When Yi Ji-Ran received an urgent letter from his sworn brother Yi Seong-Gye, he was holding a funeral for his mother. The content of the letter was “The fate of this country hangs by a thread. This is no time for you to stay in your house. Take off the mourning clothes and join us.” So, Yi Ji-Ran went to the battlefield and became a spearhead, but he was hugely defeated in the battle.
After a short while, Yi Seong-Gye arrived at the battlefield. Hobaldo was holding his head high because of the previous victory, so he impulsively rushed out of his troops to fight man to man. Yi Seong-Gye accepted the challenge and dashed out by himself, too.
They shielded their swords when passing by on horseback, but failed to kill the opponent. Before Hoblado returned to his horse, Yi Seong-Gye’s first arrow hit Hobaldo’s armor, but it was too thick to penetrate. Quickly, his second arrow hit the horse, so Hobaldo fell from it. Hobaldo made a near escape while his troops were almost annihilated. (* I’m not exaggerating at all. This is a true story recorded in the official history book.)
After the huge victory against Hobaldo, General Yi Seong-Gye submitted the border stabilization agenda to the central government (Dodang).
The writers changed the order of the incidents for dramatic effect. Yi Bang-Won’s imprisonment (in ep 11) is a fictional story.
Episode 11 story….
Yi In-Gyem spread a vicious rumor that Yi Seong-Gye, Hong In-Bang, and Gil Tae-Mi concluded a secret treaty to share the taxes from Northeast region. As a token of their secret promise, Gil Tae-Mi’s son was assigned as the official in charge of taxes in the region. To clear away the suspicion, Yi Bang-Won was arrested because he met Hong In-Bang the day before the border plan was approved in Dodang. Torture was used to make him confess, but he shut his mouth tight.
Of course, all of the rumor was fabricated by Yi In-Gyem. It doesn’t matter if there really exists the secret treaty or not. YIG’s intention is 1) to damage YSG’s clean image, 2) to bring YSG to his knees 3) to make YSG withdraw the border plan to save his son 3) to collapse the HIB’s alliance with YSG.
About Bang-Won’s imprisonment, people have different perspectives.
Gil Tae-Mi said they should kill Bang-Won to shut his mouth. “Of course, people will suspect that we are the killer, but it will be forgotten over time.” Hong In-Bang didn’t accept it.
Boon-Yi met Hong In-Bang to save Bang-Won. She went to the prison and delivered HIB’s message to BW “If you really want to be different from me, you should never surrender to the torture, and shut your mouth till the end.”
Yeon-Hee told Jung Do-jeon they should kill Bang-Won because it would give Yi Seong-Gye the motivation to fight Yi In-Gyem as they planned. In addition, their unpredictable loose cannon Yi Bang-Won can be removed.
Jung Do-Jeon resisted temptation to choose an easy way, saying “I have a worm in my heart, too” but he decided to find another way, recalling Tang-Sae’s words in the cave and Boon-Yi’s persuasion.
Post time 9-11-2015 01:46 PM
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