Joseon Needs a Coup - Chapter 257
Only Noblemtl
#257. The Brave Answer (3)
“For God’s sake, just a little more! Just a little more, guys!”
“The Joseon bastards’ positions will fall soon!”
“Long live His Majesty the Emperor! For the glory of the Empire of Japan, die willingly today!”
Amid the continuous sound of machine gun fire and the explosion of hand grenades, Japanese officers stood up with their heads raised, urging their soldiers and forcing them to charge.
In front of me were already the corpses of those who had died before, and the bodies of those who were still screaming without even finishing their lives.
Trying to ignore it, the officers who bravely stepped forward to fight for the glory of His Majesty the Emperor and the Empire of Japan, followed by the soldiers who shouted and aimed their sharp bayonets as they quickly advanced.
The attacks, which had been ongoing before and would be repeated countless times until the Hwangju defenses collapsed, were once again unfolding.
The offensive that the First Army, the best of the Empire of Japan, had begun to avenge its humiliating defeat, was now approaching its second month.
The Guards Division has already withdrawn from the battle line.
And although there were individuals or small units escaping from Jinnampo for nearly two weeks, the number was far less than 1,000.
The enraged 1st Army launched an all-out offensive to avenge the humiliation of the Guards Division and capture Pyongyang, and in the process, thousands of young men fell in front of the enemy’s defensive positions.
And many more were sent to field hospitals, or even left to die in the corners of houses because there was no room there.
After countless young people from the Japanese archipelago shed blood in the cold land of Pyeongan Province, the road to Pyongyang was finally about to open.
The 1st Army launched a continuous offensive, pushing the 2nd and 12th Divisions and the reserve forces to the front of the defensive line in turn.
Two weeks had already passed since the battle began, with engineers being brought in to clear barbed wire and obstacles, artillery shelling to pound the defensive line, and finally the infantry coming out to launch an all-out offensive.
Finally, we were able to destroy the relatively isolated fortified positions in eastern Hwangju.
Just before the battle, it was judged that if they could break through here, they could completely divide the city of Hwangju and the fortress and completely push back the enemies, which was effective.
Some of the fortified positions in the western part of Hwangju had been destroyed and a breakthrough had been made, so now it was time to drive the wedge in.
“If we continue like this, I think we will succeed in breaking through Hwangju.”
“If there is a problem, it is that there are too many casualties, Commander. We are averaging about a thousand casualties per day, and this could become a problem later on. Furthermore, the enemy’s main force has not yet been revealed.”
“That level of loss can be ignored. We should use our advantage of numbers to prevent the enemy from resting as much as possible. And the enemy’s main force will not come down from Pyongyang. The enemy’s main fishing boat is Pyongyang, not Hwangju, the forward ship here. If we think about it rationally, the Joseon guys will try to save their troops as much as possible.”
Lieutenant General Kuroki happened to see an infantry company from the 2nd Division moving up the hill while shouting.
Today was the 7th attack with that. I thought I would almost push the enemies back by the 6th attack, but the Joseon guys were really poisonous.
I thought they’d come back with bayonets and grenades and fight for their lives.
It was a very unfortunate failure as the attacking force was pushed back by the enemy’s fanatical attacks and suffered heavy losses during several offensives.
But this time it was different. This time I was sure I would get through.
“The problem is that they are organically mobilizing reserve forces to block our forces’ breakthrough.”
“The enemy also seems to be short on manpower, so they have greatly reduced the number of troops on the defensive line. Instead, they have increased the number of troops assigned to the reserves and are focusing on intercepting our forces.”
“Cunning things. But even so, cunning is no match for overwhelming power. Can a monkey defeat a tiger?”
That little trick could have been destroyed with one powerful blow.
Still, it was quite interesting to encounter a fellow Eastern army that seemed far superior to the Russian army.
Kuroki prepared the two reorganized 12th Division reserve battalions, thinking that perhaps he had finally met his life’s match.
“That fortress that has been harassing us is over. It is time to avenge our comrades who died in Nampo. Kikoshi, go and capture that fortress at all costs.”
“Understood. I will mobilize the reserves immediately.”
Major General Kikoshi, commander of the 23rd Brigade of the 12th Division, saluted and immediately signaled to the battalion commanders on standby to move out.
They advanced straight through the forest to the eastern position, which was still under attack.
“If that gets breached, those damned things won’t be able to maintain Hwangju’s defense line, and even Pyongyang’s.”
Even so, the amount of ammunition consumed by Joseon people recently has not been the same as before.
The 1st Army also did not receive supplies that well, but they were able to purchase supplies and raw materials from overseas, so they were able to maintain the same ammunition production as before, but these were different.
In any case, Japan was the master of the sea, and most of the materials they depended on had to be purchased from Europe and the United States.
But there was no way Japan would allow that.
“Huh? Hey hey! Hey, everyone get out of the way! It’s Joseon’s artillery fire!”
“Whoa!”
A shell exploded at close range, accompanied by someone’s shout.
A company that was moving to the front line to prepare for an attack was completely destroyed when the most terrifying high-explosive bomb exploded, and traces of people were scattered here and there.
The area where Kuroki and the staff were located was so dangerous that the roof of the house where they had set up a temporary command post collapsed due to the impact of the shell.
“Keluk keluk… Are you alright, Commander?!”
