Post by ajk on Apr 19, 2015 12:09:20 GMT -5
Could the country fall into anarchy? It's enough of a danger that the councilors start arguing about suspending national defense efforts. Ryu argues that the real problems are unfair taxation and preferential treatment of nobles and landowners, along with corruption in local governments. But Lee argues for an appeal to the king to suspend required military service and forced labor and also suspend the expensive fortress construction. And then afterwards Lee warns Ryu about trying to turn nobles and landowners into enemies. And adds dismissively, "If you want to lead public opinion, you need power."
We see the king reading the appeal. It's a powerful, emotional document...Oh wait, it wasn't just one, here comes a big stack of more appeals. It's totally draining Seonjo, having to wrestle with all of this. Later he tries to calm his nerves by doing some ink painting, but he's radiating tension and looks almost sick from it, enough to make everyone around him uncomfortable and worried. Then consort Kim jumps in and offers policy advice again, telling him that the people don't fear a Japanese attack so it's unwise to continue forcing their service preparing for one.
So he takes her advice, and orders that fortress construction be stopped and anyone with more than three months of forced military service be sent home. Ryu urges him to rethink this but Seonjo doesn't believe there will be an attack either and orders him to drop it.
Ming: The Joseon envoy chosen by Ryu is kneeling before a skeptical Ming emperor and court. He's doing a real good job of balancing between groveling and explaining. The main complaint is why it took so long for Joseon to report all this to them...but ultimately the defense minister says he can understand that it simply took a long time to go to Japan and back and investigate their intentions. So it's not really a late report. "You don't have to doubt their loyalty." But then questions arise about why Joseon is building a northern fortress. It's to defend against Jurchens but the emperor says Ming is taking care of the Jurchen problem for them (are they?). The emperor is tough to convince, and frankly seems like a jerk; tells the envoy, If you're not conspiring with Japan to attack us, prove it by stopping all fortress construction and military training in your country. Oh, and send us a "gift" of silver worth 20,000 bags of rice. Yikes.
Japan: We see the Japanese advance base; then we see war preparations in progress. Saying it's a huge effort would be a ridiculous understatement. Then we visit Hideyoshi. He's sleeping fitfully, still tormented by grief. He even wakes up asking for his son. He's so anguished and bitter that he decides to start the war right now--and he's told that they're close enough to ready that they can start now if he wishes. So he makes final assignments for the various commands...but who will take the overall lead? Kato wants that job so badly, it looks like he wants to burst. But he has no clue about strategy. Wow, no clue at all. And Konishi, he's very good, give him credit, he's already got the whole attack plan worked out in his head. It's a no-brainer; Konishi gets the job. Konishi isn't entirely happy about it, though. He knows he's being used as a meat shield; the lead units take the most casualties so it will weaken his own power (and likely kill a lot of his Christians). But it also allows for one final opportunity to reach out to Joseon and try to prevent the war, which he wants to do. And he also figures that if the war must happen, he'll try to reach the capital before any other unit and convince the king to surrender. But later on, Hideyoshi encourages a crestfallen Kato by telling him that "Your unit only has to pass through the areas that his unit swept" and that he wants Kato to be the one to capture the king. It lifts Kato's spirits tremendously.
Back in Joseon: Oh dear, as if the military situation isn't bad enough, in the capital there's a horrible accident. A testing station caught fire during experiments on the bigyeongjincheonnoe time bomb we saw in previous episodes. Unfortunately, safety precautions at the station have suffered because funds were withdrawn by the defense minister Ryu is very troubled to learn of the funding cut and he says he'll try to get the funding restored.
Later we see Ryu looking at plans for a weird-looking boat of some sort...and reflecting on what's becoming an increasingly troublesome situation. He learns that military funding has been reduced throughout the country, which likely means a halt to development of this "turtle ship." Turns out, this is Yi Sunsin's project; Ryu sends a letter to Yi urging him to continue work on it, and says "I will find a way" to keep it funded. He's tells Yi how impressed he is with the strange iron-covered ship and says he can't wait to see it finished. Then he goes to the throne room building; kneels in the hallway and begs the king for funding...only to have Seonjo bang the inner doors open and scream at him! Seonjo is frantic about the huge bribe request that Ming has made and blames Ryu for it, since Ryu is the one who argued in favor of sending the envoy. He orders Ryu away and goes back inside. Ryu looks shattered almost to tears...and now Lee Sanhae shows up and just has to rub it in, doesn't he. Ouch.
