Post by ajk on Jul 16, 2015 1:37:34 GMT -5
Yi leaves Ryu and goes back to work. Gets good news from his weapons guy Lee Bongsu; they have plenty of gunpowder on hand now, so that problem is solved. But now look at this...WOW. A guy named Jeong Sajun who works with Lee, seems to be a metals expert, he's made an actual working rifle! "You're going to have to give me a drink," he says excitedly when Yi comes to see the finished product. Give him a winery, Yi, because he's made three prototypes for testing...and at the testing ground, they're good enough that even the usually stoic Yi has to gasp. This could well be the game-changer the Joseon army needs. Jeong makes sure to acknowledge three slaves who did very good metalwork; tells Yi they deserve to have their status bumped up to commoner and Yi readily says he'll do that.
Word of the slaughter at Jinjuseong arrives in Yeongju and devastates the king. Yun Dusu tells him it wouldn't have happened except the Joseon forces were too dispersed at the time to prevent it. But Seonjo is convinced that Joseon can't defeat the Japanese on their own and they desperately need Ming's help.
Ming: Jeong Cheol has arrived and shows Shi Xing the written report--the one dictated by Song Yingchang--saying that the enemy have retreated to Tsushima. Jeong intends to tell the emperor the real story in person...but Shi says the emperor isn't seeing anyone lately and even he (Shi) hasn't seen him for three months. So Jeong reluctantly tells Shi about the report being false and about Song's troublemaking. "How am I supposed to believe you?", asks Shi, who knows all about the truce efforts but has to feign ignorance in front of Jeong. He acts offended and sends Jeong away...and then mutters under his breath: "What fools! They should carry it out covertly. What are they thinking?"
Japan: Hideyoshi can't wait for his new son to be born. How he's sure it's a son, well...who knows. He's wishing real hard, let's put it that way. Fussing over Yodo's belly, enough that Maeda having to sit there and watch it is visibly uncomfortable (very funny). But he's glad to see his friend happy, anyway. Now here are Konishi and Ishida, back home, urging Hideyoshi to meet the Ming envoys now that Jinjuseong is in their hands and before anything else happens. Hideyoshi agrees...
...So now here's a big banquet with the two Ming envoys as the guests of honor. (Remember, they're phony envoys sent by Shen Weijing, bringing a phony settlement offer.) Hideyoshi's acting weird again, just like he did with the Joseon envoys. Laughing maniacally and then complaining about Joseon. They don't know what to think of him. But finally the two sides review the settlement terms, about Japan getting the three southern provinces. Hideyoshi warns that if they don't get them, "we will take all eight provinces by force." Hardly a credible threat but the envoys nod, message received. Then Hideyoshi orders the two Joseon princes released, as part of the settlement.
Okay, Shen did his part with fake Ming envoys, now it's time for Konishi to do his part with fake Japan envoys. Konishi goes back to Joseon, sits down with Shen and they draw up a phony "surrender document" that says Japan wants to be a feudal nation and have trade with and pay tribute to Ming and they'll give back Joseon's land in exchange. But all of this fakery dodges the big question about how Japan would be allowed to keep the southern lands when the Ming emperor is going to be told they're leaving the country entirely. The Joseon king is unyielding," Shen observes...so maybe it's time to change kings! Konishi disagrees, says the crown prince is even more unyielding. "There is a way," Shen says nebulously. "Just wait." Then Konishi tells So Yoshitoshi he'll be a fake envoy. Surprise!
Then Konishi goes to Kato and presents him with Hideyoshi's written order to release the two princes. Kato doesn't take it well, let's just leave it at that. But he complies.
And now we see Prince Imhae and Prince Sunhwa, freed as ordered and accompanying the two fake Japanese envoys as far north as Yeongju.
Ryu is still traveling around somewhere, farther north now, and comes upon a disturbing sight: Four Ming soldiers beating up two Joseon soldiers. He orders them to stop, tells them who he is...and they run away. Turns out, Ming soldiers are forcing locals to sell them their cows and only paying them pittances. The Ming army has plenty of rations, but not meat so they're bullying the locals for meat. These aren't livestock cows, though, they're the cows that the locals use to plow the farmlands to grow more rations! So taking them away is hardly in the Ming army's interest either. So Ryu heads straight for the local Ming army camp; it's Zu Chengxun's. He catches them red-handed with a cow about to be slaughtered. Zu is embarrassed to hear about his soldiers trying to cheat the locals; he had ordered them to offer a fair price for cows. But then he starts rationalizing and blaming Joseon for not having meat to eat, and refuses to return the cow he has there. It turns into an ugly confrontation and Ryu ends up putting a sword to his throat and drawing blood. "It's all my fault! Tell his majesty I died like this because I wasn't able to feed meat to the Ming soldiers!" Zu cracks before Ryu presses any harder, and orders the cow be returned.
As narration then tells us, "the Ming army was wicked" while in Joseon. Plundering goods and taking local women to serve in their camps. We see enough examples of it to get the idea, and it isn't pretty.
