055 North America(1)
It took about five months to arrive in North America, and it would have arrived sooner if the merchant ships had engines.
Arriving in North America relatively smoothly, Lee Hwan unpacked his bag on 500 acres of land he had received from the Mexican government.
There was a marina left by the Spanish army here in the past, and the landowner was managing it until recently, so even the sediments near the port were neatly organized.
The dock even had a dock where medium-sized ships could be repaired, so it seemed that the ironclad ships could be repaired immediately.
Lee Hwan got off the boat and looked around once.
“Is this where we will take root?”
“There is a small village nearby. I think we can just eat and sleep on the boat, repair it, and expand the area.”
“Okay, do that.”
In fact, Lee Hwan and his companions, who came here for the first time as an advance team, felt a bit overwhelmed, but there was also a feeling of excitement at the thought of starting anew in a new land.
Yi Hwan ordered 20,000 people to maintain the village and build an iron wall nearby with the soldiers.
“Let’s start with the iron wall first. There is a threat to wildlife and we have to be prepared for attacks by indigenous peoples.”
“Yes, sir!”
Some of the settlers included some of the former aristocrats in England.
However, they abandoned their noble life and came to East Stella to volunteer, mostly poor inventors or retired lawyers.
They gave up their pride and moved according to Lee Hwan’s instructions, and thanks to that, there was no disturbance between the works.
The settlers were engrossed in assembling the steel wall parts brought in from East Stella and driving them firmly into the ground.
Lee Hwan, who had made a 10-meter-high iron plate in the Netherlands and stacked it on the floor of the cabin, took it out again, dug it out, and decided to plant the iron plate as if driving a stake.
Digging was done by an excavator with a rotary handle, where the dug soil was filtered and mixed with cement for use in building houses.
Two cows were mobilized to roll one excavator.
The principle of the excavator was that when a huge cylinder with a long iron rod was rolled, the cogs connected to it were engaged and rotated to generate hydraulic pressure.
As a result, it was difficult to roll the excavator with human power, and construction was only possible with a tow truck or horseshoe.
However, being able to use such a huge force, the speed of digging the ground has increased 10 to 20 times faster than before.
Thanks to this, the iron wall could be erected in a fortnight.
After erecting an iron wall, Lee Hwan poured concrete under it to fix it, and installed an H-beam-shaped brace.
The iron plates were made in the form of interlacing grids, and as long as the floors were firmly attached, they would never collapse even if they were beaten with cannons all day long.
While fixing the iron walls on the floor, on the ground, a tow artillery hull was built and a rotating turret was installed at each wall node.
Small cannons will be installed in these turrets to annihilate at close range forces that may swarm from the ground, and in some cases to annihilate enemies firing from the shore.
Lee Hwan walked around the construction site, shoveling and hammering himself, hanging out with the soldiers.
When sleeping, he went to the barracks with the soldiers and took a nap, and when he ate, he ate hard bread with a mild soup.
People wondered why on earth Lee Hwan had to suffer so much.
People asked Lee Hwan, who was busy working on cementing the towed artillery positions and building an ammunition warehouse next to it.
“president! Why do you come all the way to this hot North America and suffer?”
“We are creating a land of dreams. But if I, the boss, are lazy, will the construction work properly?”
Lee Hwan never forgot the teachings of the grandson’s warfare method.
Lee Hwan, who was deeply engraved in his bones that a field commander should always be with the soldiers, was hanging out with the soldiers whether it rained or snowed.
Thanks to such an illness, the 20,000 settlers worked hard at the same time, and in just one month, they completed their own homes.
The square cube-shaped house built with concrete may look a little shabby from the outside, but it was equipped with a wind-up fan and an ondol, and it could be lit by receiving electricity from a generator in the center of the village.
It was around 4 months after the advance team arrived.
Lee Hwan went outside the completed iron wall and admired the scenery.
The majesty of the iron wall built on the desolate desert was like looking at the iron mountain range built by humans.
If someone came to loot East Stella, it was obvious that they would run away in surprise.
“Ugh, that’s great!”
Now, Lee Hwan was planning to supplement the village with convenience facilities and carry out civil works in the place where the factories and steel mills would be located until the latecomers arrive.
***
two months after that.
The late arrivals arrived in the western part of North America where Lee Hwan is located.
The latter came with 17 iron-clad frigates and 20 steel merchant ships.
The steel merchant ship completed using the new steel completed by East Stellar with a better understanding of steel so far can carry more load than the existing wooden ship, requires fewer crew, and is nearly three times faster in speed.
It could be said that it had specifications that could not be compared with sailing ships sailing in the wind.
Yi Hwan would trade between the United States and Mexico with this, and he would carry troops and weapons steadily from the Netherlands.
Joshua, who had led the latter group, greeted Lee Hwan warmly.
“president! How the hell is this?!”
“That’s it. How have you been?”
“I was young and I had a strand on a boat, so it wasn’t a big problem.”
“Ah, you did.”
