Let's Clarify the Hierarchy
The meeting with Jordan, the Japanese consul to Korea, was truly significant. That bastard actually claimed he would side with us. Well, it was less about truly backing our side and more that Japan had been thoroughly beaten by Russia, so at the very least they wanted to keep the Korean Empire as a buffer zone. Still, there was some welcome news in what I heard. Looking at their behavior, it was obvious why the British, who had tolerated Japan devouring the Korean Empire, had suddenly changed their attitude.
The Battle of Tsushima between the Pacific and Baltic Combined Fleets and the Japanese Combined Fleet. Russia had won in the end.
Even with Bloody Sunday exploding in Russia, it must have been a devastating blow for Japan, and Britain could no longer afford to simply sit on the sidelines. “And then.”
I glanced outside and saw soldiers of the Korean Empire and Russian troops working together to clear away the bodies that had once been Japanese soldiers. The roles had completely reversed from when they should have been pointing rifles at each other. All because of my existence alone. The Korean Empire, which had been nothing but an empty shell, had finally bought itself some time.
“I understand that Countess Ok helped secure our Russian victory, but the Korean troops were still the ones who pointed their guns at us. At the very least, it would have been better to take them prisoner.”
General Kuropatkin, commander of the Far East Army, tried to raise objections after the fact. “The incompetent emperor became Japan’s puppet and sent them. What do you expect? Please overlook it this once under the Commander-in-Chief’s discretion.”
The area around Shenyang was filled with Japanese corpses, so cleaning them up would clearly take a long time. Of course, not all of them were dead. When you’re capturing and killing hundreds of thousands, some are bound to slip through. The ones who escaped would be caught again and put to work repairing the roads in Gando.
“I’m worried they might turn into ghosts. When you think about it, those men were just following their country’s orders.”
Kim In-soo muttered as he watched the soldiers handling the Japanese bodies. “Who cares if they become ghosts?”
Having already experienced death myself, whether they became ghosts or not was none of my business. Just processing these corpses would take forever anyway.
“Kuroki Tamemoto’s First Army is still out there.” “We’ll capture them.”
Kuroki Tamemoto’s forces would meet their end too. Well, since we had already killed so many, the rest of his army would be drafted into the Korean Empire’s modernization projects. Where else could we get tens of thousands of free laborers?
“Did your negotiations with the British consul go well?”
This Kim In-soo really asked a lot of questions. Still, it was grating that someone who wasn’t even a diplomat was sticking his nose into interstate diplomacy. That was probably what he was getting at.
“At the very least we’ll be able to cut off our bad blood with those Japanese bastards, so there’s nothing bad about it for us.”
Since the Russo-Japanese War had ended in Japan’s defeat, the Korean Peninsula would no longer become a Japanese colony. As long as Nicholas II remained alive, I would hold the line, and Russia wouldn’t try to swallow the Korean Empire either.
“The French officers who visited Gando were praising the Shenyang Administrator as Korea’s Joan of Arc.”
Korea’s Joan of Arc. That actually felt pretty good. Wasn’t it thanks to that kind of treatment that France had helped me?
“Korea’s Joan of Arc, huh. I just got lucky.”
Honestly, there were quite a few similarities with Joan of Arc. It made sense that the French liked it. Especially since it was a country their ally Russia favored. But France probably didn’t want Russian influence in the Far East to grow too strong, so they were deliberately courting me. If things went well, performing surgery on the Korean Empire might not be that difficult.
Once the Russo-Japanese War ended, we could use the money we had wrung from the Qing for preventing the desecration of Nurhaci’s ancestral tombs, along with what we took from Japan, to begin modernization.
“By the way, Chief of Staff, you really seem to despise the Japanese.” “In this era, wouldn’t it be strange not to hate Japan?”
What nonsense. If you grabbed any random passerby and asked if they hated Japan, they’d say yes immediately. All that talk about the Anglo-Japanese Alliance was just because Emperor Gojong had his eyes set on Manchuria.
“No, I mean on a fundamental level—that Japan should not exist.”
Oh, he gets it. Yes. I do believe Japan should not exist.
“Of course. Japan has to be crushed along with the Qing for the Korean Empire to survive. After it becomes a semi-colony through the New Treaty, with its war capabilities shattered, Japan will be groveling while the Western powers are temporarily friendly toward the Korean Empire. That’s when we survive.”
