NOVEL NEXT Chapter 4: The Pen is Mightier than the Sword (2)
Surprisingly, the food served at the mess hall was quite suited to my tastes.
What? Did you think military food was horrible?
That's a common misconception.
Well, but if you truly think that the food is bad, then one should check their rank.
Once you reach the rank of a General, you may not be able to move mountains, but you can certainly influence the quality of the food.
“Ugh.”
But, I do admit it was a bit disheartening to see my men eat such delicious food with a grimace.
"Come! There's plenty of space here, sit and eat with me."
"Th-thank you, General."
After I talked a bit with the officers, I noticed some men were getting a little too pale and nervous.Ah, I see!
They were the type who couldn't eat in front of a superior officer.
...This might take some time then.
Seeing their anxiety, I decided to approach them a bit more methodically.
In the meantime, an important event occurred in Germany.
《Once again we will enact true Justice! Neither threats nor warnings will prevent us from following Divine Providence with the instinctive sureness of a sleepwalker》
That crazy motherfucker.
Hitler was displaying his sheer audacity by sending troops into the Rhineland 1 completely ignoring the Treaty of Versailles and the Locarno Treaty.
In the future, this would be known as the Rhineland Occupation of 1936 2.
The Allies turned a blind eye to Hitler's provocation.
Britain, France, and Belgium stood by helplessly as they watched 3000 troops cross the Rhine.
Seriously, these morons.
They have million-strong armies.
What are you saving them for? To buy rice cakes?
When you're watching a YouTube video talking about history, you hear about those things and think 'Oh that happened, cool.'
But now that I am actually 'living' in that part of human history, I couldn't help but think, 'These dumbasses...! What are they even doing?!'.
With National Leaders like these guys in the League of Nations, it's no wonder crazy fuckers like Hitler and Mussolini got brazen enough to start a World War.
Well… Not that I can criticize them now...
The Marshal of the Korean Empire, Park Han-Jin is a nutjob who wouldn't lose to the likes of Hitler or Tojo Hideki 3.
Sure enough.
Stimulated by Hitler’s audacious move, Park Han-jin went and caused trouble.
《The Korean Empire supports the legitimate exercise of sovereignty by the German Empire.》
Fuck.
This crazy fucker was trying to ruin the country before I even attempted my Coup?!
The Korean Empire wasn't all that liked by the other nations already...But now we were going to share Germany's notoriety.
Of course, Park Han-Jin didn't pull that stunt just because he was an idiot.
[The Berlin-Pyongyang Technology Exchange Agreement.]
Park Han-jin made a deal with Germany in exchange for supporting their actions, agreeing to technological cooperation between the two Nations.
Essentially, the Korean Empire was trading its advanced shipbuilding technology for Germany's cutting-edge military tech.
Objectively, it wasn't a bad deal for the Korean Empire.
But would it be worth getting blacklisted by Britain and the USA over it?
I didn't think so.
The Korean-Chinese war will start any time now...We need to better manage our notoriety.
I felt the need to accelerate the plans for my novel.
Therefore, on March 11, 1936, Volume 1 of 'The Legend Of The Galactic Heroes' was released.
Though it lacked the detailed narration and overall quality compared to the original work, it didn't matter.
After all, without the original work existing for people to draw comparisons, who would know?
Initially, I planned to release the novel as a book, but I was advised not to.
"Your Excellency, your work will make more money if serialized in a newspaper.”
More money.
In other words, more readers.
Because of this, I decided to not publish 'The Legend Of The Galactic Heroes' as a book.
"President Cho?"
I directly approached Koryo Ilbo to serialize my novel.
At first, the Koryo Ilbo was hesitant, but once the serialization began, they were thrilled.
“General, the newspaper is getting flooded with postcards and letters!”
“Oh, really?”
That was within expectations.
In this harsh and oppressive Military dictatorship, the story of a 'Kaiser' reforming his country was bound to be popular.
Despite containing a somewhat risky plot that essentially left everything to a 'Gary Stu' 4 main character, the story itself was a breath of fresh air.
The idea of a 20-something Kaiser beating the crap out of corrupt and incompetent nobles was beloved by many.
Moreover, the Kaiser achieved the monumental feat of defeating a 'powerful foreign nation' in war.
This narrative was akin to an ointment for the hurting citizens of the Empire.
My little project was such a hit that even the men in the mess hall were moved by it.
“Your Excellency, may I ask for your autograph on this newspaper?”
