American: Native Empire

Chapter 19 < Return. >

He spent the first day of his holiday well.

But the problem started from the next day.

‘I still have four days left…’

He had done everything he could do in the Great Start Inn yesterday. But he felt reluctant to go out of the city.

For the remaining four days, he strictly ordered Straight Tree not to bother him at all. 

Thanks to that, he could have some time for himself.

‘I think I can understand why the tribesmen are crazy about gladiators.’

Of course, he had no intention of enjoying such a slaughter show.

But on second thought, there was nothing else to enjoy in this era except for that.

‘Hmm, content…’

What could be considered as content in this era?

The first thing that came to his mind was sports, such as ball games or martial arts.

Well, as long as the gladiators’ swordplay didn’t disappear, martial arts wouldn’t be popular.

What else could there be besides sports?

‘Newspapers might be possible.’

The next thing he thought of was the distribution of newspapers. He thought it might be possible to use metal type.

‘That sounds pretty good, actually.’

The distribution of newspapers had many positive aspects.

First of all, it would speed up the spread of literacy.

Many tribesmen were already learning how to read and write at elementary schools.

But even if they learned how to read, there was not much to read.

How could their writing skills improve in this situation? They needed more exposure to anything.

‘It would also help to unite the tribesmen.’

Of course, things were improving now. It was a good choice that Kiwoo Kim didn’t make a village of one lineage, but scattered them around.

If he had made a village with the same lineage, they would have used their own languages.

It was a bit different from the situation, but he could understand Kiwoo Kim’s idea when he thought of Chinatowns in many countries in modern times.

In this situation, newspapers would speed up the standardization of language.

‘It would also be positive for the calendar distribution.’

If he produced newspapers, he would make weekly or monthly newspapers, so wouldn’t they have a sense of date to read regular newspapers?

Lastly…

‘It would be easier to guide the tribesmen’s thoughts in the direction I want.’

He intended to manage the newspapers by the state from the beginning. He didn’t trust them enough to supply them to private companies.

He could naturally spread information such as law-abiding spirit, hygiene, common sense, etc. through newspapers.

Of course, there were problems such as paper waste, metal type expansion, etc., but these could be solved by increasing the scale. The advantages outweighed the disadvantages.

The more he thought about it, the more he felt that he had to produce newspapers.

But when he tried to make newspapers, there was a problem of deciding what to put in them.

There was no such thing as journalists in this era. It wasn’t like Joseon where there were eunuchs.

‘Well, if there isn’t one, I’ll just make one.’

Kiwoo Kim was a veteran of creating something out of nothing.

He could make a group of journalists and put important information or interesting stories about the Creek tribe in the newspaper.

‘Hmm. It’s a bit boring if it only delivers information.’

If he serialized something interesting on the page regularly, he would have more regular subscribers.

‘Novels? Poems? Essays?’

Something light to read was good for literature.

Kiwoo Kim had already published a considerable amount of literature in elementary school textbooks. But it wasn’t enough for regular serialization.

The writers’ group was still slowly emerging. In other words, he had to write it himself if he wanted to increase the quantity.

‘Sigh… Let’s take it slow. I have to rest when I rest!’

Writing was also quite hard work. Kiwoo Kim shook his head and tried to take a nap.

But.

When he became conscious of sleeping, he couldn’t sleep at all.

‘…Should I try writing a little?’

A little bit of curiosity peeked out at him about writing.

‘Yeah. I’ll just write until I feel like it. Until I get bored or tired.’

It was his break time anyway. It was right to do what he wanted if he felt like it.

Kiwoo Kim slowly got up and sat on a chair. Then he started sharpening a pencil with a small knife.

*

Kiwoo Kim’s choice was a novel.

He was negative before starting, but once he started writing, it was quite fun.

Kiwoo Kim wrote a novel without any hesitation.

And when he came to his senses…

“Grand Chief, did you rest well?”

“Y-yeah…”

Before he knew it, his five-day vacation was over.

Straight Tree’s face was very bright. 

His skin, which had been dry and rough, became smooth and elastic. 

He looked like he had rested well during the holiday.

On the other hand, Kiwoo Kim felt a slight fatigue. He enjoyed writing when he was writing, but when the holiday was over, he regretted writing novels all the time.

But it was too late to regret it. The holiday was already over.

“Why do you look so pale? Do you have any discomfort anywhere?”

“Ha ha. I’ve been resting for five days, how could I be sick?”

Kim Ki-woo smiled awkwardly and hastened his steps.

And so, his work began again.

Of course, he wanted to proceed with the newspaper-related tasks right away, but he couldn’t.

