Chapter 31
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Translator: Ace
Chapter: 031
Chapter Title: Invasion of Joseon (2)
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The reunion with my brother didn't last long.
"How about being my adjutant? It won't even be dangerous."
"Fuck off, you bastard."
No, why curse when I'm saying I won't let you die? Stick right by me, the diplomat, and you'll never have to worry about dying.
But my brother responded to my earnest proposal with fists and violence. To think a man could turn this savage right after becoming a soldier. The 19th-century military really is hell on both body and soul.
So I brought up the next item on my agenda.
"Can't you just get out of the army?"
"What?"
"It's dangerous. Before you die, just discharge and do business with me— Aaaah! Owww! Kraaagh!"
"You really trying to die today or what?"
No, hear me out. I don't know when exactly, but the Sepoy Mutiny will erupt in India, and the East India Company is slated to shut down. Their stock is headed for delisting—why bet your life on that sinking ship?
But if I spilled that now, I'd lose my diplomatic post in a heartbeat and end up in some frigid London asylum.
"I've got a killer business idea, you know?"
"Ha... What is it? Let's hear it."
"Not yet. I'll tell you when you get back after this is all over."
"Fine. I'll wrap up my tour of duty and come back, so you keep that pen busy. And stop doing weird shit!"
Huh. Dismissing my desperate efforts to support the family like this. Maybe I should commit treason after all.
After my brother returned to his unit, I immediately summoned Wangpal to check if he could guide us through the Joseon waterways, promising him a cut of the British army's supply contracts in return. We had plenty to distribute anyway to win over the locals, so chartering a ship was necessary regardless.
What was left after that?
Only military action.
Right before the British invasion.
"Zeuunha!!!"
"Please understand!!"
Anyone with even a shred of insight into the state of affairs knew the British were about to invade.
But Joseon's court descended into chaos once again over how to respond.
No matter how much King Heonjong chafed under the Andong Kim Clan's thumb, he had no intention of handing over military command so easily.
As Heonjong dithered, Sungkyunkwan scholars acting on orders from the Andong Kim Clan, along with hundreds of their lackey yangban, crawled to the palace gates and wailed in unison.
"Those scoundrels of the Pungyang Jo Clan once clamored for envoys to be expelled and severed the heads of monks and heretics, but when the British barbarians threaten invasion, they tuck tail and beg for peace."
"What of Lord Haok's demeanor by contrast? Despite personal ties to the insidious British barbarians, he has firmly raised the banner of expelling the foreigners to save the nation, casting aside private connections. Truly akin to the spirit of Chungmugong Yi Sun-sin."
"Your Highness must employ Yi Sun-sin and keep villains like Won Gyun at bay! Appoint Kim Ja-geun at once to prepare for the crisis!"
"The future of this nation—Sungkyunkwan scholars—have become the Kim Clan's dogs. Who even knows who's king anymore!"
Kim Ja-geun had openly gathered thugs and slaves to swell his ranks, and no one knew what he'd do if crossed.
"Appoint Kim Heung-geun as Inspector General and Kim Ja-geun as Supreme Commander to repel the barbarians."
They prostrated themselves in thanks.
Crying emergency, the Andong Kim Clan halted all state affairs and seized power equivalent to the king's.
"Devote every effort to defending Ganghwa Island, Yeongjong Island, and Jemulpo to blunt the Westerners' spearhead, then hold Hanyang with grim determination."
Ganghwa Island.
When northern horsemen—the Joseon dynasty's perennial foes—invaded, Ganghwa always served as a refuge. Their weak naval power meant they couldn't even take the island right off the Gyeonggi coast.
But the new Western powers targeting Joseon came by sea, charging straight at the peninsula.
Ganghwa was no longer a royal bolt-hole; it had become the frontline stronghold.
Joseon wasn't blind to this.
But knowing changed nothing.
Mid-September 1851.
"M-My lord! My lord!!"
"What is it?"
"Smoke on the sea! It's foreign ships!"
"The fiends truly mean to invade! Prepare the cannons at once!"
"Th-That is, sir..."
"What?"
"The smoke... it's not just one."
The smoke on the horizon.
Multiplied one by one, two by two.
Jet-black hulls utterly unlike Joseon's ships.
Vastly larger than Joseon's vessels, with far more sails.
Paddles churning like watermills, thick black smoke belching from stacks.
The British Empire's fleet had finally appeared off Joseon's shores.
"Suppress every outpost and fort we spot on the advance north."
The order was concise and ironclad.
And the British Empire's cannons were the finest instruments of violence the era could muster to carry it out.
Thunderous salvos echoed as if the heavens themselves flipped.
Yeongjong Island—the gateway to Ganghwa—ate the first barrage.
"Main force presses on!"
"Landing! Commence landing!"
"We don't even need the ground pounders. Marines! Prepare to land!!"
Yeongjongjin failed even to slow the enemy.
The British had scouted its garrison at under a hundred men. They assigned a few warships and marines to take it, then steamed straight for Ganghwa.
The few shots from Yeongjongjin didn't come close to the distant British ships, but British shells rained on the sparse Joseon artillery first, pounding them to scrap.
Yeongjongjin crumbled in no time.
