The Warehouse Is Too Big, Isn't It?
A warehouse this big? That can't be right.
I figured I needed to watch my mouth a little from now on.
Back when I'd been rattling on and on about the stuff that happened in China, thinking I was being entertaining — ever since then, the Chancellor had been suspiciously busy, hadn't he?
When he said he was going to put the kids to work, I just told him to go ahead.
"The Qin Dynasty has fallen?"
"Yes."
"When?"
"Hm... I'd say about ten years ago?"
After Qin Shi Huang was assassinated, the already-teetering finances — drained by palace construction and city walls — collapsed outright, and the whole country went to pieces.
Nobody said exactly who did the assassinating, but the vibe said it was our kids.
Apparently that was followed by a pretty long stretch of chaos.
"How long had it even been unified?"
"The Qin unification lasted a little over twenty years, I believe?"
So just by doing my own thing, I've already wiped out two countries?
"And now?"
"After roughly ten years of mayhem, a man named Liu Bang founded the Han Dynasty."
Ah! I know that name. That's gotta be the Liu Bang from the Chu-Han Contention, right? But wait? I have no idea what year that is! Ugh...
"We don't need to worry about any of this, right? We just keep doing what we've been doing?"
"Refugees have entered the Autonomous District from the Han Dynasty, and their movements are a bit suspicious."
"Is there even anything worth doing out there?"
"They're agitating the refugees. It appears they intend to found a nation."
What is that supposed to mean? Did I hear that right?
"What exactly are they planning to do on someone else's land?"
"Something that deserves death."
Why does that sound familiar somehow?
We took them in out of pity, and now they're trying to latch onto our territory like leeches?
"Talk to them first. If they don't stop, we deal with them."
"Return our land to us!"
"This land, where our servants and merchants live, must be returned!"
"Those who live here should be its masters!"
A protest had broken out, of all things, in the Refugee Autonomous District. A protest, in this ancient society? The nerve of these people.
"Heh heh heh. How is it progressing?"
"Commander! People are shouting and marching, but... are we really going to be alright with this?"
One man worried himself sick over it. That's the normal reaction, honestly. If anyone had tried this even up through the Middle Ages, they'd have been cut down on the spot.
"Once they contact us, let's have our people hold them back and then demand they be accepted as citizens."
So the Chinese really are shameless, conscienceless creatures after all. How long has it even been since this became Daehan soil?
"Are we allowed to do this to another country?"
"Surely you don't intend to kill all several hundred thousand of them?"
This Commander fellow was apparently committing crimes on the assumption that nobody would go that far.
"They're not listening, ma'am."
"Sweep them all up and dump them outside the walls."
"Oh! Understood!"
What's with you? Why are you so happy about this?
"These vermin have attacked without even knowing their place. Not a single one of them will be left behind — I shall drive them all out."
"Think you can actually manage that?"
A few will surely remain, right?
Even in the modern era, with spy satellites and surveillance cameras everywhere, we never caught every single person who hid themselves away.
"KWAHAHAHA!"
"What's wrong with you? Why are you being so scary?"
He shows up after months away and immediately starts cackling like a madman? Did something good happen?
"We drove out every last one of those insect-like vermin!"
"Well. Not all of them, I'm sure, but good work."
"Not a single one remains. Kwahaha."
Don't tell me—
"You killed them all?!"
"What? No, we're not nearly that barbaric."
"Huh? That's even possible?"
What? It IS possible? Now I really have to know.
"Heheh. We stationed a soldier every ten paces and marched in a line."
"Ah..."
Of course. So this absurdly blunt approach actually works? A soldier stationed every ten to twenty meters, marching forward in an unbroken line?
I wonder if our other kids could pull that off. Not that it matters — we run a volunteer military anyway.
Worst case, I could just summon the kids and say, 'I don't like the look of that mountain. Move it.' and they'd grab shovels and come running.
"Did they leave quietly?"
"The ones who resisted were tied up and carried out."
"Think any of them will try climbing the walls?"
"Our kids couldn't manage it easily, so neither can they."
The walls are so high that ladders are useless — you'd need to climb up a rope — and with that many sentries on watch, they'd be spotted before they even tried.
