There Is No Sejong In My Joseon [EN]: Chapter 454

455. Side Story – The Complex and Bizarre World of Gujucheonji (2)

Contrary to Yi Man-ju’s concerns, Louis XI initially welcomed Joan of Arc very warmly.

This wasn’t just because of his personal fondness for Joan.

Louis had an important reason to bring Joan of Arc over to his side.

It was because of the war started by his destined rival, Charles the Bold, Duke of Burgundy.

The League of the Public Weal (La ligue du Bien public) was formed by feudal lords in opposition to Louis XI’s centralizing policies.

At its center were his brother Charles, Duke of Berry, and the Duke of Burgundy, Charles the Bold.

Burgundy, above all, were traitors who colluded with England during the Hundred Years’ War.

Louis XI, who had already compromised and signed an unfavorable peace treaty during the League of the Public Weal’s rebellion in 1465, had been waiting for the day to retaliate.

He incited three rebellions in the area of the Prince-Bishopric of Liège, which was under Burgundy’s rule, but these rebellions failed due to his lukewarm military support and Burgundy’s swift suppression.

“Charles of Burgundy is secretly plotting to call himself king and divide France. Moreover, he now claims I poisoned my own brother and has taken up arms!

The only person who can bring me the head of that treacherous Burgundian is you!”

Frankly, it wasn’t very trustworthy coming from the “Universal Spider” (l’universelle aragne) [a nickname for Louis XI, referring to his manipulative nature], who had been plotting all sorts of schemes since childhood.

However, Joan of Arc didn’t know much about Louis XI’s nature, and even if she did, she would have considered Burgundy’s challenge a more significant threat.

Originally, this war, sparked by Charles the Bold’s reaction to the suspicious death of Charles, Duke of Berry, was nearing its end in 1473.

Throughout the war, Charles roamed around Santerre, Beauvais, Vimeu, and so on, committing massacres and arson, but ultimately failed to capture Beauvais and fled to Flanders.

François II, Duke of Brittany, belatedly sent earnest signals of mediation, but he was originally an ally of Charles.

For Louis XI, who pursued strong centralism, Burgundy itself, which was taking an independent path, was a thorn in his side, and with Joan of Arc, a wild card, having rolled in, he had no choice but to change his mind.

Moreover, she wasn’t alone.

Before leaving Constantinople, Joan of Arc didn’t bother to submit a formal resignation to Emperor Itan.

She was, after all, a nun dispatched by the Vatican, not a formal subject of the Joseon Emperor.

Even now that she had returned to secular life, she had never officially held a Joseon government post. Officially, she had only given Yi Man-ju ‘military advice.’

However, out of loyalty, Joan of Arc had given Itan a heads-up before leaving Joseon.

To Itan and his wife, Joan of Arc was sometimes a marriage counselor, sometimes an important advisor, and a friend to whom they could confide their innermost thoughts.

Itan, though very regretful, expressed his friendship by issuing a decree to Yugu to attach the ‘descendants of the returned Yugu people’ to Joan.

These Yugu people, who were suspiciously fluent in French, would be of considerable help thanks to their years of experience being dragged around in piracy.

Yi Gyeong, who had obtained permission from her brother to import Baekje people and O people, also readily agreed.

Joan of Arc’s renown, echoing throughout Europe, and the musket brigade and melee combat unit she brought with her, were perfect for fulfilling Louis’s revenge.

After defeating all the troops left behind by Charles and recovering the Picardy region in northern France to replenish his forces, Joan of Arc chased after Charles to Liège.

There, she incited a fourth rebellion, and soon engaged in a direct confrontation with Charles, Duke of Burgundy, who had marched out with a large army.

– Tatatatang!

Following the volley of arquebuses [early firearms], the charge of the melee combat unit wielding Yugu-style wae swords [Japanese-style swords adapted by the Yugu people] was truly a spectacle.

The Burgundian vanguard, already pushed back by the Liège militia, collapsed in an instant before Charles’s main force could even move.

Having liberated Liège and cut off the waist of the Duchy of Burgundy, Joan of Arc immediately moved north, and Louis XI, encouraged by this news, supported her by even assigning Marshal André de Laval-Montmorency.

With the large-scale support of the French army, Joan of Arc fully demonstrated her military talents.

In a campaign that lasted over a year, Charles the Bold was repeatedly defeated by Joan of Arc’s army.

The terrified Charles the Bold sent an SOS to his ally, Edward IV of England, who, taking advantage of a lull in the Wars of the Roses, threatened Normandy.

Subsequently, Charles urgently requested negotiations with Louis XI.

His proposal was to return all the territories along the Somme River that he had seized in the previous treaty.

Louis was satisfied.

‘This seems sufficient.’

The revenge was a great success, Burgundy’s territory was divided into north and south, and the lost land was recovered.

However, unlike Louis, Joan of Arc was still hungry.

“Negotiations? Surely you said the Duke of Burgundy was a traitor trying to divide France?”

“Ah, that was then, but things are different now. They’re offering enough satisfactory sincerity······.”

“Negotiations are just a trick by the traitor to escape the current crisis. He’ll just catch his breath and try to recapture Liège, as is obvious.

If that happens, our allies who fought alongside France will not escape death!”

“No, but England is also invading! Are we going to start another Hundred Years’ War to protect Liège?”

