Post by ajk on Jul 7, 2015 22:24:03 GMT -5
"If you don't, I will return to my country" with my army. Li Rusong is really playing hardball, insisting on Ryu's removal. Just then a formal report arrives from Gwon Yul on the battle at Haengjusanseong. Li smiles; he figures the report will reveal who ordered Gwon's advance in the first place, presumably Ryu. But the report, well, it's a masterpiece. Gwon says he advanced northwards solely out of admiration for Li and out of his desire to greet Li personally. We happened to encounter the enemy on the way, Gwon writes, and defeat them, and it was entirely because "I admired Li Rusong." He even offers Li the two hundred enemy heads he gathered, to take home to earn merit. Li is at a loss for words...And now a brief flashback of Lee Hangbok visiting with Gwon immediately after the battle; Gwon proposes writing his report like we heard it in order to provide cover for Ryu. Says those arrows Ryu sent saved his army in the nick of time, which they did....Flashback ending: "General, that victory is all because of you. Congratulations." Lee Deokhyeong runs with it. Seonjo can barely keep a straight face but jumps in and congratulates him. And orders a banquet in Li's honor, and says he'll inform the Ming emperor! Gee, Li says, "I didn't do anything." But he's practically beaming from eating up all of the praise, he's so happy. "You are a fine example for our generals," Seonjo adds, and you can only wonder if Li is really that gullible. Apparently so!
Left Jeolla naval HQ: Yi Sunsin receives the letter we saw Ryu writing in the previous episode. Ryu tells him about the latest encouraging developments and encourages him to not let the enemy get away unscathed if they try to leave through the southern coast. “Bury them in the ocean." But now a problem arises: hundreds of civilians have arrived at the HQ seeking refuge. They know this is a military camp but they say that atrocities are being committed by enemy soldiers everywhere they go and they can’t find anywhere safe. They're literally begging for help...so Yi and his officers have a meeting about it. Yi proposes putting them to work tending the fields that provide the soldiers’ food, which ordinarily is the soldiers’ job but would free the soldiers from doing it. It would mean sharing the crops with the refugees, though, and those fields are the government’s so it’s against the law. And tending to refugees isn’t a job for the military anyway. His officers don’t like the idea of getting involved with this, but Yi says he’ll seek approval from the court so the refugees can work those fields.
Jeongju: Shen Weijing is telling Seonjo he wants to hold peace talks again. Seonjo and the officials are understandably cynical but Shen says he'll insist that the Japanese leave Hanyang and "we will attack the minute they leave." Yun Dusu knows the Japanese won’t just pick up and leave, not after getting ambushed last time. But Seonjo likes the sound of it and says he'll trust Shen again, and even okays him holding the talks alone. But this time he's stern in warning Shen that there will be no compromise, not after the Japanese dug up the graves of former kings and massacred innocent civilians. And he wants the two captive princes back too.
Gyeonggi: Shin Yeongcheol and Cheonri are dressed as minor officials. Ryu is going to send them with Shen Weijing, officially to check on the welfare of the two captive princes...but really he wants them to eavesdrop on Shen’s negotiations if they can.
We see Shen leaving for Hanyang. He has quite an escort this time, dozens of Ming soldiers. Ryu is there to see him off and warns him about not accepting any kind of truce. They exchange some threats and angry words, and there’s a tiff about Ryu not bowing to the Ming emperor’s flag, which Ryu won’t do right now because he says it’s a flag that prevents Joseon from defending itself...and then finally Shen departs.
Hanyang: Konishi is pacing and waiting nervously for Shen. And to make things worse, Kato shows up. They trade insults and talk some trash; it’s equal parts funny and annoying...thankfully Shen arrives now.
And hey there are the two princes! As Kato supervises, Shin and Cheonri are talking to them. Imhae says they've been well treated, but obviously he’s been forced to say that. He still has a visible scar from when Kato beat him up, and when Shin asks him about it he panics and says he just tripped and fell. And then he tells Shin to ask the king for a truce “so we can be saved." Again, obviously words forced into his mouth by Kato. And with that Kato orders the meeting over and the princes are taken away.
