NOVEL NEXT Ch. 15
Chapter 15: The Fertilization Method (1)
People admired the piled-up cloth.
“Wow! So much! Even if cotton cloth is this much, it’s surprising, but this precious silk cloth?”
“Is the price of silk cloth these days twice that of cotton?”
“I’m rich! I’m rich!”
If we roughly priced the 900 bolts of silk cloth.
It was enough for the entire village to live without working for five years.
Among these, 100 bolts became mine as payment for spawn and effort, and the remaining 800 bolts were shared among those who participated in mushroom cultivation.
Those who instantly earned several years’ worth of wealth all at once were delighted.
“Throw stones! Swing the club!”
“More pork! Bring it!”
“Alcohol! Let’s drink till we die!”
They held stone-throwing contests, festivals, and feasted on pork.
They danced and beat drums.
About half a month later, when the excitement began to fade...
They entered into a serious discussion again.
“First, the mushrooms won’t keep doing well, right?”
“Yeah. The price is already starting to drop. Luxuries usually drop sharply. Next year, it might be half price.”
Who said rural people were docile?
Not at all.
These people, from the dawn of civilization, fought daily against nature, wondering what and how to plant to survive.
Especially farmers on the Korean Peninsula.
Spring, summer, fall, and winter sound nice but aren’t good for farming.
Is farming easy in a crazy place where monsoons come in summer and snow falls in winter?
According to one study, Koreans are genetically less happy and more anxious.
Happiness is an emotion that arises when one is satisfied, but in this ever-changing Korean land, those who quickly felt satisfaction were already weeded out in the Paleolithic era.
The villagers were the same.
Far from being satisfied, they predicted the future and contemplated their next steps.
“So, there’s only one answer.”
When people win the lottery in the 21st century, the first thing they care about is owning buildings or real estate.
This era was no different.
“We should buy some land with this.”
“Yeah, that’s right. In the end, land is safe and the best.”
When you earn a lump sum, your attention naturally turns to real estate.
“But what’s the use of having a large land? There aren’t enough people to farm it. Is there any servant?”
“If a servant comes to this rural backwater, how much would they want, and how well would we have to treat them? It’s lucky if they last a year.”
“Hmm, then how about slaves?”
“Slaves? Can we get those?”
Slaves in Goguryeo usually came from punishments and wars.
Since both were managed by the state, the tradition of government slaves was stronger than private slaves.
These slaves, created by the state, were sometimes sold to civilians, but currently, there weren’t many slaves in Goguryeo.
As the country developed, the war paradigm shifted from ‘plunder’ to ‘conquest,’ so war captives becoming slaves decreased significantly.
Also, Goguryeo losing every war recently contributed to this.
As a result, slaves sharply declined, and even nobles found it difficult to get slaves.
So, for commoners, no matter how much money they had, finding slaves was as hard as catching stars in the sky.
At that moment, the villagers looked at me.
“Couldn’t Young Master Insam get slaves?”
“How could Young Master Insam?”
“He’s a noble.”
“Oh, right.”
They often seemed to forget I was a noble.
Well, I sometimes forgot too, so I couldn’t blame them.
“All right, I’ll try to find some.”
After that, I tried in every possible way to find slaves but ended up failing miserably.
‘Even nobles don’t have slaves these days, how could farmers?’
‘No, but Young Master Insam is a noble, right?’
‘So does he have an official position? A mountain estate? Armed retainers?’
‘Well, none of those.’
‘Then they won’t give any. Move along.’
Though I was a noble, the status of a fallen noble was as worthless as a credit card with bad credit.
‘I could ask Yeon Jayu.’
That thought briefly crossed my mind but was soon erased.
The less you beg, the better.
Besides, the Grand King mushroom was a ‘trade,’ but asking about slaves was purely a ‘favor.’
The difference was huge, and the villagers didn’t tell me to go ask Yeon Jayu.
They knew that asking a noble for help always came with a price.
In the end, after failing to buy slaves, the villagers sought another way.
“Should we really bring in a servant then?”
“Don’t be ridiculous. If you bring a servant to this backwater, you’d have to feed them servant’s rice every meal and give them a business capital like Old King Micheon.”
People often confuse ‘servants’ and ‘slaves,’ but they are completely different.
