Revolution and Counter-Revolution (3)
As the sun climbed to its zenith.
With Yeongsu’s declaration, the eyes of the Enlightenment Party members who had united in national unity lit up once more. Like embers that had been burned to ash but revived from the very ashes themselves.
Kim Ok-gyun, calmly meeting each of their faces one by one, slowly opened his mouth.
“Comrades.”
His call, low and resonant without much variation in pitch, settled across the floor of the conference room.
On the table before them, from dawn until morning, the twenty-point Reform Platform lay neatly unfolded on pure white muslin, without a single wrinkle.
“Completed.”
In response to Kim Ok-gyun’s summons, the Enlightenment Party members, radical intellectuals, Chung-ui-gye warriors, and Hosan School cadets who had gathered around the conference table slowly read the document and answered.
“We heard you, comrade!”
With this fervent reply, the Party leader who had drawn the sword that had severed the heads of national traitors and pro-Qing factions at dawn raised it triumphantly above his head.
With him were the Reform Platform that announced Joseon’s revolution and the brave, fearless seven hundred warriors who would assist it.
“We are going to Unjongga! Long live! Long live! Long live!”
Following his lead, the comrades answered with fierce enthusiasm.
“To Unjongga!”
“Long live! Long live! Long live!”
The young men’s cries that pierced the sky completely washed away the ominous side of the conspiracy that had been stained with blood and gunpowder since dawn the previous day.
Now only one figure stood in their way: the foolish king who refused the natural flow of the times, became a slave to power, and revolted against history!
Like a hunter sighting his target, Kim Ok-gyun thrust forward as if to stab with his sword.
“Well, let’s go!”
At the same time as the three cheers of long live, the Enlightenment Party members drew their swords and pistols from their waists and immediately headed out of Gyeong-u Palace.
“What’s going on?”
Following their backs, the soldiers of the royal guard Jeon Yeong and a small detachment of Bukcheong troops trailed after them with bewildered eyes and murmurs.
Kim Ok-gyun, who had not missed the fact that those who still had not fully grasped the situation were in a state of awakening, did not let them slip away.
If he could not capture their minds, which were supposed to handle the military, how could he hope to win?
“Comrade soldiers!”
Immediately joining the comrades, Kim Ok-gyun stood on a slightly higher stone slab and shouted at them in the same measured tone.
“Comrades! We have vowed to protect the Joseon people from the oppressive rule of Qing, the indiscriminate plunder, and the incompetence of the court! Comrades! Will you stand with us!”
“Long live! Long live!”
Except for those who were known to be quick-witted, most had apathetic expressions. Yet the fierce sight of the Enlightenment Party members behind Kim Ok-gyun’s back made them follow suit.
“Revolution long live!”
Kim Ok-gyun’s eyes burned too hotly for the words to truly reach the royal guard Jeon Yeong’s soldiers and Bukcheong troops, who did not know the full details of the past. But it was enough to engrave one fact firmly in their minds: the Enlightenment Party was about to do something enormous.
“My lord!”
Just as Kim Ok-gyun was raising morale in Gyeong-u Palace, one soldier brought a horse ready to ride to Unjongga. Kim Ok-gyun firmly refused, waving his hand forward with a loud voice.
“No need for that!”
Having lifted the spirits of the soldiers and party members, Kim Ok-gyun decided instead to head straight to Jongno, choosing to imitate the successful method of the young Yeon-sa.
“The one who first captures the hearts of the people, whose depth cannot be measured like the vast sea, wins!”
He explained to the comrades and soldiers who looked at him with curious eyes, refusing to mount the horse.
“From Gyeong-u Palace to Unjongga, we will be with the people! I will make the glorious moment of our cause—when all the people of Joseon stand in the great struggle against Qing—come true together!”
“Correct! Correct!”
Following Kim Ok-gyun’s plan, Seo Jae-pil, who stood at the front beside him, responded with a fierce light in his eyes. The Chung-ui-gye members and cadets followed eagerly, surrounding Kim Ok-gyun and the major figures of the Enlightenment Party.
With this momentum, they would be like arrows shot at the tyrant who swings his ministers like a commoner’s sword.
The moment the Enlightenment Party, which had gathered all its forces except for a very small number of guards left behind in Gyeong-u Palace, set out for Unjongga was one o’clock in the afternoon when the sun stood at its zenith.
*****
The news that the Enlightenment Party leaders were plotting something in Unjongga reached Cho Byeong-ho, the police chief, who had rushed out leading the Gyeongsayeong troops and the pure soldiers armed with old-fashioned guns. He felt the urge to jump out of his skin.
“Report!”
Cho Yeong-ha, who had been running around gathering messengers and scouts to understand the capital’s situation, called them forward.
“What are those bastards doing…?”
“They, they have set up a huge platform in the center of the square and are forcing common people and high-ranking ministers who pass by to sit on it.”
“Those guys are completely out of their minds right now-.”
As the scout had said, Cho Yeong-ha had no choice but to open his mouth in a daze at the platform erected in the middle of Jongno and the countless people surrounding it.
What in the world is this?
“Damn it.”
