A Secret Meeting with Prince Uichin
But something feels a little lacking.
“What is it?” Bezobrazov opened his lukewarm eyes.
“Just look at the way they’re granting me Southern Manchuria as a personal fief. Doesn’t it reek of something fishy?”
“Fishy?”
I don’t know if he’s ignoring me or what, but I’m going to say what needs to be said. It’s obviously suspicious, and I can tell you exactly what kind of stench it is. I tilted my head and spoke carefully.
Like, by forcing me into a position where I have no choice but to rely on Russia, for example. How am I supposed to report to His Majesty the Emperor of Korea that I’ve received a fief from the Tsar without causing a misunderstanding?
It would be troublesome if Lady Eom branded me a traitor who sold out the Korean Empire to Russia. That would mean Russia was deliberately stirring up internal division within the empire.
“You need not worry about that. I have been granted full authority. Within a suitable timeframe, we will enter into border negotiations with the Korean Empire government through official diplomatic channels.”
I see. They’re going to openly confirm the border and thereby strengthen my position. That was the real point. It wasn’t simply about giving me a count’s title. The border would be officially settled, so any achievements would be recognized as such, but the pro-imperial faction would keep an even closer eye on me. In the end, I would have no choice but to rely more heavily on outside power—on Russian power.
But on the other hand, it also clearly established me as the diplomatic channel between Korea and Russia. One thing was certain: even if the pro-imperial faction reduced my influence, they couldn’t kill me. Lady Eom would simply try to screw me over in a different way.
Once the deal with Bezobrazov was successfully concluded, Choi Jae-hyung praised me until his mouth went dry.
“Incredible. To think you would threaten the Viceroy of the Far East.”
“You have to threaten people if you want to survive.”
To survive, you have to do whatever it takes. I probably would have threatened Nicholas II himself if he’d been the one sitting there. If it had been Rasputin, I would have used his adulterous affairs as leverage.
“But are you going to be all right?”
“What do you mean all of a sudden?”
Besides Bezobrazov, what other problem could there be that would make him ask if I was all right? Bezobrazov was already bound to me by fate, so there was no issue there.
“The imperial family seems to be wary of you.”
Ah, so that’s what he meant. The imperial family had been wary of me for a long time. But Choi Jae-hyung was right. It was about time I figured out how to deal with them.
“I suppose I’ll have to pay them some attention soon.”
It seemed Lady Eom was pressuring Prince Uichin. In that case, I should meet with him as well. He looked like he had a lot on his mind lately. Of course, before that, I planned to check the Alternate History Gallery to see what kind of person he was.
Army General Yi Kang. Son of Emperor Gojong and Noble Consort Jang, he was born of a concubine. Unlike in the original history, he returned to Korea in 1905 at his father’s summons in preparation for war and was commissioned as Vice Minister of the Korean Empire’s army. During the Russo-Japanese War, he remained in Hanseong as commander of the Capital Defense Army.
“Honorable Consort, what are you saying?”
“Seize control of the army by any means necessary! Must the imperial family of this nation truly lose its sovereign power to that woman?”
“Watch your words. Can this nation survive right now without the Manchurian army?”
Lady Eom was threatening him to take control of the military somehow. But was that so easy? The era of absolute monarchy had clearly reached its limit. And if one asked whether the Korean imperial family still possessed the Mandate of Heaven, the answer was no longer certain. Everywhere, people were singing the praises of the Manchurian army. Among them, the names of Yi Beom-yun and Ok Jin-seo were praised even more than the Emperor’s. They stopped just short of shouting “Manse!” three times.
Of course the old scholars disapproved, but this was now an age when guns were stronger than brushes. Even if Confucius and Mencius returned from the dead, they would not survive this brutal era.
Still, why did it have to be the Noble Consort coming to me?
