It Became a Symbol of the Bronze Age - Chapter 309



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Episode 309. Gongmilre Gongmilre (4)

Supplies from Seorabeolbu to Haedongseong are mainly transported by ship. They depart from Seorabeolbu, stop by Heuksando for supplies, and then continue up the west coast to Haedongseong.

If you move like that, it will take about 3 to 4 days, and as soon as you arrive at Heuksando, Chau pops out.

“Elder, are you here?”

“Chaurogun.”

And at this point, the stability officer of Heuksando is Chauda. I think this year is the last year of his term.

“I heard the news. I heard you got a promise from Baran to retire this time?”

“That’s right.”

“That’s amazing. I should be like that too….”

“Are you planning to retire already?”

I haven’t been able to do it yet, and you?

“…Will Barang or Gwan-o just watch that?”

“I have to do something about it. After all, I’m useless except for martial arts, right?”

“Not to that extent.”

“I need to see my wife and children now. I need to go down to Seorabeolbu and rest….”

“Okay, let me try some more.”

“…wait for a sec.”

At that moment, Chow’s expression became dizzy.

“There, there… Madam Dalbi and Elder Poongbaek are there…?”

“Yes. And your wives are panning for gold on behalf of Dalby.”

“Uh, uh, that’s…?”

Now it seems Chow has noticed my problem.

What if I retire?

The final destination is Seorabeolbu.

It’ll be rolled over by me and Dalbi.

What if I don’t retire?

It is rolled over by Barang and Guan Yi.

“You are… destined to roll around until you die.”

“Sir, you must have had this in mind from the beginning….”

“Well, think about it yourself.”

I smiled at Chow, who was in despair. Either way, I have no intention of letting Chow go.

Working in Asadal is good enough, and even if you retire and come to Seorabeolbu… isn’t Chau’s family already an excellent subordinate of the Poongbaek family?

I will treat you really well, but I also plan on making you work that much.

This guy is very picky and uncompromising in his field.

In other words, it’s completely absurd.

While making a clear distinction between the two… he is honest and doesn’t know how to stab others in the back of the head.

What kind of fool would just throw away such a talented person? He is truly a diamond in the rough, and I have no intention of letting him go.

“…When will you die?”

“Even if I die, will Dalbi still be there?”

“…Mrs. Dalby is worse than you. Live long.”

Chow took a deep breath.

“…Damn. It was a trap.”

“It’s a sweet trap.”

“Sweet? Is this it?”

“Aren’t your children sweet? Your eldest son is currently at Poongbaek Academy….”

“It’s sweet.”

Chow nodded.

“…Anyway, please let me know what you need.”

“Oh, now you can see the supplies too?”

“There’s a Dalbi Sangdan branch on Black Island (Heuksando), right? They can help you there.”

Hmm… I vaguely heard that in medieval France, when there was a financial issue, you would go to the Paris branch of the Knights Templar rather than the Foreign Office.

Similarly, if something related to finances comes up in Shinunbu, it seems that they have to run to the top of Heuksando rather than Chawoo.

After completing the supply run on Heuksando, the procession headed back towards Haedongseong.

***

In the distance, you can see the huge waves of the Daedong River. The boat that set off from Seorabeolbu cut through the waters of the Daedong River and continued straight upward.

And the castle wall structure you see on the left is Haedongseong. This is where we are going.

I got off the boat with a stern. The guy was stuck on the boat, but he didn’t seem to be in any trouble. I guess that’s because he followed the captain around here and there.

“I’m sorry. But it’s okay now.”

Meanwhile, the Phoenician merchant ships began to load cargo.

In the meantime, I observed the surrounding scenery.

“Come on, here is the silk from Jungwon Mountain!”

“Is it possible to use iron wire?”

“Iron sword? You’re going to be in big trouble! Go to Haedongseong right now and exchange it for silver! If you accept that, you have to close up shop that day!”

It seems that the Haedongseong is gradually starting to spread currency. It will take at least 10 years for this order to be established.

And my gaze was turned not to the merchants, but to the ground they were treading on.

“Look at the road.”

There is a black material mixed in here and there along the road to Asadal. It is a waterproofing material to prevent rainwater and other things from getting in, and it is made of bitumen.

This is the one on the trade ship I just came on, and it is one of the special products of the archipelago.

The islanders dig bitumen with sand or dirt in their hands. It is known that skilled workers can extract 300 kg of bitumen a day.

The bitumen dug up here was put into jars and brought to Asadal on trading ships. Now that Phoenician trading ships had settled in, the supply of bitumen greatly increased.

Then, the bitumen is slightly heated to melt it (care must be taken not to burn it), and mixed with coal ash in a ratio of 8 to 2 or 9 to 1. Asadal makes roads using the asphalt concrete made in this way.

