Joseon Needs a Coup - Chapter 318
Only Noblemtl
#318. Serenade for the finale (2)
“What? Our battalion retreated?! Are the real enemies here?”
“Yes, Commander! The enemy has swarmed the 300-meter hill behind Muncheon!”
The commander of the reserve infantry battalion that Lieutenant General Hidenori had sent south toward Munchon spoke with a pale face.
Looking at him, he had a bandage wrapped around his arm, which was so tattered that it was fortunate it wasn’t cut off.
Since the battalion commander was in this state, there was no need to explain the condition of the rest of the battalion members.
“Oh my god. What on earth happened? Did you know how many enemy troops there were?”
“Until then… I’m sorry. We also had little basis for making judgments in the Moonless situation. All we could tell was that the enemy had deployed a large number of troops to high ground and unleashed powerful firepower.”
“What was the level of firepower?”
“If we have to be specific… it was similar to the firepower of an enemy brigade-level defense line.”
Brigade-level? Can the resistance forces, which are called enemy rabble, be united to that extent?
No matter how much I thought about it, the enemy didn’t have the capacity to do that.
Even a mob with the firepower of a regular brigade of North Korean soldiers was something unheard of and unthinkable.
If such people are swarming all over the rear… it will be difficult for any of the parking troops to return alive.
“The enemy broke up our skirmish line with grenade launchers and machine guns before they could even set up a line, and then they hunted us down with rifle fire. The gunfire poured down from all sides, and it just…”
Hidenori constantly calculated all the possible scenarios in his head, but no particular scenario came to mind.
There is only one way.
“Could it be that these people landed in Wonsan and occupied it?”
“Doesn’t that make sense! The sea belongs to the Imperial Navy-”
“···Now that I think about it, it makes sense. Those are large ships that can unleash a large number of troops at once.”
Suddenly, Hidenori remembered the scrapped ship that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs had handed over to the Emperor of Joseon several years ago.
It was almost like a scrap ship, with an engine too small for its size, making it slow, and the balance of the hull was completely destroyed by the excessive addition of ammunition and guns.
That’s why even in the Imperial Navy, that ship was ridiculed and treated as a non-combatant, saying that it wouldn’t be usable for several years. It was called the Kachidate Maru in Japanese, and the Koreans called it the Yangmu.
And that ship might have been the one that stabbed them in the back this time.
“I wonder if that guy who was handed over as a favor by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is the one who stabbed us in the back.”
“No, just because we have one large ship doesn’t mean we can easily put down the enemies?!”
“Commander of the Guards Division, remember the Sino-Japanese War. The main force of the 5th Division landed in Wonsan and destroyed the Chinese in Pyongyang.”
As Hidenori said, even though the port of Wonsan was not yet as developed in terms of infrastructure as it is now, it was a place where troops could be quickly poured out by accepting thousands of soldiers from the 5th Division and 18 transport ships that had set sail from Hiroshima Ujina Port.
That was the kind of place that the Imperial Army and Navy absolutely wanted to occupy.
What if it is true that the Joseon people mobilized their fleet by surprise and poured their troops into such a place?
If that happens, all the questions we have had so far will be resolved.
The sudden appearance of enemy forces in the direction of Muncheon, the mysterious sound of fighting heard in the direction of Wonsan, and the whereabouts of the Wonsan garrison headquarters, which is still silent, were all explained.
“By rational inference, we cannot help but conclude that Wonsan has fallen into the hands of the enemy.”
“Then… aren’t we trapped in the front and back?”
In response to Lieutenant General Asada’s words, Hidenori could only nod his head in response.
It was no different from being completely trapped in the enemy’s trap.
“Wait a minute, don’t you have any idea how much of their transport power and reserve forces have been diverted here?”
“···Since the fleet is still alive, we should assume that all transport forces are operational. Furthermore, their total force is 300,000, and 50,000 of them have been returned to us, so no one knows how many have been returned to Wonsan Port. Their transport fleet may be entering the port at this very moment.”
The entire staff was terrified.
If a third party had seen it, they would have said that it was the most exciting and groundbreaking battle in the history of the war, but unfortunately, they were only parties to the battle and were merely opponents who were played around by the enemy’s maneuvers.
In the front, there was the enemy’s elite Guards Division, and in the rear, there was a separate force of Koreans who had taken Wonsan by surprise and blocked the retreat route.
Everyone just looked like they had lost their minds as all their previous plans went down the drain and they were now in a situation where they had to worry about survival rather than victory.
In the midst of all this, the one who spoke this time was surprisingly Director Umezawa.
Even among the Japanese military command, whose mentality was shattered beyond recognition, he was the one who was trying to come to his senses and fought the enemy in the most soldierly manner.
“···If things turn out like this, Wonsan can no longer be defended.”
His words were enough to cause a ruckus in the headquarters.
Since they had this good area, they all thought that if they could just quickly crush the relatively small number of enemies, they could last a long time.
However, the division commanders had a common understanding that he would not say such things carelessly, and they immediately silenced the crowd and allowed him to continue speaking.
