It Became a Symbol of the Bronze Age - Chapter 357



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Episode 357. The Unavoidable Battle (1)

My country.

[I have personally come forward to punish the Asadal bandits who are attacking my country.]

Jiang So-baek decided to define Asadal as a ‘bandit son.’ If the officials of the Later Han Dynasty who had witnessed the Yellow Turban Rebellion had seen him, they would have raised their batons.

The justification was roughly similar.

Just as the Han Dynasty at that time said, “We are recruiting people to knock out the heads of the Yellow Turban Bandits (actually a peasant uprising)! We will give them both official positions and money!”, the Qi Dynasty also did the same.

Kang So-baek used his private funds to recruit mercenaries, and now that Gyehyeon and the North had been robbed and the Sa and Daebu had become unemployed, he could have divided up the empty lands.

The last part in particular was important.

Now, why aren’t the main forces of my country in Song and Lu withdrawn?

Because that is their land.

If you lose it, you can’t get it back, and if you whine, you’ll hear things like, “You lost the land, so you don’t deserve to have land.”

Then, on the contrary, what about the nobles and gentlemen who have fled from the North, including the Yeonseo Grand Master?

They are the ones who lost their own land.

If the great-father cannot protect his fief and it is taken away, then it is just empty land.

That’s why Kang So-baek shouted.

“If you perform a small service in this battle, you will receive gold and silk, and if you perform a great service, you will receive a chariot and a drum!”

A monetary reward for the little one.

It means that those who have made great achievements will be given a stipend.

Accordingly, those who had been in Song and Lu finally took action. The powerful lords still thought, “No matter what, my land is better, right?” but the less powerful ones, greedy for Gye-hyeon, Go, and Bi, forced their armies to return.

“I think roughly 20,000 people will return.”

“20,000…”

With 20,000, it is about half of the current Songno front. With that number, it may be difficult to conquer, but it is sufficient to fight a defensive battle. If we drive out Asadal and turn our troops back to Songno, that will be it.

Besides, there was another wave.

“I brought with me 300 men and 3 chariots!”

“I brought 11 chariots and 1,100 men!”

The old men around the temple came running out of breath.

They also heard that the people in the north of Jesu were rising up and driving out all the aristocrats.

Does that wave reach your land?

There’s no way you can open your eyes and see that.

“This is our sincerity!”

They hurriedly dragged their private soldiers, whom they had kept hidden until now, and ran towards the prison.

‘…these old bastards.’

Looking at them, Kang So-baek felt more like cursing them than being happy.

‘Look at him running towards me now after being stuck here for so long.’

Their thinking is obvious.

I was just trying to see which side they would ride. They were local leaders before they were subjects of my country.

But the result of the first impression was, ‘If we leave Asadal alone, what will happen to all of us?’ So now that they have finally figured out the situation, they have brought soldiers and crawled in. They call them ‘volunteers’, so I can’t help but curse.

‘Those guys are worse than dogs.’

Dogs at least listen when their masters order them to. However, people continue to weigh things and watch their reactions. As for Kang So-baek, he could only hope that he was the only human and that the entire country was dogs that followed his orders.

But whatever.

“Donggwa, tell me. How many people are there?”

“The number of the generals is thirteen, and the number of troops is ten thousand!”

“10,000…?”

A small force compared to the usual number of thirteen.

Besides, the quality is not good.

It can’t be helped.

The young and ambitious ones had long ago led the army and headed to the front lines of the Lu and Song Dynasties. In that sense, 10,000 was actually a lot.

“How come there are so many troops?”

“In addition to the existing military, they also emptied their own private funds. Isn’t it all because the king himself set an example?”

You are an example.

Rather, it was probably closer to the thought, ‘Even the king is embezzling his private property. If we just sit still, we’ll really be ruined!’

No, perhaps the act of eliciting such thoughts could be called ‘exemplary’.

But in any case, it is good news that we now have 10,000 troops, enough to be deployed at the second line, if not the first line.

So now, Kang So-baek organized his troops.

Those who returned from the Song-No front numbered approximately 20,000.

If you add the 10,000 troops of Kang So-baek who were guarding Imchi here, it would be roughly 30,000. They are the most elite frontline troops of the country.

Next is the second line, 10,000 volunteers brought by the old fox-like lords of this area.

The army of 40,000 men gathered like this was so large that it filled two or three hills.

If it weren’t for the huge city of Imchi, it would have been impossible to accommodate them. Kang So-baek looked at them and asked.

“Everyone, are you holding your helmet and shield properly?”

“That’s right! They are armed with long spears as tall as three people and shields made of tough leather. They are also warriors who have fought in countless battles in the Song and Lu states!”

My country’s soldiers responded.

Originally, the weapon mainly used in the Central Plains was not a long, straight-edged sword, but a long, curved sword, like an axe or pickaxe. You can tell just by looking at the Chinese character for country, which contains the word 戈.