If one were to be precise, Prince Uichin Yi Kang had never gotten along with Lady Eom. She had checked him at every turn because she wanted to push her own son, Prince Yeongchin, as heir to the throne. In the original world, she had even used silver to prevent him from returning, but in this timeline he had come back early thanks to his father Gojong’s summons. Having also taken up the position of military commander, he had been checked even more by Lady Eom. But after the Manchurian faction suddenly rose to prominence in the postwar period, Lady Eom’s attitude had changed.
“She must think the imperial family is in danger.”
She was willing to let a rival like him take control of the army if it meant protecting the Yi clan of Jeonju. She was pushing him—the one with the most military experience—precisely because she wanted to protect the imperial family at all costs.
Lady Eom was desperately trying to safeguard the imperial house. It was probably out of a desire to repay the grace she had received from the previous emperor. It was truly pitiful. To Prince Uichin, who had studied in America, it was clear that this country had no future if it clung to the imperial family. The Noble Consort simply pushed absolute monarchy without any plan. How to govern under absolute monarchy, who should become emperor, how to appoint talented people—none of it was thought through. In the end, Lady Eom’s best idea was that as long as the Yi clan of Jeonju survived, it didn’t matter if the Korean Empire fell into the abyss or rolled around in the gutter.
“Wouldn’t it be better to compromise with the Manchurian army and move toward a constitutional monarchy?”
The scholars were no longer what they once were. Most of them had died during Kuroki Tamemoto’s eight-province righteous army suppression campaign. Besides, would the Manchurian army even leave the scholars—the very foundation of this country—alone? If the scholars rose up, it would only give them a pretext to tighten their grip on the imperial family, and guns would silence the scholars. The times had changed.
Ok Jin-seo of the Manchurian army already understood the world better than anyone else in this country thanks to her experiences in Europe. That was why she had built a strong army by drawing in not only Korean subjects but also Manchurians and Han Chinese. Both the Capital Defense Army and the Imperial Guard were favorably disposed toward the Manchurian army’s officers. They had no choice. When they had been held captive in Hanseong, dying while fighting Kuroki’s forces alongside the righteous armies in the provinces, she had appeared like a ray of sunlight piercing through black clouds.
Could the imperial family really be treated the same as an army like that? The righteous armies had risen up seeking revenge against the military, but as the damage grew, resentment toward the previous emperor—who had chosen Japan as an ally—also erupted. Yes. The imperial family’s place in this world was slowly disappearing.
What justification was there to secure the Capital Defense Army and Imperial Guard in the first place? The Manchurian army wasn’t even touching him right now. There was no need to stir up trouble.
“Your Highness, Prince Uichin.”
“Is that not the Minister of Foreign Affairs?”
Just as Prince Uichin’s worries were reaching their peak, Minister of Foreign Affairs Ok Jin-seo appeared.
Before calling Prince Uichin, there was one thing I needed to confirm. In other words, the Alternate History Gallery was necessary right now.
I invited Prince Uichin to the Foreign Ministry building. This time, even if I couldn’t bring him fully to our side, I had to at least put a leash on him so he couldn’t oppose us.
“The English fellows really do make excellent tea.”
I poured the black tea that the arrogant British legation had sent as a gift and offered it to Yi Kang.
“Indeed they do.”
“I hear you studied in America.”
That meant he was an overseas faction member. At the very least, he was an intelligent man who could understand what I was saying. I had to either persuade or threaten him.
“That’s right. His Late Majesty summoned me back to Korea.”
“Then you must know how wretched this country is. How it is a frog in a well, powerless yet stubbornly arrogant.”
I openly mocked Lady Eom.
“My friend, those words are rather harsh. The walls have ears!”
Not a single word was wrong. Even now, if you went down to the provinces, there were scholars who did nothing but eat and spout nonsense about the teachings of Confucius and Mencius, claiming we shouldn’t imitate the Westerners. This was an era of ignorance that refused to see how the world had changed. I pushed all such idle thoughts aside. The real question was how to make the Korean people strong. Even worrying about it now might already be too late, yet they spoke so well.