“Anyway, progress is very fast. It seems that you have already finished the civil engineering work of the factory?”
“Yes, it is. People work non-stop, so it’s over quickly.”
“The president is so diligent and sincere, so of course we trust and follow him.”
“Anyway, you worked hard. It’s going to be a market, would you like a light accompaniment?”
“Good.”
Lee Hwan and Joshua climbed up the iron wall with wine brought from Holland and roasted pork to accompany them.
Whew!
The wind here feels like it’s crumbly, but it was also quite charming when combined with the view from the iron wall.
Lee Hwan said as he filled Joshua’s cup.
“When I came here, Rachel Goldenchild wrote me a letter. He said he would come forward and talk to the Habsburgs well and mediate between the US and the UK.”
“Ah, are you talking about that? It went well and we can export rifles to the United States.”
Rachel wrote to Lee Hwan, ‘I realized the right thing to do for a person who wants to buy faith.’
She went directly to the Habsburgs to mediate between Britain and the United States to amend the law to allow arms export, and to help the Netherlands sell the ES-1 across Europe.
Joshua posted a report with the content as its main focus.
“There were some twists and turns, but in the end both Golden Child and Habsburg decided to help our East Stella. Of course, it is also true that the merchants in the south of the Netherlands are not very happy with the union with the Habsburgs, which in the past had plunged the country into division. But thanks to East Stellar, a huge amount of traded goods from the German Federation and elsewhere are paying the road tolls, so we can’t say much.”
“I shut my mouth for money, what do you mean?”
“It is like that. Anyway, now that the ES-1 can be exported to the United States, the ES-1 used in the Netherlands will have to be discarded, so we have prepared a countermeasure in advance.”
When a new gun was released, it was clear that the Dutch royal family would discard the old one and use the new one as a standard weapon.
If that happens, it was like saying that all the ES-1s that have been released so far will go to the warehouse.
Rather than that, Lee Hwan wanted to collect the entire weapon, measure it, and resell it.
“Let’s get all the guns back, weigh them, clean them, and sell them again. 30-40% off the original price.”
“iced coffee! That way, the money pressure can be relieved on the part of the gun buyer too!”
“And let’s introduce a system where only countries that buy discounted guns can rent guns.”
“Are you talking about introducing gun rentals?”
“Yes, it is.”
The value of today’s firearms and tomorrow’s firearms is quite different.
Aside from the fluctuations in the value of money, most of today’s firearms are made by hand, so the price was beyond imagination.
It was even possible to buy a gun through smuggling with a couple of buffalo.
As Lee Hwan mass-produced firearms, the price fell by less than half, but it was still not easy to arm.
If the Netherlands had not been such a wealthy country, arming an army of tens of thousands with rifles would have been virtually unthinkable.
Now, Britain will also buy guns, and France, where finances are poor, will soon be coveted. Selling used guns or leasing guns to them would be a very epoch-making business.
In addition, if Lee Hwan leased a gun, some of the country’s military power would be taken over by Lee Hwan.
In addition, Lee Hwan would make a lot of money if he sold things like tow guns and ironclad ships that are expensive enough to compare with rifles.
“If possible, let’s try a leasing business.”
“Reese?”
“The rental business.”
“iced coffee! okay. So let’s get back to discussing this gun lease with the Dutch, British and American governments.”
It was the rifle that would open the door to the future defense industry.
Hwan Lee and Joshua were having a conversation like that.
Joshua, who poured alcohol into Lee Hwan’s glass, said suddenly.
“Anyway, it’s a joke. What are you going to do?”
“Hmm, well. I haven’t decided yet.”
“If you can’t choose between the Golden Child and the Habsburg families, how about the Prussia or the Dutch royal family?”
“Are you Prussia?”
“Through the Thirty Years’ War and the Seven Years’ War, Prussia emerged from the poor principality of the past and grew to become the main force of the Great Rebellion in name and reality, and ultimately played a decisive role in subjugating Napoleon. However, Russia is still standing up and Austria is looking at Eastern Europe. Maybe that’s why, but the Prussian royal family is constantly sending love calls to our company. Of course, the Dutch royal family, who heard the news, said they would not sit still, and they are looking for a bride.”
He collected the letters that had flown to East Stella so far, and delivered them to Lee Hwan in a bundle.
In the letter, it was evident that he had written a letter with the momentum to give even gold to Lee Hwan.
“Hey, is marriage going to hang like this?”
“That’s right. As you may well know, after Napoleon’s defeat, Europe has become a battleground of rivalry. No matter how much Britain holds the hegemony, no one knows when the Allies will be formed again.”
It is said that Britain has emerged as a country where the sun never sets, but if all of Europe decides to rush in, there is nothing they can do.
In short, there is no permanent leader in Europe, and the best way to retake the position was to obtain a new weapon.
“I don’t think it’s a bad idea to try to make contact with Prussia.”
Somehow, it felt like the number of cases of marriage was increasing.