Republic of Korea in Yeokcheon - Chapter 355



Only Krnovel

#355. Taiwan’s fate was decided first

15:00, July 10, 1966.

The gunfire fell silent on the Northern and Southwestern fronts.

The war that began on June 25 with the invasion of South Korea by the Chinese joint forces, which were the result of the third joint operation between the People’s Republic of China and the Republic of China, ended after 16 days.

The Republic of China unconditionally surrendered on the previous day, July 9, and the People’s Republic of China announced its intention to unconditionally surrender that morning, finally ending the war at 3:00 p.m.

And of course, chaos broke out all over South Korea.

“Wow!”

“We won again!”

“Long live the Republic of Korea!”

Citizens holding the Taegeukgi in their hands poured out and celebrated the victory.

Since the Republic of Korea had never lost a war since independence and its founding, it was believed that it would win this time as well.

But war is war.

And it’s not the war with Indonesia or something like that, it’s the war with China.

Even the enemies, the People’s Republic of China in the north and the Republic of China in the south, joined forces again for war.

Moreover, the enemy’s forces were a ridiculously large force, with a known strength of 15 million at the start of the war.

There was a history of overcoming overwhelming military inferiority and achieving a great victory against the Soviet Union in the past, and the image of the South Korean military as ‘undefeated’ over the years was such that there was no great concern, but most citizens could not help but be worried.

But it was as expected.

The Republic of Korea Armed Forces have been reporting victories every day.

On the all-important northern front, they advanced toward Beijing, crushing hundreds of thousands of enemy units a day, while on the southern front, General Kim Jong-woo, a national hero who enjoyed some occult popularity, also drowned the enemy’s large fleet in one blow.

However, I did not know that they would surrender so quickly. They received an unconditional surrender from the enemy in just 16 days.

Above all, what made the entire nation happy was that this time too, there were not many casualties among our soldiers.

Although they were overwhelmingly inferior to the Chinese joint forces, the number of troops mobilized by South Korea in this war was also considerable.

A whopping 3 million troops were mobilized, including 1 million reservists with 5 years or less of service.

As a result, there were not many families whose father, son, husband, or brother was a direct soldier, and it became difficult to find someone around here who had not served in the war.

Ultimately, even as the news of victory continued to come in day after day, the greatest concern of the South Korean people was the number of casualties on our side. Fortunately, there were not many cases of soldiers dying in battle, and most were injured in accidents or died on duty.

This was something that couldn’t be helped no matter how careful you were.

It was a task for a large army of 3 million people to carry dangerous guns and handle armored vehicles such as tanks and self-propelled guns.

In any case, the people of South Korea came out into the streets like crazy and celebrated the victory with excitement.

Now she would no longer have to worry about her son, husband, and father who had gone to the front lines.

* * *

July 11th, 9:20 am.

The Blue House in Seoul.

“Whew! Yesterday wasn’t even a mess.”

“Hahaha! Doesn’t this always happen?”

“ha ha ha!”

“ha ha ha!”

At the Blue House, a meeting of key ministers was being held to deal with the aftermath of the war, and Lee Kang-cheol shook his head as he said that the whole country had been swept by the fever of victory yesterday.

“By the way, Mr. Usagi, when is the surrender negotiation team scheduled to arrive?”

“I surrendered unconditionally, but it seems a bit strange to say that we are a negotiating team.”

“Hahaha! That’s true.”

“Haha! Just kidding. Even if it means unconditional surrender, we should negotiate. For now, the negotiation teams from both the South and the North have been told to come to Seoul on July 13th.”

In fact, I asked formally, but they unilaterally told me to come to Seoul by the day after tomorrow.

Since North China and South China were defeated countries that surrendered unconditionally, this was natural.

“Who is coming to represent us in negotiations?”

“The Communist Party has decided that Zhou Enlai will come, and the Kuomintang has decided that Chiang Ching-kuo will come with full authority.”

“I see.”

“yes.”

“We will discuss countermeasures since Mr. Usagi will be working hard for us. Well, we discussed it here and there throughout the war, but nothing was finalized.”

“Haha! The war ended in 16 days, so there wasn’t even time for that.”

Everyone expected the war to end quickly, but we thought it would last at least a month.

But since it ended in just 16 days, there was no time to organize opinions internally.

“Let’s first discuss war criminals. How should we deal with them?”

“… … .”

“… … .”

Lee Kang-cheol raised the issue of dealing with war criminals, but no one said anything.

Because they had won such an overwhelming victory in such a short period of time, no one felt the need to specifically arrest and punish them.

Finally, Kim Kyu-sik opened his mouth.

“Since we achieved such a great victory in such a short period of time, I don’t think there is any reason to punish individuals as war criminals. If we’re not careful, they might end up being treated as heroes in their own country.”

“Do you think so, teacher?”

“Yes, others probably think the same. They just use the war criminals as our card during the negotiations. Well, it’s like we’re making concessions or doing a favor.”

“Hmm, what does Prime Minister Goh think?”

