Dark Age: Rise Of Java Chapter 2.Understanding the Situation

Sitting in front of the light of an oil lamp and there were many palm leaves scattered on the table, Hayam had to understand his future plans because he felt that the politics in this kingdom were not as described in history.

In history Hayam would ascend the throne at the age of 17 and that would happen in about 6 or 7 years which means according to the current Gregorian calendar it was 1344 and he would ascend the throne in 1350.

And for Gajah Mada, hmm he's already heard of him he became prime minister when I was a baby and said his most famous oath which is the palapa oath.

But even though Majapahit's territory was relatively large, covering East Java, Central Java and Jogjakarta, it seems that the population was still sparse and not as dense as in the future.

Hayam is also not sure how many people are in the capital, and as far as I know the Majapahit area is in the Mojokerto area and it is close to Surabaya, Hayam knows because Bayu, the current body owner, used to go there during a school field trip.

But Hayam only roughly guessed about the political situation because he hadn't gone there yet, but the most surprising thing was the cannon, well the majapahit navy seemed to be equipped with cannons.

At school in history lessons it was only explained that the Majapahit force was very strong and had junks. However, Hayam could not confirm it, he only heard a little news from his slave.

Majapahit troops attacked neighboring countries that did not want to obey and this information is unclear but about the cannon the slave said that once when the Mongol army attacked Java and at that time it was still the era of the Singasari kingdom, the Javanese troops led by Raden Wijaya.

Javanese troops also found several cannons and this is why Majapahit troops have cannons, but this technology is still very crude and for the source of gunpowder it looks like they are still importing from China, this is just Hayam's guess, and the cannon has a very small caliber in contrast to European cannons during the Napoleonic era. According to the sketches Hayam saw the cannon might be able to penetrate wood but if it was to penetrate concrete it would not be able to.

Hayam wrote several things on palm leaves, because the size of the palm leaves was very small he had to abbreviate the letters, Hayam wrote several future technologies that might be made in this era, such as cloth, yes the current cloth production is very slow because they use gedogan looms. Maybe because of his rebirth Hayam has a very good memory he used to see a non-machine loom made of wood.

"Ah... Damn why this palm is so small" Hayam growled.

Yes for Hayam's initial plan he had to find a mulberry tree, as far as Hayam knew ancient papermaking used mulberry bark which was soaked and crushed into pulp and then printed, but that was the initial sketch.

"Yosh the initial plan is to look for mulberry trees and maybe if I'm lucky I can find silkworms, it seems that in Java they haven't found a way to produce silk and mulberry trees are still considered wild plants" Hayam thought.

Time began to pass and the palm leaves in front of Hayam had many scribbles that were not very clear, Hayam did not feel worried because maybe he was the only one who understood this writing in this world. The writing was not very good and the abbreviated language made the content very complicated.

Yes, if it spreads, it can be very dangerous because there are some technologies that do not exist in this era, if it falls into the hands of the enemy and they know the contents, it will be very dangerous. The enemy does not only refer to other kingdoms because Hayam does not believe that all the ministers and subordinates of the queen are loyal people.

With Bayu's experience from the future and the movies that Bayu often watches, Hayam cannot trust anyone in this palace, maybe even his own family.

On the surface Hayam acted like an obedient child but that was just an act because he needed to know the people in the palace and who could be trusted but not give blind trust.

"Wuah" Hayam started to yawn, as it was already midnight Hayam cleared the palm leaves on the table and went to bed.

...

In a dim room lit by several oil lamps, there was a woman whose face was not very clear because the light was very dim, but her clothes and jewelry were very luxurious.

The woman was removing some jewelry from her body, gold bracelets rings and necklaces.

Then suddenly there was a knock on the door and the woman said "Come in".

A woman entered and bowed and said "Your Majesty this is an item created by the king, I got it from a slave who serves the prince".

Then the slave took out the chessboard and handed it over.

The woman was the leader of this country or the Queen of Majapahit, she was a temporary replacement for Hayam Wuruk because of her young age.

"Then how to play it" asked the queen.

The maid explained the rules and how to play chess that she heard from the slave who served Hayam, the Queen listened carefully and began to be interested in this game board.

After listening to all the information the queen said "Return this board and don't make the Prince suspicious, this is very interesting especially the 10-year-old who created it and also keep it a secret so that it doesn't get out".

"Yes Your Majesty" said the servant and he began to tidy up the chess.

The Queen was very suspicious of Hayam's behavior in recent weeks because he said a lot of strange words and his behavior was very unnatural for a child his age.

The Queen was worried if Hayam was possessed by an evil spirit, hehe this was an era where people believed in myths and superstitions.

...

Starting the morning Hayam exercised, he ran around the field, Hayam only ran for one lap but his body was very tired because this was only the body of a 10-year-old child.

Although this body has been trained since childhood, the age factor is still very decisive. For the past few days Hayam's routine has been exercising, studying and playing chess.

Somehow his mother found out about chess and called Hayam to teach him the method of making and the rules of the game, it seems that his mother also began to suspect Hayam.

It's just that he made up some stories that he learned these things from his teacher, to make the story more real Hayam said several times he ran away from the palace and met his teacher.

His teacher was a hermit who traveled the world and the origin of this game was from Europe. Although it was all nonsense, his mother seemed to believe it.

After finishing sword training Hayam looked for the skinny slave, Oh Hayam seemed to have forgotten his name.

"Uncle what is your name". Hayam asked the skinny slave.

"My name is Wangsa Raden, Raden does not need to remember the name of this lowly slave".

"Oh yes Uncle Wangsa, I have a small task for you, but please keep this a secret from my mother".

"Yes Raden".

Then Hayam told Wangsa about the mulberry tree, the characteristics of the shape of the leaves and fruit, Hayam also gave a piece of palm containing a picture of the shape of the fruit leaves and trees, although the picture was not very clear but with Hayam's description it seemed that Wangsa understood. Before Wangsa left Hayam gave 2 gold coins to Wangsa, Hayam was not too familiar with the value of currency at this time, 2 gold coins were Hayam's pocket money for one month.