Its commander, the Yeongjong Vice Magistrate, tried to resist, but after an hour of naval bombardment, his few dozen troops' morale shattered before their bodies. Conscripted soldiers clutched their heads and fled.
Even after Yeongjongjin fell, the Joseon forces mounted no meaningful resistance.
Chojijin burned, Deokjinjin fell, Gwangseongbo collapsed, and even Ganghwasanseong shattered under British shells in one go.
Yet the British could raze forts and stockades, but they couldn't slaughter Joseon troops.
"Uwaaaah!!"
"Run!!"
Because there were no Joseon troops on Ganghwa to begin with.
Joseon's defenses had only been shored up somewhat after Heungseon Daewongun's bloody purge of the aristocratic factions and restoration of order.
And this was the height of that very aristocratic rule, burning hottest.
Joseon had no army.
"Armies" were just excuses to squeeze military taxes—no proper force even in Hanyang. An actual army on Ganghwa would be the surprise. Why bother judging ranks? Tax the privates and skeletons alike—why waste effort on selling commissions?
The apocalyptic barrages shattered even the resolve of those few still willing to defend the realm.
Ganghwa Magistrate and officials fled the island on rowboats before British ships could seal the strait.
"Army, commence landing!"
After surveying their handiwork, the British army main force disembarked and hit the beach.
An army that triumphed in Afghanistan's nightmare hills.
An army that bested Sikh fanatics fighting like demons for their faith.
An army that subdued the savage Maoris and Burmese jungle guerrillas.
The British army set foot on Joseon soil.
Without firing a shot.
Ganghwa—the gateway to Joseon—fell wholesale into British hands.
"Sink without warning any vessel passing this area without our permission."
"Leave not a single rowboat or raft. Seal it perfectly!"
The Royal Navy blockaded the Han River.
Hanyang's lifeline was choked.
"Everyone, please calm down! We have not come to harm the people of Joseon!"
Winning local hearts and minds.
For Arthur Leigh's grand plan to drain Joseon elegantly rather than brute-force exploit it, there was zero reason to rile the populace.
And nothing wins converts like gifts.
I showered Ganghwa's residents with the presents I'd prepared in advance.
"What... is all this?"
"Rice!"
Innumerable provisions seized from southern China. Traded for bullets from the Qing anyway—no great loss.
"You folks carry on with your livelihoods! The British Empire's forces have come for friendship with Joseon and not at all to conquer this land. In the spirit of goodwill, we offer you this rice and beans—one person per household, come receive your share!"
"They're giving us rice?"
"Oh my goodness. Thank you. Thank you!"
Resistance? With British troops bulging-eyed and rifles ready? Not a chance.
After scrambling the grassroots sentiment with indiscriminate handouts, I urged the British army to hoist flags we'd prepped in China.
Emblazoned with four bold characters.
"For decades, the Andong Kim Clan's aristocratic tyrants have plunged Joseon into misery! His Majesty the King dreams of amity with our British Empire, but the villain Kim Ja-geun—fiend rivaling Dong Zhuo and Wang Mang—strangles His Majesty and schemes to sell the nation to the Qing. Thus, our British Empire has come at last to rescue him!"
If rice sacks targeted Joseon's vast peasant majority, these proclamations aimed to shake the yangban and mid-level officials.
Even in rustic Ganghwa, few hadn't heard that name from the histories. Day after day, I met local scholars and retired officials, passionately defending our cause.
"The moment our British forces arrived, the Ganghwa Magistrate and every last rice-eater fled! They bought their posts with coin—too craven to die for country, they bolted for their own skins! Is this a nation?"
"Hmph. They bought ranks from the Kim Clan with cartloads of bribes—no roots worth speaking of."
"Our British army doesn't know Joseon's customs well. Couldn't you gentlemen of insight and experience here on Ganghwa temporarily look after the people?"
"Well, that's..."
"If we don't manage the harvest, it'll be disaster. But harvest we must, right? With the government's gone impotent, what's to stop brigands looting?"
The yangban initially balked at administering the occupied zone.
But after our repeated pleas and sly jabs like "You with Kim Ja-geun, eh?", they relented and half-heartedly joined the interim administration. We had no intent to govern anyway—as long as it limped along.
Next, I lined up new jobs for the locals.
"What's... this?"
"Silver taels."
Practically a reserve currency for trade across the Orient.
The British army spared no expense for war, and war wasn't soldiers' work alone.
Porters unloading supplies.
Grooms tending warhorses and fodder.
Ferrymen poling skiffs.
Couriers posting occupation notices everywhere, warehouse guards, even personal servants for troops and officers.
Labor demand was sky-high, and we offered silver the likes of which these commoners had never dreamed.
And mingling with Brits yielded more than coin.
"This is wine. Europeans hold it as dear as you do soju or cheongju for ancestral rites."
"This glass bottle is remarkable."
"Ah, and this is canned goods. Twist off the tin lid and—"
"Edible?"
"Keeps for years."
Thousands of Westerners, laden with the full sum of European civilization.
Ganghwa's Joseon folk encountered it first and reeled in culture shock.
While they flailed,
Hanyang's prices rocketed like Nvidia stock.