It Became a Symbol of the Bronze Age - Chapter 339



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Episode 339. The North opened on the first day of retirement (1)

Two newly acquired ports in Gangnam.

This land, originally ruled by the Sa clan, had a population of about five thousand people each.

And one of the characteristics of pirates is that they really love slaves. Naturally, most of the people who farmed here were slaves.

Asadal freed these slaves from their status, as he had done with the other tribes in the past, and through them began full-scale rice farming.

“Okay, burn it all down!”

The method was simple.

First, set fire to the jungle and burn down the forest.

If you do this, there will be places that do not burn. A representative example is a damp, swampy area.

Such swamps and wetlands can easily be converted into rice farming areas.

“It would be nice if you could bring some farmers from Asadal.”

Gangnam is actually one of the regions with the highest potential as the birthplace of rice farming along with the Korean Peninsula. However, paradoxically, the farming skills of the people in this region were not very high.

It can’t be helped.

Farming is treated as the exclusive domain of the weak and is all pushed to slaves. Would you rather have new technologies or work hard? It is usually difficult to excel when you are looked down upon.

Honestly, it’s a shame.

‘Leaving this good land…?’

In the history of the Yuan dynasty, farming began in earnest around the time of King Yun Shang of the Yue dynasty.

This expanded to include development of the entire Gangnam area, starting from the Wu Dynasty under Sun Quan through the Six Dynasties period.

It is believed that Gangnam began to surpass Gangbuk in terms of production during the Southern Song Dynasty.

To be honest, it’s a bit strange. In some ways, Gangnam is a better place than Hwabuk.

There are quite a few theories as to why this is.

The theory is that because the average pace of technological development in Gangnam was slower than in Gangbuk, development was also slower.

There is a theory that the remaining communities, which were made up of tribes and villages due to the large amount of jungle, lacked the unity to carry out projects such as flood control.

There is a theory that Gangnam people simply relied more on maritime activities than farming, etc.

These theories are all well-founded, and perhaps due to these complex reasons, Gangnam, despite its enormous potential, had to wait quite a long time to blossom.

‘But now it’s different.’

I have no intention of leaving this land alone.

‘Because it’s a fraudulent land.’

Asadal is usually practiced in the north with three crops every two years, and in the south with double cropping. That is, in the north, wheat, millet, and soybeans are planted in rotation over two years, while in the south, rice and barley are planted in rotation every year.

However, this area is basically a double cropping area, meaning you can plant rice twice. If you do it well, you can plant beans once in between, so you can have three crops a year.

That means, even for the same size of rice paddy, the yield is roughly twice that of Asadal’s rice paddy.

“What if we used the freed slaves in this area as labor, and introduced iron farm tools, pulleys, and water wheels?”

“We will be able to secure sufficient agricultural productivity. At least, we will be able to supply grain to places like Habayi Island and Heukgaek Island.”

Jin Go, from the Yan state, answered. As expected from a person from North China, his knowledge of agriculture was quite outstanding.

“Besides, there is no need to worry about this port being taken over.”

“yes.”

That is, in order to occupy this area, they also have to use the sea… Hmm, if they can come to the sea after seeing the fast-moving creatures of Asadal, then they are crazy.

‘Besides, the port defenses have also been roughly prepared.’

The port is now surrounded by fences and moats, and stakes and ropes have been prepared as best as possible. In addition, Asadal’s swiftmen are waiting around.

Then it’s a land battle.

The problem is that this area is a jungle.

Rhinos live here, crocodiles live there. Except for elephants, there’s pretty much everything.

‘There’s a reason why the moon people are crazy about the sea.’

At this point, it’s really hard to go around on land and not at sea.

‘You can tell just by looking at the country.’

Two hundred years later, Wu was really doing well. Wu King Fuchai and He Li, who broke the pottery of the state of Qi and took over half of Shandong, even earned the title of conqueror.

Here, King Fuchai of Wu, who had become confident, led 50,000 troops and invaded the Yue Kingdom.

He was cut down by the 5,000 soldiers of King Goujian of the Yue Dynasty, and was destroyed by Goujian’s attack.

There is no need to look at just the country.

During World War II, the Japanese military’s Renya Mudaguchi, a major power in East Asia, starved his soldiers to death while fighting through the jungles of India, and the Yuan Dynasty and the United States, the most powerful countries at the time, also died in the jungles of Vietnam.

Instead of keeping these slaves in one place, Asadal settled them in nearby areas.

-Asadal!

-Asadal!!!!

They were grateful for Asadal’s grace and knelt down. Of course, Asadal did not do this simply because he was ‘good.’

“They will be a force in their own right, and if anyone invades this place, they will come to our aid from all sides.”

Unpredictable enemies coming from all directions in the jungle. This will make the numerous forces that entered the jungle rack their brains.