There were some urgent matters that he had to deal with first.

Kim Ki-woo held his first meeting after returning from his vacation.

“I never knew it would be so good to transport goods by boat.”

“Right. To think that we used to carry so many things by hand… Ugh, it’s amazing how we managed to do that until now.”

“It was all thanks to the hard work of the porters.”

“You’re right.”

As the transport boats piled up, the Creek tribe’s transportation system began to change rapidly.

North America was different from other continents. It had rivers that were incomparable to those of other continents in terms of quantity and quality.

Moreover, the Mississippi River area, which had firmly established itself as the Creek’s territory, was the region that benefited the most from this advantage.

Thanks to this, the atmosphere in the meeting room was very harmonious. The effects of water transportation were gradually being felt.

“The demand for porters is decreasing, right?”

“Yes. If we get more boats like this, we might be able to reduce the scale even more.”

“Good.”

Unless they subjugated other tribes, it was rare for them to have a natural surplus of manpower.

Kim Ki-woo had no intention of wasting them.

“Then let’s put them into construction.”

“Construction, sir?”

The construction director Straight Tree looked surprised and asked back.

The construction department was already busy. 

It was not easy to replace all the houses of the tribe members, who had exceeded one million, with stone. 

He had no idea when this goal would be achieved.

In addition, he was reading and studying the architectural books that Kim Ki-woo had written in order to design the new imperial palace.

Everyone agreed that the imperial palace should be magnificent and beautiful. 

As a result, the construction department was working hard.

Because of this, no one knew when the imperial palace would be completed. It was certain that it would take a long time.

But suddenly he wanted to increase the staff? Was it because he wanted to support more workers for the busy construction work?

‘There’s no way he would do that.’

Straight Tree firmly denied his guess.

He had been working with him for a long time. He never generously supplemented the lack of manpower. He always provided just enough staff to barely meet the needs.

Then…

“He must have something new in mind.”

The industrial director Black Mud uttered Straight Tree’s suspicion out loud.

Whenever something new started, the industrial department also got busy.

Therefore, his expression was not very good either.

“You’re right. Even though water transportation has started in earnest, I still think there are many things lacking.”

“What are they, sir?”

“First of all, we need to make proper docking facilities. We can’t keep loading and unloading things on and off the boats like this.”

“Hmm… You’re right.”

The commercial director Swiftfoot nodded and agreed with Kim Ki-woo’s words.

This was a big reaction from him, who was usually taciturn.

All transportation systems were under the jurisdiction of the commercial department. 

In other words, the commercial department benefited the most from the boats.

However, there were still not enough basic facilities for docking boats, so there was a lot of waste of manpower.

Of course, that was not the only reason why Kim Ki-woo mentioned construction.

“We also need to pave roads with stone for the movement of raw materials.”

The faces of the executives showed confusion. They did not know the concept of paved roads yet.

“What do you mean by paved roads?”

“It means covering the roads with stone to make them flat.”

“Do we really need to do that?”

In modern times, anyone who asked this question would be scolded for being ignorant. But it was understandable that they had this doubt since they had not experienced it yet.

“We absolutely need to do that. Once you pave the roads with stone, they won’t get muddy even when it rains.”

“Hmm. That sounds good. The porters suffer a lot when it rains.”

“That’s not all. Industrial director?”

“Yes, sir?”

“Are there any problems with producing carts?”

“Of course not.”

The industrial director Black Mud realized Kim Ki-woo’s intention as soon as he finished speaking and widened his eyes.

“Oh! If you pave the roads as you say, using carts will be much easier!”

“Ha ha. You’re really good at your job.”

The wheels and carts had been made for quite a while, but they were not popularized.

The ground was bumpy and soft, which was the biggest reason.

But what if the roads were paved and remained the same even when it rained?

The efficiency of carts would increase significantly. They would finally be popularized.

‘Should I import some llamas from somewhere?’

There must have been natives who raised llamas near the Andes Mountains. 

He had boats now, so he wondered if he should bring some llamas, which were not as good as horses, cows, or camels, but could be used for pulling carts.

It would be much more efficient to use animal power to pull carts.

“The burden on the porters will be greatly reduced if the roads are paved. They don’t have to carry heavy loads, they just have to load them on carts and pull them.”

“Then both water and land transportation will become much easier.”

“Yes.”

Only then did the directors show signs of acceptance. Of course, their reactions were different.

The commercial director was happy that transportation would become easier, while the construction and industrial directors were gloomy.

But Kim Ki-woo deliberately ignored them. The innovation of the transportation system was something he could never compromise on.

< Return. > The end