Stop Doing That and Try Something Else!
I was dying to know what these people even got up to all day.
So I hopped aboard a ship.
Splash-crash!
"Um... Lady Haneul? Might I suggest you come inside?"
Waves are a bit rough today, aren't they? At first I thought the ship would break apart from slamming into them.
Hmm, but it's pretty well built, isn't it? Still hasn't collapsed.
"How would inside be any different?"
"Er... right..."
The ship's going to take a beating either way. It rocks and sways, and inside, everyone's too busy bailing water.
Oh! This poor soul is Cheonsu, one of my chosen victims from the Naval Intelligence Department.
He was about to set sail and was taking a look around the departing ships when I clambered aboard. He was so shocked at first that the poor boy actually fainted. What a weakling.
Maybe I picked a bad day. We passed Namdo and were on our way to Daedo when the weather turned absolutely foul.
Krrruummmble
"Whoa? That's a scary sound."
"Do you think we'll break apart?"
Hey? You're supposed to check that yourself and tell me? Why are you asking me...
"Lady Haneul?"
"Hey! And stop calling me that, just call me 'miss'!"
"That would hardly suit someone of your... advanced years, wouldn't you say?"
Oh? I'm over two thousand years old — shouldn't even a great-great-great-grandmother take a step back for me? He really does only speak the truth. Truth that deserves a smack!
Whap
"Hyek!"
Thwack
"Ugh. My apologies! Miss!"
Oh. Talking back while getting hit? That's some real grit.
"Getting better?"
"Yes, ma'am!"
Sea weather is truly fascinating. Just moments ago the waves were crashing and the wind and rain were howling — and now look, smooth as glass.
"Wow, it stopped just like that."
"Fickle as ever, isn't it?"
"Why is it like that?"
"Hard to say? It just is, I suppose, Miss."
Whap — crash-tumble
One smack and he goes rolling off like that? Is he deliberately throwing himself down and rolling? It feels suspicious.
"There's an island!"
A voice rang out from up the mast. Probably someone scanning the horizon with a spyglass from the crow's nest.
"Miss! I believe that's Daedo!"
The guy had already recovered and was standing beside me again.
A little farther on, a small peak began to come into view in the distance.
"A mountain?"
"Yes. The Namdo side is mountainous, but if you circle halfway around to the opposite shore, there's a wide stretch of flatland."
"Do a lot of people live there too?"
"Not too many. A few tens of thousands, I'd say."
Fewer people than I expected, huh?
Flap-flap
"Oh, the wind's in our favor."
Watching a ship ride the wind is genuinely astonishing. Even with the wind blowing from the front, it still moves forward?
I couldn't wrap my head around how it worked, so I asked — and apparently he doesn't know either. Long ago, people used to row or sit around sucking their thumbs, until someone figured out how to sail against the wind, and they've just been shamelessly reusing the trick ever since.
"We're really moving fast!"
For its size, this Orca-class medium warship is seriously quick, isn't it?
"Ha! Sometimes we go even faster than this."
"Really? How fast?"
"Sometimes the waves lift the whole ship right up out of the water!"
"Whoa! Doesn't it break apart?"
"Ahaha! Sometimes it does!"
So this guy's survived quite a lot, hasn't he? And to think men like this will someday be manning speedboats and destroyers...
Oh. I just felt a brief chill.
I have a feeling there'll be more capsizings than smooth sailings...
And as we rounded the island, a broad plain began to open up before us.
"Oh, it's pretty big."
"Yes. We have the local people farm the land here."
Long-distance voyages need places to resupply food and water, so they've set up quite a few ports like this using the local inhabitants.
"You're not forcing them, are you?"
"No, ma'am. We hand out farming tools and daggers, and they pay us in crops."
"Good. That's the way."
Forcing people to farm at knifepoint does nothing but guarantee you a knife in your back while you sleep.
"Plenty of natives live in the north, and our port is in the south."
