Chapter 71

Chiiiiik!

Ooh.

Chiiiiiiik!

Ooooooh…!

“S-Sir Nemo…? Is it supposed to move like this…?”

Chk! Chk! Chk! Chk! Chk!

“Aaaaaaargh!”

“Waaaaaaaah!”

“I-it’s moving! It’s really moving!”

They say that when the first steam-powered automobile appeared, people ran away in terror. But our settlers had already experienced the monstrously sized excavator and the Damas and Porter, vehicles with speeds incomparable to that of the first steam car. They did nothing but clap and cheer with joy. All except for Oitohtan, that is, who was actually riding the thing.

The artisans, in particular, were weeping, their bodies overcome with emotion. It was only natural. The cars I drove must have seemed like something from the celestial realm, and now they had created something similar with their own hands. The feeling must have been incredible. To exaggerate a bit, was it perhaps similar to how people felt when they first went to space and landed on the moon?

“S-Sir Nemo, we’ve really done it…!”

“My heavens, to recreate a celestial power with human hands! Good heavens!”

Everyone was so delighted, coming up to me one by one to offer their congratulations. I returned their good wishes, celebrating this monumental moment with them. The mobile steam engine, a portable steam engine created by adding various new devices to the existing model…! Even if this achievement was slathered in the cheat codes of 21st-century resources, it would still go down in history.

Most of the process of technological development consists of useless trial and error. That’s a given, since it involves groping one’s way into uncharted territory. It’s much like the process of evolution. Countless random mutations appear, and only a select few survive. The species that survives as a result of evolution is not the flashiest, the strongest, or the largest. The evolution of life and technology is nothing like a Pokémon or Digimon evolution. The things that are best suited to the situation are the ones that survive best. Or the ones that ride the waves of various coincidences.

The technological development roadmap of the original history did not fit our circumstances. We had no need for power looms or spinning jennies, nor for railways and steam locomotives. The existing roadmap was a reflection of what people in the original history needed. That is why I did not follow it. I produced the tractor, the most suitable machine for us, first. Of course… since this was the result of my direct intervention as a person from the future, it’s a bit much to talk about evolution. But this technology will likely survive and develop as long as the character of this community does not change.

“We’ve really done it. Seeing the test run today brings back a lot of memories.”

Who was that? Ah, it was White.

“Ah! Mr. White! Not at all. I wanted to give you a ride as our first agricultural equipment operator…”

“No, no. Heh heh, I’m too old now to dare ride something like that.”

“…”

“…”

…What was this? He was fidgeting and looking around as if he had something to say. I quietly led him to a corner and nodded, signaling for him to speak his mind. White then whispered in my ear.

“I… heard that ‘that thing’ is for farming…”

“Ah, that’s right. That device is called a ‘tractor’.”

Of course. To exaggerate a bit, isn’t the tractor the root, the flower, the alpha, and the omega of modern agriculture? Farming without a tractor is damn hard (I was an exception since I did greenhouse farming), and some even say it’s practically impossible.

“That tractor isn’t just a machine for carrying things, like my Damas. It’s closer to the Porter, but even the Porter is limited in its use.” The Porter, at least, has a PTO, so its engine power can be used for other things, but it’s not fundamentally an agricultural machine, so its structural limitations are significant. You can’t, for instance, plow a field with a Porter.

But with a tractor, you can. Some clueless city folk think a tractor is just a chugging, noisy car. But calling a tractor ‘just a noisy car’ is like… calling a smartphone ‘just a fragile phone.’ Just as you can play games, use it as a workout aid, listen to music, watch movies, and use social media depending on what applications you install on a smartphone, the same goes for a tractor.

Everything about a tractor changes depending on what implement you connect to its back. Attach a plow, and you can use it to turn over hard soil. Attach a rotavator, and you can use it to break up the clods of dirt left after plowing. Attach a seeder, and you eliminate the need for manual sowing. Attach a harvester, and, of course, harvesting crops becomes much simpler. In other words, it can handle almost every aspect of farm work.

Of course, the very first steam tractors didn’t have a power take-off shaft, but I had them add a shaft where a belt could be attached, allowing it to be connected to implements at the front or rear. That’s right. This tractor is far superior to the first tractors that would have appeared in the 18th century. That’s right. This tractor is a machine god appearing in the agricultural world of the 16th century…!

“You’ll be able to do almost anything you can imagine with a tractor. As long as you design the right farming implement to connect to that shaft.” And of course, I knew the basic structure of simple tractor implements. This steam tractor might be a toy compared to the multi-hundred-horsepower tractors of the 21st century, but for now, it would be an enormous innovation.

And so, I proudly explained all of the above to White. Ah, do the people of this era not yet know? That thing is called a [Tractor]—. With that alone, you can farm with ease. I gave a knowing look back at my steam tractor and nodded.

We couldn’t make rubber tires for the wheels, which had been widened to increase their surface area and prevent them from getting stuck in the mud. Instead, we cut and attached anti-vibration rubber sheets to the large wheels to increase friction and absorb shock. The machinery, covered by a rain guard, constantly chugged and hissed, and pipes crisscrossing everywhere delivered the powerful pressure from the cylindrical steam boiler to each component. The power unit, left exposed for ease of maintenance, had constantly moving pistons and gears, making it look like a writhing, living metal creature.

