Joseon Needs a Coup - Chapter 181



Only Noblemtl

#181. The Road to War (1)

“Hey you guys! Do you think we’re divided and why are you acting like this?!”

“I know who you are, you traitorous bastards! Arrest them all!”

While fleeing to the embassy, ​​the exiles that Yi Wan-yong had abandoned were captured by those who had pursued them.

Lee Wan-yong ran away with them, but when the pursuers came chasing him much faster, he ran away without looking back, leaving them all behind. They had no choice but to escape through the alleys, but they were unable to shake off the pursuit.

These people were initially sent as a priority to form a national cabinet and take control of the military before Hasegawa’s Korean garrison arrived, and as such, they were listed as the top priority targets for elimination. This was especially true for Lee Du-hwang, Woo Beom-seon, and An Gyeong-su.

The soldiers beat them with clubs and clubs and could not calm them down, and they were barely able to be transferred after the arrival of uniforms without rank insignia. Of course, the journey there was not smooth.

They were dragged into the records investigation room of the headquarters, where screams and shouts were heard, and each was taken to a different interrogation room. They were forced to face the humiliating sight of themselves as ‘something less than human’, without even a single piece of underwear left on them.

Immediately after the coup, their lives became less precious than the lives of flies, and the unranked soldiers sitting in front of them began to beat them mercilessly with wet towels, without asking questions or investigating, and while shouting at them.

“Isn’t that… a bit too cruel?”

“Oh my, who or where was the person who told me that you had to beat someone like that so that there would be no marks on their body?”

I looked at those who were dragged into the interrogation room with their arms crossed.

It was a bit strange to see the harsh interrogation in person, which I had only seen on video media, but Jo Dong-yoon was giving orders to his subordinates one by one, telling them to control the tempo without even blinking.

“Former Minister of the Armed Forces Ahn Gyeong-su will speak soon.”

“It’s the weakest link.”

“It would be difficult to expect anything from Lee Doo-hwang or Woo Beom-seon, but An Gyeong-su, who is already exhausted and has been requesting contact with us to ask for forgiveness, would likely provide some very important information.”

He trimmed his beard, nodding.

“Hey, you punk! Traitors like you should just be burned in the crematorium over there and the ashes should be scattered all over the place!”

“It seems like you don’t know the difference between right and wrong because you ate some food in the army when you were young, but the world changed a long time ago! You traitors and scoundrels, even if His Majesty the Emperor kills you, you won’t be punished!”

Those were some pretty scary words. To the point where I couldn’t help but feel nervous.

“How can a gentleman who led troops on the front lines be so concerned about something like this?”

“It’s scarier here than on the battlefield.”

I spoke with honest feelings, but Jo Dong-yoon laughed heartily because he thought I was joking.

In any case, Cho Dong-yoon’s strategy was simple. While conducting harsh interrogations, those who played the role of ‘bad cops’ would apply psychological and physical pressure, while the ‘good cops’ would appear at crucial moments to extract confessions.

“Well, it’s not like you can just beat up sinners and they’ll start singing smoothly.”

“I thought you liked that kind of thing.”

“Oh, I’m just using you as a means to get information, Chief of Military Affairs. If you beat someone up, that’s the human mind. They’ll try to avoid the immediate crisis by saying things that the person they’re beating up will like to hear.”

Then, the information they need to obtain will be transmitted in a contaminated or distorted form.

If that were to happen, it would mean that the original purpose would be completely misinterpreted.

So, his method was to get proper information only by beating them up a little and offering them carrots to coax them.

“Still, in order to show that we are a civilized nation, we need to bring them to trial and prove that they were instigated by Japan, so we need to expose them to the media soon.”

“So you try not to hit me as much as possible···?”

“Well, that’s true.”

It seems that Jo Dong-yoon has studied human psychology and found ways to obtain information in his own way.

“Well, don’t worry, we’ll get to work soon, so let’s go to Gyeongbokgung Palace. Those guys will be able to talk smoothly now.”

“···Please handle it appropriately. I’ll take care of it now.”

Since it was a sight I didn’t want to see anymore, I immediately headed back to Gyeongbokgung Palace. Well, I thought that if it was Jo Dong-yoon, he would deal with them appropriately.

Leaving the screams behind, I walked towards where the Emperor, his cabinet ministers, and the members of the Privy Council were waiting.

***

Immediately after the coup d’état, which took place without a single gunshot being fired, all cabinet ministers and members of the Privy Council gathered at Gyeongbokgung Palace, not Gyeongungung Palace.

They were having a serious conversation about what had happened the night before.

Some people said that the Japanese army had staged a coup like the previous year, taken the emperor prisoner, and would soon declare war on Russia, while others had already heard a false rumor somewhere that the emperor had abandoned Seoul and fled somewhere.

