The King of Tears, Lee Bang Won

It is the year 1388. General Lee Seong Gye is dispatched to invade the Liaodong Peninsula but decides to retreat. King Woo of Goryeo, enraged, orders to arrest all the family of General Lee. The general’s son, Lee Bang Won, manages to elude the chase of soldiers and heads to Pocheon to save his family.

After a fierce battle, the royal palace falls. Lee Seong Gye cannot bear to become a traitor and makes his army wait outside instead of taking over the palace. However, King Woo finds it hard to accept the defeat and organizes a surprise attack.

Lee Bang Won learns that assassins got inside the home of Lee Seong Gye. He rushes to the mansion to find his father still safe. Much relieved, Lee Bang Won approaches Lee Seong Gye, but at that moment, the men with swords jump at the father and the son.

King Gongyang has shamed Lee Seong Gye in public. Unable to tolerate the insult his father suffered, Lee Bang Won visits the king and conveys a sharp warning. Terrified, the king issues an order to decapitate his predecessors, Woo and Chang. A confounded Lee Seong Gye implores the king to withdraw the order of beheading.

Lee Seong Gye gives up everything and leaves for Dongbukmyeon. Lee Bang Won fails to dissuade his father from leaving and feels frustrated. Meanwhile, Jo Yeong Mu, who has joined the journey to Dongbukmyeon, asks Lee Seong Gye to go back to Gaeseong and become the king, telling him that they will not be welcomed in their hometown in the present situation. Lee Seong Gye has to think and make a decision now.

Jeong Do Jeon dashes toward the Cheongju Prison, and so does Jeong Mong Ju. But both are held back midway by a downpour, which cut off all the roads to the Cheongju Castle. The prisoners, who belong to Jeong Mong Ju’s faction, are destined to die if the rain should continue to flood the Cheongju Castle. The two men watch the endless heavy rain, each waiting for fate to decide.