018 Gun Development (2)
The East Stellar Company’s housing project went smoothly.
When the trees were cut down to build a house, it got better sunlight, and when the ground was compacted and the drainage was constructed, it was better to cope with flooding.
Also, all the bushes near the factory area were removed and burned, leaving the area dry all the time.
After about a week, the land near the factory area was slowly drying out and it was in a rather soft state.
Building a wooden house on top of it would make a pretty plausible picture.
Now, Lee Hwan decided to make a pulley to hold the frame of the house.
Even if you build a house out of wood, doesn’t it take a lot of force to raise the roof in the end?
That’s why I decided to use a pulley to make a tree lifter that lifts trees by hand.
Although there is no place to make a hydraulic geojunggi yet, there was a technology capable of making a geojunggi by weaving a rope.
In fact, with a little brain, anyone can design it, so it only takes a little bit of steel skills.
At the same time, there were people who could be regarded as the best in steel technology at the time.
“Let’s build a geojunggi and raise a tree. And after that, you will be able to use it to move heavy objects to the boat later.”
“good. Then you do it.”
Hwan Lee decided to think about how to complete the house.
First of all, building a single-story house quickly was the key because now we need to create a place where people can sleep as much as possible.
However, there was a need for a way to build a house where people could be warm in winter and cool in summer.
It was the ondol.
Even if Western culture wears shoes, the difference between having an ondol and not having an ondol is a real difference.
Whether it was a fumigated ondol or a hot-water ondol, once the floor became warm, there was bound to be a qualitative difference in how people lived.
Lee Hwan first suggested that we lay the floor with the traditional Korean Ondol.
“We’re going to lay the floor with Ondol and put a wall on it.”
“What is Ondol?”
Lee Hwan drew a blueprint on the spot and showed it to people.
This was not something he devised himself, but merely transferred the knowledge that contained the traditional method of Korea.
From his point of view, this was just a copy, but from the point of view of those who saw it, it wasn’t like that at all.
“Huh! If you turn off the fire in a place called an agung, does the whole floor become warm? Then you won’t have to worry about getting cold in winter! In addition, you can always boil water and cook food, so isn’t it one stone or two?”
“okay. For that purpose, we created a form like this.”
“good! Let’s build a house like this.”
Now, these two families received the knowledge of ondol from Lee Hwan in a hurry and managed to build a house that people could live in, but this was actually a groundbreaking idea in the history of Western architecture in the 19th century.
In fact, Lee Hwan himself was unaware of what kind of result this Ondol would come back to later.
The house was completed in less than a month.
When I built one house, it was inconvenient because there was no road.
“Even if it’s a small road, there should be some way.”
Lee Hwan cut down six beautiful trees and connected them in parallel to make rollers to compact the ground.
After the ground was compacted for about three days, a path was created that could be traversed by a person to some extent.
Lee Hwan temporarily paved the road by placing stones or small rocks on it.
Lee Hwan realized that there should be a road for people to pass as the small town was built, so he thought that he had to temporarily pave the road and build it properly later.
“Roads will have to be built along waterways. And the bushes near the road should always be neat and tidy. The power plant will come in here later.”
“A power unit?”
Since electricity was not yet very common, even the places to put light bulbs were very limited.
However, Lee Hwan was about to build a small hydroelectric power plant and a coal power plant here to supply electricity and operate the plant.
Thinking of the combination of the road and the power unit, the ground was compacted step by step.
Now, the road was made to the extent that gravel and stones were laid on the paved road and the soil was covered with it.
If asphalt or concrete is added to this, a highway can be made.
“Later, let’s build a really cool open road.”
“Doro! Good. If that happens, it will be useful as it connects Rotterdam and overland.”
Perhaps by the time the road is laid and electricity flows here, the price of land will be different.
‘I’ll have to study construction and road construction a little more in-depth in the future.’
A house was built and a factory was built, so now you can print as many guns as you want if you want.
Lee Hwan made and stocked up a gun that could arm about 200 people.
This enabled Lee Hwan to keep his promise with Richard Ben-Heren.
He inquired about the situation on the southern Belgian side of the bookkeeper, who came down regularly once a week.
“Didn’t there be any special news for the merchants in Belgium?”
“Any special news?”
“For example, the development of new firearms or something like that.”
“I don’t know about that, but they say there have been cases of gun smuggling in Prussia.”
“Prussia… … ?”
“Dutch guns are fine as well, but I’m not sure why they even went to Prussia. Something must have happened?”
In the Netherlands, a unified dynasty was recently established that encompassed Belgium and Luxembourg, but discrimination between the north and the south was quite severe.
In the north, they used to say that if the Dutch, with a population of less than 2 million, were to rule Belgium with a population of more than 3 million, it was an inevitable choice.
‘Are you preparing for independence?’
