Spring in Goryeo was cruel.
A romantic season when flowers bloomed and birds sang? To hell with that.
By April and May, the food stored through winter had run out, while the barley had not even begun to head.
At times like this, the people's faces turned yellow, and the bark of trees across the mountains and fields was stripped white. It was the season when people peeled pine bark to eat, scooped up dirt to swallow, and died after their assholes tore open.
That was the barley famine.
Galsan Village, on the outskirts of Gold Province (Gimhae), was no exception.
"Cough... Cough..."
The village was so quiet one could hear a mouse die.
Though evening had come, almost no houses had smoke rising from their cooking fires.
Elders lay limply on their wooden porches, while children with only their bellies swollen stared blankly at the sky.
But.
"Heave! Come out, you bastard!"
"Wooow! Big Brother! This one's as big as my thigh!"
At the entrance to the village, in the gravel field beside the haunted land that people avoided while covering their noses.
That place alone was a world apart.
Lively shouts and laughter echoed through the fog of the rotten marshland.
"Ha ha ha! Look at this! A radish avalanche! A radish avalanche!"
I stood on the ridge between the fields and looked down at the sight before me with satisfaction.
The 1,650-square-meter field was a complete mess.
Everywhere Manseok passed, white radishes piled up like mountains.
As though he never grew tired, he pulled and threw radishes in a state of total absorption, just as he had plowed the field.
YANK! THUMP!
YANK! THUMP!
"Hey, handle them more carefully! They'll break!"
Chilbok ran around among the piles of radishes, brushing off the dirt.
"Big Brother, isn't this crazy? They keep coming out no matter how much we dig!"
Chilbok held a radish as thick as an adult's forearm.
Its skin was white and smooth. Its body stretched cleanly without a single fibrous root.
It was a victory for modern agricultural technology and crop breeding.
[Great Peace No. 3].
It grew three times faster than ordinary traditional radishes and was more than twice as large.
Most importantly, its high water content and dense texture made it delicious enough to bite into like fruit.
"Fill the storehouse—the shack—first, then dig holes and bury the rest. We have to store them."
"The shack is already full."
"What?"
When I went to look, it was true.
The collapsing shack was already filled with radishes, leaving barely any room for us to sleep.
There were three towers of radishes piled up in the yard as well.
"Ha ha... Well, this is something."
It was a happy scream.
The yield from such a small plot of land was hard to believe.
The power of leaf mold and liquid fertilizer had been immense.
"Big Brother, I'm hungry. Can I eat one?"
Manseok asked, sweat pouring down his face. After all that labor, it was only natural that he was hungry.
"Eat. Today, there is no limit."
"Wow!"
Manseok picked out the largest one, roughly wiped off the dirt against his clothes, and bit down.
CRUNCH!
A cool, crisp sound rang out.
Juice ran down his chin.
"Chilbok, you eat too."
"Yes, Big Brother!"
I chose one of a suitable size and peeled it with a knife.
White flesh was revealed. I took a bite.
CRISP.
A refreshing sensation filled my mouth.
Its sweet, peppery taste traveled down my throat and washed away my thirst.
The radishes of this era were tough and strongly pungent, so they had to be cooked in soup. But Great Peace No. 3 was different.
It was good enough to eat as a substitute for pears.
"We could drink this instead of water."
Chilbok said as he gnawed on his radish with both hands.
That was when it happened.
"Um... Excuse me..."
A timid voice came from beyond the ridge between the fields.
When I turned around, I saw three or four ragged children standing there.
They were village children.
Their limbs were painfully thin, and their eyes were hollow.
The children could not take their eyes off the radish Manseok was eating.
I could hear them swallowing from here.
"......"
Silence followed.
Chilbok lowered the radish he had been eating and watched my reaction.
Manseok stopped chewing as well.
"Should we tell them to leave?"
Chilbok whispered.
Food was life. Especially during a famine, even parents and children fought over bowls of rice.
If we gave things away carelessly, word would spread and every beggar in the village would come flocking here.