He says it all rather proudly, but in a place this remote, wouldn't the "port" just be a bunch of logs pounded into the mud?
Anyway, the air was getting more and more humid — it reminded me of the Mediterranean...
Namdo, which we passed on the way here, was the same: gorgeous sea like the Mediterranean, but that same muggy, heavy air...
Crash-splash!
The ship is big, but one good wave sends seawater flying everywhere. Ah, so this is why people can't stay at sea for long?
"The port!"
Formosa really is enormous, apparently. It took two full days of sailing around the island before the port came into view.
But wait — what is that? That massive yellow wall?
"What did you build there?"
"A fortress!"
"How?"
"It needs to be at least that sturdy if we're to hold out until reinforcements arrive from the homeland!"
Um... how do I put this.
It's not that big, but the keep is enormously tall and the walls look incredibly thick — like gazing at a medieval inner keep.
Wouldn't you need to hit that with high-explosive shells just to crack it, beyond anything an iron-ball cannon could manage?
"Impressive, honestly..."
"It was a great deal of work..."
He's saying it so pathetically — what am I supposed to do if you drown in your own regret right there?
"You didn't make the imperial cement here, did you?"
"We brought it over from the homeland. Haha."
Is that something to laugh about, you blockheads? Rein it in a little. It's not like I can tell them to tear down what they've built.
I'm sure it'll come in handy.
"Drop anchor!"
SPLOOSH
An anchor cast from bronze with a log threaded through it — no different from a modern one.
Wouldn't just this alone fetch an astronomical price in another country?
"Wooow~"
Up close, the fortress looked even bigger, and the city around it was remarkably well built.
Plenty of the island's natives around too. They wore Daehan-style clothing, though mostly very short garments.
Being a southern region, I suppose, the men wore shorts, the women miniskirts, and everyone — men and women alike — wore crop tops.
"Fresh fish for sale!"
"Rice, get your rice!"
"We've got jerky made fresh today!"
Huh? They speak the Daehan language here too? Where's Formosa's independent culture gone?
"Cheonsu! What happened to these people's own language — why are they speaking Daehan?"
"Hehehe. They use their own too. But since so many of our people live here, Daehan is the common tongue."
"Ahh~"
"And since our script is easier, more and more tribes are adopting Daehan writing."
Hmm, fair enough. Human history is full of all kinds of spoken languages, but there are far fewer writing systems than you'd think.
The harbor was crowded with little sailing boats, apparently modeled on our own ships. That's what they fish with.
Standing next to our vessel, they looked absolutely adorable.
"The boats are cute. Haha."
"Yes. They copy our designs, but anything larger still seems to give them trouble."
"They're trying."
That's how technology gets learned and improved, after all. Seems like a hardworking little community.
"We'll stay here one day, so take a look around the market. There's plenty of fascinating things. Heh heh heh."
He walks off with that weird laugh — something tells me he's up to something unsettling.
The market sits inside the tall fortress walls, but it isn't that large — one lap around shouldn't take long.
Natives had gathered in droves, hawking their wares.
"Miss~ Come take a look at these earrings~"
"Huh? Me?"
I was glancing around when some grandmother called out to me in the softest voice.
"I can't do earrings, dear~"
It's not that I won't. It's that I literally can't. My ears can't be pierced!
"Really? These earrings are quite pretty, though..."
"Aren't your other pieces pretty too?"
"Hmm, how about a bracelet?"
"Take a look, take a look."
It looked like some kind of stone, and the craftsmanship was extraordinary. She'd carved grooves into a deep green stone and inlaid them with silver.
"Wow? How did you make this?"
"Worked at it, that's all. It was hard."
"Aren't these prettier than the earrings?"
This is no ordinary devotion. Did the grandmother make them herself?
"Here, the earrings."
"Whoa!"
The bracelet was impressive, but earrings are so much smaller — the detail work must be far finer!