Jingo then said:

“…but, it might not work out well.”

“Why?”

“They will fight vigorously. If they are eaten by others, there is a high chance that they will be enslaved again. However, they are slaves. They do not know how to fight. In the end, we need a means to turn them into fighters. Otherwise, they will just be plundered again and fed to the surrounding tribes.”

“What if Asadal’s soldiers teach you?”

“It’s hard.”

Jingo pointed out.

“First, Asadal’s soldiers cannot come here in large numbers. Even if they do come, they are usually naval forces and do not know how to fight on land.

Second, even if you bring soldiers who know how to fight on land, Asadal’s soldiers are only accustomed to fighting in the mountains and on the plains, and are not accustomed to fighting in swamps like this.

Third, the education itself is difficult. Asadal operates by conscripting soldiers and having senior soldiers teach junior soldiers. However, how can they handle everyone who is separated from the tribe and village?

Fourth, if this is to be the case, someone will have to enter their tribe and live with them and teach them. But who in Asadal would want that?”

Jingo offered the option of not giving up. It’s bothersome that there are only four of them. If I refuse, it seems like they’ll just retreat and attack Haedongseong.

But I am not a member of the Goryeo royal family. I know that these four nos. are reasonable, and I do not want to try to do something impossible.

At that, I laughed.

“I agree with you.”

“…Is there any other way?”

“Yes. In the end, what we need are people who are willing to teach us combat skills while living among them, right?”

“Is there anyone like that in Asadal?”

“You don’t necessarily have to search only in Asadal.”

“ah.”

Only then did Jingo realize what I was saying.

“Are you talking about the martial arts world?”

“Yes, they are accustomed to fighting in rough terrain, and they enjoy living with the common people… They will definitely send a messenger here. They also owe a debt to Asadal.”

If Asadal finds it difficult to strengthen their power directly.

Just outsource it to the martial artists.

***

Settling these slave tribes and using them as a breakwater for Asadal will likely be the final terrestrial task for Asadal’s spice route.

And at the same time, it was also my last job.

“I would like to leave the responsibility of overseeing this area to you, Sohyeopbo.”

“Me?”

“Yeah. The name… I guess Moonlight Pearl would be appropriate. Do you know what we need to do first?”

“It’s a western district.”

“That’s right. I’ll leave a few here so I can create a pigeon route connecting this area and Habayi Island.”

So after finishing my work, I left the area in charge of Jingo, Adalla, and Sohyeopbo, and returned to Asadal.

Taiwan, at the southernmost tip of Central Plains.

Ryukyu in Taiwan.

Arrived in Nagasaki from Ryukyu.

“This, Asadal.”

As soon as I arrived in Nagasaki, I wrote a letter and had it delivered.

Since it was a long letter, I used a messenger instead of a messenger. Naturally, it was a letter sent to the people of the martial arts world.

‘They will definitely send a messenger.’

The preceptor is roughly similar to a Catholic bishop. He is dispatched to a region to expand the influence of the religion. And since the number of people in the martial arts world is power, this expansion of the influence of the religion was quite active.

From the current perspective, the two main doctrines of the Murim religion are ‘repaying debts owed’ and ‘expanding the religious influence by helping the common people.’

‘Of course, that alone doesn’t move it.’

The martial arts forces have already established themselves in the Sacheon region. At this point, it is quite difficult to move around based on just a cause.

What is a just cause? It’s not something that you have to follow unconditionally, but something closer to ‘something that you can definitely fight for if you bring it up.’

Conversely, if there is no reason to fight, even if the cause is excellent, there are more cases where it is simply overlooked.

That is why I asked for help not only for this reason. It is something more certain and visible.

-Ask them for personnel, and tell them that in return you will receive two boxes of Whanghwangcheongsimwon.

That is Whanghwangcheongsimwon.

You can’t say it’s just one medicine.

To the martial artists, Woohwangcheongsimwon is like Asadal’s black horn or spices to Europeans.

It is by no means a quality that can be ignored and said, ‘It doesn’t matter if it’s not there’, it is the power of the leader itself.

So, this is effectively a deal of ‘giving Whanghwangcheongsimwon and increasing manpower’, but on the surface, it will look like ‘the martial artists are moving for favor and a cause, and Asadal is impressed by it and gives Whanghwangcheongsimwon’.

This is also a win-win for both parties.

At that point, I fell into some very serious trouble.

‘If a martial arts faction were to form, what would its name be?’

The area we occupied was the southernmost part of Guangdong Province.

Originally, the one in this area was Haomen, but since Haomen is Sapa, they won’t use it there.

‘Then Haenampa?’

It’s a plausible name, since it’s located near the southern sea.

The home of the Hainan faction is not Guangdong, but Hainan Island in Hainan Province, further west. If the Hainan faction is in Guangdong, then that is a historical error.