Slaves are property of the owner, but servants are hired workers.
Servants wouldn’t come here from near Pyongyang, a tiger-and-bear-infested village.
If you want them to come, you have to pay wages and treat them extremely well.
Look at
To bring people to the countryside, you have to offer that much.
Clearly, using servants in this bear village backwater would cause more harm than good.
“Then, there’s no choice.”
In the end, there was only one answer.
“Ummah!”
“Was it twelve draft oxen inside and twelve outside, so four pairs?”
“That’s right!”
“Good, good! What about farming tools?”
“Each household bought one iron plowshare!”
They bought oxen.
If there were no slaves or servants, they would have to increase oxen to cover the expanded farmland.
Thus, the village’s oxen tripled overnight, and so did the amount of dung they produced.
“Kim Insam pierced the wood with a needle, put in spawn, and struck it with his fist, so mushrooms grew from that wood, turning into twenty-four oxen.”
“...Really?”
“Some parts were skipped, but it’s true.”
“But why can’t we borrow slaves?”
“Hey, that’s blasphemy!”
Despite a minor failure, my position in the village was regarded as the incarnation of the Jade Emperor and the resurrection of King Chumo.
At this point, they would believe if I said I made bread from dung.
So, that’s what I decided to do.
“...What?”
“Stacking dung.”
“Why stack dung?”
“Oh, don’t you know?”
I smiled slyly.
“This is fertilizer. It doesn’t exist in Goryeo.”
The future Franz Haber made bread from air through nitrogen fixation, and when that wasn’t enough, he made deadly weapons from air.
I can’t do that.
But making food from dung?
That’s not difficult.
Goryeo’s agriculture was the best among the Three Kingdoms.
There were many reasons, such as the Jindaebeop, Korea’s first farmer promotion law enacted 400 years ago, and the acquisition of livestock and iron tools through conquering Manchuria, but above all, it was technology.
In this era, where even reading and writing was considered a high skill, bringing technology meant bringing people.
If a 21st-century industrial spy ran away with technology on a USB, in this era, they simply captured people.
Goryeo’s farming technology developed in this way.
The best agricultural experts in East Asia at this time were undoubtedly the Han Chinese, because their origin, the Yellow River, was an extremely difficult river.
Egypt’s Nile River flooded regularly, so Egyptians developed math to calculate flooded lands.
However, the Yellow River flooded unpredictably, so the Han Chinese focused on flood control engineering rather than calculating floods.
As is well known, after the fall of Gojoseon, Pyongyang was under Han Chinese control for a long time as the Lelang Commandery.
However, during King Micheon’s era,
Goryeo expelled Lelang Commandery after long conflict and annexed the territory.
Many Han Chinese migrated to Goryeo during this time.
And Goryeo favored those with excellent farming skills.
The current Supreme Chancellor, Wang Godeok of the Lelang Wang clan, claimed his ancestor was Gija of Shang, showing his Han Chinese lineage.
You might ask how a Han Chinese like Wang Godeok could be a Supreme Chancellor in Goryeo?
Currently, the Silla Sangdaedeung (Prime Minister) is Kim Gu-hyeong, the last king of Geumgwan Gaya, who surrendered to Silla and became Prime Minister.
Not only that,
Soga no Umako, the Oomi (Great Minister) of Yamato across the sea, was a pro-Baekje faction who wore Baekje clothing.
“Originally, Goguryeo, Baekje, and Silla were all ruled by outsiders, not natives.”
King Chumo of Goguryeo was from Buyeo, Baekje’s Biryoo and Onjo were from Goguryeo, and the founders of Silla—Bak Hyeokgeose, Kim Alji, Seok Talhae—were all from outside the six villages of Saro.
In other words, the current East Asian trend is not nationalism but globalism; not ethnic nationalism but state nationalism.
If you have ability and power, no matter your origin, you can be favored anywhere.
Thus, having accepted Han farming techniques, modern Goguryeo already widely practiced the essentials of classical farming methods like flood control, iron plowshares, oxen-drawn plowing, and hole sowing.
However, one thing commonly thought of in farming was still lacking.
“Fertilizer.”
Also called the Fertilization Method.
