Chapter 129: The Siege
On September 12, 1883, just one night after coming to power, and before the official ceremony could be held, the Liberal Party cabinet could not wait to give orders.
The Seongjeongwon, which is headed by Park Yong-kyo, and its subordinate official reporting body, Di Pao, quickly published a list of the new cabinet and sent people to post notices everywhere announcing that the "new policy" would be implemented. He also sent Zhongguan Bian Sui to the legations of various countries to announce the establishment of the new government. Over the next two days, the new cabinet unveiled 14 political platforms, the core of which are five:
First, abolish the suzerain-vassal relationship with China and stop the vain of tributary rites;
second, abolish the gate valve system, appoint people on the basis of merit, and punish corrupt officials and corrupt officials;
Third, the land rent should be reformed and the state finances should be managed in a unified manner.
Fourth, abolish privileged merchant institutions and implement free trade;
Fifth, reform the police and military systems and implement a collegial cabinet system.
On the morning of September 12, the Japanese headquarters received a telegram from Takezoe, and after analysis, Zuihou's foreign secretary Inoue Shin and the army secretary Aritomo Yamayama decided to take a decisive step and sent a telegram to Fukuoka, ordering the reserve fleet to leave immediately to escort Takashima's Tonosuke Brigade to Korea immediately.
In the face of such a grim situation, Yuan Shikai did not move.
After receiving the invitation to the banquet, Yuan Shikai followed the emperor's order, and while gathering his forces quietly, he secretly retrieved all the Chinese officials to prevent assassination by the Enlightenment Party and the Japanese.
On the 11th, Yuan Shikai sent people to secretly warn some important party members, claiming that they had gossip that there would be a "Hongmen banquet" in the evening.
On the morning of the 12th, the Big Three, Zhao Ningxia and others, who got the news of the coup, ran to Muhua Pavilion in panic to ask for asylum. The situation is beginning to become clearer, and the Kaihua Party has formed a new cabinet.
At this time, two key characters appeared, one was Shen Xiangxun, who escaped by chance, and he claimed that the Japanese were involved in the killing of the minister; The other is the eunuch Yoo Jae-hyun, who hid in the big newspapers, and he witnessed the violent murder of Concubine Min by the Japanese ronin, and these two pieces of news prove the collusion between the Kaihua Party and the Japanese.
Yuan Shikai used these two witnesses to propagate everywhere that the Kaihua Party colluded with the Japanese Invaders, plotted to usurp the throne, brutally killed the minister's concubine, and imprisoned Gaozong. Only two days later, by the 14th, the news had spread throughout Seoul, setting off public opinion about hoeing and raping and begging for widows.
In this way, as soon as the Liberal Party cabinet was formed, its reputation was already eroded, especially in collusion with the Japanese and the Japanese, which completely lost the support of the people, and on the contrary, no one cared about its specific political reform measures. At this time, all the ministers of the big party, including some neutral ministers, implored Yuan Shikai to send troops to kill the rebel party and rescue Gaozong!
After listening to the telephone report, Ding Yuntong thought that the time was ripe, and immediately ordered Yuan Shikai to attack!
On the night of September 14, Yuan Shikai gave the order to attack, and two troops had been assembled on standby, a regiment of the Guards led by Wu Zhaoyou, plus the new Korean army trained by China, and four battalions commanded by Min Yongyi, Li Zuyuan, Han Gyuji, and Yoon Taejun, totaling more than 3,600 people, immediately rushed into Seoul from the west gate, shouting and rushing to Gyeongwoo Palace.
Along the way, the officials and people of Seoul who heard the news followed behind the army with torches, and the procession became larger and larger like a snowball, and the number of people in Zuihou had reached 100,000, and the torches were like a sea of fire, reflecting the entire Seoul, "Kill all the Japanese slaves and save the king", the shout shook the sky, and the momentum was extremely terrifying.
Yuan Shikai saw that the people's support was available, so he sent people to secretly instigate and instigate, and soon tens of thousands of officials and people turned to besiege the Japanese legation, but the commanders were Captain Zhu Xianmin and He Zengzhu. Because the legation has the meaning of sovereignty of the country it represents, it is a place of diplomatic immunity, and if China attacks openly, it will cause passivity in international public opinion, so Yuan Shikai asked Zhu and He to only instigate in secret and not to come forward in public.
However, the Japanese minister, Shinichiro Takezoe, was not in the legation at this time, but in Gyeongwoo Palace, discussing with Jin Yujun and others.
