He Became King Sejong’s Lifelong Prime Minister - Chapter 29

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Jiphyeonjeon GPT (8)

If there’s one fact that even I, along with Confucian old-timers, can agree on.

It’s that Joseon is a country that revolves around the Common People, or more precisely, the ‘farmers.’

If farmers don’t produce food, then kings, Scholars, Merchants – no one can escape starving to death.

Therefore, in the current era, without any exaggeration, ‘improving agricultural productivity’ can be considered identical to economic growth.

If we increase crop yields by 10%, it’s the same as boosting the entire nation’s economic growth rate by 10%.

So naturally, for Joseon’s proper and dramatic economic growth, it makes sense for me to step forward and introduce new Farming Methods and Farming Tools, right?

“Oh, Kim Soo-chan, sir, wait, aren’t you a Soo-chan?”

It’s only been two months since Jang Yeong-sil became a Government Official.

So it seems he hasn’t completely abandoned the habit of calling yangban officials ‘sir’ when he sees them.

Still, I really like how he became an official but didn’t throw away his hammer and lose his original spirit by only holding a Brush.

When people lose their original spirit, or in other words their essence, they usually just rot away…

Jang Yeong-sil remained a craftsman until his death.

Since he’s that kind of person, I want to give him an opportunity to benefit Joseon widely.

Ah, wait a minute, but how does Jang Yeong-sil know who I am?

I’m not some minister, just a mere 6th rank Soo-chan of Jiphyeonjeon…

“It’s my first time meeting you, Byeoljwa sir. I am Kim Dae-bung, serving as Soo-chan of Jiphyeonjeon. My pen name is Jukheon.”

“Jukheon, no, Kim Soo-chan…”

Jang Yeong-sil seems very uncomfortable calling me ‘Kim Soo-chan,’ probably because he still hasn’t abandoned his old habits.

I should start talking about work to escape this uncomfortable situation as quickly as possible.

“Since my time as County Magistrate of Jinhae County, I’ve felt that farming is truly the foundation of all under heaven. Therefore, I believe it’s the duty of those who serve as ministers to develop good Farming Methods and Farming Tools and spread them widely so that farmers can achieve greater harvests.”

“… Still, learning scholarship is…”

“It would be good if excellent Scholars from the Eight Provinces of Joseon pass the civil examinations and assist His Majesty, so they can distribute food and wealth evenly among the Common People. However, wouldn’t it be more important to first increase the amount of wealth that can be distributed? And that depends on ‘good machines (tools)’ and ‘good Farming Methods.'”

Confucius and Mencius thought Confucian principles would save the Common People, but what actually saved the Common People was technological advancement.

After the Industrial Revolution, to be precise, after Fritz Haber performed the ‘miracle of making bread from air’ called 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 starve to death unless you go to regions like Africa during famines and wars.

Even in the slums of developing countries, people who die from ‘starvation’ have become rare.

As someone who knows the history of later generations, I can’t help but highly evaluate technicians like Jang Yeong-sil.

This is my sincere feeling.

“Didn’t His Majesty grant you a position because he highly values your skills in an area that other officials cannot excel in – the technology to increase the amount of rice that the Common People can eat?”

After hearing my words, Jang Yeong-sil grabbed my hand with a very moved expression and his eyes reddened with tears.

“… Even now, some officials look down on me and despise me because I’m from slave origins, but to think there’s a young official who evaluates me so highly. I’m truly grateful. Though I may be ignorant compared to other officials, I can do things they cannot do…”

Since he’s lived his whole life only developing technology, unlike officials from civil service examination backgrounds who are only good with words, he’s very pure-hearted.

Good. Now that I’ve gained this person’s trust and goodwill, I can freely throw work at him, right?

If I ask him to make farming tools, saying it’s work to save poor Common People like he used to be…

He’ll make them very enthusiastically.

Then a work bomb for distributing farming tools will explode at the Ministry of Taxation and Ministry of Public Works, and they’ll be frantically asking me to present the solutions I’ve already prepared.

Since the measures are already prepared, I just need to leisurely provide answers.

“Could you spare some time for me?”

“It seems like helping Kim Soo-chan would be a way to repay His Majesty’s grace.”

“We’re serving our country with loyalty together in the spirit of repaying his grace, Byeoljwa.”

“Serving our country with loyalty is a person’s proper duty. Of course, naturally. If there’s a way to repay His Majesty’s grace for freeing my aged mother from slavery and allowing her to live comfortably in her old age, I’ll roll up my sleeves and step forward for any difficult task. One who doesn’t know gratitude cannot be called human.”

I succeeded in winning over Jang Yeong-sil! Now it’s time to move into farming tool development.

“Please look at this first.”

“Isn’t this a Water Wheel?”

“Yes, that’s right. But this Water Wheel doesn’t use water flow to turn it – it’s a method where people directly step on it to draw up water.”

“It would make it easier to supply water to rice paddies or to irrigation canals running along fields.”

“Isn’t it fair to say that farming success depends on how well you supply water, determining whether it’s a bad year or good year?”

“As you say, Kim Soo-chan, the success and failure of farming can be said to lie in water supply. That’s why King Taejong Lee Bang-won prohibited the Rice Transplanting Method.”

In early Joseon, if you were caught using the Rice Transplanting Method, you were beaten with a beating stick.

