Pouring Water into a Bottomless Jar
There was a reason Spain had rushed to sign a treaty with Haneul and pay its indemnity so quickly.
Portugal was right next door, and Spain had watched a single Daehan ironclad nearly drive it into the abyss of ruin. More than that, they knew they had to claim the New World to the west before anyone else could lay hands on it.
"All ships, set sail!"
"We're going too!"
Day after day, ship after ship packed with Spain's countless explorers pushed westward across the sea.
And when the long voyage finally ended, they found themselves surrounded by islands.
"Land! Now south, onward!"
"Turn the ships, quick!"
At first, the explorers stopped at the islands without a second thought, hoping to resupply with food and water — until Daehan confiscated their ships beyond counting. The Spanish only seized the vessels and dumped the crews somewhere on the southern shores, so word eventually got around, and soon no one dared go anywhere near those islands.
"Gold and silver await us!"
"Let's go!"
And so the Spanish began carving out colonies all around the northern edge of the continent they called the New World.
The people of the New World at the time were mostly still swinging stone axes.
" primitives!"
"Enslave some of them and put the rest to work!"
Using weapons and food as bait, the Spaniards drew them to their side, then used these converts to capture the natives around them. The settlements demanded an enormous labor force, after all.
"Ah! Look — plants and fruits I've never seen before!"
"Well, don't get any ideas. We can't be hauling fruit around."
"We're here for gold!"
The colonists kept pushing their territory steadily southward.
And along the way, some of them ran into the survivors of the fallen Inca Empire.
The Spaniards managed, with great difficulty, to communicate with them.
"South. Gold. Plenty."
The native tried to warn them, too — about terrifying beings that dwelt there — but the Spaniards' eyes had already glazed over with gold-lust, and they could barely grasp the language, let alone a warning.
"There's gold, they say!"
"Gold in the south!"
"Whoa! Let's go!"
"Apparently there's some massive empire down there. We'd better gather more men!"
And so, with rumors of gold in the air, Spaniards began pouring across to the New World like a swarm of bees.
This was still the story of the New World's exploration in its early days, when romance was at its height.
Given all this, even if Spain had known something lurked to the north, they had no situation in which to spare it a thought.
* * *
"How can land be this vast?"
"Where in blazes is the gold?"
They were still picking up nothing but placer dust, and that wasn't nearly enough to satisfy anyone, so the colonists kept hunting for gold and driving ever southward.
"Ughhh…."
They suffered from strange fevers and unknown diseases, and they died—
"Aaaagh!"
"Help me!"
—bitten by venomous insects and serpents as they clawed their way toward a route south.
And then, at last, they met the Aymara people.
"So they're primitives too?"
"Hold on — isn't that an iron axe they're carrying?"
"What's going on?"
People wear whatever's comfortable, and the Aymara were no different. To the Spaniards, however, the short tops and short bottoms looked like nothing so much as underwear, and they drew their own confused conclusions.
"Shall we try talking to them?"
"Will they even understand us?"
The Spaniards approached a farmer working his field and attempted conversation.
And here something truly tragic happened. The Aymara spoke two languages: Daehan Language and the local native tongue.
These ignorant Spaniards knew neither.
"What on earth are they saying?"
"Hm… I feel like I've heard that somewhere before."
"Same here, but… no, I can't place it."
"What do we do?"
Europe knew of Daehan by now, and one or two of them did sense they'd heard the language somewhere before.
But with communication at a standstill, the Spaniards withdrew, deciding they would have to return with more men. A handful of them could accomplish nothing against a village so large.
And so they left.
* * *
"What in the world was that about?"
"Filthy, stinking wretches — I nearly gagged trying to hold it in."
Daehan's newspaper clearly stated that civilized people ought to bathe regularly. Even simply washing cut down on illness, it said.
And indeed, fewer of them did fall ill these days.
"Foreigners have appeared. We must gather the warriors."
"Go and tell them."
With their ties to Daehan, the Aymara were remarkably well informed about world affairs. They had learned Daehan Language in the first place because the writing system was so wonderfully convenient.
Their textbook? The newspaper, naturally. Reading Daehan's paper regularly, they'd picked up all sorts of stories.
They even knew of the relatively recent negotiations with Spain and the great naval battle off Venice.
"Didn't they say the Spanish would probably come?"
"They warned us to be careful — that they weren't good people."
So they recruited warriors, armed them, and began guarding the village.
Meanwhile, the Spaniards who had departed returned — armed, and with reinforcements.
"They really did come back."
"Huh? They brought weapons?"
"They must be mad…."
* * *
The Spaniards were tremendously excited.
On their way back, they'd noticed the village using metal farm tools — which suggested the villagers knew where to find metal. And gold. And when it came to slaves, the more the better.
Farming, mining, whatever the task — everywhere needed bodies.
"We found a village that works metal!"
"Really? Excellent!"
They might not have to haul iron tools and weapons all the way from the homeland. Every bit of that was expenditure, and the less they spent, the better.
"There weren't that many of them, though!"
"Even so! Let's round up men from the neighboring settlements too."
Whatever you shared with others, they'd share with you in return — so word began spreading from settlement to settlement.
In the end, some three hundred men gathered.
"Whew. Isn't that a bit too many?"
"You're the one who said there might be gold!"
"Oh, you know what I mean. Come on, let's go!"
The expedition set out and made for the native village they had seen before.
Three hundred men in armor, armed with matchlock muskets, marched laughing and joking through the forest.
"It's only natives, right? One shot and they'll scatter at the sound!"
"Obviously!"
"Daehan powder really is the best, isn't it?"
"Oh! Been to Maya Port, have you?"
Even the Spaniards living in the New World regularly stopped at Daehan's ports to trade. The homeland was simply too far, so they used the nearby Maya Port instead.
