Joseon Needs a Coup - Chapter 123
Only Noblemtl
#123. Beijing Express and Blue Red Army (2)
“Ha··· No, what is this···.”
“Haha, Colonel. You’re here now? You guys are not even worth a punch.”
I almost fainted when I saw the cavalrymen seizing rifles and ammunition among the disarmed and tied up Japanese officers and soldiers.
From what I heard, the Japanese army was making a fuss, demanding that our troops evacuate the armory they had occupied, claiming it was their operational area, and the angry advisor Harcourt was beaten up.
Looking at those people tied up like oysters and with gags in their mouths, it seemed like they had a lot to say to me.
“Is there any reason to even put a gag on it?”
“No, it was so noisy that I put something in my mouth. It’s a bit of a shame since I’ve only worn these socks once since I came here.”
“······.”
So that’s why they kept making a fuss like that.
I felt strangely sorry for the Japanese officer who had a sock in his mouth instead of a gag. I felt even more sorry for the bruises on his face.
“No, why are you looking at me like that?”
“Mr. Harcourt, this was a bit much. It was a problem I could have solved with words.”
“Hey, we didn’t understand each other at all. They suddenly told us to leave, so I just gave them some education.”
Although the training seemed a bit excessive, I had no intention of spoiling their mood as they came bearing huge bundles of gifts.
“There’s a huge arsenal of weapons. Rifles, cannons, enough to arm tens of thousands of people.”
“I guess I should just pack what I need and go.”
“Huh? This is a place we occupied, so can’t we take it out slowly?”
“Would the other guys just sit there and do nothing? They’ll start a mess right away, saying they’ll eat with us too. They’ll just take what they can and get away. Before that, let’s free these poor Japanese people first.”
Although they looked dissatisfied with my orders, Harcourt and the cavalrymen immediately released the Japanese soldiers who were tied up like oysters.
As soon as he put the gag on, the Japanese officer retched and said something like, “We’ll see!” or “I won’t let you do this!” before disappearing the way he came.
Well, it looks like they’re going to bring their own troops.
“Are you really angry?”
“You stupid jabs who can’t even accept an American welcome.”
Harcourt clicked his tongue.
Well, come to think of it, something made me feel uncomfortable. Could it be because of the remarks of this gentleman who spews out racist remarks almost as if he were breathing?
I guess for Dixies, skin color is an insurmountable racial barrier.
It seemed that this was where most of the military supplies used by the Qing army in the metropolitan area between Tianjin and Beijing were stored.
“Just take the rifle.”
“Huh? If you’re going to take it, why don’t you take those cannons? Your army is pretty short on artillery right now, isn’t it?”
“If you take it without permission, it will end up as nothing more than a piece of scrap metal, in a situation where there is no one who can use it, and the supply of spare parts and ammunition for future use is uncertain. It would be better to have rifles that can be used.”
As I looked, there were a variety of guns scattered around, from old-fashioned cannons to the latest Krupp field guns, but it was unclear whether I should take them now.
Moreover, the reliability of those artillery ammunitions is even lower if they are made in China.
The reason the Qing artillery at Xishicheng was not effective in the Battle of Tianjin was because Chinese ammunition was poorly manufactured.
In that case, it would have been reasonable to take as spoils the Mauser rifles that could fire the German 8mm cartridges that were widely available throughout the world.
“but···.”
“The cannons will bring better ones later. Even if we take them as loot now, they are just a waste of time. And there is no good way to drag them away either.”
Since it was obvious that even if you tied them to a horse, you wouldn’t be able to take more than a few, it was better to take boxes of rifles, which were relatively easy to carry.
Since there are usually about 25 tablets in a box, I thought that if I loaded them all up on the cart I just brought, I could probably pack about 3,000 tablets.
“Commander, should we also get some ammunition?”
“I don’t have time, so leave me alone.”
There was no time to spare.
Of course, not all Mauser rifles were the same, and there were rifles of a very mixed standard.
There were various types of Mauser rifles mixed in, from Mannlicher rifles to what appeared to be their own rifles of unknown origin.
Eventually, I got off my horse and started to collect the Gew88 rifles, which were relatively new, and I threw all the similar-looking ones onto the cart, and before I knew it, I had collected quite a lot.
As for ammunition, it’s German-made and widely available in the world anyway, so we can get it later.
“Commander, the wagon is full.”
“How many did we bring?”
“There are three.”
I wanted to bring more, but I couldn’t because it seemed like it would take more time.