But.
'Beggars coming in droves...'
I considered it for a moment.
We had too many radishes right now.
Even if we stored them, a fair amount would rot.
And we were still outsiders in this village, treated as crazy people.
It was time to show generosity.
And to do it effectively.
"Children."
When I called out, the children flinched and tried to run away.
"Come here."
I beckoned.
The children approached hesitantly.
"Are you hungry?"
Nod, nod.
"Do you want to eat radishes?"
The children's eyes widened as though they might pop out.
I picked up several radishes rolling around in the field and tossed them over.
"Here. Take them home and eat. Give some to your families too."
The children shouted, "T-Thank you!" Then they hugged radishes as large as their own torsos and ran away, struggling under the weight.
It was pitiful, yet adorable, to see them run without looking back.
"Big Brother, is this all right? Those are valuable..."
"Valuable? Radishes are everywhere underfoot. And..."
I grinned.
"They have to taste them to become customers."
My prediction was right.
No, the reaction came even faster than I expected.
Before an hour had passed, the Village Chief came running over in a panic.
Behind him followed elders leaning on walking sticks and a line of village women.
Some held pieces of the radishes the children had brought home, while traces of radish juice remained around others' mouths.
"Y-Young Master Choi San!"
The Village Chief climbed up the ridge between the fields, panting.
The old man who usually strode around with his hands behind his back was now ready to grab my trouser leg.
"Welcome, Village Chief. What brings you here?"
I pretended not to know and removed my dirt-stained cloth gloves.
"The crop the children brought... did it really come from this field?"
The Village Chief stared at the piles of radishes stacked like mountains.
His eyes trembled. He could not believe it.
Radishes like those had poured out of land they had mocked as a gravel field, during a famine no less.
"As you can see."
I lightly kicked one of the piles.
"The farming went rather well. I used a bit of my clan's secret method."
"Gasp..."
The people began murmuring.
"Are those all radishes?"
"Good heavens, they're as large as newborn babies."
"One of those could make porridge for my whole family for three days."
The sounds of people swallowing rolled over us like waves.
Before hunger, dignity meant nothing.
The Village Chief swallowed dryly and stepped forward.
"Well... Young Master. Do you remember the agreement we made last time?"
"The agreement?"
"When I leased you this land, you promised three-tenths of the harvest... no, one sack of barley."
The Village Chief shamelessly brought up the agreement.
In truth, he had never expected to receive payment back then.
"Ah, I remember. One sack of barley."
I nodded.
"But as you can see, we haven't grown any barley yet. The only thing I can give you now is these radishes. Will that be all right?"
"Of course it will! Give me radishes! Right now!"
The Village Chief shouted urgently.
Rice and barley were difficult to obtain right now. He would be grateful for radishes.
Besides, he had tasted them. They were sweet beyond belief, and more than enough to fill a belly that had gone without grain.
"All right. A promise must be kept."
I gave Chilbok a look.
"Chilbok, prepare some radishes for the Village Chief's household. If we're calculating the value of one sack of barley..."
I pretended to calculate for a moment.
One sack of barley was worth two taels.
The current price of radishes... During a famine, the price was whatever one named.
But I should be generous.
"Fifty should do."
"F-Fifty?!"
The Village Chief's mouth fell open.
Fifty radishes meant at least three trips with an A-frame carrier.
With fifty radishes that large, the Village Chief's family would have enough to eat throughout the spring and still have leftovers.
"Manseok, load them."
"Yes!"
Manseok picked out large radishes and stacked them neatly on the carrier.
The Village Chief's face brightened.
"Oh, Young Master... no, Sir Choi San! Thank you so much. I will never forget this kindness."
The Village Chief repeatedly bowed.
The villagers standing behind him looked desperate.
Unlike the Village Chief, they had no contract with me. They were merely hungry neighbors.
"Um... Sir. Do you plan to sell the radishes you have left?"
One of the women gathered her courage and asked.
"I do. I have to make a living too."
