Post by ajk on Aug 16, 2015 2:51:58 GMT -5
Seonjo smiles cynically at his ambitious son. Decides he'll send the envoy; it's a routine matter of procedure anyway. So Gwanghae says he'll try to convince the officials to return to work.
He goes right to Yu Join's home to talk about it, even though it's nighttime. Gwanghae is sort of surprised that his father was so amenable to it all; Yu warns him not to assume anything about what the king is thinking. But anyway, he's here to negotiate the return to work of those officials. Yu says they want statuses of certain Northerners restored, those taken away during "the prison incident." Anything else? Who knows because now Yu has gone off on a complaint spree about Ryu and the Southerners. "Ryu Seongryong is our enemy," Yu says. Well whatever...Gwanghae says when he's installed as crown prince, he'll deal with those statuses promptly. So it sounds like they've got a deal.
Ryu and Lee Deokhyeong are surprised that Seonjo is showing no ill will towards Gwanghae...and Ryu has concluded that he never had any. It was all about the public affection for Gwanghae. So why agree to send an envoy now? Ryu thinks it's because Seonjo believes Ming won't approve. Why not? Apparently a very similar controversy is going on right now in Ming, with which son will be named crown prince. And they certainly won't decide on Joseon's crown prince until their own situation is clarified. And Gwanghae apparently doesn't know anything about this.
Seonjo is with Yun Dusu, who seems to have convinced him that the failure of the southern attack was Yi Sunsin's fault. Ugh. Yun warns him that Yi is "overconfident."
Now Yun and Ryu are with Seonjo and are arguing about what really happened in the battle and what would have or could have happened. It's rather silly, frankly. Finally Seonjo tells Ryu he'll have to step down for a while. He doesn't want Ryu to go but officials are demanding it.
As we see Ryu packing up his work things, narration tells us that Yun took responsibility for the battle and stepped down. Then as we see Gwanghae smiling while the envoy leaves for Ming, we're told that Ming did indeed delay their decision because of their own situation.
Some time has passed and Ryu is visiting an angry-looking Gwanghae. The prince does have reason to be angry; he knows now that Ryu was aware of the potential Ming indecision, and he's learned that Ming did indeed delay their decision. Ryu admits he knew in advance but says he only wanted to see the court brought back together. Some surprisingly tense words between them. Gwanghae feels like he was played for a fool, obviously.
Three Provinces Naval Headquarters: Yi Sunsin is reading a letter of reprimand from the king. Won Gyun sent the king a battle report full of baloney and this the result. Yi's subordinates are furious about it. Yi reacts calmly...for now.
That evening, YI calls Won in and they sit down for a drink. Won denies any knowledge about what 's going on, but Yi wonders out loud where the king is getting distorted information from. Then he glares at Won. "You should stop now." You're embarrassing and dividing the entire naval force. "I know you have ill feelings against me" but this is not the time or place to be doing such things. YI is stern and adamant, and tells Won that if this continues, "I will consider you an enemy just like the Wae soldiers." Won gets up in a huff and leaves.
Word of their animosity reaches Ryu and his allies. Lee Hangbok decides he's going to try to get Won reassigned. But won't that make it look like Ryu is helping his friends too much? No, Lee says, it's my conviction that it would be the right thing to do....
...and he goes right to Seonjo and pitches it. And apparently Seonjo agreed, because narration now tells us that Won was given the position of Chungcheong Province Military Commander (sort of getting kicked upstairs, I guess). And with Yun Dusu stepping down, Ryu and his allies had even greater control over the court.
Busan: Joseon attacks are still harassing the Japanese military. Konishi urges continued patience, but Kato is really riding him hard about it. Kato even suggests that they should try to make a deal with Joseon directly, because the Ming-envoy thing is going nowhere. They argue back and forth as usual until Ukita shuts them up.
