Chapter 29
If there's one fact that even I, and even a Confucian-crazed old fogey, can agree on...
Joseon is a country that runs on the people—more precisely, on the farmers.
If farmers don't produce food, neither the king, nor the scholars, nor the merchants, nor anyone else can escape starving to death.
So right now, without the slightest exaggeration, 'improving agricultural productivity' is the same as economic growth.
If yields go up by 10 percent, that's the same as raising the country's overall economic growth rate by 10 percent.
So for the proper, leap-forward growth of Joseon's economy, isn't it only natural that I step in to introduce new farming methods and tools?
“Oh, Lord Kim Sujan—no, aren't you Sujan?”
It had only been two months since Jang Yeong-sil became an official.
So it seems he still hasn't quite shaken the habit of calling yangban officials 'nari.'
Still, I like that even after becoming an official, he doesn't toss aside his hammer and pick up only a brush, never showing any sign of losing his original spirit.
People who lose their original spirit, or their essence, usually just rot away...
Jang Yeong-sil remained a craftsman until the day he died.
Because he's that kind of man, I want to give him a chance to benefit Joseon far and wide.
Ah, wait—how does Jang Yeong-sil even know me?
I'm not a minister or anything; I'm only a mere sixth-rank Sujan of Jiphyeonjeon...
“Pleased to meet you, Lord Byeoljwa. This humble official is Kim Daebung, the Jiphyeonjeon Sujan. My pen name is Jukheon.”
“Jukheon—no, Sujan Kim...”
It seems Jang Yeong-sil still couldn't shake off his old habits, because calling me 'Sujan Kim' must have felt terribly awkward.
I should start talking business and get out of this awkward situation as fast as possible.
“I've felt this ever since I was magistrate of Jinhae: farming is truly the foundation of all under heaven. So I believe it is a retainer's duty to develop good farming methods and tools and spread them widely so farmers can get better harvests.”
“...... Still, studying the classics...”
“If scholars of outstanding learning from all eight provinces of Joseon pass the state examinations and assist Your Majesty, then food and wealth could be distributed evenly to the people, which would be good too. But isn't it more important first to increase the amount of wealth that can be distributed? And that depends on 'good machines (tools)' and 'good farming methods,' doesn't it?”
Confucius and Mencius thought the Confucian Way would save the people, but in reality it was technological progress that saved them.
After the Industrial Revolution—or more precisely, after Fritz Haber worked the 'miracle of making bread from air' known as atmospheric nitrogen fixation—starving to death gradually became rare in this world.
As a result, in modern society it's hard to find people who die of starvation unless you go to places like Africa during famine or war.
Even in slums in underdeveloped countries, people dying from 'hunger' have become rare.
As someone who knows the history of later generations, I can't help but hold craftsmen like Jang Yeong-sil in high regard.
This is my honest feeling.
“Didn't Your Majesty grant Lord Byeoljwa his office because you valued his skill in an area other officials can't handle—the technology for increasing the amount of rice the people can eat?”
When Jang Yeong-sil heard me, he took my hand with a deeply moved expression and his eyes grew red.
“...... Even now, some officials look down on me and scorn me because I was born a slave. To think there's a young official who values me this highly. I'm truly grateful. Though I may be uneducated compared to the other officials, I can do things they can't...”
Since he's an old hand who's spent his whole life developing technology, unlike the exam-born officials who only know how to talk big, he's incredibly simple and sincere.
Good. Now that I've won this man's trust and favor, I can toss work at him to my heart's content, right?
If I ask him to make farm tools under the pretense that it's to help poor commoners...
He'll make them very diligently.
Then Hojo and Gongjo would get hit with a flood of work over distributing farm tools, and they'd be frantic, demanding that I present the solution I'd already prepared.
The measures are already in place, so I just have to answer at my leisure.
“Could you spare me a moment?”
“Helping Sujan Kim feels like the way to repay Your Majesty's grace.”
“We're repaying that grace together by serving loyally and loving the country, Lord Byeoljwa.”
“Being loyal to the king and loving the country is a person's proper duty. Yes, absolutely. If there's any way to repay Your Majesty's grace for freeing my old mother from slavery and letting her enjoy her old age in comfort, I'll roll up my sleeves and take on any hard job. One who doesn't know gratitude can't be called human.”
I succeeded in winning Jang Yeong-sil over! Now it's time to move on to developing farm tools.
“First, please take a look at this.”
“Isn't this a waterwheel?”
“Yes, that's right. But this waterwheel isn't driven by the flow of water; people step on it directly to draw water up.”
“That would make it easier to irrigate rice fields or supply water to canals running along the fields.”
“It's no exaggeration to say that whether farming ends in famine or abundance depends on how well you irrigate, isn't it?”
“As you say, Sujan Kim, the success or failure of farming really does come down to watering the fields. That's why the Grand King Emeritus (Yi Bang-won) banned transplanting rice seedlings.”
In the early Joseon period, if you were caught using transplanting, you'd be beaten with a cudgel.
