Spring of the Korean Empire #3
1925, springtime. The Korean Empire's spring, like springs everywhere else, roused people from the endless winter without a single drop of blood. While other nations had time zones that put Japan just entering winter as we were finally welcoming spring. People were intoxicated by the scent of it. The Korean Empire's spring made folks expectant, as if it was just what was supposed to happen, and at the same time left them a bit bewildered. Everyone had grown far too accustomed to winter. But spring came anyway, and people sank into an infinite languor.
A true spring, free of tyranny, riots, or assaults. And in that Korean Empire, the first glorious cabinet: the Kim Hongjip administration.
"Handing the Number One Party leadership to a pro-king hardliner like Kim Hongjip—aren't you embarrassed?"
"Honestly, after serving right beside you as Supreme Leader, a mere prime minister gig doesn't cut it for me anymore. No way I could handle it."
I glanced at Kim Ok-gyun, who'd only shown his face at the Number One Party and was attending my cabinet as Finance Minister in his capacity as party member. Damn, you've gotten old too. All that lingering affection and tears—what good is that? Kim Ok-gyun clearly wanted to hand his old friend a get-out-of-jail-free card. Well, I couldn't exactly argue. Kim Hongjip was someone even I from my previous life had heard of, and I'd owed him a debt or two. At the very least, he knew what the era demanded.
Back when we were both in the Gojong faction, Kim Ok-gyun and he got along like two peas in a pod. But from the moment this side turned toward the radical Enlightenment faction—no, the Revolutionary Party—it was pure enmity. No one shows mercy to a traitor. I'd betrayed Gojong, betrayed the reformers, imprisoned Gojong, and manipulated the nation in his name. Expecting mercy from Kim Hongjip was out of the question.
Yes, I'd been deeply disappointed in Gojong, briefly swapping Kim for Choi in my name, and as his sword, his hand, his voice, I'd turned that blade—which had cut down in-laws and aristocratic clans—against Gojong's own neck. And he, to the very end, had begged me, the one who'd imprisoned the king, to give His Majesty one more chance. Even after I'd killed Minbi, his last remaining outlet to the outside world, because Gojong kept pulling his petty international stunts.
Of course, I refused— no second chances for kings or anyone else. He didn't come at me with an axe. Didn't try to kill me with it, didn't provoke me in the streets to chop his own neck. He just wrote his reply on white silk and sent it back, saying if my answer didn't please him, he'd choke to death on the silk. And my response? Imprisoning Kim Hongjip too (...). He was more capable than expected, so keeping him alive was risky, but killing him? He had too much public support for that. Half-assed exile to study abroad was dangerous too. He knew my flaws, my pains, my sorrows, even my childhood.
So I stuck him on Jeju Island to do some writing. Kim Ok-gyun dragged him back and plopped him in the prime minister's seat. In a democracy, is this how it works? What crime did the guy commit to get stuck on Jeju? I couldn't say much more to Kim Ok-gyun back then. But now, when I'm trying to set him up as the honey-sweetest PM in history, why's he refusing the spot?
The Supreme Leader still gripped military power, the General Secretary still controlled the party, but that didn't make the cabinet meaningless. The current parliament and cabinet weren't like the old local councils or party congresses—they were carved straight from the Supreme Leader and General Secretary's own authority. Conceptually equal, whether you called it a trinity or separation of powers. Right now, Kim Hongjip stood on equal footing with me. At least in the pecking order.
Should've gone presidential system. Then we wouldn't have this crony appointment crap, right? In my view, Kim Hongjip was purely a PM pick for Kim Ok-gyun and his clique's tastes. Most folks in the Korean Empire probably don't even know who he is. But that's democracy for you. It started as a way to pick decent people. Kim Hongjip emerging from obscurity might just be inevitable. In a democracy, you can't oppress the people. They're the sovereigns. In absolute monarchy Joseon, you could. In one-party dictatorship Korean Empire too. There, the people aren't sovereigns unless they're in the party. So you can usurp power all you want.