‘In the history of the original… it never existed.’

Joseon used sea routes more than land routes.

It had to be that way. The Korean peninsula’s four seasons were too chaotic to build roads or bridges.

However, unlike Joseon, Asadal occupied the archipelago and could use a material called Ascon. That difference made a difference in the road.

However, there are some things that cannot be done.

“Stop! It’s a river!”

A representative example is the river.

Big rivers require boats in the first place.

It is difficult to build a bridge on this Korean peninsula where the riverbed is so bad that it is even small.

Even if I let it go, I’ll end up going to the Dragon Palace when the rainy season comes.

At first, the people of the Central Plains, including Guan Yi, used a method called ‘arch’, but even using the arch, it was still difficult to build a bridge over the river.

“Is there a big ship here?”

“It’s not that big of a river.”

That’s why large rivers like the Han River or the Daedong River just use large boats, but here it’s different.

“The bridgemen will probably come here.”

“Because I’m a bridgeman….”

On a small boat, there is a person called a bridgeman.

What are these bridge breaker?

“Here it comes!”

After a while, several boats from Asadal’s post station came down the river. They lined up the boats side by side and placed a plank on top.

It is a kind of mobile bridge, and it seems that these days, this method is quite often used instead of the Yonggung Bridge during the rainy season.

‘This is also thanks to coal.’

Why coal all of a sudden?

The reason is simple.

‘It is an excellent substitute for wood.’

Wood was not a common resource in ancient times.

Wood is firewood, and if you harvest too much wood, it will be difficult to survive the winter. The Song Dynasty also suffered from a lack of forests.

But how did the Song Dynasty solve this ‘wood shortage’? It was coal.

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The same goes for Asadal.

Numerous coal mines were developed and the technology of making rice cakes was adopted, replacing some of the wood with coal. Coal mined from the mines was transported downstream on wooden boats.

Because of this, the shortage of wood was not yet a concern, so this type of portable bridge using wooden boats could be used with confidence.

As for the shortage of coal… well, do we really need to worry about that much unless we have an industrial revolution?

I remember hearing somewhere that one coal-fired power plant in the 21st century uses more coal than the entire Song Dynasty used.

Anyway, as of now.

Asadal’s development is truly dependent on the material engineering aspect. It can be seen as a kind of future privilege.

‘You’re the end.’

A cart passed over the bridge with a creaking sound.

The carts containing copper will go towards the Central Plains, and the carts containing silver and sulfur will go towards Haedongseong or Susinbu and be exchanged for silver coins and gunpowder.

“…Our work ends here.”

Adalah said carefully.

His mission was just to take me to Haedongseong… but.

“Well, I don’t think that’ll work out that way.”

Adallah said with a smile.

I tilted my head.

“What does that mean?”

“Lord Dalbi said, ‘I will assist Deputy Minister Pungbaek all the way to the Central Plains.’”

“What about the ship? How can the ship turn without a captain?”

“I will leave one behind. To be exact, it is dedicated to Haedongseong.”

Adallah smiled brightly.

“There are shipbuilders from Seorabeolbu on board that ship. Now that the capabilities of the Benigi merchant ship have been verified, shouldn’t we spread it to Haedongseong and use it for northern trade?”

So, privately, it’s for me.

It is a choice made for Asadal in a big way.

Both were welcome to me.

***

As soon as the news spread that I had offered up my ship, chaos broke out in Haedongseong.

“The vice-minister of Seorabeolbu, Pungbaek, willingly offered a modern ship to Haedongseong!”

“Pungbaek! I believed in you!”

It feels like the chairman of a large corporation donating 10 billion won to a foundation.

‘Very… classical.’

The etymology of the word classic, which means classics, is the Latin word classicus.

Originally, it meant something like ‘one who offers a ship’. It was said to refer to the upper class who would offer up their own ships when war broke out?

But as time went by, the meaning changed to something like ‘excellent’… So, right now, I deserve to be called a classicus.

‘Well… I said I gave it, but that’s a bit odd.’

In return, the central government reduced some of the taxes paid by Seorabeolbu, and as if that was not enough, it also provided two additional trading ships.

At this point, it’s plus or minus zero.

You shouldn’t look at it that way.

But through that, Seorabeolbu became a department that ‘willingly offered ships’, and Haedongseong’s Barang became a good president who ‘cut taxes for the department that offered ships’.

You could say that this is a mutual image enhancement, and this is usually called political interaction.

“Master Poongbaek! Please shake my hand just once!”

“handshake?”

“According to , when Lord Poongbaek first met Lord Hanho, he shook hands, didn’t he? I want to do that too!”

I don’t know what Poongbaekjeon is, but I know who wrote it.