I sat on top of a pile of radishes.
"But I won't take money. None of you have any right now, do you?"
The villagers nodded. The tenant farmers could barely catch sight of copper coins, let alone silver taels.
"We'll barter. Bring anything you have at home. Chickens, eggs, firewood, hemp cloth—even useful farming tools. I'll trade them for radishes."
No sooner had I finished speaking than people turned and ran.
"Wife! Kill the chickens at home and bring them!"
"Load the cut firewood onto a carrier!"
"Bring even a cracked cooking pot!"
In an instant, the front of the field became a marketplace.
"All right, form a line! Don't push!"
Chilbok eagerly organized the crowd.
The boy had always had a talent for trade.
"Auntie, one chicken? Good! For a big one, you can have five radishes!"
"Sir, ten pairs of straw sandals? Hmm... That's a little stingy, but take three radishes!"
With every trade, radishes left our field, while necessities piled up in our yard.
Three hens and one rooster. (Now we could eat eggs!)
A month's worth of firewood.
Five usable jars. (We would need them for making alcohol.)
Two bolts of hemp cloth.
One household even brought us two puppies their dog had given birth to.
They were mutts, but they looked clever.
"These little things will eat a lot..."
As I hesitated, Manseok held a puppy to his chest, his eyes shining.
"Big Brother, let's raise them! I'll share my food with them!"
"Sigh... Fine. They can guard the house later."
So the two puppies became part of the family as well. We named them Soybean Paste and Soy Sauce.
The villagers returned home happily with their radishes.
With one radish, an entire family could sit together to cook radish soup and make fresh radish salad.
Some people carefully took the radish greens, saying they would dry them for later.
That evening, life returned to the dying village.
Smoke rose from the chimneys of every house, the rich smell of radish soup filled the alleys, and children laughed again.
***
"Big Brother."
After finishing work, Chilbok lay on the raised bench and looked at the sky.
"What?"
"I feel fantastic."
"Why?"
"Doesn't it feel like we saved the village? Until yesterday, everyone looked like they were about to die."
The boy seemed rather proud of himself.
"Don't misunderstand. We did business. We didn't give them away for free."
"Come on, five huge radishes for one chicken is practically giving them away. Big Brother, you're actually warmhearted..."
"Be quiet. Go to sleep."
I turned over, but I could not stop a smile from forming on my lips.
Was this the ease that came with a full belly?
But my thoughts had already moved on to the next step.
Retail with the villagers was over.
This was small money. It was only for building goodwill.
To make real money, I had to go to a bigger market.
More than half the radishes still remained in the field.
And more importantly...
I looked toward a secret corner of the shack, hidden beneath bundles of straw.
The paddy where the Great Peace No. 1 rice was growing.
The ears of rice there had already begun to bow.
The power of an early-ripening variety.
While everyone else was only beginning to transplant rice seedlings, we were nearing harvest.
"Manseok."
"Snore... Snore... Pardon? Big Brother..."
I shook the boy awake from his sleep-talking.
"Tomorrow, we're going to town. Pick out only the largest ones."
"Are we going to eat...?"
"No. We're going to fleece a merchant house (wholesaler)."
The next day.
We loaded the finest radishes onto our A-frame carriers and headed to the town of Gold Province.
The market was gloomy.
There were more people begging than selling goods.
A sign reading [NO RICE] hung outside the rice shop.
The moment we set down our carriers, all attention focused on us.
"What's that?"
"Are those radishes? How are radishes that big at this time of year?"
People gathered and began murmuring.
But I ignored them and headed for the largest building: the Great Unity Merchant House.
The owner of the merchant house was a middle-aged man with a belly as big as a mountain.
He sat in his shop, where only flies buzzed, fanning himself.
"What have you come to sell? You look like farmers, but I have nothing to buy right now. If it isn't rice, I won't buy it."
The owner waved his hand without even looking at us.
"It's not rice. I brought something more delicious."
I gave Manseok a look.
Manseok lowered his carrier and pulled away the straw mat.
