American: Native Empire

Chapter 11 < Starting the Construction. >

Many things were done at once. 

In particular, they greatly increased the number of miners and developed various mines around them. This was all thanks to the map he brought from modern times.

Also, the invention and production of various new machines were accelerated. He had already taught these concepts to skilled craftsmen from time to time, so it was possible.

Still, management and supervision were still Kim Ki-woo’s responsibility. 

Today, too, Kim Ki-woo went around the industrial district and led the industry according to his intentions.

The first place Kim Ki-woo went to was the shipyard on the river.

‘I need a decent transport ship soon.’

Even in modern times, the difference in transportation efficiency between ships and land was 13 times. It was 13 times more expensive to transport by land than by ship.

Let alone trains or trucks, there were no transportation animals like horses. 

The difference between ship transportation and land transportation would be incomparable.

But he couldn’t use the river enough right away. The level of shipbuilding in this era was literally making rafts.

‘Ha… When will I be able to make a big wooden ship like a galleon?’

Not to mention a galleon, it was hard to make a small sailboat.

First of all, he had to promote basic shipbuilding.

The good thing was that he had improved the level of basic woodworking tools such as saws and planes a lot during the past time.

He replaced the rope with cotton rope because there was no material. 

He could only make Manila hemp after expanding his power to Central America. It was because the raw material plant grew in tropical regions.

Finally, he made a sail and started basic shipbuilding.

But.

“Hmm…”

“Are you not satisfied?”

“…No. You did well for your first time.”

The first sailboat made with a sail.

Of course, the result fell far short of expectations. But Kim Ki-woo wasn’t very disappointed.

He didn’t expect to fill his stomach at once. The first priority was to let those who applied to the shipyard continue to gain experience.

If they gained experience, they would be able to make bigger and better ships.

Kim Ki-woo pointed out the shortcomings of the first ship for a long time. That’s how much he was interested in shipbuilding.

The expressions of the men who listened to his explanation gradually soured, but Kim Ki-woo didn’t care. 

They had to grow fast for the whole Creek tribe to grow.

The importance of transportation and traffic was not excessive even if he emphasized it several times, as the size of the tribe had increased dramatically. There were still screams everywhere.

This was all a side effect of the rapid growth in size.

“I’ll assign more people to the shipyard, so try making more and gain experience.”

“Yes, Grand Chief.”

The men’s expressions relaxed, thinking that the nagging was finally over.

Kim Ki-woo left the shipyard behind him.

“Take a break sometimes. You’ll really hurt yourself if you keep doing this.”

“You take a break too. You work more than me.”

“I’ll rest when you rest, Grand Chief.”

“Then I can’t rest for a while. Let’s suffer together. Hahaha!”

Kim Ki-woo joked with Straight Tree and moved on to the next place. 

Come to think of it, he had been with Straight Tree for over six years already. He was at least the closest person to him in the tribe.

The next place Kim Ki-woo headed to was the kiln. It was close to the shipyard because it was located near the river.

Before he even got near the kiln, he saw bricks piled up on the vacant lot.

“It’s filling just to look at it.”

“Do you want to eat that?”

“Who would eat such hard stones? It’s a figurative expression.”

“Figurative?”

“Um… well, there’s such a thing. Just follow me.”

Bricks were being made in the kiln that was burning fiercely at this moment.

They were baking fine clay that came down the river. Kilns were being continuously built along the river at this moment.

Many of those kilns were used to make bricks. 

The clothing and food of the tribesmen had been somewhat resolved, but the residential area was too bad. 

That was why Kim Ki-woo hurried to bake bricks as soon as he had spare manpower.

‘Now I have to take care of the residential area on a large scale.’

Kim Ki-woo encouraged the craftsmen of the brick factory once. They didn’t have much to criticize, so they didn’t need much time.

And he moved his steps to the cement factory next to it.

In fact, cement production was not very difficult. He could get enough clay from the river, and thanks to the increased number of miners and porters, limestone was transported to this place.

He ground limestone into powder and fired it with clay. That is, bake it. He mixed limestone and clay in a 2:1 ratio.

If he mixed this cement and water in a ratio of about 5:2, he could make hardening cement.

And today, he finally made cement in the right ratio and finished the experiment.

“It’s hard.”

“This is really an amazing thing! You are truly a person sent by heaven. How can you make something like this!”

“Ha ha. Calm down, Wide Field.”

The person in charge of the cement factory, Wide Field, spoke excitedly to Kim Ki-woo.

He predicted how great this cement would be. He had been grinding stone until a while ago. So he knew very well how hard it was to process stone.

But a stone that can be manipulated freely like mud and then hardened!

