Among the items bought from India, there were plenty of bricks this time as well.
Naturally, they were meant to defend Sijimi Village.
When Honghuzi Ma-jeok form large groups, they can exceed five hundred people, and in such cases, it is common for an entire village to vanish in an instant.
The news that Sijimi Village was making money was already known to everyone in the Primorsky Krai area.
Therefore, while Joseon people continued to migrate here, Chinese people were not allowed to join at all, so there was no telling what kind of information would reach the Honghuzi Ma-jeok.
Fortunately, there were no raids by the Honghuzi last winter.
This was because our village’s population had increased and the defensive walls of Sijimi Village were high, making an invasion difficult.
However, if the number of Honghuzi increased, someone among them would undoubtedly harbor other ideas.
Ultimately, we had to strengthen the village’s defensive walls to the point where anyone would see that an invasion was impossible with their level of armament.
Moreover, Sijimi Village was now divided into two parts.
With a narrow lagoon in the center, the north side was inhabited by Joseon people who lived in the village, reclaimed land, and farmed.
The south side was where the Russian Trio and their families, as well as I and the Joseon people we employed, lived, building ships, processing timber, and raising horses.
The northern Sijimi Village was filled with grain, and the southern Sijimi Village was filled with expensive horses and money.
Either way, they were items the Honghuzi would covet with eyes ablaze.
We reinforced the village’s defensive walls and, on the other hand, provided marksmanship training to the people.
Then, we spread rumors of this in all directions.
Sijimi Village had been reinforced to the point where it could almost be called a fortress, and rumors spread far and wide throughout Primorsky Krai that the armament and marksmanship skills of the people in Sijimi Village were excellent enough to rival the Russian Army.
However, as we strengthened the village to the level of a fortress and armed ourselves with state-of-the-art rifles, the Primorsky Krai government also began to monitor us.
Even if one called it the Primorsky Krai government, it was still extremely meager at this time.
Including the single Military Governor under the Governor-General of East Siberia, the Vice-Governor, and internal affairs officials, the total was only about twenty or thirty people, so it was impossible for them to monitor us intensively.
Instead, an officer of the Russian Army visited Sijimi Village along with an Administrator.
Since Fridolf Gek had recently been appointed as the Village Chief of Sijimi Village, he greeted them and explained the reality of the situation.
“We received 140,000 Rubles in payment for supplying hay and fodder to the Russian Army this past autumn. That money is in our village, and if we do not arm ourselves to this level, it is clear that those Honghuzi bastards will attack, is it not?”
The threat of the Honghuzi was the most troubling problem for the Primorsky Krai government at that time, and they considered them the greatest threat to Russia’s Far East policy.
The Administrator spoke.
“Of course, we are aware of the threat from those Honghuzi bastards, and we do not intend to take issue with your preparations against them. We are simply curious whether the Koryo-saram will acknowledge themselves as subjects of His Imperial Majesty even while being armed.”
To be honest, at this point, I wanted to press him on whether they would grant Russian citizenship to us Koryo-saram, but it was obvious that doing so would only provoke resentment.
We had to be aware of the fact that we were living as guests on Russian land.
Fridolf Gek also knew that part, so he spoke without provoking the Administrator.
“Therefore, to prove our loyalty to His Imperial Majesty and the Russian Government, we intend to build a church and establish a school to learn the Russian language and history. Could you dispatch a priest and a teacher? Of course, we will pay the teacher’s wages.”
The biggest reason Russian officials distrust immigrants from Joseon is racial and ethnic issues, but religious issues also play a part.
To those who have grown up under the influence of Russian Orthodoxy since birth, Koryo-saram customs, language, and religious activities all appear alien, so they cannot help but perceive them as outsiders.
However, since he was saying they would build a church themselves and invite a priest, it was only natural that they were seen differently than before.
“Are you truly saying you will build a church and are asking us to send a Russian Orthodoxy priest?”
“That is correct. We came to Russia and have been able to live like this thanks to the grace of His Imperial Majesty, so it is only natural to want to learn about Russian Orthodoxy.”
Mentioning the Emperor’s grace was not because he believed this Administrator was a person truly loyal to the Emperor, but rather because it made it easier for the officials to do their jobs.
“And you want a Russian language teacher?”
“Yes. Honestly, there are barely ten people in our Sijimi Village who know Russian, and everyone is too busy with work to provide proper Russian language education. There are over a hundred children living here alone, and for them to become subjects who contribute to Russia in the future, education is essential, is it not?”
The request to build a church or dispatch a Russian Orthodoxy priest was largely for the purpose of flattering the Russian Government, but the request for a teacher was a genuine necessity.
Even in this era, the education fever of the Joseon people was persistent.
As soon as life became a bit more comfortable, a village school was already established, and children were being taught traditional Chinese characters, as well as Hangul, Arabic numerals, and arithmetic. (For the record, I created the textbooks for Hangul and numbers.)
Because of reality, we were forced to settle for only this much education, but it was the wish of every Koryo-saram here to provide a more proper education, at least for the children.
Fridolf Gek even showed the Administrator the classroom and the Arithmetic Textbook I had made, as he spoke.
“As you can see, we have already built a classroom for the children. Furthermore, though we are teaching the children with simple arithmetic books we’ve made, we are in a situation where they cannot study even if they want to because there is no proper teacher. Please send a teacher as soon as possible.”
When the Administrator saw the flag of the Russian Empire hanging outside the classroom and the portrait of Alexander II fixed in the very center of the room, he spoke with an era of deep emotion.
“Where did you obtain the portrait of His Imperial Majesty?”
