Chapter 4
Chapter 4
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Translator: crow
Chapter Title: Wielding the Pen (2)
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The food at the officers' mess hall surprisingly suited my taste.
You think army chow can't possibly be tasty?
That's a misunderstanding.
If army grub tastes bad to you, maybe take a look at your rank insignia—perhaps it's not high enough.
Once you hit general rank, you might not be able to move mountains, but you can damn well improve the quality of the chow.
“Ugh.”
It was a shame to see such delicious food being choked down with such agony.
“Come on, plenty of seats over here. Sit down and eat.”
“Th-thank you, sir.”
After holding these “conversations with the division commander” sessions disguised as meals for a few days, the young officers' faces had turned pallid.
These guys, too, seemed like the type who couldn't eat properly in front of superiors.
This might take some time.
I decided to take it slow and steady.
In the meantime, a major event cropped up in Germany.
“We have become a proper nation once more! We are now once again a diligent and vibrant people!”
Germany's dictator, Adolf Hitler, had sent troops into the Rhineland, boldly shredding the Treaty of Versailles and the Locarno Pact.
This was the so-called Rhineland remilitarization.
The League of Nations turned a blind eye and a deaf ear to Hitler's provocation.
Even with just 3,000 troops crossing the Rhine, Britain, France, and Belgium could only watch helplessly.
No, you idiots. Don't you have a million-man army?
You saving it to buy rice cakes or what?
When reading world history in books or on YouTube, I'd skim past it with an “oh, I see.” But experiencing it firsthand made me think, “What kind of morons are these?”
'No wonder, with dipshits like that running the League of Nations, lunatics like Hitler and Mussolini got balls big enough to start World War II.'
Not that I'm in any position to talk.
This Empire of Korea's Marshal Park Han-jin was every bit the mad dog that Hitler or Tojo Hideki ever were.
Sure enough.
Stimulated by Hitler's bold step, Park Han-jin pulled some stunt of his own.
“The Empire of Korea supports the German Empire's rightful exercise of sovereignty.”
Fuck.
Was this crazy soldier bastard trying to tank the country before I even took power?
The Empire of Korea was already drawing plenty of aggro, and now it was catching some from the Nazis too.
Of course, Park Han-jin wasn't just a simple idiot pulling this crap.
The Berlin-Pyongyang Technology Exchange Agreement.
In exchange for backing Germany's moves, Park Han-jin inked a tech exchange deal with Berlin.
Swapping Korea's advanced shipbuilding tech for Germany's cutting-edge army tech—a pretty decent deal for a militaristic empire like ours.
But did it justify getting completely blacklisted by Britain and America?
I didn't think so.
'We're already on a collision course with the Sino-Korean War; we need to manage our aggro carefully.'
I felt the need to rush my novel-writing.
And so, on March 11, 1936, volume 1 of *Legend of the Galactic Warlords* hit the shelves.
It lacked the polish and expressiveness of the original, but who cared?
There was no original to compare it to.
I'd originally planned to publish it as a book, but I got some advice.
“You could make way more money serializing it in a newspaper.”
Money meant eyeballs.
I concluded there was no need to bother publishing *Legend of the Galactic Warlords* as a book.
“Editor Jo?”
I went straight to the *Goryeo Ilbo* and slotted the novel in.
The *Goryeo Ilbo*, initially hesitant, ended up thrilled once serialization began.
“General, postcards are flooding the newspaper office.”
“Oh?”
I'd expected as much.
In this dull, oppressive military dictatorship era, the narrative of “Kaiser” modernizing his homeland with a fresh wind was bound to resonate.
Even if it dangerously leaned on handing everything over to a superman on a white horse—the story itself was pure crowd-pleaser.
Our great Kaiser in his twenties beating down corrupt, incompetent feudal nobles and an outdated social system left and right.
Plus humbling a “powerful foreign nation” in war.
It was a miracle cure for the imperial citizens.
The novel's effects even showed up at the mess hall.
“Your Excellency, could I possibly get your autograph on the newspaper?”