The Enlightenment Party leaders who had recorded the Gwangbokjeon as a coup stained with blood—insufficient even for celebration—were not in their right minds. Yet the people of this country who had poured out into the streets where knives and gunshots had been flowing since dawn yesterday were also not ordinary.
“Ah, it was our capital people who were running wild even in the Im-o year.”
Yes, there was nothing new to be surprised about.
Anyway, Cho Yeong-ha, watching the crowd with complex eyes on how to disperse the many people who had come to watch the suppression of the Enlightenment Party leaders, was shouted at by the police chief Cho Byeong-ho who had just run out from Changdeok Palace.
“Chief!”
Cho Yeong-ha turned his head and saw Cho Byeong-ho’s face, with his tongue sticking out and panting “heuk heuk!”. It was quite messy, as if broken by the king’s majestic roar that had not yet completed the suppression.
“Aigo, it’s far.”
The police chief, out of breath, replaced the greeting with a bow and asked.
“The, the Enlightenment Party leaders!”
“There they are.”
Cho Yeong-ha pointed with his chin toward the Enlightenment Party leaders who were still busy decorating the platform and doing nonsense. Cho Byeong-ho replied with a panicked expression.
“No, you haven’t suppressed them yet?”
“Your eyes are like a pimple hole?”
When the police chief urged him, Cho Yeong-ha glanced at him as if asking “what kind of stupid thing is that?” and raised his chin to point to the crowd gathered around the platform and the royal guard Jeon Yeong’s soldiers and armed troops mixed in, who were looking at this side with terrifying eyes.
“Those guys are using people as shields right now. If we enter the suppression in this state, hundreds of people caught in the middle will die screaming from blind bullets.”
“Still!”
“‘Still!’ what!”
Making Cho Byeong-ho’s mouth shut with a roar as he tried to push him by saying “still!” because it was the king’s majestic order, Cho Yeong-ha calmly explained.
“We don’t know how this crisis will be resolved, so where is there any room to slaughter innocent lives? Think a bit!”
“Um…”
The police chief made a blank expression at his words. Cho Yeong-ha pulled his chin with both hands as if it would break and glared at the royal guard Jeon Yeong’s soldiers far away who were monitoring this side.
‘Their combat readiness is good.’
Their waist pouches were thick, hanging down, and they had stockpiled ammunition as if they had come with the intention of ending this side today.
If they clashed, even if this side had more numbers, the outcome could not be guessed.
Cho Yeong-ha, who thought suppression right now was impossible, changed the topic.
“And, didn’t you hear the rumor on the way here? The rumor that the Enlightenment Party leaders originally raised a coup to eliminate the pro-Qing faction and the Min clan of Yeoheung for the purpose of carrying out the king’s will.”
“What, what kind of rumor is that? This coup was the king’s will…?”
“It could be a baseless rumor. After all, the ones who raised the rebellion are making noise to confuse the suppression army command. But.”
Unlike the incompetent Yeoheung Min clan who were accepted as his limbs because the king lacked his own power, Cho Yeong-ha, who was proud of the unique power of the Pungyang Cho clan in the Andong Kim family and many famous families, could intuitively understand the current situation in the capital.
‘If we leave evidence that can be caught, we could be punished as traitors to the nation right after the incident ends.’
The fact that the Qing army suddenly raised a coup after a full march was suspicious, and the fact that the king did not immediately issue a suppression order after the coup was also strange.
Moreover,
“The Enlightenment Party guys have been locked in Gyeong-u Palace since morning and sent an envoy to His Majesty. And we responded to them without any proper reaction. I don’t know what this means.”
“…Ah!”
Strange.
When Cho Yeong-ha poked the core, Cho Byeong-ho turned around with a surprised expression as if he had finally realized.
The king’s decisive mistake.
The king’s action of delaying suppression while exchanging envoys with the leaders since dawn after obtaining information that the leaders had occupied Gyeong-u Palace amplified Cho Yeong-ha’s suspicion.
Holding foreign guests at the Gwangbokjeon celebration and massacring the ministers of the court? Why?
“My eunuchs and the entrance supervisor said that the Enlightenment Party figures were coming and going late at night. If this is the case, isn’t the situation really strange?”
“Listen, it seems plausible-.”
Just as the police chief nodded hurriedly in agreement with Cho Yeong-ha’s opinion, a commotion broke out around the platform.
“People of Hanseong!”
Kim Ok-gyun, the leader of the Enlightenment Party, climbed onto the platform surrounded by the crowd and suddenly shouted toward Jongno.
Having received the attention of the people, Kim Ok-gyun continued.
“Early this morning, our Enlightenment Party shattered the conspiracy of some ministers and concubines of the incompetent and corrupt pro-Qing faction who wanted to place Joseon’s legitimate government and traditions under the hooves of the Qing army!”
Cho Yeong-ha and Cho Byeong-ho, the suppression army commander and police chief, had no choice but to open their eyes wide at Kim Ok-gyun’s false accusation.
Did I hear it right?
“Those, those commoner bastards, what kind of nonsense are they trying to say now!?”