Well, I had to be a little greedy, so I decided to pack a little and leave.
In the older cannons, the firing ports were nailed in to render them unusable, and those with recoil springs had their firing mechanisms pulled out.
“Burn this place to the ground. The enemy might come back and use it.”
“All right!”
I really didn’t think the Qing army would come back and write.
However, it was more like a gift to the Japanese army that would chase after them and destroy everything in advance.
Harcourt, who was somehow excited, skillfully placed dynamite sticks here and there, even though they were scarce, and lit the fuses.
And a moment later, a huge flash of light and a massive flame engulfed the entire armory.
“Hey, no matter how I think about it, the cannons are a waste.”
“Why are you so obsessed with cannons, Advisor?”
“You don’t know, so you ask? Even children passing by would know that war would be easier if we just had those rapid-fire guns.”
He kept smacking his lips, perhaps because he felt very sorry.
I also felt a little disappointed, but I guess I have to be satisfied with this for now.
When we returned to Tianjin and sent supplies to the port, the Japanese commander came to us and questioned us.
“We will not just ignore the fact that your Korean military adviser assaulted our officer!”
“I heard from our advisor that you ordered us to evacuate our occupied territory without permission?”
“No, in the first place, why are there Korean troops in the area west of Tianjin?!”
“What are you talking about when we never drew a battle line in the first place? And the cavalry intercepted the enemy and captured it, so why are you acting as if that place is your territory?”
“What?! You didn’t even ask for our understanding in advance!”
“I don’t know why we should ask for your understanding.”
The officers from both sides were sitting there fighting each other like this.
The enraged Lieutenant Kim Seok-joong drew his cavalry sword halfway and hurled a torrent of curses, saying, “I’ll shut those damn Japanese bastards up!”
The excited Japanese officers also fought back and forth, making a lot of noise for a while.
For a short while, the two sides’ forces reached the point of armed conflict, so British and Russian officers actively tried to stop each other.
“Stop it, stop it!”
In the end, Admiral Alexeyev, the de facto commander of the Allied forces, stepped in and barely managed to control the traffic.
“First of all, the Korean Empire that caused the violence should formally apologize to the Japanese side. Also, to prevent the same thing from happening again, strictly discipline your subordinate troops.”
“No, is this a problem that can be brushed aside with an apology? This is-”
“Then, are you thinking of demanding compensation? Do whatever it takes.”
Admiral Alekseev looked at the Japanese commander with great coldness, even though he was speaking through an interpreter.
Only then did he realize the situation, and he, who had been furious since earlier, was able to calm down a little.
“And, you should explain why you blew up the Qing army’s armory. And why you stuffed a sock into the Japanese officer’s mouth instead of a gag.”
“The Qing arsenal has been removed so that the enemy cannot use it again, and I will make sure to warn the torturers about the sock gun.”
It was quite a sight to see the Japanese commander’s face flushed red. He seemed to be very angry and wanted to do something to me, but the other powers did not seem to be paying much attention.
No wonder, a huge aftermath was going on in Tianjin right now. A festival of looting and arson.
Tianjin was a city with so much wealth that they had to move to get as much as possible, so they could put aside ‘petty’ squabbles.
Thanks to that, the matter was concluded with a verbal warning to the advisor who had ‘acted unethically’.
“Never use your old socks as a gag again.”
“Okay, I got it.”
Of course, I don’t know if the warning will work.
***
By the afternoon of July 14th, even the occasional fighting with the defeated troops had virtually ended.
I was busy counting the number of rifles I had captured and sending a list of the captured items to my home country.
We also had to arrange for a ship that could carry about 3,000 boxes of rifles.
The looting continued.
I told him not to do that, but he did it anyway, and it gave him a headache.
That’s why I wanted to bring in some of the military police managed by Lieutenant General Min Yeong-hwan, but I was rejected because they said there were too many non-combat troops assigned, so I was very disappointed in that regard.
Even on the battlefield, military discipline is extremely necessary.
“Commander, you should come here for a moment.”
“What’s going on?”
“That, you need to see it urgently.”
The assault infantry battalion, which was clearing the city center, sent a messenger to summon me urgently, saying that they had discovered something while searching the gates of the city, and I headed there with the cavalry company of Advisor Harcourt, who happened to be left at the command post at that time.
And in front of them, a group of soldiers stood, noisily, in front of a warehouse.
I was thinking of handing over something like an armory to the Russian military.
“Commander, what’s going on?”
