User:Candiesrgood/Sandbox I

Plan
Note:  Red means the reform/step has been implemented.


 * Political
 * Crown Sejong earlier
 * Establish even closer ties with China, and encourage China to station troops within major Korean cities to protect their tributary state


 * Military
 * Build an arsenal in Hanseong, Busan, and Pyeongyang – in order of importance
 * Begin the production of key military items such as; turtleships and gunpowder weapons such as hand cannons, Korean cannons, hwacha, and fire arrows
 * Try to consolidate control over territory and presence in neighbouring bodies of water
 * Annex and incorporate Tsushima island as it is a base for Japanese pirates and a strategic point in the Korea Strait
 * Expand into Manchuria (with the casus belli being to reclaim lost Balhae territory and to pacify the northern Jurchens)


 * Socio-cultural
 * Facilitate education for the yangban through the construction of academies, universities, and schools while promoting literacy through increased movable prints
 * Establish a more flexible social order, allowing lower castes to enter higher ones
 * Allow lower castes to perform as civil servants
 * Send a hundred scholars of yangban origin to China to study Chinese ways, then when they come back, they shall be appointed as the minister of a subject they excelled in.
 * Begin the entrenchment of Confucian customs and work ethic (though try to provide a re-interpretation of Neo–Confucianism and allow a great role for women)
 * Create Hangul earlier and replace Hanja


 * Economic
 * Adopt more modern Chinese agricultural policies to heighten agricultural productivity
 * Adopt the use of bituminous coke in place of charcoal
 * Open large-scale mining activities in North Korea, as it will provide a source of revenue and a flow of raw materials to support efforts in South Korea
 * Encourage urbanisation and ease trade and commerce through the construction of paved roads and canals
 * Construct hydraulic-powered blast furnaces that melt wrought and cast iron together, thus creating steel. Steel will be used for construction and to reinforce weaponry [first adopt it from China]
 * Establish Hanseong, Busan, Pyeongyang, and Ulsan as the main industrial centres

Turn

 * Korea (protectorate of China): With Yi Bang-won and the imperial court approving the ability of commoners to now be included within national civil service (e.g., scientists, astronomers, inventors), a task once limited to the yangban families, the number of civil servants surges, ushering Korea into a renaissance of development and ideas. To prepare Korea for upcoming radical reforms, he initiates the massive centralisation of power through the purge of political dissent among the administration, and creates six ministries that pertain to six topics; finance, military, society, culture, education, and diplomacy, to aid him and the court in decisions relating to any of the topics. Following the footsteps of the Ming dynasty, the government-encouraged entrenchment of Confucian customs and work ethic into Korean customs persists, though at the cost of native shamanic and Buddhist beliefs while education is heavily encouraged for those within national civil service and those of yangban (e.g., the elite and civil servants) heritage. Seeking to emulate the industrial prowess and success of the Chinese, the Yi Bang-won continues their modernisation plans, starting with the construction of ten blast-furnaces in Hanseong and Busan, with the yield being used in construction and the reinforcement of weaponry. Other measures to industrial prowess of the Chinese are the construction of paved roads and canals, which ease trade and commerce, and the continuation of mining activities in mineral-rich North Korea, which provides a source of revenue and a flow of raw materials to support the program's activities in South Korea. Noticing a lack of industrial labourers, the financial ministry prompts the government to establish a policy that allows the sangmin (e.g., commoners, though they one class above the cheomin or outcasts) to be not only subject to military service and peasantry, but also may serve as workers in industrial complexes and mining posts, promising to provide financial incentives to those who do so. The government, with efforts directed by the military ministry (which is semi-autonomous from the government and led by a council of key military officials), mass-borrows and replaces obsolete and inefficient Korean weaponry with Chinese equivalents, a move seen as a preemptive measure in case of Manchu or Japanese aggression. The construction of three arsenals–in Hanseong, Busan, and Byeongyang–continue, expected to be completed in within three years. The production of turtleships, gunpowder weapons such as hand cannons, Korean cannons, hwacha, and fire arrows accelerates under government encouragement.