of Justice enjoyed the current situation in silence.

“Prince!”

However the immigration director who was used to being noble got angry.

“Are you trying to insult me? You bribe me so openly? Even so I can’t help you Prince….”

I pushed the mother-of-pearl box towards him without saying a word.

As the enormous gold coiled before them Immigration Director Carlos gulped and looked back and forth between himself and the gold.

I looked at Carlos like that and whispered quietly.

“Forget about the favor I asked you last time. I also know very well what kind of authority you have.”

If you pour in a lot of money it might be a different story but then you’d have to bet on the Japanese government and Mexico.

Since an individual cannot defeat a nation I tried to find a roundabout way.

“I heard your cousin runs a ranch near Cancun.”

Most of the central government officials come from wealthy families and are all influential figures in their hometowns.

In particular Carlos the director of the immigration office came from a branch of an agricultural conglomerate.

“That’s right.”

“Please send a telegram to your cousin personally.”

“A telegram?”

“Yes. Time is money to me and I don’t want to waste it on useless things. So I would like to ask for your favor.”

He suggested that he invite the Korean community in the area to his large farm.

Because the owners of large farms sometimes traded workers whose contracts still had time left.

“I only want to deal with your cousin. Oh don’t worry about the money. I’m very rich you know.”

“I can handle that much.”

If you’re going to spend money it might as well be on the Mexican elite.

Because the local ranchers are people you’ll never see again once you return to America.

But these were different.

“I also want to buy some land near the coast.”

“Land?”

“I want to buy land that can’t be farmed. I’m thinking of making a private resort near the coast.”

“aha!”

Moreover Cancun later became Mexico’s largest resort.

It would not see the light of day until the 1970s when transportation became more developed.

If I had stepped in it would have been a city with the potential to become a world-class resort even in the 1920s.

If we utilize a ‘cruise ship’ like the Titanic development could be done faster than the original history.

‘Mexico will soon fall into chaos. However the Cancun region is far from the capital so it can avoid the war.’

Just as where there is no tiger the wolf is king when the central power is weak local gentry start to run wild.

That’s why I wanted to join hands with the Carlos family.

“Your Majesty I can handle the Koreans in Cancun but I cannot help you with Merida.”

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“I know.”

“Then what are you going to do?”

Carlos’ eyes were full of greed.

This is because while the number of Korean residents in Cancun is around 200 the number of Korean residents in Merida is four times more.

“We’ll have to find another way. You said you couldn’t help me.”

I chuckled and left.

Because there was still a lot of work left to do.

* * *

We traveled from Mexico City to the port of Veracruz on the Atlantic coast.

To go to Merida.

“This is miserable.”

I was able to meet some Koreans working while I was on the move.

The situation seemed worse than that of the Koreans working on the sugarcane farms in Hawaii last time.

‘Similar to Hawaii yet different.’

If the Korean community in Hawaii were mainly composed of men in their 20s

Mexican expatriates were growing henequen (agave) in the blazing sun with their entire families from children to women and the elderly.

‘It’s covered in blood.’

The treatment seemed worse.

Because I need to pick the leaves of the henequen cactus a type of cactus.

Due to the nature of the crop called henequen it was an environment in which the Korean residents were bound to suffer injuries.

“Oh my. Hello Prince. How are you? I am Mayo the mayor of Merida.”

If the Cancun matter was handled through the Foreign Ministry officials the Mérida matter was to be handled through the Justice Ministry officials.

“He is also a long-time friend of Henrique the head of the Legislative Council. He received a telegram ten days ago and has been waiting for you here.”

It’s hot. It’s hot.

Even though it was winter the temperature was approaching 30 degrees so I quickly stated my business.

“I came here to mediate my fraudulent contract case.”

“If it’s a fraudulent contract…”

You know everything but you pretend not to know.

When I handed Mayo the box I had prepared in advance he smiled brightly and reassured me.

“Oh my you don’t have to give me something like this.”

“It is my sincerity. Please accept it.”

Mayo pretended to think about something for a moment then looked at me.

“Ah! You mean the contract you made with the farmers here? The Koreans who just immigrated here a year ago settled here.”

When I handed over the documents I was holding Mayo looked through the contract page by page.

“These guys. They’re deliberately exploiting Koreans. I’ll call all the farmers in the area.”

The next day Mayo called in the nearby farmers and scolded them.

“Do you know who this man is? He is the prince from Joseon. You have been exploiting the Joseon laborers without giving them any money and this precious man has come all the way here. Okay first apologize to the prince and give me a list of how many Joseon people are on the farm.”

He arranged for the termination of the contract at a low price.

He was a man worth his money.

“Ten dollars per person…”

Because there are about eight hundred Korean residents in Merida.

You only have to spend eight thousand dollars.

‘If we terminate the contract as originally stipulated… it will cost one hundred dollars per person.’

It may be a small amount of money to me but it is a huge amount of money to the Korean residents here.

Because even if you save up your daily wages for a month you don’t even get five dollars.

