Chapter 1115 - Kim Yuk-sun
"Hey, sis! Why'd you come by?" He waved at his sister, then gestured for her to come in.
Kim O-sun looked at the sluice gate, examined it closely, and asked, "Is there danger here?"
Kim Yuk-sun laughed: "What's there to worry about?" He pushed open the window and pointed outside. "Even if this weren't right by the city, it wouldn't matter—the horse corral has several hundred troops stationed. Who'd be so blind as to come here looking to die?"
After the Transport Training Cadre and Cavalry Training Cadre landed, they'd been stationed at the horse corrals outside the city. As the number of horses received kept growing and there wasn't enough room for everyone, they'd opened up Secondary and Tertiary horse ranches elsewhere outside the city, splitting off some people and horses.
But even so, Number One Ranch still had over a hundred Fupo Army personnel. Though mostly cadets, they'd all completed at least three months of basic infantry training and were fully equipped with rifles—attacking the horse ranch would be suicide.
"That's not quite right. Things are a bit chaotic now. Someone's scheming in the dark. This place is over half a li from the main compound. And it's surrounded by empty fields."
"No worries. The Jap... the Japanese patrol passes here every half hour," Kim Yuk-sun said unconcernedly. "...Look, here they come."
On the dirt road outside the sluice house, a squad of Japanese Public Security soldiers rode past. Their tachi swords hung from their saddles; the soldiers wore jingasa helmets and cavalry cloaks, looking quite imposing.
In the past, the sight of such figures would have sent Jeju's people fleeing in terror. But now, the siblings found the sight reassuring—these were people who protected their safety, the Officials' claws, their own kind.
"Still, be careful." Kim O-sun looked at the big iron wheel. "This is a sluice gate. The Officials say it's vital machinery..."
"That's right. If this sluice breaks, all the water stored in the dam will drain away. The water troughs in the corrals downstream won't get water, and the horses will have trouble drinking." Kim Yuk-sun pointed to the bow and arrows and machete hanging on the wall. "I'm always on guard. I'm not bragging—come three or five people, and they still won't touch this sluice gate!"
"I know you're capable." Kim O-sun looked at her brother's increasingly robust physique—he was eating his fill at every meal now, and his formerly frail body was growing solid.
She pushed open the window and looked around. On the sluice's other side was a dike blocking the river course. On the far bank was an area enclosed by fencing. Though dusk was falling, she could make out several newly-built tower-like structures inside—cylindrical, like big barrels.
"What's that?"
"A new hay storage facility," Kim Yuk-sun said. "But there's not much hay in it yet—the Officials say it won't be used until the grass fields grow and are harvested. For now, it's just for storing cut hay."
"You have to grow grass?"
"Yes." Kim Yuk-sun nodded. "Official Nick says horse-raising is a great science..."
He began enthusiastically talking about what he'd learned recently. Seeing his sister was interested in the big iron wheel, he started rattling off new terms he'd just learned: screw, universal joint, lever... These were fascinating new things that he'd been pestering the "young masters" to explain.
Then, as if showing off a treasure, he took out a small waterwheel model from a basket—the sluice house was practically "bare walls"; there was only a crude long bench, and Kim Yuk-sun had hung a basket on the wall for storage. The waterwheel had been made for him by a student from the Fangcao Ground teaching team—a teaching aid powered by water, driving a fan, to demonstrate how water does work.
"Look, sis." He placed the little waterwheel in the channel. It began spinning, driving the attached fan into a rapid whirl.
"That's interesting." Kim O-sun watched the ingenious wooden model with fascination.
The Officials had such learning in everything they did. Seeing her brother still standing in the channel, fascinated by the waterwheel, she said: "Sit down and rest a while. Stop playing—the water's still cold."
"This isn't a toy—it's 'energy.' It's the 'force' of water. There's also the 'force' of wind, the 'force' of fire—those ships at Chocheon Port that don't need oars or sails and belch black smoke when they run, that's the combined force of water and fire..."