Well guess what, Kato actually drafts a letter and sends it to the Joseon court, requesting peace talks! We see Ryu reading the letter. Peace talks with the enemy? Certainly not...right? Ryu shocks us by saying that someone should at least meet with Kato. Seriously?
Ah, now we get it. Ryu goes to Seonjo and says Kato wants to meet in secret. Tells Seonjo this could be a way to stoke tension between Kato and Konishi (like that needs any help!), and it also could help them find out just what Ming and Wae are negotiating about. Seonjo likes the idea and approves Ryu's suggestion to send a Buddhist priest named Samyeong, who has met Kato once before.
And here's the man himself... We see Samyeong travel south and be respectfully greeted by Kato. And then it gets real weird real fast. Kato blames Konishi for provoking Hideyoshi into causing this entire situation. "I'm not like him," he tells Samyeong with an absurdly out-of-character smile. "I don't like war." Kato says that what Hideyoshi is asking for is that a Joseon prince be sent to Japan and that Japan gets to keep one-fourth of the land south of the Han River. Samyeong laughs at that; says it will never happen, but agrees to take the message back to the Joseon court. Kato says he'll also donate "much silver" to Samyeong's religious cause if an agreement is reached, but Samyeong says "If you'll just leave, I'll pray for your next life." Great line.
Well, Konishi got wind of this real fast and angrily confronts Kato about it. They start arguing...and good heavens, Konishi pulls out his sword, and suddenly they're dueling! Well it's a pretty sad duel; their swords lock, they push at each other a bit, and Ukita shows up and separates them.
Samyeong reports back and horrifies Seonjo with news about the truce conditions being negotiated. Seonjo says he's confident that Ming will never allow Joseon's land to be partitioned...but he sure doesn't look confident, does he. And just now it gets even worse: Shen Weijing is back in Joseon. Out of prison and just arrived here as an envoy. Seonjo is dumbfounded.
Shen tells Seonjo that the emperor accepted Japan's surrender offer. He denies that it had anything to do with giving away Joseon land. But the Joseon officials know better now and angrily confront him about it...and he fesses up, surprisingly. Says yes, land was discussed. "But it was only to deceive Hideyoshi." The Japanese simply surrendered, he says, and swears to it (and the phony envoys, they did surrender without asking for land). Then Shen reveals that Hideyoshi will be accepted as Japan's king...which sends Seonjo into a rage. "You mean he will treat Wae as equal to Joseon? That's absurd!" But that's the emperor's decision, so there isn't much Seonjo can do about it. Shen adds that Joseon would be wise to simply end the war now and deal with its famine problem. "And seek revenge later." Oh and we can't send you any more soldiers either, he adds. With that, he leaves to head south, he says to tell the enemy to withdraw. Boy that was a lot to take in.
Seonjo is outside walking around in a daze, trying to make sense of it all. He wants revenge, as we know, and is beyond frustrated that the enemy will simply withdraw. But Ryu shows up to talk to him; he's gotten enough information from enough places to suspect that the emperor was never told about the land deal, and that the surrender the envoys offered was simply an unsanctioned attempt to stop the war. Nice reasoning by Ryu. But if all of this is a deception, well, what happens when it's exposed? Would Hideyoshi possibly order another invasion?
Japan: It's 1595 now. We see an angry Hideyoshi confronting his nephew Hidetsugu over the internal rebellion. Hidetsugu denies it but after a very weird exchange involving Ishida and Maeda, Hidetsugu confesses. Go home, Hideyoshi tells him. "Reflect on your sins and take your life." Says he has to kill Hidetsugu's family as well...although he agrees to spare Hidetsugu's daughter. What a softie.
Consort Kim suggests to Seonjo that a truce would be better than another war. Not gonna happen. "There will never be a truce. I will get revenge no matter what." Now Seonjo receives Ryu, Lee Deokhyeong and Lee Hangbok. They present some written proposals for land reclamation and famine relief. And then Ryu says proposes a way to strengthen the army. "Sogugun," they call it; it means an army that accepts and integrates talented soldiers without regard to social status. That means including the wealthy. Seonjo's eyes just about bug out.
