I Will Stage A Coup D'état-Chapter 77: Peaceful Daily Life (1)

Chapter 77: Peaceful Daily Life (1)

In May 1942, the Soviet Union and Germany, who would have been engaged in a fierce battle on the front lines, were catching their breath and glaring at each other.

Germany, daunted by the grand resilience of the Soviets they had tasted in 1941, could not muster the courage to launch an offensive, while the Soviet Union was also discouraged by their defeat in the winter battles.

While the two mustachioed men spent a peaceful time, Korea was also having a relatively peaceful daily life.

“Fire!”

Bang bang.

“It’s the Skull Corps!”

As young students screamed and ran away from the tear gas, combat police wearing gas masks engraved with skull marks chased after them, ruthlessly swinging their batons.

Heads were smashed and blood flowed heavily, but the police showed no mercy.

“You motherfuckers! We fed you the food the country provided, and you dare to act up!”

“Aaah! Stop pulling!”

“How dare you, in this day and age, protesting!”

“Civil rights, my ass!”

People were enraged by the police’s merciless crackdown but didn’t dare to step up.

“Those, those bastards are worse than dogs!”

Still, today was a relatively lucky day.

Yes.

If I had sent the bloodthirsty berserks who had undergone the ‘Loyalty Training’, then all the protestors would show up in body bags.

Such protests occasionally occurred in wartime Korea.

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The reason protests don’t frequently happen in Nazi Germany, which has a similar structure to us, is because Hitler doesn’t properly run the wartime economy.

They produce all the civilian consumer goods and supply a significant portion of the usually required amount, even if they have to loot it from occupied territories, so why would people rise up?

Instead, those bastards live in the occupied territories they looted with guns and swords, being terrorized by the military and police.

Protests and terrorism.

If we had to compare, our situation was much better.

“Your Excellency. Here is the report on today’s protest casualties. A student died during the protest suppression.”

It happens from time to time.

At first, I thought I would be utterly shocked to receive a report that someone died during the protest suppression process.

But they say humans are creatures of adaptation, and as I kept hearing it, I became numb as if listening to numbers on statistics.

It felt like seeing the world through Stalin’s eyes.

This feeling… it wasn’t a good one.

“How many were arrested?”

“According to the Ministry of Internal Affairs, it’s about 350 people.”

“Just ‘educate’ the ringleaders appropriately in the detention center and release the rest with a warning. Make sure they understand. Got it?”

“I shall obey.”

Protests continue to occur even if suppressed by force anyway.

It’s strange if people don’t rise up when they’re ground up in factories for 12 hours a day.

I would have risen up too.

I understood the sentiments of the protesters who rose up, unable to bear it anymore.

No, I empathized with them.

Having worked 16 hours a day as a translation machine, I knew how painful it was.

However, ‘understanding’ their position and changing their circumstances were entirely separate issues.

Unfortunately for them, our Korea was at war.

Like any nation, the enormous demands of a wartime state inevitably required the sacrifice of workers.

Of course, it’s not only the workers who sacrifice.

In a total war system, all classes had to endure sacrifices.

Even capitalists were paying taxes with a top rate of 90%, like in America.

During wartime, such absurd measures are justified and tolerated.

Because the survival of the nation is of utmost importance.

That’s why war is so cruel to the people as well.

I took a deep drag of my cigarette and said,

“You know.”

“Yes, Your Excellency.”

“Do you know? I really wanted to make this country, Korea, a good nation.”

Even though I was full of lies and contradictions, this was sincere.

“Your Excellency, you are doing just that. Anyone with a sound mind would not be able to deny the fact that Your Excellency’s rule has led this country on the right path.”

No, Jong-Gil doesn’t know.

He doesn’t have the freedom to criticize the state and insult the head of state without consequence.

He doesn’t know a prosperous nation where you don’t starve or shiver in fear even if you don’t work 12 hours a day in a factory.

In that sense, this nation, the Korean Empire, resembled Kim Jong-un’s North Korea more than the 21st-century Republic of Korea.

“Is that so.”

In the end, even Jong-gil couldn’t understand how I felt.

But who can I blame?

It was me who led this country this way.

As the supreme leader of Korea, I bore infinite responsibility for the reality of this nation.

At that moment, while lost in thought, a call came from outside.

“Your Excellency. The Minister of Internal Affairs is requesting an audience.”

“Tell him to come in.”

I stubbed out my cigarette butt and sat in my chair.

“Your Excellency.”

Lee Dong-sung, the Minister of Internal Affairs, bowed deeply.

“It’s fine, senior. Please straighten your back. It makes me uncomfortable.”