‘Of course it’s because they feed money to the upper class. This is where savings are made.’

Individual negotiations are time-consuming and costly.

Moreover if one person sets out to carry out a bluff operation these two things can increase exponentially.

Thanks to the Mayo market I was able to quickly finish my work in Merida.

“Okay let’s go back now.”

It’s a place where sweat flows even when you’re still.

I didn’t want to stay here any longer so I quickly decided to withdraw.

Of course Korean residents will also follow me to America.

* * *

Yun Chi-ho didn’t say a single word after handing over the negotiation authority to me.

He just stood by my side and watched me with eagle eyes trying to figure out how I could untangle the tangled thread.

“Your Majesty the King.”

Then on the ship back to San Francisco he finally opened his tightly shut mouth.

“Tell me.”

Yun Chi-ho began to complain to me with a look of disappointment on his face.

“I didn’t know that Your Majesty would bribe these authors so openly.”

“So you’re disappointed?”

“….”

Yun Chi-ho couldn’t bring himself to answer my blunt answer and kept his mouth shut.

But judging from the expression on his face he seems to be very disappointed in me.

I snickered and subtly belied his reaction.

“Where are the correct answers and degrees in diplomacy between countries? A diplomat is supposed to only care about his own country’s national interests.”

“but….”

I quickly interrupted Yun Chi-ho and preached my diplomatic logic to him.

“I also know very well that you are gnashing your teeth when it comes to corruption. I also agree with you on corruption. Corruption is like a parasite that eats away at a country and ultimately reduces its competitiveness.”

I snapped my fingers and continued.

“But that only applies to my homeland. Those guys I just met last week. What does it matter to me whether they take bribes or not? We just need to achieve our goals.”

As I began to speak the words that had been in my heart my voice naturally became louder.

Thanks to this not only Yun Chi-ho but also other members of the group were able to hear our conversation.

“I am grateful because the authors were corrupt and could easily get away with it. If they had been honest we would be racking our brains to save our fellow citizens under the blazing sun of Mérida right now. This is a fact that even you cannot deny.”

Yun Chi-ho bit his lower lip.

But I couldn’t refute it.

Because what I said was true.

At this I put pressure on Yun Chi-ho with a bitter expression.

“I am very disappointed in you for this matter. I really don’t like your attitude towards negotiations. Once you have set your final goal shouldn’t you be running without looking back? You have been acting as if it was not your responsibility and have been watching from a third-party perspective. This is the entire negotiation process.”

Yun Chi-ho compared himself to me as if he felt wronged and complained to me about it.

“Your Majesty! I do not have as much wealth as Your Majesty. So I do not have the money to give them like Your Majesty.”

Yun Chi-ho had a pouch hanging from his waist.

I looked down and asked him.

“I gave you the embassy fee before I left. It was 80000 dollars wasn’t it? What on earth did you plan to do with that money?”

“Well….”

At first I was going to use it for travel expenses.

But didn’t you move to Mexico with me?

Thanks to my help Yun Chi-ho didn’t spend a single penny.

Is that why?

He kept on talking and couldn’t find a use for it.

“Give me that money. Didn’t I receive it from His Majesty as activity funds? Since my own money was used to rescue the Koreans I will receive it back.”

Yun Chi-ho responded immediately to my words.

He immediately handed me the cost of the embassy land pretending that he had no interest in the money.

“Ah! Even if you were to say that you were absolutely right that we couldn’t save our fellow citizens because we didn’t have money.”

We can’t just end it here.

I kept blaming Yun Chi-ho until the end listing each and every mistake he made.

“…You should have suggested to me that I visit the site. But why did you suggest it to me then? Didn’t you just give up when the capital kept giving you negative answers?”

“….”

“Some people say that only the results matter while others say that the process should also be taken into account. But you know even if you evaluate each of these two opposing viewpoints you’re still disappointed.”

Yun Chi-ho gave his evaluation of my recovery with a look of disgust on his face.

“You seem to have changed a lot Your Majesty.”

I answered with a snort.

“Can you still play the prince here? If you live like a weed trying to survive on this land you’ll end up like this.”

I looked at Yun Chi-ho and made an expression as if I was recalling old times.

“Didn’t you say last time that I reminded you of your grandfather? Come to think of it you used to draw a lot of Seokparan didn’t you?”

“Yes it was.”

“Your Majesty you really liked orchids. But I personally like plum blossoms better. Don’t they endure the bitter cold and bloom earlier than others?”

Orchids in a greenhouse are a disaster.

Yun Chi-ho is quite smart so he must have understood what I meant.

‘What a waste of language skills. Not being able to use them properly. Tsk tsk.’

Unless his disposition is corrected I will not join hands with Yun Chi-ho.

Even if we held hands the current Yun Chi-ho was just a translator to me nothing more nothing less.

I gave him one last piece of advice hoping that his temperament would change.

“I hope you learn from this incident and become a man like Plum Blossom.”

< Rescue of Korean Residents (3) > End