546.the battlefield became strangely silent.
At the moment when the command had fallen and hundreds of rebels knelt, the battlefield became strangely silent.
Blades stopped.
Screams stopped.
Even the sound of the wind seemed to vanish.
Cutting through that stillness, Park Seong-jin spoke in a low voice.
"Tell me… for whom are you fighting right now."
His voice was not loud.
But it was clear.
It struck directly into everyone's ears.
That question dug painfully into the chests of more than a thousand soldiers.
"Who… am I holding this sword for?"
One private soldier, without realizing it, looked down at his own hands.
They were trembling for no reason.
Another soldier recalled the faces of the tenant farmers he had trampled.
Many others thought the same.
They had called it loyalty, but in truth they had lived by inertia.
They had not moved by their own choice, but had been carried along by someone else's desire.
They asked themselves whether this battlefield had truly been for the country.
Park Seong-jin raised his gaze and swept it over the kneeling ranks.
Every pair of eyes was shaking violently.
He continued, slowly.
"I was conscripted at the age of fifteen.
I went to war, fought the White Lotus Sect and the Red Turbans, and took part in the battles to reclaim Liaodong."
His voice was lonely.
That loneliness sank even deeper.
"In Jiangnan, I faced rebel armies, ruled the battlefield, and helped bring about the founding of Daehan."
He raised his voice slightly.
"There was always only one reason I drew my sword.
Loyalty to the country.
The blood on my hands was blood shed for the people."
Then he shouted straight ahead.
"And what are you fighting for?"
The words trembled heavily in the air.
It was not a rebuke, but a lament.
A sigh directed at this night where kin, people of the same country, cut each other down and spilled blood.
That sigh shattered the hearts of the kneeling soldiers.
He fought for the country.
We raised our blades for the desires of those in power.
They asked themselves whether they even had the right to call themselves warriors.
Countless private soldiers slammed their heads into the ground.
Dirt mixed with tears smeared across their cheeks.
Park Seong-jin lowered his scabbard and said,
"Throw away your weapons.
Then stand up again."
Those who lifted their heads looked at him with trembling eyes.
"You are warriors.
You are soldiers."
He pointed to the kneeling men one by one.
"You are the country's fighting men.
Not private soldiers who lend their blades to another's desire.
Do not become someone else's sword."
Those words seemed to shatter the heavy stone resting on their knees.
Hundreds of chests twisted at once.
Park Seong-jin shouted one final time.
"Fight for the country.
Bow your heads to no other command.
The owners of this country are you."
Somewhere, someone began to sob.
That sob joined with others and spread across the battlefield floor.
Among the hundreds of kneeling soldiers, more than half beat their chests and wept.
Then, one by one, they threw their swords far away.
"I will serve in the army…"
"I will defend the country…"
"I will wash away this shame…"
Sobbing, sincerity, regret, and new resolve rose together like a single tide.
Those to Spare, Those to Punish, Those to Rebuild
After the new-moon rebellion was suppressed, the palace once again sank into the dawn mist.
This dawn carried a structure different from yesterday's.
From now on, it was the law's turn to move.
As soon as morning broke, Yun-dam and the officials of the commission came out to the wide courtyard before Sinbong Gate.
They divided the rebels into three groups:
The command and agitators
Organized participants (those who had used force)
Those forcibly conscripted or driven by livelihood
Park Seong-jin watched them silently.
Everyone already knew his judgment.
Even without his words, the officials could read it.
They understood his intention to save as many as possible.
The command group was not a mere mob.
They were political traitors who sought to collapse the reform, shake the king, and return the state to the aristocratic order.
Yun-dam reported to the king.
"They are perpetrators of high treason.
By the law, they must be sentenced to death."
The king replied briefly.
"So be it."
Most had already fallen under Park Seong-jin's sword.
The few who remained were collectively executed later that day by the Ministry of Justice.
That punishment was the first blade severing the roots of reaction.
The second category consisted of those who had actually used force during the rebellion.
Their measures were as follows:
Armed users from private armies → state punishment, 3–5 years of hard labor
Command-level private soldiers from noble houses → punished together with their families, land confiscated
Those directly connected to instigating families → stripped of military rank
Those who committed violence against freed slaves → severe punishment
Their lives were spared.
Instead, their swords, honor, and affiliations were reorganized under state discipline.
When they were sent to labor camps, a single sentence was attached:
"Sentenced to forced labor for crimes against the state."
That phrase symbolically severed their former honor.
The character 奴 (slave) was marked on their faces with ink.
It recorded individual guilt, while at the same time binding them back into the state registry.
The third category was the largest.
Farmers dragged in by livelihood.
Men who became private soldiers because of debt.
Those forced to the front lines by noble oppression.
Those who discarded their weapons before fighting.
Park Seong-jin's gaze toward them held neither anger nor contempt.
"They are people who were pushed here with no way out," he said calmly.
Yun-dam reported to the king.
"If we enlist them and let them prove loyalty, they will be of use to the state."
The king nodded.
"Grant amnesty.
But enlist them.
Make them swear that from this day forward, they will never again stand in the ranks of private armies."
As a result, hundreds of private soldiers were reorganized into state troops.
They were formed into the Hogun Guard.
The noble families that had instigated this rebellion had already been under the surveillance of the Jeonmin Byeonjeongdogaem.
With this rebellion, their fate was sealed as well.
Land confiscation.
Abolition of private armies.
Emancipation of slaves.
These three measures were enforced by force.
Park Seong-jin did not intervene in this process.
Procedures were handled by Yun-dam and the commission.
Enforcement was carried out by the Ministry of Justice and military officers.
Centered on those granted amnesty, Yun-dam organized a new Guard.
Martial skill from former private soldiers.
Diligence from farmers.
The combat discipline forged by Park Seong-jin.
As these three combined, a corps of a different nature from the existing Goryeo army was formed.