In those countries, people were less "citizens" and more "property." Joseon's obsession with marriage was, in a way, like breeding livestock. Land's the king's, mountains are the king's—everything's the king's, so people and the unborn are too. To plant humans in the Four Garrisons and Six Commands—where tigers, Jurchens, and famines prowled—without a single potato, you needed that level of ownership mindset.
So naturally, I could grab those power-holders by the throat and run things my way. Send folks abroad to study? Fine. Oppress them? Fine. Absolute monarchy permits it. Only the monarch and his collaborators deny it. If cops start shooting, thieves can shoot back. States don't send armies against citizens because if they did that crap, those citizens—treated as enemies—might actually become real ones.
Everything in the world has a counterforce. In that sense, the Korean Empire chose to suppress fascism with democracy. One-party rule, cooperativism, militarism. Kick out the red communists, and it's pitch-black fascism. That's why, facing the Great Depression ahead, I saw this as the moment to slather on some democracy. People won't recklessly bet the nation's fate if they truly feel like owners. You can YOLO invest borrowed money, but try selling your own property to buy someone else's stocks? You'd get slapped.
Adventurism's only for those with nothing to lose. But.
"Keep that up, and you'll never be PM."
"Who cares."
Kim Ok-gyun—truth is, he's my handpicked PM crony. He's got skills, respect from some heavyweights, but zero popularity. Classic mother-in-law position. And he hates it. Popularity-wise, Lee Wan-yong—Number Two Party leader and Foreign Minister—polls higher. I'd intervened in the world under Kim Ok-gyun's name less, using Lee Wan-yong's more. Easier to exploit without backlash. Of course, Lee Wan-yong couldn't grasp why he had to lead the Number Two Party instead of Number One, but a controlled opposition takes someone with real pull. Especially as controlled opposition.
Right now, the controlled ruling party and opposition are hogging everything, with nobodies just showing face in parliament. But it'll change later. Hard to go from one party to two; under medium-sized districts, two becomes multi-party in a flash. Even now, years after the election, with the cabinet settling in, issues lingered. One: the communists. Two: the military. Old one-party power players, and current shadow powers. They're quiet now, but that doesn't mean they're idle. More likely plotting where I can't hear.
As the Korean Empire grows and my grip loosens, blind spots multiply. Elections and oil issues are dominating noise, but I know unnatural silence and clamor always stem from deliberate causes. Hell, I created this noise myself. To suppress fascism now, I'm preemptively purging communists and military—but would they buy that? If their existence fuels fascism, they'll either purge themselves or ally to crush democrats. Survival first. I'm not sitting idle, but it's endless whack-a-mole.
Democratization was the right call. One-party and oligarchy have innate limits—inevitably swayed by class interests. They can't self-solve; oligarchs only profit as mediators. Over time, people, nation, community erode. Democracy functions as a vast social net. Everyone sovereign, intertwined across classes. So they negotiate, compromise. Unlike facade constitutional cabinets exploiting adventurously. Like how I pushed side gigs max. As salt and fish sellers, prices affect each other. No unilateral winners in horizontal systems.
Regular full-time workers worldwide were labor's biggest enemies. Co-ops exploit farmers for "their" benefit; unions let regulars oppress temps. No exceptions—orgs exist for members first. Even 8-hour regulars work for their firm, not others'. Despite mutual benefit. China built the Great Wall to divide civilized from barbarians. World runs on divisions. A union serving non-members? Unsustainable. Soviet frustration with global unions failing the proletariat—prioritizing self-enrichment—led to "follow Moscow."
Workers didn't want revolution; just personal gain. Hence exploited by elites. Vicious cycle. Soviet bid to break it birthed the Cold War. Pity for newborn socialist homeland. But I desperately wanted to avoid a world line where Korean Empire sparks it. Facing inter-generational, global cycles, Great Depression's mere vaccine.
Democracy too: majority oppresses minority, voters non-voters, elders kids. Clear limits. Democracy's got issues.
"What's that?"
"An invitation."
A year after the bald one's death, I wanted to check out the Soviet Union he'd built, not him. The Soviets, with democracy introduced in a form unlike our Korean Empire.