There Is No Sejong In My Joseon [EN]: Chapter 244

Water Knows the Answer (2)

< Water Knows the Answer (2) >

North of Yeongdo Bridge in Cheonggyecheon [a stream in Seoul], there is a washing place.

Like any other washing place, this Cheonggyecheon washing place also served as a playground for children and a social hub for women. Even now, women were gathered, chatting away while holding their clothes.

Normally, they would tirelessly gossip about their husbands or in-laws, but today’s topic was a bit different.

“Oh, sister! Where did you get this washboard? It’s different from mine!”

“My husband bought it when he went to the market the other day. It doesn’t cost much, so don’t just scrape by with what you have. Just buy one. The carpenters of Hansang [a historical district known for craftsmanship] don’t make things carelessly.”

The women sitting around her cast envious glances.

The history of the washboard is surprisingly short.

Until the 18th century when the washboard was invented in Europe, people washed their clothes by rubbing and smoothing them on flat rocks.

The women, who had lived their whole lives believing that this was how laundry was done, showed enthusiastic support for this item coming from the East Palace [referring to the Crown Prince’s residence, implying innovation], as always.

A simple structure of carving grooves into a wooden board to create ridges.

Yet, it could remove dirt much more efficiently than before, greatly saving time and effort. Before long, it was rare to see someone without a washboard.

Most were handmade, but before long, some merchants in the market were selling dozens of washboards.

While the women were talking about how their husbands didn’t care about their wives’ arms falling off, or how they would torment them every night if they didn’t buy one, a strange sound broke into their chatter.

– Clunk! Clunk!

“What is that sound?”

The women who were doing laundry stood up one by one and looked towards the upper reaches of the stream. Something was turning around, making a clunking sound.

“Oh my, how strange. What kind of goblin thing is that?”

“Goblins, my foot. It must be a new device from the East Palace.”

The reputation of the East Palace’s devices was well known to all the people, except for the bumpkins from Samsugapsan [a remote mountain area, implying unsophisticated people].

Anything from the East Palace was good and useful, and once you got one, it was incredibly convenient.

Before long, the Joseon people, when they saw something strange, became curious and hopeful, rather than wary or ominous.

The women’s topic of conversation quickly shifted from washboards to East Palace devices.

Believing that it would somehow be helpful to their lives.

The waterwheel proposed by Park Seo-saeng was a method of raising water by turning a wheel, and it could supply water up to a height of about 1 meter.

I tilted my head at the familiar structure.

‘It looks like something that was used in salt fields back in the day.’

By ‘back in the day’ I don’t mean the Joseon Dynasty, but the old days by modern standards.

In other words, it was something that had been used continuously until modern times.

The problem is the lack of skill of the artisans.

The reason why waterwheels haven’t been used properly is because of severe leaks.

I thought that the artisans and workshops in each region had been working hard, so they should have secured that level of skill, but…

‘It’s much better than drawing water in buckets and pouring it.’

That’s what I thought.

Of course, I wasn’t planning to rely on just one waterwheel.

“The rise and fall of the river water depends on the heavens, but we can’t just not supply water during the dry season.”

I also prepared a plan to utilize groundwater in preparation for that time.

‘Until now, groundwater has only been used for drawing well water.’

It was the same in my country in Africa.

It was difficult to find and install a motor pump because there were many neighborhoods without electricity, and the price was also high.

What I used then was something called a MoneyMaker.

‘It’s a kind of portable manual pump.’

The structure is simpler than a motor pump.

All you have to do is grab the handle and step on the pump’s pedal, and the groundwater is designed to come up through the pump.

It can draw water from tens of meters below, so the performance is clearly great compared to the simple structure.

‘Above all, the advantage is that there is no need to use iron.’

The original form of this MoneyMaker is a bamboo pedal pump developed in Bangladesh.

It draws water manually, so it doesn’t require electricity, and it can be made from materials other than iron, so if you know how to make it, you can supply it as much as you want.

I also thought about the possibility of groundwater depletion due to the overuse of MoneyMaker, but…

‘No matter how good the MoneyMaker’s performance is, a manual pump is still a manual pump. There’s no need to worry about the groundwater running out.’

Waterwheel and MoneyMaker.

