Joseon Needs a Coup - Chapter 395



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#Part 2 Episode 5. Butterfly’s Wings (5)

Meanwhile, the German army, relieved, immediately transferred most of its troops assigned to the Eastern Front to the Western Front, and was growling that it would soon capture Paris and annihilate the handful of Belgian troops and the British Expeditionary Force fighting desperately at Ypres.

Had Joffre, Foch, and Pétain not been the defenders of France, or had Albert I of Belgium not shown tearful devotion and joined the Allies in stopping the Germans, a terrible military disaster might have befallen the Western Front.

Perhaps the French army would have collapsed much faster at the Marne and given up Paris. But they never gave up. They somehow managed to gather the defeated troops. In particular, Foch, based on the lessons he had learned in the previous Far East War and throughout the Korean Peninsula, used the 20th Army Corps, which he had trained, as the main force to block the German army’s persistent offensive.

With the Miracle on the Dry River, the Entente had a brief moment of relief, but it was undeniable that they were still inferior to the German war machine. No, it was more like a suspended sentence.

“The French government asked us to make a choice before it was too late. They said that millions of people had already died, and millions more were sure to die, and that the war machine had to be stopped at all costs.”

“You can’t put out a fire in a field with a cup of water.”

The French had managed to hold off the Germans along the Marne and along the northern front, but now, with reinforcements from the Eastern Front beginning to arrive in large numbers, cries of war were rising across the front as further offensives were predicted.

“I guess this meeting will end up deciding something one way or another, yes.”

“That’s why we have to convince the members of the Privy Council even more than before. No matter what.”

“If the cabinet, the Marshal’s Office, and even some members of the Privy Council are opposed to the declaration of war, it will be difficult for even His Majesty the Emperor to do as he pleases.”

“Then, the head office here asks everyone here. Which of you will tie a bell around the cat’s neck?”

Prime Minister Kim Ga-jin, who had been sitting silently at the head of the table, suddenly opened his mouth. Perhaps because he had not spoken for a long time, his voice sounded slightly hoarse and dissonant, but everyone was paying attention to the topic he had raised, so it was passed over.

“His Majesty the Emperor’s intentions and the public opinion created by them cover the entire 13 provinces. Countless eyes, ears, and mouths are turned toward the distant west. In such a situation, who would dare to put a bell around the cat’s neck?”

“Ahem… … .”

Even the cabinet members who had joined in opposing the war were unable to speak out in the face of the reality the emperor had created. Even the experienced cabinet members and ministers, who had lived through turbulent times, could not stand the emperor’s burning desire and will for power.

If we look at how the emperor, who was cornered after Gyeongbokgung Palace was occupied, managed to dismantle and collapse the pro-Japanese cabinet that held military power and real power, we can understand. He was a very experienced man when it came to power, and at the same time, he was a politician who knew how to use the support of the public and his status as a victorious monarch.

The cabinet, the Marshal’s Office, and the Imperial Family were interlocked to build a check and balance structure, but he was never satisfied with it. Perhaps the issue of participating in this war could be seen as a mere maneuver to complete the political structure that the Emperor himself had in mind. Thanks to some ministers and the media who flattered him, his power gradually grew stronger.

“If someone in the middle of nowhere says one wrong thing about the current situation, the problem will explode before we can even figure it out. The cabinet might even be overturned.”

“Come to think of it, Minister of the Imperial Household Park Je-sun is eyeing the position of Prime Minister. Perhaps even this could be in line with His Majesty’s intentions.”

Kim Ga-jin nodded slowly while drinking a glass of water. As he said, the emperor chose the best of the choices he could make, and while the cabinet was leading the state affairs between chaos and joy in many ways, and the Marshal’s Office was preoccupied with the newly acquired territory, he took advantage of this gap to exert his own power.

“Yes, that’s the problem. We all looked down on Your Majesty.”

In the end, only a limited number of people could confidently come forward on this issue. Someone who was completely oblivious to the game the emperor had laid out, had a symbolic value to the public that was no less than that of the imperial family that had contributed to the victory, and had a foundation that would never be shaken by external pressure.

And for a moment, I could see that everyone’s eyes were focused on where I was sitting.

“…Should the main office step forward?”

“Then who else is here besides you?”

It felt like I was taking on the role of group leader in a group project. That’s why I desperately tried to avoid the role of putting a bell on the cat’s neck. However, as if he had already decided from the beginning, Prime Minister Kim Ga-jin suggested my role and made me have no choice but to follow it.

Between the eyes that were instantly drawn to me, the words of the ministers who said they would only trust me, and the anxious expressions of the army and navy ministers, I had a feeling that something was going wrong. However, I could not help but step forward. As they said, no one but me had the courage or roots to stand up to the emperor and the press.

“Okay, if I have to step forward, then I will. But please know one thing for sure. I am not the sword that cut the Gordian Knot. That means I cannot control and solve all the problems.”

“Don’t worry too much, many ministers will fill in what you lack.”