The Young Officers who used to find my presence unapproachable, now eagerly walked towards me.
However, they still couldn't hold a conversation with me.
Nonetheless, progress was being made.
While I continued to work on my novel and building my reputation, news arrived that the Second Italo-Ethiopian War5 had concluded with an Italian victory.
Italy had annexed Ethiopia and declared ‘Victory in Africa.’
Until now, things didn't deviate much from the original course of events.
After all, aside from the Japanese Empire being replaced by the Korean Empire, there weren’t many differences.
Anyhow, I also decided on the title for the editorial.
M A K E K O R E A G R E A T A G A I N !
I pointed out the backward aspects of the Empire's society compared to the Western powers and presented the vision the Empire must adopt to catch up.
The first of which was.
"A War On Crime."
Back in the Republic of Korea, the 'War on Crime' 6 referred to the operation initiated by Roh Tae-woo7 as he launched a crackdown on criminal organizations as a means to divert a political crisis.
Regardless of his motives, Roh Tae-woo’s ‘cWar on Crimes’ dealt a significant blow to organized crime in South Korea.
The current Korean Empire needed this ‘war on crime’ as well.
If we continued to allow state-banned drugs like Heroin to be smuggled within the Empire, wouldn't we end up just like the USA during the Cold War era?
My vision for the future was thus,
A clean and drug-free society.
Something that was beyond the grasp of those meatheads in the Military, who could only think of war.
The second topic was,
"Saemaul Undong 8."
Sharing knowledge with the rural areas of the Empire left behind in the modernization process.
By doing this, we could instruct these farmers and allow them the benefits of civilization such as water supply and sewage systems.
Leaving the rural population in such a half-baked state would prevent the Empire from becoming a fully modernized nation.
Indeed, I had blatantly plagiarized both the title and movement idea from Park Chung-Hee.
The third topic,
“Make primary education mandatory!”
As is well-known, the driving force that made Prussia a formidable capable power was education.
Of course, many high-ranking officials in this Empire understood the importance of education, but they never entertained the idea of making primary education a mandatory practice.
That's because the Empire simply hadn't the necessary budget and administrative power to implement this.
But the Empire's circumstances hardly mattered.
Who cares if the implementation of such an idea is impossible?
It wasn't my problem.
My objective was simply to be the one shouting a 'vision' those muscle brains in the military couldn't conceive.
The editorial quickly sparked a massive reaction in Korean society.
[General Lee Sung Joon's insights are correct. His ideas could be even called the modern Ten Urgent Points of Reform! (Koryo Ilbo Editor's note: The following commentary refers to the societal reform proposals submitted by Ch'oe Ch'i-wŏn to Queen Jinseong of Silla).]
[Absurd! It's preposterous for a mere General to dare comment on National Affairs!]
People fervently debated whether my editorial was right or wrong.
It was as if someone had thrown gasoline on a fire.
As the debate raged, those around me also reacted.
"General, a soldier must maintain his neutrality. Nothing good comes from men like you meddling in politics."
The high-ranking officers in the Empire subtly criticized my statements.
That was, of course, a natural reaction.
Until now, no one had proposed policies directed at the rural population or the struggling lower-class citizens.
However, my actions also achieved my goals.
Those marginalized people saw hope in me.
My dining table was no longer a place where young officers attended reluctantly.
With my 'fans' emerging, I now had 'friends' who would sit with me in the mess hall.
“General, I thoroughly enjoyed your recent editorial.”
"Is that so?"
“Reading Your Excellency's recommendations for the Nation made me realize that I’d been a frog in a well."
But sometimes, their admiration for me was a bit too much...
What is this...I've basically become an idol now.
It seems that during my journey to attempt a Coup, I had become the Military's idol.
Regardless, this outcome was a promising one.
A third of the young officers in the division had become my steadfast supporters.
I hadn’t visited other units, so I couldn’t say for sure, but judging by the general mood, there likely were quite a few more supporters out there.
Finally, the groundwork has been laid.
Just seeing the officers happily enjoying my presence made me feel satisfied.
These fellows don't know it yet, but they are my initial capital for the coup.
If I can solidify their support, and refine some organizational skills...I'll be one step closer to forming a Hanahoe-like faction.
However, it wasn’t the right time to move on to the next stage.
That time hasn't come yet.
Something crucial will happen soon.
The Spanish Civil War. 9
An event many considered a prelude to the World War.
***
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