It was clear that Guan Yi had done this.

While I was standing there dumbfounded for a moment, someone else reached out to shake my hand and I pushed it away.

“Hey! That’s something you only do with close friends! It’s not something that just anyone can do!”

“That’s right! If you break the trust of someone you shook hands with, lightning will fall from the sky!”

“Isn’t that only applicable to a handshake after washing each other’s hands with soap?”

… Before I knew it, the thoughtless act of shaking hands that I did began to take on almost religious significance in Asadal. It was something that only close friends would do, and if you betrayed the person you shook hands with, you would be cursed by the Shindansu?

So, I exchanged greetings with many people at the launching ceremony held in front of the ship to manage my image.

The craftsmen from Seorabeolbu who came here were transferred to the shipyard of Haedongseong while receiving very special treatment.

‘If we start making Phoenician merchant ships like this in Haedongseong… it will be a great help to Asadal.’

It is a trading ship that is larger than existing ships and has a greater loading capacity.

This means that the maximum trade itself will increase, so the scale of trade between the Central Plains will become huge.

After about a week, Barang met with me alone.

“We couldn’t ask for more thanks for such a wonderful gift… but aren’t there other new ships besides the Benigi merchant ship?”

“You mean Dromon?”

“Yes.”

“Why, do you want that too?”

“I’m not taking it for free, am I? I know I’m getting what I deserve.”

“That… isn’t even properly managed in Seorabeolbu yet. We’ll try it out to some extent and then hand it over once the standards are met.”

In fact, this is a given. Just imagine that an unlicensed aircraft carrier is suddenly produced by Korea Explosives.

How terrifying and horrible is this? The Nalseongdol was also manufactured as a warship from the beginning, so the people of Haedongseong have also come and are keeping a close eye on it.

“By the way, what did I ask you to do?”

“I saw it here.”

At those words, Barang hands me a booklet.

“In addition to the previous , there is , a collection of 300 poems from the Central Plains, and , a book that contains the laws and political processes of the Xia, Shang, and Zhou Dynasties.”

The Book of Songs is one of the Three Classics, and the Book of Rites is one of the Four Books, better known as the Great Learning.

“In addition, I translated all the history books of the Central Plains into Asadal. Phew, it was a task that took quite some time. The help of the Central Plains people was a great help.”

I opened the booklets.

The shape of the letters was neat. This was because they were not handwritten but carved from a woodblock.

“This is absolutely necessary, so be sure to save it.”

“It is absolutely necessary to know the political order and culture of other countries. This one thing can determine the life or death of countless people.”

This is also true.

I have another reason.

Besides… historical resets happen quite often in the Central Plains, right?

Just imagining the people of Jungwon coming to Asadal and begging to be taught their history… Ugh, I feel like I’m going to collapse from the dopamine rush.

“Also, it was a great reference for writing the history of Asadal. That’s also good.”

“…Ah, there was something called . Was that written by Guan Wu?”

“No, I wrote it.”

“…what?”

“There is also . It records the achievements of the previous presidents. Wasn’t it something that the elders told us to do?”

“Good.”

… Future historians should be grateful to me. At least they won’t have to go drinking all night and go to the gallows to travel back 2,700 years because there are no historical materials from the Gojoseon period.

“Now that the translation of these books has been completed, I plan to print them out on a large scale using woodblock printing. These days, there are quite a few schools in the area, starting with Pungbaek School and Hanho School.”

Originally, as far as I know, this school boom started during the Goryeo Dynasty. There were 12 prestigious schools in Gaegyeong called Sipigongdo. It feels like Gangnam Xseong.

The best among them was Choe Chung’s ‘Munheongongdo’, and I think that Seorabeolbu’s Pungbaekhakdang might be in this position.

‘Well, it’s a good thing that there are more schools. It’s even better that there are more librarians.’

It is said that the Central Plains began to fully develop a school culture through systematic learning methods during the time of Confucius, but Asadal already has one. Mother! Address of a patriotic sabari!

“In addition, we are also printing woodblocks of and written by Elder Poongbaek.”

“Okay, please give me a wider picture. It’s just a story that came out of my head, but that’s not all.”

In fact, it’s real history. The Three Kingdoms period and the North-South States period.

And as Confucius said, history is one of the best educational tools. It is the best discipline to reflect on mistakes and share feedback.

So, after talking about the school and the librarian.

“…There is a copper trading ship leaving for Naeminbu via the northern route of the Central Plains in a week. I think you can take that.”

“Is there room for a candy bar?”

“Of course.”

Barang didn’t say anything to me like, “Why are you going yourself? Why don’t you just ask someone else to do it?” He just nodded his head to me as I said I would do it.

I really liked that.

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