However, it is difficult to operate a long spear. A long spear is a protruding weapon like an axe, and if you make it long and operate it, there is a chance that they will get entangled with each other.

Therefore, my country recently uses the 戈 only on chariots, and gives the mo矛 to its elite infantry to use as pikemen.

“No matter how strong Asadal’s cavalry force is, it will be useless against our pikemen!”

“Furthermore, if you just wave your long spear, arrows and javelins will get caught on the spear and become useless. The same will probably happen to the enemy’s guns!”

Jiang So-baek nodded. In fact, my country’s spearmen won many battles against the Lu and Song dynasties.

“Our pikemen are a force of unstoppable force that has literally crushed the power of Noh and Song, and the same will happen to Asadal.”

In response to that, the cavalry, all covered in bronze armor, trotted around with their hooves. Since bronze is yellow when rusted, they all shone yellow. Jiang So-baek called them the ‘Golden Cavalry’.

Since gold was the emperor’s precious possession, it was a cavalry unit that was worthy of being called the emperor, Jiang Xiaobai.

“Wow!”

At that sound, the lords and servants knelt down. The soldiers of my country unbuttoned their clothes and put out their right shoulders. It was a sign of the Central Plains’ willingness to join in their cause.

The momentum of my country’s elite 30,000 soldiers was roaring.

The 10,000 volunteers hastily gathered by the Sawa lords were somewhat old and sick, but their eyes still sparkled.

And behind them, ten thousand mercenaries, wearing thick, roughly quilted armor and not uniformly armed, had their left shoulders exposed.

The nobles usually exposed their right shoulder, and the barbarians exposed their left shoulder. Kang So-baek said.

“You are exposing your left shoulder now, but if you win this battle, you will be able to proudly expose your right shoulder too!”

At those words, these mercenaries also could not hide their burning fighting spirit.

‘A total of 50 thousand.’

The national power of my country is so great that it was able to raise 50,000 men even when suddenly attacked. The loser who took over half of North China had that much power.

‘Besides, the heavens are helping me too.’

So Kang So-baek looked up at the sky.

The lovely, gloomy, dark clouds were moving away towards the north.

***

The monsoon rain that started in the south moved north and passed through Gyehyeon, and rain poured down as if there was a hole in the sky for a whole week.

“The dark clouds are crashing down on the Yeonsan Mountains.”

It is a scientific approach, not an empirical one.

Hanho took a deep breath.

“If this had happened outside, it would have been a real problem.”

“But, well, thanks to Gongsun Seopbong’s brave choice, both sides ended up with good results.”

“That’s right.”

If he hadn’t surrendered.

Asadal’s attack would have been heard, and Gye-hyeon would have been destroyed… Asadal’s soldiers would not have been able to stay in Gye-hyeon like that, so they would have had to endure the wind and rain at the barracks.

Of course, Asadal’s accommodations are not bad, but they still cannot compare to a well-built castle.

“With additional troops joining in, it would have been even more chaotic.”

Han Jin, who remained in Asadal, was in charge of recruiting and sending new troops, and in the meantime, he hurriedly gathered 5,000 soldiers and sent them to Gyehyeon.

Hanho also withdrew some of his naval forces to the army for the coming battle, and thanks to this, Asadal’s army force, which originally started with 20,000 men, swelled to around 25,000.

“Look at those people, Poongbaek.”

Hanho looked at the people digging canals on a rainy day. The residents of Gyehyeon were diligently digging canals to save their fields, lest their crops fail.

“I’m glad I don’t have to break that sight.”

“Yes.”

If Gongsun Seopbong had chosen battle rather than surrender until the end, Asadal would have used his last resort.

As time passed and the rain stopped, the ground remained muddy. Hanho frowned at the sight.

“It would have been nice if this rainy season had come down from the north and reached the south.”

“What can be done about the laws of nature?”

This rain came from the south and moved north. In other words, it started from Imchi and came to Gyehyeon.

So, the rainy season would have passed for Imchi faster than for us… and they wouldn’t have had as much trouble as we did.

Gyehyeon is a place where the heavy dark clouds cannot stretch out straight because the mountain range behind it is behind it, and it has to vomit out all the water it has held.

Besides, since the place where the dam was located was in the south, the land would have dried out quickly. All of this could only lead to one result.

“Now they will move.”

“That’s right. The tide of war has changed.”

At the beginning of the war.

Asadal was pressed for time, and Kang So-baek had to wait until the fall when he could be drafted.

However, Asadal reversed this situation by attacking the opponent’s ‘heavenly heart’ rather than their ‘army’.

Now, the situation has changed to one where Kang So-baek must quickly defeat Asadal.

And, this rainy season is a weather phenomenon that is more helpful to those who want to speed up their battle than to us.

“How many enemy troops are there?”

