The Six Chickens (Part 2)
The chief steward had once served in the palace, working with iron. That was why, unlike the other stewards, his body was extraordinarily sturdy.
After paying his respects, he laid out everything that had happened during his absence.
“Your Majesty, thanks to the prospectors, our ironworks have discovered the black lumps of coal and iron ore you mentioned in the northern part of Anju. We are already clearing the site there. And one of the prospectors mentioned a place called Unsan where gold might be found, and we are investigating it as well.”
“Good work. You’ve done well.”
“This subject is deeply honored, Your Majesty.”
Yi Yeon had summoned every renowned prospector from across the kingdom to search for the coal and iron ore needed to build a steel mill at the heart of all industry.
But even they admitted they did not know of any place near Hanyang where coal and iron ore existed simultaneously.
“Damn it! I was planning to build the steel mill near here, but…”
That way, whenever he had spare time, he could go check the situation and fix any problems on the spot.
After thinking it over, Yi Yeon decided to locate the steel mill in Anju, which lay north of Pyongyang.
“No choice. There are no good roads, and no suitable transport yet. The Cheongcheon River is our only option.”
Yi Yeon decided to trust the famous Pyongan prospector who had spoken with such certainty.
“Your Majesty, this subject swears on my life that this place is rich in iron and coal.”
The site was also blessed with the Cheongcheon River right beside it, making it easy to ship finished iron to Hanyang by boat.
He never imagined this decision would become his greatest stroke of luck.
He had no idea that it would quickly produce vast quantities of iron and enormous amounts of gold, silver, copper, zinc, and lead.
The Anju Coalfield north of Anju City was layered with anthracite two to five meters thick, buried beneath more than a hundred million tons. High-quality non-caking coal was also abundant.
Furthermore, climbing upstream on the east bank of the Cheongcheon River, they found the rich siderite iron ore mine at Gaecheon and easy-to-find rhodochrosite.
Further north lay the Unsan Gold Mine, the largest in the peninsula, where not only gold but every variety of metal lay scattered across the ground.
And every single mine was connected to the Cheongcheon River, making transport to Anju after excavation simple.
Yi Yeon, trusting the self-proclaimed best prospector in Joseon, placed a bet and won the jackpot of a lifetime.
“You will immediately gather the ironworkers along with your subordinates and bring their entire families to Anju.”
“Yes, Your Majesty.”
“Once the site is cleared, build a village around it and construct the blast furnaces according to the blueprints I have given you.”
“Yes, Your Majesty.”
In the early days of Joseon, artisans were held in high esteem and could rise to high office if they possessed skill.
But by the middle period, artisans had fallen into contempt, and fewer and fewer people wanted to become artisans.
Yi Yeon resolved to change that starting now.
Even among ironworkers, each followed his own methods.
So Yi Yeon planned to gather them all in Anju and work together.
“Gather them. Only then can progress begin.”
In his previous life, Yi Yeon had attended countless academic conferences. He knew that listening to everyone’s opinions and analyzing them together was the best way to develop and sustain technology.
“Only then can the knowledge last.”
In the current situation, if an artisan died, his knowledge died with him.
Therefore, once stability returned, he planned to teach everyone Hangul.
“Only those who can read can leave records.”
p>Now Joseon used Chinese characters as its standard, which scholars studied to understand the past.
But the other name for the Hunminjeongeum—Yeonmun—was known even to common women.
Yet Yeonmun used far more characters than Hangul and was written without spaces, making it difficult to learn, write, and read.
“To turn the Hunminjeongeum created by King Sejong into the world’s standard script, I must spread Hangul.”
Of course, Hangul includes the soft consonant ㅋ (Aspirated K), old ㅇ(ng), and the other symbols that would make English pronunciation easy.
Yi Yeon did not worry about that.
“I can do without it. I’m going to make Joseon the standard language.”
He also knew that Hangul had spread precisely because it was written with spaces.
So he was creating textbooks that included proper spacing.
Of course, without paper and pencils, it would be useless.
“Report on the progress of the ceramic master.”
“Yes, Your Majesty.”
The ceramic master bowed with a loud thud and spoke at once.
“As Your Majesty commanded, we are building a factory for paper production in Galsan-ri, Geompo. And along with prospectors, we have sent a team to the Hwanghae region to search for graphite, but we have not yet found it.”
“Hmph…”
“This subject is deeply honored, Your Majesty.”
“It is fine. Is there coal near Geompo?”
“Yes, Your Majesty. Thanks to the prospectors, we found it without difficulty.”
Yi Yeon sent the most skilled prospectors among those gathered to the ironworks and assigned the rest evenly to the other groups.
“They would cause nothing but trouble. They would definitely engage in clandestine mining.”
There were still people secretly digging up valuable minerals.
So Yi Yeon decided to employ every prospector without exception and prevent any problems from arising.
“Better to nip it in the bud.”
In truth, Yi Yeon had only planned to have the ceramic master make porcelain and bowls.
“That alone could make a fortune. It could also improve the common people’s lives.”
He had even assigned pencil production to the potters.
Since pencil leads required mixing graphite powder with clay, he assumed the same craftsmen would succeed.
“Well done. But since you have not yet found graphite, I will give you two more tasks.”
“If Your Majesty commands it, this subject will do his utmost.”
The ceramic master bowed even more deeply than the others because he still had one task unfinished.
“From now on we will mass-produce bowls. But I cannot assign this to the potters we have already gathered. It would be like using an axe to catch chickens. So I have been thinking. How can we make sturdy, attractive bowls in large quantities even without being a potter?”
The ceramic master swallowed hard.
Whenever the king spoke like this, revolutionary methods emerged.