Now down to business. Shen makes Konishi an offer: take your forces home now and the Ming emperor will let Japan rule the three southern Joseon provinces and will recognize Hideyoshi as king of Japan. Konishi scoffs; says it's not enough. But they both know that neither side has anything to gain by prolonging this unwinnable war. And Konishi and his men just want to go back home and not be executed when they get there, and Shen’s offer may not be enough for that. So Shen proposes a complicated scheme involving fake envoys that will visit each other’s emperors. Konishi will send a fake envoy to Ming asking simply for recognition of Hideyoshi as king and for the opportunity to pay tribute to Ming. And Shen will send a phony envoy to Hideyoshi, offering to treat Japan as an equal to Ming and offering the three southern provinces. So both leaders will think they’re getting a good result and the war will end. Okay but won’t this scam be discovered eventually? Shen says maybe, maybe not...but even if it is, it won’t be for quite a while and then whoever discovers it can just accuse the other side of being deceitful, and by then neither side will want to restart the war after all this. (Hmmm.) Konishi thinks it over and then chuckles. “Fine," he says. "Let's give it a try." Shen wants them to hand over the two princes as a show of trust, which Konishi says he’ll do--but in return he wants a guarantee of no attacks from the Joseon army when his forces retreat to the southern provinces, and the Ming army must go back to Yodong. Deal. Narration describes the deal as "an international fraud to deceive their kings" and that it stopped the war for five years, but that "in the end it was found out and caused the invasions of 1597."
Shen returns to Jeongju and tells Seonjo that the enemy will withdraw from the capital with no conditions. And that the princes will be released shortly. And then we’ll attack them. Seonjo eats it up...but now Ryu shows up and butts in. His men heard a little bit of Shen’s talk with Konishi, enough to know that Shen is lying now, and Ryu says so. Shen denies it and things get ugly...but then suddenly there are Ming soldiers pointing swords at Ryu’s throat! It’s that business about the emperor’s flag. It got back to Song Yingchang and Song ordered Ryu’s arrest. Ugh. Ryu is dragged away as Seonjo and his officials stand there stunned.
Yun Dusu and Jeong Cheol and Jeong Tak protest bitterly to Seonjo over a high official being arrested and disrespected over something so minor. But Seonjo is too scared to do anything about it, at least not right now.
Ryu is brought before Song. "Do you have a death wish?" Ryu says he wants to show respect to the flag but can’t when it prohibits Joseon from fighting its enemies. Song offers him another chance, but Ryu still won’t bow to the flag. Then Song orders him flogged 100 times, which likely will kill him, but Ryu still won't do it...but wait, here comes Prince Gwanghae, along with Yun Dusu, Jeong Cheol and Jeong Tak. They all promptly kneel and bow before the flag. Gwanghae asks Song to forgive Ryu, and takes the blame himself. “It's because I was mad and I gave an order not to bow to a flag that would enter enemy territory." Song likes the crown prince, we’ve seen that, and is more understanding about everything now. And when Song asks Ryu to bow to the flag now...well, he still doesn’t want to but he’s dumbfounded by all this, so with great reluctance and at Gwanghae's request, he does. And even adds a few shouts of "hurray for the emperor" to really sell it. It brings him to tears, but he does it.
Afterwards we see Seonjo angry with Gwanghae, of course. Not that he took quick action to save Ryu but that he humiliated himself to do it. “If we had to be humiliated, a servant could have been humiliated. You humiliated me." Reminds his son what he told him before—don’t do anything more on your own. “I will get revenge for my people."
Japan: Word has reached Hideyoshi about Konishi’s negotiations and the plan to retreat to the south. Surprisingly, he tells Maeda he’ll approve it, and says getting the southern provinces isn’t so bad, at least for now. He accepts now that his soldiers are tired. "We can attack Ming after we take a break." Meanwhile they can secure and repair fortresses in the south, and occupy the key location of Jinjuseong--that's what he wants done, at least. His goals haven't changed but he says he's taking a longer view of things now.
