NIS Agents Tearing Up the Japanese Empire - Chapter 89



Only Krnovel

There are few in Tokyo (6)

“… … So, starting next week, the Chosun Ilbo will carry this news on the front page as part of our campaign to eradicate corruption.”

The social affairs reporters were in an uproar at the editor’s declaration.

“Has the boss finally drawn his sword?”

“It looks like you’re determined to tame that bastard this time too.”

“I can’t help but laugh when I think about bowing my head in front of that Governor-General Kuroda.”

“Oh, but he is a kind person who gives me money every month without fail so that I don’t go hungry. How can you call him a vicious pro-Japanese traitor?”

“Nobody ever said that… … .”

The Chosun Ilbo reporters were people who thought of ways to cause trouble for the Governor-General every day, so they packed their bags right away like fish in water.

“Where is everyone going?”

“Let’s go and report!”

“Already? The campaign hasn’t even started yet!”

“Hey… … There’s so much news out there right now! If we just sit still, other guys will come and take it!”

“What are you going to do?”

“Our Noda Lord, this is Geonsu!”

All this time, I had been filled with more information about Lord Noda than anyone else, but I had held back because I was not the kind of person who would bite the hand of the master who gave me money. But now, I guess permission has been given from above.

There was no reason to endure it any longer.

By order of President Nam Goong Hoon, the hunting dogs that had been tied to the Chosun Ilbo for a long time were released from their leashes.

Since Kuroda took office, censorship and crackdowns worse than those of the Governor-General have continued, and the tips of the pens of reporters who have been itching to write the articles they have long wanted to write have shined and the manuscript paper has passed judgment.

And next Monday.

[Shock! Who is the owner of the mysterious wad of money that popped out of Lord Noda’s mansion?!]

[The moment this is revealed, the Korean people will be shocked, the Japanese will be horrified, and Governor-General Saito will fall down, clutching at the scruff of his neck!]

[The dead Lord Noda deceives the living!]

[Imagination of Lord Noda hearing the name of his brother from the Mangtakjo in the afterlife – (Illustration)]

I only read the headlines on the front page, but I felt dizzy and couldn’t turn the page, so I put the newspaper down.

“Those… …. Are these guys only alive today?”

“They weren’t originally like this… … . I guess they’ve been restricted and controlled for so long that the backlash when they’re let loose is so severe.”

“Huh, really… … . Aren’t you all afraid of the corungtang?”

“What is corungtang?”

“I eat Seolleongtang with my nose.”

“What a wicked way to eat.”

“I guess so.”

If it were normal, I would have told President Namgoong Hoon my intentions with an appropriate amount of jokes, but today I just wasn’t in the mood for that.

‘They told me to light a fuse, but it looks like they just tied dynamite around their necks and rushed into the Governor-General’s Office.’

Any human being… no, any living creature would be afraid of something that could strangle them in an instant, but these people were fearless, as if they had transcended humanity.

It was said that he was a person who would say what he wanted to say no matter what the Governor-General said, no matter what he did, no matter what he went to prison, no matter what he did when he died.

Was this the fight between King Taejong, who wanted to hide the fact that he had fallen from his horse in the old days, and the historian who tried to record it in the history book?

It was something I really knew but didn’t know.

“Since we have provoked the Governor-General like this, they will send someone soon.”

“I’ll be called in and scolded. That’s what I expected.”

As always, I had a plan.

Of course, if I had known it would go so wrong from the start, I wouldn’t have even tried, but anyway, the work had begun and was still moving within the framework of my plan.

“Governor Saito must have also been secretly hoping that I would dig into this matter.”

“Isn’t that too hasty?”

“Hey… … Have you forgotten where the governor came from?”

“Where is Saito from? Isn’t it some remote part of Japan?”

“… … I’m from the Navy. Navy.”

“So why?”

President Nam Goong Hoon seemed completely unaware of how the situation was going now and how it would go in the future.

Well, who in the world would think that the armies of one country would fight each other as if they were enemies?

“… … The Japanese army and navy have hated each other since their inception.”

“Was it like that?”

“Yes, I did.”

“Hmm. That’s strange. As far as I know, the Army and Navy seem to join hands and work well together when invading Joseon territory.”

“That was because it was a time when communication was somewhat common.”

“Write… … .”

President Namgung had a look of complete disbelief on his face.

“It may sound like a joke, but it’s not a joke, it’s the truth.”

“Yes, let’s leave that aside for now… … So you thought that if you let things go like this, there would be a split between the Army and the Navy?”

“The Army and Navy are already divided, so I don’t think there’s any need for me to do anything more to cause further division… … What I’m aiming for is a division between the military and the civilian government.”

“The division between the military and the civilian government.”

Japan has long been a society ruled by the samurai, or warrior class.

It has been said that since ancient times, fists were more powerful than words, and swords were more powerful than fists.

Of course, during the long period of peace during the Edo period under the Tokugawa shogunate, the warrior class forgot their original destructiveness and cruelty and became like docile cats, or they abandoned everything and fled to the countryside, becoming stray cats.

Moreover, ordinary citizens and Japanese society also treated Bushido as something old, outdated, and unsophisticated.

