Chapter 91

Chapter 91: The European Blockade Operation.

Time flew by like an arrow.

‘It shouldn’t be long now.’

Kim Ki-woo looked at the calendar and sank into his thoughts.

It was the year 1492.

And it was already the end of the hot summer.

In other words, it was the time when Columbus would arrive at the Wakan Tanka continent, according to the pre-arrival history.

He did not remember exactly, but he knew that Columbus had arrived at the Bahamas around autumn.

But he could not be sure that everything would go the same as before.

‘Anything could happen because of the butterfly effect.’

It was something that had never happened before the arrival, that the imperial expeditionary force had visited Europe.

In other words, the imperial vanguard could have changed the history of Europe.

There was a possibility that the timing and location of Columbus’s arrival would be different.

‘Let’s just wait and see.’

He had been preparing for a long time for Columbus and the Old World.

What was a few months of waiting compared to that?

Kim Ki-woo decided to wait quietly until the results came out.

***

Contrary to Kim Ki-woo’s worries, Columbus was living almost the same life as before.

Columbus was born in Italy, but moved to Portugal for his goal.

He longed for Zipangu, the golden country that appeared in Marco Polo’s Travels, and nurtured his dream of exploring the East.

And around 1484.

Columbus asked João II of Portugal for support for his Atlantic exploration.

But João II flatly refused Columbus’s request.

Columbus’s claim sounded absurd, and more importantly, he was preparing for an exploration in the direction of Cape of Good Hope.

“Damn it. Why won’t they believe me?”

Columbus felt very bitter about João II, who rejected his proposal.

But he did not think he could change João II’s mind.

To make matters worse, he lost his wife during this time.

As a result, despair crept into his heart, but he did not give up here.

He had spent his whole life researching and planning, and it was too precious to give up.

After that, Columbus went to Spain with his son Diego.

He arrived at Palos de la Frontera and went to La Rábida Monastery with his son.

There he met Juan Pérez, the abbot of La Rábida Monastery.

And he enthusiastically explained his grand plan to him.

“Hmm. That’s a very interesting story.”

Pérez’s reaction was completely different from João II’s.

Coincidentally, Pérez was also the confessor of Isabella I of Castile.

Thanks to that, Columbus got a chance to meet Isabella, the queen of Castile.

“This time…”

He checked his sailing plan with the monks of the monastery and prepared everything to persuade Isabella.

And finally in 1486, he met Isabella and Ferdinand II of Aragon.

This meeting was different from João II of Portugal.

Isabella was deeply interested in Columbus’s story, thanks to his thorough preparation.

“Is there India beyond that sea?”

“Yes. The earth is round, isn’t it? If you support me, I will bring you a lot of gold across the sea.”

They had many more conversations after that.

But this time too, Columbus ended up failing.

It was because he demanded knighthood and admiralship, as well as governorship over the lands he discovered, and finally one-tenth of the total revenue he obtained.

This was a very unreasonable condition.

Moreover, at this time, the last Reconquista against Granada was in full swing, so they lacked the resources to support him.

“Ah, is it really impossible?”

Columbus was desperate.

However, at this time, the Spanish Church wanted a wider missionary field, and supported his claim after having a deep conversation with him.

The clergy of the Church persuaded Queen Isabella to accept Columbus’s argument.

“If that is what you think…”

Eventually, Queen Isabella listened to the priests’ request and appointed Columbus.

Of course, even after his appointment, Queen Isabella delayed her support, so he actually set sail in 1492.

Thus, in August, two ships given by Queen Isabella and one ship from Captain Pinzon, a total of three ships, began to head towards the vast sea.

***

“Huaaam!”

The sea was bathed in warm sunlight.

The green-eyed man yawned and stretched.

“Ugh. This is hard work too.”

It was physically comfortable to be anchored in the middle of the sea and scout around.

But it was boring to see the same scenery every time.

So the green-eyed man wanted to do the transport work instead.

“I should ask for a transfer when I go back.”

There were many sailors who liked easy work, so it wouldn’t be too hard.

As the green-eyed man was thinking leisurely,

“…Hm? What is that?”

Something faint entered his sight.

“Could it be?”

The green-eyed man was startled and quickly grabbed a telescope and raised it towards there.

“Gasp!”

And he saw it.

“A ship, a ship?”

And it was not a ship he had ever seen before, not one made in the continent of Wakan Tanka.

There was no way a sailor who had seen countless ships for a long time would not know this.

“This is not the time!”

The green-eyed man snapped out of it and

Ding, ding, ding.

He rang the bell with the designated signal.

Then the sailors who were waiting ran towards the green-eyed man.

The green-eyed man shouted loudly at one of them, Red Rock, who was the captain.

“There is a ship coming from the northeast!”

“Telescope!”

At Red Rock’s shout, one of the sailors handed him a telescope.