“England is our enemy of a thousand years anyway! We’ll have to fight them and settle things someday!”

Louis XI felt like he understood why his father had abandoned Joan of Arc as soon as he had seized victory in the Hundred Years’ War.

Louis found her belligerence hard to handle.

Moreover, Joan of Arc’s fervent religious attitude was also a problem.

Louis XI was a very superstitious person and favored astrologers around him, but Joan of Arc constantly sent letters rebuking him for this.

Her expression was extremely harsh, as her political inflexibility and religious zeal, combined with the shamanistic aversion she had picked up from Joseon scholars, intensified.

From Joan’s perspective, it was a memorial filled with burning loyalty, but from Louis’s perspective, who was clearly the king, he suspected that she had gone slightly crazy after being in a place called Joseon for so long.

Louis, true to his nickname “the Cunning” (le rusé), gradually solidified his decision to discard Joan of Arc.

‘She comes back even if I send her to Joseon, so where should I exile her now?’

The first answer that came to mind was ‘Heaven,’ but he could think about that slowly after taking the army away from Joan first.

However, Joan of Arc is not the naive girl she used to be.

She had been wandering in foreign lands, especially at the center of the Joseon imperial court, for decades.

There was no way she wouldn’t have noticed Louis’s increasingly cold attitude.

“It is His Majesty’s command! Joan of Arc, you are hereby ordered to hand over all command to Marshal Laval-Montmorency and return to Paris!”

However, Marshal Laval-Montmorency himself was stiff and only watching Joan’s reaction.

He had already received secret orders to arrest Joan if she disobeyed, but Joan’s movements were one step faster.

The messenger quickly read the unusual atmosphere and shrank back.

Joan asked the messenger.

“Are you saying we should retreat when victory is in sight?”

“Yes. His Majesty believes that he can negotiate with England and Burgundy.”

“Negotiate with such brutal slaughterers! What nonsense!”

The soldiers drew their swords and struck the rocks, expressing their anger.

Joan was the same.

Unlike his father Charles, Louis XI believed that he could withdraw the English army through negotiations, that is, ‘parties, venison, and good wine.’

In fact, he would later sign the Treaty of Picquigny, completely ending the Hundred Years’ War, but to Joan of Arc, who had left France when the war was raging, it seemed like nothing more than optimistic wishful thinking.

Joan closed her eyes tightly.

‘It’s not a waste to give my life for my country. But if I return like this, it’s obvious that France will fall into war once again.’

England will invade again someday.

Wouldn’t it be better to completely subdue the traitor Burgundy now that we have the upper hand and then confront England?

In fact, Louis XI also believed that he had already won and that the current negotiations were just reaping the rewards, but the position of Joan and the soldiers on the battlefield was completely different.

“What a despicable thing to do!”

“We must not follow even if it is His Majesty’s order!”

No one here didn’t know what it meant to relinquish command and return alone.

To think that they would purge the hero of the nation, whom they had heard about since childhood, the renowned general who was beating the Duke of Burgundy like a dog!

Joan of Arc’s miraculous martial prowess and military achievements had instilled absolute trust in the French army.

There was no one who wasn’t angry at this ‘internal slander.’

Joan pondered.

Should her loyalty be directed towards France, or towards the monarch?

If she had to choose one, it was clear that France itself should be prioritized.

However, she didn’t want to lose her loyalty to the king yet.

Joan’s conflict didn’t last long.

Because there was already a clear answer, both religiously and politically.

The reason why the king, who had been so bright in his youth, had lost his senses was because evil figures like wicked astrologers were attached to his side.

Even if another battle were to break out, France would continue to retreat as it is now as long as they existed.

Yet, should she return to Paris, knowing that it would lead to ruin?

Then, Joan remembered Yi Man-ju’s words.

‘The Daesaseong [a high-ranking scholar] said that if something like this happens, he would have no choice but to turn back the army.’

What Yi Man-ju said was ‘Our Taejo [referring to King Taejo, founder of the Joseon dynasty] also experienced such dangers, so be careful,’ not such incitement to rebellion, but Joan of Arc could only take it that way.

“I think the soldiers will follow whatever decision I make.”

Joan of Arc asked Marshal André de Laval-Montmorency.

“What do you think, Marshal?”

Laval-Montmorency, who received the question, swallowed hard.

It seemed obvious that his head would fly off if he answered incorrectly.

So, the words that would come out of his mouth were obvious.

“I consider fighting alongside you the greatest honor of my life. My father-in-law (Gilles de Montmorency-Laval, Gilles de Rais) would have felt the same way.”

Joan of Arc took those words as a sign of acceptance.

Soon, with a sword at her waist, she went out in front of the soldiers and shouted.

“Soldiers! I will return to Paris!”

Her cry caused a great stir among the soldiers.

“No!”

“You can’t go like this!”

“Don’t go! You must lead us here!”

Cries and sighs arose from the soldiers, but as Joan raised her clenched fist, the commotion gradually subsided.

Joan looked around at the quiet surroundings and shouted again.

“Soldiers! I will return to Paris! Not according to the king’s order! I will return to prevent this from ever happening again!”

While the French soldiers were blinking, wondering what that meant.

Another commander, Laval-Montmorency, stepped forward and said.