Hanyang: We see the Japanese leaving. Then we see Ryu and the Ming army march towards there. As they enter the capital we see horrible sights of streets full of dead bodies. Looks like the Japanese killed everyone there before they left. Narration tells us this was April 20, 1593, and that Ryu begged Li Rusong to pursue the enemy--which was what Joseon understood would happen--but Li refused on the grounds that he had no boats.
So later on we see Ryu and his generals; he's called them together to coordinate an attack by Joseon's forces, agreement or no agreement. That's not going to happen, though--because as soon as the generals leave, Zu Chengxun and a unit of Ming troops forcibly escort them to their camp! Ryu shouldn't be surprised, but he's crushed....
..and now he's walking through the main streets of the capital as rain pours down. Wow, so many dead bodies...it's a staggering sight. Ryu falls to his knees screaming in anguish. And then passes out.
Left Jeolla naval HQ: Yi Sunsin receives the letter we saw Ryu writing in the previous episode. Ryu tells him about the latest encouraging developments and encourages him to not let the enemy get away unscathed if they try to leave through the southern coast. “Bury them in the ocean." But now a problem arises: hundreds of civilians have arrived at the HQ seeking refuge. They know this is a military camp but they say that atrocities are being committed by enemy soldiers everywhere they go and they can’t find anywhere safe. They're literally begging for help...so Yi and his officers have a meeting about it. Yi proposes putting them to work tending the fields that provide the soldiers’ food, which ordinarily is the soldiers’ job but would free the soldiers from doing it. It would mean sharing the crops with the refugees, though, and those fields are the government’s so it’s against the law. And tending to refugees isn’t a job for the military anyway. His officers don’t like the idea of getting involved with this, but Yi says he’ll seek approval from the court so the refugees can work those fields.
Jeongju: Shen Weijing is telling Seonjo he wants to hold peace talks again. Seonjo and the officials are understandably cynical but Shen says he'll insist that the Japanese leave Hanyang and "we will attack the minute they leave." Yun Dusu knows the Japanese won’t just pick up and leave, not after getting ambushed last time. But Seonjo likes the sound of it and says he'll trust Shen again, and even okays him holding the talks alone. But this time he's stern in warning Shen that there will be no compromise, not after the Japanese dug up the graves of former kings and massacred innocent civilians. And he wants the two captive princes back too.
Gyeonggi: Shin Yeongcheol and Cheonri are dressed as minor officials. Ryu is going to send them with Shen Weijing, officially to check on the welfare of the two captive princes...but really he wants them to eavesdrop on Shen’s negotiations if they can.
We see Shen leaving for Hanyang. He has quite an escort this time, dozens of Ming soldiers. Ryu is there to see him off and warns him about not accepting any kind of truce. They exchange some threats and angry words, and there’s a tiff about Ryu not bowing to the Ming emperor’s flag, which Ryu won’t do right now because he says it’s a flag that prevents Joseon from defending itself...and then finally Shen departs.
Hanyang: Konishi is pacing and waiting nervously for Shen. And to make things worse, Kato shows up. They trade insults and talk some trash; it’s equal parts funny and annoying...thankfully Shen arrives now.
And hey there are the two princes! As Kato supervises, Shin and Cheonri are talking to them. Imhae says they've been well treated, but obviously he’s been forced to say that. He still has a visible scar from when Kato beat him up, and when Shin asks him about it he panics and says he just tripped and fell. And then he tells Shin to ask the king for a truce “so we can be saved." Again, obviously words forced into his mouth by Kato. And with that Kato orders the meeting over and the princes are taken away.
