Interview
Ernest Bethell raised his free hand high above his head, waving it excitedly as he gripped the strap of his bag with the other hand.
“Mr. Hong!”
Ernest Bethell had seen Hong Beom-do only three times before.
It was the first time right after he had finished the battle at Jiuliancheng and stopped briefly in Uiju, and the second when crossing the Geumsuk Mountain.
Despite his blunt appearance, Hong Beom-do had a kind heart. When Ernest and Russell struggled with their heavy cameras and film bags, he had helped them for a short while.
Sometimes he even arranged for his own armored infantry comrades to make it comfortable for Ernest and Russell to conduct interviews.
Moreover, there was the reason Ernest had taken a liking to Hong Beom-do and started following him around.
It was because Hong Beom-do, a man of towering stature who could never be outdone even by Europeans, was only four years older than Ernest, a young age.
Impressive.
Ernest’s eyes, shaped like a crescent moon, slowly followed Hong Beom-do.
His armor looked like it could weigh sixty pounds easily. His build was impressive, but his endurance was exceptional. While other soldiers panted heavily climbing the Geumsuk Mountain, Hong Beom-do crossed it with his terrifying stamina, just shrugging his shoulders as if he had done some exercise.
While others grumbled as apprentices, Hong Beom-do, at the young age of sixteen, was a brave soldier who had bravely stepped onto the front lines as a proper officer of the Republic!
“Oh!”
On the other hand, Hong Beom-do, who had been monitoring the captured Qing prisoners with a bored expression, smiled when he saw the young white boy running towards him as if he knew him.
“Ernie, str!”
His voice, with a slight lisp but trying to speak clearly this time, with effort on his lips.
Hong Beom-do called out to the boy waving his hand, and thinking he had answered well this time, nodded his head, pleased with himself.
It was a reminder from his superior, Captain Nam Man-ri, but he remembered the high-ranking generals and even the Supreme Commander above them had strictly advised that they should be kind to the foreign boy and the strange machine called the camera that the war correspondents were carrying.
Thanks to that, Hong Beom-do had learned English from the pure and brave boy, something he had never had the chance to learn before.
But sometimes, looking at Ernest, Hong Beom-do wondered about his parents.
What kind of family would leave their child out there, in the midst of the war?
Hmm, thinking about it, I'm not ordinary either...
Having lost his parents as a child and wandered as a servant, Hong Beom-do had been fortunate to become a garrison soldier in Pyongyang. After entering the military seriously, he crossed his arms, thinking he was lucky.
He might have made a living, but receiving a steady salary at a table as sumptuous as this was something he could never have dreamed of.
Of course, that salary had been obvious to be cut before the country collapsed once.
Anyway, Ernest, the boy who had been shoving the film into his bag, finally entered the alley where the Qing soldiers were sitting in a line.
“Mr. Hong, you are safe!”
“Of course. I received a lot of help from this armor this time too.”
When Ernest worried about his safety, Hong Beom-do smiled and tapped the blunt part of his chest with his fist.
“Bullets just bounce off. Of course, proper rifle bullets sometimes pierce through and cause trouble.”
“Ah, so he's not invincible!”
Ernest, impressed by Hong Beom-do's story, slapped his knee and started scribbling in his notebook without noticing his bag tipping over.
Already, Russell had disappeared from the boy's mind.
Thinking it was some kind of interview or something, Hong Beom-do quietly kicked the prisoner next to him with his foot.
Ernest, having finished preparing, started questioning with a pencil in hand.
“How was your impression of today's battle?”
“Hmm, where should I start? The regiment commander's instruction? Or right after the French artillery started shelling?”
“From the beginning!”
“That might take too much time.”
“I won't make it hard for you!”
Finally, unable to resist Ernest's sparkling eyes, Hong Beom-do crossed his arms and allowed the interview.
“Good.”
“Then, first question. Was the attack today smooth?”
“‘Smooth.’ If you know the meaning of that word I remember, then today’s battle can be described as smooth. If I were to say it to the high-ranking generals.”
“So, it wasn't smooth for Mr. Hong?”
“Hmm, rather than that, can the word ‘smooth’ even come out on the battlefield? No matter how perfect the operation, there are no guarantees that no soldiers will die from enemy bullets, and we can't just throw flowers and force the enemy to surrender, can we? I think it would be better to say it was ordinary rather than ‘smooth’.”
“Oh.”
Ernest was slightly moved by Hong Beom-do's honest opinion, who didn't distinguish between enemies and allies and didn't lightly talk about the weight of casualties and spilled blood on both sides.
“Ah, then the second question. I heard you are doing classification work on prisoners and Qing residents after today's battle. What exactly is that work?”
This question was one Hong Beom-do had never thought about, just following orders from above, so it took a bit of time to answer.
“First, prisoners are classified into officers, soldiers, and local officials.”
“But?”
“Hmm, the young reporter doesn't know yet, but Qing is a bit different from what you think of as a normal country. Many soldiers are Han Chinese, but officers and local officials are mostly Manchu. Sometimes there are Han Chinese scholars too.”
“Manchu? Han Chinese?”
“Um, so-.”
Hong Beom-do had to struggle a bit to explain the difference to the young reporter.
Actually, Hong Beom-do himself had only received indoctrination education from stiff instructors sent by the Public Security Committee and Alliance Association during the tedious political officer training.
After a while, Ernest, having mixed Hong Beom-do's story with his own experience and understood it, smiled and answered cheerfully.
“So, Qing is still a feudal country!”
“Ah, yes! Feudal country! Why did I forget that word?”
“Forget?”