And it even has the property of sticking to other stones. 

Wide Field had tears in his eyes just from the fact that he contributed to making such a great material.

“From now on, countless limestones will come in. You have to turn them all into these metamorphic rocks, okay? Don’t resent me after a while. Hehe.”

“Please work me hard! I, Wide Field, will work until my body breaks! Hahaha!”

He changed the name of cement to metamorphic rock. It meant a rock that changes.

Now bricks and cement were being made in earnest. 

When the factory scale grew enough and the numbers piled up, he thought he would have to start a large-scale civil engineering and construction project.

As he checked various processes that were going on, his day’s work ended. But the next day, and the next day, different things greeted Kim Ki-woo.

*

A population of 600,000 people never had a quiet day even for a day. 

The market had grown significantly, and although there was no currency, bartering with goods was active. It was natural in a way.

“He filled half of the inside of the flour bag with dirt and sold it? But the seller denies that he did it?”

“Yes. There are many similar fraud cases happening. The problem is that it’s hard to tell if this is really fraud or robbery.”

“Hmm…”

There were new things happening because there was no law yet. Should he say that the types of fraud were increasing?

This was a popular fraud method these days.

You couldn’t open the bag and completely flip over the contents when you bought it, so it was often caught.

“More and more incidents like this are happening. We need to come up with a countermeasure.”

“Other tribal people from different branches who are still ignorant of the food prices are being ripped off much more expensive than the Great Start City.”

“Because of the misunderstandings caused by different languages and cultures, there are too many cases where small disputes lead to fistfights.”

The more he heard, the more he felt that the security situation would get worse if he didn’t come up with a countermeasure as soon as possible.

These things had inertia. Once they started to go wrong, they could cause irreversible chaos.

“We have no choice but to send more personnel to the Security Agency. For now, let’s expand the training center. And let’s create a Supreme Court.”

“A Supreme Court?”

“We can’t solve the tribal people’s conflicts with brute force, can we? It’s to make a guideline for the Security Agency to operate more smoothly.”

“I understand what you mean. I will take care of it.”

As the population increased, he had to make laws and enforce them anyway. It was not fair to punish differently for the same crime.

And then it was time to discuss the agenda that Kim Ki-woo had been longing and waiting for.

“Now we start a large-scale construction. We mobilize all the remaining personnel and start from the Creek tribe’s base, the Great Start City.”

The Creek tribe’s village had a rather grandiose name.

Great Start.

It was named after the starting point of the hegemony that would be achieved in the future.

“Those who know will know. That raw materials called bricks and cement have been developed.”

“I heard. I felt once again that it was a material invented by the Grand Chief Kim. You are amazing. Haha!”

“Haha. You’ll tear your ass off like that.”

“My ass…? Huh! Are you not feeling well?”

As soon as Kim Ki-woo finished speaking, the executives with excellent heads were shocked.

Their health was more important than anything else from their point of view.

“…No, I’m fine. Don’t worry.”

Kim Ki-woo smiled awkwardly and waved his hand.

Was it too early for this kind of idiomatic joke?

Kim Ki-woo felt this painfully through his excellent head. Kim Ki-woo quickly changed the subject.

“There are still many people who don’t know, so let me tell you about bricks and cement.”

Kim Ki-woo briefly explained the properties of bricks and cement and how they would change the residential areas in the future.

After all his explanations were over, many warriors who attended the meeting cheered.

“There’s such an amazing thing!”

“Indeed, Grand Chief Kim’s admiration was not wrong!”

“Will you also develop other villages besides Great Start City?”

“Of course we will. Not only the construction of Great Start City, but we will also change all the villages of Creek tribe in the future.”

“Oh!”

The warriors’ faces were filled with hope at Kim Ki-woo’s words. It was a 180-degree change from their faces that were worried about many problems until just before.

This was just the beginning. There would come a day when that hope would turn into conviction after construction industry progressed to some extent.

After finishing a meeting that was like a war, he came into his office and slumped into his chair.

It was a hard chair made only of wood, but it felt very comfortable when he thought of it as a short break.

‘Phew. I’m dying.’

His whole body felt like pickled radish, soaked through and through. He wanted to close his eyes and fall asleep right away.

“Grand Chief Kim. The finished product of what you asked for last time has arrived.”

But he couldn’t do that. The excellent head interrupted Kim Ki-woo’s rest.

‘He doesn’t give me a break. Sigh.’

He felt like he knew why kings generally died young. They must have died early from overwork.

But Kim Ki-woo felt his fatigue disappear as soon as he saw the piece held by the upright wooden hand.

“Hooh.”