‘…Well, Young-Cheok will take care of naming it.’

If this letter reaches the people of Murim.

They will bring the Wu Lin faction to Guangdong.

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If they start living together with the freed slaves… Asadal will be able to gain a fairly strong local support force.

‘So now… what I have to do is done.’

The spice route is now established.

As a result of the election held in the summer, Guan Yi was officially elected.

The work has been completed and a successor has been chosen.

Thinking so, I looked up at the sky.

It’s already fall, the 10th anniversary of Barang.

The sky is clear.

It was the first day of retirement.

***

Janggi-do, Nagasaki, a hub of the spice route.

There I met an unexpected person.

“…What is it, Agol? Why are you here?”

“…Huh? Oh, even if you don’t say anything, it’ll be uploaded soon. The coffin is really bad these days.”

“No, what I mean is… why are you in Asadal? The war in my country must have ended, so shouldn’t you be in the Central Plains by now?”

“Huh?”

Agol answered those words.

“The war in my country hasn’t ended yet? You didn’t know… No, of course you didn’t know.”

I was a little surprised by those words.

“The war between my country and the Song Dynasty isn’t over yet?”

In the history of Yuan, the war between the Qi and Song dynasties should have ended by now. The fighting dragged on, and the Zhou dynasty intervened, and the two countries reached a ceasefire.

But the current situation was different from the history I knew.

“The Song Dynasty has already fallen. Now, the Qi Dynasty is fighting the Lu Dynasty.”

…what?

***

A few months before I left.

My country invaded Song by borrowing the route of Lu.

In the history of the original, no particular problems occurred.

But this time, history was different.

Unlike the Yuan Dynasty, the current Lu Dynasty did not have good feelings toward the Qi Dynasty.

It is because my country broke its promise with the country of Lu.

-Your Majesty, didn’t you clearly say you would return our land?

-Promise? Is that the promise that your general Jo Mal gave me while holding a knife to my neck after cutting off his head?

In the original history, Guan Wu persuaded Jiang Xiaobai to keep this promise. However, in this history, Guan Wu was not there.

Although it was said that even Posuk-ah, who studied with Guan-oh and Dongmun-su, should keep his promise, there were also those who insisted that he should not keep his promise like Dong-gwak-ah. And the result was as follows.

-I will break the promise. Even if I break it, who in the world will blame me, Kang So-baek?

Kang So-baek chose not to keep his promise.

It was truly a shocking statement for the nation of No, but they could not question it. Instead, they slowly hid and waited for an opportunity.

And then, when the Song and Qi states were at war, the opportunity came. The state of Lu immediately joined hands with the Song state and struck the back of the head of the state of Qi.

-What the heck is this!

-You broke your promise first, so do we really have to keep the terms of the covenant? If you don’t give us back the land, we will get it with our own strength!

In that way, the army of my country led by Posuk-ah was surprised in the rear and lost a considerable number of troops.

-What do you mean, we lost 100 chariots!

-I’m sorry, Gong!-Posuk, I trusted my teacher!

Kang So-baek became angry at this.

-I, I will never leave those Lu and Song bastards behind. I will lead the army myself!

He pushed aside the defeated general, Po Suk-ah, and led the cavalry himself to his father’s court. And, Duke Huan of Je was still Duke Huan of Je.

He swept away the rearguard of the state of Lu and secured the road again, and led his soldiers to defeat the large army of the state of Song, achieving great feats.

Accordingly, Song Yuyeol, the king of the Song Dynasty, requested mediation from the Zhou Dynasty.

– Our Song is the descendants of the past Shang. And the one who destroyed the Shang was the Zhou Dynasty. However, they want to destroy us now and take away the achievements of the past kings. Doesn’t that mean that the Zhou Dynasty’s righteousness will be taken away by the Qi Dynasty?

Besides, we are dukes appointed by the Zhou dynasty, while they are marquises. A marquis beating a duke? This is something unheard of in the world!

The Zhou Dynasty must have thought this was right, and urged Jiang Xiaobai to stop there.

Yuan Dynasty’s Jiang Xiaobai listened to these words. At that time, there was no betrayal from the state of Lu, so he was not angry, and the state of Song also held out quite well.

But this time, history was different.

Kang So-baek was already furious to the point of hair loss.

In addition, Kang So-baek had two weapons that had never been seen before in Yuan history.

-I will lead the cavalry corps myself!

One was the cavalry, which was introduced about 300 years earlier than the Yuan Dynasty, and the second was.

-Pikemen! Advance!

It’s a long spear. Of course, it’s something that didn’t exist in the original history.

But why did this suddenly come out?

That’s because Asadal wrote it.