“I think it would be best to do as Mr. Woosa said. In particular, if we plan the game as we think, we should have friendly relations with the Republic of China in a future-oriented manner, but I don’t think it would be a good idea to treat Chiang Kai-shek as a war criminal.”

“What do other people think?”

“Yes, I think it would be better to use it as a bargaining chip and end it there.”

“Please do so.”

There was no disagreement.

“Okay. Then, I will use the war criminal handling as a card in the negotiations. Mr. Usagi.”

“Yes, Mr. President.”

“But you still have to yell to some extent?”

“Hahaha! Of course.”

“Then what remains is the issue of compensation. Prime Minister Goh, would you please summarize what was originally discussed?”

“Okay. There are three major types of compensation for this war. The first is, of course, money. We will naturally demand monetary compensation. The second is territorial compensation. There is not much land that can be taken as territory, but it should be discussed while considering future strategic aspects. The third is that they will have to accept various restrictions as a defeated nation. Research on nuclear energy is an example of this.”

“Yes, as Prime Minister Goh said, we will demand compensation in three directions, and the surrender document will include various conditions and restrictions that they must accept as a defeated country. Then, let’s start by discussing war compensation.”

“Let me say something.”

Minister of Foreign Affairs Park Jae-seung, who had been keeping his mouth shut to watch Kim Kyu-sik’s reaction, opened his mouth.

“Okay, feel free to speak. Don’t worry about what Mr. Usagi thinks.”

“Poohaha!”

“ha ha ha!”

“Haha! You are the head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, so speak freely.”

Since Kim Kyu-sik had retired for quite some time, Park Jae-seung was now performing his duties well as Minister of Foreign Affairs.

However, because Kim Kyu-sik’s shadow was so thick, Lee Kang-cheol joked that he still did not express his opinion well when Kim Kyu-sik was around.

“Well, then let me explain it to you. Even if the war ended quickly without causing us much damage, I think we should receive war reparations properly, unlike the way we deal with war criminals.”

“What is the basis for saying that?”

“First, there is the issue of war costs. Just because there was no damage doesn’t mean there were no costs, right? Mr. Minister of Defense, is that right?”

“Yes, that’s right. A whopping 3 million troops were mobilized. The cost involved is enormous. And above all, the cost of ammunition. In this war, we have used up more than 70% of the ammunition we had stockpiled after the war with the Soviet Union, and it will cost astronomical amounts to stockpile it again. More than 60 million rounds of 155mm ammunition alone have been used.”

“Wow! You shot a lot.”

“Well, it was practically a war using artillery.”

It was a war that started with artillery and ended with artillery.

Naturally, astronomical amounts of ammunition were consumed.

“It is as Minister of National Defense Nam Byung-woo said. We have no intention of making money from this war, but shouldn’t we at least receive the actual expenses?”

“Hahaha! That’s right.”

“And we also need war reparations from EATO allies like Vietnam. The allies will take almost no territory from this war. At most, they will be able to push back their borders by a few dozen kilometers. So we need to compensate them with some money, but we can’t give them that, can we?”

“Yes, that’s true. We don’t have much territory to hand over to our allies in this war. As you said, the most we can do is push back our borders.”

“That’s what I’m saying. Considering the cost of the war and the lack of territorial compensation, we should at least give them money. Of course, depending on their contribution.”

“But that doesn’t mean we can erase debts we can’t afford.”

“Minister of Economy, what would be an appropriate amount?”

“It’s a burden, but it’s manageable. This is just right. Our department has data on the compensation that takes into account the economic scale of North China and South China, so if we look at that and make a decision, it shouldn’t be too much of a problem.”

“Hahaha! That would be a good idea.”

Lee Kang-cheol said with a smile that he was pleased with the Minister of Strategy and Finance’s quick moves.

“You can roughly think of North China and South China as a 1:1 ratio. South China is smaller, but its economy is slightly better than North China’s. And in the long term, burdening them will be effective in suppressing them. If it’s a long-term division situation of about 30 years, it will be difficult for the next generation.”

“Then you should work with Mr. Usagi to decide the plan.”

“All right.”

“Mr. Usagi, would that be okay?”

“Haha! Okay, I understand.”

“Okay! Next is the territorial issue. It will probably be easier to talk about the Republic of China first. I will talk about this first. I want the Republic of China to cede the island of Taiwan.”

“Wouldn’t that be adequate?”

“What is the population of Taiwan?”

“It’s a little over 10 million now. Originally, the number was over 13 million at this time in history, but this time, there was no longer the Kuomintang’s contempt for the country’s wealth, and with the economic development of southern China, many people moved to the mainland, so the number has decreased considerably.”

“We can handle that much.”

“Well, Taiwan was under Japanese rule for such a long time that, unlike the mainland, there isn’t much of a sense of alienation from us.”

There was no opposition to the cession of Taiwan.

“Okay, then let’s bring Taiwan first.”

“all right.”

Taiwan’s fate was decided first.