I Will Stage A Coup D’état - Chapter 24



Only Noblemtl

EP.24 The Morning of Revolution(?) (2)

Marshal Park Han-jin was sitting in the investigation room wearing nothing over his military uniform.

A young military police officer from the Army Criminal Investigation Division sat down in front of him and handed him a statement.

Even though he was a colonel-level criminal investigation unit chief, he acted in a manner that would be considered rude, and the officer had a calm expression on his face.

“Here, sign the statement and we’ll be good to go.”

“What kind of trick is this? Can’t you clean it up right now?”

“This kid, this isn’t going to work. Hey!”

As the military police officer shouted, the investigators came in.

“This kid, I can’t explain it with words. Beaten.”

The investigators started kicking the enemy with their boots without warning.

Park Han-jin was hit by a shoe and couldn’t breathe.

While I was lying down and being beaten for a long time, I heard the voice of a military police officer.

“Have you changed your mind now?”

Park Han-jin spoke with swollen lips.

“You bastards. I am a Field Marshal of the Korean Empire. If you guys want to humiliate me, then so be it. Do you think I would betray my honor?”

The military police officer chuckled.

“Do you still think you’re a Marshal and a Minister of the Army? I’ve already taken away your rank, so you shouldn’t worry about that honor and worry about yourself. Hey, let’s get this out of the way.”

Park Han-jin was again beaten senselessly with a shoe.

He vowed to himself that he would somehow get out of this place and show them a lesson, but the repeated violence broke down even his enemy’s strong will.

Unfortunately for Park Han-jin, humans were not made of iron.

It was a sad creature that became weaker rather than stronger the more it was hit.

At the same time that Marshal Park Han-jin was being subjected to harsh ‘investigation’, Army generals were also being investigated.

Army Chief of Staff General Park Sung-ryeol did not respond as stiffly as Park Han-jin.

“I’ll submit my application as you say. Will that be okay?”

“How nice of you to cooperate like this. Please stamp it and go home.”

The coup forces carefully classified those who must be punished and those who can be released after only a moderate amount of embarrassment.

The standard was faction.

The Army Chief of Staff, the Capital Defense Commander, the Security Commander, the Guard Division Commander, the Military Police Commander, and the 3rd Army Commander, all of whom were members of the Park Han-jin faction, were stripped of their clothes on the spot and transferred to the Army Prison.

In addition, high-ranking officials, deputy chiefs of staff, deputy chiefs of staff, directors of operations, etc., who were decided to be released within a reasonable time, were sent home while receiving retired soldiers.

Of course, there were some people who ended up staying.

These were the generals who switched to Lee Seong-jun’s side at the last minute.

They couldn’t just be purged because they had a history of secretly leaking information.

These people were sent to unimportant positions in the military.

As time went by, they sat in places where it was easy to take off one’s clothes, such as the Army Policy Research Institute where Sung-jun was sitting, the border guards stationed in Manchuria, the Japanese military (Korean troops stationed in Japan), and the headmaster of the Army Comprehensive School.

After the first purge was completed, the coup forces carried out a reward system.

There were large-scale promotions in the core of the coup forces, the Reserve Forces and the 16th and 17th Reserve Divisions.

Colonel Kim Seong-ju, the personnel chief of the Correctional Service Corps, was promoted one rank to the rank of major general and took over as commander of the Security Command.

It was originally a position that the captain should have taken on, but it didn’t matter.

The Security Command, which was the core of the regime’s defense, had to be taken over by the coup forces.

It didn’t really matter what it looked like.

Colonel Baek Dong-seok, the chief of staff of the Operations Command of the Correctional Service Corps, was also promoted to major general and took charge of the capital defense command.

The Capital Defense Command is the core of the capital defense.

It was absurd to leave such a unit in the hands of others.

Colonel Gil Tae-hwan, the Chief of Staff of the 16th Reserve Division, was also promoted to major general and appointed commander of the 1st Guards Division, which holds the rank of lieutenant general.

This position also needed to be occupied in terms of controlling the key combat units in downtown Pyongyang.

17th Reserve Division Operations Staff Colonel Lee Jeong-yoon was also promoted to major general and took the position of commander of the training unit, which is held by lieutenant generals.

In addition, colonel-level officers belonging to the Ilwonhoe were promoted to major general and took command of key combat units important for protecting the regime, such as the 16th and 17th Reserve Divisions and the 12th and 33rd Infantry Divisions.

And the most important leader of the coup force, Sung Jun, was promoted to general and then became the Army Chief of Staff.

It was an impossible promotion and an impossible position, but it didn’t matter.

The coup forces knew that if they wielded power in this way, their opponents would be afraid.

After the awards ceremony was over, the coup leaders decided to fill the empty seats with people they could persuade.

So,

After competing with Park Han-jin, he brought in retired General Noh Seong-guk, who was spending his time after retiring, and put him in charge of the army and entrusted him with his pants.

In addition, he called in generals who were in the reserves and gave them positions such as Chief of Army Operations and Vice Chief of Staff.

Of course, these filled spaces had no meaning.

In a situation where Sung-Jun, the powerful man who held military command and military government in one hand, could move key units with a single word, they were merely filling positions.

The generals of the border who were watching this situation from outside felt embarrassed.

“A young punk with no blood on his head, how dare he take power?”

