Colonel Yamamoto, commander of the Bukcheong Defense District of the Japanese Army in Korea, made a new decision. He decided to intensify the defection of the ‘rioters’.
To be honest, it was difficult to suppress them through military operations alone. Because the ‘mobs’ were hunters. They were the ones who used to roam the wide and rugged mountain range of the Gaema Plateau as if it were their own courtyard. The fighting power of Korean soldiers who were hunters was much stronger than expected.
■ Threatening to write a letter to surrender to her husband… “No,”
the commander gave an order to Lim Jae-deok, the commander of the subordinate ‘3rd police squad’, on April 30, 1908. The content was to lure the ‘Hong Beom-do mob group’ that haunted Samsu and Gapsan in Hamgyeongnam-do.
“You lead the police force, depart from Bukcheong on May 1st, arrive near Gapsan, and place an appropriate location to encourage mobsters to defect,” he instructed. He also suggested a method. He specified that “the family of Hong Beom-do will be used as a means of encouraging defection from time to time as needed.”
Lim Jae-deok and Kim Won-heung (金元興) led a punitive force consisting of 103 Japanese soldiers and 80 Korean police assistants and stationed themselves in a mountainous village in Changpyeong-ri, Gapsan-gun. It was a formidable subjugation force with plenty of firearms and ammunition, and even equipped with a machine gun common weapon called ‘rapid fire’. Yongmun-dong, where Hong Beom-do’s righteous army was stationed, was close by.
Lim Jae-deok, the commander of the 3rd police station, was also a member of the Iljinhoe. Regarding the fact that Song Byeong-joon, an official of the Iljinhoe, led the dethronement of King Gojong in July 1907, righteous soldiers who rose up across the country regarded the Iljinhoe as a target even if they were overthrown.
During the 11 months from July 1907 to May of the following year, a whopping 9260 Iljin members were killed by righteous soldiers. It was like a civil war. The Righteous Army and the Iljinhoe were hostile forces that aimed guns at each other.
Another commander, Kim Won-heung, was a high-ranking officer of the Korean Empire. He was a high-ranking military officer who wore the old Korean army chalmyeong rank, and even served as the captain of the Bukcheong Jinwidae. After the Korean Empire’s army was disbanded, he willingly joined the Japanese army. Thus, he was given the rank of minor in the police organization under the Residency-General and stood at the forefront of suppressing the anti-Japanese righteous army movement.
What does it mean to ‘use the family as a means to induce defection’? It was terrible. It was a ploy to convert the leader of the righteous army at the risk of his family’s life. It was an act to destroy the fighters of the liberation movement mentally and politically.
Hong Beom-do also had a family. It was a deep mountain village in Inpilgol, Bukcheong-gun, Hamgyeongnam-do. My wife was in the neighborhood. His wife and two sons lived with his old father-in-law. The Japanese army raided the village. So Hong Beom-do’s wife and 17-year-old eldest son Hong Yang-soon were sent to the base of the punitive force.
He was a hostage that could lead to Hong Beom-do’s defection. Hong Beom-do, if you are concerned about the safety of your family, throw away your weapons and surrender! They were hostages, useful for threatening like this.
■ “A woman, a man, even a hero, her life is like a thread”
Hong Beom-do’s wife, Mrs. Lee, was subjected to intense coercion. She was asked to write a letter recommending her surrender to her husband, who lived in the mountains. Lim Jae-deok, commander of the patrol, even gave me a greeting.
“If you surrender to the Japanese emperor, they say that you will be given the title of duke. It is an auspicious event for our family. Wouldn’t it be possible for me and my children to live with being treated with dignity?”
I was told to write like this Duke was a title corresponding to the first rank in the aristocratic system of the Japanese Empire. He was the highest aristocrat. None of the Korean high-ranking officials who were incorporated into the Japanese aristocracy after the fall of the country reached the title of duke.
In addition to appeasement, threats were also added. Lim Jae-deok threatened to pay off your hats if you didn’t do as he was told.
In this case, it would have been better if I did not know how to write. However, they already knew that Mrs. Lee had learned her writing. Will you accept or reject? There were only two options left. what to do I had to be prepared for hardships. Mrs. Lee made up her mind. She firmly expressed her refusal.
Hong Beom-do seems to have heard from someone what her wife said that day. He never forgot those words all his life.
“Even for a woman, a man, or a hero, it is only when the end of the thread of life is gone. Even if I write, he, a hero, will not listen. You don’t make me do it, do what you want. I write no.”
Hong Beom-do, an old man, clearly remembered that he had said this.
Lee’s wife suffered severe retaliation. Her advisor was waiting for her. A savage assault poured out. A lit wick was placed between her toes, and her unbearable pain continued. Repeated misdeeds drove Mrs. Lee into her half-dead state. Still, she never changed her resolve.
According to one recollection, it was then that Mrs. Lee confronted her torture by cutting off her tongue herself. she was miserable She was transported to Gapsan town, mute, and imprisoned. However, she passed away soon after, unable to overcome the poison of torture. It is not possible to give an exact age of death as her birth year is not known, but it is assumed that she was probably in her late thirties.
Some scholars say that Lee’s wife’s name was Oknyeo. It is said that it is a word passed down among the Joseon people in North Gando, so there is no disbelief at all, but it is difficult to believe it straight away until clear evidence is found.
