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The Fake Royal Inspector
“The real royal inspector is dead, and his servant now holds the medallion. To survive, he'll have to play the part.”
Autumn 1794, the 18th year of King Jeongjo's reign. On his way to take up his post as secret royal inspector for Gyeonggi Province, Yun Seogyeom is cut down on a dark mountain pass by unknown pursuers. His servant of ten years, Makdong, now faces execution as a runaway slave accused of murdering his master. So beside a mountain stream, Makdong ties his hair into a nobleman's topknot, puts on his master's white robe and dented gat, takes up the five-horse bronze medallion, and becomes a fake royal inspector just to stay alive.
Episode List (5 Episodes)
Guide to Characters & Key Relics (6)
A 25-year-old servant who has served Yun Seogyeom for ten years, recognizable by a short scar above his right eyebrow and a crooked left canine that shows when he smiles. Armed with his master's dying words and the Five-Horse Medallion, he poses as the royal inspector to survive.
A taciturn, upright scholar-official. Sensing that he has been followed ever since leaving Sungnyemun Gate in Hanyang, he hides his sealed orders and inspection code in the book chest on Makdong's A-frame carrier, then gives his life on a mountain pass at night to save Makdong.
A slippery household servant with tangled, shoulder-length hair, yellowed teeth, and a signature cackle: "I'm the Serpent, hee-hee-hee!" One look at Makdong's cracked heels and the A-frame calluses on his palms is all it takes for him to see through the disguise.
A silent figure in a bamboo hat with a badly torn right brim, trailing Yun Seogyeom and Makdong ever since Sungnyemun Gate in Hanyang. Whether he is an enemy or an unseen guardian remains unclear.
A bronze medallion embossed with five horses in relief. From it hangs a stub of indigo silk cord, half-severed by a blade during the bloody fight on the night pass, and the first horse glows faintly in moments of crisis.
Provincial clerks who fleece villagers with rigged, oversized grain measures and funnel the spoils to powerful patrons in Hanyang. They grovel before the medallion while quietly testing whether the inspector is the real thing.
The Fake Royal Inspector — Historical Notes on Late Joseon Secret Inspectors and the Breakdown of the Three Revenue Systems (Samjeong)
- The Inspector's Commission Kit (Bongseo, Samok, Mapae, Yucheok): Junior-ranking officials appointed as secret royal inspectors received from the Royal Secretariat a sealed letter naming the district to be inspected (bongseo), a code of inspection duties (samok), a bronze horse medallion (mapae), and a standardized brass ruler (yucheok).
- 봉서 개봉 원칙(남대문 밖 개봉): 봉서 겉면에는 '도성 문(숭례문 등) 밖에서 개봉할 것'이 명기되어, 어사 본인도 성문을 나서기 전까지는 자신의 암행 목적지(경기 풍곡현)를 알지 못했다.
- Grain-Tax Extortion and Rigged Measures: In late Joseon, local clerks collected grain taxes with oversized measures (doe and mal) that exceeded the legal standard, squeezing extra grain out of villagers, then swapped in standard measures whenever an inspector checked them against the royal brass ruler.