Eulbul the Salt Seller
Wind, campfire and river sounds change with every scene, and the music follows the story.
King Gogukcheon made Eul Pa-so, a farmer, his Guksang, and when famine struck in 194, he created a law that lent out the state’s grain in spring and collected it once the autumn harvest was over. About a hundred years later, a suspicious king took the throne of Goguryeo.
Characters
The hero of this story
A suspicious man
He works Eulbul as his servant
He sells salt with Eulbul
She covets Eulbul’s salt
He speaks frankly to the king
In 292, King Bongsang, the new king of Goguryeo, killed his uncle Dalga, Lord Anguk. The reason: his achievements were great, and the people looked up to him.
Survive, whatever it takes.
In the autumn of 293, claiming that his younger brother Dolgo harbored treacherous designs, the king ordered him to die.
Fearing for his life, Eulbul fled into the countryside. People mourned Dolgo, who had died for no crime.
Eulbul became a servant to Eummo, a man of Susil Village.
But you’ll work double for your keep.
Eummo had no idea who he was.
with those frogs!
just shut them up!
Whenever the frogs croaked in the marsh beside the house, Eummo made Eulbul throw tile shards and stones at night to silence them.
When the frogs fell silent, Eulbul was left alone at the edge of the marsh.
Go get another load!
By day, he made him gather firewood and never let him rest even for a moment.
Unable to bear the grueling work any longer, Eulbul left that house after a year.
After that, Eulbul met Jaemo, a man of Dongchon, and the two went into the salt trade together.
The two loaded salt onto a boat and followed the river to Amnok.
and the wind is our bread.
Eulbul lodged at a house in Sasu Village, east of the river. When the old woman of the house asked for salt, he gave her about a peck.
I can’t give you any more.
Bearing a grudge, the old woman secretly slipped one of her shoes into Eulbul’s salt sack.
The old woman chased after Eulbul as he set off with his salt, insisting that he had hidden her shoe.
He stole my shoe!
The old woman reported Eulbul to the county official.
Flog this fellow and throw him out!
Amnokjae took the salt as the price of the shoe and gave it to the old woman, then had Eulbul flogged and driven out.
His face was gaunt and his clothes were in tatters; no one recognized him as the grandson of a king.
In the autumn of 298, frost and hail killed the crops, and the people went hungry.
Even so, King Bongsang built his palace bigger and more splendid.
And he sent men out
to find Eulbul and kill him.
Has anyone seen him?!
No one recognized him. The king’s men never found Eulbul.
In 300, no rain fell from the 2nd month of spring to the 7th month of autumn. It was a terrible famine year.
In the 8th month, the king called up every man and woman in the kingdom aged fifteen or older.
All to repair his palace.
Worn down by forced labor with nothing to eat, the people abandoned their homes one by one and took to wandering.
That pillar goes up before sundown!
As disasters from Heaven followed one after another, the Guksang Chang Jo-ri went before the king and spoke:
is not how a parent of the people should act.
a king has no majesty!
and a minister who does not admonish him is not loyal.
to die for the people?
Chang Jo-ri and the other officials agreed to depose the king.
First, they sent Jobul of the Northern Division and Sou of the Eastern Division to search the mountains and fields for Eulbul.
When they reached the Biryu River, a man on a boat caught their eye.
He was terribly thin, but his bearing was no ordinary man’s.
and his ministers secretly plan to depose him.
so we have come for you.
not a royal grandson.
The ministers are waiting for you.
Have no doubt.
At last Eulbul went with them. Chang Jo-ri was overjoyed, and hid him where no one would know.
In the 9th month of autumn, 300, King Bongsang went hunting north of Mount Husan. The Guksang Chang Jo-ri went with the king.
do as I do.
Chang Jo-ri broke off a reed leaf and stuck it in his cap.
One by one, they put in reed leaves. All were of one mind.
Knowing that all were of one mind, Chang Jo-ri at last deposed the king.
Do you know who I am?!
The king was confined in a separate chamber, with soldiers guarding it all around.
Knowing there was no escape, the imprisoned King Bongsang took his own life.
His two sons died with him.
The officials welcomed the royal grandson Eulbul and presented him with the royal seal.
King Micheon, the fifteenth king of Goguryeo, took the throne.
The hands that had thrown stones into the croaking marsh and carried sacks of salt now held the royal seal.
Now king, Eulbul attacked one by one the Chinese commanderies and counties that surrounded Goguryeo. In 302 he struck Xuantu Commandery and took 8,000 captives.
In 311, the Goguryeo army seized Xi’anping at the mouth of the Yalu River.
Goguryeo’s road.
Xi’anping stood on the route from Liaodong to Lelang.
In the 10th month, winter, 313, King Micheon attacked Lelang Commandery.
The Goguryeo army captured more than 2,000 men and women of Lelang.
Lelang Commandery, set up by Han in 108 BCE where Gojoseon had fallen.
More than 420 years later,
Lelang Commandery at last
vanished from the Korean Peninsula.
The following year, 314, Goguryeo also attacked Daifang Commandery to the south.
chase off the frogs?
Let them sing.
For a long time, the king listened to the frogs.
In the 2nd month of spring, 331, King Micheon passed away.
The people buried the king on the plain of Micheon (Micheon-won) and called him “King Micheon.”
Back in 296, Murong Hui of the Xianbei in the west had invaded and tried to dig up the tomb of the king’s grandfather, King Seocheon.
But music was heard from inside the tomb, it is said, and they took fright and withdrew.
Eleven years after the king’s death, the great army of Former Yan, founded by Murong Hui’s son Murong Huang, would invade Goguryeo.
In the winter of 342,
King Micheon’s tomb would be dug up.