It wasn’t that the nobles were being spiteful because they disliked seeing the common people become wealthy, but because there were too few reservoirs, so even a slight shortage of rain would easily ruin the crops.

But what would happen if irrigation became easier?

There would be no reason to prohibit the Rice Transplanting Method, so the common people could use it to get higher yields and increase their income.

In short, everyone would be happy.

The nobles, the merchants, and the common people alike.

“And this is a device I’ve named Dragon Tail. It contains a spiral-shaped mechanism inside that draws up water. As this device rotates and draws up water, it can change the flow of waterways.”

Dragon Tail is a Water Pump that uses the flow of water as power instead of manual force.

If you place several of these in places like the middle or lower reaches of the Four Major Rivers where water flows abundantly and dig irrigation canals, you can dramatically extend the length of waterways that can supply water.

That means clearing wasteland becomes much easier, and it gives countless common people the opportunity to obtain their own ‘land’.

“Truly remarkable tools. With just these two devices, farming would become much more convenient.”

“The tools I’ve conceived are not limited to these.”

“Oh, there are more?”

“Yes, I have plenty of tools that I thought up during my spare time while serving as Jinhae County Magistrate.”

Maybe it was my imagination, but it seemed like a high-ranking official just passed by Jang Yeong-sil and me.

That official looked at me and seemed to say, ‘A work-crazed demon has come to Sangui-won!’

I must have misheard, right?

I simply wish for the common people to be happy and for officials to leave work on time…

I’m merely working hard for the development of Joseon.

I’m doing work that broadly benefits the people of Joseon, so who would call that being a demon?

Speaking of Sangui-won, this is also a place that handles clothing.

Should I just go ahead and release the designs for Sewing Machines, Spinning Machines, and Weaving Machines?

The Director of Sangui-won would probably be so overjoyed he’d nearly die.

Once all those are made, we could increase clothing production by at least 10 times what it is now.

I felt momentarily offended, but seeing Jang Yeong-sil grinning happily while looking at the tool designs I had drawn made me happy again.

“These could certainly benefit Joseon.”

“Yes, that’s right. And when building irrigation canals, isn’t the most difficult task actually moving the soil? If we use this machine called the Geojunggi then…”

I roughly sketched the Geojunggi that Jeong Yak-yong had created.

Even though I had only briefly drawn how the pulley structure would be made…

I drew it like rice cake, but Jang Yeong-sil understood it perfectly like sticky rice cake.

“I see, this round object has rope passing through it to reduce weight and make lifting easier, right? Like a well bucket.”

“Your insight is truly remarkable.”

“It’s nothing special. I should be able to do at least this much.”

Though Jang Yeong-sil said it was nothing special, he seemed extremely pleased.

A bright smile bloomed on his face, and his shoulders naturally rose with pride.

Sometimes it’s better to pretend not to know even when you do… let’s just pretend I don’t notice.

“And farming tools like plows don’t need to be made with such complex structures as they are now.”

“Wouldn’t it be better to make them sturdy and precise to use, even if they’re a bit complex?”

“If all the civilian craftsmen had skills like Master Jang or the Sangui-won craftsmen, that would be fine. However, when I was County Magistrate of Jinhae, I observed the skills of the artisans, and they weren’t very precise. Moreover, these farming tools will first be made by craftsmen called up for corvée labor and spread nationwide, so what do you think the quality will be like when those with insufficient skills are forced to make them?”

According to data posted by some Alternative History Gallery user long ago, even if technology, soil fertility, and weather were completely identical.

There was about a 30% difference in yield between fields farmed by tenant farmers and those farmed by independent farmers.

Would people forcibly dragged in for corvée labor really put effort into making precise farming tools?

It would be more realistic for heaven to take pity on a guy who’s never dated and drop a beautiful girl into his room.

The former is 0%, while the latter would be at least 0.000000001%.

“I’ve enjoyed making things since I was a government slave, so I learned and practiced diligently… but other slaves thought it was a loss because the harder they worked, the more work they’d get. Such people wouldn’t earnestly make complex and precise items.”

“So we need to make them easy to create and durable enough for rough use.”

“Understood. I’ll keep that in mind.”

And so I continued having ‘work discussions’ with Jang Yeong-sil.

Before our conversation was finished, an elderly gentleman in blue official robes appeared before us and scolded us.

“It’s time to leave the office, so hurry home and rest.”

“I apologize, my lord.”

I shouldn’t make other officials work overtime because of me.

Yes, this much should be enough to throw at him.

If Jang Yeong-sil, who has excellent work sense and understands things immediately, focuses on making the farming tools I proposed… Joseon’s agricultural technology will advance tremendously in the near future.

And the issues that arise in that process will come to me, and since I already have solutions prepared in my head… I should be able to work comfortably for a while.

“I apologize for the trouble.”

After bowing respectfully, I left the Sangui-won Office Building.

Then someone shouted loudly from behind.

“… All of these are farming tools devised by Kim Soo-chan?! Oh my, our Sangui-won’s on-time departure has gone down the drain.”

It wasn’t Jang Yeong-sil’s voice. That’s good enough.

Exactly one week later, a work bomb dropped on the Ministry of Taxation and Ministry of Public Works, who had been living in the sweetness of on-time departures.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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