Chapter 57

Chapter 57: < Northern Pioneering. >

Inside the imperial conference hall.

It was usually a place of lively discussion, but today it was very quiet.

The chiefs were careful not to even breathe loudly.

A huge incident that would outrage the public had occurred in the empire.

Kim Kiwoo suppressed his anger and opened his mouth.

“Chief of Security.”

“Yes, Your Majesty.”

“Start your report.”

“Yes, sir.”

At Kim Kiwoo’s command, the chief of security read the report as it was.

As the chief of security’s report continued, Kim Kiwoo’s eyes trembled.

‘These bastards…’

They had done something that could not be tolerated.

The summary of the report was as follows:

Under the leadership of some merchants, tens of thousands of natives from the southern continent were enslaved.

It was a blatant illegal act in the Wakan Tanka Empire, where slavery was completely banned.

They captured the natives by force with iron weapons, and forced them to work.

If they disobeyed, they inflicted harsh punishments, and many natives died in the process.

It was an unacceptable behavior.

When the chief of security’s report ended, the chiefs began to condemn them.

“Huh, how dare they do such a thing!”

“These wicked ones must not be forgiven.”

“They must pay for their crimes!”

There was not a single person among the chiefs who opposed their punishment.

This was not a simple matter.

The actions of these merchants were against the very ideology of the empire.

‘The empire was created by many natives coming together.’

And even now, various tribes were gathering under the flag of the empire.

Anyone who lived in the Wakan Tanka continent had a chance to become an imperial citizen at any time.

In other words, the empire regarded the external natives as potential imperial citizens.

Thanks to this, the external natives easily embraced the empire, and the imperial citizens also accepted them without much discrimination.

As they had acquired direct territories in the central continent, they planned to create imperial settlements throughout the continent.

And as long as the empire’s ideology and policy continued, they would be able to accept the local natives as imperial citizens.

The empire still had a very small population compared to the size of the continent.

Of course, they could not send many immigrants.

Inevitably, the main developers of those areas would be the local natives who wanted to become imperial citizens.

‘That’s how the central continent is being developed right now.’

Both Yanghae region and Mexico Bay direct territories had more imperial citizens from local origin than from mainland origin.

And there were even more neighboring natives working for the empire.

But if such behavior continued secretly, the reputation of the empire would be tarnished, and it could lead to resistance from the natives.

That was why they waited for the empire’s superior culture and ideology to naturally permeate while trading with the natives.

“I will never forgive them. As of now, all merchants involved in this matter are disbanded, and all their assets are confiscated. Also, those who actively participated in this incident will be severely punished.”

“That is a rightful decision.”

“We will follow your will.”

Kim Kiwoo looked at the chiefs who bowed their heads and thought.

‘As expected, these things keep happening.’

He had expected it, but he felt bitter when he actually experienced it.

This slave incident was the largest in scale, but in fact these things were happening continuously.

Kim Kiwoo and the leaders of the empire tried to nip these things in the bud, but it was not easy.

‘The continent is too vast for that.’

It had been a long time since imperial ships spread throughout the continent.

From western California region to various coasts of South America.

They were too far away from the imperial mainland.

In an empire where other communication facilities had not yet developed, they could not extend their administrative power to such distant areas.

In other words, they had no choice but to entrust their trade with such backward areas to the conscience of imperial merchants.

‘There is nothing less reliable than human conscience.’

Humans are never good.

Especially merchants are beings who would hang themselves for a small profit.

Thanks to this, they fell into this temptation easily even though they knew it was wrong.

Of course, thanks to their awareness that they would be executed if caught and that it was against Lord Spirit’s will, these things did not spread openly.

In fact, thanks to sailors who reported such merchants’ behavior, many criminals were caught as well.

But surely there were more crimes that were not exposed.

Unfortunately, Kim Kiwoo had no way to deal with this.

He could only punish those who were exposed as harshly as possible.

After the decision was made at the imperial conference,

A large-scale arrest operation began.

“Heh. I hope you guys can endure for a long time.”

The torturer looked at the masterminds of the slave incident and smirked.

Immediately,

“Aaaargh!”

“Ugh…”

All kinds of torture were inflicted on them.

“I, I’ll tell you everything!”

Most of them surrendered not long after this horrible torture began.

“You should have come out sooner. Well, who else is involved in this incident?”

“Th, that is…”

“Not enough, huh? Well, we have plenty of time.”

“N, no!”

They started to spill everything they knew.

After that, the security bureau started to act based on their confessions.

“Catch all these corrupt criminals!”

“Yes!”

There were quite a lot of people involved in the incident.

Even if they didn’t directly help the masterminds, they were arrested for benefiting from the crime by turning a blind eye to it.

As a result, countless people were dragged to the security bureau.

“I, I have nothing to do with this!”

