Joseon Needs a Coup - Chapter 163



Only Noblemtl

#163. Rising Dark Clouds (1)

The eventful year of 1901 had passed in both Europe and Asia, and many changes occurred as 1902 arrived.

First of all, by the end of January, Britain and Japan had formally entered into an alliance. The intention was clear.

Britain, which had been engaged in foreign military operations since the 1870s, was experiencing a period of diminishing military confidence as it was unable to avoid defeat, and the fact that it had become a perennially deficit empire could not be ignored.

To put it simply, it was an alliance formed out of necessity. While no alliance is like that, the Anglo-Japanese Alliance was an alliance of convenience that was even stronger.

“So Britain and Japan have formed an alliance after all. I’m afraid of where the tip of the sword will be pointed.”

In effect, what Britain wanted was to ‘outsource’ its military police role in East Asia to Japan, but for Japan, that meant something completely different.

For the first time, they established an equal relationship with the Western powers, and their confidence in their own power began to solidify.

The secret meeting between Britain and Japan naturally attracted the attention of neighboring countries and gave rise to their contrasting opinions about their choices.

“Would that be enough to override the Great Compromise of 1901?”

“There’s no way that Russia, France, and Deokguk would ignore the grand compromise when they’re watching···.”

The war room of the Marshal’s Office was in the midst of a long discussion about this issue. The dawn of 1902 dawned in this way.

The build-up of armaments was given impetus when the French-Belgian-Dutch banking capital provided 250 million francs as a loan.

The cabinet decided to invest 50% of the loan in military spending, and provided a whopping 60 million won to the Marshal’s Office and the military.

It was a measure in response to the Anglo-Japanese Alliance. Thanks to this, the capital’s demonstration brigades and the guard brigades were integrated to form the 1st Guards Division, and the problem of manpower shortages in the Jinwi brigades, which had been a headache, was also somewhat alleviated.

Divisional formation, complete formation of local forces, fleet operations, etc. However, despite these preparations, the feeling of anxiety did not go away.

No, rather, the anxiety became concrete.

Intelligence from the Records Investigation Office suggested that Japan’s military buildup was for war that went beyond its own territory and territorial waters.

The various political maneuvers hidden behind the appeasement policies of the Japanese government and embassy, ​​the support for the Iljinhoe, and their recent expansion of power were enough to make everyone nervous.

“If Japan succeeds in significantly increasing its land and naval power by 1903, then it will be so. After all, the Great Compromise of 1901 was merely a compromise made by France and Germany in their own interests, and if Anglo-Japanese alliance were to be formed and military power projected in earnest….”

They will hesitate. Of course, Britain will not stand by and watch the war in Asia spread to Europe, so they will try to persuade France and Germany, but from our point of view, that will not be a pleasant thing.

“Then shouldn’t we revise the existing war plan?”

Someone spoke. This time, the newly created Chief of Staff of the Marshal’s Office, Lieutenant General Kim In-su, brought up the story.

“If a full-scale war breaks out between Russia and Japan, we will have to maintain our existing strategy of making the defense of Hanseongbu virtually impossible, but we will have to think about what comes after that.”

“Then the question is where to draw the defense line-”

There was a lot of discussion among the directors, their staffs, and the field commanders who attended the meeting.

In terms of general aspects, the direction was clear. The Japanese army would land at Jemulpo and Busanpo, so the defense of Hanseongbu and the three southern provinces would be practically abandoned, and the main force would be gathered up and a large-scale withdrawal to the northern region would be carried out.

The next question was where to stand and fight, and the staff members each expressed their own ideas and presented strategies.

It was divided into three main groups: one was centered in the northwest, another was centered in the northeast, and the last was to wage a delaying war and withdraw the imperial family and court to Russian territory across the border to fight.

The most acute of these conflicts was the construction of a defensive line between the northwest and the northeast.

“In the northwest, we must bring the royal family and the court to Uiju, set up a final defensive line, and hold out until the Russian Army comes down! That is the last front line where we will set foot! Only by defending Pyongyang and Anbuk-bu will we have hope. Even now, we must establish a defense strategy centered on the Chongchon River and the Taedong River!”

“If we do that, the troops and supplies we have barely managed to gather in the northwest will be completely wiped out by the Japanese Army’s large-scale offensive. We must go to Hamgyeong Province, not their main attack area. We must hold out there and receive help from the Russian fleet and ground forces in Vladivostok.”

Both sides were in sharp conflict.

The chiefs of staff and staff of the Marshal’s Office advocated resistance in the northwest, while field army commanders advocated resistance in the northeast.

There was a point to both sides, so there was no way to make a hasty decision.

But if I had to choose, I was certain about where I would fight.

Even though victory would be difficult, I had planned out a battlefield where I could buy as much time as possible.

