In early May, when Chen Zeyu and his entourage came to Shanghai to hold an ignition ceremony for Baosteel's newly commissioned No. 1 blast furnace, the domestic situation in North Korea, Ceris's little brother in the East, suddenly became turbulent.

As early as the beginning of the year, in order to implement the past political reform commitments, the North Korean royal family announced the implementation of a constitutional monarchy on January 6 by the Queen Mother Min, implemented some limited reform measures in the country, and formulated the first constitution of the country. Local representatives at all levels of parliament have in fact only a small amount of oversight. Because of this, the Donghak Party in the south of Korea was very dissatisfied with this, and in the face of the civil affairs officials sent from the north, they still firmly controlled the military and political power of the southern three provinces, and the contradictions between the two sides became more and more acute.

By mid-April of that year, the political situation in North Korea had deteriorated again.

On April 13, the youngest son of the North Korean regent Empress Dowager Min, the head of the Korean monarch Chunjong Yi Kun, unfortunately contracted a cold and died. What's worse is that Concubine Min, who was in grief at this time, did not listen to the persuasion of the minister and set up the son of another concubine as the lord of the country, but chose another child born from the palace who was favored by Gaozong to be the monarch.

Concubine Min's approach suddenly made the Korean Dayuan Jun (i.e., Gaozong's biological father) angry five thunders, and at the same time, many other former royal family members also sent people to the door, and the two sides hit it off and decided to jointly overthrow Concubine Min's constitutional government, and instead re-establish the deceased Concubine Zhang's widowed son Li Chun as the lord of the country.

At this time, Dayuanjun and others were also holding a trump card in their hands - in order to accumulate financial resources to build more new-style armed special skills teams in the country, Concubine Min began to dismantle a large number of old-style armies in the past, and instead used the saved funds for the new-style army. These old soldiers, who had not received their salaries for several months, naturally began to resent Concubine Min's policies, and became more and more hostile to the special teams that were obviously treated differently from them, coupled with the instigation of Dayuanjun and others in secret, finally on the 17th of that month, these cut troops mutinied en masse!

Thousands of soldiers rose up, attacked the royal capital, destroyed the mansions of the Min magnates, attacked the military camp of the other technical army and Gyeongbokgung Palace, and pointed the spearhead at Concubine Min. During the mutiny, a large number of Concubine Min's forces suffered heavy losses, and even high-ranking officials of the Concubine Min group, such as Lee Jiying, Kim Fu-hyun, Min Chang-sik, and Min Qian-ho, were killed by the rebels.

Concubine Min was caught off guard and her face was colorless, and at this time, the guards around her saved her. Under the desperate cover of the palace guards, Concubine Min successfully escaped from the palace after disguising herself as a palace maid, and finally hid in the Seris Legation in Seoul after several rounds.

At the same time, the mutiny outside also continued, and after suppressing all the Min clans in the city, Daewonjun became the supreme ruler of Joseon and re-established his grandson, the son of Ri Chun, as the ruler of the country. Just when Daewonjun was in charge of the government and ordered the troops to continue searching for Concubine Min in Seoul and restore order, the situation changed again.

On April 21, the front-line troops stationed in Chungcheong-do in the south immediately exploded after hearing that there was a military rebellion in Seoul, and Hong Qixun, the commander of the special technical team loyal to the Min concubine regime, immediately ordered the troops to go north to quell the rebellion!

This North Korean all-firearms army, which was trained by Seris military instructors, has always been valued by Concubine Min before, and she personally named it the special skill team, which is a priority supply for the whole army in terms of salary and logistics, and its combat effectiveness is naturally not comparable to that of Seoul Daewonjun's troops.

This special team, which carried Concubine Min's high hopes, went all the way to the Lianke Prefecture, and when they arrived in Seoul, they fought a big battle with Dayuanjun's troops outside the city, and after annihilating this enemy army, they firmly besieged the entire royal capital of Hancheng.

At this time, Minister Plenipotentiary Yuan Shikai, who had been silent on the sidelines, also officially sent a letter to the North Korean side, expressing his dissatisfaction with the rebellion of Jun Xingbing in the compound. The political leanings of the Seris were so pronounced that the North Korean authorities could not ignore his opinion, considering that at this very moment there was a brigade of Republican troops stationed outside Seoul and at Incheon. Under the internal and external difficulties, Daewonjun, who had just been in power for less than a week, had to step down in embarrassment, and left the royal capital in disgrace after opening the city gate and surrendering, and has since taken refuge in Pyongyang.