Seonjo is overjoyed to have his two sons back. Song and Shen gloat about their successes, both actual and untrue. Seonjo asks them, If your emperor doesn't accept the terms, "Will you fight again?" Catches them a little off guard but Song chuckles at him. "Joseon was humiliated," Seonjo says, not in a laughing mood at all. "Be sure to tell the emperor." The enemy "can't just be sent away."
And now a very difficult moment between a seething Imhae and his brother Gwanghae. "I sent two letters. Why didn't you reply?" Gwanghae says point-blank that there weren't enough soldiers to try to rescue him and he would have been selfish to expect it. But not even answering the letters? "You changed a lot," Imhae says. And whatever affection he felt for his brother before, it may not be there any more.
"They're definitely up to something." Ryu has made it back to Yeongju and tells Seonjo that the Japanese are building and repairing fortresses all over the south. Which they certainly wouldn't be doing if they were leaving! "They're preparing for a long-term conflict," Seonjo realizes...and then says this is actually a good thing because now there's good reason to slaughter them. And a lingering opportunity to do it...but right now Joseon can't do it by itself. Not just yet, anyway. But Ryu has a plan. He's brought one of those rifles back with him and surprises Seonjo by showing it to him and sharing the good news about its success. Then tells Seonjo that they need to start a firearms unit like the Japanese have...and also that they need some sort of a formal military training agency to improve the skills of their soldiers.
Later Ryu meets with Lee Deokhyeong and the Ming general Luo Shangzhi. He asks Luo to provide some officers to help start the military training project. Luo is very frank with them. "I thought Joseon soldiers were cowards," he says, but now he realizes "It wasn't that they didn't have courage. They just didn't have the skills to fight. If they learned how to fight properly, they could be as good as the Ming soldiers." Says he'll provide some of his best soldiers to do some teaching--and will do it quietly so Li Rusong doesn't find out about it. Enough to train a first group of Joseon soldiers, who in turn can train more themselves to get the process going. Luo is unhappy about the mistreatment of local citizens by the Ming soldiers and wants to do this to make amends. Great gesture from an obviously very classy person.
Ryu goes back to Seonjo with two requests. Seonjo is delighted with the training agency concept and says he'll do anything he can to help. The soldiers who will be in training, Ryu asks that they get a bigger food ration. No problem; done. The other request? "Talent can be found in all classes," Ryu says, so we need to enhance the status of slave-class people who are good enough to participate in the training. Says point-blank that Joseon doesn't have enough commoners left to win the war. This is a difficult request and Seonjo hesitates. He doesn't mind public-sector servants becoming eligible for training, but he's worried that the higher classes will make trouble about giving up their own private slaves. "There won't be a high class or slaves if we don't have a country," Ryu fires back. And if the high classes oppose, well, "You have to be even stronger. If they refuse, you have to force them even if it means killing them." Killing them?!
Word of the slaughter at Jinjuseong arrives in Yeongju and devastates the king. Yun Dusu tells him it wouldn't have happened except the Joseon forces were too dispersed at the time to prevent it. But Seonjo is convinced that Joseon can't defeat the Japanese on their own and they desperately need Ming's help.
Ming: Jeong Cheol has arrived and shows Shi Xing the written report--the one dictated by Song Yingchang--saying that the enemy have retreated to Tsushima. Jeong intends to tell the emperor the real story in person...but Shi says the emperor isn't seeing anyone lately and even he (Shi) hasn't seen him for three months. So Jeong reluctantly tells Shi about the report being false and about Song's troublemaking. "How am I supposed to believe you?", asks Shi, who knows all about the truce efforts but has to feign ignorance in front of Jeong. He acts offended and sends Jeong away...and then mutters under his breath: "What fools! They should carry it out covertly. What are they thinking?"
Japan: Hideyoshi can't wait for his new son to be born. How he's sure it's a son, well...who knows. He's wishing real hard, let's put it that way. Fussing over Yodo's belly, enough that Maeda having to sit there and watch it is visibly uncomfortable (very funny). But he's glad to see his friend happy, anyway. Now here are Konishi and Ishida, back home, urging Hideyoshi to meet the Ming envoys now that Jinjuseong is in their hands and before anything else happens. Hideyoshi agrees...
...So now here's a big banquet with the two Ming envoys as the guests of honor. (Remember, they're phony envoys sent by Shen Weijing, bringing a phony settlement offer.) Hideyoshi's acting weird again, just like he did with the Joseon envoys. Laughing maniacally and then complaining about Joseon. They don't know what to think of him. But finally the two sides review the settlement terms, about Japan getting the three southern provinces. Hideyoshi warns that if they don't get them, "we will take all eight provinces by force." Hardly a credible threat but the envoys nod, message received. Then Hideyoshi orders the two Joseon princes released, as part of the settlement.
