Engines of Revolution
"My apologies, but the Supreme Leader was quite eager to come in person. Unfortunately, he mentioned this recent business makes it rather difficult."
"I understand. Who wouldn't feel the same?"
Both sides were on awkward terms because of Britain. The Shahanshah of Persia and Korea's representative, Kim Ok-gyun, sat facing each other.
The Supreme Leader's tractor. In Kim Ok-gyun's eyes, the Supreme Leader had spent his whole life doing all sorts of bizarre things just to run that tractor once. Back in the impoverished days, he'd brewed every grain of rice alcohol into fuel to start the engine, clear-cut every pine tree to extract oil. The opposition and petitions that followed were endless.
Maybe that's why. Having stood by the Supreme Leader's side, crushing all that opposition to focus on development, Ok-gyun knew just how extraordinary this tractor was—equal to those legendary tales. He couldn't quite fathom why the Supreme Leader insisted on spreading it across the world now.
But the man he served was determined to do just that. Was it because it was an expensive farm machine? Hardly. Kim Ok-gyun knew better. It wasn't cheap, but the price tag was ridiculously low compared to its value.
Once, drunk on rice wine, Ok-gyun had asked the equally hammered Supreme Leader about it. Why sell it so cheap? To outsiders, it was just a high-performance farm machine—weren't there plenty already? Why not keep the value for ourselves? The Supreme Leader's reply had been, "The whole world is Chun-sik."
Back then, Ok-gyun didn't grasp what "Chun-sik" meant. The Supreme Leader, deep in his cups, hadn't elaborated. But piecing together the offhand remarks the Supreme Leader made now and then, he'd come to understand. Chun-sik was a kind of slave. The Supreme Leader saw all the people in this world as slaves, and believed that above all else, tractors were needed to free them.
And he was right. In Korea, where tractors had been deployed on a massive scale ahead of any other nation, there were no such slaves anymore—no people working eight hours a day just to scrape by, unable to afford a home their whole lives, failing to provide for wife and children.
Kim Ok-gyun was about to explain, point by point, how the tractor was a panacea just as the Supreme Leader described. But he paused. Wouldn't a hundred photos speak louder than a hundred words?
What good was lecturing this man about eradicating rural backwardness and old habits, making labor exploitation obsolete? Would he even get it?
Instead, Kim Ok-gyun simply handed over the photos showing exactly how and where the tractors were used. The Shah pored over them intently, one by one, examining every detail before finally signing the contract Ok-gyun had placed neatly beside them.
Those tractors in the photos? They were engines. And the agricultural role Ok-gyun had mentioned beforehand was just a tiny fraction—especially since heavy modifications were fair game.
In the images, tractors drained swamps to reclaim land, plowed fields, mined open-pit quarries, processed felled timber on-site, powered temporary generators to light surroundings, blasted heat as boilers in freezing cold, ferried people like buses, and even drove massive belts in tent workshops where lines of workers churned out products at breakneck speed.
The Shahanshah wanted one. Badly. He didn't have much wealth, but he'd sell everything for it—his inner voice whispered as much. Especially since it was pay-later.
Kim Ok-gyun took the signed contract. Tractors now, oil later. A straight swap.
'Well, anyone with a brain couldn't resist buying one.' Ok-gyun thought on the way home.
Tractor, tractor—that thing was revolutionary, just as its designer intended. Even illiterate village idiots like Dol-soe or Pu-bao would look at that spinning belt in the warehouse and think, I could do something too.
In Ok-gyun's view, once everyone had their own workstation and pursued their own progress, uniting for national development—how could such a country not advance? That was precisely why the Supreme Leader poured everything into producing and distributing these tractors.
If rural folk dismissed it as "just a farm machine," boxed it up, and let it gather dust, inertia would turn them into Americans with tractors but using them only to shovel manure, as the Supreme Leader warned.
No matter the cost, villages had to wring every drop of potential from them. Only then would it fulfill the Supreme Leader's vision. They had to grit their teeth and spread them far and wide, proving their worth in every application.
