Joseon Needs a Coup - Chapter 153



Only Noblemtl

#153. Conscription or the Melting Pot of the People (4)

“Your Excellency, the Korean government is in secret contact with the French government. I have deciphered the secret cable.”

One of the staff members of the embassy’s telegram office came running in a hurry. He deciphered the secret telegram from the Korean Empire and relayed it to the ambassador, and it contained content that was quite interesting from Japan’s perspective.

“Thanks to Sir Park Yeong-hyo, the first secret telegram I deciphered contained detailed information related to the naval law of the Korean Empire.”

“The Korean Empire is currently in deep contact with the French Republic. The French Minister, the Director of the Korean Military Affairs Bureau, high-ranking French Navy officials, and the Korean Minister to France, Hong Jong-woo, are discussing the ship contract.”

The contents of the article were also the same. After the Emperor of the Korean Empire announced that he would personally enact the Naval Law, the Japanese embassy, ​​under the instructions of the home country, was sweating bullets trying to uncover the truth. And cutely, or perhaps wisely, they were aiming to build a fleet starting with a destroyer squadron.

And thanks to this, public opinion that had been hostile to the Korean emperor was reversed in an instant.

It was thanks to the emperor’s appearance that he embezzled 1 million nyang of the 3 million nyang of Qing silver seized in Tianjin and then set it aside as if he had the ‘foresight’ to do so for the moment of enacting the Naval Act.

Except for some public opinion, public opinion in the Korean Empire began to actively support such actions, evaluating him as a wise emperor.

It flowed strangely, as if it were a gambling game set up by someone.

“Six destroyers and several torpedo boats···.”

“The torpedo boats certainly have a lot of intentions. They’re meant to deal with larger ships, aren’t they?”

“And that large ship is….”

“It must have been aimed at us, not Roske. Sir, I think we should report this to our home country.”

This was something that Japan had also tried. They had quite a bit of fun with torpedo boats when they subdued Weihaiwei’s Beiyang Fleet.

Taking the example of the Battle of Yalu River, where the traditional cannon duel was not enough to win the battle, as a lesson.

“That’s true. Destroyers are meant to chase down torpedo boats and ships of a lower class, and they can also be used for coastal defense, so that makes sense, but torpedo boats….”

For a moment, Hayashi felt dizzy at the thought that the French-made torpedo boats they had introduced could attack the large ships of the combined fleet that had entered Gunsan or Jemulpo during wartime.

There is no guarantee that they will not use the tactics they have used, and it was intended to be used that way from the beginning.

“I guess I’ll have to wait for the home country’s judgment on this. By the way, these guys are bold. They’ve only just stepped foot into the ocean, but they’re acting with a clear sense of their place.”

“Is the Korean government trying to follow the French neo-Natural School?”

“I don’t know about that, but at least it’s intentional. It’s probably intended to pose the greatest threat to our fleet in the event of an emergency.”

He immediately sent a message to his home country’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, along with an interpretation of the secret message and an inquiry on what to do next.

At a time when the Japanese-friendly Customs Commissioner General McLeavey Brown had been arrested, government offices in Jemulpo were being raided, and even the Jeil Bank branch and Incheon Consulate were under pressure, something was needed to turn the situation around.

Moreover, there was a considerable opinion that the Emperor himself had blown up the current situation in order to cover up a scandal, so something that could be used as a warning was also needed.

***

“You’re going to end up creating a division.”

“This is a problem that cannot be ignored! We must apply pressure to the Korean Empire immediately!”

The Imperial Council in Japan, which received the deciphered secret telegram reported from Korea, was infuriated from the start.

Meanwhile, the military, dissatisfied with the appeasement policy toward Korea by Ito and Saionji – perhaps with 60% of Yamagata’s intentions added – insisted on a change to a hard-line policy and emphasized the position Japan should have in Asia.

Even before that, the Ito Cabinet, which Saionji had temporarily maintained, collapsed due to the last agreement.

This was because public opinion had rapidly deteriorated due to the backlash against the Second Coming in 1895.

In line with this, there was a huge political uproar as many of Yamagata’s supporters took office in response to his claims that the Korea-Russia policy was problematic.

Because of this, the moderate nobles lost their ground.

“Now, the Korean Peninsula is no longer a profit line, but rather our lifeline! Because we started to move toward a policy of appeasement, they are running wild, not knowing what the world is like!”

“And buying ships from France? This is too intentional. And torpedo boats, especially. Isn’t it an intention to assume that we will operate in the waters of the Korean Peninsula during wartime and openly target the large ships of the Combined Fleet?”

The Minister of the Army and the Minister of the Navy thought this was the moment and began to raise their voices.

It would not have been beneficial for the Korean Empire to continue to strengthen its military power, and the cabinet also needed to find ways to further advance itself.

