The Wiwha Island Return
I came down to the border area between West Gando and the Korean Empire, just in case. It was the perfect spot from which to mobilize troops at any moment. Of course, I had also spread the lie in Hanseong that I was still stationed in Manchuria.
“The situation in Hanseong has not yet been confirmed.”
“Shouldn’t we just march straight down?”
“That’s right. If something happens, won’t it be too late by then?”
The Manchurian faction officers all agreed that we should head down immediately, but I wasn’t particularly eager. I needed a proper justification first.
Yi Beom-yun wouldn’t die so easily. I had embedded plenty of officers among the demonstrators so we could move the moment anything went wrong, and there were figures like Prince Uichin on our side as well.
Around that time, one piece of news arrived. Yi Wan-yong had come to the Manchurian army camp.
“Your Excellency! An emergency has occurred in Hanseong!”
“What kind of emergency?”
“Bak Seung-hwan has launched a coup! He’s arrested the Manchurian faction officials and is trying to seize Prime Minister Yi Beom-yun!”
Prime Minister. They had gone after Yi Beom-yun. So the thing that was bound to explode had finally gone off. Should I really sit back and watch this?
Wait. Hold on.
What happened to Yi Beom-yun? He had to be alive if we were going to keep the cabinet intact.
“What happened to the Prime Minister?”
“He managed to escape to the outskirts of Hanseong, but we don’t know his current whereabouts. The Manchurian demonstrators are there, so he probably hasn’t been killed yet.”
That was a relief, but we still needed to hurry. It was time to start preparing the return march. That was the only way to save Yi Beom-yun.
“The incompetent imperial family has finally caused an incident.”
“Your Excellency, you cannot let this slide!”
“We must turn the army around!”
“Indeed. We beg you to declare a return to the capital.”
“We can no longer allow the imperial family to threaten the survival rights of the Korean people!”
To the Manchurian faction officers, the Korean Empire’s imperial family was nothing but a useless, floating entity. These men, whom I had taught Hongikism and the survival rights of the Korean people in order to unite the Manchu and Han ethnic groups, were now telling me to turn the army around.
Yes. What they were really saying was to stop listening to those bastards and march straight into Hanseong.
Did they even know where we were? This was Wiwha Island.
Wiwha Island was a piece of land formed by the sediment carried down by the Yalu River. It existed as an administrative district and had even been inhabited by Japanese during the Japanese occupation. And most importantly, it was famous as the place where Yi Seong-gye had carried out his return from Wiwha Island.
Exactly. The Joseon dynasty, which had begun with their seizure of power through rebellion, would now meet its end the same way.
I stepped outside, gathered the soldiers, and began my speech.
“I could have driven them out at any time, elevated the Prime Minister to President or Supreme Leader, and turned this country into a pure military dictatorship. But I didn’t. Why? Because I respected the imperial family—the great tree that has stood for five hundred years.”
The Manchurian army officers and soldiers listened in silence.
“But all they care about is the safety of the imperial family and their own imperial authority. They don’t even think about the people’s livelihood. Instead of constantly striving for development to secure the survival rights of the Korean people, they’ve been obsessed with protecting the imperial family alone. In the end, that’s nothing but the selfish idea of living alone on this tiny peninsula south of the Yalu River.”
Those bastards had been selfish for all five hundred years. I gaslit the Manchurian army like that. In reality, the Manchurian army was mostly composed of Han and Jurchen people, so they had no intention of opposing my words. The ethnic Koreans among them had originally crossed into Manchuria with clear intentions, so they held no loyalty to the emperor whatsoever. I used that to stir them up.
I had already secured public sentiment to some degree. Hadn’t I already crushed the vested interests who might side with the emperor during the previous reforms?
“What exactly has the current imperial family done over these five hundred years? Yi Seong-gye overthrew the corrupt Goryeo dynasty, saying it could no longer continue, and opened a new era. Yet these people spent five hundred years treating China as their parent, offering their country’s women and all kinds of tribute, and even bribing lowly envoys so heavily that the nation’s economy was crippled. They oppressed the Manchu people, who had once been like brothers, and during the Imjin War they claimed they could not betray the Ming because it had helped them, only to end up prostrating before the Qing. And regrettably, they achieved only nominal independence thanks to Japan—the very jackals that had been eyeing this land. Look! How pathetic these five hundred years have been! What difference is there between that imperial family, this Korean Empire, and Goryeo?”
