There Is No Sejong In My Joseon [EN]: Chapter 39

< Iron Smelting for the Nation (1) >

Lee Seong-gye chuckled at my question.

“Do I need a reason to call you? I haven’t seen you in a while because I’ve been in Bupyeong. I just wanted to have a meal with you.”

Anyone would think he’s a grandfather worried about his grandson’s meal.

‘Whenever this old man acts like this, he always has something up his sleeve.’

I nodded, thinking that to myself.

Not long after I sat down, two tables laden with food were brought into the Taesangjeon [likely a private dining room or hall].

A neatly set table with bulgogi [Korean marinated beef] seasoned with soy sauce, grilled pollack, soup, and various side dishes.

Lee Seong-gye took a big spoonful of rice and asked.

“I heard that the Bang family, who had been living in poverty, have become successful. I heard you took good care of them?”

“Oh, well, family members should naturally help each other out.”

I played it cool.

To be honest, it was a very troublesome thing to do, and I didn’t want to do it again, but it’s already over.

A warm-hearted city man who cares about his family……

That’s me.

“Well done. A man should be like that. A guy who only cares about himself doesn’t deserve to be called a man.”

Lee Seong-gye readily agreed.

‘There’s no way Grandpa would praise me so easily like this?’

Normally, Lee Seong-gye would have told me not to say empty words.

I wondered what was going on with Lee Seong-gye and glanced at his face.

‘People say that if someone suddenly changes, they’re going to die.’

I was secretly worried about my grandfather’s remaining lifespan, but Lee Seong-gye seemed healthier than I thought.

He picked up a piece of grilled pollack with his chopsticks and said.

“I used to eat a lot of pollack in Dongbuk-myeon, where I lived. Pollack was caught as soon as you cast a net, so we made it into sundae [Korean sausage] and pickled it. There was nothing to throw away, so it was called the treasure of the sea.”

“Ah, yes. I see.”

Pickled pollack?

I can’t imagine it.

Lee Seong-gye put a piece of pollack on my rice and said.

“In my eyes, our grandson is like this pollack. A treasure that has nothing to throw away.”

I put down my chopsticks with a thud.

“Grandfather.”

“Hmm?”

“Just tell me straight. What do you want from me?”

Why are you beating around the bush when we all know each other?

But Lee Seong-gye pretended not to hear.

“Ahem, eat some rice first.”

‘You were the one who brought it up while eating.’

“How can I eat when the atmosphere is like this? Tell me first.”

“You brat, the way you talk to your grandfather.”

Yes, this is the Lee Seong-gye I know.

I sighed in relief.

Lee Seong-gye said sullenly.

“Do you know about Jeongopwon (淨業院) [a Buddhist temple for nuns]?”

I’ve heard of it since I came here.

I heard it’s a temple where royal women who have become nuns reside.

“Your aunts are staying there, and I donated some salt fields so they could live comfortably. But I heard you’ve had a great success this time… so I was hoping you could help out.”

“Excuse me?”

The people Lee Seong-gye mentioned were Princess Gyeongsun, the full-blooded sister of Lee Bang-beon and Lee Bang-seok, and Lady Hyebin Shim, Lee Bang-seok’s wife.

In other words, he wanted me to manage the salt fields of Jeongopwon so that his daughter and daughter-in-law, who lost their husbands at the hands of their father, could live comfortably.

“In the future, most of Joseon’s salt will shift from Jayeom [traditional Korean salt-making method using boiled seawater] to solar salt [salt produced by evaporating seawater using sunlight], and it doesn’t matter if I take care of those salt fields as well…”

“It’s not free?”

“Since I’m entrusting the management, you have to give me half of the salt that comes out of it.”

Since they are nuns, it would be difficult for them to manage it directly.

The cost of making Jayeom alone was enormous, so it wasn’t a loss for Jeongopwon either.

Lee Seong-gye nodded.