Okay, Shen did his part with fake Ming envoys, now it's time for Konishi to do his part with fake Japan envoys. Konishi goes back to Joseon, sits down with Shen and they draw up a phony "surrender document" that says Japan wants to be a feudal nation and have trade with and pay tribute to Ming and they'll give back Joseon's land in exchange. But all of this fakery dodges the big question about how Japan would be allowed to keep the southern lands when the Ming emperor is going to be told they're leaving the country entirely. The Joseon king is unyielding," Shen observes...so maybe it's time to change kings! Konishi disagrees, says the crown prince is even more unyielding. "There is a way," Shen says nebulously. "Just wait." Then Konishi tells So Yoshitoshi he'll be a fake envoy. Surprise!
Then Konishi goes to Kato and presents him with Hideyoshi's written order to release the two princes. Kato doesn't take it well, let's just leave it at that. But he complies.
And now we see Prince Imhae and Prince Sunhwa, freed as ordered and accompanying the two fake Japanese envoys as far north as Yeongju.
Ryu is still traveling around somewhere, farther north now, and comes upon a disturbing sight: Four Ming soldiers beating up two Joseon soldiers. He orders them to stop, tells them who he is...and they run away. Turns out, Ming soldiers are forcing locals to sell them their cows and only paying them pittances. The Ming army has plenty of rations, but not meat so they're bullying the locals for meat. These aren't livestock cows, though, they're the cows that the locals use to plow the farmlands to grow more rations! So taking them away is hardly in the Ming army's interest either. So Ryu heads straight for the local Ming army camp; it's Zu Chengxun's. He catches them red-handed with a cow about to be slaughtered. Zu is embarrassed to hear about his soldiers trying to cheat the locals; he had ordered them to offer a fair price for cows. But then he starts rationalizing and blaming Joseon for not having meat to eat, and refuses to return the cow he has there. It turns into an ugly confrontation and Ryu ends up putting a sword to his throat and drawing blood. "It's all my fault! Tell his majesty I died like this because I wasn't able to feed meat to the Ming soldiers!" Zu cracks before Ryu presses any harder, and orders the cow be returned.
As narration then tells us, "the Ming army was wicked" while in Joseon. Plundering goods and taking local women to serve in their camps. We see enough examples of it to get the idea, and it isn't pretty.
Seonjo is overjoyed to have his two sons back. Song and Shen gloat about their successes, both actual and untrue. Seonjo asks them, If your emperor doesn't accept the terms, "Will you fight again?" Catches them a little off guard but Song chuckles at him. "Joseon was humiliated," Seonjo says, not in a laughing mood at all. "Be sure to tell the emperor." The enemy "can't just be sent away."
And now a very difficult moment between a seething Imhae and his brother Gwanghae. "I sent two letters. Why didn't you reply?" Gwanghae says point-blank that there weren't enough soldiers to try to rescue him and he would have been selfish to expect it. But not even answering the letters? "You changed a lot," Imhae says. And whatever affection he felt for his brother before, it may not be there any more.
"They're definitely up to something." Ryu has made it back to Yeongju and tells Seonjo that the Japanese are building and repairing fortresses all over the south. Which they certainly wouldn't be doing if they were leaving! "They're preparing for a long-term conflict," Seonjo realizes...and then says this is actually a good thing because now there's good reason to slaughter them. And a lingering opportunity to do it...but right now Joseon can't do it by itself. Not just yet, anyway. But Ryu has a plan. He's brought one of those rifles back with him and surprises Seonjo by showing it to him and sharing the good news about its success. Then tells Seonjo that they need to start a firearms unit like the Japanese have...and also that they need some sort of a formal military training agency to improve the skills of their soldiers.
Later Ryu meets with Lee Deokhyeong and the Ming general Luo Shangzhi. He asks Luo to provide some officers to help start the military training project. Luo is very frank with them. "I thought Joseon soldiers were cowards," he says, but now he realizes "It wasn't that they didn't have courage. They just didn't have the skills to fight. If they learned how to fight properly, they could be as good as the Ming soldiers." Says he'll provide some of his best soldiers to do some teaching--and will do it quietly so Li Rusong doesn't find out about it. Enough to train a first group of Joseon soldiers, who in turn can train more themselves to get the process going. Luo is unhappy about the mistreatment of local citizens by the Ming soldiers and wants to do this to make amends. Great gesture from an obviously very classy person.
Ryu goes back to Seonjo with two requests. Seonjo is delighted with the training agency concept and says he'll do anything he can to help. The soldiers who will be in training, Ryu asks that they get a bigger food ration. No problem; done. The other request? "Talent can be found in all classes," Ryu says, so we need to enhance the status of slave-class people who are good enough to participate in the training. Says point-blank that Joseon doesn't have enough commoners left to win the war. This is a difficult request and Seonjo hesitates. He doesn't mind public-sector servants becoming eligible for training, but he's worried that the higher classes will make trouble about giving up their own private slaves. "There won't be a high class or slaves if we don't have a country," Ryu fires back. And if the high classes oppose, well, "You have to be even stronger. If they refuse, you have to force them even if it means killing them." Killing them?!