"But really? That place has the World Tree's influence too, and it's genuinely a nice place to live. Why all the nonsense?"
"Hard to say. Apparently some man named Wi Man was quite the smooth talker."
"Agitators, honestly. The ones who do it and the ones who fall for it are both insufferable."
Thanks to agitators like him, socialism and democracy alike gave the world plenty of headaches down the road.
"So did they all head off to the Han Dynasty?"
"No, ma'am."
Huh? Then where did they go? Don't tell me you just shoved them into the sea!?
"So they all drowned then?"
"What kind of people do you take us for? There's quite a lot of empty space between the Han walls and ours. They'll live there, presumably."
Oh? Right, that area's fairly big, isn't it? There's plenty of land neither we nor they particularly bother with.
But that place?
"Isn't that where the Mongol kids roam around like crazy?"
"I'm sure they'll manage somehow."
"Hey... you basically just threw them to the slaves, didn't you?"
Being a Mongol slave — wouldn't death honestly be kinder? They'll get dragged off to the desert and forced to farm, won't they?
And here I was wondering why they were feeling merciful for once.
"It shouldn't be too bad, actually. The Mongols and the Xiongnu don't get along, so fights break out often."
"Must be a lovely place to live, then."
Is the middle and upper reaches of the Liao River, past the western mountains of the northern Chinese territory we've occupied, good farmland too?
"Yes, which is why the Mongols seem to be gearing up to build walls of their own."
"Huh?"
Building walls takes an enormous amount of labor, though? Are the Mongols really going to build that with their own hands?
So THAT'S why they've been smirking this whole time. They knew exactly what was going to happen.
"Heh..."
But even if the Mongols build walls, wouldn't they be useless? How do they plan to defend them? They're short on people as it is.
Copying something without understanding it, apparently. Large-scale construction projects are a fast track to national collapse if you botch them...
The Xiongnu have a scary-sounding name too. Looks like the Han Dynasty is in for more suffering.
"By the way, Joseon seems to be struggling on the islands. What should we do about it?"
Apparently they tried to expand further in Kyushu, only got pushed back, and in the process handed Japan nothing but bronze-working technology at best — an awkward half-measure.
It seems Joseon suffers from having to fight across the sea, and from being outnumbered in population.
This is exactly why I keep saying — whatever you do, grow your population FIRST.
"Their own fault, I suppose. What about the Joseon Territory?"
"You could reasonably consider that place fully Joseon now."
Well, at least their territory is definitely growing. Though I'd love to give them the Iwami Silver Mine... hmm.
"Population is the problem, so tell them to grow it no matter what. Their chance will come."
"I'm sure they've realized it themselves this time."
Whether it's a stone spear or an iron one, getting stabbed in this era of primitive medicine means you probably die.
So either have a huge population, or be untouchably strong like our kids.
Farm a lot, grow your numbers — how many times do I have to say it before they listen...
"If it's really too hard, send some of the kids who are bored out of their minds to guard the coastline for them."
"Yes, ma'am. Understood."
Hmm...? So with that... instead of 'waegu' (Japanese raiders), we'd get 'daegu' or 'hangugu' raiders?
Not that I've been paying attention, but surely they're not still out there pirating around Egypt and the like?
"Just asking, but..."
"Yes?"
"Are you all still sailing west these days?"
"Why, is there some reason we shouldn't?"
Oh boy. Are they going to blackball us from the entire world someday?
Just as predicted, the Mongols — who'd been snatching up slaves in the neutral zone between the walls to build their fortress — collapsed without warning.
"Why on earth?"
"Some internal rebellion broke out and threw them into chaos, and it appears the Xiongnu attacked in that window."
It's hard to know the intimate details of another country's affairs, but weren't they supposed to be a loose confederation of fairly friendly tribes?
These nomads, honestly. The more I learn, the less I understand.
And the Xiongnu are reportedly carving into the Han Dynasty with unstoppable momentum.
"Are they going to fall too?"
"If it comes to that, they'll probably flee into the mountains."
"The Xiongnu have plenty of cavalry, sure, but they have infantry too. It won't be as easy as you'd think."
"Our analysis is that since they're blocked by us, neither side has been able to build real power, so both are merely mediocre."
Thank goodness we created the War Department. To think they'd toss around the word 'analysis' so proudly. They've grown up so well!