Hong Beom-do, barely remembering the difficult words explained by the instructors, scratched his head awkwardly and tried to cover the rest.
“Um, no! Anyway, that's why we classify the prisoners. Think about it, why did we go to war with Qing?”
“Hmm, I heard Qing invaded Korea first.”
“Ah, that's also true, but.”
Actually, Ernest's answer was half right and half wrong.
Externally, the reason France and the United States had allied with Korea was to oppose the feudal and outdated Qing that was oppressing civilized Korea through revolution. But internally, especially the Revolutionary Government and Alliance Association, one of the important justifications they put forward for this war to their own people was continuous revolution.
That is, they declared the continuous revolution based on the Three Principles of the People championed by the great Supreme Commander, and the class struggle to liberate the Qing people from the Manchu rulers, starting the war.
Of course, most of those people were more enthusiastic about the Northern Expedition, though.
However, in reality, as Hong Beom-do thought, the words of the Alliance Association that if Manchuria and Liaodong became our land, everyone would become rich, instead of the Supreme Commander's fancy and difficult philosophy, resonated much more with their own Korean people.
Why would it matter to Koreans whether the Qing were liberated or not?
If their own throats were under the control of the grape thieves, they should do the revolution themselves, not have others do it for them.
Hong Beom-do, who had such an honest opinion, swallowed the truth and continued awkwardly.
“In short, it's not just our revolution, but we are fighting together so that the Qing residents can also be freed from the oppressive Manchu ruling class.”
“Hmm.”
This story was still hard for the young Ernest to understand, so he wrote nothing in his notebook for a long time and groaned.
And a short while later, Ernest, who had barely written a few lines in the notebook, threw the last question.
“Finally, how do you treat the Chinese farmers kindly, Mr. Hong and other Korean soldiers?”
“Eh, what's the intention behind the question?”
“So, why doesn't the Korean army commit looting, arson, and various war crimes? It's too different from the war stories I've heard from adults.”
“Um...”
Hong Beom-do was taken aback by Ernest's last question and froze, not having thought of such a question.
Unlike the instructors who had so strictly indoctrinated him about the mission and justification of this war, this war was the first for Hong Beom-do himself, and unlike Ernest, he had never seriously reflected on war in his life.
When Hong Beom-do took a long time to answer, Ernest tilted his head and continued.
“In Kobe where I was, there were really many Japanese soldiers on the streets. There were no warriors who hadn't been mobilized for various internal wars, invasions, incidents, and accidents. Then, inevitably, where those wounds had passed, there would be traces of tears and laments left by those who weren't soldiers.”
“...”
“Looting, rape, arson by the occupying army. Is that all? The losers aren't just unjust either. They harassed the citizens they should protect under the excuse of fleeing and promising to come back later. That's why I entered the newspaper company in Osaka as an apprentice.”
Hong Beom-do swallowed the groan he was about to say, thinking war shouldn't be like that.
Ernest's question and example were valid.
Why were we kind to the Qing residents?
Wait, should we call it kindness?
Hong Beom-do, after pondering for a moment, slowly answered while lightly trembling.
“... Because they are people.”
“Yes?”
“Because they are the same people. Yeah. Why did I think this was hard?”
“?”
Hong Beom-do, having found the answer, started explaining to Ernest why they acted that way.
“Soon it's harvest time. And it's the busiest time for farmers.”
“That's right.”
“And it's the time to harvest the greatest happiness during the year's suffering.”
“?”
Unlike Ernest who looked confused, Hong Beom-do was lost in reminiscence.
Hong Beom-do, who had memories of being a servant, remembered the farmers' year very well.
In this era, the life of a farmer was a continuous suffering.
Approximately 365 days of the year, struggling with pain and deprivation, the farmers endured day by day. The greatest happiness was only before the harvest, when the year's hardship was harvested.
But
“... We ruined it all.”
“Ah!”
Ernest, finally realizing Hong Beom-do's bitter expression and self-reflective explanation, staggered with a great shock.
Yes, no matter how this war was packaged, the suffering of the poor farmers caught between the two armies was not counted by anyone.
Even the flipping of all the rice paddies near Seogyeong by Song Qing's order, the farmland destroyed by French artillery bombardment.
How about the land trampled by the Korean army as they advanced?
Who would compensate the Qing farmers returning to their homes after the war?
“So, we have no choice but to be kind.”
“...”
In the era when soldiers across East and West lived as farmers back home.
Even Korea that had achieved revolution was not much different.
They too smiled only when they attached tenants, plowed fields, and harvested at home.
Because of that, despite their just war, these pure Korean youths might have empathized with the miserable situation of the Qing farmers who were in the same plight until recently, projecting their own families onto them.
That's why, without the strict gaze of the instructors or the activity of the military police, and regardless of the instructions from the high-ranking generals, the Korean soldiers were quietly helping the Qing residents who were fleeing and sorting their remaining property to avoid the battlefield.
Without being ordered, on their own.
That must be the true mark of a pure heart!
Ernest Bethell, who was young, found this new and moving.
A completely new perspective different from the horrific internal wars and bleak samurai spirit he had seen in Japan.
Ernest, who thought this might be the national character of the Korean people, quickly started moving his pencil again.
Thus, the short interview between the two ended.
And behind the alley, a figure hiding behind the wall came out and muttered blankly with an expression as if he had caught a scoop.
“A soldier of the enemy country even considering the situation of foreign citizens...”
He was the reporter Russell who had been searching the city for the lost Ernest and film for a long time.
In his film, the scene of the two talking was faithfully captured.
At that time, Russell had no idea what impact this photo and the next article would have on Europe.