I stood up, walked over to the map, and tapped my baton on the far right of the map as if I was giving a presentation.

And at the end of it was Hamheung, the center of Hamgyeong Province.

“If we follow the war plan based on the existing White, Blue, Black, and Red plans, it would be closer to the Blue Plan… We should defend the northeastern region, including Hamgyeong Province, with Hamheung as the final defensive base.”

“Huh? No, what are you talking about, abandoning Pyongyang and the northwest, which are like pearls of our Korean Empire, and going to the rugged and harsh northeast?”

“Chief of Military Affairs, how are you going to conduct the war if you abandon the northwest? The population and wealth there are our keys. In addition, the fleet and ground forces of Lushun, which borders the northwest, number in the tens of thousands, and they have power that cannot be compared to Vladivostok, which borders Hamhung.”

“Then let’s think about it the other way around, everyone. Why are the Russian fleet and ground forces gathered there?”

Of course, that was the Japanese army’s expected advance route.

The Japanese army had already defeated the Qing army in Lushun and Dalian during the Sino-Japanese War, so it would not be any different in a war with Russia.

Moreover, it was the best route to Lushun and Dalian, which were strategic targets for the Japanese army, and it was also a familiar place.

“If you look at the advance route chosen by the Japanese army during the Gap-o War, most of it was concentrated in the northwest, including Pyongyang and Uiju. It is dangerous to establish a final defense line in an area where the enemy’s main attack is expected. Even if they resisted in Pyongyang, they would face the same result as the French field army that was trapped in Metz during the Franco-Prussian War. They resisted for two full months, but eventually had to surrender.”

“But does that mean you’re really going to just abandon the northwest?”

“Well, that will have to be done, but at least we will need troops and supplies in the northeast, and time for the royal family and the court to retreat···.”

The Japanese army’s main attack was to the northwest, not the northeast, so it was necessary to turn their attention.

I saw numerous long-term figures placed on the map.

When a real war breaks out, those long-term words will turn into living people, and I will hold the lives of those countless people in my hands. For a moment, a sense of pressure weighed on me.

Often this pressure clouds people’s judgment.

I gathered my courage again and continued speaking.

“We will deploy two brigades deployed in the northwest, troops withdrawn from Hansung, and declare a mobilization order within the region, so that 50,000 troops will be deployed to South Pyongan Province within a week of the start of the war.”

When the war began, the 12th Division in Yokohama would land an advance unit at Jemulpo and attempt to take control of Hanseongbu within a short period of time, and it was clear that field army troops would sequentially disembark in the Jemulpo and Busan ports.

And then, the time we needed would come.

“The Japanese army will have to land by ship to establish a beachhead and will delay to secure a supply route. It is the same reason why the Japanese army, which won Asan and Seonghwan in the year of Gap-o, did not move from Hanseong for nearly two months and stayed in the Hanseongbu area.”

“Can you guarantee that you will act the same way as before?”

“If they don’t move like that, it will become impossible to wage war. They will have no choice but to stop for a while after taking control of Hanseongbu.”

In order to secure the supply route and at the same time take control of the railroad and telegraph facilities, it would have to stop. And it was expected that it would take about two months to conquer the entire southern region and move the main force north to reach Pyongyang.

“During that time, we will divide the army into two. The northwest will conduct a delaying operation while buying as much time as possible, while the remaining army will prepare for defense in the northeast. If we buy as much time as possible, we can buy about a month, or if we are a little more optimistic, about a month and a half.”

“Just a month?”

“It’s been a whole month.”

In response to Min Yeong-hwan’s question, I corrected it again.

It would have been fortunate if they could hold out for a month against the Japanese army, a field army trained to deal with the Russian army at that.

“Isn’t that too pessimistic? We have made tremendous progress since the last Emperor’s reign.”

“And they have also evolved. It’s not just us who have evolved.”

As the Red Queen’s hypothesis goes, while we were advancing diligently, Japan was also running without rest. They already had three to four times as many field troops as we did, and even on a full-scale basis, they had more than twice as many ground forces, making them the strongest military force in Asia. Their navy was not even comparable.

“While we are blocking the advance of the Japanese army in the northwest, we must supplement the insufficient manpower in the northeast by fortifying and mobilizing key areas. The time given to our army in the northeast is about three months, so we must prepare everything we can during that time.”

“In the end, if your strategy is followed, our army in the northwest will inevitably be annihilated.”

“There is no way for now. If we lead all our forces to the northeast, the Japanese will certainly intercept us without giving us time to prepare. We must disperse their forces as much as possible. This will buy time not only for the northeast but also for the Russian forces in Manchuria.”

And this was to be the darkest hour.

In the end, we couldn’t stop Japan on our own. Even if we prepared and resisted as best we could, we had to be satisfied with holding them back for about a month.