Chapter 61
Chapter 61
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Translator: Ace
Chapter: 61
Chapter Title: Longing Yet Unfamiliar Homeland (2)
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“Extra! Extra!”
June 1903.
The streets of Hanyang, the capital of the Korean Empire, buzzed with the cries of newsboys echoing from every corner.
“The German prince is coming to Joseon!”
“German prince? Didn’t one come four years ago?”
“Ah, that was the emperor’s brother! This time it’s the emperor’s third son! The third son!”
The reason was none other than the sudden visit from a Western royal.
Prince Adalbert, the third son of German Emperor Wilhelm II, was coming to Korea.
Of course, this wasn’t the first time a member of Germany’s imperial family had visited the Korean Empire.
Just four years earlier, Prince Heinrich had made a trip here.
But while Prince Heinrich was the emperor’s younger brother, this visitor was the emperor’s own third son.
When comparing the emperor’s brother to the emperor’s son, the latter naturally left a deeper impression.
However, it wasn’t Prince Adalbert who had captured the attention of Hanyang’s people right now.
It was another figure accompanying him to the Korean Empire.
“It’s not just the German prince. The Korean baron who saved the German emperor’s life is coming too!”
“Ooh!”
The crowd let out gasps of awe at the newsboy’s shout.
Hans von Choi.
Choi Hansu in Korean.
The man they called the Little Baron was returning to the Korean Empire.
No Korean could remain indifferent to this news.
It was only natural that passersby flocked to the newsboy as if on cue.
“Is that really true? The Little Baron’s coming to Korea?”
“True as can be, sir. Would I ever lie to you?”
The newsboy, dressed in a neat suit with a modern short haircut befitting the enlightened era, nodded vigorously at the man.
He pointed to the newspaper in his hand.
“It’s all right here in this paper. Buy one and see for yourself.”
“Heh, we’ve got some important guests coming. Give me one.”
“Me too.”
“And me!”
“Hey, no cutting in line!”
“First come, first served!”
“Thank you! Thank you!”
At the quick-witted newsboy’s call, people reached out eagerly for the papers.
Soon, every newspaper in Hanyang carrying stories about Prince Adalbert and Hans’s visit—from the Imperial News to the Capital City News—began selling out in a flash.
The newsboy grinned ear to ear at the flying papers and piling coins, as one might expect.
Before long, from Gwanghwamun to Yukjo Street, every avenue in Hanyang was filled with people reading newspapers.
Those who couldn’t buy one politely asked to share and gathered around those who had.
Koreans’ interest in Hans transcended class lines and burned white-hot.
“Wow, the Little Baron’s really coming.”
“He’ll dock at Jemulpo, right?”
“Probably. That German emperor’s brother four years back came through Jemulpo too.”
“Our baron’s coming home. Shouldn’t we throw him a welcome party or something?”
The people around the speaker nodded in agreement.
Koreans knew all too well.
Their nation, the Korean Empire, was like a candle flickering in the wind.
Yet someone from this very Joseon had become a noble in Germany, a mighty Western power everyone recognized.
And not content with that, he’d forced the Qing imperial family to their knees, avenging the greatest humiliation in Joseon history—the屈辱 of Samjeondo.
No Joseon scholar had achieved in two hundred years what this little German baron had.
How could any Korean-born soul not feel a surge of triumph?
How could they not laugh until tears streamed down their faces?
In dark and trying times, like the legend of baby general Utu-ri, everyone yearns for a hero—and the Little Baron fit the bill perfectly.
Moreover, his tales had swollen with each retelling from mouth to mouth.
Before long, to Koreans, the Little Baron had become a beam of light piercing the darkness.
Thus, Hanyang blazed with fervor after the announcement of his return, enough to make anyone think a national savior was triumphantly coming home in golden robes.
The man himself would probably be stunned and baffled if he saw it.
“The Little Baron’s coming to Joseon.”
“Any way we can get in touch with him?”
Of course, in the late Joseon era rife with traitors and would-be traitors, some eyed Hans as a chance to line their pockets.
Germany was a great power rivaling Britain and France, after all. Befriending the baron could mean having the German Empire as a backer for wealth and glory.
Of course, Hans had no intention of dealing with such scum.
“Another German prince?”
But the Korean imperial court’s reaction differed sharply from the streets.
They seemed at a loss on how to handle it.
Last time Prince Heinrich visited, the court had endured considerable embarrassment.
Heinrich himself was a hearty, decent fellow.
But the German delegates with him were not.
They’d been arrogant and rude from start to finish.
Westerners could be like that, but Heinrich’s entourage took it further—demanding concessions outright, bullying the government as if it were par for the course.
