Sightseeing the Namdo Sea (1)
"Ugh. Another accident?"
"We deeply apologize. We are ashamed."
"So you're planning to keep using the crucible steel method?"
Our great master craftsmen had only just begun using the basic crucible steelmaking process, and already accidents were getting frequent. Pouring molten iron straight out of a crucible by hand meant that no matter how careful they were, mishaps were simply inevitable.
Still, until chemistry advanced, I couldn't see any method that beat this one.
"We'd need a way to blast air in with serious force before we could try anything else."
"Couldn't bellows or a waterwheel do it?"
Only an improved steam engine would manage that, you know? That's exactly why the reverberatory furnace only became truly useful recently. We have them now, sure, but they're mostly reserved for melting bronze and copper.
"Nope. Not even close with those."
"Then... could you teach us?"
"I know how, but even if I told you, you couldn't build one."
Or could they? They can handle drawing molten iron from crucibles, so maybe they could pull it off. And I seem to remember the originals were first built with cast iron, anyway. Maybe I'll drop a hint.
"You remember that experiment in the lab, where we boiled water and it spun the little pinwheel?"
"Yes!"
"You need to build a machine around that principle."
"Hm? You mean... using steam from boiling water?"
See? Doesn't have a clue. Don't underestimate the power of air, my friend.
"Have them keep digging into it. They'll figure it out eventually."
Even so, starting with the answer in hand had to put them ahead of everyone else.
"And keep a close eye on Egypt and Mesopotamia. I want to know exactly when that religion I mentioned appears."
"Do you truly believe the god will manifest?"
Who knows? I just want to know what year it is.
Honestly, our steelmaking wasn't even bad for the era. All that pig iron from mass smelting was lousy for weapons but plenty useful elsewhere — cast iron pots in particular were wildly popular, one in practically every household. And when you needed premium steel for weapons, that's what the crucible method was for.
"The only problem is how dangerous it is."
No protective gear... wait, don't we have some? Hadn't my outfit survived the atmosphere breach back then, unscorched?
Whip
I flung a piece of my cloth into the hearth right there in my room.
"Oh? Why won't it catch fire?"
Hmm, pulling it out, it was a little warm, sure. But no burning? Then it was at least better than ordinary fabric!
If we made boots, trousers, and jumpsuits out of this and wore it as a thick underlayer, at the very least we'd never see another accident where someone got splashed with molten iron and melted like now.
The ones who truly lost limbs were heartbreaking. Even Holy Water couldn't heal them.
I needed to send the fabric over right away. I'd been planning to give it only to the Intelligence Bureau kids, but no — this took priority.
"I'll have to get them something else later."
"What is all this?"
"My cloth. Turns out it doesn't burn. Let's make fireproof suits out of it."
"The Intelligence Bureau kids will be so disappointed."
"Nothing to be done. People are getting hurt..."
I did feel a little guilty about that one. But there was no alternative.
"Ask them later what they'd like instead."
"Yes, of course."
Thanks to the fireproof suits, accidents dropped off noticeably. Before this they'd apparently been using water-soaked rags, which was far too dangerous...
Steam engines — high efficiency or low, nothing came close for kickstarting basic industry. Time to place my hopes in our absurdly superhuman population, I supposed.
Meanwhile, the Zhou dynasty truly amazed me. Mongol, the Hu, and Joseon — three powers hammering them relentlessly, and they were still holding on. All the while their own lords squabbled over who was best. How much blood must they have wrung from their people to manage it?
And what happened then?
"So now the lords ignore the king entirely and fight over who's superior?"
"As far as we're concerned, Zhou as a state has effectively already fallen."
"Then whoever wins among them becomes the new king, I suppose?"
Wait a moment. Wasn't that... the era the game Romance of the Three Kingdoms was set in? I simply had to go see this for myself.
"Do not even think about going there for sightseeing."
"Aw. I wasn't!"
"You have plenty of work."
"You all do fine without me!"
They manage with me or without me, apparently...
"So I'll just go alone then, hm? Want to come with?"
"If I came along too, my. Wouldn't the household run beautifully?"
How did this even happen...
"Why do the modern-era kids keep insisting on sailing east across the sea?"
"They say it's because there's an ocean out there?"
The children's ships had grown big enough that they were itching to scatter in every direction. They'd already gone and built two port cities of their own in the north, no less.