I completely denied the five-hundred-year Joseon dynasty. Of course, there had been some sage kings during that period. There was King Sejong, and a few others had left behind real achievements. But they had never once escaped China’s shadow, and even that escape had only been possible because Japan had devoured Joseon after defeating the Qing.
I denied the Korean Empire. I denied the Joseon dynasty. If they tried to maintain it, I would cut off all their limbs and reduce them to mere symbols. The imperial family no longer meant anything. What had the imperial family ever done for you?
I denied it all. Even while using Hangul, I denied the Joseon of King Sejong who had created it.
“Even though the world has changed, even though countless nations and great powers now raise their voices and compete on the international stage, even after seeing that so-called mighty Qing—China—collapse, those so-called ‘recent situation faction’ bastards closed their eyes and ears and ultimately moved the army to eliminate us! I believe I have endured as much as I can endure. What do you gentlemen think? What should we do with those who would make the Korean people slaves of the Yi imperial family?”
The stage was now properly set. Yi Wan-yong, standing beside me, had his mouth hanging open. Something seemed to have occurred to him.
Of course. Anyone could see that this was the Wiwha Island return—the event that had accelerated Goryeo’s fall. The time when Yi Seong-gye’s faction seized power.
“You must declare the return!”
“Turn the army around!”
“Our Jurchen troops will take the lead!”
“This Zhang Zuolin will charge at the forefront into Hanseong!”
Yes. This was enough. The board was perfectly laid. All that remained was to drive the army south.
Now I could legitimately drag out Lady Eom and her golden child. Regrettably, I would also have to send Bak Seung-hwan to prison.
“If that is what my soldiers wish, how could I refuse? Today, on the 22nd day of the 5th month of the Imja year (1912), I declare the return from Wiwha Island!”
A tremendous roar erupted.
Long live the Manchurian Administrator! Long live the Manchurian Hundred Nations!
The declaration of the Wiwha Island return. The very same return that Emperor Taejo Yi Seong-gye had carried out in 1388 was now happening again—524 years later.
More importantly, this Yi Wan-yong bastard. Didn’t he already know? About Ok Jin-seo’s bloodline. He must have sensed something, which was why he had come all the way here himself.
A mischievous thought occurred to me. Something I wanted to use.
“Minister of Education.”
“Yes, Your Excellency.”
Yi Wan-yong, who had no idea what I was about to say, wore a relieved expression as if everything was settled. I wondered how he would react if I brought this up now.
“What would you say if I told you I am related to the Wang clan that was massacred at the beginning of the Joseon dynasty?”
“What do you mean by that?”
He didn’t seem to understand. If he couldn’t grasp it, there was no point in saying more. Maybe I should just let it go. But since I had already brought it up…
This Yi Wan-yong was quick-witted. He had come here on his own to give me justification, so I had to make sure he could never escape my side.
“What if I told you I am a descendant of King Gongmin, the last reformist monarch of late Goryeo, and Princess Noguk?”
“What on earth…”
“Wouldn’t that at least help calm the chaos in this country later on?”
It was no different from legitimately reclaiming my rightful place. At this point, even Yi Wan-yong should understand what I meant.
Sure enough, cold sweat poured down Yi Wan-yong’s face before it froze solid.
“Surely… Your Excellency isn’t saying…”
“It was just a slip of the tongue. Ignore it.”
In any case, Yi Wan-yong could not escape from here. Unless he was obsessively loyal to the Yi imperial family, he would follow me even if I turned out to be a reptilian.
I immediately led the army to find West Gando Administrator Seo Sang-mu and requested his cooperation.
“W-what the hell are you doing?”
“Administrator Seo. The imperial family has just used the military to attack Prime Minister Yi Beom-yun’s cabinet. Please join us in our cause.”
In short, this was illegal. The imperial family was trying to arbitrarily eliminate the cabinet. Of course, on the surface this was an absolute monarchy, so if one wished, one should follow the imperial family’s will. But so what? In this world, the one with power is the law.
“This is a return march without an imperial order! It’s treason!”
“What are you talking about? Even Emperor Taejo Yi Seong-gye was nothing but a rebel when he first carried out the return from Wiwha Island.”
“You! Are you denying this country?”
“Yes, I deny it. A hundred times, a thousand times, I deny it.”