As soon as they entered the palace, they started asking me questions, mainly about what we should do next and what would happen next.

The Emperor remained silent and kept his position, waiting for the members of the Privy Council and the ministers to speak out on the lips of the main culprits of the coup that had taken place the night before.

I needed to say something to the soldiers inspecting the palace and to the reporters who were gathered around with pens and brushes even in these difficult times to cover the story.

What those who are anxious about the current situation need is a strong zeitgeist that can unite them.

As they looked at each other, wondering who could tell the story that would lead them, I willingly stepped forward.

If we must lead them into an inevitable war, we must let them go forward on their own.

“Last night, our army stepped forward and suppressed the evildoers who dared to shake His Majesty the Emperor and the foundation of this country. Of course, it can be said that behind this, there were dark attempts by the Japanese embassy and even the Japanese Empire.”

“Can you prove it? Didn’t you even start a coup last year?”

Someone shouted at me. Perhaps one of those who had been on guard against this coup.

“This will soon be proven. It was an urgent situation that could not be suppressed without mobilizing the military, so I had no choice but to receive His Majesty’s approval and deploy troops.”

“Not for personal reasons?”

“General, state your purpose!”

A flood of doubts and suspicions poured in on me.

I cleared my mind, cleared my throat, and stepped up to the podium.

The emperor, who had been expressionless at my actions, the ministers of the cabinet, the members of the Privy Council, and the reporters who had rushed to cover this all looked at me.

“Your Majesty the Emperor, the King of Korea, and the revered Ministers of the Korean Empire, the brave soldiers of the Marshal’s Office and the Military, and the members of the Privy Council! The reason I stand here today is because this country, the royal shrine and the royal family, are in the greatest danger since King Taejo founded this country and went through the wars of Imjin and Byeongja.”

A lot of thoughts crossed my mind. It wasn’t easy to give an impromptu speech, but I was really worried about what I had to do to unify their thoughts in this situation.

Perhaps I had to come up with a speech that would take countless scholars days and days to come up with, but I had to do it willingly if that was necessary.

“The threat is that we stand at a crossroads where we could lose our sacred and irreplaceable independence. In other words, we could face a future where we will groan under the rule of the Japanese Empire.”

No one wants war, and even hands need to clap to make a sound, but this time it was different. They were trying to achieve their intentions by forcing us to raise our hands when we refused to clap our hands.

Perhaps they have gained confidence after seeing thousands of silent eyes and mouths.

“Since the year of Gap-o last year, the Japanese Empire has dreamed of becoming the hegemon of Asia, and starting with the Qing Dynasty, they have been plotting to annex even our Korean Empire and force it to submit to their common prosperity sphere. What happened yesterday was also the result of such evil plans by the Japanese Empire.”

I presented them with a clear enemy. For those who had already prepared themselves mentally, it might not have been a shock, but each individual must have been engulfed in fear and a sense of inexplicable hatred that what they had been waiting for had finally arrived.

“They have attempted to intimidate His Majesty the Emperor under the pretext of promoting peace in Asia by putting forward the traitors who have committed crimes against His Majesty the Emperor and our Great Korea since the years of Gapshin, Gap-o, and Eul-mi, and have dissolved the present cabinet and the Privy Council and established a puppet cabinet, thereby installing traitors among us. Can we stand by and watch their guns and flags being planted in our palace, in our city, in this country where our parents and children will live?”

Then the members of the Privy Council shouted “No!” in unison. They were already half excited and waved their hats in response to me. The staff of the Marshal’s Office were the same.

“In the name of our ancestors, in front of our forefathers, in front of those who bravely fought to protect our country and fell and were buried in this land, I dare say that such an ending is absolutely unacceptable.”

I had already encountered such an ending in the world I lived in. The entire Korean peninsula fell into the hands of Japan, and countless people lost their lives in the struggle to regain their lost national sovereignty or to find their rightful rights. Of course, I had no reason to repeat such history here.

“Some may say, ‘Why should we get involved in the private war between Russia and Japan?’ But their war is not private. It is a crisis that we cannot avoid by just covering ourselves with our blankets and burying our heads like pheasants. The Japanese said this about the last war: ‘We fought the Qing war to liberate Korea.’ Was that really true? Honorable members of the Cabinet and the Privy Council, did they really tell the truth?”

This time, the hardliners in the cabinet responded to me. They took off their bicorne hats and waved them around, shouting, “No!”

I had to wait for a while for their response to finish.

Because the hardliners were shouting “Manse!” and calling for war.

They set the mood, and in an instant, a heightened excitement engulfed everyone.

They clearly expressed their agitated emotions by repeatedly chanting slogans such as, “The Korean Empire is great!” and “Long live the Korean Empire!”