Pressure for Peace (2)
Several days later, with the consent of Foot, the US Minister to Korea and temporary plenipotentiary of the United States, the two governments began preliminary discussions to commence actual peace negotiations despite the ongoing small-scale battles in the Liaodong and Manchuria, Yunnan fronts.
And we presented to the Qing government a proposal that would appeal to their greed: the exchange of prisoners, a tempting offer to lead the peace talks in a somewhat gentle manner.
After all, the Beiyang Fleet had already been shattered, and if we pushed, we could beat them into submission. They must have realized early on that resisting would only harm themselves, so this was a gesture full of shallow political propaganda to look good as the victor's magnanimity.
Therefore, to increase the likelihood that the negotiations would proceed smoothly, I personally traveled to a garrison in Lushun where Qing prisoners were held.
After waiting a short while in a prison-like atmosphere that was somewhat stark and filled with invisible tension, different from the battlefield, a disheveled man with unkempt beard and hair was brought to the opposite side and seated.
To him, I introduced myself as the Tongryeong of the Joseon New Government and, smiling, handed over documents containing the release conditions and the peace negotiation terms.
“This is the peace negotiation proposal summarizing all the demands of the Tripartite Alliance.”
At the same time, I gave him the gift I had prepared for him.
“Therefore, Admiral Deng will be able to return home early for preliminary negotiations. Congratulations.”
“... Thank you.”
Although he had been given his wet military uniform repaired and returned, looking at Deng Sichang's haggard face that didn't even want to reach out to receive it, I clicked my tongue.
It was natural for men to rush to the battlefield for their country. Even if it was a collapsing empire on the brink of ruin.
As a result, in this Bohai Bay battle, our Republic's navy, which had generously taken in the wounded Qing soldiers from a humanitarian perspective, had unexpectedly snagged a big catch like Deng Sichang.
“Hah.”
Meanwhile, recalling the Beiyang water transport, Jeong Yeo-chang, who had fled early seeing their fleet being beaten, I cleared my throat.
“They say Jeong Yeo-chang survived that chaos too...”
As expected, the flagship of the Beiyang Fleet, which overcame the fierce cannon fire of the French Far East Fleet thanks to its armor and powerful engines, safely escaped with a few Qing cruisers as sacrifices, heading to Weihaiwei and then disappearing without a trace from the naval base. If we had secured them as prisoners, the negotiation conditions would have been even more favorable to our side, which was truly regrettable.
For a while in the silent prison, I silently handed over a cigarette to Deng Sichang in front of him staring blankly at his faded uniform.
Then, his eyes that had been still slid silently, and soon his fingers slowly crept and quietly inserted the cigarette between his fingers.
“Crack.”
With a short cough, a cynical laugh burst out, followed by sobbing.
And soon, thick cigarette smoke obscured our view, and inside it, Deng the Admiral, hiding his heartbreaking heart, slowly spat out his mixed feelings of love and hate.
“Probably, the court will not easily talk about surrender.”
“Is that so?”
When I leaned in to listen to Deng Sichang's words, he took another puff of his cigarette, let out a heavy sigh, and opened his mouth.
“Accepting the results of the gambling board that has gradually slipped from our hands over the years without a clear mind is an arduous task. The current situation of the Great Qing is like a two-headed dragon. And two very crazy ones at that.”
The gist was that the legitimate army that conducted the war and Li Hongzhang, the Beiyang Minister, had objectively perceived the current situation and recognized the power imbalance, but the imperial court led by Empress Dowager Cixi did not.
“The admiral, no matter how much of a prisoner, won't it be troublesome if he returns later? What if our side's intelligence leaks your story?”
“It doesn't matter at all. The court that placed me, who was appointed as admiral and returned, in a desk is the same, and the one that drove me into the battlefield of Bohai Bay is the same.”
Whether Deng Sichang thought his country had been ruined by the court or because he had lost his fortune by throwing away his fleet and 7,000 casualties, he gradually raised his voice thinking that the country had perished because of the Empress Dowager, and at the end, he began to vent his anger without hiding it in front of me.
Although unintended, a more incisive criticism of the country came from a local insider in the prison. I listened quietly to this rare internal information.
“To the imperial court of the Forbidden City, the world is a gamble. The request for military support from the Moon Kingdom was actually a meaningless war to raise the broken Great Qing's pride. With the power from five years ago, the Beiyang Fleet, which was preparing to win over three years with the construction of Beiyang cruisers in the north, was impossible to win.”
“Even so, I heard that in the early stages of the war, they fought a hard battle against the French army in northern Vietnam. Liu Yongfu's Black Flag Army is famous.”
“Land battles might have allowed some minimal victories, but in the end, the direction of the war had to be decided by the navy. France is a distant European great power, and if they can't stop their fleet, no matter how much they win against them from the Moon Kingdom, the war would never end. The Beiyang Minister also knew this fact and dispatched his subordinates to stop the expansion.”