However, just as the old sages said that when the seniors in the military abolish beatings, the juniors who have never been beaten before will revive them, Bushido, which should have remained old-fashioned and outdated, has been reappearing in society at some point.

The military, which had achieved successive victories from the Sino-Japanese War to the Russo-Japanese War and World War I, was idolized, while the civilian government that was supposed to control it was tainted with corruption.

Given the circumstances, the idea that civilian control would be properly implemented was no different than throwing an axe into a lake and waiting for the mountain spirit to appear.

No, maybe the Japanese wouldn’t recognize the mountain spirit when it appeared and would just split its head open with an axe.

“That might be an exaggeration, things aren’t going so well right now, but on the surface, everything seems to be going well without any major problems.”

I explained it to President Namgung, who still didn’t know the situation well, so that he could understand.

“A few months ago, a man showed up here in Gyeongseong, blew up the Jongno Police Station, captured the Chief of Police of the Government-General, and made a crippled man out of him. He then slaughtered the ronin sent by the Black Dragon Society.”

“That’s… … . Ahem… … . It’s the ghost of Gyeongseong.”

“Yes, and then after a few months of silence, he suddenly reappeared, this time killing one of his local collaborators and threatening others to extort money.”

“Umm… … .”

“But the home country, which is right in front of the colony, has not provided any support or made any statements. Is this going well?”

“… … There are certainly a lot of problems.”

It’s already been half a year since I started working in Gyeongseong and Shanghai.

Yet the Japanese government either denies my existence or merely calls it the deviation of a few traitors.

“If the government is so passive, what will the soldiers below think?”

There will be complaints.

“So, I’m going to use the power of the media here to give the military a justification to legally overthrow the civilian government.”

“A justification for legally overthrowing the government?”

“yes.”

“What is that?”

President Namgung asked me as if he was very curious, but I still had no intention of answering.

Even if you answered, it wasn’t like I could completely understand it.

But since we’re going to be working together for a long time, I guess I can tell you this much.

“There has been a saying since ancient times that when a disaster strikes a country, it is because the politicians have done politics wrong.”

“That was the case, but it’s all in the past now… … .”

“I will use it.”

“What are you using it for?”

“It is a national disaster.”

“?”

President Namgung still had an expression on his face that said he didn’t understand English.

“Look. I told you, you still don’t understand even if I explain it to you.”

“If you explain it like that, who will understand?”

“That’s true.”

* * *

The Chosun Ilbo’s serial novel contest had a great impact in Korea and Japan in many ways.

Many writers who had been living in poverty due to lack of work or people who had been interested in literature but had to give up their dreams due to financial difficulties showed interest in it.

“We have arrived!”

“Oh, how much is it?”

“Please give me 50 cents.”

“50 cents? That’s a bit pricey.”

“Hehehe, please understand that prices have gone up these days.”

“Well… … then what?”

The customer handed over a newspaper instead of money.

“I bought it for 50 cents in front of Gyeongseong Station a few days ago. Can I use this to pay for it?”

“… … ?”

“It’s the same 50 cents anyway, and since this is an item, isn’t it better than money?”

“No… … . But I… … ?”

“Look. If you look here, it’s called the Chosun Ilbo Story Bag. The stories serialized here are so interesting. It only costs 50 cents to read these interesting stories, so if you think about it, it’s a losing business for me.”

“Uh… is that so?”

The innocent rickshaw puller was so taken in by the words of the young man, who seemed to have greased his lips, that he paid with newspapers instead of money.

Although it was a bit awkward, I opened the newspaper, thinking that I had found some paper to use in the back room rather than fighting with the customer over 50 cents.

“It’s a lucky day. The title really catches my eye.”

Since there were so many writers who participated in the contest, there were many types of serialized novels and the genres were also diverse.

There were historical novels, folk tales, and military tales that were still popular in the world, as well as martial arts novels that were popular in faraway China, and there were also essays written by someone.

And among them, there were romance novels for those with a rich sensibility, and some novels were mixed with mystery novels that were popular in the far West… … These days, the Chosun Ilbo seemed more like a serialized novel magazine than a newspaper.

That’s why some people who first encountered the newspaper through the Chosun Ilbo left reviews saying that they thought this was how newspapers were and went on to buy other newspapers only to be disappointed.

The novel that the great writers of both Korea and Japan were writhing their whole bodies to write in hopes of winning the prize money instantly captured people’s hearts, and as word of it spread, requests to publish the Chosun Ilbo poured in from local areas.

Among them, there were even peddlers who bought the Chosun Ilbo in bundles from Gyeongseong and sold it at high prices in other regions.

The Chosun Ilbo, which received such enthusiastic public attention, grew rapidly after the contest and became a major newspaper company that printed thousands and tens of thousands of copies every day, no longer limited to Gyeongseong and its surrounding areas, but extending from Haenam in the south to Nanam in the north.

Thanks to this, articles from the Chosun Ilbo, which were published without censorship by the Governor-General, were distributed to all 13 provinces of the country without any restrictions, and some of them were translated and sent across the ocean at the request of Japanese writers who were anxiously awaiting the results of the contest.

So I picked up a new newspaper, looking forward to a new serial novel to start the new week.

NIS Agent Tears the Japanese Empire Episode 90