Lee Dong-sung was Lee Sung-joon’s senior by two years at the Military Academy.

Most people are Military Academy seniors and juniors to each other, but Lee Dong-sung was personally close to the original Lee Sung-joon.

Thanks to that connection, I appointed him as the Minister of Internal Affairs, and he was desperate to show his loyalty.

It could be a bit excessive at times, but it was more reassuring to give positions to such loyal figures than to entrust them to untrustworthy bastards.

“So, senior, what brings you here?”

“Yes, recently, subversive books have been spreading, mainly in factory dormitories. So, I came to see Your Excellency because I thought there should be a law to crack down on this.”

“What kind of subversive books?”

Looking through the booklets handed by Lee Dong-sung, they reeked of commie stench.

The covers were as crude as could be, as if they had just been printed at a printing shop.

It was unlikely that the Soviet commies, who were currently relying on Korea for military supplies, had ordered this, so it seemed that naturally occurring commies had spread the books.

“Hmm. Commies, indeed. My goodness.”

“What shall we do?”

This didn’t seem like something that could be easily dealt with by force.

“It’s pointless to just outright ban them. Let’s just implement correctional education for those who possess or have read the books.”

Correctional education refers to a milder version of the revolutionary re-education camps, where one learns the Lee Sung-joon series in a detention center.

It’s not quite the same as the previous brainwashing education, but it can be understood as an education that makes people docile enough to cooperate with government policies.

“Will that be enough? They were pure commies, you know.”

“They’re still young kids, so let’s not go too far.”

I didn’t want to be unnecessarily cruel.

I was already a splendid military dictator with the things I had done, so I didn’t want to add to that title.

Student protests, labor protests, and now commie books.

The peaceful daily life of Korea was enough to give me a headache.

In the midst of this, the Defense Security Command brought a plan to solve this problem.

“Your Excellency. The DSC has prepared a plan to divert national attention.”

“Is that so?”

If there was a target to divert the direction of anger in a situation where national discontent had already accumulated, it would help with governance.

Diverting discontent.

It would be nice to push policies like the 3S, but we’d need money for that in the midst of war.

Soon, Defense Security Commander, General Lee Jeong-ju came in and presented a file.

“Creating a fifth column?”

The fifth column referred to an outsider isolated from a group where a formation of four columns was common.

It was also commonly used as a synonym for spies.

“Yes, Your Excellency. The idea is to make the people ‘suspect’ that German and Chinese spies are moving around in the country and engaging in sabotage.”

“A fifth column out of nowhere. Who would believe such a thing? Even I find it hard to believe.”

“That’s why we prepared a plan. Please read from page 4.”

Flipping through a few pages, I saw the core of what the DSC had prepared.

The DSC’s idea was to frame religious figures, namely the Lutheran denomination of Protestantism that had come over from Germany, as a spy force.

“So, you want to tie Germany and these folks together.”

“You saw it exactly right.”

Every conspiracy gains power when it has substance.

A target that the people can strike at.

Lutheranism had all the necessary conditions for that.

Their small numbers, ties to an enemy country, and even a culture that was foreign to Korean society were all things to attack.

However, I didn’t feel like doing that.

It wasn’t because it bothered my conscience.

The method is easy, but if we keep taking such drastic measures, this country will become impossible to save forever.

Even though I had no choice but to swallow extreme measures like coups, I also knew how to exercise restraint when it was unnecessary.

This was a wrong idea even in my eyes.

“Hey, hey. This is a completely messed up approach.”

Colonel Lee Jeong-yun flinched at my rebuke.

“Pardon?”

“Who in the world attempts terrorism targeting a specific group of their own people?”

Well, Stalin and Hitler were doing that, but they were inhuman entities, so they needed to be excluded.

“Try to refine it a bit more gently.”

“What do you mean by that?”

“What good would it do to specifically make a certain religion the victim?”

At my words, Lee Jeong-yun had an expression of realization.

“My thoughts were short-sighted, Your Excellency.”

“Since it’s the plan you brought, refine it again and prepare it thoroughly.”

“I shall obey.”

After waving my hand to send Lee Jeong-yun away, my thoughts became even more complicated.

Fabricating spies.

Certainly, this regime is a military regime desperate to catch people.

However, I couldn’t give orders not to do such things.

Friends like Lee Jeong-yun doing those things is ultimately to sustain the Korea that I lead.

At the end of the day, I put a cigar in my mouth.

Even though I always thought I should cut down on smoking, I couldn’t quit at times like this.

The taste of tobacco savored at the end of work was bitterly astringent.