“Oh, Colonel. Look over here.”
Lieutenant Lee Ki-pyo, who was commanding the infantry battalion that followed Lieutenant Park Seung-hwan, showed the destroyed warehouse of the General Headquarters with a troubled expression.
And inside, there was a huge amount of Majeun piled up.
“What, what is this···.”
“The enemies resisted here, so I sent out a platoon and annihilated them.”
“It seems that this is why the enemies tried to block this place.”
Looking back, there seemed to be quite a lot of wreckage of the destroyed Nodenfeld machine gun near the gun emplacement, as well as the corpses of fallen enemies.
“How much is it, exactly?”
“We can’t estimate it right now. However, we know it’s over 1 million nyang.”
“her···.”
We had more Majeun than we could handle piled up in the warehouse of the General Affairs Office, and along with it, there were tens of thousands of seoks of various materials, especially rice that could be used as military provisions.
It would not be an exaggeration to say that it was the center of Tianjin administration.
That’s why we, who were the first to occupy this place, had no choice but to face a very awkward situation.
“···What should we do about this?”
“This is spoils of war, and since we have taken control of the entire territory, there is no problem in claiming it as ours. However, I don’t know if the other powers will watch.”
“Well, that’s definitely true.”
Everyone had a puzzled look on their face.
First, we mobilized the troops here to make sure we could accurately record the number of supplies inside, and deployed defensive troops separately.
“Ugh, I guess I’ll have to rewrite the ledger of loot to be sent back to the home country.”
I thought it was an overwhelming gift, but I was too upset to give it to someone else, so I decided to take them all.
I ordered that the boxes be transported to the port as quickly as possible using supply wagons and hired laborers.
“I see here that the silver stored in the General Affairs Office is worth about 3 million nyang.”
“Ugh.”
There were still ledgers left that had not been destroyed, and they kindly told us the total quantity of various materials in the place.
“Write down everything about the captured materials.”
“Understood, Colonel.”
Just in case, I asked them to keep detailed records of all the supplies they had seized here.
Since you never know when, where, or how something will happen, and there are cases where you send a huge sum of money, such as 3 million nyang, to your home country without any basis and then get accused of hiding some of the funds, it is better to record the items as transparently as possible.
The American troops stationed in Korea right after World War II had a headache over this problem. They said that Japanese military equipment and supplies were being stolen without permission by subordinate soldiers and low-ranking officers, making it impossible to keep an accurate tally.
“Wow, 3 million nyang would make me want to go to war.”
“If you get a taste for this, you’re in big trouble.”
My younger brother, who had brought an escort car next to me, had a happy expression on his face, as if he was smelling a fragrant scent.
“Isn’t 3 million nyang an incredible achievement? It’s a whopping 1% of the reparations Japan received from the Sino-Japanese War.”
“The profits from war are like opium. At first, even a small income may be enjoyable, but as time goes by, it becomes less and less satisfying.”
In that way, the country was going to fail after 40 years of running itself through a plunder economy through war. From the beginning, a plunder economy through war was impossible to establish for a long time.
“But this money could give a boost to the business of the entire country-”
“That’s only once or twice. Don’t taste it. We just got some extra income.”
It is absolutely unacceptable that a secondary goal should become the primary goal. There are two reasons why you came here.
The two main purposes are to gain an advantageous position in establishing diplomatic relations between Korea and China, and to show off our power to the great powers.
···Well, even so, 3 million nyang isn’t exactly the name of a child. I also thought that there would be many noblemen who would be happy if I sent it to their home country.
It was funny to imagine Lee Yong-ik and Eo Yoon-joong’s mouths dropping open right now.
For reference, 3 million nyang was a huge sum of money even by modern currency standards.
It was estimated that 1 nyang was worth about 140,000 won, so it was a huge sum of money, 420 billion won.
However, this was a value based on the price of rice, and if calculated based on other standards or eras, the amount could have been much higher.
Moreover, considering that the national tax revenue in the late Qing Dynasty was between 88 million and 120 million nyang, 3 million nyang was bound to smell like money everywhere.
In the end, the answer was to transport them to their home country quickly and without anyone knowing.
The longer we delay, the more likely it is that those greedy, plundering allies will sniff us out and rush in.
Now was the right time, while the Allied forces were still preoccupied with the sack of Tianjin.
I urgently sent a coded telegram to the Headquarters of the Headquarters via Morse code.
We needed a transport unit that could be very fast and punctual, like the Red Ball Express.