So it was understandable that courtiers who remembered felt uneasy.
“Still, the famous Little Baron’s coming this time. They won’t dare act rude like before.”
“Ah, you mean Baron Choi.”
But the mood shifted at the mention of Hans’s name.
Even Emperor Gojong showed keen interest in the Little Baron’s tales, so the court’s curiosity ran high.
Perhaps they could gain favors from Germany through him.
He was the emperor’s subject, sure, but still Korean-born, wasn’t he?
Blood is thicker than water.
Though he’d spent more years in Germany than Korea, like a salmon returning to its birth river, he surely hadn’t forgotten his roots.
Besides, the Korean Empire was desperate enough to borrow even a child’s hand.
Russo-Japanese rivalries intensified daily, threatening the nation’s very survival.
“Isn’t that too optimistic?”
Yet voices of concern about Hans persisted.
“Would the baron even want to help us Koreans?”
“He might strut around like Jeong Nyeong-su, riding the German emperor’s coattails.”
“Hmm... Yeah, can’t rule it out.”
It was common for those forced from home who succeeded abroad to return and vent their grudges with all sorts of mischief.
Empress Gi of the Yuan, Joseon eunuchs in the Ming, Jeong Nyeong-su in the Qing—they’d all done it.
Rumors said the baron left Joseon very young, so he might have his own grievances.
And after King Gojong’s ascension, Joseon had done plenty to create such resentments.
Political factions split on it too.
The pro-Russian faction, who’d seized power post-Aggression Flight by ousting pro-Japanese with Russian backing, viewed Hans warily but stayed neutral for now.
Most weren’t blindly reliant on Russia like some; leaders like Yi Yong-ik and Min Yeong-hwan aimed to check Japan via Russia.
They worried Adalbert and Hans’s visit might sour ties with Russia.
They knew Germany and Russia weren’t on great terms.
But the Russians said nothing, and the Little Baron reportedly got along with the Tsar, so the pro-Russians decided to watch and wait.
The pro-Japanese, sidelined from power cores but still influential, saw it differently.
Unlike the pro-Russians, they were full-fledged traitors eager to sell the country to Japan.
To them, the baron was an unpredictable bomb.
Word that the German emperor hated Japan had already spread through Hanyang, deepening their dilemma.
‘What if the baron shares the emperor’s anti-Japanese grudge?’
‘Too soon to say?’
‘Still, better safe than sorry.’
The Japanese Empire behind them felt the same.
“Too bad the Choi baron wasn’t Japanese.”
Japanese Minister to Korea Hayashi Gonsuke muttered as he set down the newspaper with news of Prince Adalbert and Baron Hans von Choi’s visit.
What a shame, truly regrettable.
Of course, an Easterner making a name among Europe’s nobles was a point of pride.
But like other Japanese, Hayashi secretly wished that figure were Japanese, not Korean.
Then he wouldn’t be fretting like this.
He’d feel far more secure.
“But we don’t know what the Little Baron thinks of Japan yet, do we?”
His secretary said, but Hayashi remained uneasy.
The baron’s novel was the issue.
Immortal Admiral Yi
It catered to Western tastes with exaggerated Orientalism, but it had gained some notoriety in Japan too.
Japanese couldn’t view it comfortably, though.
The hero was Korean, Yi Sun-sin—and the villain crushed by him was Japan.
No nation cheers its people being cast as villains.
Of course, one novel didn’t prove the baron was anti-Japanese.
Japan’s investigations said he left Joseon so young he barely remembered it.
Maybe he’d just turned childhood tales of Yi Sun-sin into a book without much thought.
Still, Hayashi couldn’t shake a nagging anxiety.
If the baron decided to aid his homeland, it’d spell serious trouble for Japan’s colonial ambitions.
Japan was gearing up for war with Russia to advance into Korea and beyond, to Manchuria.
The odds were slim, but if Germany somehow intervened?
‘Then Japan’s done for!’
The Russo-Japanese War was gamble enough; fighting Germany—with the world’s strongest army and dreadnoughts Japan dubbed “great king”-class battleships—would be utter ruin.
In truth, Hans aimed not for direct intervention but to profit as a fisherman awaiting fighting crabs—but Japan didn’t know that.
His pacts with Russia and Britain were top secrets among insiders.
“Keep a close eye on the baron for now.”
“Yes, Minister.”
But all this was mere speculation, one possibility among many.
Given Germany-Russia relations, the odds were low.
Thus, Hayashi, the pro-Japanese faction, and pro-Russians alike resolved to observe Hans.
As these thoughts crisscrossed, time flowed on to mid-June...
Vroooom~
The German warship carrying Prince Adalbert and Hans arrived at Jemulpo.