Ryu decides to resign. Word gets around fast. Lee Hangbok goes to see him immediately and begs him to reconsider. A Westerner, telling Ryu how much he wants him on the court to protect the people. Hangbok makes an earnest plea...and afterwards goes to his friend Lee Deokhyeong and asks him to help Ryu too. Deokhyeong later proposes a plan to pay for weapons development with a special type of tax, but the war minister Hong Yeosun rejects it, saying it would all just be embezzled and rejects the plan. And Hong doesn't believe there will be an attack anyway.
But as we learn later, Hong has designs on Ryu's Second State Councilor position, so he's not about to help Ryu, is he. Hong and his nephew Kim Gongryang are at a gisaeng house talking about that...but Hong should have kept quiet because suddenly Lee Deokhyeong is standing there in the room! Sits down with them and starts suggesting things about how Of course you two aren't siphoning any military funds for yourselves, but as Inspector General I have to do a routine investigation and report to the king....Well obviously Hong and Kim have been doing something naughty because Lee doesn't even finish talking before Hong grabs his hands and starts to beg him to back down. Even says his niece consort Kim is involved, which is a real shocker.
But Lee starts looking into things nonetheless. Goes to a trading area where military rations are being exchanged for "specialty goods." Looks like a lot of nice fabric, at least right now. Clearly this is totally illegal but there it is, right there in broad daylight. Then Kim Gongryang offers Lee some of the stuff...Oh yeah, bribe the inspector general, that'll fix it...and Lee is so offended that he punches Kim right in the nose!
Lee visits Ryu and brings him a document. It's a written promise from a private military unit called the "Gyeongsang Dobang" to provide a big fat sum of money--enough to complete the turtle ship and the time bomb. What an incredible piece of work by Lee. Ryu lights up like a pinball machine and is happier than we've ever seen him.
Uh-oh...but now he's kneeling before Seonjo, who's called him in and is asking about the turtle ship. Seonjo tells him to stop building it! And then he even suggests that Japan, as an island nation, would have such superiority in naval warfare that Joseon should concentrate their resources on their land army and abolish the naval force! It so shocks Ryu that he jumps to his feet and shouts at his king. "You can't do that!"
We see the king reading the appeal. It's a powerful, emotional document...Oh wait, it wasn't just one, here comes a big stack of more appeals. It's totally draining Seonjo, having to wrestle with all of this. Later he tries to calm his nerves by doing some ink painting, but he's radiating tension and looks almost sick from it, enough to make everyone around him uncomfortable and worried. Then consort Kim jumps in and offers policy advice again, telling him that the people don't fear a Japanese attack so it's unwise to continue forcing their service preparing for one.
So he takes her advice, and orders that fortress construction be stopped and anyone with more than three months of forced military service be sent home. Ryu urges him to rethink this but Seonjo doesn't believe there will be an attack either and orders him to drop it.
Ming: The Joseon envoy chosen by Ryu is kneeling before a skeptical Ming emperor and court. He's doing a real good job of balancing between groveling and explaining. The main complaint is why it took so long for Joseon to report all this to them...but ultimately the defense minister says he can understand that it simply took a long time to go to Japan and back and investigate their intentions. So it's not really a late report. "You don't have to doubt their loyalty." But then questions arise about why Joseon is building a northern fortress. It's to defend against Jurchens but the emperor says Ming is taking care of the Jurchen problem for them (are they?). The emperor is tough to convince, and frankly seems like a jerk; tells the envoy, If you're not conspiring with Japan to attack us, prove it by stopping all fortress construction and military training in your country. Oh, and send us a "gift" of silver worth 20,000 bags of rice. Yikes.
