Subjugation

Synopsis

What if Admiral Yi Sun-sin had not died at the Battle of Noryang? Yi Sun-sin is struck down by enemy fire at Noryang, but against all odds he survives, and the seven-year Imjin War finally comes to an end. However, King Seonjo feels a pathological jealousy and crushing sense of pressure toward Yi, who has become the people’s hero and the symbol of Joseon’s victory. In secret collusion with key figures of the Westerners faction, Seonjo has Yi Sun-sin secretly arrested, brands him a traitor, and sentences him to a brutal death. The male members of Yi’s family are executed or exiled, while the women are dragged off as government slaves and meet tragic ends. Yi Sun-sin is ultimately put to death by dismemberment inside an abandoned palace, and even his corpse is burned until nothing remains. Yet, astonishingly, Yi Sun-sin suddenly finds himself sent back more than thirty years into the past, to his own youth. From that day on, he begins to move in secret: not only to stop the Japanese invaders who will one day ravage Joseon and massacre its people, but also to exact retribution on the future Seonjo who will annihilate him and his family. At the same time, he lays grand plans to conquer Japan, the Jurchen tribes, and even Ming China, and starts carrying them out one step at a time.