“However?”
When I urged for explanation, Deng Sichang recalled the day he returned home and laughed dryly. It was so unbelievable that he drank a lot that day.
“The Zongli Yamen, or the court, was also troubled by the incoming negotiation proposal. The imperial court put on airs. They encouraged us to pick up the cudgel this time, saying we need to fix the manners of the two people. And the result is, today it's me and the Tongryeong of Joseon, right?”
“Joseon, not the Republic of Korea.”
“Oh, this foolish young man made a mistake. Sorry, Your Excellency.”
When I corrected him, Deng Sichang bowed his head briefly and apologized, then flicked the butt into the ashtray and scratched his chin.
“If we had been a little more patient, if we had pushed for reform in a more constructive direction, such a catastrophe would not have happened today. Until 1895, relying on our liberation strategy, the Beiyang Fleet was to secure the largest naval power in the East with fifty ironclads.”
Then he mentioned the “Mudan Incident” in 1874, the prelude to Japan's invasion of Taiwan, and told me that the Great Qing's will to protect its own territory was not as strong as one might think. Contrary to the intention of adopting the liberation strategy, his personal conclusion was that the direction and limitations of the Self-Strengthening Movement, various political divisions and confrontations had lost the original passion.
“However, right after the incident, I heard there were signs that the Qing army was dispatched in large numbers to develop the island. This was also testified by our Republic soldiers dispatched to the Taiwan expeditionary force.”
“How can you defend the island with only 30,000 men conscripted from the local population when the island's territory is tilted north-south? In the end, we lost the island due to the allied French fleet's bombardment. As a result, the Beiyang Fleet lost control of the entire West Sea, and ultimately suffered defeat to the Far East Fleet. Now, even Shanhaiguan, once called the best pass in the world, is an old saying, and the Great Wall can be breached at any time.”
Deng Sichang, who admitted the Qing's defeat from the beginning to the end due to the failure of reforms and national chaos triggered by the imperial court.
Then, I had a slight doubt here. Why couldn't the Great Qing react sensitively to border issues? Why, even though the war was ongoing, were they so fragmented and issuing contradictory orders?
This was not simply because their territory was unimaginably vast, or as Deng Sichang pointed out, because the Great Qing's territory was so vast that high-level strategy and tactics to throw enemy soldiers like dust into the abyss couldn't be seen.
The Qing battlefield tactics were also insufficient; it was a bluff to say that even if the Liaodong or Indochina Peninsula, which is not as good as Jiangnan, were handed over to the enemy, they could endure and continue the war. From our perspective, it was “Yes, of course.”
Finally, unable to bear the rising curiosity, I opened my mouth first.
“Does that mean the remaining Qing forces are all?”
“...”
And seeing Deng Sichang unable to answer despite always criticizing his country, I realized that unlike what we knew, the Qing Dynasty was now at its limit.
Soon after, as the next schedule approached, I silently stood up from my seat.
Then, Deng Sichang, who had been unable to speak until now, asked me with a voice crawling into my ear.
“Does it have to be Liaodong and Manchuria?”
“What do you mean?”
“Probably, the imperial court will not let go of that land even in death. Rather than war, it would be a difficult decision to hand over that land that includes the imperial court's sacred decree.”
Unable to overcome Deng Sichang's hesitant gaze while standing up, I sat back down and asked.
“Earlier, the admiral insulted the imperial court as a gambling addict who throws money around seeing the world as a bet in less than 5 minutes. Now, are Liaodong and Manchuria the imperial court's sacred decree, so unsuitable for negotiation conditions?”
“I have already honestly told Your Excellency about the unfortunate future that will come in the near future.”
“From my perspective, it only seems like a stubborn attachment to the idea that Liaodong and Manchuria are territories on the continent.”
“...”
When I taunted him, Deng Sichang closed his mouth. But he was a patriot even by this era's standards.
No matter how treated as cold rice by the court, reforms pushed to the back, internal strife, and war leading to the real ruin of the country, the young admiral with lingering attachment to his country made a pitiful expression for me.
I wondered if this was the scene to show in front of a 12-year-old, but realizing that the 12-year-old had influence among the negotiation targets, Deng Sichang, who wanted results with minimal investment, was not a person to be taken lightly.
But I wasn't a simple 12-year-old pants-wearing who took the position of Tongryeong of this country, so I handed over the negotiation conditions without missing a single word.
“Within 72 hours, if the Qing army in Liaodong, Manchuria, northern Indochina, and Yunnan Province does not withdraw and disarm, it will be considered non-compliance with negotiations, and after clearly stating that continuing the war is the Qing country's fault for breaking the peace negotiations, we will continue the war.”
“Your Excellency.”
