Everyone's Working So Hard~ (2)
"I hear the steam engine's finally ready for practical use at the Blacksmith Workshop. Are you putting it to good use?"
"Yes. The smiths are delighted—they can now do things that used to be impossible."
Were they really putting it to good use, though?
"So how exactly are they using it?"
"They draw molten iron from the blast furnace first, then apparently feed it back into the forge afterward. Honestly, I don't know the details myself."
Kang Chul really ought to be the one answering this...
"They're planning a trial run soon, so just wait a little."
"If the iron comes out good enough for weapons, start making what I mentioned before."
It would be so much easier once chemistry caught up, but until then they'd have to muscle through it, getting knocked about here and there. What else could you do?
"You mean the rail line, don't you?"
"That's right. Build the rails and try pulling a cart along them—see how smoothly it rolls."
"Sounds like a good idea, but wouldn't the iron be wasted?"
Once they got going, the iron would come pouring out faster than anyone expected.
"A day is coming when iron will be made in quantities that big!"
"Iron, that common? Aigoo~ Next you'll be telling me people will build houses out of it."
"Hwa-ha-ha!"
Build houses out of steel frames? That's exactly what would happen!
"In any case, pour a lot of investment into three things: iron, gunpowder, and glass."
"Understood. Money flows out of the Temple and back into it, so there's no way we'll run short."
Huh. Isn't this what they'd call a state-owned enterprise?
"You remember the nomads who used to trade on the grasslands?"
"The lands of the Mongols and the Xiongnu, you mean?"
"They're crying and begging us to spare them. What should we do?"
"What did we ever do to them?"
Nothing, that's what. Was it war or plunder? Honestly, our kids hadn't even bothered raiding that region—there was nothing there worth taking.
"They're asking to be taken in, swearing they'll behave."
"Puhaha. Do you know who the least trustworthy people in the world are?"
"Is there actually a category for that?"
Plenty. There were plenty.
"Right. First, the nomads."
"Nomads?"
"Yes. They're simply a people of free spirits—they can't stay settled in one place to save their lives. The ones who adapted best were the Mongols, and even they've been absorbed southward by now, haven't they?"
Of all the lands they could have reached, that region had been the best for farming, after all.
"Now only the true drifters are left, and if we keep handing things out until they build up strength, they won't stay obedient."
"Then shouldn't we just hunt them down?"
That's the one thing you couldn't do with nomads~ All those kingdoms and empires tormented by them for ages and never managed it.
"Hunt down what, exactly? Do they have castles like ours, or cities?"
"Huh?"
"They just wander from place to place. You could chase them down, sure, but how many lifetimes would it take to catch them all?"
And the terrifying thing was that not a single empire or nation had ever pulled it off.
"Should we make them line up in a row, then?"
"You'd need something the size of a nomadic autonomous region for that. You do realize their range stretches all the way to the Western lands, right?"
Push them out and they'd wander clear past the Black Sea, then come trotting right back. Those people.
"It's really that vast?"
"The nomads are split into many groups—they fight among themselves, but they also band together remarkably well."
If they ever pulled off some grand unification and built a nation greater than Genghis Khan's, things would get a real headache.
"If there are that many, why don't they found a country?"
"There are plenty of them!"
"Plenty?"
"We were no different from nomads ourselves once! Don't you forget it!"
Goodness—apparently she couldn't even imagine the lives of her primitive friends from the early days, living off a single day's hunt for a single day's meal?
"Everyone who could settle has settled. What's left are the hardcore nomads, the ones who refuse to die out quietly."
"Ah~"
Since when had this turned into a lecture on ethnography and history?
"So what do we do?"
"We shouldn't back them into too much of a corner, I suppose?"
The reason they were so desperate was that, unable to sit still and produce goods themselves, plunder was the only way they knew to get what they needed.
North and east were walled off by us, making that route difficult, and China was a perpetual mess with nothing worth taking, so they seemed to be struggling.