RUMBLE.
Enormous radishes spilled out.
Sunlight streamed into the merchant house, making the pale radishes gleam white.
"Gasp!"
The owner dropped his fan.
"Y-You're saying these are radishes? Not ginseng?"
He sprang to his feet, rushed over, and touched one.
It was firm, cold, and heavy.
"Would you like a taste?"
I held out a piece of radish I had peeled beforehand.
The owner accepted it with a suspicious look and ate it.
CRUNCH.
His eyes widened, then narrowed into crescents.
It was a merchant's gaze.
He had smelled money.
"The sweetness, moisture, and size... perfect. No, there is nothing like this in all eight provinces of Goryeo."
"How much will you offer?"
"Hmm..."
The owner clicked his abacus beads.
"There is no market price for them yet, but I'll give you copper cash worth five hundredths of a tael per radish."
Stingy. Far too stingy.
"Let's go, Manseok. We'll look elsewhere."
When I turned to pack up without even looking back, the owner urgently grabbed my sleeve.
"Ah, come now! Young man, you have quite a temper."
"Name a proper price. If nobles in Gaegyeong see these, they'll go crazy for them. They taste like pears when you bite into them, so shouldn't they command the price of fruit?"
"Fine, fine! One-tenth of a tael! I'll give you one-tenth of a tael per radish!"
One-tenth of a tael for a radish was an exceptional price. It was ten times the price of an ordinary radish.
But I shook my head.
"I don't need money."
"Huh? Then what do you want?"
I pointed at the grain sacks piled in the merchant house's warehouse.
"Rice. And beans."
This was an age when currency was becoming worth shit because of inflation. Hard goods were best.
More than anything, we needed staple food immediately.
"Give me one sack of rice, eighty kilograms, and half a sack of beans, forty kilograms."
"Look at this man. Do you know how precious rice is? If you want to take that much, you'll have to give me a hundred radishes."
The owner tried to force an unreasonable deal.
One sack of rice was worth four taels, and half a sack of beans was worth one and a half taels. Together, they were worth five and a half taels.
If I gave him one hundred radishes as he said, I would be giving him ten taels' worth of goods and taking a loss.
I snorted.
"A hundred? Your joke is going too far."
I held up three fingers.
"Thirty."
"T-Thirty?!"
The owner nearly jumped.
"Sir! Thirty radishes are only worth three taels, yet you want more than five taels' worth of grain? Isn't that the mindset of a thief?!"
"One of these radishes makes a meal for a family of four. And now that water is scarce, it even relieves thirst. A sack of rice disappears quickly once it's made into porridge, but if you give these radishes to nobles, several sacks of rice will come back in return. They're valuable goods."
I picked up a radish and pretended to put it back on the carrier.
"If you don't want them, forget it. Merchant Yi across the street knows how to recognize valuable goods."
At the name of a competitor, the owner's eyes shook.
These radishes were rare items whose price was whatever one named. If he missed this chance, his competitor would get them instead.
Besides, did he not have enough rice in his warehouse to rot?
"All right! Fine! Thirty! Give me only thirty!"
The negotiation was finally settled.
In exchange for thirty radishes, we received one sack of rice, eighty kilograms, and half a sack of beans.
Radishes that would have earned us only three taels in cash had been exchanged for hard goods worth five and a half taels.
It was nearly twice the profit.
"Big Brother... is all of that ours?"
As we left the merchant house, Manseok carried the rice sack on his A-frame carrier, overcome with emotion.
In his eyes, exchanging thirty radishes for mountains of rice and beans must have looked like magic.
The weight of the rice in the sack.
This was true wealth.
"That's right. We're graduating from barley rice now."
I smiled at the radishes still piled high on the carrier.
Now that I had established a benchmark price at the place willing to pay the most, I could sell the rest at high prices too.
"Tonight, we're eating white rice and meat soup. Let's stop by the butcher's on the way home."
"Loyalty! Loyalty, Big Brother!"
Chilbok and Manseok danced in the street.