Chapter 71
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Translator: Ace
Chapter: 071
Chapter Title: Sinophile Arthur Leigh (2)
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1854.
The heart of the British Empire, London, was running at a breathless pace.
"War funds! We need war funds urgently!"
"Where's our fleet positioned?"
"How far have those frog-eaters advanced?"
The war between Russia and the Ottoman Turks that had broken out the previous year.
United by a quintessentially European mindset to curb Russian expansion and protect their commercial interests, Britain and France had joined on the side of the Turks and declared war on Russia.
The Crimean War had begun.
And now, to confront the vast Eurasian giant Russia, they had no choice but to prepare a strategy spanning the entire globe.
"Russia bullied the Qing into ceding the Primorsky region at the edge of the Pacific."
"Russia has always coveted an ice-free port. Their next targets are sure to be Joseon and Japan."
"If the Russians seduce ignorant Japan into cooperating with them, it would be a diplomatic disaster! We must ensure Japan sides with us!"
"There's no doubt the Russian Far East Fleet will target our trade routes and wage commerce raiding operations. We need to destroy the Russian fleet first."
"Joseon has received great aid from us, so now it's time to pay the piper. Let's have the Joseon forces attack Primorsky."
Explanations of why the Crimean War started and what's happening on the main battlefield in the Crimean Peninsula will be omitted.
The key point is that the Far East had suddenly become a theater of war as well.
The British Parliament and Cabinet swiftly reached a consensus.
"Japan recently signed a trade treaty with Joseon."
"We can't hesitate any longer. We need to remind the Japanese that failing to sign a trade treaty with us will lead to unfortunate consequences."
Seal a trade treaty with Japan—even resorting to gunboat diplomacy if necessary.
Once gunboat diplomacy succeeds, the fleet would move straight to its next mission: annihilating the Russian fleet.
They would also seize Russian settlements in Kamchatka, Sakhalin, and Primorsky if time allowed.
And on top of that,
a new agenda item had arisen.
"Joseon sepoys?"
"Arthur Leigh warned of a massive rebellion brewing in India and proposed forming new sepoy units from the atheistic Joseon natives."
"If we're aiming to strike Primorsky, Joseon sepoys don't seem like a bad choice at all..."
Money wasn't a big issue when considering the dirt-cheap labor costs of Joseon men. If funds were tight, they could forgive some of the loans the Joseon government owed.
Rather, the East India Company had complaints about something else entirely.
"Is the Burma conquest postponed again?"
"Burma may be a weak nation, but it holds substantial interests. With a single shot, we could seize their vast jade mining regions!"
Burma, which would later be known as Myanmar.
Burma produced the world's finest jade, coveted so much by the Chinese that they waged repeated wars for it.
Securing Burma would resolve the East India Company's financial woes and the trade deficits with China!
"Let's quietly form new Joseon sepoy units and deploy them to the Primorsky front, while sending the Indian sepoys to conquer Burma."
"We're at war with Russia, and now you want war with Burma too? Are you sane?"
"Opium Wars were fine because we were selling dope, but securing Burmese jade mines is too much? Where's your shame?"
"I firmly opposed those wars!"
Gladstone, now entrenched as Chancellor of the Exchequer in the Cabinet, felt a migraine coming on.
No one shied away from confronting Russia.
But Gladstone, who believed lasting peace could come through dialogue and compromise, was exasperated by how thorny issues like religion escalated into full-blown wars.
"Dispatching 25,000 men to the front requires an immediate additional 1.25 million pounds. Moreover, this year's budget will run a 3 million pound deficit."
"So you're saying we need to borrow another 1.25 million plus 3 million pounds?"
"No! The 1.25 million is needed right now! To wage war, we'll need another 7 million pounds!"
War doesn't pay.
Performing his duties as Chancellor only solidified Gladstone's anti-war convictions.
"Our British voters have this habit of believing that victory in war will enrich them through the spoils. But look at these enormous war costs—even if Her Majesty's brave soldiers fight valiantly, wars that yield profits enough to cover such sums are exceedingly rare."
"That's true, but..."
"If the Lord truly desired His creations to war, it wouldn't be so agonizing and expensive. These war funds are His way of chastising the ambition and lust for conquest boiling in our hearts. We must clearly show our voters how war robs them of their wealth, forcing them to think twice before cheering for it!"
His solution was simple.
Raise taxes.
Hike income tax, and slap levies on alcohol and sugar too.
"If you love war so much, then gladly pay the higher taxes too."
"Minister, people are grumbling that you're too soft on Joseon—"
"Joseon was never our colony to begin with—what nonsense is that!"
He too had received and read Arthur Leigh's request and the pamphlet prophesying a massive Indian rebellion.
As a moral man, Gladstone naturally thought, "If Britain oppresses and exploits the locals this badly, it's more surprising if no rebellion erupts." Unfortunately, most Britons didn't see it that way.
"Arthur Leigh is clearly inciting an Indian revolt!"
"Exactly!"
"After all we've done for those Indians—rebellion? Hindus and Muslims joining hands in a grand uprising? Ridiculous!"
Arthur's pamphlet, upon landing in London, faced fierce criticism before fading from memory.
But Joseon sepoys were harmless enough to approve. After all, the ones hiring sepoys weren't the British government but the East India Company—and that company was right in Arthur's backyard.
"Expanding sepoy recruitment doesn't cost us much."
"The Cabinet hopes to extend our influence through sepoy hiring as well."
"If handled well, we might even incorporate Joseon into the East India Company's domains."
Amid such expectations,
someone hit the jackpot out of nowhere.
"Hand over the goods!"
"Now!!"
"P-P-Please, everyone calm down. It's still in development—"
"It explodes great! That's all we need!"
