European Financial Emperor

131 A stepping stone to Joseon (1)

Early in the morning, Lee Hwan had a dream.

On a dimly lit night, little Yi Hwan was crying towards his father.

His father shed tears of sorrow, and Geum-gun executed Lee Hwan’s father on the spot.

After seeing the scene, young Lee Hwan lost his mind.

A man’s face appeared in the midst of the vague scenes.

It was just this angle.

Lee Gak grabbed his older brother’s head and wept and cried for a long time.

Then Igak whispered.

‘… … Brother, this younger brother is leaving this land with his nephew. However, when our Sook-jil returns, I will release your brother’s pain.’

After wrapping his brother’s head in a cloth, he headed straight for Jemulpo with it.

“Huh!”

Lee Hwan wakes up.

He could easily intuit that everything he had seen in his dream was true.

This time, not Yun-woo’s memory, but the real Lee Hwan’s memory awakened.

Perhaps young Lee Hwan fainted after seeing his father’s beheading and his soul ran away.

In a nutshell, he died from shock.

That anger permeated into Yun-woo and Lee Hwan’s mind.

When the memory awakens, he accepts even the emotions he had, and his anger is indescribable.

“… … I will kill Kim and Kwon.”

Lee Hwan promised.

He said that he would create and dedicate the Chosun Federation of Korea to his father, who devoured not only Joseon but also all of Asia.

As soon as he got up from his seat, he secretly summoned the chiefs of the military.

Although it was late at night, the chiefs of the navy and marines came to visit Lee Hwan.

“I’m going to an audience with Your Majesty!”

“Thank you for coming running despite it being late at night.”

“Isn’t it a natural thing to do as a servant?”

Lee Hwan handed a glass of wine to the military commanders.

The servants, realizing that they had something to say, took the drink with a nervous expression.

Seeing the slightly stiff expressions on the servants’ faces, Lee Hwan brought up a rather serious talk.

“I know that the fact that we are advancing to Australia has already been made public through the meeting.”

“Yes that’s right. However, from the outside, this fact is still confidential.”

“Yeah, your choice was right. Our Easterfield Federation will soon advance into Asia.”

“Asia… … !”

“Starting from Australia, we will advance through Southeast Asia to Japan and Korea. And liberate India from British rule and defeat Qing Dynasty in one shot.”

“iced coffee!”

“All this has to be done very secretly. The place we will occupy is not a country filled with migrants, nor a country with the same language or culture. It is said that in order to occupy them, not only the overwhelming force but also their ideology must be changed. It will take us quite a bit of time to do that.”

“Uh… … !”

“Besides, we have two great mountain ranges, England and Russia, on either side. It will take some time before we can drive them out and achieve stable expansion. In the meantime, we need to move forward without rushing, building the foundation as much as possible. Can the lords help with that?”

After the servants emptied the glass, they threw it on the floor.

Clink!

Eventually, the servants bowed their heads to Lee Hwan.

“Just as a broken glass cannot be reattached, our military has already sworn allegiance to His Majesty. The loyalty of our Easterfield troops is now irreplaceable.”

“Thank you.”

“Long live the Kingdom of Easterfield!”

As long as Yi Hwan’s strong ruling power is at the bottom, Easterfield’s army will never betray him.

Now, Lee Hwan instructed the military to formulate an operation that would allow for the most covert and fastest expansion and solidify the foundation.

“You have to plan. It is also a very long-term and stable operation.”

“The plan to start in Australia is great. With that blueprint of Your Majesty, wouldn’t it be possible to create munitions and even strategic materials using Australia as a forward base?”

“Ugh!”

“If our capital, California, is the heart of Easterfield and the Suez area has been transformed into a commercial hub, Australia is serving as an Asian occupation base and munitions factory.”

The military added that Lee Hwan could move a Dutch military factory to Australia and even produce troops there.

Lee Hwan accepted their comments.

“Yeah, good. Since the 8th Fleet has been dispatched, the 9th Fleet will be constructed and dispatched as a latecomer.”

“What would be a good cause?”

“At any rate, it has been said with the UK that a large amount of materials will be dispatched for the development of Australia’s industry. Wouldn’t it suffice to say that the 9th Fleet was built with the troops to escort them?”

If the Kingdom of Easterfield is willing, it is possible to ravage the British mainland.

However, the situation in Europe is not so easy.

No matter how powerful Easterfield’s weapons are, it will be difficult if many countries join hands and press Lee Hwan, as they did in the Great Buddha War in the past.

Taken from readwn.com

Moreover, since part of Lee Hwan’s financial base is in the UK, he would have to suffer significant property damage, which could put him on parole if war broke out in the midst of his expansion.