The only regret was that they had nothing to sell. Only by bringing gold or silver could they get their hands on anything at all.
"The food there is amazing, isn't it?"
"Exactly — which is why we need to collect gold, and fast!"
Honestly, if only they had the gold, they'd have happily settled down in a Daehan port for good.
"Ah! It's just ahead! Over there!"
And so they arrived at the native village.
"Truly primitives, it seems."
Sure enough, the sight of the Aymara's clothing made the Spaniards start looking down on them.
"Hey! They're running away!"
Well, what did they expect? Armored men brandishing weapons had appeared — who on earth would just stand there and watch?
"What? They're wearing armor, sure, but how do they know these are weapons?"
"Please. They bolt the moment they see armor. primitives."
"You think?"
Ignoring the doubter, the Spaniards steadily advanced on the village.
They were nearly at the palisade when—
"%@!#!$!!#$"
"What was that?"
"Anyone here speak native?"
Of course no one did. This was their first time meeting the Aymara.
Their plan, presumably, was to capture a few and learn the language first.
"We'll grab some and learn their tongue, then?"
"Think so?"
"Let's go!"
"Draw your swords and spears!"
"Right. No point wasting powder, hahaha."
As they kept advancing on the village without slowing, another shout rang out from the natives.
"!#$!#%$"
The natives were saying: Advance one step further and we fire. Behind the palisade, countless warriors in armor stood waiting, muskets in hand.
"@!#!#$"
One more cold, flat warning: Do not blame us for what follows.
Not a single Spaniard understood a word.
"What are they saying? It's kind of creepy, isn't it? Why's it so quiet?"
"Beats me. Maybe we should have approached and tried to learn the language first."
And in that instant, warriors rose above the palisade — gleaming in armor gifted by Daehan — and leveled their muskets.
"Huh?"
"What is that?"
The Spaniards, convinced their eyes were deceiving them, stood there gaping in confusion.
BANG! Ratatatatang! BANG! BANG!
The muskets Daehan sold to the Aymara were flintlocks — far faster to fire than the matchlocks the Spaniards carried. To the invaders, it must have looked as though the warriors rose, aimed, and fired in a single breath.
White smoke swallowed the palisade whole, and a storm of bullets came crashing down on them.
"Gahk!"
"Khaghk!"
"Everyone, take cover!"
"GRAAAH!"
"It hurts — it hurts so much! Save me!"
In the blink of an eye, dozens lay sprawled and incapacitated.
"Raise your muskets, now!"
"Damn it all! You said they were primitives!"
"Get your gun and hide behind a tree, now!"
Bang! Ratatang! Bang!
A firefight raged between the Spaniards hiding behind trees and the Aymara behind their palisade.
But the Aymara, shooting from behind cover, held every advantage.
Ping! Ping! Ping-ping!
The Spaniards fired back in desperation, but their rounds merely glanced off the plate armor the Aymara wore, spinning away spent.
Hunkered behind the palisade, only a helmet or a shoulder ever showed — and the shoulders were curved steel, the helmets forged thick. The occasional man who did go down took a ball to the helmet and was merely dazed by the impact.
"Impossible…."
"Run! Run now!"
The unwounded had no choice but to abandon their moaning comrades and flee.
"What kind of primitive shoots a musket?!"
"I saw it too, didn't I? They were dressed like that — what else was I supposed to think?"
Honestly — given the region's climate, who cared what anyone wore?
Cursing each other as they ran, the survivors fled — and behind them, pursuers closed in.
Quietly….
* * *
For Spain, dreaming of striking it rich in New World gold, the sky fell.
A mighty empire armed with plate armor and firearms had taken root in the New World.
"What nonsense is this? Guns and plate armor?"
At first they wondered if these might be Daehan's people — but hadn't they already bound themselves to Daehan by treaty?
"Ask Daehan at once! Have they broken the treaty and pushed south?"
"Yes, Your Majesty!"
The reply that came back via courier was beyond absurd.
"Well, you see…."
"What did they say?"
"They say they simply sold the goods."
"What?! Why!"
Why does anyone sell anything? Because it makes money, that's why.
"They will sell anything to anyone, so long as they're paid in gold…."
"Unbelievable! Have you ever seen such merchants with no business ethics!"
Why on earth he expected business ethics here, no one could say. But Spain's path into the New World had just become exponentially harder.
Which meant, didn't it, that they would have to send an army properly?
Where would they find the colossal cost of an expedition — and could they even win?
"Your Majesty, do you intend to dispatch an army?"
"What choice do we have!"
Bound by the Treaty of Tordesillas, Spain could not go south to Africa. There was no other way.
The sweet fruit of the New World was far too precious to simply abandon.
And besides, surrendering before Spain's golden age had even begun? Pride would never allow it.
"Assemble the fleet! We shall send an army to the New World!"
"It's so terribly far, Your Majesty. Supply will be… difficult…."
A voyage of more than a month each way — even loaded with provisions, how much would actually remain by the end? Wasn't this a disaster in the making?
"What is there to worry about?"
"Your Majesty?"
"Daehan will sell anything for gold, will they not?"
"Ah!"
And so a lunatic scheme was born.
If the weapons were of comparable quality, the vastly more populous Aymara would naturally hold the advantage — yet Spain was planning an expedition across an entire ocean on that logic.
"Send envoys, and simply buy weapons and provisions from Daehan for them!"
"Your logic is sound, but…."
Just how much gold would Spain have to dump into Daehan's coffers?
And in the first place, the Aymara had long since stabilized the surrounding region and moved down into the central lands to farm. Taught agriculture by Daehan, they were producing staggering quantities of food — which meant their population was exploding.
Spain had begun pouring water into a bottomless jar.