"Hm?"
"What?"
"You have this... imposing look about you all of a sudden."
"Don't worry about it!"
Does she have psychic powers too or something?
"I don't have anything like that, ma'am."
"Gah!"
How did she know?
"People do say your face gives everything away, don't they?"
Hm? Plenty of people say that. The Secretary included!
"Yes. Plenty of people do say that."
I'm thinking to myself, and yet the conversation keeps flowing anyway?
"When you sit there scowling like that, it's frightening. Everyone worries you're plotting some catastrophe."
"Hmm..."
Should I smack her one?
[Scram! BAM]
"Oh? That fast? You're running away?"
There are simply no problems to be had. The population is so vast that even if neighboring nations declared war, our border walls alone would stop everything cold.
The harvests are so bountiful that even with fewer farmers, no one goes hungry. Naturally, scholars and merchants multiplied, which made life even better still.
The surplus laborers get funneled into repair work and construction — and since there's pay involved, everyone fights over those jobs too.
People have leisure now. Some even travel, saying they want to see the exotic seas of Namdo in the south or the brutal winters of the north.
"So peaceful."
What is this, 2,200 years of unbroken peace?
Though I suppose I should subtract all the chaos we've stirred up in other countries with our plundering.
[Neigh! Neigh!]
"Hm?"
Looking outside, I saw a cart headed for the warehouse — but it was so heavily loaded that the horse was struggling, and people were pushing it along by hand.
I simply MUST see what's in that warehouse!
Following the cart, I came upon a building so colossal that — no exaggeration — I couldn't see where it ended.
"Eh? What is this place?"
So this wasn't the Temple? From above, I'd always assumed that enormous circular structure built around the tree was the Temple.
"Haneul-nim, you've come!"
"Eh? Hello."
"Would you like to go inside?"
"Sure."
"One moment, please."
It's a warehouse — what is there to wait for?
[Clip-clop, clip-clop]
"A horse?"
"Yes. It's quite spacious, so it's best viewed on horseback."
"It's big, sure, but I figured you could walk it."
"The underground facilities are larger than what's above ground."
Huh? The part I could SEE was already astronomically huge?
"How much larger?"
"Roughly ten times, I'd estimate? I couldn't say precisely."
Hmm... we have a problem.
This is a genuinely serious problem. Some of what flows in here is the gold and silver from trade, but...
The vast majority is plunder from our raiding.
Wow! Have we officially become an international menace to society? And I'm the boss of it?
"W-well. Let's take a look."
"Right this way, ma'am."
Someone who looked like an archivist fell in beside me. On horseback.
"This section holds artifacts from the Xia and Shang Dynasties. They have little market value, but we preserve them as historical materials."
"Huh?"
Stuff from 1,500 years ago, and you're preserving it? Do we actually have conservation technology?
"Even clothing?"
"We've made efforts, but textiles and leather are, frankly, a lost cause."
"That IS difficult."
"Even so, we've preserved a fair number of records on wood, metal, and clay tablets."
If these make it to the modern era? They wouldn't just be artifacts — this would be the Museum of Human History itself.
"Mm. You're doing good work."
"You think so?"
"I'd call it a genuinely important undertaking. Try all sorts of methods so it can be preserved for as long as possible."
"Thank you, ma'am."
Is it because we have so many scholars now? Hearing the phrase 'historical materials' honestly feels novel.
"Next, the holdings of our own Daehan."
"Oh! We have our own things in here?"
"Of course. The very first item is the hammer and anvil of Akta, the blacksmith of the beginning — tools that were used all this time without ever dulling or cracking."
Huh? I'm the one who made those!
"How carefully they must have treasured them..."
"Pardon? We only moved them here quite recently, though?"
"Eh?"
Wait, what? They were still in active use until now? I did press down on them with telekinesis a bit hard at times... did some kind of material transformation happen?
They'd make incredible swords, wouldn't they? Perfect — I'll hand one out to each of the generals.
"And over here..."
We looked around for a long while after that, and it's true — it really is a problem. There is not a single thing missing from the collections of Western civilization and East Asia alike.
And what is with all this gold? If anyone finds out, we're finished.
El Dorado was real all along...