The Siege of Parliament
The era was changing far too quickly. Although history had always crawled forward at an agonizingly slow pace, humans, surprisingly, adapted to these turbulent times better than one might expect. However, there were always those who made the wrong choices at the critical inflection points of such a chaotic age.
"Finally, France has compromised with us!"
"The first agenda of the Colonial Assembly must be tax cuts, without a doubt."
There were those who simply had no idea how fast time would fly, unable to discard their outdated mindsets...
"Still, Europe is Europe!"
"We don't know when those French bastards will march back in with guns and swords!"
"We mustn't act rashly. France's influence in Indochina is still immense."
And there were those who made the wrong bets at the turning point of the era. Of course, France, now a symbol of the old world, did not let up on its final, desperate struggle. To delay colonial independence as much as possible, they hastily established a colonial assembly and stuffed it full of their own puppets and informants.
"If the French leave, we'll be beaten to death by the peasants right away..."
"Without France, we'll go completely bankrupt. For now, just blindly support France! Gather the intellectuals and whip up some plausible-sounding arguments."
Thus, the newly opened Colonial Assembly was packed with these remnants of the old era. Those ignorant of the changing times, those who bet on the wrong future, and those desperately clinging to the past... There were quite a few of them in the newly established assembly. It was the inevitable result of a rushed election and a hastily formed parliament.
"Half of the Colonial Assembly is made up of such... idiots?"
Ho Chi Minh, who had been elected as an assemblyman from the Saigon constituency, could not hide his lamentation upon seeing the disastrous state of the Indochina Colonial Assembly. France was bound to withdraw from Indochina anyway, yet they had left a parting gift of pure filth right until the very end. With the first step already so thoroughly botched, the future of Vietnam and the rest of Indochina was painfully obvious.
Ho Chi Minh's trusted comrade, Ton Duc Thang, quietly offered a cunning suggestion.
"Comrade Wan Aeguk—no, Comrade Ho Chi Minh. Does a colonial assembly elected through this kind of farce even have any legitimacy in the first place?"
"Technically, yes. It was decided at the Warsaw Conference, after all, and France guarantees its legitimacy."
"No, what I mean is... from the very beginning, this assembly has been completely devoid of procedural legitimacy. If that's the case, why don't we just ignore procedural legitimacy ourselves?"
Ho Chi Minh did not need to deliberate long before making his decision. If they let things proceed like this, the Colonial Assembly would undoubtedly fall apart. And if this foolish yet ambitiously formed assembly collapsed, France's reaction was all too predictable.
"Ha! Just as we thought. Indochina was far too barbaric a land to adopt our 'advanced' French republicanism and democracy."
"In the end, it was nothing more than the armchair theories of idealists."
"How is it, people of Indochina? Wouldn't you rather have us back?"
Ho Chi Minh would rather pour boiling wax directly into his own eyes than witness such a humiliating spectacle.
"Even if the conservatives make up more than half of the assembly... half of them are complete fools."
"That is true. Aside from the traitors held on a tight leash by France, the vast majority are just idiots who can't read the room."
"On the other hand, don't we have the future, determination, and the power to act? We must mobilize quickly and finish this in one decisive blow."
"Then..."
"I will head to Cambodia. What about you?"
"Well, I suppose I must head to Laos. What else can I do?"
There was no time to waste. The first session of the Colonial Assembly was scheduled to open in a month. In the meantime, they had to traverse the vast jungles of Indochina to gather like-minded patriots from each nation. But that wasn't all. Cambodia and Laos were, after all, relatively minor, rural backwaters covered in dense jungle. The true heart of Indochina lay in Vietnam and Cochinchina. They also had to rally their core supporters within Vietnam itself.
And finally, the historic opening day of the first Colonial Assembly arrived!
The conservative assemblymen headed to the assembly hall in Hanoi, practically beaming with joy.
"Yes. The famine is severe as it is. I shall submit a request for aid to France. Perhaps we can even secure some investments while we're at it?"