Hanho answered my question.

“According to the martial artists, there are at least 50,000 of them. Of those, about 10,000 will be stationed at the castle and put pressure on the Ministry of Internal Affairs.”

“Ten thousand?”

The internal affairs force is only 5,000 strong, and even if you include the armed merchants, it doesn’t even reach 10,000. I thought it was too positive to deploy 10,000 to stop that.

Hanho said otherwise.

“They probably won’t deploy their elite troops to the castle. Kang So-baek will probably gather as many elite troops as possible to fight our army. The castle will probably be lined with hastily gathered rabble.”

“Aha, then 10,000 makes sense.”

The fighting power of the hastily assembled conscripted army is not worth seeing.

The reason why the Battle of Haengju, in which the entire people fought with one mind and one purpose and won, is highly regarded is because ‘that kind of thing doesn’t happen often.’

The problem is not that they are particularly weak or unskilled in combat, but rather that they are not accustomed to military discipline itself. The difference between 100 civilians with guns and 100 privates with guns is actually a bigger difference in military discipline and discipline itself than in the training at the training camp.

“If you want to deploy those types of people, you’ll need to double the number. That’s the only way to maintain morale.”

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“Then it would be 40,000.”

“Yeah, it’ll be 40,000.”

Hanho said.

“The army of our country that we originally had in mind was 150,000 strong. If we had fought ‘normally’, that would have happened. However, now it is only 40,000 strong.”

Of the 150,000, 7,000 from Gyehyeon and 6,000 from Gona-ra have already been finished. So, 135,000.

Of these, 20,000 elite troops are tied up on the front lines of Lu and Song as part of Asadal’s joint strategy. 115,000.

Asadal shook the public sentiment, making it impossible for them to hold out and conscript until the fall.

The enemies gave up the siege and came out and made a circle, so they were cut down to 40,000.

“There are still 40,000? That’s a really dirty lot.”

“Even just to this extent, you have already done well. Thanks to your strategy, we have stabilized the North without bloodshed, and there is no need for volunteers to emerge from the North.”

Hanho told me that.

“Our army is preserved thanks to you. If we had rushed to attack Gyehyeon, it would be difficult to say how many troops we would have lost.”

Then he looked around at the officers around him.

Under Han Ho, the army commander Cha Woo, Geumgang, Geonmu who leads the Gaemamusa Corps, Deulguljurak and Mujong Oyu who lead the Sanyong Army, Bal who is in charge of supplies and dispatch, and many other military experts.

“Now, it’s our turn, not the swordsmen’s.”

At Hanho’s words, the surrounding commanders nodded. Hanho said.

“So I’ll leave Gyehyeon to you. You just wait there for our news of victory.”

“I don’t like that.”

I said right away.

“If I have to leave this place to you, you would be better suited than me.”

“Breastfeeding? You mean the son of a mother? He’s a bit of a mess.”

“Of course, breastfeeding is ambiguous. However, after the war, we can naturally attach Posuk. Even if that’s not the case, Jin-go is fine… If we can persuade Gongsun Seop-bong, that would be even better.”

As we talked, I started to feel quite strange.

At this point, it feels like I’ve stolen all the talent in the Central Plains…?

“I’m not fooled.”

Hanho chuckled.

As expected, my prediction was correct.

This person was trying to exploit me more by secretly putting me in the position of Gyehyeon Anjeongwan.

Because he seems like a bad person.

***

Imchi is a great city.

In fact, it could have been even greater. The original history of the coffin was to have the interior of the palace remodeled into a well shape, thus creating a thousand-year-old capital.

However, no one would say that the city was great because it could accommodate a population of 50,000 households even without the government.

Even Luoyi (Luoyang), the current capital of the Zhou Dynasty, was no match for Linzi. To compare the greatness of Linzi, we would have to bring in the splendid capital of the former Zhou Dynasty, Hujing, which has already fallen and disappeared.

And now.

As Poongbaek had thought, it did not rain much in Imchi.

“The clouds that passed by a while ago will bring heavy rain to Gyehyeon, and Asadal’s army will have to waste at least several weeks in the north.”

This is just an empirical observation, though.

This is Kang So-baek’s last chance, and proof that heaven has not yet abandoned him.

“No matter how strong the enemy’s ships are, they won’t be able to occupy the river during the monsoon season. I will take advantage of this gap to retake Jesu. So, Donggwak, I will give you all 10,000 mercenaries, so defend Imchi from the Naei in the rear.”

“Then, Your Majesty?”

“I will take the 20,000 troops who have returned this time, 10,000 of my own soldiers, and 10,000 volunteers led by Imchi’s envoys and lords, and personally head north and wipe out the enemies!”

like that.

Kang So-baek’s 40,000 troops advanced toward Je-su.

***

“Sister-in-law, your eyes must have been opened?”