“But doesn’t Your Highness know this as well? Frankly, if our Manchurian army had failed to stop the enemy in Manchuria or had been defeated by Kuroki, what would have become of this country?”
“That…”
We would have been completely finished. Well, the imperial family might have been preserved for a while. The Japanese would have found Sunjong easy to manage, and judging by Lady Eom’s behavior, they might have brought Yi Wan-yong back for another “miraculous negotiation” and kept only the imperial family alive under the justification of “preserving the imperial house.” Since the Japanese had lost the capacity to rule Korea after being annihilated in Manchuria, they would at least have turned us into a puppet state.
“Even in the middle of all that, Her Highness the Noble Consort is only trying to protect imperial authority. She has no interest in how the people of this country live. She protects the current Emperor—who isn’t even a proper heir—and is pushing Prince Yeong as the successor.”
From Lady Eom’s perspective, protecting Sunjong was the top priority. Once she secured his position as the legitimate successor and solidified Prince Yeong’s place as the next heir, she would force an abdication. Lady Eom was an imperial family supremacist through and through.
“Do you even understand what you’re saying? I may be a concubine’s son, but I am still a prince of this nation.”
“Yet you still see the world clearly. At this point, rather than covering the sky with your hand, you should look at reality. Even when you look at reality, it’s uncertain whether the Korean Empire can preserve its national structure. So must we continue to leave that woman—Lady Eom—who acts like she owns the imperial family simply because she received favor from the previous emperor?”
In short, the question was whether we should keep that thoughtless woman around. I could understand her desire to repay Gojong’s grace to some extent, but her lack of thinking was beyond comprehension.
“Whether it’s the Noble Consort or you, the women of this country are all terrifying.”
“Women should be dealt with by other women. That’s the only way to do it properly.”
The fact that he called women terrifying suggested he had received some kind of order from Lady Eom. She must have spoken to him about the military. In that case, there were plenty of ways to use this.
“What exactly do you want to say?”
In response to Yi Kang’s question, I deliberately took out my axe and placed it on the table. I had cleaned it thoroughly, but this was the handaxe that had slaughtered countless Qing and Japanese bastards.
“I have killed countless Manchurians and Han Chinese. I took bandit-like scum, put them into the Manchurian army, gave them French training, and forged them into a real army through sheer tenacity. With that army I took the heads of countless Japanese, and even now Nogi’s and Iwao’s skulls are still pickled in salt. To be honest, if I wanted to, I could overturn this country. The only reasons I haven’t are because I am a woman, and because I believe the imperial family must still remain if we are to remake this nation. And now I concurrently hold the positions of Minister of Foreign Affairs and Commander of the Manchurian Army.”
I wasn’t exactly threatening him. The fact that I could say this much, that a woman like me could achieve so much and hold such important positions, only proved how wretched this country was in this era without women’s suffrage.
“It seems the imperial family has reached its limit. To hear such treasonous talk without batting an eye.”
Yi Kang laughed hollowly and shook his head. Why shouldn’t I go this far? I didn’t know for sure, but supposedly King Gongyang had begged his ally Yi Seong-gye before handing over the throne.
“The fact that you haven’t drawn a sword or gun against me, nor shown any anger, means you have either given up or learned something from the war with the three countries, does it not?”
“What do you want?”
It was time to throw out some bait. Honestly, this was almost a gamble, but so what? What if I told Prince Uichin—descendant of the great Taejo Yi Seong-gye—about my own genealogy? How would he react? This was practically a gamble. There was no chance he would just let it slide without comment.
“Do you know why my family bears the surname Ok?”
“What are you suddenly—”
What do you mean suddenly? This is something that needs to be said.
“My family was heavily persecuted in the early days of Taejo. We changed our surname to Ok and survived as a merchant household, maintaining ourselves as peddlers.”
At my words, Prince Uichin made a strange expression as if asking what that was supposed to mean. Then, not long after, his face twisted strangely. He must have realized what it implied. A family persecuted in the early days of Taejo. A family that changed its surname to survive. What family could that possibly be?