Kang So-baek closely observed Asadal’s forces during the Je-Yeon War. Asadal’s infantry consisted of pikemen with large spears and round shields, and longsword men armed with square shields, crossbows, and short swords.

First of all, the long swordsman is difficult.

That would really eat up a lot of metal. My country still lacks iron technology, so unlike Asadal, bronze is the main material. It would be difficult to distribute swords that consume a lot of metal on a large scale.

But Jangchangbyeong is different.

The bronze needed to make one sword can be used to make five spears. The Jin Dynasty of Yuan history also armed all its troops with bronze weapons and defeated the Chu Dynasty, which used iron weapons.

And there is a lot of bronze in my country now.

They conquered the Yan kingdom and obtained their vast quantities of bronze, and even imported copper from Asadal.

In this way, the phalanx, which originally originated in Greece, was transmitted to Asadal and then to my country.

-Tank team! Tank team, what are you doing!

– It’s completely shattered! The horses don’t even think about running towards the window!

-Why don’t you just aim for the side?

-There’s a shield on the side too… Kwaak!

Oh, and my country’s pikemen, aligned with the enemy, succeeded in destroying the Song chariot battalion in an instant.

The Song Dynasty, seeing this for the first time, was unable to find a way to deal with the long spearmen, and even chariots and horses were helpless against spears three times longer than a man.

At this point, the Zhou dynasty intervened again.

-Stop it! Are you planning to fill the entire Central Plains with war? If you don’t step down from here, I will think you are disobeying the Zhou Dynasty!

It wasn’t just on the outside.

It’s the same inside.

-You should stop fighting at this point! Song Yeol’s recklessness has already been punished!

Posuk-ah stopped Je-hwan-gong.

But Kang So-baek didn’t listen to that.

– Posuk-ah, you are not a great teacher, a great leader, or a great general. The teacher was defeated a while ago, and I was victorious. When it comes to war, I am one step ahead of you.

-What on earth are you planning to do?

-If the Zhou dynasty will never treat me as a vassal, then I will not treat you as the emperor either!

-What is that…

-The era of the Zhou Dynasty ended when Duke Zhang of Zheng attacked and defeated the Zhou Dynasty. No, no. It ended when King You of Zhou was deceived by Bao Shi and played with beacon fires to fool the feudal lords!

He shouted.

-Now, it is time for a new era to begin.

-Your Majesty, do you plan to become the emperor?

-The ceremony held at Mount Tai is called Feng, and the ceremony held at Yangbo is called Seon. Together, these are called the Fengxian Ceremony, and the King of Zhou proclaimed himself the Emperor through Fengxian.

But now the Zhou Dynasty has neither Taishan nor Yangbo. They are both in my hands, which means that I am the only one in the world who can perform the Fengxian Festival. If this is not the will of heaven coming to me, then what else could it be?

At these words, several of his subjects stepped forward.

-Yes, that is correct!

It was Donggwak who said that.

Dongguo Ya was originally a somewhat extreme subject, and he was not pleased with the Zhou Dynasty’s words telling him to stop the war that had already been won and withdraw.

Kang So-baek laughed at these words.

-The barbarians of the state of Chu also call themselves kings, and in the past, the people of the state of Yan also called themselves kings. But how can it be that I am a vassal?

Then Posuk-ah shouted again.

-This is not the time to clumsily imitate the emperor!

At those words, Kang So-baek’s expression crumpled.

-Master. That is truly rude. Since you are an old master, I suppose you momentarily mistook me for a former student.

-The other lords will not stay still!

-What feudal lord in the world can defeat me! The Chu bastards who were blocked by the martial artists? The Wu who fought with Yue? The ruffian Noh? Or the toothless Zhou? Tell me! Who can stop me, Jiang Xiaobai!

At this point, Donggwak also came forward.

-Besides, I heard that the current leader of Asadal is Gwan-o. This means that our country has a good reputation within Asadal. Also, Gwan-o is a person from our country, so he will not easily think of attacking us.

-Besides, Asadal has been busy building a fleet recently and has neglected the army. So now is the chance to seize the world!

Kang So-baek laughed at those words.

-Look, many of my subjects agree with what I say.

-Besides, the master was defeated, but I won. You do not know much about war and conquest.

-And didn’t you always nag me about everything I did?

At this, Posuk despaired.

What if just one person opened their mouth to help you?

Or what if you were more capable and didn’t lose?

Or, if you hadn’t been following Kang So-baek around and telling him the right things.

Would the results have been different?

***

“In that way, Kang So-baek performed the Bongseonje and proclaimed himself king. As a result, the Zhou and Lu states asked for our help. As someone in charge of Asadal’s diplomacy, I would like to say… If Asadal destroys the state of Je now, the Central Plains will applaud us instead of criticizing us.”

So, to summarize this situation…

On the first day of retirement, the North opened.

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