Chapter 31

Chapter 31

Joseon Invasion (2)

The reunion with hyung was not that long.

“How about doing my adjutant? It won’t be dangerous either.”

“Fuck off you bastard.”

No, I’m saying I’ll make sure you don’t die so why curse? If you stick right next to me the diplomat there is absolutely no way to die, right.

But hyung responded to my earnest proposal with blood and violence. To think a person can change so barbarically as soon as becoming a soldier. As expected the 19th century army is harmful both mentally and physically.

So I said the next business.

“Can’t you come out of the army?”

“What?”

“It’s dangerous. Before dying just discharge and do business with me- Aaaa! Aya ya ya ya!! Kuaaaak!”

“Today you really want to die so doing this? Huh?”

No, listen. I don’t know when it will be but anyway in India the Sepoy Rebellion will break out and the East India Company is scheduled to shut down. The East India Company coin is scheduled for delisting so why board life there of all places?

But if I bring up this story now I will immediately get the diplomat position stripped and enter the cold mental hospital in London is obvious.

“I really have a great business item?”

“Ha... What is it. Let’s hear.”

“Not yet. When this ends and I return I’ll tell you.”

“Okay. I’ll establish military merit and return so just diligently roll the pen. Don’t keep doing strange things!”

Heo. To belittle my desperate effort to manage the family like this. Do I really have to cause a lower overthrowing upper.

After hyung returned to the unit I immediately called Wang Ba and confirmed whether he can guide the Joseon waterways, and instead promised to insert a bit into the British army supply business. Anyway since there are quite a few things to scatter to buy local public sentiment one has to do the chartering contract.

The remaining next.

Only military action.

***

Right before the British invasion.

“Your Majesty!!!”

“Please take heed!!”

Those with even a little eyes to see the situation of course knew that Britain’s invasion was imminent.

But regarding how to cope with that invasion the Joseon court became a mess once again.

No matter how much Heonjong suffered from the Andong Kim clan’s pressure, he did not want to hand over military authority easily.

As Heonjong dawdled, hundreds of Sungkyunkwan students and low-ranking yangban who received the Andong Kim clan’s instructions crawled out in front of the palace and wailed.

“Those Pungyang Jo clan schemers early cried out rejecting heresy and cut the necks of monks and heretics, but when Britain threatened to invade they tucked their tails and begged for friendship.”

“On the other hand how is His Excellency Haok’s appearance? Even though there is a private connection with the cunning British barbarians His Excellency firmly held the banner of rejecting the West and rejecting heresy and abandoned private connections to save the country. It is truly no different from the appearance of Admiral Yi Sunsin.”

“Your Majesty must heavily use Yi Sunsin and keep away treacherous officials like Won Gyun! Immediately use Kim Jwageun greatly and prepare for the disturbance!”

“The Sungkyunkwan students who are the future of this country became dogs of the Kim clan so one doesn’t know who the king is!”

Kim Jwageun openly gathered ruffians and slaves and inflated power, and if things really went wrong one didn’t know what he would do.

“I will appoint Kim Heunggeun as Supreme Commissioner and Kim Jwageun as Supreme Commander and block the barbarians.”

Receiving a bow while lying down.

The Andong Kim clan shouted emergency situation and stopped all state affairs and practically put power equivalent to the king in hand.

“Devote all strength to the defense of Ganghwa Island, Yeongjong Island, Jemulpo and break the Westerners’ sharp edge and defend Hanyang with desperate resolve.”

Ganghwa Island.

When the northern horse-riding peoples who were Joseon’s main enemies invaded, Ganghwa Island always played the role of refuge. Because they whose naval power was generally weak could not even properly invade Ganghwa Island right in front of Gyeonggi Province.

But the Western powers newly aiming for Joseon charged into the Korean Peninsula through the sea.

Now Ganghwa Island transformed from the royal family’s refuge into a frontline strategic point.

Joseon did not not know this fact either.

But even knowing what can one do?

Mid-September 1851.

“S-sir! Sir!!”

“What is the matter.”

“Smoke from the sea! It’s a Western ship!”

“Truly the bastards seem to invade this country! Immediately prepare the cannons!”

“Th-that, but speaking of.”

“What.”

“The smoke... is not one.”

The smoke visible from the horizon.

Continues to increase one by one two by two.

A pitch-black hull too different from Joseon’s ships.

Sails much larger and more than Joseon’s ships.

Paddle wheels turning like a water mill and chimney smoke rising pitch-black.

The fleet of the British Empire finally revealed its appearance on Joseon land.

“While advancing north suppress all outposts and fortresses visible.”

The order was concise and firm.

The cannons of the British Empire were the best force of the current era fulfilling that order.

A cannon sound as if the sky would flip echoed once.

First of all Yeongjong Island, the path to enter Ganghwa Island, was covered in shells.

“The main force continues to advance!”

“Landing! Landing!”

“No need even for land dogs. Marines! Prepare for landing!!”

Yeongjongjin could not even achieve the goal of blocking the enemy.

The British army had grasped in advance the fact that the troops in that small fortress were not even a hundred, and after allocating a few warships and marines to suppress Yeongjongjin immediately advanced toward Ganghwa Island.

A few cannon shots fired from Yeongjongjin could not even reach near the distant British warships, but the cannons fired from the British warships first rained on the heads of the few Joseon cannons and made them trash.

It did not take particularly long time until Yeongjongjin collapsed.

The Yeongjong Cheomsa who was the person in charge of Yeongjongjin tried resistance in his own way, but even dozens of soldiers under him suffered naval bombardment lasting 1 hour and morale collapsed before the body. The dragged soldiers held their heads and fled.

Even after Yeongjongjin was suppressed the Joseon army could not do any decent resistance.