It means that Lee Hwan was concentrating all his attention on building a stable foundation as much as possible.

***

Easterfield’s 8th Fleet, which had departed from the Netherlands, reached Africa within a fortnight.

They reached Africa over and over again without resupply, and anchored in northern Casablanca.

Easterfield’s 8th Fleet completed its supplies here, then moved to Suez to replenish its forces and divide the fleet.

By dispersing the 8th Fleet’s forces into four, he created a system that could cover all corners of Africa.

The commander of the 8th Fleet, Charis Bluewater, established a position and made contact with the Egyptian government to receive additional land troops from the main force.

Egypt was recently declared a republic, and the president was directly elected by the citizens as the head of the state.

Egypt now has the people to make all the decisions of the state.

Taken from readwn.com

Meanwhile, Egypt has established a new religious policy.

Not long ago, the Arabian Synod, a coalition of Muslims, abolished the religious supreme leadership system and announced the ‘New Muslim Policy’ in which only God and the people exist.

At this New Muslim Policy Conference, it was stated that it was based solely on the Qur’an, the written word of God, and defended all means of differentiating classes and classes.

In a word, it rejected all forms of centralization while adhering to traditional Muslim methods.

This was thanks to the strong influence of Easterfield.

Easterfield implemented a constitutional monarchy and adopted a method in which all national foundations were determined by popular vote.

Obviously, there is a powerful king, but it was a king established because the people wanted it.

The royal family’s influence was concentrated solely on the country’s prosperity, and his private property virtually belonged to the state.

In a word, there is only a king for the country, but it is not a system in which he reigns over the people.

Under the influence of this Easterfield, Muslims were reestablishing the nation’s religious system and reorganizing the nation’s system centering on full-fledged economic development.

Egypt, as a country that accepted Muslims, also entered into the establishment of such a system, and democracy was established.

Charis Bluewater had a meeting with Egyptian President Mohammed Hassan.

“Your Majesty wants to form a coalition that unites the emirates of Africa, and to establish them as members of the Board of Directors of the African Corporation.”

“Africa Corporation!”

“Like the Suez Corporation or the gold trading market, in which we currently have Easterfield and Egypt as a joint shareholder, Africa is now paving the way for a leap forward through a strong economic alliance.”

Until now, Africa had never been freed from British or French influence, even under Ottoman rule.

But with Easterfield landing, everything will change.

“We are going to form a joint venture with Easterfield and share all the profits.”

“It’s about creating an economic alliance!”

“That’s right. Through this alliance, we will be able to create a trade bloc and try to advance Africa.”

“Ugh!”

“Egypt’s current wealth and economic power is comparable to that of any advanced European country. Your Majesty’s intention is that they also need to know that this has been accomplished in just five years.”

Taken from readwn.com

Mohamed Hassan strongly sympathized with Karas Bluewater’s paradox.

Still, he wanted to liquidate all the years he had been oppressed so far and remove the label of European slavery.

Now that it was possible to do it on their own, Egypt had no reason to refuse.

“I will meet with the African emirates right away and build a strong economic alliance.”

“Speed is life. In the meantime, if Britain or France stretched out their demonic beasts again, war would ensue. Wars, large or small, are bound to lose once they are waged. It would be a big deal if a war broke out at a time when we are in the midst of economic growth. Therefore, please contact the emirates as soon as possible and cooperate with our 8th Fleet to secure sufficient troops.”

“All right. We will do that.”

With the help of the Egyptian government, Karas Bluewater decided to build a new fleet base in northern Africa and operate a private fleet in conjunction with Portugal.

Portugal was already a member of the Easterfield Federation and shared military power, so it was virtually no different than a family.

When Karas Bluewater contacted Lisbon and offered to build a fleet base, they even supported the construction at their own expense.

If Lisbon had suffered from pirates, but had a huge fleet built, nothing could have been better than this.

Carrass Bluewater decided to establish a new network, carrying materials to Portugal and setting up supply bases and batteries in the territories under their territory.

He launched the ‘Hwanet Conference’, which constitutes the Portuguese-Egypt coalition network.

The commanders of each army who attended the fire net meeting were shocked when they saw the performance of the firearms they had decided to support in Easterfield.

“… … Is it possible to achieve this level of precision aiming? Besides, I had no idea that a penetrating projectile capable of easily piercing an enemy’s iron armor had developed so far.”

“It all stems from Your Majesty’s great insight.”

“Also!”

“It seems that even if the British invade, it will not be able to resist.”

“of course!”

What feelings do Egypt and Portugal have for Britain?

It was more than a desire to be their puppet anymore.

They were encouraged that they now had the power to break England.