If the water supply problem is solved through these two, agricultural productivity will definitely increase.

The range of usable water resources will also increase significantly, and the manpower to water the rice paddies will also be reduced.

‘Thinking like this, Park Seo-saeng did a great job.’

Of course, I was in charge of 90% of the practical work, but the idea of using a waterwheel was good.

‘He was even shedding tears when he saw the waterwheels turning.’

His passion is truly admirable.

I must send him to the Ministry of Construction later to suit his aptitude.

Thinking that, I focused my gaze on Cheonggyecheon, which was beginning to appear in the distance.

I could see several waterwheels that I had designed myself busily turning.

They are called by the same name, waterwheel, but the waterwheel made by Park Seo-saeng and the waterwheel I made are different.

If Park Seo-saeng’s waterwheel is for pumping water for irrigation, the waterwheel I made is for turning various machine tools using water power.

Cheonggyecheon is a large stream that runs through Hanyang [old name for Seoul], and the current is decent, so I was thinking of creating an industrial complex using water power in this area.

‘Park Seo-saeng’s words gave me inspiration.’

There is no need to use it all year round, and the efficiency is sufficient even if you use it for about half of the year.

‘Was it also a prejudice that factories have to run 365 days a year?’

I lived in modern times where it is normal for factories to run processes all year round, so perhaps it was a natural prejudice.

The people gathered in Cheonggyecheon cheered as soon as they saw the royal carriage.

“The Crown Prince is coming!”

“His Highness the Crown Prince!”

“Your Highness, may you live long!”

Seeing the people who were hastily prostrating on both sides of the road, not forgetting to exclaim, the corners of my mouth lifted slightly.

However, as you can tell from the word royal carriage, I am not the only one riding in it.

“These,,, these guys,,, I’m here too,,,!”

Lee Bang-gwa [the King Emeritus, uncle of the Crown Prince] was furious.

‘He’s tagging along, but he’s reacting like this.’

I looked at my uncle with cold eyes.

I only included him because he ran to the East Palace as soon as he heard that there was a waterwheel unveiling ceremony in Cheonggyecheon.

‘Well, it’s a relief that he’s enthusiastic about events.’

He has no real power and has the title of king, so it’s perfect to send him to such events.

That’s why I readily allowed him to accompany me.

‘If someone with the weight of the King Emeritus attends, the morale of the artisans will rise.’

Isn’t that why I deliberately introduced events like the unveiling ceremony to Joseon?

If high-ranking people visit, the lower people will inevitably be exhausted, but in this era, there is still ‘romance’ [meaning a sense of idealism and dedication].

If the king himself gives even a word of encouragement, these ordinary people will take it as a lifelong pride.

It’s a caste society, but we have to use everything we can.

So I called a few Seungjeongwon Seungji [Royal Secretariat officials] who publish the Jobo [official gazette].

Perhaps tomorrow’s Jobo will have an article saying, ‘His Majesty the King Emeritus and His Highness the Crown Prince inspected Cheonggyecheon, where waterwheels were installed, and encouraged the artisans.’

The Jobo is delivered to local governors every five or ten days, so it will also be used as a signal to install waterwheels in their towns.

An article explaining the wonders and manufacturing methods of the waterwheel will also be included.

The Seungji, who heard my detailed requirements, scratched the back of their heads and said.

“If we write everything down as Your Highness said, there seems to be not enough space, but…”

Shut up.

How much paper did I make? Just increase the amount of Jobo.

I was probably the first person to specify every single detail of the article, so the Seungji looked troubled, but what can they do but do as they are told?

‘This is all government policy promotion.’

The Jobo is a government gazette, so of course it should cooperate with national policy promotion.

What the provinces need is irrigation rather than industrial waterwheels in Cheonggyecheon, so we should emphasize that more.

Park Seo-saeng said it was good for cultivating rice paddies?

“Your Highness, isn’t this encouraging transplanting?”

“Is that so?”

Among the rice paddy farming methods, there is also direct seeding, but the one that is recently gaining popularity is transplanting.

It is a farming method that is the mainstream even in modern times, so there is no reason not to introduce it.

“However, Your Highness. Transplanting is prohibited by the country, so we cannot encourage it through the Jobo. No matter how much Your Highness is, the national law is the national law…”

“Huh?”