He goes right to Yu Join's home to talk about it, even though it's nighttime. Gwanghae is sort of surprised that his father was so amenable to it all; Yu warns him not to assume anything about what the king is thinking. But anyway, he's here to negotiate the return to work of those officials. Yu says they want statuses of certain Northerners restored, those taken away during "the prison incident." Anything else? Who knows because now Yu has gone off on a complaint spree about Ryu and the Southerners. "Ryu Seongryong is our enemy," Yu says. Well whatever...Gwanghae says when he's installed as crown prince, he'll deal with those statuses promptly. So it sounds like they've got a deal.
Ryu and Lee Deokhyeong are surprised that Seonjo is showing no ill will towards Gwanghae...and Ryu has concluded that he never had any. It was all about the public affection for Gwanghae. So why agree to send an envoy now? Ryu thinks it's because Seonjo believes Ming won't approve. Why not? Apparently a very similar controversy is going on right now in Ming, with which son will be named crown prince. And they certainly won't decide on Joseon's crown prince until their own situation is clarified. And Gwanghae apparently doesn't know anything about this.
Seonjo is with Yun Dusu, who seems to have convinced him that the failure of the southern attack was Yi Sunsin's fault. Ugh. Yun warns him that Yi is "overconfident."
Now Yun and Ryu are with Seonjo and are arguing about what really happened in the battle and what would have or could have happened. It's rather silly, frankly. Finally Seonjo tells Ryu he'll have to step down for a while. He doesn't want Ryu to go but officials are demanding it.
As we see Ryu packing up his work things, narration tells us that Yun took responsibility for the battle and stepped down. Then as we see Gwanghae smiling while the envoy leaves for Ming, we're told that Ming did indeed delay their decision because of their own situation.
Some time has passed and Ryu is visiting an angry-looking Gwanghae. The prince does have reason to be angry; he knows now that Ryu was aware of the potential Ming indecision, and he's learned that Ming did indeed delay their decision. Ryu admits he knew in advance but says he only wanted to see the court brought back together. Some surprisingly tense words between them. Gwanghae feels like he was played for a fool, obviously.
Three Provinces Naval Headquarters: Yi Sunsin is reading a letter of reprimand from the king. Won Gyun sent the king a battle report full of baloney and this the result. Yi's subordinates are furious about it. Yi reacts calmly...for now.
That evening, YI calls Won in and they sit down for a drink. Won denies any knowledge about what 's going on, but Yi wonders out loud where the king is getting distorted information from. Then he glares at Won. "You should stop now." You're embarrassing and dividing the entire naval force. "I know you have ill feelings against me" but this is not the time or place to be doing such things. YI is stern and adamant, and tells Won that if this continues, "I will consider you an enemy just like the Wae soldiers." Won gets up in a huff and leaves.
Word of their animosity reaches Ryu and his allies. Lee Hangbok decides he's going to try to get Won reassigned. But won't that make it look like Ryu is helping his friends too much? No, Lee says, it's my conviction that it would be the right thing to do....
...and he goes right to Seonjo and pitches it. And apparently Seonjo agreed, because narration now tells us that Won was given the position of Chungcheong Province Military Commander (sort of getting kicked upstairs, I guess). And with Yun Dusu stepping down, Ryu and his allies had even greater control over the court.
Busan: Joseon attacks are still harassing the Japanese military. Konishi urges continued patience, but Kato is really riding him hard about it. Kato even suggests that they should try to make a deal with Joseon directly, because the Ming-envoy thing is going nowhere. They argue back and forth as usual until Ukita shuts them up.
Well guess what, Kato actually drafts a letter and sends it to the Joseon court, requesting peace talks! We see Ryu reading the letter. Peace talks with the enemy? Certainly not...right? Ryu shocks us by saying that someone should at least meet with Kato. Seriously?