Selling worldwide? Now Ok-gyun got it. That's how the case studies would pile up, expanding uses exponentially. The Supreme Leader wanted every rural outpost to have a pet tractor. Ideally, every household.
"I wonder if the Supreme Leader is doing alright."
Ok-gyun pulled out the newspaper detailing today's Hong Kong crisis. How many crises was this now? The Supreme Leader always bore the heaviest burdens.
'Persia now? No way in hell!'
Britain's portly king had blocked the Korean Supreme Leader's visit to Persia. When Britain proposed it, he'd refused; now that he wanted to go, they said no? Dragging Britain along instead of following? Fat chance.
They accepted the troop deployment but barred the visit—by stirring up Hong Kong.
It was their proposal then, but circumstances had changed.
From China's view, Britain stuffing their puppets onto ships was unacceptable. From Britain's, infringing on the right to run for office—crucial as voting rights—was a challenge to Hong Kong's autonomy.
China offered compromise: let our candidates run too. But Britain... well. Hong Kong was up for grabs with just a wink of tolerance anyway. That wasn't the point.
They just wanted to corner the Supreme Leader, who couldn't ignore Hong Kong and wouldn't side with China here. If you trap me, I'll trap you. You sorted Japan; I'll sort Korea. I control the Supreme Leader's emotions!
"Enough with the jokes, Your Majesty."
"It's not entirely wrong, Prime Minister."
"As I said, that's not the issue now."
The cabinet's fears weren't some Korea dragging Britain around. If that was the goal, they'd happily be dragged. Because...
"If this 'axis of resistance' becomes real, Korea's price tag multiplies several times over."
"You really think Persia, the Ottomans, and Germany can join hands?"
"Real recovery, sovereignty recovery. Above all, the Ottomans crave the Black Sea and Ukraine; Persia, Baku and Azerbaijan. To fend off Russian invasion again."
"Like we allied with France and Russia?"
"At least one thing's certain. If Germany, Austria, Ottomans, Persia form an axis, Germany's reach hits our India."
"We can blockade the seas all we want, but if India's attacked, we're done."
"Not to mention..."
"Consider that a joke."
"Even so, that's naively optimistic. The Kaiser urged Korea's Kaiser to join the anti-British front."
"That source isn't solid."
"Screaming anti-Anglo rhetoric publicly, allying behind closed doors. Impossible? Explain their hysterical anti-Anglo fits otherwise—Ottomans, Persia, Korea?"
"More likely a ploy to oust the Supreme Leader."
"Possible, sure. I agree on ramping up Persia troops. But assassinating the Supreme Leader? That's a disastrously bad plan."
Let Korea off the leash? Absolutely not.
"But if Korea betrays us for Russia as we fear, a grand anti-Russia encirclement beyond our anti-Germany net is nearly complete."
"Korea's set up autonomies in potential enemy lands, later annexing as districts. Russia's Republic is exhibit A."
"We must block Persia falling into Korea's grasp at all costs."
"Agreed on Persia as our protectorate. But assassinating the Supreme Leader goes too far."
The king understood the cabinet's dread. That Korean Supreme Leader wore a perpetually vacant expression, but sometimes his thoughts were utterly inscrutable.
"That canal sabotage might've been his doing too. If it happens again, only Ottomans and Korea profit."
The king silenced the cabinet's paranoia. What nonsense about an ally? Korea charging jungles with oxen for Imphal? Rubber plantations at risk? Even as king, where to rebut first?
Or Korea invading India over Tibetan plateau? Or seeding mints in India for decades to spark armed revolt? Every Asian hiccup: "Supreme Leader's scheme?"
But considering his rogue Ottoman jaunt, their paranoia isn't entirely baseless. Britain, unable to imagine he went just to see Rome, naturally suspected Ottoman-Korea ties—or Ottoman-backing Germany and Korea.
It was all Korea's karmic debt anyway.
'Should've just given them Hong Kong.' Then he could've viewed Korea magnanimously, shut up these noisemakers.
The portly king pondered his smoking buddy's thoughts, eyeing the cabinet.