“I understand your reaction. However, we do not have enough time left to wipe out all the enemies in the rear and re-establish the defense line. The Joseon government forces in Gowon have almost collapsed by now. To tell the truth, it is obvious that it will be difficult to turn things around now. However, we are all soldiers of His Majesty the Emperor and warriors of the Empire of Japan, so we must try to do our best even if it is disadvantageous. Now that we are seriously short of ammunition and troops, we must break through the enemy’s encirclement with a single blow.”
He quietly placed his finger on a spot on the map. Then, the additional ridge extending from southern Wonsan to Gyeongseong came into view.
“There is an enemy Guards Division in front and an unidentified landing force in the rear. How are we going to break through?”
“···In the current situation, we have no choice but to break through the enemy’s defense line in the direction of Muncheon. The enemy’s large-scale formations have not yet landed···and the number of enemies that have come to the direction of Muncheon is relatively small. The enemy’s main force is still on the move, or they are probably organizing their bases at the landing site.”
Major General Umezawa’s opinion was that rather than dealing with the enemy in the Gowon area, who was definitely over 50,000 strong, it would be better to deal with the Joseon soldiers in the Munchon area, whose size was unknown but estimated to be smaller.
And everyone listened to his continued words.
“We have no choice but to move quickly towards Chugyeong without stopping. This is the only way to survive and the last route that can connect us to the friendly headquarters in Gyeongseong.”
Although it seemed like the road had been well-maintained because it was a place that connected the triangle of Gyeongseong, Pyongyang, and Wonsan, in reality, construction had barely begun.
Traditionally, the main road on the Korean peninsula was towards Cheoryeong Pass, and naturally, development took place around this area.
Although the Joseon government later reorganized the roads in the Chugaryeong area for security and economic reasons, that was something that happened in the distant future.
What Umezawa had now chosen was a series of foot-oriented routes that were not suitable for the movement of large forces.
“Is this the only way?”
“None. If the supply depot in Muncheon had been maintained, then maybe that would be possible, but right now there’s no way.”
Those damn Joseon bastards. They destroyed two months’ worth of food and one month’s worth of ammunition.
Even now, in the supply depot in the city of Muncheon, where flames are rising, the sound of remaining ammunition exploding can often be heard.
“If we are to be exact, there is one more thing that is not realistic. It is to recapture the plateau and open the way back to the south, but it is meaningless at the moment. Rather, there is a greater risk that our troops will be annihilated by the enemy Guards Division’s offensive.”
The irrational choice of whether to take the path of certain death or to take the path of possible death but also possible life ultimately resulted in only one outcome.
Both Hidenori and Asada had no choice but to agree to Director Umezawa’s proposal.
It’s as if neither the Guards Division nor the Reserve Infantry Division are left any longer.
They began pouring their remaining companies and battalions toward the nameless Yatmahan hill that controlled the direction of Muncheon.
From now on, it was no different from an unreasonable time attack to see who would fall first.
Even though they knew they would die, they gave the honor of being the first to attack to their battalion commanders.
And they accepted it as an incomparable honor, and shouted at each other that they would go to death first.
Facing countless deaths, the battalion that finally gained ‘honor’ began to advance to the front lines.
***
“Coming···.”
“Everyone, prepare to fire. Let’s remain calm.”
Even in the darkness, the sound of military boots approaching could be clearly heard.
It was so foreign that I couldn’t get used to it even after hearing it dozens of times.
At the very front was an officer with his sword drawn, while the enemy’s scouts, seemingly disorganized but forming a single line, were slowly approaching.
They were approaching very cautiously, as if they had not yet been properly informed of the presence of the assault infantry battalion’s defensive line here.
I thought that if we had been taken by surprise without any information, we might have been completely beaten by them.
They were even swallowing their saliva to avoid making even the slightest slurping sound, licking their dry lips with their tongues.
“The enemy is getting closer. Their numbers are at the company level, no, to be precise, battalion level or higher.”
“···It looks like they threw a unit here.”
Lieutenant Kim Si-jin spoke as he measured the cylinder of the six-cell cannon for the last time.
There were exactly six rounds in it, plus five additional moon clips on the belt.
Perhaps after I finish writing this… I’ll think about it then, he said, putting the gun back in its holster.
“Start calmly and aim for the enemy in the front line. Since it is nighttime, you must entangle the fallen and those advancing from behind.”
“All right.”
This is a story that has been emphasized before, but it is worth emphasizing again and again.
So he quietly took out the flare launcher that he had placed on one side of the four-legged stand and aimed it straight into the air.
And then he fired a red flare, the promised order to fire.
“Commence firing!”
“Concentrate fire on the enemies in the front line!”
When they could not connect all the trench lines, those who had built individual trenches between the main trenches began firing rifles and machine guns at the enemies ahead, without exception.
Doo doo doo doo.
The first start was the incredible firepower of Maximo Ban.
Each time they swept across the ground, enemies were pushed back as if floating in the air with a scream and fell to the ground.