“It’s okay, it’s okay. You damn bastards. You can’t help but acknowledge the infantry and artillery of the Joseon bastards. They’re the heavenly fighters.”
Medics were rushing in between the screaming soldiers on the side.
If the shell had landed just 5 meters closer, or if the shell that had just landed had been a shrapnel bomb, they would have been screaming right now, or they would have been torn to pieces before they could do so.
Everyone shuddered and barely managed to get up from their seats, shaking off the dust and dirt.
“Friendly infantry has charged into the fortified position!”
The shout of the binocular-wielding staff member was heard, and immediately everyone around turned their eyes to the direction where the fortified position was visible.
An officer, carrying a sword and a standard, climbed up to the fortified position, which was strewn with the dead on all sides, with both hands raised, while the remaining soldiers, who seemed to be few in number, pressed forward with bayonets pointed.
“Good! Kikoshi, where are all the battalions of your brigade right now?!”
“The advance unit is 500m behind. We can join in a little while-”
“Slow down! Tell them to increase their speed immediately! Send a messenger and tell them to reinforce the 2nd Division, 3rd Brigade, which has entered the vanguard within 10 minutes, or they are to commit seppuku on the spot!”
Kuroki, extremely excited, shouted at Kikoshi.
The 12th Division Commander tried to stop him, but he couldn’t dare come forward because of his cold gaze.
Even the calm Major General Kikoshi was shocked by this behavior, but Lieutenant General Kuroki paid no attention to it.
“If we miss this opportunity, we’ll have to do the same thing in a few weeks! We have to take this place today! Deploy the rest of the reserves and make sure that fortress collapses!”
“Yes, four!”
‘How many reserve units were left? One battalion left in the 2nd Division, one reserve infantry regiment barely scraped together by fighting with that Hasegawa guy, and the 12th Division… Oh, these guys just went to the front line.’
Counting them one by one with my fingers, I could see that roughly four battalions remained as reserves under the 1st Army.
The remaining units were either holding out on the city of Hwangju, preventing them from responding to each other, or were pressuring the Roske holding out in the direction of Songnim, so this was the only unit that could be deployed immediately.
The fixed lines, and the repetition of what had been done so far, were coming to an end.
He was willing to take the gamble, and he was curious to see what choice the punk commander who had given them such a pitiful defeat would make.
Should we send our precious reserves to support Hwangju, or should we abandon Hwangju and move to the next defensive line?
Either way, he had nothing to lose.
No matter what his enemies chose, Kuroki intended to thoroughly consume them all he encountered.
The power of the Japanese Empire, which had been tempered and steadily increased in size through decades of civil war and war with China, could not possibly be matched by Joseon, which had only reformed its military for less than ten years.
***
“We’re in trouble. Commander, the eastern fortress defended by Hwangju’s 7th Brigade has collapsed.”
“Oh my, this is much faster than I thought···.”
Just a few days after news broke that part of the western fortifications had fallen to the enemy, the eastern fortifications, the core of Hwangju’s defense, collapsed.
The time that the enemy resolved at the headquarters to break through the Pyongyang-Uiju advance route was about 50 days, and since they had held out for about 30 days, they had to hold out for another 20 days.
And the most important role, Hwangju, is now collapsing. The enemy’s offensive was stronger than expected.
Of course, I also had the intention of trying to gain a tactical advantage through the advantage in exchange rate while wearing down the enemies to a certain extent, but the Japanese army’s actions were beyond common sense.
Whether pounding with firepower or blocking with the strong defenses of their fortified positions, the enemy would swarm like ants, launching massive infantry attacks accompanied by artillery fire that would severely exhaust the defenders.
Two days ago, the defense line almost collapsed.
Just as the Russians were trying to wear down the Ukrainian defenses at Bakhmut, the Japanese were using all their available forces and firepower to pound the friendly defenses.
Because we will be the ones to fall into this endless war of attrition, with our severe shortage of ammunition and troops.
“How will it end?”
“Someday this place will collapse too.”
As he answered the staff, he thought of the war that was raging in the original world. And among them, he thought of the end of Bahmut, a very small city.
The bloody battle that lasted for months ended with the Ukrainian army retreating, giving up the city center, unable to withstand the Russian army’s relentless attrition.
Because we could not withstand the irrational tactics pursued by the Russian army, which risked the lives of tens of thousands of people.
And the same was true of the 7th Brigade in Hwangju.
Five days ago, in an urgent phone call, Chief Shin Tae-hyu spoke in a crawling voice.
-Sergeant, this is really shameless, but… could you send reinforcements to the headquarters, even if it’s just a company or a platoon?
The fact that the brigade commander was asking for even one platoon to be sent gave an idea of how serious the situation at the front was.
I hastily sent down three battalions of troops, including one three-man reserve infantry battalion from Sunan that had not yet finished its training, and a battalion from the 12th Reserve Cavalry Regiment that had been reinforced from Hamgyeong Province, but after a bloody battle, they all suffered serious casualties.
Simply put, 40% of the total reinforcements were lost just to block the breakthrough built by the Japanese army.
Of course, thanks to that sacrifice, the Japanese army also failed to occupy the fortress and retreated, but as this type of fighting continued, criticism grew even within the Sunmuyeong.
It was a very realistic criticism that if they fought any longer, the seed of men in Pyeongan Province would completely dry up since the year of Gimiyo (1820).