Cho Byeong-ho, whose breath was cut off by the unbelievable provocation and fabrication of the leaders, pounded his chest and jumped in place, and Cho Yeong-ha, who was also quite surprised, looked at the people’s eyes below the platform.
As expected, it’s big!
“Damn it-.”
Many of the people gathered in Jongno had their eyes turned at the words of pro-Qing faction, conspiracy, and return of Qing army.
The leaders had taken the lead.
‘Shit.’
Most of the people were tired of the tyranny of the Qing soldiers in the past, and considering that the Manmin Gongdonghoe convened by the Alliance Association was a political gathering held in the private sector for the purpose of Qing army iron troops, the public sentiment in Hanseong toward Qing was still the worst.
“People of Joseon!”
As if feeling the temperature of the audience rising with his whole body, Kim Ok-gyun spread his arms wide to the left and right and shouted repeatedly toward the platform below.
“The coming new year, our Joseon was about to have ‘Great Reform’ with a wave of change and the people’s demands, centered on capable bureaucrats with dozens of innovative reform platforms and the will of reform. But a plan to bring back the Qing army that had already withdrawn due to the conspiracy of some reactionary, national traitors, and pro-Qing faction was being executed from under our feet!”
Immediately after, Kim Ok-gyun explained that the brave and loyal royal guard soldiers and the politicians of the Enlightenment Party had thoroughly crushed the futile rebellion of those foolish people at dawn yesterday, and then, with the help of the leaders below the platform, he unfolded a large muslin cloth with dense black stripes and declared toward the crowd.
“This is it! The twenty Revolutionary Promises!”
The subsequent noise-making of the Enlightenment Party leaders did not greatly irritate Cho Yeong-ho’s nerves.
For example, “Requesting the restoration of Wonwi Hapha who was captured by Qing, abolishing the nobility and making the gate of employment fair and equitable by leading the equality of the people, providing land for cultivation to all the people by applying the law of Gyeongja Youjeon.” etc.
All of these were just hollow promises that the leaders were using to give tradition to their government and win over public sentiment.
But the problem was there was more after that.
“…We will abolish the eunuch office and clean up the blind finances of the royal family, and organize the inner treasury to not have separate royal property! Also, we will unify the finances of the court and immediately correct the chaotic market prices in the capital according to the currency policy! All colonels will be announced by resolution of the ministers and assistant ministers of the court!”
“Waaaaaaa!!!”
“Long live! Long live!”
The people were delighted as if they were going to run at the leaders’ promises one after another.
“Mad.”
That was it.
Evidence that the Enlightenment Party and the king’s will turned at a critical moment.
Those were full of radical political maneuvers that reduced and shrank the royal authority.
‘They learned only the good things from outside.’
Cho Yeong-ha, who had figured out all the situations, crumpled his face and turned around, and Cho Byeong-ho, who did not realize much, asked while holding his shoulder, trembling, after figuring out the background of the situation.
“Is, is this perhaps related to that incident…?”
“What you are thinking now as police chief, yes.”
“Hup!”
In the Joseon, which was an absolute monarchy, ministers and assistant ministers deciding to announce colonels? Even if the previous nonsense was tolerable, the recent one was too much.
“Meaning they want to establish a parliament.”
Joseon has already opened the shutters for over ten years.
I know that far away in the continent of America, the country that is a precursor to that is ruled by a president instead of a king, and I know that the queen of the world’s strongest country, England, has a parliament to oversee the country’s affairs.
But
“…Those guys, are they out of their minds?”
“I know.”
In the current reality of Joseon, that is a challenge to the majestic royal authority and a clear act of treason.
Cho Yeong-ha, who sensed that the matter had become enormously bigger, whispered his thoughts to Cho Byeong-ho in a tone quite different from before.
“The Enlightenment Party brats were clearly in line with the king’s will until they purged the pro-Qing faction. Recently, the concubines had been too bold because they only believed in the prestige of the middle queen. But I guess the king’s and the brats’ vision for the future of Joseon was different at the end.”
“What, what should we do? Many people have already heard their nonsense clearly, and we are the suppression army commanders!”
Following Cho Byeong-ho’s point, the cheers of the people around the platform were getting louder.
Seeing the capital atmosphere become more serious in front of his eyes, Cho Byeong-ho trembled like aspen leaves.
“I don’t want to die here!”
Otherwise, we might be labeled as pro-Qing national traitors.
To this, Cho Yeong-ha burst out with a nervous shout.
“Stop making noise and shut your mouth! I’m thinking about it too!”
“Ex.”
When Cho Byeong-ho, who was scolded for being the same age, shrank to one side, the heat in Unjongga had already been burning enough to burn the entire Joseon.
“Our revolution!”
“The people’s revolution!”
The people of the capital, who had firmly taken the same side, were chanting the twenty Revolutionary Promises announced by the Enlightenment Party one by one, arm in arm with the royal guard Jeon Yeong’s soldiers who had joined the Enlightenment Party, and some were inciting to attack the big houses marked as pro-Qing faction as traitors.
The Enlightenment Party’s revolution was approaching its climax.
*****
The heat of the afternoon did not cool down, however
“Bang!”
Finally, the sound of gunfire rang out.
The battle of the liars around the false betrayals had just begun.