User:Candiesrgood/Sandbox I

Plan
Note:  Red means the step has been done/in the process of being done.


 * 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 Become a protectorate of China until the nineteenth century, or at least when Korea can be by its own


 * 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
 * Allow lower castes to perform as civil servants
 * 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
 * Split the sangmin caste into the upper sangmin (military personnel, excluding generals and other top positions), and the lower sangmin (farmers and peasants).
 * Make merchants a separate class from the sangmin, making up the sang-in class
 * Place restrictions on the nobility to consolidate imperial rule


 * 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

Reformed caste system

 * Yangban
 * The nobility, comprised most civil servants, constituting ~10% of the population
 * This caste was hereditary and held most of the wealth, the slaves and the land
 * Were exempted from national conscription, manual labor, and taxation
 * Had to participate in government exams to obtain high government positions
 * Nobles lived separately from the sangmin, in designated areas of a settlement
 * Chung-in
 * Small, but important caste, comprised ~5% of the population
 * Included; interpreters, scribes, astronomers, accountants, physicians, and musicians.
 * Small provincial officeholders also belonged to this class
 * This caste included the illegitimate children of yangban (from concubines or commoners)
 * The seo-eol (illegitimate children) not recognised as yangban and thus could not inherit land or wealth from their parents nor participate in government exams
 * Sang-in
 * Small, but also very important caste, comprised ~5% of the population
 * Included merchants and traders
 * The highest caste a commoner could ascend to
 * Upper sangmin
 * Share of population fluctuates; ~1–5% of the population
 * Military personnel, excluding top positions like general etc. (the highest positionsa re held by yangban)
 * Lower sangmin
 * Comprised ~65–70% of the population
 * Peasants, artisans, fishermen comprise this caste
 * May also participate in manual labor in industry for higher wages than normal
 * They are obliged to pay taxes,
 * Cheonmin
 * Comprised 9–14% of the population
 * Included slaves, both state and and privately owned
 * Included entertainers, professionals dealing with animal slaughter (butchers, people working with animal skins), innkeepers, gisaengs, entertainers, gravediggers, bark peelers, basket makers, shamans and ferrymen
 * A hereditary status, and children of this caste can not advance on the social ladder.

Turn

 * Notes
 * Establish Manchuria as a mainly agricultural province due to its large tracts of arable land
 * Staple grains shall be; wheat, soy, potentially corn and maize. Rice shall be grown primarily in North Korea as well as the Jeolla and Chungcheong provinces.
 * Mass-plant Siberian pea shrubs?
 * Start small-scale Siberian crabapple and sea berry farms
 * Other crops;
 * Afalfa, apples, apricots, chestnuts, col, cotton, cucumber, forage, garlic, giant radish, hemp, indigo, lupulus, millet, nuts, onions, opium poppies (for opium), peaches, pears, peanuts, rice, ricine, rye, sesame, sugar beet, sweet potatoes, thyme, tobacco. Honey in the Amur.
 * Continue vigorous exploration and expansion into Manchuria


 * Actual turn
 * Korea, under Chinese aid and suzerainty, continues development as a command economy under Yi Bang-won with input from his loyal state councillors and advisors.

Economic development is oriented towards the development of industrial complexes and agriculture. Korean metallurgical industries are further augmented with the erection of more blast furnaces, with the smelted iron being used in the production of high quality armour, tools, and weaponry. Under the request of the Ming government, the expansion of mining activities within the northern Hamgyeong province continues, a province thought to hold extensive deposits of gold, iron ore, and silver. The majority of the mined metals, especially gold and silver, are sent to the Ming to supply their newly built banks and support their fixed exchange rate. Important roads are paved while canals are built in rivers to facilitate commerce.

The importance of education continues to be emphasised by the government, with those within the national civil service program and those of the upper castes being encouraged to partake in education. Numerous libraries and universities are constructed within the major Korean settlements, equipped with the Chinese texts that have been translated into Korean.

Seeking to consolidate and legitimise claims in Manchuria and to expel the Jurchens, more funds are diverted to the development of the army, at the expense of the navy. A couple of explorer missions are sent to Manchuria to map the area and to study it to find ways to exploit its natural wealth (especially the large tracts of flat, arable land) later on. The policy on giving muskets and rifles to only men who excel in government exams is scrapped, and every levy is given either one of the two. More hwacha, cannons, hand cannons, and multiple-rocket-launcher are produced, coexisting with Chinese weaponry.

Korea begins vigorous expansion north, capturing Jurchens found along the way. Jurchen children are sent to chung-in families so that they could be assimilated early on, while older Jurchens are given to options; either assimilate with the Koreans and become a sangmin, or retain their culture and become cheomin. Ten thousand Koreans are sent to newly established Korean castle-towns, intended as stopping points in the Sino–Korean trade.

Korea continues vigorous expansion both northwest, which is filled with large tracts of arable land, and northeast into the fertile Amur Basin.