There Is No Sejong In My Joseon [EN]: Chapter 40

“Are all the blacksmiths gathered?”

I asked after calling Choi Hae-san.

For this special project, I had summoned blacksmiths from the armory and even from Gaeseong and Hanyang.

“Yes, Your Highness.”

At Choi Hae-san’s reply, I went outside.

Indeed, a crowd of familiar and unfamiliar faces was gathered, buzzing with anticipation.

I stood before them, picked up the megaphone, and shouted.

“Attention!”

The blacksmiths were startled by the amplified sound through the copper tube.

‘Thankfully, there’s no commotion about lightning this time.’

I was relieved inside.

Well, that was just unique to that cousin, Yi Gun-saeng.

I straightened my shoulders and exclaimed,

“There are those here from the armory and artisans from the common streets. But regardless of your affiliation, you all share one thing in common. Do you know what that is?”

“A, are you saying we are all blacksmiths?”

Someone asked hesitantly, and I nodded.

“That’s right, but it’s not just that. You are all making a great contribution to this nation. Iron is the rice of industry [essential for tools and weapons]. Without blacksmiths who work with iron, we cannot make farming tools or weapons, can we?”

“That is correct!”

Deok-man from the armory shouted loudly.

As I praised him, the civilian blacksmiths looked bewildered, but the armory blacksmiths puffed out their chests proudly.

I continued,

“The ironworks you will develop from now on is an important matter that will be responsible for the future of Joseon. Others may look down on you as mere ironsmiths, but repaying the nation by making iron is an important task that no scholar can do.”

“Your Highness…”

Having come here, I realized that blacksmiths have an unexpectedly earnest side.

If you approach them head-on like this, they can’t help but be moved.

‘Now is the time.’

I didn’t miss the opportunity and unleashed a barrage of famous quotes.

“I, too, will stake my life on this endeavor with you all. If we fail, let us all turn right and plunge into Yeongil Bay… no, the Han River!”

“Your Highness!”

“We will definitely succeed!”

The blacksmiths looked at me with firm resolve.

A Crown Prince declaring that he would stake his life alongside them.

Their eyes were burning with motivation.

‘Surely they don’t think we’re really going to die together.’

There’s no way there would be such a crazy person.

“Well, everyone seems to be overflowing with motivation, so shall I draw up the blueprints?”

After sending everyone back to their positions, I muttered, and No-bun narrowed his eyes.

“Your Highness.”

“What is it?”

“…It is nothing.”

What a bland guy.

===

Following Crown Prince Ije’s orders, 7-meter-high furnaces began to be erected one after another near the armory’s detached building.

This size was comparable to the charcoal blast furnaces of 17th-century Europe.

The scale of the furnace was significantly increased to create a blast furnace capable of producing pig iron, rather than the wrought iron that was previously used in Joseon.

Even onlookers were craning their necks at the enormous size that exceeded the height of several people, but the blacksmiths themselves were reacting tepidly.

From the perspective of having to extract iron from there, the feeling they got from seeing the unfamiliar furnace was close to dismay.

At least the blacksmiths from the armory followed without complaint, but the blacksmiths from the private sector were skeptical.

“I’ve never seen such a large furnace in my life. Will something like this really work?”

“To exaggerate a bit, how are we supposed to get wind into a furnace as big as the city walls?”

The blacksmiths clicked their tongues with doubt.

They were moved when they heard the Crown Prince’s resolve, but since they had never seen the results firsthand, fear came first.

“Well, His Highness the Crown Prince even said that we would all go to the Han River and die together if things went wrong, so there’s no way he would say something absurd…”

“How would His Highness know such a method when he’s never even worked with iron before?”

“What if it’s just big and lacks substance? We might not even get a single nail, let alone an iron ingot.”

“Useless talk.”

As the whispering grew louder, Deok-man cut them off.

Deok-man, a veteran blacksmith from the armory, spoke, and those who had been whispering flinched.

“Are you blind, or are you deaf? Can’t you believe it after seeing the items His Highness has made?”

“Well, they say the carpenters are great, but…”

No matter how many of the Crown Prince’s inventions were circulating, it was different to just see the results and to witness the production process.

The armory blacksmiths had been loyal hands and feet in research and development, but the private blacksmiths had never had the opportunity to directly witness the Crown Prince’s talent.

Deok-man gave a sharp rebuke, and they closed their mouths, but they shook their heads.

But soon they were about to witness a shocking sight.

“The bellows are turning!”

Not the size of the manpower bellows they had been using, but an enormous large bellows began to turn.

“I was thinking of making a water-powered bellows like the ones used in the Song Dynasty, but it didn’t seem suitable for Joseon.”

Crown Prince Ije said.

As he said, Joseon was a land where the supply of water wheels had repeatedly failed despite the arduous efforts of two great monarchs, Taejong and Sejong.

Instead, Ije actively mobilized livestock such as cows and horses to connect to the bellows, using that power to move the bellows.

This animal-powered bellows also boasted a long history.

Of course, no one here had ever seen such a scale in their lives.

The heat wafted.

People forgot the heat and exclaimed at the sight of the large bellows constantly supplying oxygen to the furnace filled with charcoal and iron ore.

“Heo…”

Blacksmiths who basically worked in minimalist spaces.

