Aoji Isn't So Bad
Aoji isn't so bad.
I'd just returned from Vietnam, bringing the prisoners back with me. And to improve their treatment while keeping them working hard, I dangled a single rope of hope down into the pits.
"So someone's finally bought the family exemption? For the first time ever?"
"Yes. It's rather remarkable, actually. They discovered a copper vein and scraped together every last coin like misers."
Whoa. That's genuinely impressive.
Miners apparently earned sixty to a hundred won a month — I'd set the exemption price so you'd have to save sixty won a month for thirty years to reach it. 21,600 won per person. And yet a whole family of six had bought their way out all at once.
"I should meet them, shouldn't I?"
"Shall I arrange it?"
"Hmm? Kim Il-sung? At Aoji?"
What kind of name is that? Of all people, the first to ever escape Aoji had to be a Kim Il-sung?
The dates don't line up, so it couldn't be that Kim Il-sung, but the coincidence left a strange taste in my mouth.
"Yes, bring him in. It's not far, so we'll be seeing him soon enough."
How uncanny….
Kim Il-sung had lived an honestly diligent life. He'd found a vein, gathered workers around it, and collected a finder's fee as the man who discovered it. Then he went hunting for another vein, and the money piled up in no time.
"So we really are the first?"
"Yes, Father."
"You've suffered long enough."
"But where are we supposed to go now?"
His son Jong-il had to leave this place, and the prospect filled him with a vague dread.
"They say life outside is even better than here. Don't you want to go see it?"
"I've lived my whole life here. It's hard to just throw it away and walk off."
Kim Il-sung harbored the same worry. He'd spent his entire life digging at the earth — what was he supposed to do once he left? He'd only end up digging somewhere else anyway, so wouldn't it be better to simply stay put?
"Then let's stay a while longer for now. Someone high up is asking for me, so I'll go and see what they want."
"Someone high up?"
"Mm. The ruler of this country. They say she's our master."
"There's someone like that?"
Isolated as Aoji was, news from the outside rarely reached them. What little news there was came from newcomers who'd been convicted and sent down recently. With no temple around, most knew of the Haneul faith only in the vaguest sense.
"I'll go and ask whether we can stay here for good — and whether we might make this a better place to live. Wait for me."
"Father! Thank you!"
"Don't mention it. I was thinking the same thing."
Kim Il-sung felt a flicker of pride in his eldest son, Kim Jong-il. The boy had lived like a penny-pinching miser, hoarding every coin toward their freedom. Kim Il-sung had a wife too, but it was his firstborn, who had endured without a single word of complaint, for whom he was especially grateful.
"From now on, let's live happily."
"Yes. I hope we can make this place a happy one."
"We will."
Of course, this was a place where convicts were gathered — but most of them were foreigners, or people like his family who had lived here since their ancestors' days. And if life grew a little easier, wouldn't that, in its own small way, serve the country better? He began turning the thought over in his mind.
Setting out of the city early the next morning, he felt a twinge of nerves. It was the first time in his life he'd ever stepped beyond its walls.
So this is a train… first one I've ever ridden.
「Chug-chug, chugga-chugga!」
The train barreled down the tracks with tremendous force.
It's so fast!
If something this powerful existed to haul heavy loads, mining life could improve enormously.
Ore output would jump by leaps and bounds. You could link up the ore carts and haul them all out in one go!
And as the train raced past the great cities, he could do nothing but stare in astonishment.
So many people — all living together like this!
Granted, their clothes looked somewhat finer, but inside and out, the cities didn't seem so terribly different from home after all.
Ah… so we weren't abandoned. We were merely quarantined….
Haneul-nim might talk about keeping them from ever seeing the light of day, but in practice she was never that cruel. They simply couldn't wander freely, and average incomes were low. Life in Aoji wasn't bad at all.
Indeed, some of those brought in as captives from foreign lands actually thought life here was better than back home.
Right. I'll go and speak my mind. If it doesn't work out, so be it.
Since the Aoji district lay near Ryeonhwa, Haneul was able to meet him the very next day.
"Hello there."
"Y-you're Haneul-nim?"
"Huh? So you never even lay eyes on me down in Aoji?"
"It is my first time meeting you, Your Divinity."
Poor souls, really. Shut out of everything.
"I hear you've lived diligently? A whole family freed in ten years?"
"I was lucky. We struck vein after vein, one after another."
Luck? That's actually a pretty big deal, you know.
Why else would they say fortune is seven parts of success and effort only three?
"So what will you do now?"
"I intend to return to the mines."
"Doesn't that bore you?"
"Too many people are dying in the mines, buried in ignorance."
Then he spoke of a man named Doban-an who had frozen to death, and my heart ached for him.
"Hmm… I'll help you."
"Really?!"
"Yes. They may be convicts, but no one should have to freeze to death like that. How about you take charge of them — take responsibility for Aoji's people yourself?"
We'll supply clothing and other basic necessities, and I'll have the prices of food and such adjusted a bit higher.
"Am I worthy of such a task?"
"Worthy? What does worthy even mean! The job goes to whoever seems like they'll do it well."
"Thank you. Sob…."
How often does someone volunteer to walk into a mining village of their own free will? When one shows up, you grab him before he changes his mind.
"Is there anything special you need?"
"Could I perhaps get small trains for the mines? Transporting the ore is quite difficult."
The difference between having them and not was substantial. But would they be properly maintained? I'd heard the newer models had been much improved and rarely broke down, but still…
"Hmm. It's not difficult, but there'll be usage fees, so you'll have to dig even harder to make it worth it. Still interested?"
"Then how about I survey the sites myself and apply only where it seems feasible?"