Then, Red Rock confirmed the ship that the green-eyed man had seen.

“It seems to be a ship from Europe.”

“It does look like that.”

“What shall we do?”

“What can we do? Our mission is only scouting. Let’s keep a certain distance from that fleet and send a discovery signal.”

Of course, this ship also had firearms such as cannons and guns, but it was not something they could attack without any orders.

After that, they sent a hand signal to the distant ship and kept their distance from the unfamiliar ship.

As time passed, the imperial fleet that received the signal gathered one by one.

Among them was also the flagship of the imperial fleet.

“Heh. I didn’t expect European ships to really come.”

The commander of the fleet, Broken Blade, smiled as he checked the three ships.

When it was concluded that the exchange with other continents was still dangerous, the current surveillance system was activated.

In other words, the goal of the Broken Blade was to annihilate anything that came from other continents.

“Tsk tsk. They must have had a big dream and came here with great difficulty. But they had to come at this time.”

The Broken Blade clicked his tongue in pity.

However, he could not neglect his duty because they were pitiful.

The Broken Blade gave an order as a commander.

“Intercept all three ships.”

“Yes!”

With the salute of his subordinate, the death of Columbus and his party from Europe was confirmed.

After that, the imperial fleet formed a siege around Columbus’s fleet.

The white flag fluttered over the ships from Europe in a threatening formation, but there was no imperial sailor who cared about it.

And then.

Flap!

The red flag of firing fluttered,

Boom boom boom boom!

The cannons began to spit fire.

***

The news of the shooting down of the ships from Europe was discussed at the imperial conference.

“I never thought that Europeans from the New World would sail to the Wakan Tanka continent.”

“Neither did I. It would have been a disaster if we hadn’t prepared in advance.”

“Do you think they learned about the existence of the Wakan Tanka continent from our previous expedition to Europe?”

“Hmm. That’s very likely. The timing is too coincidental.”

Kim Ki-woo chuckled at the last guess of the health director.

‘Coincidental indeed. It’s exactly as it was in the original history.’

He couldn’t tell for sure if Columbus was on board one of the three ships that were sunk before they approached the Bahamas.

But judging by the timing, it must have been Columbus’s fleet.

With this, the huge history that started with Columbus’s discovery of America was completely reversed.

Kim Ki-woo was reminiscing about this while the meeting continued.

“If what the health director said is right, there might be more ships coming from the New World. So we should take this as a lesson and expand our reconnaissance range.”

“I agree with the health director.”

“Me too.”

The opinions of the directors were unanimous.

Once they realized the danger of the enormous infectious diseases on the other side of the wide continent, this was a natural choice.

“I accept your opinions. From now on, we will steadily expand our surveillance range to the south. At the same time, we will develop the areas adjacent to the eastern sea of ​​the southern continent and use them as advance bases for surveillance.”

“As your majesty wishes!”

With this, the scale of the operation to block Europeans increased.

‘I can’t let my guard down after trading with Europe once.’

There was another incident in 1500 AD, when a Portuguese navigator named Pedro Álvares Cabral landed in Brazil due to a storm.

Also, although Columbus’s expedition was the same as in the original history, he didn’t know what kind of butterfly effect would occur due to trading with Europe.

Above all, as trade in the Mediterranean became difficult due to the rise of Islamic forces, European countries had no choice but to continue exploring new routes.

Columbus couldn’t return to Spain, but he couldn’t be complacent yet.

Anyway, as long as the operation to block Europeans was activated, there would probably be no major disasters for a while.

***

Meanwhile, a huge change was taking place on the mainland.

Many power lines that had been painstakingly built began to operate.

The impact of power lines was beyond imagination.

“Is this all steel?”

“I heard about it, but I can’t believe it…”

As many blast furnaces were activated at the same time, the production of steel increased to an incomparable level with the past.

This was enough to meet and exceed the demand for steel that had been lacking until now.

There was no longer a need to operate the difficult crucible steelmaking plants, and the price of steel also dropped to a level that could not be compared with before.

As a result, the production of steel products became much easier.

The one that benefited the most from this situation was none other than the steam engine.

The steam engine required a lot of steel, so there had been difficulties in mass production, but as steel became common, it became easier to produce in large quantities.

Kim Ki-woo also contributed to the mass production of steam engines.

“Thanks to the supply of blast furnaces, the empire’s industry has risen rapidly. However, I am confident that the steam engine will have a greater impact than the blast furnace. Therefore, I will devote myself to spreading the steam engine widely throughout the empire’s industry, and continue to improve its performance.”

“Yes, Your Majesty!”

After the imperial decree was issued, many craftsmen participated in the production of steam engines.

Thanks to this, as time passed, the number of steam engines increased explosively, and this became the basis for many craftsmen to try various experiments using steam engines.

They began to use the powerful power of steam engines in earnest.