Ah, now we get it. Ryu goes to Seonjo and says Kato wants to meet in secret. Tells Seonjo this could be a way to stoke tension between Kato and Konishi (like that needs any help!), and it also could help them find out just what Ming and Wae are negotiating about. Seonjo likes the idea and approves Ryu's suggestion to send a Buddhist priest named Samyeong, who has met Kato once before.
And here's the man himself... We see Samyeong travel south and be respectfully greeted by Kato. And then it gets real weird real fast. Kato blames Konishi for provoking Hideyoshi into causing this entire situation. "I'm not like him," he tells Samyeong with an absurdly out-of-character smile. "I don't like war." Kato says that what Hideyoshi is asking for is that a Joseon prince be sent to Japan and that Japan gets to keep one-fourth of the land south of the Han River. Samyeong laughs at that; says it will never happen, but agrees to take the message back to the Joseon court. Kato says he'll also donate "much silver" to Samyeong's religious cause if an agreement is reached, but Samyeong says "If you'll just leave, I'll pray for your next life." Great line.
Well, Konishi got wind of this real fast and angrily confronts Kato about it. They start arguing...and good heavens, Konishi pulls out his sword, and suddenly they're dueling! Well it's a pretty sad duel; their swords lock, they push at each other a bit, and Ukita shows up and separates them.
Samyeong reports back and horrifies Seonjo with news about the truce conditions being negotiated. Seonjo says he's confident that Ming will never allow Joseon's land to be partitioned...but he sure doesn't look confident, does he. And just now it gets even worse: Shen Weijing is back in Joseon. Out of prison and just arrived here as an envoy. Seonjo is dumbfounded.
Shen tells Seonjo that the emperor accepted Japan's surrender offer. He denies that it had anything to do with giving away Joseon land. But the Joseon officials know better now and angrily confront him about it...and he fesses up, surprisingly. Says yes, land was discussed. "But it was only to deceive Hideyoshi." The Japanese simply surrendered, he says, and swears to it (and the phony envoys, they did surrender without asking for land). Then Shen reveals that Hideyoshi will be accepted as Japan's king...which sends Seonjo into a rage. "You mean he will treat Wae as equal to Joseon? That's absurd!" But that's the emperor's decision, so there isn't much Seonjo can do about it. Shen adds that Joseon would be wise to simply end the war now and deal with its famine problem. "And seek revenge later." Oh and we can't send you any more soldiers either, he adds. With that, he leaves to head south, he says to tell the enemy to withdraw. Boy that was a lot to take in.
Seonjo is outside walking around in a daze, trying to make sense of it all. He wants revenge, as we know, and is beyond frustrated that the enemy will simply withdraw. But Ryu shows up to talk to him; he's gotten enough information from enough places to suspect that the emperor was never told about the land deal, and that the surrender the envoys offered was simply an unsanctioned attempt to stop the war. Nice reasoning by Ryu. But if all of this is a deception, well, what happens when it's exposed? Would Hideyoshi possibly order another invasion?
Japan: It's 1595 now. We see an angry Hideyoshi confronting his nephew Hidetsugu over the internal rebellion. Hidetsugu denies it but after a very weird exchange involving Ishida and Maeda, Hidetsugu confesses. Go home, Hideyoshi tells him. "Reflect on your sins and take your life." Says he has to kill Hidetsugu's family as well...although he agrees to spare Hidetsugu's daughter. What a softie.
Consort Kim suggests to Seonjo that a truce would be better than another war. Not gonna happen. "There will never be a truce. I will get revenge no matter what." Now Seonjo receives Ryu, Lee Deokhyeong and Lee Hangbok. They present some written proposals for land reclamation and famine relief. And then Ryu says proposes a way to strengthen the army. "Sogugun," they call it; it means an army that accepts and integrates talented soldiers without regard to social status. That means including the wealthy. Seonjo's eyes just about bug out.