“You can’t just leave that guy there.”

“But how?”

Although the generals felt uncomfortable with Seongjun’s seizure of power, they were unable to take action.

It was a losing battle to go on a ‘suppression’ against Sungjun, who controlled the field units in the metropolitan area in one hand.

Even if they did, the justification was vague.

Isn’t this a situation where the Prime Minister and the Emperor have endorsed the coup?

The generals tried hard to suppress their discontent.

If a novice with little experience takes power, there will be a loophole at some point.

Even the experienced Park Han-jin showed his opening, so why wouldn’t Lee Seong-jun show his opening?

The generals decided to send a message of submission to Lee Seong-jun.

Since he showed his intention to submit like this, Lee Seong-jun will also stop at an appropriate point and save face.

The generals thought so.

But they misjudged one important fact.

Seongjun, whom they looked down on as a child, was not a person who was so weak in power that he would leave the elements of instability alone.

*

“Mr. President, the German Ambassador has requested an audience.”

“Okay, I got it.”

I asked Major Kim Jeong-gil, whom I had promoted to my Chief of Staff (the Chief of Staff to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff is normally a colonel), to accept the request for a meeting.

I don’t like the Nazis, but at the moment, Hitler was our only ally.

Even if that weren’t the case, if we were to entrust Berlin with mediating the Sino-Korean war, we couldn’t completely ignore the Germans.

By the way, these guys move faster than you think.

The coup forces’ personnel hadn’t even been announced, but they knew exactly who I was and came looking for me.

As I was waiting in my office, pretending to write something, the German ambassador, Herbert von Dickerson, appeared.

But the impression was a bit peculiar.

He had a bald head, glasses on, and a distinctly Nazi-like air, and he smelled like someone who had come to collect loans.

I tried to ignore Dirksen’s strong first impression and greeted the ambassador with a friendly attitude.

“I am the new Army Chief of Staff, Lee Sung-joon. His Excellency the Ambassador wanted to meet me?”

“Yes. Isn’t the General the most powerful person in this country right now? So we can’t do things without the General. Are you aware that peace negotiations between Korea and China are underway through our mediation in Berlin?”

Oh, Park Han-jin asked for peace negotiations?

It was unexpected.

I can’t believe that a military leader who doesn’t know anything about negotiation thought that.

Park Han-jin’s score in my heart has been adjusted up a little.

I thought it would be okay to give it a grade of D instead of F.

“I didn’t know.”

“If that’s the case, let me explain the circumstances.”

Dirksen worked hard, mustering up his mettle to explain how well the negotiations were going.

I listened to the story in silence.

If I think about it, I didn’t really intend to deny everything that my predecessor, Park Han-jin, did.

However, it seemed like a few things needed to be fixed.

I gave a clue.

“Let’s change the conditions a bit. Even if we simply leave North Korea as a demilitarized zone, we cannot guarantee South Korea’s security.”

“What does Your Majesty say?”

“We must take control of the North China Railway. We will not yield any other interests or demands.”

I decided to follow the example of the South Manchuria Railway Company, which the Japanese used when they ran Manchuria.

It was a condition that was difficult for China to accept, but I had no choice.

It is a war that has already broken out, a bloody fight.

What would happen to me if I just threw in the towel here and shouted, “Let’s reconcile”?

The people of the empire will be furious and say, ‘That bastard, that traitor, ruined the war.’

I say this over and over again, but this militaristic country is not a normal country.

The national consciousness is also as belligerent as that of the Japanese Empire.

To convince the people, they had to come up with some plausible loot.

That way I could protect my position.

There are political reasons for this, and there are also economic reasons.

Domestic reforms require money, but disarmament is absolutely not allowed.

However, it is a country that is already a crippled economy that has paid off its debts and is struggling to keep its economy running.

There is only one way to raise money under these conditions.

‘A beggar who sticks a straw into a neighbor’s pocket.’

In fact, the Korean Empire had put a big straw in its neighboring country, Japan.

Although it was not a colony, it was a ‘protectorate’ close to one, and they were sucking up as much economic power as they could.

But even if they sucked it up like that, it wasn’t enough to save Korea.

So China had to suck it up too.

“General. That, that railroad.”

“I know. Chiang Kai-shek won’t accept it easily.”

Well then, let’s have some more war.

When I opened my mouth, I made a fuss as if the great powers would intervene at any moment, but in fact that never happened.

‘It might be okay if they indirectly threaten our colonies by occupying places like Hainan Island, but we’re not at that stage yet.’

Looking back, everything I said was just blatant lies.

“General, please reconsider. You must give Chairman Jang terms that he can accept.”

“Let’s take some time to think about it.”

I decided to hold off on negotiations until China accepts the new terms.

Anyway, both the government and the military were in a mess right now, so it wasn’t a situation where we could properly negotiate with China.

Let’s talk about it once the ‘revolution’ has settled down to some extent.

‘I guess I should take this opportunity to find out what Park Han-jin has done.’

Because it’s a headache if something happens that I don’t know about.

Less than five minutes after Dirksen left, Kim Jong-gil spoke.

“Mr. President. The American, British, and French ambassadors have arrived.”

This is true. The information power of the great powers cannot be ignored.

We’re going to have to deal with guys like this in the future.

I straightened my clothes.

Now, it was time for him to make his debut in the international community as the leader of Korea.