Kim O-sun nodded. She didn't really understand everything her brother said, and wasn't particularly interested in understanding. But seeing him chattering away so enthusiastically, so different from the dull, wild child who'd only known how to play with slingshots, catch rabbits, and catch fish—it was like meeting a new person.
"Energy, schmergy—just get out of that channel!"
"It's fine, just a small task—there's nothing to do here all day. I just guard the sluice gate. I'm going to go stir-crazy." Kim Yuk-sun said carelessly. "So I read a lot."
"You can read and write now?" Kim O-sun was delighted and surprised. Their family had been lowborn baekjeong pariahs for generations. Under the Yi dynasty, for pariahs to read and write was an outrage.
"Yes. On nights when I'm not on duty, I go to night school every day. There are several young masters there—very learned. They can teach more than just reading. They know so much." Kim Yuk-sun said admiringly. "They really are from Great Song!"
The first batch of "Education Department Detachment" members from Fangcao Ground—senior elementary school students—had arrived at Jeju. They deployed in batches to Jeju and Taiwan. Besides serving as clerical and technical personnel, in their spare time they also worked as teachers, conducting literacy classes for the refugees in the purification camps.
Promising individuals among the local collaborators and Labor Service teams could also receive this instruction—after all, they needed to master Chinese language and script before they could be effectively utilized.
Kim O-sun was also in a literacy class. Though her Mandarin was coming along, her reading and writing were still shaky.
Her brother took out a roll of paper from a wall basket and unrolled it. She recognized two of the four characters: "Jeju." Her brother read aloud: "Jeju News."
Jeju News was a broadsheet newspaper produced by the Jeju Forward Committee, specifically targeting Jeju's local population and the refugees in the purification camps. It was published irregularly. Jeju-originated articles were written and then transmitted by radio; the Lingao Times handled editing and printing.
The writers were basically all Committee members—naturalized cadres couldn't yet write reports in the "Committee composition" style. Since the target audience was illiterate or semi-literate, the vocabulary and sentence structure were kept as simple as possible, using characters with few strokes. Content focused mainly on local news, administrative orders, and simple educational science material. Some content was excerpted from the Lingao Times.
The front page headline was in bold black type: "News from the Traveling Court"—essentially a digest from the Lingao Times.
"Maiao Industrial Zone Blast Furnace No. 2 successfully ignited this week!"
"Phase III of New Worker Village at Weibopu Commune broke ground today, expected to be completed by end of June. Upon completion, it will provide 124 housing units for workers, greatly alleviating the worker housing shortage..."
"On the 10th of this month, gunboat Chunchao was officially launched at Baipu Shipyard. Navy General Staff Chief Rear Admiral Chen Haiyang attended the launching ceremony..."
These news items from the "Traveling Court" were both foreign and fascinating to them. Yet they made the collaborators feel they were not alone—a happy paradise existed somewhere beyond their miserable world, however distant.
Her brother read the front page news aloud. The lead story was about the imminent convening of Jeju Island's First Political Consultative Conference. The content was simple, more like an official notice. Even so, the siblings found many of the terms half-understood at best. They roughly gathered that the Officials were summoning representatives from the whole island to meet and discuss how island affairs should be handled going forward.
Kim O-sun, being a "cadre," had attended several naturalized cadre study sessions. She'd heard superiors explain the significance and importance of this conference and knew it was a matter of paramount importance. Since her whole family was now bound to the "Officials," the "Committee," and "Great Song," she was deeply invested and eager to understand what was really going on.
The two of them were poring over the newspaper together when night fell. Outside it was pitch black. The neighing of horses could be heard from not far off. Through the darkness came the sound of a bugle—the signal for the military evening meal.
Just then, they heard the commotion of footsteps outside. The dogs at the horse ranch suddenly began barking furiously.
(End of Chapter)