Chapter 13

Chapter 13 < Reforming the Administration >

Of course, it took some more time to mass-produce paper. But it was only a matter of time before paper was produced in large quantities.

‘But paper alone is not enough.’

Why make paper?

Of course, one could draw pictures or do other things with it, but the main reason was to make records through paper.

Then, naturally, one needed letters. And Kim Ki-woo had already decided to spread Hangul in this land a long time ago.

Therefore, Kim Ki-woo started working on completing Hangul to match the pronunciation of this region before paper and writing tools were mass-produced.

‘Thank you, King Sejong!’

This work was not very difficult. There was already a great base of Hangul.

The hardest part was translating words into Hangul. In other words, it was the process of making a standard language dictionary.

If the standard of words was not established, similar pronunciations would be written differently and cause confusion. Therefore, it was a necessary process.

The problem was that the translation work was tedious. Kim Ki-woo did not have time to do this work alone.

Kim Ki-woo gathered some people from the Creek tribe who were known to be wise and taught them Hangul first. And he instructed them like this.

“Write down all the words you know on this paper. Focus on the ones that are commonly used.”

“Do we just write as we hear?”

“Yes. I’ll fix it at the end, so just write freely.”

“Understood.”

Then their brainstorming began. They wrote down whatever words they could think of.

Of course, many words overlapped. Basic words like sun, moon, wind, earth, and spirit overlapped almost all.

But as the number of people increased, many words were recorded excluding the overlapping ones.

Kim Ki-woo organized the grammar during that time. He defined the spacing, spelling, and types of words. 

And he checked the dictionary that was made after excluding duplicate words.

It took about six months for this work. 

Of course, it was still an incomplete dictionary with many parts missing, but he judged that most of the common words were included for now.

The missing words could be added continuously.

Around this time, paper production began. Paper was first intended to go to the officials.

And finally, at the tribal conference, this good news was mentioned for the first time. Of course, there were already rumors that he had made letters.

“From now on, we will have new letters called Hangul and our own numbers. I and several tribesmen have worked together to create letters and numbers and record words that match them to compile a standard language dictionary. From now on, we will be able to write down countless records and stories on the paper that is being produced.”

“Finally…”

“Haha. It went really well!”

The foundation of an early state was already established. 

In other words, everyone who participated in the conference was an official who did practical work.

They were also uncomfortable with reporting only by word of mouth.

Therefore, they were moved by the fact that letters and numbers and a standard language dictionary were created.

“Letters are sound letters so they are easy to learn. Numbers can also be learned quickly. Everyone should learn them hard and use them for work.”

After that day, the Creek tribe’s officials learned letters and numbers and standard words. 

And at some point they started to learn more fervently.

They had no choice.

After giving enough time to the officials, he declared that he would only receive written reports except for major reports.

In other words, learning letters and words became mandatory rather than optional.

At first, the handwriting of the reports was so hard to read and the spelling was wrong countless times. But this was a problem that time would solve.

‘There are so many overlaps.’

As soon as he started receiving reports separately, problems became apparent at a glance.

There were many cases where the work areas were vague. 

If they reported orally together, they could report discreetly, but as soon as they received written reports, these problems became prominent.

Overlapping parts, missing parts all stood out clearly.

‘Now I have to divide the work areas clearly.’

Of course, it was not a thought that he had in a day or two. But he waited because this was the best time to distribute paper and documents.

Kim Ki-woo announced his reorganization plan at the regular meeting.

“From today, I will reorganize the political system. The current political system could only exist when the previous Creek tribe was at the level of a small tribe. Now that the scale has changed so much, I will establish nine departments and a Supreme Court.”

There were no officials who were shocked or surprised by Kim Ki-woo’s remarks. 

There had been whispers about department reorganization for a long time. 

The officials agreed with this.

“Then how will it be reorganized?”

The smart head who was the chief of education asked.

“First, the eight departments are like this.”

Kim Ki-woo listed the names of the departments he had thought of.

From the administration department headed by Kim Ki-woo to the agriculture department, industry department, commerce department, construction department, security department, military department, education department, and foreign affairs department.

He decided to legislate in the administration department. In other words, it meant that laws would be made according to Kim Ki-woo’s taste.

“The administration department will gather with the heads of each department and the officials of the administration department to make policies and laws. I will take the seat of the head of the administration department.”

There was no opposition. And then Kim Ki-woo began to name the heads of each department.