Currently, Goryeo has no concept of fertilizer.
Fertilizer started in the late Goryeo period, and only spread widely after King Sejong’s Nongsa Jiksul (Agricultural Manual).
It was a surprisingly late development.
That made sense.
“The Fertilization Method is somewhat like Japan’s ‘Deadly Pufferfish Roe Pickle’.”
No one admires the Japanese for eating poisonous pufferfish roe by thinking, “Ah, soaking roe in rice bran removes poison! Why didn’t I think of that?”
Most think, “How could they eat that?”
Fertilizer is similar.
It has long been known that dung and rot are dangerous.
In records from the Spring and Autumn Annals, tactics like “smearing arrows with dung or dirty leaves” frequently appear.
That is, dung is dirty.
Food must not be dirty.
The first person to sprinkle dung on food despite biological facts and psychological aversion was crazy, and it’s unfair to blame those who didn’t think of it.
“Modern Goryeo farmers preserve soil fertility by using fallow farming.”
You can’t farm the same field every year.
Doing so would drain nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium from the soil, preventing the next crop from growing well.
People at that time knew this empirically and used fallow farming, resting the field for one year after farming.
They planted millet in spring, barley in fall, and then left the field idle for one year.
They waited for soil fertility to recover while leaving the field fallow.
This method was used until around the Goryeo period.
However, with the introduction of fertilizer in the Joseon period, this farming method underwent drastic change.
Fertilizer replenished soil fertility, reducing the need for fallow.
In the northern regions of current Goryeo, the two-year three-crop system became common during Joseon.
Spring millet and autumn barley remained the same, but instead of resting the field for a year, soybeans were planted the following spring.
If fallow farming was a routine of spring millet–autumn barley–spring rest–autumn rest–spring millet–autumn barley,
the two-year three-crop system was spring millet–autumn barley–spring soybeans–autumn rest–spring millet–autumn barley–spring soybeans–autumn rest.
If the traditional method left 50% of the field fallow, the two-year three-crop system left only 25% fallow.
Just as bodybuilders’ routines differ depending on steroids, farming routines change drastically depending on fertilizer use.
“…In the southern regions, they don’t even use fallow.”
This might make northern land seem inferior, but it’s not entirely negative.
In the south, the river’s water level difference between rainy and dry seasons was extreme.
The Han River’s ratio was 300 to 1.
That means the water volume difference between high and low is 300 times.
I even heard the Nakdong River’s difference is more severe.
Because of this, floods occurred frequently, and if flood control was not done properly, damage from water disasters was inevitable.
Changing the direction of water or using water power to operate waterwheels was unthinkable.
‘Using waterwheels on land with a bed coefficient over 300 means they won’t turn when there’s no rain, and when it rains, they’ll be washed away to the Dragon Palace.’
Japan didn’t learn waterwheel technology from their ally Baekje, but from Damjing of distant Goguryeo.
Baekje was a country that couldn’t use waterwheels.
So… if southern lands had a high point of 150 and a low point of 30, Pyongyang land occupied by Goguryeo had a high point of 100 but a low point of 50.
In the current era, lacking technology to raise farmland’s high points in many ways, Pyongyang’s land with a higher low point was better in many aspects.
Besides science and technology, Goguryeo’s farming ability was excellent in social technology too.
‘In Pyongyang, many farmers were self-cultivators, and land transactions were active.’
In Guknaeseong, the noble families maintained their hereditary tax villages using poor peasants called Haho as servants—this tax village-Haho system remained strong.
But near Pyongyang Castle where I lived, many were self-cultivators, and land transactions among farmers were active.
Considering Silla officially recognized farmers’ land ownership about 150 years later during King Seongdeok’s reign, this seemed quite progressive.
Why did Goguryeo put such effort into maintaining self-cultivation?
Needless to say—
‘Because of war.’
In early Goguryeo, military nobles called Zwasikja wore thick armor, rode horses, and became Gaemamusa, the war’s main force.
The Haho, poor peasants affiliated with the nobles’ villages, paid tribute and served as auxiliary or rear soldiers during war.
But the weakness of this cavalry-centered system became clear quickly.
The Battle of Biryusu between Goguryeo and Cao Wei (the Wei Kingdom from the Records of the Three Kingdoms) was likely the start.