On the other hand, after purging the rebels in the city, Concubine Min also seized power again and returned to Gyeongbokgung Palace. Interestingly, the queen mother of North Korea also seemed to become a little exhausted after experiencing the war rebellion, and after returning to the palace, she did not take what the original puppet monarch Li Chun who was supported by the monarch of the courtyard, and finally at the suggestion of the Ceris government, the poor prince actually kept his throne dramatically.

Although the Daewonjun was expelled, the rebellion still dealt a heavy blow to Concubine Min's power in Korea, and the Min family, including Concubine Min herself, was almost wiped out in this turmoil, and even her youngest nephew Min Chenghao was seriously injured by the rebels, and many noble mansions in Seoul were also looted and looted by the rioters. To make matters worse, after this battle, the prestige of the Joseon royal family among the people collapsed, and the Governor's Office of the Donghak Party in the south also became more and more contemptuous of this former royal regime, and many officials of the Governor's Office of Namsamdo even openly waved the banner of independence, and the troops of the two sides on the front line of Chungcheong-do became more and more tense with each other.

On 29 April, two warships of the Donghak Party, "Chaoyong" and "Yangwei," which had been stationed in Mokpo, suddenly swept the Tangjin River northward, and then wantonly fired artillery on the sea surface of Pyeongtaek Port under the pretext of military exercises.

The officers and men of the royal family's special team were immediately furious, and after the attack, the soldiers in the barracks immediately began to counterattack with the 75mm infantry guns they had purchased from Seris, and the two sides continued to bombard each other from noon until the evening of the same day.

By the beginning of May, the troops on the front line of Tianancheng on both sides had repeatedly misfired, and seeing that a major war between the north and the south was about to break out, Chen Zeyu, who was sitting in Beijing, hurriedly sent mediation envoys to the two sides.

Interestingly, when the Serist envoy arrived in Jeonju to meet with Jeon Bong-joon of the Donghak Party, the French from Annam actually came to the door at the same time, and after a little probing, they realized that the other party was actually preparing to support Jeon Bong-joon, the governor of the south, to overthrow the Joseon royal regime in the north. This incident made Chen Zeyu very annoyed after learning about it, these Frenchmen who had been cowering in the colonies of Indochina before actually stretched out their hands so long! At the same time, the young Führer began to reflect on whether he had treated the Donghaks in the past too favorably with the Jeon Bong-joon, which made the other party's actions more and more daring.

Chen Zeyu, who had an idea, immediately took action, and under his instructions, Seris, the original suzerainty of North Korea, began to show the strongest posture to both the North and the South. The result is also obvious, whether it is the government of Concubine Min in the north or the whole of the south in the end, under the authority of Seris, they began to restrain the armies on their respective fronts, and the tension between them was greatly eased.

……

May 21, 1898, Junle Hall, Zhongnanhai, Beijing, Republic of Seris.

"Hanyin, Concubine Min of North Korea has sent someone to negotiate the purchase of arms, it seems that Quan Fengzhu has put a lot of pressure on her." Secretary of State Liang Cheng quipped.

"Hehe, it may not be just the problem of the Dongxue Party, the rebellion of Dayuanjun is the key, listening to the call from Yuan Shikai of North Korea, this queen mother actually escaped by disguised as a palace maid in the chaos......"

Chen Zeyu smiled, "Don't talk about this...... Who approached them this time? ”

"Oh, it's Zhong Wenyao from the Ministry of Commerce." Liang Cheng replied.

Chen Zeyu nodded and said, "Let's follow the precedent and let them exchange it for lead ore." In addition, he told Zhong Wenyao that he could increase the export of arms to them. ”

"The North Korean royal family has a lot of appetite this time, and they also want to order a few new warships in China,......" Liang Cheng frowned.

"I think so! The domestic market for small-tonnage warships can be opened to them, but the ship's electronics must be dealt with well and the technology must not be leaked. ”

Chen Zeyu smiled and said, "By the way, let Jin Mingde from Jeonju come back!" Jeon Bong-joon has no value to support anymore......"

"Okay...... By the way," Liang Cheng nodded and continued, "One more thing, the Koreans want us to help them recover the Cheongjin region in the north that was forcibly occupied by the Russians......"

"Well, don't hurry to promise them first," Chen Zeyu stood up and thought for a while and said, "But this Qingjin really has to be taken to heart, this small area is fine, but the Russians occupy it, plus the original Vladivostok is equivalent to controlling our country's mouth to the sea on the Tumen River in the east...... Well, you can sign a memorandum of cooperation with the North Koreans first, and when the conditions are right, we will help them take back Cheongjin, of course, it will not be free, and the appropriate conditions must be negotiated with their people. ”

"Okay, I'll do it."

After saying goodbye, Liang Cheng walked out of Junle Hall with his secretary......