The young officers who'd been intimidated by me just yesterday now felt the need to get closer through the novel and started approaching more boldly.
But we weren't at the level of casual chit-chat yet.
As I steadily cranked out *Legend of the Galactic Warlords* and built up goodwill, news arrived that the Second Italo-Ethiopian War had ended in Italy's victory.
Italy annexed Ethiopia and declared “victory in Africa.”
This flowed just like original history.
Well, aside from the Japanese Empire being replaced by the Empire of Korea, things weren't that different.
Anyway, this seemed like a good title for my next editorial.
'Make the Empire of Korea Great Again!'
I pointed out how the Empire of Korea lagged far behind the Western powers socially, and laid out the vision needed to catch up.
First up:
“A war on crime.”
In South Korea, the “war on crime” referred to Roh Tae-woo's crackdown on criminal organizations—a diversion tactic after his loyalist coup plot leaked and put him in political hot water.
Whatever the motives, Roh's operation dealt a fatal blow to Korea's organized crime syndicates.
The current Empire of Korea needed its own “war on crime.”
If we let scumbags smuggle banned drugs like heroin, we'd end up with Cold War America—flooded with shit like methamphetamine.
A society pure of narcotics.
A vision no brain-dead soldier who only thinks about war could come up with.
Second:
“The New Village Movement.”
Send college students to rural areas left behind in modernization to reform farmers' mindsets and bring them modern amenities like plumbing.
You can't call the Empire a fully modern nation if half the population is stuck in pre-modern villages.
The title and content were straight rip-offs of Park Chung-hee's policies.
Third:
“Universal compulsory education up to elementary school!”
As is well known, the driving force behind Prussia becoming a superpower capable of sparking a world war was education.
Of course, this country's elites had long preached national moral education and knew its importance, but they'd never dreamed of mandating elementary education.
The bureaucracy and budget couldn't support it.
But who gave a shit about their excuses?
What did I care if soldier bastards couldn't pull it off?
It wasn't my responsibility.
I just needed to grab a megaphone and shout, “I'm the guy with the vision those empty-headed fools could never dream up.”
My op-ed quickly stirred up a storm in Korean society.
“General Yi Seong-jun's insights are spot on. This is our Ten Points for Governing the Realm.” (Note: Choe Chiwon's social reform proposal to Queen Jinseong of Silla.)
“It's laughable for a mere general to overstep into state affairs.”
Countless people argued fiercely over whether my piece was right or wrong.
It was like pouring oil on a grill.
As the backlash heated up, reactions swirled around me too.
“General Yi, soldiers must maintain political neutrality. Poking your nose into politics like this doesn't look good.”
The military brass subtly rebuked my remarks.
Meanwhile, officers from poor rural or urban slum backgrounds started looking at me with eyes full of admiration, unlike before.
And who could blame them?
No one had ever pushed policies directly impacting neglected rural areas or the struggling underclass.
So it wasn't surprising they saw hope in me.
My meals were no longer something young officers forced themselves to attend.
I'd gained “fans,” and guys started showing up at every opportunity to rub elbows with me.
“General, I read your last op-ed. Brilliant stuff.”
“Did you?”
“Reading Your Excellency's proposals for the nation made me realize I'd been seeing the world through a worm's eyes all this time.”
Sometimes their fanboying got a bit overwhelming.
'I'm basically a military idol now.'
Having to play idol to stage a coup—what a gig.
Anyway, the results were solid.
A third of the young officers in the division were now firm supporters.
I hadn't checked other units, but the vibe suggested I had plenty there too.
'Feels like I'm building a foundation.'
Just looking at the officers sharing my table filled my belly.
These guys were the seed money for my coup.
'Get a support base and organization in place, and boom—it's the Hanahoe clique 2.0.'
But jumping to the next phase wasn't smart yet.
That wasn't the right timing.
'A major event is about to kick off.'
The season of the Spanish Civil War—the prelude to World War II, or the mini-world war—was fast approaching.