Choijijin burned, Deokjinjin was suppressed, Gwangseongbo collapsed, and even Ganghwa Mountain Fortress instantly crumbled in front of the British Empire’s shells.

However although British people could burn forts or outposts, they could never massacre the Joseon army.

“Uwaaa!!”

“Run away!!”

Because there was no Joseon army on Ganghwa Island.

From the beginning the plausible reconstruction of Joseon’s national defense was after Heungseon Daewongun inflicted bloody punishment on the powerful and cleaned up the country’s appearance.

And now is precisely the period when that sedo politics was burning hottest.

There was no army in Joseon.

The army is only a justification to extort military cloth, there are not even a few real proper armies even in Hanyang. If such an army is on Ganghwa Island that is a more amazing thing. Why judge rank insignia at all? Whether puppy or skeleton if one just collects military cloth why bother with selling official posts.

The overwhelming baptism of shells as if flipping heaven and earth shook even the mental world of those who still had the resolve to protect the country.

Officials including the Ganghwa Magistrate thinking one must live before the British ships completely block the Ganghwa Strait rode ferry boats and fled from Ganghwa Island.

“Army, begin landing!”

After appreciating the site of destruction they made, the British army main force also disembarked and began landing.

An army that won even in the terrible hilly areas of Afghanistan.

An army that won even against Sikhs who fought like demons for faith.

An army that suppressed even the most barbaric Maori, and Burmese who unfolded guerrillas in the jungle.

The army of the British Empire finally stepped on Joseon land.

Without firing even one gun.

The entrance of Joseon Ganghwa Island fell entirely into the hands of the British army.

“All ships passing this area without our permission will be indiscriminately sunk.”

“Do not leave even one ferry boat, one raft and perfectly blockade!”

The British navy blockaded the Han River.

Hanyang’s lifeline was blocked.

***

“Everyone please calm down! We did not come to harm Joseon people!”

Stabilizing local public sentiment.

For this Arthur Lee’s grand plan of elegantly sucking instead of roughly exploiting Joseon to succeed, there was no reason at all to unnecessarily stir public sentiment.

And the best in social activities is a gift baptism.

I scattered gifts prepared in advance to the residents of this Ganghwa Island.

“What is all this...?”

“It’s rice!”

Countless food torn from Jiangnan China. Anyway since it is an item exchanged for bullets from Qing it was not particularly regrettable.

“You just engage in your livelihood! Our British Empire army came for friendship with Joseon and not at all to conquer this land. From the dimension of goodwill and friendship we wish to give this rice and beans to you, so one person from each household come out and receive rice!”

“You’re giving rice?”

“Aigo my goodness. Thank you. Thank you!”

Resistance? What resistance when sharp-eyed British soldiers are holding guns?

After stirring the bottom public sentiment once with an indiscriminate gift offensive I immediately recommended to the British army to hoist the flag prepared in advance from China.

It was a guy with the four characters <​Destroy Kim Support Joseon> embedded.

“The Andong Kim family’s power has plunged this Joseon into misery for dozens of years! His Majesty the King of Joseon dreamed of friendship with our British Empire, but the treacherous official Kim Jwageun comparable to Wang Mang and Dong Zhuo in viciousness is constricting His Majesty and trying to offer the country to Qing so our British Empire finally stepped forward to save His Majesty the King of Joseon!”

If rice sacks are propaganda targeting the absolute majority of Joseon farmers, this proclamation is precisely to shake the yangban and middle class.

No matter how much Ganghwa Island is a countryside village there are not many who have not heard the name of this Lee Aseul, so I met various scholars and retired old ministers of this Ganghwa Island every day and poured passionate speech about our legitimacy.

“As soon as our British army came starting from the Ganghwa Magistrate those who eat the country’s salary all fled! Since they are guys who buy official posts with money instead of risking their lives for the country they hurriedly fled for their own safety, right! Is this a country?”

“Kheum. Guys who sent carts to the Kim clan and bought official posts so no foundation.”

“Our British army does not know Joseon’s customs and conventions well, so won’t you who have experience and insight on Ganghwa Island temporarily look after the people?”

“That’s a bit...”

“Like this one can’t even harvest, right. Still one has to harvest, right? If taking advantage of the gap where the government is incapacitated unpredictable guys go around stealing what will happen?”

At first yangban expressed reluctance about our request to take charge of occupied area administration.

But we earnestly requested help several times, and subtly stabbed ‘are you on the same side as Kim Jwageun?’ and in the end they pretended not to win and decided to participate in temporary administrative work. Anyway since we have no thought of ruling at all, as long as it rolls clumsily somehow it’s fine.

Next I arranged new jobs for Joseon people.

“This is... what?”

“It’s silver coins.”

<​Mexican silver coins> that are almost used as trade key currency in the Eastern sphere.

The British army was an army that does not spare money if for war, and war was not necessarily done only with soldiers.

Porters unloading materials.

Odd jobs managing army horses and giving horse feed.

Boatmen steering small boats etc.

Messengers or warehouse keepers delivering the occupation army’s proclamations here and there on Ganghwa Island, up to servants attending individual soldiers or officers.

Labor demand was very high, and we presented silver coins that Joseon’s lower class could not even dream of in their lives.

Moreover what falls when associating with British people was not only silver coins.

“This is wine. Just as Joseon uses soju or cheongju when holding ancestral rites Europeans attach great meaning to this wine.”

“This glass bottle is truly amazing.”

“Ah, this is <​canned food>. If one opens the lid of this iron can-”

“Will one eat?”

“Long-term storage for several years is possible.”

The totality of Western civilization that thousands of Westerners packed and brought.

Joseon people of Ganghwa Island first contacted European civilization and fell into shock.

While they floundered in culture shock.

Hanyang’s prices soared like Nvidia stock prices.

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Author's note

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