The head of education was Smart Head, who was the chief of education, the head of commerce was Swiftfoot, who was the chief of hunting, and the head of military was Strong Bow, who was the chief of War.

These three were already chiefs. The other five heads were also from the Creek tribe.

In other words, all nine heads, including Kim Ki-woo, were from the Creek tribe.

The chief justice and secretary-general were also the same.

The secretary-general was Straight Tree, Kim Ki-woo’s closest aide.

It was an extreme selection.

‘I have no choice but to go this way for now.’

First of all, he had to exclude the four tribes that surrendered first. They had invaded the Creek tribe anyway.

And those who surrendered later were mostly unfamiliar with Creek’s standard language. Their work skills were also lower than those named.

Of course, this would improve over time.

There was a more important reason than this. They were the ones who worked hardest to make Creek what it is now.

If he excluded them and appointed other tribes, it would be like betraying his comrades who walked the same path. Kim Ki-woo had no reason to take such a political risk.

As time passed, they would naturally accept other tribes as leaders.

“I hope you all take responsibility for your departments and lead them well.”

“Yes, Grand Chief.”

“Don’t worry.”

The officials’ expressions were not bad because they were generally satisfied with their positions. But Kim Ki-woo did not forget to warn them once.

“I’ve heard some bad things lately. They say that there is discrimination among officials because they are from different tribes.”

“…”

Kim Ki-woo swept his cold eyes over those who had been laughing until a moment ago.

Those who participated in the meeting were all core figures of the tribe. They couldn’t have been unaware of this problem.

As expected. The expressions of some people worsened or they subtly avoided Kim Ki-woo’s eyes.

They either led or condoned things that happened openly or secretly. It would be one of those two.

“I’ll say it again, you shouldn’t discriminate because they are from different tribes. If I hear such things again, I won’t let it go. Remember my words.”

“Yes, Grand Chief.”

“We will keep that in mind.”

Probably because they had worked longer, most of the upper officials were from the Creek tribe. Therefore, discrimination against other tribes by the Creek tribe was spreading among the officials.

Kim Ki-woo did not intend to ignore this situation. He only warned them for now, but he was determined to root out these people even if their work became overloaded.

The upper water must be clear for the lower water to be clear. If he didn’t weed out these weeds quickly, they would surely grow into dark forces in society.

*

The first thing that started as soon as the departments were divided was construction. 

After all, there had to be buildings for the departments to enter.

It was already a long time since the construction boom started. 

Therefore, skilled construction workers were gradually emerging.

And now they could draw blueprints with pencils and erasers on paper. 

They also had numbers, and he unified the measurement system to the metric system for his convenience. There was nothing rough.

Kim Ki-woo tried to spread letters and blueprints to construction managers and various craftsmen and professionals. 

Technology would develop only if it was recorded continuously.

That didn’t mean he could sit idly by until the buildings of the departments were completed. 

Kim Ki-woo clearly defined the scope of work for each department and had them recruit the necessary personnel for their departments.

“Hey, have you decided which department you’re going to?”

“No. I’m still thinking about it. I wanted to go to the administration department, but that seems difficult.”

“Don’t do that and how about the agriculture department?”

“Agriculture department? Hmm. You’re going to the agriculture department, right?”

“Haha. You caught me. Think about it. The agriculture department will be easier than other departments, right? You can see it when you look at the industry department.”

“That’s true. The industry department is… And you never know when a new thing will be made. But it seems rewarding in its own way.”

“If you go to the industry or construction department, you’ll regret it in less than a week.”

“Still, I’m not interested in the agriculture department. If I wanted an easy job, I would have gone to the foreign affairs department.”

“Isn’t there too little to do there?”

Since holding multiple positions was not allowed, the officials carefully chose the department they wanted to enter.

In this situation, various departments tried hard to attract proven talents. A talent war broke out.

Of course, the best brains of the tribe entered the administration department voluntarily or involuntarily.

But Kim Ki-woo didn’t really like them.

‘Damn. There’s a lack of talent. This won’t work. No matter how much I sign, the documents don’t decrease!’

There was also a reason that this was a transitional period of political reform, but the bigger problem was that he had no talents to assist him.

Other departments wouldn’t be much different.

He missed modern Korea where high-level talents had a hard time finding good jobs because of unemployment.

In the end, the only way to solve this was to create more talents. To do that…

‘Education. Education is the only answer.’

< Reforming the Administration > End