“I know how to draw a little, so I drew it after seeing a portrait in a newspaper. It might be a rude thing to do, but I thought the children should know the face of His Imperial Majesty, so I drew it with my meager skills. Could it perhaps be a disrespectful matter?”
“It is an act of proving loyalty to His Imperial Majesty and Russia; how could it be disrespectful? I will report to my superiors immediately to have a teacher dispatched.”
The classroom building, which looked over a year old, and the chalkboard and desks, which showed significant signs of use, clearly indicated that this classroom had not been hastily improvised.
We first built this classroom last year. Realizing that Joseon people were flocking to Sijimi and that a place for children’s education was needed, we hurriedly built these classrooms first.
If you combined the children of those who originally lived in Sijimi and those who were new, there were over a hundred, and it went without saying that they needed at least basic education.
However, there was no one to teach them as they progressed through the grades, so I quickly created Hangul and Arabic numeral Arithmetic Textbooks and supplied them.
And when the classroom was completed and the chalkboard was hung, I suggested hanging a portrait of Alexander II in this spot.
Since Fridolf Gek knew how to draw a little, I asked him to copy the portrait that appeared in the newspaper.
“Hanging a portrait to show the Russians is fine, but there’s no need for me to draw it myself. We have plenty of money, so if we ask Kunst and Albers, they’ll bring one.”
“It’ll be more effective to draw it yourself than to buy one and hang it. That way, the sincerity shows.”
In the end, Fridolf Gek had no choice but to copy the portrait at my request, and it was now producing a tremendous effect.
It was impossible to tell how truly loyal the Administrator who came to monitor Sijimi Village was to the Emperor.
However, if we showed him something visible like this, it became an achievement for him as a civil servant.
Vagabonds who had flowed into the Primorsky Krai, which had recently been incorporated into Russian territory, were working this hard to become subjects of the Empire.
Showing this was evidence of an unparalleled achievement for him, a civil servant dispatched for that very purpose.
The Administrator gripped Fridolf Gek’s hand and promised that he would definitely dispatch a teacher and an Orthodox priest.
The officer dispatched with the Administrator was a Captain, and he was someone I already had a slight acquaintance with.
I was a fairly famous figure in the Far East Russia Army, and it was safe to say there wasn’t an officer who didn’t know my face.
“Viktor Mikhailovich, Admiral Speransky told me to convey his thanks, saying that because of you, their worries about fodder and hay have vanished.”
Admiral Mikhail Speransky was the Military Governor of Primorsky Krai.
Since Primorsky Krai was the region that it was, a Navy Admiral had more say than an Army General.
“Does the Admiral also know that we are supplying fodder and hay?”
“Of course he knows. Supplying that to the Army has been quite a headache for the Navy, but since you solved it, he is grateful.”
“I’ll try to work toward being able to supply military horses in a few years.”
“If you do that much, those Cossack bastards might even come to thank you.”
“Oh, I’d appreciate it if you’d please not do that. Captain, you know how strictly the Koryo-saram observe the separation of men and women, right?”
If those Cossack horse-lovers came to our village and tried to pull something with the young women, it would be a disaster.
The Captain laughed heartily and said.
“That’s why both the Admiral and the General have given strict orders to those Cossack bastards not to even set foot near here. They were sternly told that if there is a disruption in the supply of hay and fodder because of the Cossacks, anyone who causes trouble will be summarily shot. Admiral Speransky, having heard that you are an excellent marksman, even said that if those Cossack bastards enter the village without permission, he won’t hold you responsible even if you shoot them dead.”
“That’s appreciated.”
Well, that’s just talk; if I actually shot one dead, I wouldn’t even be able to set foot in Russia again.
“However, even if they don’t stop by the village, there will be one round of training nearby. Orders were given to stay alert in this area because those Honghuzi bastards might run wild.”
There was no way a man of the level of a Military Governor wouldn’t know what I was seeing.
Naturally, Military Governor Admiral Speransky recognized that if we made a lot of money, we would become targets for the Honghuzi, and he had ordered the Russian Army to be on guard.
The problem was the fact that it would be the Cossack Cavalry heading out for guard duty.
The Cossack Cavalry might not cause trouble as messily as before, but given their nature, it would be foolish to expect them not to cause any trouble at all, and the Captain was telling us to be prepared in advance.
First of all, women must never be allowed to meet them, and entry into this village must be strictly prevented.
“So, when those bastards come, don’t ever let the women out of the village. Even if they’ve become better behaved than before, there’s no way those horse-lovers will stay still if they see a woman.”
“Should we perhaps serve them some alcohol and meat when they pass by?”
“Meat is fine, but alcohol is absolutely out of the question. They won’t come as far as the village anyway and will stay at Novokiyevskoye, so you can just take the meat and alcohol there. Since they can’t cause trouble even if they drink and eat inside the barracks.”
Novokiyevskoye was a Russian barracks located slightly below Yanchihe, which is to say, the Koryo-saram village of Yeonchu.
The reason Yeonchu was relatively safe even in this Primorsky Krai area where Honghuzi ran wild was precisely because Novokiyevskoye was right below it.
From what the Captain said, it seemed a Cossack Cavalry Regiment that had departed from Vladivostok would march past this area to Novokiyevskoye.
A few days after the Administrator and the Captain left, a Cossack Cavalry of over a thousand truly passed in front of our village, and as a reward for them just passing our village by, we sent several barrels of alcohol and a few head of cattle to Novokiyevskoye.
Honghuzi on one side, Cossacks on the other.
Living in the land of Russia is truly not easy.
***