“…What do you think?”

I stood there, puffed up with pride, expecting a reaction like, ‘W-what! I’ve never heard of or seen such a thing! You’re amazing, Mr. Kim!’. But…

“W-well, you explained all that to me last time I asked.”

“…Did I?”

My pride deflated at his less-than-enthusiastic response. As if sensing my disappointment, White glanced around for a moment then spoke. “Ah, that wasn’t what I meant to talk about.”

“Then what part were you referring to…?”

“Yes, ahem, well.” White cleared his throat. “If we are to farm with that machine called a tractor, it seems we will have to farm in a completely different way than before.”

“I suppose so.” As expected of the man who drew up the initial plans for the Roanoke colony. He gets it immediately. Yes. The tractor is a revolution in agriculture itself. When I replied as if it were obvious, White asked, “Then do you have a plan for how our settlers will utilize that machine?”

“Of course…”

Heh, heh heh. He seems to be underestimating me. I am a hero from another world, from the 21st century, more than 400 years in the future. And a man from the Republic of Korea, where a rather advanced agricultural system called the ‘Nonghyup[1]‘ and other such institutions are deeply rooted!

“So, once we finish the reclamation work with that tractor, and once we have a few more, we’ll loan them out to each farmer…”

“Yes.”

“…”

So… uh… we’ll loan them out just like the Nonghyup in Korea did… Uh… Well, that is… Ah. 

“…” 

“…”

That won’t work, will it?

***

Right.

“…I’ll have to think about that in the future.” I have no idea.

A cold sweat suddenly started to pour down my back.

***

The reason I broke into a cold sweat and momentarily panicked in front of John White was simple. How does the Nonghyup normally manage and operate its tractors? There’s a program called the ‘Farm Machinery Bank.’ The Nonghyup buys the equipment, then either loans it out to farmers who meet certain criteria or provides farming services directly. I was familiar with that system, so I just assumed it would work.

But… loan it out? How many more tractors could we possibly build? It felt like it took months just to build this one. It’s absurd. Who would sell or loan out something so precious? I had completely forgotten that I was in the late 16th century. I almost made a huge mistake.

And, the second factor: the size of the land. What was the reason we developed the tractor in the first place? Because there isn’t enough properly reclaimed farmland. And what does it mean that we have little reclaimed farmland but a population that now exceeds 50,000? It means the amount of farmland per person is very, very small. …And a tractor is. ‘A piece of farm machinery used to cultivate very, very large areas of land.’

Why didn’t I think of this? It seems the habits from living in the peaceful environment of the 21st-century countryside are still stuck to me, even after ten years. Get a grip. You’re a 16th-century person now, not 21st-century. No… not even a person, an angel. In any case, it’s ridiculous to think that individuals could operate tractors in a 16th-century settlement filled with untamed land.

And that’s not the only problem. ‘How can we do anything with a tractor when there are so few people who can even drive it in the first place!’ The more I thought about it, the more serious the third problem became. Our settlement wasn’t just short on power. We were also short on the people to handle that ‘power’…!

Right now in our settlement, if you count only the people who can properly grow wheat, barley, and potatoes, the population shrinks to a few thousand. Considering the settlement’s population is now over 50,000, that’s woefully inadequate. And among them, how many can properly handle a horse and plow? Even fewer. So, our land is vast, but only a few people know how to farm properly, and most people are just awkwardly imitating them. That’s why the lack of power feels even more acute. Because they can’t even properly handle the horses we have now, let alone a 19th or 21st-century tractor.

In a settlement where the majority can’t even handle a horse, how many people can properly operate and move a steam tractor? … … …I just realized, but for now, it seems I’m the only one. Oh… that’s not good.

It’s not just a shortage of farmland; it’s a shortage of the power to increase that farmland, and a shortage of the manpower to operate that power. What’s more, to have a tractor pass over and farm these small, divided individual plots… we would have to operate our agriculture in a completely different way. Why are these problems all linked together like a string of Vienna sausages? I clutched my head in an empty room, lost in thought.

Since we went through all sorts of trial and error building the first steam tractor, the second one will naturally be built in a shorter time. The third and fourth, even more so. I have to solve these problems by then…

Well, we already have people who handle similar machines like the rototiller and other farm equipment. The agricultural equipment operators. It’s the same with farming. Things are different now because the farmland has become so vast and the population is in the tens of thousands, but it wasn’t always like this. Originally, didn’t I just go over a large area once with the rototiller, and then people would sow seeds and do other things on top of that? Yes. I can just think of this as an expanded version of that.

…Let’s not look too far ahead. We’ve only just produced a single, basic tractor. We’re a long way from distributing the kind of tractors and implements that can replace most farm tasks and be called the essence of modern agriculture. It took months, as if we were building a warship, just to build this one tractor. And that was an achievement barely managed by dozens, even hundreds of people, working directly or indirectly. It will probably take several more months for the second and third tractors to come out.

For now… I need to focus on expanding the number of agricultural equipment operators and using the resources we have now as efficiently as possible. That tractor will be used intensively to increase the amount of reclaimed land. The problem of our settlement was that we couldn’t reclaim the land as fast as the excavator could clear it. There’s still a lot of time before the problems I just thought of come to a head. For now, focus on increasing the reclaimed land.

(An illustration of the steam tractor by artist Dikepho.)