It was not a surprise that they had learned that the Chinese army had entered the city, and they had been mentally prepared for Yuan Shikai's counterattack. Therefore, the second plan was originally arranged in advance, that is, once Seoul could not gain a foothold, it would withdraw to Busan and establish a provisional government.
But what caught them off guard was the attitude of the people of Seoul.
They did not expect that the Korean people's hatred of the Japanese was so strong, and all the people in the Enlightenment Party were all children of nobles, who were pampered and nobled on weekdays, and although they had the heart to enrich the country and strengthen the army, and to be independent, they did not have a personal understanding of the sufferings of the lower-class people, nor did they understand the bitter hatred of the common people for the Japanese.
And the Enlightenment Party mistakenly relied on the Japanese ronin, especially the rumors that the murder of the minister and Concubine Min were Japanese, which directly pushed everyone to the opposite side of the Enlightenment Party.
Faced with the encirclement of hundreds of thousands of hateful people in the whole of Hancheng, how could Jin Yujun and others calmly flee south with Gaozong? The originally designed escape routes were filled with crowds of people who became the eyes and ears of the Chinese army.
The situation had deteriorated dramatically, leaving the Civilians at a loss for what to do, and there was already a fierce battle outside the Gyeongwoo Palace.
The Guards were superior in numbers, well-equipped, and their fighting qualities were even more extraordinary, while the North Korean "training army" outside the palace saw that they were in the company of the Japanese and the Japanese Invaders, and the soldiers at the bottom had already lost their fighting spirit. With a single charge, the Guards broke up the camp of "training the army". Among them, hundreds of soldiers who trained the army even directly counterattacked, killed those members of the "Pact of Loyalty and Righteousness," and joined the ranks of the attacking troops, and the entire "training army" soon collapsed. Among them, the commander Zheng Lanjiao, and the Japanese instructor Army Captain Yukihiko Kurose, were all killed by their own subordinates.
Another commander, Shen Fumo, retreated into Jingyou Palace with nearly 100 people and reported to Jin Yujun: "Things are no longer harmonious, leave quickly!" "
Jin Yujun was already in a mess at this time, and asked Minister Zhu Tian: "How is it good, how is it good?" Takezoe Shinichiro replied viciously: "Shina sent troops unreasonably and insulted our two countries. Our country will definitely treat each other with force! In fact, he just wants to run away now.
Only a moment later, the guards bombarded the gate of Jingyou Palace with field artillery, and thousands of Chinese and North Korean troops poured into the palace, and the sound of killing shook the sky.
Jin Yujun wanted to escape with Gaozong, and Gaozong, who realized that Concubine Min had been killed, already hated Jin Yujun and others, knowing that once he left here, the future would be unpredictable, and even his life would be difficult to protect, so he resolutely refused to leave.
Listening to the shouting and killing sound getting closer and closer, Zhu Tian shouted: "If you don't leave, you will die and have no place to be buried!" Then he fled with the embassy entourage, Jin Yu was helpless, after all, he still had to be loyal to the monarch and serve the country in his heart, Gaozong refused to leave, he couldn't add a knife and axe to his body, and he had to follow Takezoe Jinichiro to escape.
The Enlightenment Party was also quickly divided into two factions, Kim Ok-kyun, Park Yong-hyo, Seo Kwang-beom, Seo Jae-pil and other 9 Enlightenment Party members followed Takeso-jinichiro to escape, while Hong Young-sik, Yoon Zhi-ho, Yoon Yong-kwan, Park Qi-jun, Oh Jian, Park Yong-kyo, Shin Bok-mo and others were unwilling to leave their homeland and go into exile, they pinned their hopes on Gojong's "pardon", so they took Gojong out of the palace and fled to Beiguan Temple.
At this time, the battle in Jingyou Palace has entered the juncture, and the "Heavenly Heroes" are slashing and killing, and the momentum is violent, and it is very easy to fight the North Korean troops, but there is nothing to be done when they encounter the guards.
The officers and soldiers of the Guards crawled out of the sea of corpses and blood in the Sino-French War, and those tall and brave French soldiers were only stronger than the Japanese in close combat.
In the fierce battle, the soldiers of the Guards only had a random shot, and then several people cooperated, stabbed in a wrong step, and let the Japanese samurai show their teeth and claws, and all kinds of one-knife flow, Shinto flow, and new yin flow were all pierced into rock sugar gourds.
PS. Suddenly found that the comment scrolled in a column, which can display reward information, and forgot to add fine thanks, don't blame.