… I didn’t really have any faith, but there was no need to show my distrust on my face. In any case, I had to work with them to block the Emperor’s declaration of war and his intention to join the war.

“Please meet His Majesty the Emperor first and convey the intentions of the Cabinet and the Marshal’s Office. If he hears our position, he may change his mind.”

“There is a more important pre-arrangement.”

“Is there anything more important than meeting His Majesty?”

“Yes. Perhaps it could destroy one of the most important pillars supporting His Majesty the Emperor’s public opinion… … .”

I said this while stubbing out my half-smoked cigarette in the ashtray. My father-in-law had suggested that we have dinner together as a family for the first time in a long while. Recently, public opinion on going to war has been rapidly spreading among businessmen and capitalists, so I figured I could talk to my father-in-law and try to quell it.

“I think things are sorted out to this extent, so let’s wrap up our meeting for today. I’ll see you all tomorrow.”

After ordering the adjutant next to me to prepare the car, I waved my hand and left the conference room filled with acrid cigarette smoke. It seemed like there were some difficult things ahead, but I had no choice but to take a firm stance once again.

‘Unless Gyeongungung brings in an unexpected variable, we can continue to buy time since the cabinet and the Prime Minister’s Office have considerable public opinion against the change.’

With this thought in mind, I closed my eyes for a moment in the moving car, not feeling the slight but definite fluttering of a butterfly’s wings that could change the fate of the entire country.

***

“Your Majesty… Our army continues to suffer defeats on many fronts. Without new reinforcements… Perhaps we will have to seriously consider a peace treaty.”

In the court of St. Petersburg, an atmosphere as cold as the frozen earth surrounded the Tsar and his ministers. After the Battle of Tannenberg, the Russian Imperial Army suffered successive defeats against the Germans. Up to this point, it was understandable.

They were war-weary, and even the elite French Republican army, which had been determined to avenge the humiliation of 1871, had to settle for a 0.8:1 exchange rate. It was extremely difficult to deal with their army, which could be called Attila’s whip.

“What are our troops in Przemysl doing? Are they still unable to push back those damn Austrians?!”

Still, it was not without hope. After the initial fighting, the Russians steadily pushed back the Austro-Hungarians on the Carpathian front, and finally succeeded in squeezing them to the most important area, Przemysl.

And now, if only they could destroy the Kaiser’s army of 120,000 men here, they might be able to deliver the most fatal blow. But this was only a wishful thinking. The Russian army, which had been thought to be superior to the Habsburgs in overall strength, was struggling against an unexpectedly strong counterattack.

The shock troops used by Gripenberg, which was called the “Tsar’s Hammer” in the Far East War, appeared in the Habsburg ground forces. A fierce and bloody battle took place on all sides, and in the end, the Russian army, which had accumulated great casualties, could only watch the retreat of the defenders of Przemysl.

Voroshilov cried out that whatever happened, he must squeeze out the remaining forces and cut off their retreat, but it was no use. With Warsaw already taken and Lublin under German pressure, all the Russians could do was occupy the empty Przemysl and preserve as much of their strength as possible.

The French ambassador was so surprised by this retreat that he even went so far as to meet the Tsar without an appointment. Of course, in order to reassure the French ambassador, the Tsar reminded him of the retreat of 1812 and said that he would draw the Allied forces in as far as possible and repel them, but now that I think about it, it was uncertain whether this would work.

“Your Majesty, the German Imperial Army, together with the Habsburg army and Polish volunteers, is preparing for a large-scale battle to capture Warsaw and retake Przemysl.”

The new Minister of War, Alexei Polivanov, reported the current situation to the Tsar in a trembling voice. The battlefield he had witnessed was the worst. The battlefield that his predecessor, the Minister of War, Sukhomlinov, had tried to ignore was now growing like a snowball and beginning to engulf them.

“In Galicia alone, our Russian Imperial Army has lost 300,000 men. We are now woefully short of troops to stop the Germans who will attempt to attack from the Carpathians and Warsaw.”

“… Is there no way to make up for the 300,000 losses on the southwestern front?”

Foreign Minister Sazanov asked with a puzzled expression. The previous Minister of War, Sukhomlinov, had boasted to the Russian cabinet and the imperial family right before the war. If a full-scale war broke out in Europe, the Russian Empire would be able to completely crush the Habsburgs and other Germanic bastards with a wave of boots, with a mobilized army of 4.5 million men and an annual replenishment of 700,000 men.

And he believed that by doing so, Russia would be able to continue to maintain its hegemony in Europe. He was confident that, compared to the crude situation in which the combined Russian-Korean Empire forces, which had mobilized 600,000 troops in the Far East, had achieved results against the Japanese, they would now be able to wage a very luxurious war.

At the annual meeting in January 1915, he had dismissed the supply problems within the Russian Imperial Army as a mere concern. And now, in May 1915, the problem he was facing here was one that he could not possibly overcome on his own.

“We can gather people if we just hit them, Foreign Minister. But the problem is ammunition and weapons.”