"France wouldn't want to lose Indochina entirely. We will secure massive investments and develop just like Australia or Canada!"
Clinging to dreams that would never come true, the assemblymen arrived at the parliament building... only to be greeted by a sight they could never have imagined.
"H-huh? Why won't the door open?"
"You idiot! Isn't it a pull door?"
"It won't push or pull! It's as if it's blocked from the inside... Oh no!"
At dawn on the opening day, long before the sun had even risen, Ho Chi Minh and the independence faction had gathered at the assembly hall. They had piled up heavy furniture to completely barricade the main entrance.
"We've been ambushed!"
"H-how could this happen from the very start?!"
"This is absurd!"
Surely, a proper siege of parliament was the true hallmark of democracy. The conservative assemblymen, who utterly lacked any understanding of democratic processes, had fallen completely into the trap laid by the independence faction.
However, the majority of these assemblymen were local elites. And local elites often possessed a fair degree of martial capability. The landlord and aristocratic classes had, after all, originally evolved as warrior classes to defend their own territories. Even the notoriously bookish scholars of Joseon could become sharpshooters with a bow in hand, hitting the bullseye every time. The aristocrats' dormant combat instincts began to awaken!
"The windows! Break the windows!"
"Damn it! The Reds have already taken positions at the windows too!"
"Bring a ladder, right now!"
Their entry blocked, the conservative assemblymen mobilized ladders, clubs, stones—anything they could lay their hands on—in a desperate bid to breach the Governor-General's palace where the assembly was to be held. But as was the case in any siege, the defenders held an overwhelmingly advantageous position. The numbers were roughly equal, but there was no way the disorganized conservatives could overcome the independence faction, who had both the defensive advantage and superior coordination.
"The main gate! The main gate is about to be breached!"
"Let them have the main gate for now! We only need to block the doors to the main hall until eleven o'clock, when the assembly officially opens!"
The pro-French conservatives were ruthlessly smashing the Governor-General's palace that France had painstakingly renovated. Meanwhile, the anti-French independence fighters were desperately trying to protect it. What an exquisite irony. Regardless, Ho Chi Minh successfully held off the conservative assemblymen until the official opening hour.
"We will now vote on the first agenda. It is regarding the election of the Speaker of the Colonial Assembly. I welcome nominations."
"Open the door, you sons of bitches!"
"Not a son of a... ahem, I nominate Assemblyman Ho Chi Minh!"
"If there are no other nominations, we will proceed to a vote... Confirmed unanimous."
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Ho Chi Minh struck the wooden gavel three times, officially declaring his election as Speaker.
Thud! Thud! Thud!
Simultaneously, a battering ram—a log procured from god knows where—slammed violently against the doors of the main hall.
"As the Colonial Speaker, I submit the first agenda. It is the permanent independence of Laos from the cunning and wicked colonial empire of France. Due to time constraints, we will vote by a show of hands."
"I agree!"
"I second!"
"Yes. Unanimously approved. I hereby declare that as of this moment, Laos is liberated from the rule of French Indochina and possesses all forms of sovereignty, including independent diplomatic and national defense rights, and the right to establish an autonomous government. Accordingly, I must inform the Indochina colonial assemblymen representing Laos that they have naturally forfeited their parliamentary seats."
With that, the newly liberated Laotian assemblymen immediately rushed out of their seats to help barricade the main hall doors. Then came Cambodia, Cochinchina, and Vietnam... All four nations declared their independence in rapid succession.
"In accordance with the resolution of the French Indochina Colonial Assembly, French Indochina is hereby declared completely dissolved."
"Hurrah! Hurrah!"
Only then were the doors to the main hall thrown wide open. The conservative assemblymen wailed that the entire proceeding was null and void, but what did it matter now? Some of the conservatives, still under the illusion that the siege was ongoing, decided to take extreme measures.
"W-what on earth is going on?"
"Damn it... since it has come to this, we have no choice but to take drastic action!"
"Set it on fire! We must completely ruin this assembly!"