I also didn’t like the fact that recently, parliamentary politics and private politicians have dared to put the brakes on the Emperor’s army that protects the land and sea of ​​the Empire of Japan.

They thought that they were strangely leading their proud country as nobles without having even held a gun or a sword in their hands.

“And the introduction of a conscription system? Doesn’t this mean that we are completely preparing for war? Don’t we all know where the guns of the Korean Empire are pointed?”

“Let’s calm down for a moment. By the 1901 agreement, they were once again confirmed as an independent nation by the great powers. It is their choice to raise an army and build a fleet, in other words, a choice that they can make as an independent nation. If we interfere with that, Russia, France, and Germany will intervene again.”

Prime Minister Taro Katsura briefly cooled down the heated atmosphere by confronting them with the current situation.

Of course, he was also an active-duty general, so he was much closer to the Army Minister and Navy Minister who were currently making strong statements than to civilian politicians like Ito and Saionji.

But now I couldn’t even outwardly sympathize with them.

Even if you get called an ignorant military man, being able to understand the situation is a virtue that a leader of a country must have.

No, in the first place, the Korean Empire was recognized as an independent nation through the 1901 agreement, so if we intervene in that, France, Russia, and Germany will not be able to leave it alone.

The Korean Empire had already inserted itself as one axis of the Russo-French alliance.

While it may be possible to take such a stance in order to gain advantage among allies, Prime Minister Katsura thought a little deeper.

For the Korean Empire, the Russo-French alliance was seen as more than just a simple international relationship; it was also established as a system.

In the Russo-French alliance, the values ​​they guaranteed and advocated and the goals of the alliance were deeply embedded in the system of the Korean Empire, so this was not a simple matter to be seen at all.

Although they may have had different dreams, at least the actions of the Korean Empire, which established a system between the Russo-French alliance, were not something to be ignored.

Since they were people with such a system, it was clear that they would rather take up a club to enforce discipline in the East and threaten Japan by saying they would protect the Korean Empire.

And they will force the Korean Empire to pay some amount of money in the name of protection money, and they will force Japan to pay something that will severely hurt its pride.

“So, the Prime Minister is saying that we should just watch for now?”

“No, let’s find a way.”

“That’s why they call us a second-rate cabinet···.”

Someone sneered, but Prime Minister Katsura held back. Under Yamagata’s support, most of the cabinet members were not proven figures who had been heavily promoted in the Ito cabinet, but rather newbies who had entered the cabinet for the first time or had no bureaucratic experience. It was no coincidence that the Army Minister and the Navy Minister were taking a hard line.

Because there was no way to restrain them, like the foxy Ito or the veteran Saionji.

“In addition, our friendly customs officer, McLeavey Brown, was also taken away, and recently, they even openly sent official documents to the Incheon consulate and the Jeil Bank branch asking for their cooperation in the investigation.”

“You rude bastards! Where did you dare to go?!”

“The problem is that the customs funds embezzled by McLeavey Brown have also entered the Jeil Bank branch and are connected to the consulate… so the current situation is difficult.”

“Does that mean we can just barge into the extraterritorial area like that?”

“They haven’t broken the law or anything yet. But if they start to manipulate us like they do, we’ll be in trouble.”

They say that the Joseon people are becoming more cunning as the days go by, so I sometimes wonder if I gave them too much time.

From the beginning, I couldn’t even figure out where it went wrong.

Since he could not find a way out right away, he had to return from the royal meeting without reaching any conclusions.

And then, after briefly swallowing my pride, I requested an interview with Ito.

“It’s been a while, Minister of the Army. Or are you the Prime Minister now?”

“How have you been?”

“Well, it doesn’t seem like they just came looking for me after I was pushed out to the back room.”

Ito said this while offering Prime Minister Katsura a cup of tea. Katsura sipped the warm tea and licked his lips. Ito knew exactly what Katsura was going to say, but he just smiled as if he was waiting for him to open his mouth.

“Actually, it’s because of the Joseon issue···.”

“Joseon, Joseon. Are you talking about those cunning guys?”

“Yes. Have you heard anything about their behavior recently?”

“I know. But what can I do? They are recognized by the great powers, and we have to wait only for Russia’s conditional withdrawal.”

“But they are targeting that moment and are moving forward with a conscription system and the creation of a navy. Even the customs commissioner who was friendly to us was arrested on corruption charges. How can we overcome this?”

Katsura wondered what it would have been like if Saionji, a representative of the moderate nobles, had been in the cabinet.

However, he was firmly out of Yamagata’s sight, so even though he was the Prime Minister, Katsura could not make decisions on his own. After all, everything was going according to the will of Yamagata, the leader of the faction.