It wasn't that the yangban were being petty because they hated poor people getting rich; it was because there were too few reservoirs, so even a little less rain could easily ruin a crop.
But what if bringing in water became easier?
Then there'd be no reason to ban transplanting, and the people could use it to get bigger harvests and raise their income.
In a word, everyone would be happy.
The yangban, the merchants, and the common people alike.
“And this is a device I've named Yongmi. Inside it is a spiral-shaped mechanism that draws water up. As this device turns, it pulls up water and can redirect the water flow.”
A Yongmi is a water-lifting pump powered by flowing water.
If you set up several of these in places like the middle or lower reaches of the great rivers where the water flows strongly and dig canals, you can greatly extend the length of canals that can be supplied with water.
That means reclaiming wasteland would become much easier, and countless commoners would get the chance to acquire their own 'land.'
“What an impressive tool. With just these two tools, farming would become much easier.”
“The tools I have in mind aren't limited to these.”
“Oh, there are more?”
“Yes, I have plenty of tools I thought up in my spare time while serving as magistrate of Jinhae.”
Maybe it was just my imagination, but it seemed like some high-ranking official had just passed by Jang Yeong-sil and me.
That official looked at me and said, 'A work-crazed demon has come to Sanguiwon!'
I think he said something like that, but I must have heard wrong, right?
I just want the common people to be happy, and the officials to go home on time...
I'm only working for Joseon's development.
I'm doing something that benefits the people of Joseon as a whole—who would call that a demon?
Come to think of it, Sanguiwon is also the office in charge of clothing.
Should I just go ahead and hand over sketches for a sewing machine, a spinning machine, and a weaving machine?
Then the chief of Sanguiwon would probably be beside himself with joy.
Once those are all made, clothing production could increase by at least ten times.
For a moment I was annoyed, but seeing Jang Yeong-sil grin as he looked over the tool designs I'd drawn made me happy again.
“These should certainly be able to benefit Joseon.”
“Yes, they are. And when building canals, isn't the hardest part actually hauling earth? If we use a machine called a geojunggi at that time...”
I roughly sketched the geojunggi invented by Jeong Yak-yong.
It was only a rough sketch of how the pulleys were structured...
I drew it terribly, but Jang Yeong-sil understood it perfectly.
“I see, so the rope passes through this round object and reduces the weight, making it easier to lift? You mean like a bucket and rope.”
“Your insight is truly remarkable.”
“It's nothing. I should be able to do at least this much.”
Jang Yeong-sil says it's nothing, but he seems extremely pleased.
His face was lit up with a bright smile, and his shoulders had naturally risen with pride.
Sometimes it's better to pretend not to know, even when you do... so I'll just play dumb.
“And farm tools, including plows, don't need to be made with such complicated structures as they are now.”
“Wouldn't it be better to make them a little more complex if that meant they'd be sturdy and precise to use?”
“If all the artisans among the commoners had the skill of Lord Byeoljwa or the craftsmen of Sanguiwon, that would be one thing. But when I was magistrate of Jinhae, I saw the skill of the gongjangs—another word for artisans—and it wasn't all that refined. Besides, these farm tools will first be made by artisans conscripted for corvée labor and then spread nationwide. What quality could you expect from tools they have to make under duress?”
According to a post some alternate-history gallery user made long ago, even if technology, soil fertility, weather, and everything else were exactly the same.
the yields of fields farmed by tenant farmers and those farmed by independent farmers differed by about 30 percent.
And let alone that—would guys dragged in for corvée labor really bother to make delicate agricultural tools carefully?
It would be more realistic for heaven to take pity on some guy who's never even dated and drop a beautiful girl into his room.
The former is 0%, while the latter at least has a 0.000000001% chance.
“I myself have liked making things ever since I was a government slave, so I studied and practiced hard... But the other slaves thought the harder they worked, the more work they'd get, so it was a loss for them. People like that would never put effort into making complicated, delicate things.”
“So they need to be made easy to produce and tough enough to be used roughly.”
“Understood. I'll keep that in mind.”
And so I kept talking 'business' with Jang Yeong-sil.
And before our conversation was over, an elderly gentleman in a blue official robe appeared before us and shouted at us.
“It's time to leave the office, so hurry home and rest.”
“My apologies, sir.”
I shouldn't make the other officials work overtime because of me.
Right, this is enough to throw at him for now.
If the sharp-witted Jang Yeong-sil, who gets things instantly, focuses on making the farm tools I suggested... then Joseon's agricultural technology will advance enormously in the near future.
And the problems that arise in the process will come to me, but since I already have solutions prepared in my head... I'll be able to work at ease for a while.
“Sorry for the trouble.”
After bowing politely, I left the Sanguiwon office.
Then someone behind me shouted loudly.
“...... So all of these are farm tools devised by Sujan Kim?! Oh no, our Sanguiwon's clocking out on time is gone for good.”
That wasn't Jang Yeong-sil's voice. That's fine.
Exactly one week later, a work bomb fell on Hojo and Gongjo, who had been living in the sweet comfort of clocking out on time.