The Road Ahead Is Long
The road ahead is long.
In the Russian Empire’s capital of St. Petersburg, news of Ok Jin-seo’s exploits had reached the ears of the imperial family, albeit later than in other nations. Given that the Russian Empire’s recent foreign policy centered on cooperation with the Korean Empire in Manchuria, they couldn’t help but take a deep interest in the situation there. Among the Tsar’s household, it had become quite the intriguing topic.
“I hear there’s a rumor about a madwoman running wild in Manchuria lately.”
“She belongs to the Korean army stationed in the Gando region, Your Majesty. According to the stories, she led from the front, stormed a Chinese military camp, and wiped them out.”
“Oh? You’re saying a woman’s body is capable of such a thing?”
Tsar Nicholas II showed clear interest, as if the tale had caught his fancy. After all, this was no longer an age where men fought solely with spears and swords. In this era, no matter how diligently one trained in swordsmanship or spearmanship, a single rifle could end a life with a single “bang.” And yet a woman was doing it? At an age when most girls were marrying and bearing children, no less. It was rather peculiar.
“From what I understand, she single-handedly took up a Berthier rifle and gunned down dozens of Qing soldiers. Of course, these are only rumors, so we must take them with a grain of salt. Still, French officers and diplomats from various countries have expressed a desire to see her at least once.”
“Isn’t she the woman who negotiated with the Viceroy of the Far East? I’d like to meet her. But it seems the Empress has been quite diligent in her research, hasn’t she?”
It was the first time the Empress had shown such interest. Seeing his pregnant wife so engaged made Nicholas II oddly curious as well.
“Isn’t it only natural? This concerns Manchuria, which is vital to us. As the Empress, shouldn’t such matters regarding our interests in Manchuria be of great importance?”
That was true, but…
“Still, she’s nothing more than a woman from a tiny Eastern kingdom.”
At most, she was just a girl from that insignificant country called Corea. Corea was currently under Russian influence. If that was the case, they could summon her whenever they wished.
“It would be unwise to view her so lightly. I hear she speaks Russian, French, and Japanese fluently. And Chinese as well. At that level, she probably knows German too, doesn’t she?”
“All that knowledge at such a young age? Then she must have traveled across Europe since childhood, no?”
Languages weren’t something one could master in a day or two. That explanation made sense. As that thought crossed his mind, Nicholas found himself strangely drawn to her. She was clearly different from the rigid, conservative figures of Corea.
“It seems so. And didn’t she return to her homeland because her country was in crisis? It’s both pitiful and admirable. Perhaps we should provide more weapons to that Gando warlord faction?”
“Oh, that’s not a bad idea at all.”
“A woman, yet a war hero? I’d love to see her once.”
The eldest daughter, Olga, sparkled with curiosity. Strictly speaking, calling her a war hero was a stretch since it hadn’t been a nation-versus-nation conflict, merely the subjugation of already defeated Chinese forces in Manchuria. Even so, for Corea, it was essentially an attack on their former suzerain and the severing of past ties.
“It seems our Olga is quite interested as well.”
What was so difficult about letting them meet? If the Tsar of Russia called, she would come. If she refused, Gando could simply be handled at Russia’s discretion.
“If you’re all this curious, perhaps we should summon her. The fact that she learned Russian suggests she stayed in Russia for some time.”
In that case, she would know more about the European situation than anyone else in Corea. An Oriental beauty fluent in every European language. It was only natural that she would pique the curiosity of Russians.
“Manchuria is quite far from here. Let’s look for an opportunity later and invite her.”
“By the way, the Viceroy of the Far East is suggesting we move the Baltic Fleet this way as well. Hmm. Isn’t he being overly wary of Nippon?”
Japan had only taken a few bites out of China. If they had any conscience, they wouldn’t dare provoke Russia with such nonsense. At least not yet.
Those insane British bastards are investing in Gando. The Japanese are also pouring weapons into the place like there’s no tomorrow. Both of them are dumping everything into Gando instead of the Korean Empire proper. They’re basically saying, “Even a half-dead Qing can pull this off, so we can too.” It’s just a hollow shell of a country trying to raise its own value, which makes it a welcome rain in a drought for us. The problem is that the support is coming from two countries I absolutely fucking despise.
Right now, while we’re cooperating with Russia, the fact that two nations that are practically Russia’s enemies are backing Gando can only mean they’re trying to force us into a fight whether we like it or not. There’s no way to see this as pure goodwill.
It was already well past 1904. The heat had faded and autumn had arrived. The Russo-Japanese War had not yet broken out, and Japan was still supporting us. They were clearly planning to start the war next year or the year after.
“If you think about it the other way, doesn’t it mean we’ve risen to that level of value?”
Yeah. That was true. By now, even Yi Beom-yun probably saw me as someone of considerable worth. Think about it. If I didn’t have the Universal Language ability or absolute invulnerability and couldn’t do anything, Yi Beom-yun would have just thrown me a few scraps of power and kept me on the sidelines. But the fact that he actively listens to my advice essentially means he’s entrusting the fate of Gando to me.
To Yi Beom-yun, I had become someone he could not afford to ignore.
“We must expand the army.”
“It’s difficult. With Han Chinese and Manchus in the current situation, what reason would we have? You only fight on the front lines so you wouldn’t know, but increasing our forces any further is no easy task.”