So the state had no choice but to carve new roads again. At least this time they wouldn't have to plant trees, right?
"That Dongdo place? I heard it's freezing cold — what on earth did they go there for?"
"They stopped by occasionally to warm up, and apparently became great friends with the natives."
Sailing east, so it had to be Hokkaido or Sakhalin? Slave hunting was banned now, so at least they weren't killing people indiscriminately out there.
"Then why build a port there?"
"They've grown rather attached to the place..."
Unbelievable. Get attached to a place, and suddenly it's "this is our land now," isn't it? And of course they wanted to keep making pleasure trips there on a regular schedule! I want vacation trips too!
"Fine. We're hardly a poor nation, and maintaining that much barely dents the treasury."
"Yes. A hundred ports would be no problem."
Even so? A hundred? You're awfully calm about this...
"Hmm? A hundred might be a bit much, no?"
"You don't read the reports, do you?"
What's that got to do with anything? They're just so thick... I'm pretty sure you could kill someone by hitting them with one.
"U-uh... hm?"
"Do you have any idea how much surplus material we're sitting on?"
"W-well... quite a lot?"
More is good, I suppose... Anyway, the east was one thing.
"But what's this about Namdo now?"
"They say the scenery is simply too beautiful..."
Apparently, of all the places they'd scouted, there was an island in the middle of the southern sea so gorgeous that they wanted the state to build an official port there. How would anyone even know where it was? They said it took three days of sailing around in circles to loop the place — Taiwan had to be bigger than that, surely?
What island was down south? Couldn't be Japan.
"It's in the middle of the ocean — how are they so sure they'll find it?"
"Ah! Apparently you just sail from Joseon Territory, island-hopping all the way down."
From Kyushu? I did vaguely recall there being an island chain down that way...
Just how pretty was it, anyway? Surely they hadn't wandered down into Southeast Asia? The seas there were supposed to be gorgeous.
"Honestly, so long as they remember the routes and can hold the ports, the more overseas harbors the better."
"You think so?"
"Yes. For seafaring, safe waypoints to stop at along the way are everything."
Should I start preparing for an Age of Sail ahead of schedule? The faster we assimilated with the locals, the better. In an age brimming with primitive peoples like now, the advantage was enormous.
Once civilization and society matured, you'd actually have to conquer them.
"Understood."
"Tell them they don't need too many — no building them wastefully."
If I didn't say "moderation" out loud, I dreaded what scheme they'd cook up next.
Heh heh heh. And so here I was, on a ship again.
The Namdo port had been built well over a decade ago, and the rumors of its beauty had only grown — of course I had to see it myself. Apparently plenty of Daehan citizens went there for holidays too.
Since whole families worked the same trade together, everyone had a bit of slack in their lives, it seemed. They took turns traveling and sightseeing.
It all came down to raw strength. They simply had labor to spare.
"Ugh, it's so sticky and humid. I want to go home already."
"And yet someone insisted on tagging along."
"I couldn't let you wander around the beach stripping stark naked, could I?"
What do you take me for? I don't do that outdoors!
"Only in my own room, never outside!"
"Right. You get undressed in your room, and then when someone knocks, your first instinct is to open the door. That's the problem."
Geesh. You can forget yourself when you're comfortable, can't you? Honestly.
But the ship we were riding now was, frankly, embarrassing.
Gold leaf wrapped the mast. The sails — the sails — bore embroidered designs. Embroidery, not dye!
And the hundred-odd crew members? All of them. Intelligence Bureau.
"Anyone would think we were sailing off to war."
"Well, it is an official outing this time. I hear when other nations' kings travel, they roll out actual carpets on the road. Absolutely shameless, apparently?"
That's a bit much, no? Where do you even pick up this gossip?
They'd been told to take it slow, yet here they were, stubbornly working the oars anyway. Poor things. And behind us, dozens of warships trailed in a line. They said the island was so wonderful they'd build a fortress there too. The natives were being "extremely cooperative," apparently.
"Nobody threatened anyone with a sword, right?"
"Ohohoho. Who can say?"
"Hmmmm."
Come to think of it, a few of the rowers down there did look suspiciously twitchy. My kids were absolutely capable of it!
"Island sighted on the port side!"
"Come to port!"
We must have drifted slightly off course. Our route hugged the island chain — someone at the top of the mast scanned the sea through a telescope, calling out headings.