“No matter how fast it is, it would be difficult to endure this level of rain. It would probably have retreated to Naeminbu.”

“Then… the opponent must have taken the lead.”

“Is there a possibility that the opponent still cannot move their troops?”

“That would be great, though.”

Hanho shook his head.

“Kang So-baek wouldn’t be that tall.”

***

No matter how sturdy Asadal’s ship is, it cannot occupy the lower reaches during the rainy season.

In this way, Asadal’s ships that had been occupying Jesu retreated. Some headed towards Naeminbu, while others went up north to join Asadal’s main force.

Kang So-baek, who saw this, moved quickly.

“The enemy is probably hiding in the ditch to avoid the rain. Send your swift men to take advantage of the gap in the enemy’s boats to drive in stakes and tie up ropes!”

He filled each of Jesu’s ports with his own troops, and set up stakes and ropes in front of them.

At this point, even if the enemy’s navy is strong, they will not be able to enter Jesu again.

And Kang So-baek felt refreshed when he saw this.

‘Fucking water.’

The navy was an asymmetrical force between Asadal and Je. How many hardships did they suffer because of that one navy?

But now it’s different.

With the help of heaven, those naval forces retreated.

Now, we can fully mobilize our country’s real strength, the army.

***

So two great generals.

No, the term ‘warlords’ would more accurately describe the two men who share the same thoughts, separated only by a river.

It’s a battlefield.

***

The young king of my country, with 300 years of history, thinks.

“We must prevent Asadal from even setting foot on our homeland. Defeat him with our military. That is the best option for now.”

This may seem to be against general military strategy. It is already known that water is the most efficient way to use the military. In fact, some generals have advocated water.

But if Mercury is so effective, why don’t all countries just do it? Why do they bother sending out their armies?

It’s simple.

Mercury has several prerequisites.

If you have more supplies than your opponent, you can wait for them to get tired and fall.

If you hold out, reinforcements will soon arrive and you can form a two-front battle.

Otherwise, the Mercury War is a handshake.

If it becomes a ‘naturally drying out’ situation, it’s better, but in the worst case, the surrounding area is taken away, leaving only the castle. And Asadal is an expert at creating this ‘worst case’.

So the fight is already decided.

So next question.

‘Where?’

***

The old commander of Asadal, with 30 years of history, thinks.

‘Now, the initiative has gone to the opponent.’

Thanks to the monsoon rains, Asadal easily took control of Gyehyeon while preserving his troops. And, because of the monsoon rains, Asadal gave up the initiative.

Some families have insisted on being satisfied with the status quo. But that shouldn’t be the case.

If you are satisfied with the state of Qi, the enemy will finish the defense of Je-su and then attack the inner city of Shandong. No matter how rugged the mountains of the inner city are, it is difficult for the troops there to completely block the elite troops of the state of Qi.

And if the Naeminbu, the port area, is torn apart, the navy, Asadal’s greatest power, will be cut in half… In addition, local supply through cloves and sugar will become difficult.

So, I can’t just sit there and do nothing.

The military must move.

then.

‘where?’

***

Kang So-baek thinks.

‘The initiative is ours.’

The opponent has two choices.

Fearing Doha, they remained in the North.

Or, get the donation as quickly as possible.

But if we choose to ‘remain in the North’ here, it means giving up Shandong.

‘Asadal, I don’t think they will do that. The river is huge… They will look for an opening.’

***

Hanho thinks.

‘There are good things about us too.’

The enemy’s forces are still staying in the lower reaches of the Jesu River. And, the Jesu River is a very long river… and its upper reaches are closer to Asadal than to my country.

‘If we don’t want to lose our position, we have to cross the river quickly. But… Kang So-baek won’t stay still. He’ll want to take advantage of the opportunity to cross the river no matter what.’

***

Jiang Xiaobaek, who went from being a vassal to a king, speaks.

“We can’t stay locked in. We quickly deploy our forces, find out where the enemy is crossing the river, and strike when there’s an opening. So…”

***

Han Ho, who went from being the president to the grand modal, declares.

“We can’t stay in the North. We must quickly cross the river before the enemy completes his defenses and aim for the enemy’s heart to save the enemy’s defenses. So…”

***

“…The next battlefield is…”

“…My sister-in-law!”

like that.

Without ever meeting face to face, the two warlords laid out the battlefield for the next battle.

“I heed the command of the Great Modal!”

With those words, Asadal’s family.

“Understood, Your Majesty!”

The noblemen of the Central Plains nodded their heads.

like that.

Golden cavalry and chariots armed entirely with bronze.

My country’s army of 40,000 men, consisting of pike infantry.

Armored cavalry and light cavalry.

Asadal’s army of 25,000 men, consisting of heavy armor.

These two began to spread out widely, centering around the sister-in-law. To find and eliminate each other.

For the final battle that will end this war.

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