"There's a slight stability issue—"
"Fine! We'll buy it for more! Just sell it already!"
"They're offering more money—why complain!!"
Noble & Leigh Chemical Factory.
Mysterious stock surge.
The meeting with Zeng Guofan, my original goal, fell through. The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom was rampaging too fiercely for me to reach him on the battlefield.
And truthfully, I felt a twinge of reluctance myself.
The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom must be preserved at all costs.
If they collapse too easily, Joseon becomes the next target. To keep the Qing draining for as long as possible, the Taiping need to hold out.
Me, who's been pulling strings behind the scenes to preserve the Taiping, meeting their suppression army commander Zeng Guofan? If word got out, it'd be an instant beheading or arrest ending.
The Taiping are hopeless.
Undeniable fact.
They erupt across the Central Plains whenever their cooldown's up, but unlike other rebels, their anti-foreign sentiment runs deep—they harbor intense hostility toward Westerners.
And they're already embroiled in infighting before even winning the war... Keeping them alive is honestly a stretch.
So I decided on one thing only.
"Stone Three's army is heading toward Sichuan?"
"Yes. Zeng Guofan is pursuing, but it's not going well."
Sichuan, the land of zha jiang.
Just like Liu Bei's Shu Han back in the day, holing up in Sichuan for cosmic defense makes it incredibly hard to conquer from the Central Plains.
Conversely, striking the Central Plains from Sichuan is tough due to the massive power gap, but that's not my problem. I want the Taiping to survive, not unify the realm.
Once I confirmed a Taiping faction was sluggishly crawling toward Sichuan, I took the countless letters of introduction I'd gathered from mingling with Qing intellectuals and headed to Beijing.
And then.
"How dare those impudent Joseon dogs send envoys!"
"Your Highness Prince Gong, behead those ungrateful Joseon curs and declare war!!"
"No. Right now, we must bestow favors upon them and caress them with virtue. With the Central Plains in chaos, how could we wage war against backward mountain folk like Joseon?"
Hmm.
What a mess.
—Of course it's a mess! Did you think they'd greet you with "irasshaimase" or something?
No, why would Qing folks speak Japanese?
But with all these elders bulging veins in their necks, it's tricky.
Time to deploy "eul."
—The symbol of friendship?
The shiny, hefty ones.
[Hello? I'm a silver ingot!]
[I'm a gold bar! Let's get along!]
Under my orders, hefty crates stealthily slipped into the mansions of Qing high officials and nobles.
Having tasted the symbol of friendship, they couldn't refuse my audience request. Right there, I reverted to my old sales warrior persona, Park In-ho.
"Your tireless labors in state affairs are commendable. I've brought some ginseng and calming pills from Joseon—please use them to ease your burdens."
"Hah! You dare try to bribe me?!"
What are you talking about? You're already bought.
"This is merely a modest token of my admiration for you, sir."
"Ahem... Well, to appreciate your sincerity, I'll have a taste."
British citizenship was like an invincible bulletproof vest—no matter how much Prince Gong raged, my neck was safe from the blade.
And I didn't even leverage my envoy status directly.
Though I'd come as Joseon's plenipotentiary, I held no official posts beyond honorary titles.
As a pure private citizen, I first sought out other figures instead of Prince Gong.
"Are you that British scholar Yi Asul who's been making waves in literary circles lately?"
"I'm but a humble student unworthy of such fame."
The Confucian scholars.
Those under Prince Gong pushing Self-Strengthening were hopeless, bribes or not.
But what about the inevitably conservative Confucians?
It was absurd, but the most renowned Confucian scholar in the Qing right now wasn't Manchu or Han.
"Hmph. Your erudition far surpasses those fools obsessed with rote memorization of the Eight-Legged Essay."
"Thanks to a fine teacher. Since time immemorial, Joseon has embraced the profound rites of the Central Plains first after Qi Jigu landed in Dongrae. How could I, raised and educated there, disdain China's culture?"
Wuqigeli Huairen.
How's a person's name "Japanese"?
His name meant "Japanese," but he was Mongolian, not Japanese.
And his Confucianism wasn't casual—it was hardcore Neo-Confucianism. Ultra-conservative Taliban level.
"But I've read that book you wrote. Brazenly inciting enmity against the Qing, and you dare come here? Are you mad?"
"I seek but one thing: peace and harmony in the East. The only way Eastern nations can withstand Western powers is through unity."
"And?"
"Yet as a great power, the Qing failed to protect its vassals, turning a blind eye as Britain, America, and France trampled Joseon and Japan like distant fires. Instead of upholding China's dignity, it chose craven submission to invaders—and even blamed crushed Joseon without punishing Western crimes. Is this befitting a celestial empire that governs the world's order?"
You ditched your minions first—why the tantrum?
Huairen didn't snap.
Instead, he sighed deeply and clutched his head.
"The emperor was no true emperor, you mean."
Silver was abandoned by its father, at a loss—what I wrote for Japan. "If the Great Qing regains its paternal grace, I'll naturally write a new book for them."
"Regrettably, with Prince Gong—who sold out the nation for power, imprisoned his brother, and slaughtered ministers—at the height of his power, a mere commoner like me can offer no aid."
Slamming Prince Gong, who's gripped all power and is one step from the throne, as a mad traitor.
That's Neo-Confucianism for you.
Say what you must, even if it costs your head, Saint Cola. This is Confucianism. This is civilization!
I sprang from my chair and dropped to my knees.
"What is this?!"
"With men like you, I see the Great Qing's fortunes have not yet waned. A few more like you, and not only the Qing but all Eastern nations could escape ruin. Please introduce me to others like you."
Unite those opposing Prince Gong's Self-Strengthening into a massive faction.
It started off swimmingly.