"Without the telescope, we'd never have made it out here."
"They say people with sharp eyes can spot it without one, though."
Some Mongol, perhaps? I'd heard folk who lived on open plains had vision like that.
"The eye is focused by muscles too, you know."
"The eye is a muscle?"
"Yep! Didn't you know?"
"Ohhh, I see~ So that's why some people see so well."
Seemed it was true, actually — eyesight ultimately came down to how well the eye muscles adjusted the lens.
Watching our heading, I realized we were bound for Okinawa. Did we really need a port here, though?
We weren't going to go gallivanting across the oceans like America someday, so did we even need a blue-water fleet? For now I'd just pencil this place in as a resort.
After the long voyage, the island greeted me with crystal-clear emerald waters.
Exactly like that sea in the Aegean I'd once admired so much I'd wanted to bottle it and take it home.
"Wow!?"
"Oh my! The sea can be this beautiful?"
I had to have this. I'd sooner die than give this up. Truly the first time in my life I'd wanted something this badly.
"This is just... wonderful."
"No wonder the people sing about it!"
Stunning. I could see straight to the seabed. Coral and fish everywhere! Would have to watch out for sharks, though.
Of the dozens of ships following behind us, a few sailed right past without stopping, continuing onward.
"Hm? Where are they off to?"
"They say if you keep following the islands, there's an enormous landmass. They're going to scout it."
Hm? Wouldn't that be the Philippines if they followed this chain? Or did Taiwan come first?
"Honestly. Busy, busy people."
"They say it'll be fun — what can I do?"
"Buying hardship, that's what they're doing."
Rumble, creak-crack
Are you kidding me? Have you ever seen such shameless brutes?
They were charging straight for the shallows, crushing the coral reefs flat? Barbarians... why does every single thing they do turn out like this...
"You'll wreck the hulls, you idiots!"
"No problem! The rocks have all been cleared!"
What? They cleared the rocks? As in, they smashed every reef and shoal to bits in advance? How does one even do that underwater?
"Ha... merciless lunatics."
"Why not? So long as nobody falls in the water, getting close to shore is a good thing, isn't it?"
"But did it have to be this way?"
I'd have to order them to just build a pier instead. Hydraulic lime held up phenomenally even mixed with seawater — its corrosion resistance would've been superb — and here they were doing this. Aigoo.
So I hastily summoned one of them.
"Hello? You're in charge, yes?"
"Yes! That's me!"
"Our ships have flat bottoms, granted, but if you keep this up, you'll punch holes in the hulls and tear the caulking clean off, won't you?"
Judging by the ships already beached down the shoreline, they'd clearly wrecked several already.
"We can always build more, can't we?"
Resources pouring out their ears, so not a single one of them knew the meaning of thrift!
"There's no need for that. Just build a road of hydraulic lime from the shoreline out to the deep water — there, done."
"Oh! Then we can tie the ships up along it!"
Well, at least they caught on fast. Something about the Intelligence Bureau kids made me feel bad about scolding them, honestly.
"Yes, that's the way to do it."
"Thank you!"
We'd be staying a while, so I'd have to teach them properly.
The Intelligence Bureau recruits were the finest of the fine — talent picked and polished from among Daehan's already superhuman population. Strength, stamina, superior in every way. And consequently, they did twice as many boneheaded things.
"Push!"
"Huuurgh!"
This wasn't an Egyptian pyramid construction site — where on earth had they hauled those stones from to soak them in the sea?
"More to the side! Sideways!"
"Drop it here!"
Crash-rumble
They loaded rafts full of rock and gravel, ferried them out, then simply dismantled the rafts and dumped the whole load into the water?
"Now raise the wall!"
And then they planted wooden posts in a row, wall-like, beneath the waves.
Just watch those magnificent lunatics — a single rope in hand, diving underwater to lash timber to bedrock and swimming back up.
"They're ours, but honestly, they're incredible."
"Nothing less is expected of a true son of Daehan."
"They're toiling away while we loaf around — are we really alright with that?"
If I lent a hand with my powers, we could probably have finished in a day, but I held back and just watched. Working themselves ragged like that, and somehow they still looked like they were having the time of their lives.
"They're in such high spirits because Haneul-nim is watching over them. Just let them be."
Voluntary slaves, the lot of them.