Oh? Smart. That's cost-effectiveness for you.
"Good — you'll have autonomy. But since you'd be managing things, overseers will be attached to watch you."
"Of course. That's only natural."
One misstep and his own children could end up back in the mines. Doesn't that worry him at all?
"You know they'll be watching from places you can't see. You'll live with that anxiety every day."
"Well — wouldn't it be simplest to just not do anything wrong in the first place?"
Hm? He's going to do well.
"Good. Don't lose that spirit. Go make Aoji a decent place to live. It won't match the outside, but I'd like it to at least be better than other countries."
"I will keep those words close to my heart."
Hm. Living up to his name, he doesn't seem like he'll become a tyrant.
"Looking forward to working with you."
Daehan's efforts to gather people carried on without pause. We'd collected the Jews wholesale, rescued those condemned as witches, and drawn in other intellectuals by founding a university in Mudo.
"Hm? Refugees?"
"Yes. The Byzantine Empire has collapsed entirely, and they're begging to be taken in."
"No. Tell them to go to Mudo."
Where do these people think they're sticking their feet in?
"There are quite a lot of high-ranking nobles and scholars among them?"
"All the more reason to refuse."
Unlike the Jews, those people were the type who'd genuinely start carving out factions and partitioning territory from the inside.
"Talk to Qajar and expand Mudo instead. They're clever, I'll give them that — but let's skim the cream off the top."
"Understood."
I don't know if that day will ever come, but if labor ever runs short, we can take the rest in as third-class citizens.
Study hard at the university and cough up that research, you slaves!
Daehan possessed countless technologies, ceramics among them — but with the glass industry booming at such a blistering pace, pottery had long been neglected. Then, as various indigenous peoples joined the Eastern Continent, these techniques spread to a land with no glassworkers of its own, and soon they were producing breathtakingly beautiful ceramics patterned with their own distinctive motifs and dyes.
"Wait — ceramics are selling that well?"
"Yes, enormously. They've even overtaken silk."
What is even happening? Ceramics now make up forty percent of total revenue.
"Hmm. Then tell the Eastern Continent this: rather than churning out more, have them select only the most beautiful, highest-quality pieces and send those. We'll use the rest ourselves."
"I'm sorry — not the other way around?"
Haha. My friend, do you even know what a luxury brand is?
"This isn't technology that's ours alone, is it?"
China, Japan, the nations of Southeast Asia — they all had the craft, after all.
"True."
"So with comparable quality, you're forced into a price war, aren't you? Is there really any need for us to jump into that brutal race? Think it through, friend."
"Ah! While other countries compete over mid- and low-grade goods, we hone our craft further and sell only the very finest at premium prices — is that what you mean?"
「Clap! Clap! Clap!」
Excellent. The kids are growing up and learning to think for themselves now.
And the more cheap goods flooded the market, the more our pieces stood out like gems in a mudflat.
"So circulate the leftovers domestically for people to use, and let only the finest pieces be distributed as luxury goods."
The real perk of ruling a vast country was that no matter what you did, the money kept rolling in.
Meanwhile, our push into Central America was slower than expected. Turns out there were an enormous number of small towns and villages hiding all over the place.
"Is the Ara region going to take a while?"
"Yes, progress is terribly slow."
Every settlement we came across meant stopping to persuade and negotiate, and that ate up time.
In other words, the more towns and villages there were, the slower the expansion. It was the price of choosing roads over conquest — the limit of the path we'd picked for ourselves.
"I'd love to reach Panama, but something tells me that's a long shot…"
"Panama?"
"Yeah. You'll find a place like that as you head south."
Well, even if Panama stays out of reach, we do have one more trick left. Something only we can do — no, something only I can do. If it works, it beats everything else!
"How's the port-building work going, starting from Ara?"
"Well. Daehan Company staff have crossed over, and the locals quite enjoy working on ships, so we're not short of volunteers."
For now, the goal was claiming the coastline of the Eastern Continent. Pushing inland with rail lines and forts was one approach, but we needed to take to the sea as well and build ports on islands and such.
"Tell them not to fight the islanders. Even if they won't join us, secure the port, trade goods, and build goodwill."
There were plenty of small islands, but also truly massive landmasses like Cuba.
"Some are quietly suggesting we just roll over everything and conquer it all. I take it you're against that?"
"Do you think we're so starved for land that we'd need to?"
If we conquer a place, pour our technology into developing it as our own territory, and then twenty generations later they scream for independence — no thanks. I refuse to watch that.
"Unless it's land so tempting it demands conquest, I'd rather just take in vassals and live comfortably."
Mark my words — five hundred years from now, the ones who didn't join us will be kicking themselves.
"Sometimes you're utterly merciless, and other times you're a complete pacifist."
"Isn't that just because my own interests come first?"
Though honestly, taking human lives doesn't trouble my conscience in the slightest.
I wondered for a while if that made me a psychopath — but then again, I do want to help the poor and downtrodden too.
"I don't know. I don't really understand myself. I'm one way one moment and another way the next, completely at my own whim."
"You do act like a crazy woman sometimes, Your Divinity."
"What did you just say!?"
And this is supposed to be my inner circle…
"I'll let it slide. Just this once…"
"Eek! Haneul-nim? Your eyes are going red! You're scaring me!"
This punk — nearly forty years old and still this flighty….
Expansion along the east coast was proceeding smoothly, at least. We'd already reached the eastern seaboard, and besides Ara, two more major port cities had sprung up. One of them was Miami — I knew that one well. Hard to forget a place that famous. The other was somewhere in the middle of the continent, and for the life of me I couldn't figure it out….