Chapter42: **Divide and Conquer, The Lips and the Teeth**
Having reeled in two geniuses from Florence, In-ho brought them along as he returned to his base of operations in Rouen, France.
The massive factory complex in Rouen was still belching smoke from its chimneys without pause, minting gold, but In-ho’s gaze was not on the current ledgers. Instead, it was fixed on the enormous world map hanging on the wall of his office.
‘The Malthusian Trap.’
A catastrophe where the population explodes while food supplies hit rock bottom.
Of course, the jaws of that horrific trap were not going to snap shut tomorrow. There was still a grace period of a dozen, perhaps even several decades.
However, when it comes to a national-level crisis, it is already too late to prepare once it has arrived.
He had to proactively increase food production explosively or secure a vast hinterland from which to import food.
In-ho stroked his chin, lost in deep thought.
‘The best approach would be to innovate agricultural technology itself. Inventing chemical fertilizers or developing new varieties with overwhelming yields.’
But In-ho soon shook his head.
He was a political science student from the 21st century, not an agronomist or a chemist.
The things he had produced in Rouen so far—soap, distilled spirits, aspirin—were merely slight improvements on existing methods, based on the shallow common sense of a modern person.
‘How could I possibly create miracle chemical fertilizers like the Haber-Bosch process, which extracts nitrogen from the air, in this era? If I poured massive capital and time into running a laboratory, it might be possible someday... but the Malthusian trap won’t wait for that time.’
In the end, the conclusion In-ho reached was clear.
To prevent the coming ruin, two propositions had to be satisfied simultaneously: technological advancement and territorial expansion from the outside—namely, food imports and immigration.
In-ho’s finger swept across the Mediterranean, over the fertile coast of North Africa and the Nile Delta of Egypt.
"Whew, this is a headache. If it were Christian territory, the story would be different, but..."
The problem was that the owners of all that vast land were "Islamic powers."
Furthermore, North Africa, including Egypt, was an extremely rugged terrain dominated by desert and scorching climates, despite its infinite potential.
A war to march an army in and take the land by force would require massive costs and bloodshed.
‘I must avoid war. Having the serfs and knights I’ve painstakingly secured wither away and die in the desert would be a total loss of capital.’
Is that all?
Even the modern United States could not fully conquer the deserts of the Middle East.
What if they turned hostile and fully committed to guerrilla warfare?
It was certain to become a hellish nightmare just to think about.
War could be a way to delay the Malthusian trap, but it could never be a fundamental solution.
A way to make North Africa, the heart of Islam, into a Christian territory—or at least a "food export base" absolutely friendly to Christian capital—without shedding blood.
Two ancient Eastern diplomatic tactics surfaced in the mind of the political science student, In-ho.
*Yi-i-je-i* (以夷制夷): using barbarians to control barbarians.
And *Sun-mang-chi-han* (唇亡齒寒): if the lips are gone, the teeth are cold.
"Right. There’s no way the Islam of this era is a single, monolithic block."
A smile as cunning as a serpent spread across In-ho’s lips.
Currently, in 1332, the absolute hegemon ruling over the Middle East and North Africa was undoubtedly the Mamluk Sultanate of Egypt.
They had trampled the Crusaders and even defeated the cavalry of the Mongol Empire, styling themselves as the leaders of Islam.
"A powerful neighbor close by is always more bothersome and terrifying than a stranger far away."
That title of leader was a source of immense terror to the surrounding Islamic nations.
From the perspective of other indigenous dynasties in North Africa, such as Tunis, Tripoli, and Morocco, the massive and greedy Mamluk Sultanate was nothing more than a horrific predator that could swallow them up at any moment.
‘When the Mamluks grow in size and apply pressure, we provide the smaller nations with sweet, irresistible capital and a shield. While hiding the pretext of a Christian Crusade, we slowly erode their economy with massive amounts of money.’
To survive the threat of the Mamluks, the North African nations would have no choice but to rely on In-ho’s capital, biting the bullet.
In exchange for military protection, he would monopolize the grain produced on their vast lands at bargain prices and send his surplus population there as immigrants.
It was a perfect imperialist design to cook the entire continent with money, without the risk of war.
"But to roll such a massive chessboard... astronomical, no, unimaginable capital must be copied endlessly."
In-ho stood up and headed to his office desk.
There lay the life insurance proposal that Luca and Leo had calculated while tearing their hair out.
Now that the Malthusian trap was predicted, he couldn't just save the money he had; he had to roll it like a madman to expand it.
To do that, he needed bait that would empty the pockets of every knight and lord in Europe without leaving a cent.
"Luca. Leo."
"Yes, Master."
The two geniuses, who had been waiting in the next room, hurried in.
Already addicted to the taste of modern mathematics In-ho had instilled in them, they revered him like a living god of knowledge.
"I am handing down the detailed sales strategy for the insurance product. Paying massive amounts of gold coins for a 'promise of the future' that isn't immediately visible is unfamiliar to medieval people. We must psychologically lower the threshold for joining."
"How, sir?"
"We will bundle products produced in the Rouen factory as gifts."
In-ho wrote down in large letters on the parchment.