They decided to employ a weapon that France's Stahlists were so fond of using: a glass bottle filled with gasoline and stuffed with a wick.
"Hehehe, if that Wan Aeguk bastard doesn't want to burn to death, he'll have to come out."
"It would be even better if he just died in there."
"Go straight to hell, you bastard!"
To think they would actually set fire to the parliament building. Having experienced a parliamentary siege for the first time in their lives, the conservative assemblymen—who had spent their entire lives as landlords simply scraping wealth from the soil—utterly lacked any understanding of democracy. For some of them, this was their very first time visiting a major city like Saigon. Consequently, they had mistaken a parliamentary siege for a literal, medieval siege of annihilation!
But their efforts were in vain; the three strikes of the gavel declaring the adjournment of the session had already echoed through the hall. Setting the building on fire only ended up giving more political leverage to the independence faction. The Governor-General's palace in Cochinchina, the very heart of the Indochinese colony, was burning—and by the hands of the pro-French faction, no less. If they ever had to hold a second or third session, it would have been held there. Yet, it was now going up in flames.
"*Cough, cough!* Which bastard set the fire?!"
"Crazy fools! Get out of here right now!"
Thus, the farcical first assembly naturally became the last. Whether the declaration of independence would be officially recognized was a secondary issue; a colonial assembly that had degenerated into such a chaotic spectacle from its very first session could never command any public credibility. Regardless of the fallout, this parliamentary siege catapulted Ho Chi Minh and the independence faction into the spotlight, turning them into instant superstars across Indochina.
"Do you honestly think France will just sit back and watch this happen?!"
"I don't know about France, but I certainly don't think the people of Indochina will sit back and watch you anymore."
"...Are you threatening me right now?"
"Yes, I am. If you don't want to die, bow your head and submit to the Kingdom of Dai Nam immediately, or pack your bags and get out to France."
The struggle for independence was far from over. Having secured actual power, Ho Chi Minh systematically began to suppress the anti-independence factions—either forcing them to submit, exiling them, or executing them. Having swiftly consolidated his grip on Vietnamese politics, Ho Chi Minh immediately contacted the Qing Dynasty to bring an end to the famine. And so, by the 'lawful' decision of the Colonial Assembly, French Indochina met its end.
Wang Shizhen, the Minister of Finance, let out a deep sigh as he stared at the empty state treasury day after day.
"Does this nation truly have a future?"
An empty treasury was the least of his worries. If not for the few handfuls of brown rice sent by the King of Joseon under the guise of tribute, this country would have collapsed long ago. How could anyone look at this and call it a nation? Wang Shizhen couldn't even bring himself to eat a meal without using a silver spoon, constantly paranoid that his rivals, Duan Qirui and Feng Guozhang, would poison him. The Minister of Military Affairs, the Minister of Finance, and the Premier of the Cabinet were all looking for any opportunity to murder one another. What kind of country was this...?
Yet, whether he liked it or not, he had to face Premier Duan Qirui and Minister of Military Affairs Feng Guozhang.
"The newly independent Dai Nam has claimed tributary status and requested relief grain," Duan Qirui reported.
As soon as he heard the news, Wang Shizhen immediately voiced his opposition.
"Absolutely not! Accepting tribute means we must provide a return gift of equal or greater value. We only tolerate the exile government in Gando because it is Joseon, but if Dai Nam sends us tribute, what on earth are we supposed to give them in return?!"
Just as the Ming Dynasty had done, massive tribute demanded massive rewards. Of course, there were ways to bypass this—by sending bullets and artillery shells instead of silver and silk as return gifts. But there was no way they could pull off such a stunt right now.
"Let us send an immediate refusal."
"Agreed."
Possessing a realistic grasp of their situation, both Duan Qirui and Wang Shizhen agreed to draft a polite but firm refusal. However... it seemed Feng Guozhang had slightly different ideas. The eyes of the Minister of Military Affairs, the so-called 'Dog of Beiyang,' gleamed with a cunning, treacherous light.