What had happened to future Korea? Colonization, division, and constant pressure from neighboring countries. Japan had been one of those pressures. Of course, I wasn’t the type to scream “I’m blindly anti-Japanese!” but for Korea to survive in this era, we had to beat Japan so badly they would never again emerge from their islands.
The Japan of this time had already tasted the sweet nectar of imperialism, and the damage they had caused was enormous. We had already crossed a river of no return when it came to getting along with them. One of us had to die, and as a Korean, it only made sense to beat them so thoroughly they could no longer function as a proper country.
But first I had to revive this pathetic nation. We were finally back at the starting line, and we had finally laid the foundation for revival. With the mighty British Empire glancing in our direction even for a moment, and with Nicholas II wrapped around my finger, it was possible now.
“How far are you looking?” “What?”
Asking how far I was looking out of nowhere made me feel a little wronged.
“If the Korean Empire grows strong like that, we’ll eventually have to fight the vengeful Qing and Japan again.”
That was true. They might even form an alliance. Assuming the Qing didn’t fracture, of course. But unfortunately, the Qing Dynasty’s lifespan was coming to an end.
“The Qing will collapse before long, so swallowing them won’t be difficult. In the first place they’ll have to beg us for peace while paying us money. As for Japan, we’ll have to exterminate the Yamato people until their proud mainland becomes one massive graveyard. We will secure the survival rights of the Korean people.”
The extermination of the Yamato people. Wasn’t that the wish of the current people of the Korean Empire—Koreans, in short? And securing the survival rights of the Korean people.
Unlike Japan, which had dominated Manchuria and started the Sino-Japanese War, we would split apart a fractured China where warlords had declared independence, turn Japan into one giant graveyard, and use the revolution to seize that resource-rich Russian territory as well.
“Hahaha. You’re joking too much.” “Does it look like a joke to you?”
When I grinned, Kim In-soo shut his mouth tightly. Unfortunately, it had become impossible to live under the same sky as Japan. They had killed the emperor of the Korean Empire, and hundreds of thousands of their troops had been annihilated by us. Both sides would cry out for revenge. In the end, it had become a zero-sum game.
I was surprisingly attached to life. Since I had made a name for myself in the Korean Empire, I had to drive a stake into it. To do that, I had to settle things with Japan once and for all. In the future I had seen Japan as nothing more than a travel destination apart from political issues, but here there was no choice. The reason I had erased hundreds of thousands of their troops was also to eventually settle the score with Japan. We needed to hold grudges against each other so we could fight again later.
But turning the Japanese archipelago into hell would require more than ordinary power. So how about mobilizing overwhelming air power to destroy all their farmland and spraying poison gas across every major city? That much would be necessary.
“Well, how far can someone in a woman’s body go?” “Ahem. Once we finish dealing with those bastards, we’ll advance south, right?”
This guy still seemed to think I was lying.
“Since it would be troublesome if Russia advanced all the way to the Korean Peninsula, we need to hurry with preparations.”
But while advancing south in moderation, I planned to slowly descend all the way to the south, using negotiations as an excuse. I had to deal with the conservative scholars obstructing reform at this opportunity. If the Japanese army took care of them instead of me doing it myself, it would eliminate the scholars and make it easier for Yi Beom-yun to seize power later.
“The meeting is starting in Shenyang now.” “And?”
“To create the world the Chief of Staff is trying to achieve, the Sapodae will eventually have to overthrow things, won’t they?”
Whoa. If someone overheard that, it would sound like treason. “Overthrow? If someone heard that, they’d think it was a rebellion.”
I had no intention of doing any such thing. I was simply going to use one to control the other naturally. The Japanese army had turned the cabinet into a mess, and in Manchuria praise for the Sapodae continued. Bak Seung-hwan’s Korean Empire army had been put in an awkward position. They had stood by as numbers during my fight, but they had become accomplices to those who killed the emperor. At this point we needed to uproot public sentiment toward the imperial family. Rather, we would use it.
In the end, a constitutional monarchy was the model answer. “Then are you aiming for a constitutional monarchy?” “That would be it. At this point, that’s the answer.”