“Hmm, that’s a difficult problem. Since the Korean Empire has taken the initiative, it’s time to make a bold move.”

“Is this a gamble?”

“During the last negotiation, I personally entered Gyeongseong, the capital of the Korean Empire, and with the permission of the Crown Prince, I toured the arsenal and several businesses in Samcheong-dong.”

He took a sip of tea while suddenly telling his story. The well-brewed scent of green tea wafted to the tip of his nose.

“And I found malice there.”

“Malicious?”

“These are the words of their malice toward us. They are continually expanding their arsenal facilities, and from there they are producing thousands of rifles and hundreds of thousands of rounds of ammunition every month. The Korean Empire is preparing for a war that may be their last, and they are beginning to realize who they are. The draft and the navy are the last steps of such malice.”

Ito looked around the Samcheong-dong arsenal after the meeting with the young man who was the director of the military affairs bureau of the Korean Empire. His eyes were clearly intelligent, but behind that intelligence, there was wariness and hatred.

When I once asked him what he would do if war broke out with Japan, he answered half-jokingly, half-seriously.

-If that happens, you will have to be prepared to lose one third of Japanese youth born after 1880.

He then laughed it off as a joke, but Ito sensed malice in the words. They were producing 4,500 guns a month in three factories, and had just imported 200 new 75mm field guns from France.

It is an advanced field gun equipped with a state-of-the-art recoil mechanism, which is not available in Japan.

But that’s not all. Although they were unable to introduce a divisional system like the Japanese military, they were spurring efforts to organically operate military power by establishing a brigade system appropriate to their national power and a central artillery, cavalry, and engineering command to support them.

As the ‘Russian body and French spirit’ that I had once laughed at slowly revealed itself, I couldn’t help but feel a little nervous.

At the same time, it made me pessimistic that if these were not cut off early, it would cast a dark cloud over the future of the Japanese Empire.

“So, the tip of the gun was pointed at us···?”

“Of course, they won’t be able to match us alone. No matter how hard they try and struggle, they can’t fill the gap that time has created. However, they are setting themselves up as Russia’s fence, so as time goes by, we will be the ones who will be at a disadvantage.”

As time goes by, both Russia and the Korean Empire will acquire the power to defend against Japan’s projection power in the Far East.

Prime Minister Katsura immediately understood what Ito was trying to say.

But he still didn’t know how to deal with them.

“But isn’t it true that the current method is not suitable?”

“The idiots in the military insist that we must adopt a hard-line policy toward the Korean Empire, but that only serves to unite them.”

“But they are using appeasement as a shield to buy time.”

“Keulkeul, that’s why the soldiers are scolded for only seeing what’s right in front of them. The more we use conciliatory policies, the more they divide. And at the center of that division is their emperor.”

Ito thought about the ambiguous stance of the Korean emperor. He certainly had harbored a great hatred for Japan since 1895, but at the same time, he was not unaware that he was a believer in the law that his throne would soon determine the fate of his country.

Therefore, it was predicted that as Japan’s power declined after 1895 and the pro-monarchist and pro-Russian factions took over domestically, it would inevitably begin to look for another partner to regain its power and authority.

It was also the Emperor’s intention to have a large number of Korean cadets accepted into the Japanese Military Academy through Minister Hayashi of the Japanese Embassy in recent times, and it was also evaluated that the Emperor had plans to take control of the military through them in the future.

So, for Korean cadets, they were finishing the work of instilling in them an illusion about the Japanese Empire while providing them with very good treatment.

When they return home next year, they will become a pro-Japanese force within the Korean Empire’s military.

“At times like this, we should be even more conciliatory toward them. What if we show them that we have no intention of going to war and that we are conciliatory toward them as they put on their armor to prepare for war? We will only lose strength. If we, who see them as targets of war, do not show any hostility…”

At Ito’s advice, Prime Minister Katsura slapped his knee and stood up, as if he had found a brilliant idea.

Rather than being surprised or anything when seeing Katsura like that, Ito just smiled quietly.

“Finally, I think I found a way.”

“anything?”

“I don’t know if the Admiralty will like it, but I think we can convince him.”

“Then do your best. If only you can somehow turn around the hostility that the Korean Empire holds.”

Whether it would turn out well or not is a separate issue. Ultimately, Ito thought that the key to the key lay with the Emperor of Korea.

In the end, the Korean Empire, unlike Japan, was an absolute monarchy that had not yet become civilized, and it believed that everything was decided by the personal will of the emperor, not by a competent parliament or cabinet.

They believed that if they could just get their hands on the key to the emperor, they would be able to tear the Korean Empire apart in a state of psychological civil war within the next five years, as reported by Minister Hayashi.

In the beautifully decorated garden, leaves were slowly falling.