Shouldn't you need something like a magnifying glass for this? Can people really do this with the naked eye?
"They're beautiful!"
"But Miss, you don't wear earrings, do you?"
"No. I'm a little... special, so I can't have my ears pierced."
"Hmm. I always did wish someone lovely would wear my work for me..."
You're right about that. I'd love to have some too.
"Oh! Wait just a moment."
Shhh... shhh...
Now this was something amazing to watch. Whether she'd made it at home or not, she was twisting together silver thread thinner than a human hair, spinning it into a cord.
"Is that silver, by any chance?"
"Yes. I flattened it out fine — I thought I'd try making a cord."
So even the grandmother is trying it for the first time.
"Wow..."
She said it like a first-timer, and yet the cord was actually coming together.
"What? Ohohoho. Everyone in my village can do at least this much."
"That's really incredible."
So there are master artisans here too. I should write this down and send the kids off to come learn from them.
Clink, clink
She sized the cord to my neck, attached the clasp, and hung the earrings from the center so they dangled down just so.
"Oh! Grandmother, what if I walk away without buying this?"
"I'll just give it to you. People here don't much care for this sort of thing. I'd have to sell it across the sea, and that's not easy."
Oh, Grandmother...
If you came out here to sell, you should be selling these to buy your food — and here you are saying this.
"Ohohoho. Good eye, dear. It will look lovely on a young lady like you."
"Thank you!"
At this point I might as well buy everything. All her other pieces were gorgeous too.
"Does your village make a lot of these?"
"Yes. Us older folk can't do heavy work anymore, so we make things like this."
Ah, I see — they're trying to supplement their livelihoods.
"Could we buy all of it?"
"All this? The old folks just make it to pass the time..."
"Yes! Please wait just a moment here."
"Of course. Well, it's still a long while before I need to head home anyway."
My heart is racing! These would make truly incredible trade goods!
I hurried back to the harbor and spotted Cheonsu standing in front of the ship!
"Cheonsu!"
"..."
Called him from too far away. My heart was just racing, that's all.
"Cheonsu!"
"Hm? Back already? Small market, isn't it? Did you see the roasted insects? Heh heh heh."
You little—? So that weird laugh earlier — he wanted me to see that?
"Never mind that! There's an incredible trade good here!"
"Trade goods?"
"Yes! Things we can take and sell at a high price!"
"Why would we need something like that?"
You bandits! Your whole philosophy is that stealing is the way to go — it's time you started trading!
"How long do you plan on being pirates?"
"Gah! No! Don't say such things, Lady Haneul!"
What now? Raising your voice? Are you talking back to me?
"What! You rascal?"
"You're the one who started us on pillaging in the first place!"
"And you do plenty of things I never ordered, don't you!"
"..."
See? You know I'm right, so now you've got nothing to say.
"No, that's not it! There's a grandmother at the market selling neck jewelry — her village is apparently wonderful at making ornaments!"
"Isn't that women's work?"
Fair enough, ornament-making is mostly done by women.
"And what happens when you sail home after months at sea without bringing back something like this?"
"Ah!..."
Do you get smacked at home too? You're so rough out here — was all that just stress relief?
"For now, buy up a huge stockpile and hold onto it. Later, I suspect we won't be able to sell these because we won't have enough."
"Is it that serious?"
"Yes! Absolutely. Support the village a bit, have your people stockpile — we can sell these to other countries at a premium."
I'm doing this so you won't have to pillage, you fool!
"Hmm. So they'd be trade goods, you mean?"
"Yes. You can amass gold without fighting — in fact, you'll amass far more."
"Oh? Really?"
The comparison isn't even close, you know?
"If you keep raiding like you do now, people hide their goods and run, which makes everything harder, doesn't it?"
"That's true..."
"Trade fairly, and people will line up to bring you their gold willingly."
"So this is what they call trade?"
"Yes!"
No fighting, gold in hand — what's not to love?