Who banned it?

When I looked at them with such eyes, the Seungji all pointed to one place with their eyes.

At the end of that was Changdeokgung [one of the main royal palaces in Seoul], where I had just come from.

“My father?”

Nod nod.

My mind went blank.

===

In this era, transplanting is basically high-risk, high-return.

If you farm with direct seeding, you can still harvest a little even if it doesn’t rain, but if you can’t supply water when transplanting, all the rice will dry up.

“If you farm with direct seeding, you can barely make a living, but if transplanting fails, you have no choice but to starve to death!”

“Is farming a neighborhood gambling game? If farming goes well, they will say it’s all thanks to transplanting, and if it doesn’t, they will blame the sky and waste the Hwan-gok [government-loaned grain]!”

For this reason, Taejong [King Taejong, Lee Bang-won’s father] had to ban transplanting, saying that there was a risk of crop failure if he met Han-geon [severe drought].

However, with the expansion of various irrigation facilities during the Saemaul Undong movement [a modernization movement in South Korea in the 1970s].

And as the waterwheel and MoneyMaker were sequentially supplied, other opinions began to emerge among the officials.

The risk has decreased to the point where it cannot be compared to the past, so there is no need to prohibit transplanting, which can be expected to have a high yield.

Of course, even if the technical problems were almost solved, there were always those who were skeptical…

“Rice, it’s rice!”

“More rice! More profit!”

However, these doubts were crushed by frenzied humans.

It was the meritorious subjects [nobles who contributed to the founding of the dynasty].

“If you direct seed, the yield is mediocre, but if you transplant, the yield is doubled. But if you direct seed, it takes twice as much effort, and if you transplant, it takes only half as much effort, so you’re a fool if you don’t transplant.”

“Are you only going to farm once a year? Sprout the rice seeds in the seedbed, and grow barley in the rice paddies in the meantime!”

If the production of rice increases, the amount of taxes collected through Jo-un [a system of transporting taxes] will also increase.

The share that will fall to them will also increase, so the voices of those who interfere by mentioning minor risks could not be heard.

“The old man of Gi’s worry (杞憂) [an idiom referring to groundless fears] is exactly what this is. There has never been a failure in what Your Highness has done so far, so will that happen in encouraging agriculture!”

“There is also a water pump (MoneyMaker), so if necessary, you can draw water from under the ground and grow it.”

“Your Majesty, please abolish the ban on transplanting!”

Lee Bang-won was lost in thought after receiving the strong demands of the meritorious subjects.

‘Transplanting, huh.’

Clearly, from the beginning of the country, there was a strong public opinion to ban it, and Lee Bang-won himself agreed with it.

However, his mind, which rarely changed, was wavering.

It was not only because of the request of the meritorious subjects.

This was due to his confidence rather than their greed.

Even in the past droughts and floods, the damage was not small, but they saw the effects of preparing for several years.

Now, even if a famine strikes, he was confident that the country would not be shaken.

Rather, that confidence was holding him back.

‘Our people can eat enough even with direct seeding.’

Even in the situation where the ban was maintained, the yield continued to increase.

The country was stable, and it was the result of the business that his son had started.

But what if the whole country, or even the three southern provinces that are in charge of the core of this country’s agriculture, were to fail?

Wouldn’t the results that his son has achieved so far be reduced to nothing?

Should he maintain the ban even if he gets less?

It was when Lee Bang-won came to that conclusion that the Crown Prince Lee Je came to Heejungdang [a building in the palace].

< Water Knows the Answer (2) > End

ⓒ Pitkong

There Is No Sejong In My Joseon [EN]

There Is No Sejong In My Joseon [EN]

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Status: Completed Author: Native Language: Korean
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[English Translation] Imagine a Joseon dynasty unlike any you've read before, where the throne isn't yours by right, but by cunning and strategy. What if the most revered king in Korean history, Sejong the Great, was your younger brother? Forced to confront a destiny not of your choosing, you face a daunting question: Can you truly surrender to fate, or will you defy it to forge your own legend in a kingdom ripe with ambition and intrigue? Dive into a world where blood is thicker than water, but power is the ultimate prize. Will you yield, or will you rise?

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