“I want to ask you to be lenient, but you’re not the type to bat an eye even if I do that, are you? This is probably reasonable if you want to be satisfied too.”

“What do you think of me usually……”

I’m always a warm-hearted man who cares about his family.

===

Of course, I couldn’t eat all of this myself, and I had to show considerable ‘sincerity’ to my father.

It’s one thing that he favors me, but this is a sensitive issue involving the daughter and daughter-in-law of Queen Shindeok.

‘When I think about how happy he was when I offered white porcelain to Queen Shindeok’s shrine……’

As expected, as soon as I reported the deal with Lee Seong-gye, Lee Bang-won snorted.

“What money do Buddhist nuns have to spend that you’re taking such good care of their property? Tell him to entrust it to me instead.”

Lee Bang-won didn’t bother to touch powerless women, but he didn’t show them great favor either.

Naturally, he couldn’t help but cast a negative light on what Lee Seong-gye was trying to do.

“Still, wouldn’t it look better to take profits from the middle like this than to forcibly take it away?”

“That’s true, but.”

When Lee Bang-won still had a dissatisfied expression, I slid a chest towards my father.

“What is this?”

“The Ministry of Taxation manages the national treasury, and there may be times when it’s difficult to use the money from Naesubyeoljwa [private royal treasury], so why should Abamama [term of respect for father, used by royalty], the king of this country, have such difficulties?

I have prepared this so that you can use it without burden in preparation for that time.”

“……Crown Prince.”

Lee Bang-won opened his mouth with a very moved expression.

“There is no more filial son than you.”

“You flatter me, hahaha!”

This is not a bribe.

It’s just pocket money for my father, who has a lot of expenses.

Huh, is this resolved then?

===

Following the sons of Jeongjong, I also got involved in the salt fields of Jeongopwon, and the supply of solar salt began to increase.

A considerable amount was released in Gaeseong right away, but it was even more evident in Hanyang.

“Fresh vegetables here!”

“Buy fabrics here!”

“Salt for sale, salt!”

“Salt is cheap these days.”

“The salt tastes a bit bitter, but the price is so cheap, it’s great. I’ll have to buy only this salt from now on!”

“I heard that it’s salt made with a method created by His Royal Highness the Crown Prince. Indeed, doesn’t your skin look a little whiter and firmer when you eat this salt?”

“Me too, I felt that too. What kind of magic did he use again?”

‘It’s probably minerals or the placebo effect.’

It was fun to hear the sounds when I went out to Hanyang incognito.

Solar salt was even nicknamed Crown Prince Salt and was selling like hotcakes.

Solar salt was twice as cheap as other salts and had my reputation attached to it, so it naturally spread by word of mouth.

‘Of course, I don’t eat solar salt.’

It’s a bit unhygienic.

I eat rock salt even if it’s a bit expensive.

However, solar salt was like a gift from God to the people of this era, who didn’t know that fact or didn’t care even if they knew.

Many peddlers were constantly visiting Bupyeong to handle solar salt.

However, the Hansang [a group of merchants] tightly controlled the supply network leading to major cities.

Solar salt production was becoming official not only in Bupyeong but also in salt fields in other regions, but that also returned to my profit.

‘Of course, you have to pay me money.’

Of course, there is no concept of patents in Joseon in this era.

But who am I?

I am the Crown Prince of Joseon.

Second to none – except for the two retired kings.

There was no one who would dare to pass by without saying a word after cultivating a salt field in my way.

Naturally, they had to pay royalties for the solar salt fields.

Even considering that, the salt field managers would make more profit than before when using Jayeom, so it was a win-win situation.

Jayeom requires more labor and cost than solar salt.

‘How much is this?’

I rubbed my palms together at the numbers filling the ledger.

White porcelain was also playing a significant role as a cash cow for overseas exports, but salt was an essential item for people to live, so there was a lot of profit left.

As the trading volume of salt exploded, the country’s tax revenue naturally increased.