Now down to business. Shen makes Konishi an offer: take your forces home now and the Ming emperor will let Japan rule the three southern Joseon provinces and will recognize Hideyoshi as king of Japan. Konishi scoffs; says it's not enough. But they both know that neither side has anything to gain by prolonging this unwinnable war. And Konishi and his men just want to go back home and not be executed when they get there, and Shen’s offer may not be enough for that. So Shen proposes a complicated scheme involving fake envoys that will visit each other’s emperors. Konishi will send a fake envoy to Ming asking simply for recognition of Hideyoshi as king and for the opportunity to pay tribute to Ming. And Shen will send a phony envoy to Hideyoshi, offering to treat Japan as an equal to Ming and offering the three southern provinces. So both leaders will think they’re getting a good result and the war will end. Okay but won’t this scam be discovered eventually? Shen says maybe, maybe not...but even if it is, it won’t be for quite a while and then whoever discovers it can just accuse the other side of being deceitful, and by then neither side will want to restart the war after all this. (Hmmm.) Konishi thinks it over and then chuckles. “Fine," he says. "Let's give it a try." Shen wants them to hand over the two princes as a show of trust, which Konishi says he’ll do--but in return he wants a guarantee of no attacks from the Joseon army when his forces retreat to the southern provinces, and the Ming army must go back to Yodong. Deal. Narration describes the deal as "an international fraud to deceive their kings" and that it stopped the war for five years, but that "in the end it was found out and caused the invasions of 1597."
Shen returns to Jeongju and tells Seonjo that the enemy will withdraw from the capital with no conditions. And that the princes will be released shortly. And then we’ll attack them. Seonjo eats it up...but now Ryu shows up and butts in. His men heard a little bit of Shen’s talk with Konishi, enough to know that Shen is lying now, and Ryu says so. Shen denies it and things get ugly...but then suddenly there are Ming soldiers pointing swords at Ryu’s throat! It’s that business about the emperor’s flag. It got back to Song Yingchang and Song ordered Ryu’s arrest. Ugh. Ryu is dragged away as Seonjo and his officials stand there stunned.
Yun Dusu and Jeong Cheol and Jeong Tak protest bitterly to Seonjo over a high official being arrested and disrespected over something so minor. But Seonjo is too scared to do anything about it, at least not right now.
Ryu is brought before Song. "Do you have a death wish?" Ryu says he wants to show respect to the flag but can’t when it prohibits Joseon from fighting its enemies. Song offers him another chance, but Ryu still won’t bow to the flag. Then Song orders him flogged 100 times, which likely will kill him, but Ryu still won't do it...but wait, here comes Prince Gwanghae, along with Yun Dusu, Jeong Cheol and Jeong Tak. They all promptly kneel and bow before the flag. Gwanghae asks Song to forgive Ryu, and takes the blame himself. “It's because I was mad and I gave an order not to bow to a flag that would enter enemy territory." Song likes the crown prince, we’ve seen that, and is more understanding about everything now. And when Song asks Ryu to bow to the flag now...well, he still doesn’t want to but he’s dumbfounded by all this, so with great reluctance and at Gwanghae's request, he does. And even adds a few shouts of "hurray for the emperor" to really sell it. It brings him to tears, but he does it.
Afterwards we see Seonjo angry with Gwanghae, of course. Not that he took quick action to save Ryu but that he humiliated himself to do it. “If we had to be humiliated, a servant could have been humiliated. You humiliated me." Reminds his son what he told him before—don’t do anything more on your own. “I will get revenge for my people."
Japan: Word has reached Hideyoshi about Konishi’s negotiations and the plan to retreat to the south. Surprisingly, he tells Maeda he’ll approve it, and says getting the southern provinces isn’t so bad, at least for now. He accepts now that his soldiers are tired. "We can attack Ming after we take a break." Meanwhile they can secure and repair fortresses in the south, and occupy the key location of Jinjuseong--that's what he wants done, at least. His goals haven't changed but he says he's taking a longer view of things now.
Hanyang: We see the Japanese leaving. Then we see Ryu and the Ming army march towards there. As they enter the capital we see horrible sights of streets full of dead bodies. Looks like the Japanese killed everyone there before they left. Narration tells us this was April 20, 1593, and that Ryu begged Li Rusong to pursue the enemy--which was what Joseon understood would happen--but Li refused on the grounds that he had no boats.
So later on we see Ryu and his generals; he's called them together to coordinate an attack by Joseon's forces, agreement or no agreement. That's not going to happen, though--because as soon as the generals leave, Zu Chengxun and a unit of Ming troops forcibly escort them to their camp! Ryu shouldn't be surprised, but he's crushed....
..and now he's walking through the main streets of the capital as rain pours down. Wow, so many dead bodies...it's a staggering sight. Ryu falls to his knees screaming in anguish. And then passes out.