■ Meeting of two people who had left home
The reason Mrs. Lee became married to Beom-Do Hong was thanks to her strange relationship. In her maiden life she was a nun. Although her motives are not clearly known, she left her parents’ home in the mountains of Bukcheong from an early age and was walking her way as a monk at a bhikkhuni temple located deep in the mountains of Mt. Geumgang.
The two first met at Mt. Geumgang. At that time, 24-year-old Hong Beom-do was also a monk. He served as the superior seat of Venerable Jidam of Singye Temple, a famous temple in Mt. Geumgang. A former soldier in the 1st Battalion of Pro-Gun Seoyeong of the Joseon Army stationed in Pyongyang, he was hiding in a temple in the mountains while working as a papermaker. He was being pursued for killing the factory owner when he protested against unfair treatment and unpaid wages.
It is not known how the young man and woman first met deep in the mountains of Mt. Soon after, the young nun found out that she was pregnant. She conceived Hong Yang-soon, her eldest son.
The two decided to take off their robes and descend. They agreed to make a family. After many twists and turns, the two of them settled down in Inpilgol Village, Noeun-ri, Ansansa Temple, Bukcheong-gun, Hamgyeongnam-do, where the woman’s parents lived. It was right under Huchiryeong Pass, the main road from Bukcheong to Gapsan. There, the couple experienced a short but happy family life. got two sons The eldest son, Yangsun, and the younger son, Yonghwan.
Hong Beom-do, who lost his wife at the age of 40, lived alone for a long time after that. He didn’t get a new wife. It was 20 years later that he was in his old age when he welcomed his new wife, Lee In-bok, thanks to the encouragement and encouragement of the people around him.
Although they couldn’t get Mrs. Lee’s cooperation, they weren’t the kind of people who would back down. The subjugation team created a fake letter. It was a letter made up as if Mrs. Lee had written it directly to her husband.
With the letter on his body, an errand boy was dispatched to Deedengi, Yongmun-dong, the base of the righteous army unit. However, the lions who went up into the mountain did not know that they would return. I sent people in eight times in two days, but no one came back.
■ The eldest son of ’17-year-old righteous soldier’ Hong Yang-soon’s warriors
The executive department of the punitive force decided to use Hong Beom-do’s eldest son Hong Yang-soon. He was the ninth lion. He was sent up into the mountains with a fake letter encouraging him to defect.
Yangshun Hong was able to meet his father. He stood in front of the door of the house used as the headquarters of the righteous army. Hong Beom-do was enraged. His son’s involvement in ruining his father was something he could not forgive.
“Hey! You were my child the previous month, but after you were held in a Japanese prison for three or four months, you became a person who listened to them and메이저놀이터 tried to harm me. I will shoot you first!”
Hong Beom-do pulled the trigger. There was a scream. His adjutant rushed out. It was a million bucks. His bullet hit the pinna and went past. One of his ears fell off, but his life was not affected. Wasn’t he a white-haired sharpshooter? He was Hong Beom-do, who had mastered the ghostly marksmanship of hitting a small coin from 500 steps away. His fingers must have trembled at the moment of his trigger. It seems that his father’s agony worked at the decisive moment. His bullets missed at a fine angle.
Hong Yang-soon, who recovered from her wounds, joined her father’s righteous army. He became a 17-year-old boy volunteer. The boy followed his father into several battles. Hamheung Sinseong-ri Battle, Tongpaejanggol Soejeom Street Battle, Hanam Anjangteo Battle, Gapsan Ganpyeong Battle, Cloud Eulryeong Battle, Gongtongbyeong Fishing Gear Battle, and Dongsa Daratchi Gold Mine Battle. But that was it. Hong Yang-soon was killed in the battle of Jeongpyeong Bamaek on June 16, 1908.
Even as an old man, Hong Beom-do could not forget the battle.
“In Jeongpyeong Bamaek, we fought 500 Japanese soldiers and killed 107 people. At that time, Yang Soon-yi was a company commander. At 12 noon on May 18, my son Yangsun died.”
How did the people who killed Mrs. Lee live after that? Their fate was not long. About 200 punitive forces led by Lim Jae-deok and Kim Won-heung were exposed to an ambush organized by Hong Beom-do’s unit in a long-distance battle in Yongmun-dong, Deodeong. As a result, 209 military and police officers, including the command of the punitive force, were taken prisoner.
■ Punishment of pro-Japanese collaborators “Even if I die, I will die terribly”
Lim Jae-deok and Kim Won-heung knelt in front of the Yongmun-dong righteous army camp command post, bound. Hong Beom-do came out.
“Listen to me, you two. Won-Hong Kim! It is the duty of the people of that country to make a living by farming potatoes in the countryside after you have been receiving tens of thousands of won in national records as a chamyeong of the Jinwidae for several years and the country is about to collapse. On the contrary, you become a traitor to the country, and even if you die, a guy like you should die terribly. Lim Jae-deok also asks for the death penalty, just like you.”
The two were each tied to two hewn wooden poles. Hong Beom-do instructed. “Take off the scab on the top of the oil barrel, give them a bath, and set them on fire.” The instructions were carried out immediately. A former high-ranking officer in the Korean army and an executive of the Iljinhoe, who commanded the Japanese military punitive force, ended their lives that way.