“Do you know that if you mix bone ash from cow bones with feldspar and fire the mixture, the bowls will be light yet extremely durable and resistant to breaking?”
“This subject is deeply honored, Your Majesty. This subject does not know.”
“So the bone china technique has not yet reached Joseon.”
Yi Yeon had made bone china with Stephen, but he did not know it originated in eighteenth-century Britain.
“Good. Anyway, I am telling you my guess. However, cow bones are hard to come by, so instead use chicken bones and try making the bowls in the same way.”
“Yes, Your Majesty.”
“You will need to experiment with a variety of compositions.”
“Yes, Your Majesty.”
“And keep the exact proportions strictly secret.”
“This subject will remember every word, Your Majesty.”
The ceramic master slammed his forehead onto the cushion with renewed vigor.
“Following the king’s instructions, I will be able to create bowls that are light yet unbreakable like bone.”
“Everything Your Majesty has said has already come to pass.”
Of course, he would need to endlessly adjust the exact mixtures and fire them repeatedly, but that was ordinary work and required no thought.
“There is one more task, but it is still part of this. Only the shape differs.”
Yi Yeon decided to fire tiles for use in salt pans in the same bone china method.
That way he could obtain clean sea salt.
“I haven’t forgotten that it takes more than a year to stack salt and let the brine drain before it loses its bitterness.”
He knew sea water turned into salt when evaporated.
But such salt had a strong bitter taste, so no one had ever built salt pans.
Not until the late Korean Empire, when Japan introduced the method used in Taiwan to produce insufficient salt.
Yi Yeon explained the salt-pan method in detail.
The steward leaders all nodded in admiration.
“Tile… A new term.”
“So that was why it tasted bitter.”
“Salt prices will crash from now on.”
“The king knows everything.”
“To serve such a king is truly good fortune.”
The stewards exchanged meaningful glances, and Yi Yeon smiled and called the next steward.
“Next… tell me about the craftsman master.”
“Yes, Your Majesty.”
The craftsman master rose on his knees and presented the bundle he had brought.
He spread out the contents neatly, then stepped back and spoke.
“As Your Majesty commanded, I have made several tools. How do they look?”
“They look fine. But since function is important, explain them.”
“The one on the far left is a thermometer. The ones used in the incubator were all different sizes, so I made new ones of consistent thickness and length.”
Yi Yeon had attached copper and iron rods to create metal thermometers, just as he had done with Stephen.
The principle used the different expansion rates of metals at different temperatures.
But because the sizes were not standardized, he had to feel the water temperature by hand and adjust by feel.
The iron that touched water also rusted easily, so he had to keep removing and cleaning it.
He therefore taught the craftsman master the hot-dipped galvanization method, and the results were clean and excellent.
“This is the best way to galvanize iron quickly in large quantities.”
The finished pieces were also uniform in size, with diagonal lines and Arabic numerals indicating temperature, so one could read the temperature at a glance according to the angle.
“Excellent. Truly well made.”
“This subject is deeply honored, Your Majesty. However, we cannot yet measure the exact freezing point of water, so I cannot guarantee precision.”
Yi Yeon told him the freezing point of water was 0 degrees, the boiling point 100 degrees, human body temperature 36.5 degrees, and chick embryo incubation temperature 38 degrees.
“Even this is outstanding. Well done.”
“This subject is deeply honored, Your Majesty.”
Yi Yeon set the metal thermometer aside and picked up the iron ruler.
“Hmm… impressive.”
Just like the thermometer, the one-meter ruler with diagonal lines and numbers, after galvanization, looked incredibly precise.
Yi Yeon had them make the ruler he currently used in Joseon—the one jah or cheok—thirty point three centimeters so that one hundred would equal one meter.
He was planning to introduce the metric system, which was easy to write and convert.
Unexpectedly, it had been made well.
“This could even be called craftsmanship.”
To make the galvanization solution, sulfuric acid was required, and handling sulfuric acid was dangerous.
He had therefore taught the hot-dipped method, and the result was as smooth as bronze.
“The skill here is truly exceptional.”
Furthermore, the one-meter ruler looked almost identical to the one he had seen in his previous life.
Yi Yeon placed the ruler down and picked up the small square zinc-coated iron piece engraved with “1000.”
The craftsman master swallowed hard.
When the king picked up the next item without a word, he had feared it had been made wrong and tensed up.
“Did you measure this with the iron ruler?”
“Yes, Your Majesty. It was made exactly the same way—measuring the internal length, width, and height of ten and comparing it with water.”
Yi Yeon had also decided to use the metric system for weight.
“I must do it properly.”
He had them make a one-kilogram hammer using water, and it looked incredibly precise.
“Truly well done.”
“This subject is deeply honored, Your Majesty.”
Only then did the craftsman master exhale slowly.
His shoulders sagged as the tension left him.
“From now on, this hammer will serve as the standard for measuring weight. Therefore you will make one thousand copies of this hammer, and also make hundreds, tens, and ones, labeling them as grams, and produce them in large quantities.”
“Yes, Your Majesty.”
“You will also take this hammer as one, label it kilogram, and make multiples of five and ten so that they too can be mass-produced.”
“Yes, Your Majesty.”
“You will also make the iron ruler from bamboo in large quantities and distribute them together with the hammers to every government office.”
“Yes, Your Majesty.”
Yi Yeon had chosen to keep the Western words for simplicity, but he had no intention of writing them in the American pronunciation.
“Even the Chinese characters that came over are foreign words. I won’t make my tongue twist on American English.”
He explained the pronunciation in the easiest way possible.
As a result, the metric terms spread rapidly and the use of Hangul increased sharply because the characters could not be replaced.