Whether British-style or Japanese-style. I really didn’t know about other things, but I highly evaluated Japan’s modernization. Korea now was too late, so we had to completely end the war and use the current public sentiment to let the Sapodae seize power.
Now then. I should see how the military conference was going to unfold.
The Korean Empire army under Bak Seung-hwan, the Sapodae, and the joint command were formed.
“Seeing them die like that, I actually feel a bit sorry for the Japanese bastards.” “These guys truly believed they were fighting for Joseon and the East.”
Fighting for Joseon and the East. Even giving them every benefit of the doubt, the higher-ups were different. They had been strangling Joseon with all kinds of unequal treaties until now. The Japan-Korea Protocol was a prime example.
“Do you really think they believed that?” “Yes. Isn’t that always how the Japanese act?”
If Emperor Gojong had fled to Russia early like he did during the flight to the Russian legation, it would have been extremely awkward for Japan. Even if they established a pro-Japanese government, too much time would have passed. If the Russian-puppet Gojong encouraged the righteous armies, Russia would have held out longer, and Japan would have been stuck with nowhere to go and collapsed. After that the Korean Empire would have become a Russian protectorate, but anyway.
That was how desperately Japan had staked everything on the Russo-Japanese War.
“Well, it must be a minority.”
How many truly believed that? They always claimed it was for the East. That was just an excuse. In the end it was imperialism. Based on the Russo-Japanese War, they had been proceeding smoothly with the colonization of Korea. Fortunately it had ended in Russia’s victory here, so it didn’t happen.
“The Chief of Staff seems remarkably relaxed when we need to advance south immediately.” “Relaxed? Ah, compared to the Commander’s army, I suppose we do look relaxed.”
We could fight as much as we wanted, but the Korean Empire army right now could not. The Korean Empire army had helped catch the Japanese here, but they had still been allied with Japan. Therefore we had to clearly resolve the hierarchy and positions here and now.
“What do you mean?” “Because you acted as the accomplices of Japan, who assassinated His Majesty the Emperor.”
It was because there hadn’t been much action, but even after the emperor died, the Korean Empire army had remained allied with Japan for several months. They only learned the news late and flipped the board, but still.
“That was a mistake! We had no idea at all!”
Bak Seung-hwan glared at me and shouted as if aggrieved, but that was it. Why wouldn’t I know? Bak Seung-hwan was the kind of man who would commit suicide when the army was disbanded. But here, to secure the Sapodae’s superiority, we would have to manipulate the narrative a bit by saying they had stood in front of the Japanese army.
“How many Koreans would understand that? In any case, it is a fact that an army of eighty thousand fought side by side with the Japanese bastards.”
I spoke slyly and turned my head. “The Shenyang Administrator’s words are too harsh!” “We were deceived by them too!”
The staff officers under Bak Seung-hwan were fuming, swallowing their anger. On the other hand, the Sapodae officers who had fought alongside me and had already become full-fledged war machines were grinning.
Too harsh? So what? Reality was reality. Regardless of what they felt inside, they had joined with Japan, hadn’t they?
“Trusting the Japanese bastards. I’d rather trust a cat put in charge of a fish store.”
Even though there had been no direct engagements. In the end they had become one and fought against Russia. Russia had also viewed the Korean Empire as an enemy. Therefore the Sapodae must take the lead here. That was what I was saying now.
“So what do you want us to do about it?” “We’ll simply take the lead.” “The Sapodae will take the lead? In the end, isn’t that about claiming the credit?”
At first glance it seemed like I was sowing discord, but we had to solidify our position through the end of the war. It meant we had to firmly establish ourselves not merely as an entity playing around in Gando and Manchuria from outside, but as something more solid.
“It’s not about claiming credit. This is our natural right. On the contrary, I’m the one who stopped Russia when they tried to take the Korean Empire army as prisoners.” “Just whose army is the Sapodae supposed to be?”
Whose army—those words were harsh. Did he think I would say it was the Russian army?
“It is the Korean Empire’s army. That is why we should lead. At the very least, wouldn’t it look better for us, who won the war in Manchuria, to be the ones advancing south? That much should make our citizens, steeped in defeatism, feel better.”
Rather than an army that had followed the Japanese, an army that had crushed the Japanese advancing south and fully reclaiming the Korean Peninsula from Japan would look far better, wouldn’t it? I wasn’t saying anything wrong.