- - - -
[ Special Benefits for VIP Lord Premium Insurance Subscribers ]
- 3 bottles of 'Aqua Vitae' gifted immediately upon subscription.
- Monthly regular delivery of the highest-grade 'Savon de Rouen (Soap)' for noblewomen.
- Free support of the miracle medicine 'Willow Tincture' if a patient occurs within the family.
- - - -
"M-Master! Have you lost your mind! Those are the highest-grade luxury goods that we can't even keep in stock right now, even if people bring us carts full of money! You’re just giving them away for free as gifts?!"
"It’s not free."
In-ho rested his chin on his hand, looking relaxed.
"If you calculate the factory cost, those bottles of liquor and scraps of soap are mere pocket change. But to the nobles, they are ultra-high-end limited editions that are hard to find even if they pour out florin gold coins in the market. Tell them that just by signing up for insurance, they get these massive luxury goods as 'gifts'."
"…!"
"They won't think the insurance premium is expensive; rather, they will be tricked into thinking that signing up is 'making money' no matter what. Humans are naturally prone to losing their reason over free bait dangled right in front of their eyes."
The vicious deceptive tactics of modern home shopping.
To pull in a lump sum of hundreds or thousands of florins in insurance premiums, he throws out bait that costs pennies.
Furthermore, the regular monthly delivery of soap would be the perfect shackle to keep them from canceling their insurance halfway through.
Noblewomen would never stand by and let the supply of soap that took care of their skin be cut off.
"The lords will be blinded by the Aqua Vitae they’ll drink tonight and the soap they’ll gift their wives, rather than the intrinsic value of the insurance, and will sign the ledger, gasping for breath. We will suck up the capital of all of Europe with bait products."
The two geniuses were left speechless, chilled by In-ho’s capitalistic devilry.
It was a trap of human psychology, far more terrifying than any trap of mathematical probability.
.
.
.
.
Late that night.
While In-ho remained alone, pondering the detailed plan for keeping Islam in check, the office door opened cautiously, and the research team leader, Abdul, entered.
"What is it?"
In-ho looked at Abdul with tired eyes.
Even if he asked to be taught more about chemistry, there wasn't much he could teach, and his head was already complex enough from thinking about the plan to check Islam.
If it wasn't anything important, he intended to send him back.
"Master. I apologize for the late hour, but earlier today, I saw you agonizing over the Islamic bastards while looking at the map of North Africa."
In-ho looked at Abdul slowly.
"Yes. Even if I use *Yi-i-je-i*, it is a painful weakness that there isn't a single ally in the heart of North Africa to surely draw a sword for our Christian forces."
But then, unexpected words popped out of Abdul’s mouth.
"Actually, Master. There is a Christian power in North Africa as well."
"…What?"
"It’s a story I heard directly from Arab merchants when I was traveling around Alexandria, Egypt, to find alchemy ingredients. The entire African continent is not Islamic land."
In-ho’s pen tip paused.
"They say that deep in the high, rugged plateau region far south of the desert, way up the source of the Nile... a massive kingdom that worships the cross is hidden. A country of black warriors who believe in their own unique Christianity while fighting tooth and nail against the Islamic Empire (Mamluks) for hundreds of years."
In an instant, a massive lightning bolt struck In-ho’s mind.
His 21st-century knowledge of world history and a grand legend that had driven all of medieval Europe mad intersected exquisitely.
The grand Christian empire of the East that the kings and popes of Europe had searched for so desperately.
The legendary holy monarch who was believed to one day strike the rear of Islam and save the Crusaders—the nation of "Prester John"!
And the actual model for that legend, the only ancient Christian nation in Africa that had clearly existed in history.
"Ethiopia...!"
In-ho jumped up from his seat.
The thick fog that had been covering his vision cleared all at once, and it felt as if the grand blueprint was finally being assembled perfectly.
"Master? Ethiopia, you say?"
"It existed. It really existed. The legendary Christian kingdom was actually holding a dagger to the throat of those Egyptian Mamluk bastards!"
In-ho ran to the map like a madman and pressed his palm firmly against the plateau region on the Red Sea coast, south of Egypt.
"If we can form a military alliance with this Ethiopia in the south of Africa? We can complete a perfect sandwich-pressure net where the North African coalition, encroached upon by our capital in the Mediterranean to the north, and the Ethiopian army in the south, squeeze the Egyptian Mamluks from above and below!"
An overwhelming geopolitical encirclement that seemed to fold the entire massive continent in half.
"Furthermore, could there be a more perfect justification? 'A holy war to rescue our brothers (Prester John) who are isolated and fighting to defend the Cross in the midst of a pagan sea!' Once word reaches the ears of the Pope in Avignon, that man will be so moved that he’ll foam at the mouth and collapse from the sheer excitement of declaring a Crusade."
In-ho’s eyes burned with intense desire and madness.
He would empty the pockets of every noble in Europe to gather war funds, using the sweet, poisoned apple of "gifts" as his lure.
Then, holding the fantasy card of Ethiopia in his hand, he would leverage the absolute authority of the Holy See to set the Crusades in motion.
The plan was beginning to take on a tangible sense of reality.
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