Most of this was returned to the construction of Hanyang.

===

The construction of Hanyang’s market was rapidly coming to an end.

This was because I mobilized the heavy equipment I developed and built the market itself with bricks and cement.

Roman cement was made only from natural materials, but its hardness and adhesion were unparalleled in this era.

They were constantly producing cement by carrying limestone from Gyeonggi and Gangwon, and the workers only had to apply it to the bricks made by baking clay and stack them.

“This lime soil sticks incredibly well!”

“Not only that! Buildings go up in just one day when built with bricks! I’ve never seen such a miracle in my life.”

“It takes days and days to build a thatched house. Hehe, I wonder if I can live in a house like this.”

A main street that crosses Hanyang in a cross shape was planned to pass through the Jongno market with 800 sections.

As the two-story brick buildings of the market began to be built along the main street, people showed interest in it.

People who gradually began to move from Gaeseong to Hanyang were amazed by the market, which was more organized and beautiful than the market in Gaeseong.

“You can use the first floor as a store and the second floor as a warehouse, and if you don’t need an underfloor heating system, you can decorate the second floor as a home and solve your lodging problems.”

First of all, I’m building the market like this, but once the people of Joseon become familiar with this building style, I plan to expand it to various residential complexes and government offices.

‘A residential complex for the Sadaebu [scholar-officials] is being formed separately in Bukchon.’

The houses going up there are all tiled houses.

This was for aesthetics and fire prevention.

In order to smoothly supply the roof tiles there, the country was even mobilizing monks to bake the roof tiles.

If they all ran around building tiled houses in a haphazard manner, it would most likely be a mess, so it was to lower the unit price through mass production.

The capital was also being repaired, and the outline of the new capital, Hanyang, was beginning to take shape in earnest.

I was so full of the sight of Hanyang prospering day by day that I didn’t even need to eat, but there were still problems.

“Ironware is in short supply.”

At Choi Hae-san’s words, I grabbed my head.

“Didn’t you say that there was enough until a month ago?”

“The construction is progressing faster than expected……”

Should I be happy about this or not?

It was only natural that the speed of construction increased with the various heavy equipment I developed, but the supply of iron did not meet that.

“Even if we mobilize all the blacksmiths in Hanyang to extract iron from the blast furnace, we cannot keep up with the current demand.”

Other materials can be solved through requisition or import, but ironware is difficult to transport, expensive, and requires specialized technicians in the production process.

‘Hmm, iron, huh.’

I stroked my chin.

I had thought about various plans for this since I first raised the issue of material supply.

However, I had a lot of trouble finding a method that could be implemented in the current era.

‘Actually, I even thought about making a primitive blast furnace.’

– All farmers must make primitive blast furnaces and pay iron to the central government. This is the order of the Tang Dynasty!

Putting one primitive blast furnace in each village and collecting iron as tribute.

“There’s no way that would work properly.”

If I do that, I won’t be able to make proper iron, and only the poor people will die.

It’s also difficult to secure as much iron as I want.

Then should I issue an order throughout the country to gather iron masters, as other officials claim?

‘I should do that if there’s no other way……’

Since the Hanyang Construction Office had set a goal of minimizing the mobilization of people, I didn’t want to issue a mobilization order if possible.

‘The Gaegyeong faction of ministers will try to make a fuss.’

They’ve been quiet now because of what I’ve done so far, but they’ll jump out and try to find fault at the slightest opportunity.

I wish they would just admit that Hanyang is the capital of Joseon.

‘People 600 years later don’t even know if Joseon had its capital in Gaeseong.’

Going to Hanyang is an inevitable historical trend.

But I couldn’t just sit idly by.

I also abandoned the plan to expand the existing blast furnaces in Joseon.

Making them on such a small scale would only cost a lot of money and waste fuel.

‘The important thing is quantity and quality.’

Steel and mass production.

This was the key.

A super-special innovation was needed to completely change the paradigm of ironmaking.