“Oh, please! Just give me one chance…”

“I must have been crazy… Sob!”

Those who were brought to the security bureau either denied their crime or begged for mercy.

But the situation didn’t go their way.

“Shut up! How dare you do such a thing after receiving His Majesty’s grace!”

“Eek!”

And so, this incident was swiftly and firmly dealt with.

The masterminds all disappeared under the guillotine, and many more accomplices were sentenced to hard labor.

***

“Is this really the number of college applicants?”

“Yes, it is.”

“Huh, well.”

Kim Kiwoo looked at the documents and clicked his tongue.

‘It’s amazing.’

The number of college applicants had been rising every year without fail.

But this year, the increase was very significant.

Of course, Kim Kiwoo knew very well why this situation happened.

‘It’s thanks to the birth encouragement policy.’

Even when the national budget was in danger, even when he was preparing for the war with Aztec, Kim Kiwoo had maintained this policy.

And it was paying off now.

The second generation of the empire, who were born during the baby boom, had finally become adults.

‘I used to have a lot of infants, but now I don’t have to worry about that anymore.’

Now those children were growing up into adults.

And they had received basic education since they were young as imperial citizens.

Many of them went to middle school and studied hard.

It was because the imperial culture valued learning various kinds of knowledge as a virtue.

Thanks to that, there were so many college applicants.

Of course, that also meant that it was harder to get accepted.

The number of applicants increased, but the college admission quota remained the same.

Those who failed here would either take the exams for different departments or do other things.

‘Now I can be a little more free from the chronic labor shortage.’

Of course, it would still take some time to reach the level that Kim Kiwoo wanted.

There was another thing that happened as a result of the rapid increase in the working-age population.

Kim Kiwoo spread out a map that marked the territory of the Wacantanga Empire.

‘It’s growing very fast.’

It seemed that as the number of adults increased rapidly, naturally the empire’s territory expanded quickly as well.

But most of the developed areas were along the rivers where boats could travel, so pioneer villages were built far north.

However, there was one problem that hindered the pioneers of the empire.

It was none other than coldness.

‘The north is too cold.’

The imperial citizens had lived in a relatively mild region even in winter.

Of course, the north was hot in summer.

But from the perspective of the imperial citizens, the winter in the north was too cold.

‘I can’t keep doing this.’

I had to solve this quickly.

The baby boom was just the beginning.

The number of adults each year would continue to rise, and this was expected to last for a very long time.

In other words, the expansion to the north was inevitable.

On a whim, Kim Kiwoo headed straight to the palace’s research complex.

‘It’s too big to call it a laboratory now.’

It had been expanded over and over again.

To research many things at once.

Here, many scholars and craftsmen who conducted research according to Kim Kiwoo’s intentions were staying.

Kim Kiwoo moved his steps to the place located at the farthest corner of the research complex.

It was spewing smoke into the sky before he got close.

“Your Majesty!”

The experiment was temporarily suspended when Kim Kiwoo visited.

Unlike other laboratories, most of them here were craftsmen and architects.

It couldn’t be helped.

The research being conducted here was none other than heating-related experiments.

A good heating system was essential to survive the winter in the north.

Kim Kiwoo checked one by one the progress made while he was away.

The current heating method being developed was Underfloor Heating. 

That is, ondol.

‘It’s probably more efficient than a fireplace.’

A fireplace is less efficient than floor heating.

So Kim Kiwoo adopted the Underfloor Heating method from the beginning.

It was a method of heating the floor by burning coal in a furnace.

He repeated numerous experiments so far.

First, he tried to increase the thermal efficiency of Underfloor Heating.

But he had completed this part to some extent.

The experiment he was doing now was different.

“Is it going well?”

“Yes. Fortunately, there have been no major problems so far.”

“Really?”

Kim Kiwoo said with a smile.

“Then let’s take a look.”

He went straight into the building.

‘It’s warm.’

As soon as he took off his shoes and stepped into the room, he felt a warm heat.

Kim Kiwoo carefully smelled the air in the room.

“Hmm. It doesn’t smell bad.”

He didn’t smell the characteristic scent of coal smoke.

At this moment, he was burning coal. And that too anthracite to make briquettes.

That meant that the smoke from Underfloor Heating did not enter the room.

‘But it’s not good to use anthracite as fuel.’

It produces too much smoke.

There will be plenty of wood anyway, and firewood will be enough to survive the winter.

But there will always be imperial citizens who don’t listen to him.

Coal is now a fairly common resource in the empire, so they will surely try to use coal as fuel.

Kim Kiwoo tried his best to block as much smoke as possible so that even in such situations, the imperial citizens would not suffer from carbon monoxide poisoning.

Thus, Wakan Tanka Empire’s northern pioneering was being prepared step by step.

< Northern Pioneering. > The end