That Mongolian desert would be needed eventually, but that was still a long way off.
Besides, it was useless land anyway—later on, she could just pay whatever nation sprang up there to buy it.
"Offer them a service contract."
"What's that?"
"For now, we supply them with a certain amount of food and supplies. In exchange, when we order an attack, they attack on our behalf."
It was just an excuse, really. At least while we were supplying them, we wouldn't be the ones attacking, right? And it would double as a check on the nomads drifting toward Europe.
She had already stationed plenty of soldiers in Seonnam, but if a real war broke out there, they'd be sorely stretched.
"And there are more untrustworthy wretches where that came from."
"There are more?"
"Hmm..."
In sheer numbers, surely astronomical.
"The things living in that Qin state."
"They look fairly similar to us, don't they, over there too?"
"A people who betray each other as casually as they eat rice, fighting amongst themselves even now—would you really trust them?"
Those Chinese folk were truly treacherous to the core. It made her wonder if the land itself was cursed. Curious.
"No need to be on bad terms with them, but no need to be friendly either, I suppose."
"Exactly!"
Sound reasoning, for once.
"And one more. The island folk."
"The islands?"
Not all islands, of course—but those Wa devils over there and the English were probably birds of a feather.
"What about our Dongdo or Daedo..."
"Hmm, how do I put this—every island is different, but the ones near us, the Wa country lot, are no good."
"When did you ever go see them?"
Oh? She'd ridden a slave ship there thousands of years ago. Their national character was probably similar this time around too.
"Never mind that. The point is, they're the emperors of betrayal. Smiling at you one moment, driving a knife into your ship the next."
"Gasp!"
"There are other countries over there too, but that one doesn't exist yet, so I'll tell you later."
"So three places to watch out for, then?"
More like three categories, wouldn't you say?
"The nomads probably won't stay at just three? There are nomadic peoples in the West too, so there's plenty to be wary of."
"Ah! Is that why you've been hesitant about Seonnam?"
Yes—that region sits right next to Europe, practically a powder keg.
"Yes, I'd planned to deal with it later, but since you've already stirred things up, we'll just have to manage it somehow."
She'd meant to cross over during the Daedo era, but maybe this had worked out for the better.
"I'm sorry."
"Don't be. It might be a good thing. Later on, far more people would truly get hurt."
Anyway, Seonju was the problem! If war broke out, even soldiers rushing from the capital would need a good two or three months to arrive...
"Tell Moda to hurry up and improve that molten iron process. The rails have to be laid in advance."
"It must be very important, then..."
"It is. If soldiers have to march from here to Seonju on foot, it's brutal, isn't it? Wouldn't it be nice to ride there in a cart instead?"
"I'm sorry, what?"
Was she thinking about it differently?
"What do you take the kids for? Carrying the supplies and having the men run there would honestly be faster."
"How many months do you suppose someone could run dozens of li every single day?"
"Hmm... that would be a bit rough."
A bit rough? These friends of hers were something else—they were saying it could actually be done.
"Besides, horses tire far less than men, so the distance covered in a day will stretch enormously."
"So we'd use horses for now, and switch to those mechanical trains you mentioned later?"
"That's right."
They'd break down plenty, but what could you do. Still better than horses, surely?
"And the rails must always be laid in pairs."
"Won't that use up an awful lot of iron?"
"Look at Moda's population. Once they figure out the method, the iron will come pouring out in floods."
And it was the same with roads—build them wide from the start, and you'd never regret it later.
"People certainly have their work cut out for them."
"You know that steam engine I mentioned? Try it everywhere, improve it wherever possible. People's leisure time will actually increase, you'll see."
"Yes, ma'am."
There were still limits, no doubt? No welding technology yet—everything was just beams bolted tightly together.
Maybe it was the population being large but the laboratories understaffed?
Everyone just wanted to do physical labor...
"How are the schools coming along?"
"Uh!..."
"..."
"The compulsory education standard is... perhaps a touch too high..."