At that time, Wei’s governor of Youzhou, Guanqiu Jian, with 10,000 troops, formed a solid infantry square and through combined cavalry-infantry tactics annihilated Goguryeo’s Gaemamusa.
This defeat reduced the then-capital Guknaeseong to ruins.
Shocked, Goguryeo realized the importance of elite infantry.
But the problem was human resources.
Military nobles were cavalry, and the poor Haho were unsuitable for elite infantry.
They lacked money for armor and, more importantly, motivation.
‘You can’t expect horse manure worth performance by giving rat dung as pay.’
In the 21st century, eager battalion commanders try foolish ideas like ‘treating conscripts like officers will make them elite,’ but mostly end with barracks turning into hospitals.
Ultimately, Goguryeo fostered self-cultivating farmers on Pyongyang’s vast plains as the core of infantry.
The result was successful.
Needless to say, morale was high, relatively wealthy men became soldiers, so their armament was good, and even harvests greatly increased.
It’s natural to put more effort into one’s own field than others’.
‘According to Tang dynasty records, when a Tang general conquered Goguryeo’s fortress, there were 500,000 seoks of millet stored.’
Tang was shocked, wondering ‘how could there be so much grain during wartime?’
In this situation, if we introduced fertilizer and two-year three-crop farming to triple food production?
‘Insane.’
China? Silla? Baekje?
Exactly.
Author’s note.
Koreans genetically tend to suppress ‘anandamide,’ a substance that creates happiness, making them prone to feeling unhappiness.
However, ‘lack of satisfaction’ isn’t entirely negative, as anxiety contributes significantly to human development and survival.
That’s why it’s sometimes called the ‘diligence gene’ or ‘success gene.’
Roughly, it’s a gene that ‘makes you unhappy but increases survival rate.’ Is that good?
In
Before him, two ran away from servant life after being promised marriage.
During the time of Jomsuni’s older sister, she brought in 14 servants.
Usually, landlords with such reputations couldn’t get servants, but the protagonist was naïve and easy to deceive, and Jomsuni, at 20, endured to see how long she could avoid marriage.
By the way, in Kim Yoo-jung’s other work
However, Camellia’s Jomsuni is the village’s beauty, while Spring, Spring’s Jomsuni is described as somewhat rough-looking.
The Spring, Spring protagonist liked her, saying she looked ‘warm and matched my art style.’
King Micheon worked as a servant in a rich rural household while fleeing King Bongsang’s purge but quit after a year, saying he couldn’t do it.
He worked without rest daily.
One story says the owner told Micheon to chase frogs at night because their croaking was noisy.
Micheon threw tiles all night to chase frogs.
It seemed more like servant discipline than real annoyance.
But after ending servant life, Micheon started salt business, indicating he gained a good business capital.
After all, if wages were stingy, no one would serve as a rural servant.
‘Servant’s rice’ means a heap of rice.
There’s also the saying ‘the master eats millet rice while the servant eats rice.’
Such things happened frequently.
It could mean good treatment of servants, but mostly, servant work was so hard that they needed that much rice to keep working.
Masters ate less because they worked less.
Although the existence of Gija Joseon is denied in the 21st century, it remained influential until Joseon and during the Three Kingdoms.
Silla, founded on Gojoseon refugees, seemed to have a Dangun Joseon culture, offering sacrifices to Wind Spirit in spring and Rain Spirit in summer.
The Rain Spirit was unpopular and has no records of sacrifices.
Also, diplomatic documents with Tang mention ‘the great sage (Gija)’ reaching the East, indicating a consciousness of Gija Joseon’s succession.
Goguryeo also worshipped Gija as a Confucian sage and Pyongyang’s deity.
The Lelang Wang clan claiming Gija as ancestor is true.
(Modern families claiming Gija as ancestor exist.)
Additionally, bears and tigers were also worshipped, but unlike Silla, which worshipped Wind Spirit-Rain Spirit-Rain Spirit, Goguryeo likely had little Dangun faith.
In fact, Goguryeo, descendants of Buyeo, had no particular reason to worship Dangun, the founder of Gojoseon.
Instead, they worshipped Haemosu, Buyeo’s progenitor.