The Plan to Conquer Yanbian and Hunchun (2)

Confucius once said:

'If you're going to do something halfway, don't start at all.'

Whatever you do, once you have broken ground on it, you must work with the resolve to die if you cannot see it through.

I like this saying very much.

There is not a single legal way to make money in this world that is easy, and succeeding after jumping in with halfhearted resolve is extraordinarily difficult, to say the least...

Was I really going to break ground on the crucial undertaking I intended to pursue—the development of Manchuria—with halfhearted resolve?

As one of the high officials who decided on this undertaking, I might merely take some abuse for the policy's failure if things went wrong, but what would happen to the people under me who were affected by my decision?

Because of halfhearted resolve and inadequate preparation, they would be unprepared when problems arose that could have been solved with sufficient preparation, and dozens, hundreds, or thousands of precious Joseon soldiers would die.

That's what developing Manchuria would entail.

Even the development of the Four Commanderies and Six Garrisons recorded in the Annals of King Sejong resulted in well over a thousand deaths...