The scale of the armory was a bit larger, but it was fifty steps to a hundred steps compared to this, so it was natural to be mesmerized by this sight.

Everyone forgot what this thing was originally supposed to do and blankly watched the huge repetitive work.

“It, it’s coming out!”

One of the artisans shouted towards the side where the molten iron was flowing out.

Only then did all the blacksmiths’ eyes turn to it.

The fact that molten iron was coming out was a sign of success.

Even if they had forgotten the success or failure because they were distracted by the huge task, the surprise was no less.

“Molten iron is coming out!”

“It really succeeded!”

The blacksmiths shouted wildly.

The blacksmiths looked like they were about to faint from surprise.

Let’s say the Crown Prince made a musket.

The same goes for other strange devices.

They thought that there was a principle that they didn’t bother to learn, and the Crown Prince used it to make it.

But the iron they had spent their lives touching was different.

Their fathers, grandfathers, or even their ancestors had only extracted iron through small wrought iron furnaces.

But the Crown Prince, who had never hammered iron in his life, built such a large-scale facility and made iron.

Moreover, pig iron came out directly from the furnace without any other work.

“…Is His Highness the Crown Prince really a god?”

“Has there ever been such a person in the royal family? I haven’t heard of it since King Talhae of Silla [a legendary figure known for his metalworking skills].”

“King Talhae is just a human. His Highness is more like… what should I say…”

“Duduri, it’s Duduri!”

Everyone’s eyes turned to the shout.

The culprit who made the loud noise was a blacksmith from Gyeongju.

“It must be the descent of the Duduri god!”

“What are you talking about?”

“Explain it in a way we can understand.”

The blacksmith sat down with a dazed expression, and others were surprised and lifted him up.

Duduri is a folk religion god who is famous in later generations as Bihyeongrang [a figure associated with construction and supernatural abilities]. Depending on the time, he is regarded as an evil god who spreads epidemics, but he is also described as a blacksmith god, so among these blacksmiths, he was closer to the latter meaning.

“In the old days, the Duduri god built bridges, built weirs, and filled wells overnight, but isn’t what His Highness is doing now like that? Looking at what he’s done so far, not just making iron today, there’s nothing less than that.”

“Come to think of it…”

Coincidentally, the Crown Prince was also famous for architecture and civil engineering.

It’s like building 800-kan of Sijeon [a large marketplace] so quickly.

The harmony of building a bridge overnight and the achievements of the Crown Prince that they witnessed are not something that people can do.

“Duduri…”

“His Highness…”

They admit that the Crown Prince is not an ordinary person, but it was not easy to rashly say the word goblin.

“The Duduri god must have appeared in our Highness’s body. Why, don’t they say that gods sometimes come down from the sky and are born in human bodies?”

The blacksmith from Gyeongju asserted.

“If he was born with a god, I have something to guess.”

Then this time, a blacksmith from Gaeseong said.

“What is it?”

“I heard by chance that there is a god called Chiwoo in that great country [China]. But his head is made of copper, and his forehead is made of iron.”

“So?”

“And he was especially good at making weapons, so he made weapons himself and went to battle. So some in the Jungwon [Central Plains, referring to China] worship him as the god of weapons.”

“Heo.”

“Doesn’t it look just like the actions of our Crown Prince?”

Come to think of it, wouldn’t making a musket be seen as doing something similar?

His fierce temperament – Ije would have beat his chest and felt wronged if he knew – isn’t it somewhat similar to Chiwoo?

Those who engage in dangerous work need faith.

The reason why sailors easily believe in superstitions is because of that.

For blacksmiths who engage in dangerous and arduous work every day, this story sounded quite plausible.

If the blacksmith god did not descend on the Crown Prince, how would he perform such harmony and care for the lowly themselves?

‘Duduri, who is Chiwoo, you otakus [nerds/obsessive fans].’

Of course, Crown Prince Ije would have said this if he had heard it, but at least the blacksmiths believed it firmly.

“Our Highness is the incarnation of Duduri.”

“Chiwoo was born again in Joseon.”

If there was a modern religious scholar in this place, he could have witnessed the birth of a new faith.

Unfortunately, there were only blacksmiths here who spread faith to each other.

===

Iron production was quite successful.

The steel mill near the armory continued to greedily devour charcoal and iron ore and extract molten iron.

The ironworkers received it and refined it.

The efficiency of ironmaking has increased dramatically just by directly extracting pig iron instead of wrought iron like the existing Joseon blacksmiths.

On the other hand, it still felt far away to me.

‘Charcoal is more difficult to supply than I thought, and the firepower is insufficient. Do we need coke after all?’

Recalling my modern memories, there is not much bituminous coal, which is the raw material for coke, distributed in the Korean Peninsula.

However, some are buried in the North Korean region.

‘But is the Hamgyeongbuk-do area currently Joseon land?’

With my short Korean history knowledge, the current Korean Peninsula territory would have been completed with Sejong’s development of the 4 counties and 6 garrisons in the Goryeo Dynasty.

‘Since Yi Seong-gye is alive, it will work out somehow.’

I organized my thoughts like that.

‘Do I have to go north?’

Even if we use charcoal now, the demand is met, but as iron production increases, the fuel problem will become serious.

Still, well, for now.

“We have to celebrate.”

< Iron Production for the Nation (2) > End