Japan: We see the Japanese advance base; then we see war preparations in progress. Saying it's a huge effort would be a ridiculous understatement. Then we visit Hideyoshi. He's sleeping fitfully, still tormented by grief. He even wakes up asking for his son. He's so anguished and bitter that he decides to start the war right now--and he's told that they're close enough to ready that they can start now if he wishes. So he makes final assignments for the various commands...but who will take the overall lead? Kato wants that job so badly, it looks like he wants to burst. But he has no clue about strategy. Wow, no clue at all. And Konishi, he's very good, give him credit, he's already got the whole attack plan worked out in his head. It's a no-brainer; Konishi gets the job. Konishi isn't entirely happy about it, though. He knows he's being used as a meat shield; the lead units take the most casualties so it will weaken his own power (and likely kill a lot of his Christians). But it also allows for one final opportunity to reach out to Joseon and try to prevent the war, which he wants to do. And he also figures that if the war must happen, he'll try to reach the capital before any other unit and convince the king to surrender. But later on, Hideyoshi encourages a crestfallen Kato by telling him that "Your unit only has to pass through the areas that his unit swept" and that he wants Kato to be the one to capture the king. It lifts Kato's spirits tremendously.
Back in Joseon: Oh dear, as if the military situation isn't bad enough, in the capital there's a horrible accident. A testing station caught fire during experiments on the bigyeongjincheonnoe time bomb we saw in previous episodes. Unfortunately, safety precautions at the station have suffered because funds were withdrawn by the defense minister Ryu is very troubled to learn of the funding cut and he says he'll try to get the funding restored.
Later we see Ryu looking at plans for a weird-looking boat of some sort...and reflecting on what's becoming an increasingly troublesome situation. He learns that military funding has been reduced throughout the country, which likely means a halt to development of this "turtle ship." Turns out, this is Yi Sunsin's project; Ryu sends a letter to Yi urging him to continue work on it, and says "I will find a way" to keep it funded. He's tells Yi how impressed he is with the strange iron-covered ship and says he can't wait to see it finished. Then he goes to the throne room building; kneels in the hallway and begs the king for funding...only to have Seonjo bang the inner doors open and scream at him! Seonjo is frantic about the huge bribe request that Ming has made and blames Ryu for it, since Ryu is the one who argued in favor of sending the envoy. He orders Ryu away and goes back inside. Ryu looks shattered almost to tears...and now Lee Sanhae shows up and just has to rub it in, doesn't he. Ouch.
Ryu decides to resign. Word gets around fast. Lee Hangbok goes to see him immediately and begs him to reconsider. A Westerner, telling Ryu how much he wants him on the court to protect the people. Hangbok makes an earnest plea...and afterwards goes to his friend Lee Deokhyeong and asks him to help Ryu too. Deokhyeong later proposes a plan to pay for weapons development with a special type of tax, but the war minister Hong Yeosun rejects it, saying it would all just be embezzled and rejects the plan. And Hong doesn't believe there will be an attack anyway.
But as we learn later, Hong has designs on Ryu's Second State Councilor position, so he's not about to help Ryu, is he. Hong and his nephew Kim Gongryang are at a gisaeng house talking about that...but Hong should have kept quiet because suddenly Lee Deokhyeong is standing there in the room! Sits down with them and starts suggesting things about how Of course you two aren't siphoning any military funds for yourselves, but as Inspector General I have to do a routine investigation and report to the king....Well obviously Hong and Kim have been doing something naughty because Lee doesn't even finish talking before Hong grabs his hands and starts to beg him to back down. Even says his niece consort Kim is involved, which is a real shocker.
But Lee starts looking into things nonetheless. Goes to a trading area where military rations are being exchanged for "specialty goods." Looks like a lot of nice fabric, at least right now. Clearly this is totally illegal but there it is, right there in broad daylight. Then Kim Gongryang offers Lee some of the stuff...Oh yeah, bribe the inspector general, that'll fix it...and Lee is so offended that he punches Kim right in the nose!
Lee visits Ryu and brings him a document. It's a written promise from a private military unit called the "Gyeongsang Dobang" to provide a big fat sum of money--enough to complete the turtle ship and the time bomb. What an incredible piece of work by Lee. Ryu lights up like a pinball machine and is happier than we've ever seen him.
Uh-oh...but now he's kneeling before Seonjo, who's called him in and is asking about the turtle ship. Seonjo tells him to stop building it! And then he even suggests that Japan, as an island nation, would have such superiority in naval warfare that Joseon should concentrate their resources on their land army and abolish the naval force! It so shocks Ryu that he jumps to his feet and shouts at his king. "You can't do that!"