My friend! Are you seriously proposing a policy of keeping the people ignorant!
"They say as long as people can write their names and do simple addition and subtraction, what's the point of learning mathematics and science..."
"Ugh..."
Voluntary anti-intellectualism. What to do? Forcing reluctant students to stay and study would be meaningless.
"There are also a lot of petitions asking for more physical education in the curriculum."
What?! They barely spent any time at school as it was! Four hours a day—physical education, language, math, science, exactly one hour each!
"No! Tell them to study as hard as they do when they attend the Temple!"
"That's a different matter entirely?"
Why did she have to get so serious about that?
She'd originally meant to include social studies and ethics instead of P.E., but since Temple attendance essentially covered those subjects, she'd left them out.
And why did everyone take social studies and ethics so seriously, anyway?
"Talk to them somehow! Make them work as hard at school as they do at the Temple!"
"Hmm... is there some way?"
Hmm...
"What if we hold exams, and the top scorers get summoned to the Temple so I can hand out prizes myself?"
"Ooh...?"
Why was her expression turning so... disturbing?
Hold on—wasn't this shaping up into something like an Olympics? She'd fallen into a deep slumber twice before, hadn't she?
Back then, they'd made medals for all the events she'd missed, and the descendants of descendants had come to collect them—it took years. Terrifying!
Before long, the effects showed.
"Waaah! Let me go out and play ball!"
"You can go out once you finish your math!"
"Nooo~!"
"I don't like it either, child."
Children throwing tantrums in the streets became a common sight—but so did the iron-willed mothers who stood watching until the crying child wore itself out.
"Our Dongho Association, which produced last year's top math scorer, is now recruiting new members!"
"Oh my?"
"Is that place for real?"
Academy-like institutions sprang up to teach,
"Keh-heh-heh. A black dragon slumbers in my right hand! I shall show you no mercy!"
"Gasp! He's come down with study-itis!"
"Honey! What do we do?!"
Middle-school second-year syndrome ran rampant, striking fear into countless parents, and—
"Thwack!"
"Gahk."
Hm... that one wasn't child abuse or corporal punishment. That was treatment.
An educational fever was sweeping through Daehan.
"What's so special about you writing your name on a gold nameplate that everyone's making such a fuss?"
"It's the glory of the family, of course!"
This was done once every two years: gold nameplates for first place, silver for second, and copper for third.
She engraved the letters with her telekinesis, but they came out crooked and wobbly—truly hideous handwriting...
Goodness, even if someone tried to imitate it, they couldn't.
Apparently there were prestigious families in this too—some households had already collected several and framed them.
"So have more children started studying?"
"Yes. Quite a lot more."
"That's a relief. And how many are heading to the laboratories?"
This was her worry—that many would work hard only through basic schooling and stop there. Still, they'd grown a bit sharper, so they'd be useful somewhere.
"I assumed everyone would move on to other work once the exams ended, but it seems a surprising number discovered they actually enjoy studying. The laboratories have gained a lot of staff."
"Glad to hear it. Well done, truly."
The results were excellent. As time passed and Moda too filled with people who had studied mathematics and science, technology would only accelerate.
"The Ministry of Education lot must be pleased—they finally have real work to do."
"Yes, until now they mostly just fetched and organized reference materials, so it's worked out well for them."
Come to think of it, maybe this was why technological progress had been so slow all along.
Four subjects only—but surely that was enough? Social studies and ethics were covered at the chapel, after all.
From what she could see, while there were children who skipped school, it was genuinely hard to find one who skipped chapel.
Lately she'd noticed they were selling small figurines made of gold and silver?
And they were selling like hotcakes? What were they called again?
She'd asked them to at least spare her face, so they'd made them with the nose and mouth veiled in silk—but looking at one up close, it had no eyes at all. Utterly unsettling.
She couldn't keep one in her room—it felt like a ghost would spring out of it.
Surely nobody kept those things around actually hoping for a haunting? What would they even want?