If they had known about Lee Hwan’s gun making, they would have chosen to bring them to Rotterdam in some way.
Because Prussia and the Netherlands are connected by the Rhine River, bringing firearms to Rotterdam was a very natural process, and it would be perfect if the disease was eliminated in this process.
But Belgium opted for smuggling rather than formal imports.
Killing someone with a smuggled gun would have caused a real uproar.
In a word, it meant that he was trying to steal a gun, and that was the same as saying that he didn’t know about Lee Hwan’s gun production.
“Okay. I don’t have to worry anymore.”
This meant that Lee Hwan kept his promise to the Ben Heren family.
***
Late at night, I saw Aaron in the back alley of Amsterdam’s red light district.
Aaron was walking with both hands in his pockets, looking around for a long time.
Then he went into the store marked ‘Forget-me-not’.
Inside the forget-me-not, there were cigarettes, opium, and men who were limping almost like octopuses that had been marinated and lived.
Aaron left those men behind and went into the small room.
Then I saw a half-naked woman eating bread alone.
“Long time no see.”
“… … Aaron?”
“Are you okay for a moment?”
The woman slowly stood up from her seat.
Then she slowly approaches Aaron.
In an instant, she threw the piece of bread she was eating into Aaron’s face.
puck!
“… … What kind of bread is so hard?”
“Damn you man, where are you coming back from? When does a pimp leave, saying he doesn’t want to see it.”
“Actually, I didn’t like the intelligence traders who pretended to be pimps.”
“… … Did you come here to die?”
“I didn’t come today for anything like that.”
“Anyway, just shut up. It’s hard to earn money and live.”
Obviously, his mouth was rough, but looking at his expression, he felt as if he was going to be embraced by Aaron at any moment.
Aaron knew this better than anyone else in the world, but he tried to suppress his feelings.
“… … Do you know anything about the merchants selling drugs to Asia?”
“Well, why don’t you turn it off?”
“It’s because there’s no one on the floor more nimble than you. Can you help me?”
“Damn it! I don’t even have a heart anyway, so don’t look around and get out of here! I’m so dizzy because of you!”
“It has to do with Prince Ben-Heren. Have you been favored by him too?”
“… … What?”
“Help me once.”
When the name Ben-Heren appeared, she seemed to hesitate for a moment.
But she was still sharp.
damn!
She even slaps Aaron.
“If it doesn’t turn off, the next one is the fist.”
“… … my hands are still sore How many times have you slapped men on the cheek with that hand?”
“But this man… … ?!”
Aaron grabbed her hand as she flew again.
It wasn’t that strong, but she tried to pretend that she didn’t know.
“… … Aren’t you going to let this go?”
“Help me just once.”
“Like a persistent human being. You are a human leech.”
“Well, I did look like a leech cousin.”
“… … How do I like a person like that?”
Aaron listened to her recitation with one ear and blew it out through the other, and took out a small notebook from his pocket.
In the notebook, there were a few words written in English.
“Youngan Buwon?”
“Are you Buwongun?”
“Do you know anything about such a person?”
“Yeah, I don’t know.”
“Then what about Andong Kim?”
“… … No, what are you talking about?”
“They said they would let me sell opium to Asia.”
“Opium… … ?”
Distributing opium is fundamentally illegal.
Even if this were legalized, it was clear that the trade would be fully governed and controlled by Britain.
She shook her head.
“I don’t know who these people are, but keep in mind that even Prince Ben-Heren could be in danger if you were too greedy.”
“Yeah, I’ll take care of that. By the way, can you help me find out who the Kims are?”
“… … Have you ever seen such a crazy human?! Some crazy guy comes to his ex and asks her to look out for someone?! it’s crazy?!”
She writes badly.
Aaron slowly began to bow his head in front of her.
“request.”
“What are you doing? A person who has never said anything that he regrets to anyone in his life.”
“Isn’t that why you are so desperate? You’re the only one I trust. Sylvia.”
“… … You look like a f*cking human.”
The sediment that remained between the two was still blocking each other, but there was no way that she could not know the sincerity of the man who had been covering the duvet during that time.
Sylvia sighed deeply.
“I am crazy.”
“Are you going to help?!”
“I’ll introduce you to a person, so quickly disappear from my sight.”
“Oh, thank you!”
“… … It’s noisy, so just go away.”
Aaron handed her a note.
After cherishing it, he handed the money to Sylvia.
“Request fee.”
“Should I cut my fingernails with a knife? Isn’t it off?”
“… … Yes, I got it.”
Aaron, who pretended to steal the money again, bounced the money back to Sylvia’s chair. And then he hurriedly moved on.
“Please eat well and live! Don’t just stuff it with such hard bread!”
“… … But that human!”
Sylvia is probably the only person Aaron has this embarrassment.
Sylvia’s eyes, looking at him like that, suddenly became moist.