“Don't forget that we have already occupied the southern part of Shenyang. Remember the movements of the French expeditionary division and our expeditionary army that have been deployed in the southern part of China including Yunnan. You are surrounded north-south, and now you are in a position where you will face indiscriminate offensives from the east. I expect the admiral's efforts to disperse and stop such meaningless sacrifices and destruction.”
After finishing the short conversation with Deng Sichang, I left the prison.
*****
The next schedule was nothing else.
It was the meeting to select our government's plenipotentiary to preside over the peace negotiations for peace in the Forbidden City, where I had brought Deng Sichang who had been internally conflicted in the prison.
And when I announced that I had to pick a plenipotentiary for negotiations, all members of the cabinet in the temporary meeting room prepared in Lushun jumped up from their seats, waved their hands wildly over their heads, and shouted.
“Me! Me!”
“Me! I'll go!”
Ministers pleading to be picked as negotiation envoys saying I am suitable.
When I was surprised by the unexpected situation, those who recommended themselves argued that I should go by belittling others rather than their own advantages.
“No, aren't you a unit commander!? In the middle of war, where do you run around leaving your soldiers? This kind of thing should be done by me, the Foreign Minister Park Jeong-yang!”
“Tsk! Where do you think a Foreign Minister who can't even speak proper Chinese goes! Do you think it works in China? This kind of thing, I, Park Young-hyo, who is competent and can speak Chinese, should go.”
“These people? You all are ministers of the cabinet, where are you going to take a vacation to a foreign country? Your Excellency, in my opinion, this time recommend a promising and reputable person from the Alliance Association-.”
The real-time place where the French fleet and our Republic army were being smashed was clearly Guangzhou and Shenyang, but the inverted place was actually the meeting room where I was.
When I said “Hmm”, the candidates started fighting among themselves.
“No, civilians can't be plenipotentiaries!”
“Why can't I go! Why!”
“I, Dong-in, who speaks Chinese, Manchu, and English well, will go!”
“Get out of here, you bastard!”
“Wh, what about me going to Beijing this time-.”
Park Jeong-yang, who put on airs saying he can't go because he's a military commander, was grabbed by the collar by Seo Jae-pil, and Park Young-hyo, who complained that Park Jeong-yang only knows French and not Chinese or Manchu, so he needs to use interpreters, was there too. There, the spy Yi Dong-in didn't know why he was inserting himself saying he would go, and the usually quiet glasses-wearing Pyon Su didn't know why his face was red and he was being active.
Above all, Seo Jae-pil, this guy, was not a normal sight; grabbing Park Jeong-yang by the collar with his burly arms and shaking him as if he had really attacked with a sword in Gyeong-u Palace.
“Haha, I heard he slept with gangsters in America and got married.”
But Park Jeong-yang was amazing too. How could he smile constantly in front of Seo Jae-pil, who was grabbing his collar and shaking him with such a fierce expression? And Park Young-hyo, would he try to look cool even in this chaos? Why?
“... What the hell is going on.”
I, wondering if the negotiation envoy representative was fighting like this, shook my head in disbelief.
“There is a reason.”
“Eh?”
At that time, the Agriculture Minister Choe Ik-hyeon, who I didn't know had chased me to Liaodong again, suddenly thrust his dry face at me and told me the truth.
“It's not a lifelong pride.”
“What?”
“According to the Buddhists, the one above heaven and below heaven is the only one. It's a position where you can kneel in front of the Qing Emperor, who is said to be the master of the world, and tell him to kneel. If not, won't you become a lifelong drinking companion and an avenger of the humiliation of 10 million Korean people over hundreds of years? Of course, everyone wants to rush ahead.”
Enlightened by Choe Ik-hyeon's directness, I looked back at the previous fight in the meeting room.
“Oh, those cunning foxes.
Because they had already experienced the face of mass politics, they were fox-like creatures who intuitively understood what show was and moved.
“However.”
“Yes?”
When I turned my head with a frustrated expression after realizing the truth, Choe Ik-hyeon, with a troubled expression, looked at Yu In-seok next to him and spoke hesitantly.
“Hmm.”
And Yu In-seok's gaze was even more burdensome than that. Why was he like that today?
“I also don't want to go, right?”
“...”
“This time, if we go together as a group, the negotiations will be smooth, we can discuss heads quickly, and the soldiers can return home, right?”
“...”
“I, I can speak some Chinese.”
Of course, it was the mindset of Joseon literati to want to add the achievement of “rebuking” the Qing Emperor in front of him.
“Ah. To inherit the will of the fallen Great Ming, to rebuke the descendant of the cunning barbarian emperor as the teacher of China, and to correct the way of the world.
“I didn't think it was that meaningful.”
“Add achievement”
It was truly a heaven-sent opportunity for the Joseon Confucian scholars who had mastered Confucianism and had nothing left to do.
Rather, our ancestors who would bite their tongues and die if they couldn't speak, who lived for honor.