Joseon Needs a Coup - Chapter 393



Only Noblemtl

#Part 2 Episode 3. Butterfly’s Wings (3)

“There must have been a reason you’ve been guarding the throne for so long… … .”

“That is despite numerous coups, rebellions, and wars.”

Captain Cho Dong-yoon, sitting across from me, was smoking a cigarette and mumbling. As the cigarette ash and butts piled up in the ashtray, it seemed as if my heart was burning black.

The cross-check of the domestic ‘intelligence’ collected by the Records Bureau in Hansung and the ‘circumstances’ secretly reported by the Gyeongmu Office was completed as ‘information’ that informed the most senior member of Gyeongungung Palace of the current situation.

“In the end, it is something that cannot be delayed any longer, whether it was started at Gyeongungung Palace or Seokjojeon. It is something that cannot be delayed any longer by simply expressing opposition to participation in the war.”

At this time, Russia was also acting in a way that was not helpful. It needed to fill the shortage of military supplies, but it focused on purchasing supplies from Japan, which had joined the negotiations earlier, rather than from us, which had declared neutrality.

In particular, this was related to the fact that the volume of trade itself had increased significantly along with the volume of arms trade, and because of this, concerns that we would begin to fall behind Japan in trade with Russia soon spread throughout the country.

The Ministry of Agriculture, Commerce and Industry even went so far as to announce that there were no significant changes in statistics and that there would be no problems even if we adopted neutrality in trade with Russia.

However, the Privy Council, which consisted of northern businessmen and capitalists and large landowners who still wielded great power in the three southern provinces even after the ambitious land reforms carried out by the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Agriculture, Commerce and Industry, was very sensitive to even the smallest rumor or concern.

“I can’t hold out for long either. Things are getting worse because His Majesty the Emperor is influencing public opinion. The Privy Council is playing along with His Majesty’s intentions.”

“This is really crazy. Since when have you been so fond of the Privy Council? Wasn’t it only recently that you were angry at them for being a den of traitors who dream of a republic?”

“That was true when His Majesty’s men were absent, but not now. The Independence Association members have resigned or been dismissed for various reasons, and the Privy Council has now been reorganized around the Imperial Association members.”

In 1915, the Entente and Central Powers demanded that we clarify our position. The Entente Powers demanded that we make a full-scale declaration of war and a decision to send troops, while the Central Powers demanded that we firmly guarantee our current neutrality.

And this situation was further complicated by the back-and-forth response from Gyeongungung Palace. Gyeongungung Palace’s movements were like riding a bicycle while drunk. Yesterday, it spoke kindly to the negotiating country, today it responded with a nuance that seemed to be what the ally wanted, and when the sun rose again and tomorrow came, under the pretext of strict neutrality, it again turned the opinions of both sides into nothing.

“It seems His Majesty is willing to sell us for quite a high price. He will act depending on which side offers a much better contract.”

“If you bring it wrong, it will be nothing more than a bad bill. It’s different when you go into the bathroom and when you come out.”

Now that everyone is in a hurry, they will take out a blank check and make big promises to do whatever we want. And when the war is over, they will shut their mouths as if nothing had happened.

And then the great powers with huge stakes in the victorious nation will savor the dismantling of the defeated nation and divide up the interests and territories among themselves, which are the most obvious.

Of course, the Emperor is probably completely unaware of what will happen next, and behind the scenes, he is enjoying the blank checks and sweet talk offered by both sides.

No, maybe the Emperor himself was going around issuing checks and poking people around.

In addition, secret telegrams had been frequently sent and received from Lushun and Dalian to Jemulpo and Hansung, and secret envoys had been frequently visiting Gyeongungung Palace, so these concerns were likely to have a high degree of reality.

“But not everyone in the world thinks like you, Chief of Operations. The continued media activity and Gyeongungung Palace’s actions are creating the impression among the public that we are afraid and unwilling to go to war. Even yesterday, the Minister of the Imperial Household openly said the same thing in front of the Independent Newspaper.”

The Minister of the Imperial Household Park Je-sun himself said something like this. He said that the fact that our army, nicknamed the Prussia of the East and the Grand Army of the East, was not being used where it should be used meant that they were terrified. In any case, it seemed that he was used to spewing out such unpleasant words.

… Perhaps the Emperor’s intentions were expressed through his mouth. Either way, it was enough to create a headache for me and the staff of the Marshal’s Office. Of course, when General Cho Dong-yoon warned that he would reveal his actions during the Far East War, he backed down and stopped.

“Don’t worry about what they say. After all, we should only move when we are fully prepared to participate in a war. This is a completely different expedition from the one we used to suppress the Boxer Rebellion. And when you consider the number of soldiers dying in Europe every day, you can’t possibly think that we can do anything there… … .”

I sighed deeply and said, In this hellish war, thousands, or even tens of thousands of soldiers were killed or sent away with lifelong disabilities or mental scars. As the local units based on villages and regions were destroyed, it was common for entire generations of the society they belonged to to disappear.

“It’s all the fault of those damned Yeonggilis and the Japanese. Aren’t they the ones who have been doing this and that and causing His Majesty the Emperor to swallow his empty hopes?!”

Chief Kim In-su, who was smoking a cigarette right next to him, let out a loud voice. As he said, the biggest reason why the Emperor, Gyeongungung Palace, and the press were bashing the cabinet and the Marshal’s Office all day long was because of this.

“… There was no reason for us to intervene to subdue Qingdao. If we had intervened, we would have had to bear the full brunt of the damage we suffered when subduing Zhang Zuolin.”