“Once Gando develops, many Manchus and Han Chinese here will respond to us. We’ll be able to win over the hearts of the Manchurian people, whom even the local government cannot control. After that, building up the army won’t be so hard.”
We had to increase the army as much as possible. Could Gando’s forces really produce an army of this scale? At this level? Like Nazi Germany, we needed to squeeze every last drop out of Gando to bolster our military strength.
“We already have ten thousand elite troops, and even at this very moment, people from all over Manchuria are surrendering to the Korean Empire. Is it really necessary to go that far?”
Whether they surrendered to the Korean Empire or not, we still had to do it. Ten thousand men was nothing but a handful compared to the forces of the Viceroyalty of the Far East or the Japanese troops deployed across Manchuria.
“Yes. Yingkeli is already helping with Gando’s development. That means those bastards intend to make us their puppets.”
They were supporting us even though we clearly didn’t want it. What else could that mean?
“Then shouldn’t we be even more cautious in our conduct?”
That’s exactly why we have to be careful. If we’re going to be used, we might as well use them right back.
“Yingkeli and the Japanese are trying to use us. In that case, we must use this situation to our advantage as well.”
They were already pouring in support without restraint, and we were in no position to refuse. The Viceroyalty of the Far East was busy fortifying every corner of Manchuria in preparation for Japan. Russia itself wasn’t in a position to develop Gando.
“What exactly are you saying?”
“Just do what we tell you to do. That’s literally what those two pirate bastards are saying right now. In any case, Yingkeli is the most powerful empire in the world, and the Japanese are filthy pirates staring at us across a single sea. They’re not the kind of people we can trust.”
There was no one we could trust. No matter who we ended up fighting, we needed to build enough strength to at least land a solid blow. Just like how Korea in the distant future would adopt a porcupine strategy, we had to do the same now.
“You’re right.”
Yi Beom-yun nodded. He probably already understood this much.
“Then let’s paint a picture where we end up fighting Russia whether we want to or not, by taking advantage of this. After all, the Korean Empire doesn’t have the funds to develop Gando anyway, so this proposal isn’t entirely bad.”
By using them like this, we had to gather the hearts of the Manchus and Han Chinese who had decided to become subjects of the Korean Empire, whether willingly or by force, and stabilize Gando. The Koreans who had recently been incorporated into Gando were originally those who had crossed the border and settled in Gando and Manchuria. When you added the Manchus and Han Chinese, the total population easily reached several million. We had to raise an army from among them.
“Wouldn’t that be betraying Arasa? If the Viceroy of the Far East becomes suspicious of us, we’ll truly have to stake the fate of the nation.”
But right now, we had no choice. If we were going to be used anyway, we might as well use them as much as we could while we still had the chance.
“For now, we’ll use them to the fullest extent possible.”
Alekseyev already believed what I said. Of course, the situation was still suspicious enough to warrant doubt, but if the Tsarevich Alexei was born and suffered from hemophilia, the Viceroy of the Far East would no longer suspect us. The real question was what our official main enemy would be right now.
France was already providing weapons, and Germany was showing interest in this region as well. The country called Joseon, which had gained independence from Qing thanks to Japan, had attacked its former suzerain and swept through Manchuria in the blink of an eye. How adorable it must look to the international community, this desperate struggle to make a grand debut on the world stage.
I decided to finish the work of selecting which parts of Manchuria would be incorporated into Gando now that I had entered Fengtian Province. We had to stabilize Gando as quickly as possible. The fact that the Great Powers had come to Manchuria and confirmed Gando’s status was practically the same as certifying that Gando was no longer Qing territory. Japan would be watching France more closely now and would probably try to secure a better position.
“Jin-seo, does this mean we’ve finally become famous among the Great Powers?”
A soldier from the Jinwidae whom I had grown close to during the last Battle of Fengtian was grinning like an idiot, drunk on pointless dreams. Come on, we’re not there yet.
“We still have a long way to go. Aren’t there still a few Japanese around?”
On my way here, I had seen several men in Japanese military uniforms wandering about.
“They call themselves military attachés or something. A few of them came saying they wanted to see what happens to Gando’s army in Manchuria.”
That’s right. The operation in Manchuria wasn’t over yet. We had already plundered various places across the region.
“Never show any weakness or disarray in front of those bastards. What about the Qing soldiers’ corpses?”
If the Japanese looked down on us, that would be the end of it. They had to see us as a threat, at the very least, so they wouldn’t dare underestimate us. Being seen as easy prey and being forced to swallow something with thorns were two very different things.
“We’ve taken care of all the Qing corpses.”
Good, they listened well. These guys were all here to loot in the first place, so if they hadn’t followed my orders it would have been troublesome. Well, since they had come all this way and there was plenty to plunder, they had no choice but to listen to me if they wanted to keep doing it.
“Good. The Japanese could use what we’ve done here to find fault with us.”
Ito Hirobumi had tried to portray Joseon negatively to the West in order to swallow it peacefully. If we brutally killed Qing soldiers here, they could use that against us. Unlike the Boxer Rebellion, our strike on Manchuria had been a surprise attack at the request of the Viceroyalty of the Far East under the justification of recovering old territory. Civilian casualties had been significant, so if they used that to criticize us it would become a real nuisance.
Wait a minute. Then how would the future change? If Britain and Japan were supporting us right now, that would look pretty suspicious, wouldn’t it?