If I deny it, what can you do about it? Other than throwing a tantrum here, what exactly can you do? The West Gando forces are little more than a security detail anyway.
“How can you do this when even your superior, Prime Minister Yi Beom-yun, was reappointed as Administrator by His Majesty?”
“Hasn’t that emperor already become a rotting white skeleton? The incompetent imperial family is only looking after its own interests. No matter what happens to the country, they are purging the Manchurian faction that developed this nation and causing internal division. And you still say such things? The one you should be loyal to, Administrator, is not that incompetent imperial family but this Samhan peninsula. Furthermore, it is all the citizens living within the survival rights of the Arirang people—not those incompetent bastards. Or do you truly wish for civil war?”
Seo Sang-mu pondered for a long time at my words. He frowned, glared at me, sighed, showed a variety of expressions, and finally opened his mouth.
“No matter what, I was reappointed as Administrator by the imperial family. I simply did not see you gentlemen today.”
He would open the path for us. He knew there was no answer to this situation. So he had found a way to at least lessen his guilt a little.
Good. Now we would march south as quickly as possible.
Day by day, tension grew inside Seokjojeon of the Korean Empire. It was good that Bak Seung-hwan had somehow roused patriotism and united the recent-situation faction to strike the Manchurian faction, but Yi Beom-yun had escaped from Hanseong, and there was still no contact from Ok Jin-seo. In other words, Ok Jin-seo had already grasped the situation.
And before long, strange news arrived.
“The Hamheung Jinwidae will stand with you! Administrator, please accept our Jinwidae!”
“Our Pyongyang demonstrators will cooperate with Your Excellency’s army!”
The entire north had begun to cooperate with Ok Jin-seo. In effect, the whole northern territory had fallen into her hands.
“Hamgyeongbuk-do, Hamgyeongnam-do, Pyeonganbuk-do, Pyeongannam-do, and Hwanghae-do have all quickly responded to Ok Jin-seo’s army!”
“The entire northern army is defying the imperial order!”
The northern army had all defected. From the beginning, Manchurian army officers had been deployed even to the provinces during the military reforms.
“What the hell happened to these people! Then what about the Samnam region?”
Surely the Samnam wouldn’t fall as well?
“There are hardly any righteous armies gathering in response to the imperial order in the Samnam, and there is no meaningful military force there. The navy is also composed of pro-Ok Jin-seo faction members trained by the German advisors she summoned—”
“How can this be happening?”
It was all because Ok Jin-seo had already done all the personnel work in preparation for a moment like this. Naturally, there was no one who would follow them. And even if there were those who sincerely gathered out of loyalty to the imperial family, Ok Jin-seo’s southward march was far faster than the time it would take to prepare royalist troops.
Around this time, Bak Seung-hwan also sensed that something was going strangely.
“They say Ok Jin-seo has declared a return from Wiwha Island. What do you think that means? It is the Wiwha Island return.”
“What…”
The Wiwha Island return. The decisive event that had hastened the fall of Goryeo. That very event was now being reenacted. Regrettably, unlike King Seonjo—who had checked Yi Sun-sin, who was too similar to Emperor Taejo—the imperial family, now with all its limbs cut off, had tried to eliminate Ok Jin-seo using this method, but even that was becoming difficult.
“How did Emperor Taejo seize power? Wasn’t it precisely thanks to the Wiwha Island return? We may end up in the same danger as the previous dynasty. We must somehow gather troops for defense and call in the foreign envoys to grant legitimacy.”
At Min Yeong-hwan’s words, the emperor and Lady Eom immediately gathered all the troops inside Hanseong and even visited the foreign legations.
“Support you? No, you suddenly launch a亲卫 coup without a word and now you ask this? The British Empire cannot support your imperial family.”
“Our United States has no intention of interfering in your country’s internal affairs.”
“The revolution of the people cannot be stopped. Your imperial family will be destroyed by the Jeanne d’Arc who has reincarnated in Korea.”
The foreign legations were of no help. On the contrary, they either subtly supported Ok Jin-seo or simply declared neutrality. The very countries that had once interfered so freely in this nation’s internal affairs now ignored them completely.
The imperial family still did not realize it. The being called Ok Jin-seo had traveled across Europe as a child, mastered every language, and was favorable toward foreign powers. It would be far better for her to take power than for the imperial family to remain.
And before they knew it, Ok Jin-seo’s forces had already reached Hanseong.