It must have been around the summer of last year. Britain, which had initially accepted Japan’s declaration of war against Germany with indifference, drew a line by stating that it did not necessarily have to intervene, saying that Asia did not need to get involved in European issues.

But this lukewarm response soon turned into the complete opposite, because of the presence of the German Oriental Fleet stationed in Gyo-choo Bay. Britain was very afraid that they would leave Gyo-choo Bay and attack Hong Kong, Shanghai, and other major ports of the Entente and engage in a war of destruction of trade.

Of course, it seemed that he was reminded of how much Japan had suffered from the destruction of trade during the previous Far Eastern War, and, going back a little further, of the impact that the destruction of trade carried out by the Confederate fleet during the American Civil War had on the entire world.

The demands were very specific. The British government ordered Japan to deploy its fleet to subdue the Allied fleet, while at the same time demanding that we deploy our land force to subdue Tsingtao. Japan complied, and prepared to deploy two fleets and ground forces capable of destroying the Allied forces in Tsingtao, under the pretext of returning Jiaozhou to China.

“I think we should have intervened then… … .”

“If we had intervened in the Battle of Cheongdo, we could have achieved great feats. If we had, we could have broken His Majesty’s will.”

Still, some officers felt regretful about this. In particular, the officers from the Samnam region, who had relatively few achievements in the previous war, were more active than anyone else in intervening in this war.

Representative factions included the officer corps from Gwanbuk, Gwanseo, and Haeseo, who had played an active role in the regular warfare of the Far Eastern War, boasted brilliant achievements, and were evaluated as being skilled in modern warfare theory, and the officer corps from Yeongnam, Honam, and Giho, who had fought tenaciously while forming a second front and waging guerrilla warfare as the entire region fell into Japanese occupation in the early stages of the war.

I didn’t intend it, but at some point, factions were forming within the military. It was hard to predict what would happen next, but it was clear that it wouldn’t be a good thing. While I was pondering for a moment, the generals from the north opened their mouths to refute this.

“What on earth are you talking about? If we had intervened in the Cheongdo conquest, all of our soldiers would have become cannon fodder under the Japanese leadership. Furthermore, with the Jangjakrim suppression only two to four months ago, our troops would have suffered unwanted casualties without even reorganizing.”

“Furthermore, the troops Japan requested were two ground divisions. The Guards Cavalry Division and the 5th Division were both undergoing reorganization, so if that number of troops had been called up again, it would have been a disaster for the Ministry of Finance.”

“More than anything, would His Majesty the Emperor have given up on organizing an expeditionary force to Goguryeo just because it was deployed to conquer Qingdao? Rather, even if you had gained experience and told us to deploy it to a more dangerous front, you would have stayed. From the beginning, there was no reason for us to go to Goguryeo, nor was there any justification for us to go!”

In general, the officers from the North held a rather negative stance on intervention in the current great war, perhaps because of their experience of the terrible battles, or perhaps because they were well-versed in the theory of modern warfare and thus had the trope that ‘modern warfare involves large-scale killing by firepower’.

“First of all, look at the tone of the letter that the Japanese cabinet sent us at that time. Was that a request for Korea and Japan to cooperate? They were just forcing us to follow along unconditionally, since they, with their strong naval power, would give the orders.”

The request for cooperation made in the name of the newly appointed Army General Terauchi, who replaced the fallen Prime Minister Saionji, was literally high-handed. They said that their fleet would go into operation, and that the fleet and ground forces would be dispatched and deployed according to their demands, which the Marshal’s Office and the Cabinet, which were still full of distrust and hatred toward them, could not possibly accept.

In particular, the Navy was furious, asking if they should bow down to the Japanese fleet and hand over operational control, and they were extremely wary of the move to push two fleets into the West Sea, suspecting the ulterior motives of Japan and Britain in demanding operations in the West Sea.

In fact, this sense of wariness reached its peak when the Japanese naval fleet, together with the British navy, advanced northward toward the Kyoju Bay area, inspecting neutral ships entering Jemulpo without consultation and detaining our ships heading from Shanghai to Jemulpo.

“I’m still reluctant to cooperate when I think about what those damn things did in the West Sea.”

The Navy responded immediately to this action. It gathered the entire fleet along the west coast, and even temporarily brought tension to the entire border. In response to this situation, the discussion of declaring a partial mobilization order equivalent to a general mobilization order was first discussed in the cabinet and the Privy Council, not in the Marshal’s Office, so you can guess how tense the situation was.

Fortunately, this standoff did not last long. The French and Russian ambassadors, concerned about the defection of the Korean government in the Far East, mediated between the two sides and resolved the issue by releasing the detained ships. However, the Navy was still dissatisfied with the fact that a foreign fleet, especially the Japanese Navy, which they were calling the primary enemy, was operating in their front yard.

The Army also drew the line because it was reorganizing its units shortly after the end of the war with Jangjakrim. In fact, this was also a practical reason. It was also honestly unbelievable that they would do something again at the moment when they were organizing and sending an expeditionary force. Of course, the possibility was low, but as long as the possibility still existed, it was impossible to let down one’s guard.

In the end, the cabinet and the Marshal’s Office, unable to resolve the situation that was entangled with various practical and emotional reasons, had no choice but to choose one option. We were not Alexander, and this problem was not of the nature to be solved by throwing a sword like the Gordian knot.

In this way, the cabinet and the Marshal’s Office maintained strict neutrality and quietly watched the place fall.