Joseon Needs a Coup - Chapter 320
Only Noblemtl
#320. Serenade for the finale (4)
“The reserves?!”
“We are all exhausted. There are too many enemies! If we continue like this, we will lose both ammunition and men! The 3rd Platoon is also advising a retreat, and the center will soon have no choice but to retreat!”
The 2nd Platoon Commander, who was defending the center of the front line with me, spoke almost in a crying tone.
He too had been involved in battle, as he was covered in clumps of blood and dirt.
However, Lieutenant Kim Si-jin firmly shook his head at his subordinate’s request.
He never had any intention of retreating from here.
“What? The 3rd Platoon is going to retreat? Very well! Our center is on the verge of collapse, and our right wing is on the verge of retreat. So I will attack now. Now is the perfect time for us to go all out and attack!”
···He shouted cheerfully, but if you were to look for something that could be called a reserve force, it would be the Maximo Battalion and the Grenadier Battalion.
Still, he thought that was enough and led them towards the direction located below the slope of the hill.
And before they could even properly set up their tripods, the Maximo platoon took their positions without any target assignment from the Maximo platoon leader and pulled the trigger.
No matter where I shot, enemies were slowly approaching in this darkness that even the moonlight ignored.
“Ugh!”
“Second gunner hit! First gunner, change jobs!”
As one of the gunners fell to the ground after being hit by a bullet from the brigade, the assistant gunner quickly stepped in to take his place and pressed the fire button.
The other soldiers immediately dragged the wounded gunner far away. The gunner and the assistant gunner were supposed to be like a needle and thread, so they had been fighting together while eating from the same pot, but it only took a moment to divide the firing line.
Yet the anger still remained.
And that anger was answered with a hot Maxim gun, firing bullets until the coolant bubbled.
As the 200-round magazines were quickly depleted, and the reserve ammunition was completely depleted, the other assistant gunners quickly dug out other magazines they had buried in the ground and handed them over.
“Even in Beijing it wasn’t this bad!”
“You keep grumbling about artillery, but I guess you still have the presence of mind to say something like that.”
Captain Kim Si-jin smiled faintly as he looked at Chief Maximo.
Seeing him smile even as bullets rained down on him, it was clear that he was not in his right mind.
“Those Japanese are of course on a different level from those Cheongbi. Each one of them is equal to about fifteen Cheongbi. So, until I get back, no matter what happens, stop their advance.”
He pinpointed three shooting reference points.
Two of them were the enemy’s main routes of advance, and the other was a 200-meter high ground on the left wing of the front line.
The advance line of the assault infantry was collapsing faster than expected due to the enemy’s skirmish lines built there, so it was necessary to suppress them even now.
“Where are you going, Your Majesty the Battalion Commander?!”
“We must reclaim the forward line.”
As if the time had come, he smiled at the platoon leader and walked away with rough steps, accompanied by a few soldiers who acted as messengers.
Now that the sound of gunfire was ringing out from the rear, it seemed that the direct command of the Sunmuyeong platoon had also begun to block the enemy infantry column that was attempting to bypass them.
I was worried that they would have to hold out well too, but I soon gave up.
“3rd Platoon Commander! Are the minefields okay?!”
“Some of them are inoperable because the fuses were blown by the shelling!”
Enemy artillery fire was not only lethal in killing soldiers on the defensive line.
There was also the destruction of defensive facilities that could directly defend against enemy advances, rendering them useless.
He sighed in regret when some of the explosives he had painstakingly laid down in the minefield became unusable.
But soon he came to his senses again when he saw that other soldiers were watching him and gave the order again.
In situations like these, the commander’s strong will has a tremendous impact on the soldiers.
“Let’s start by blowing up the ones that are still functioning! Since we can’t push those bastards back right away anyway, let’s lay down a final defensive barrage to completely knock them over and recapture them!”
Lieutenant Kim Si-jin, who had arrived at the right wing of the front line in an instant, looked at the company commander, who was fighting with other soldiers while holding a rifle himself, and said.
He answered his battalion commander, pulling the bolt of his rifle from inside the trench.
“Understood! Everyone, bow your heads! I’m detonating the blast bombs!”
“Everyone bow your heads!”
His shouts were quickly transmitted straight into the trench.
Along with that, bells tied to ropes all over the trenches began to jingle, signaling that friendly forces’ final defensive fire was about to begin.
At the same time, the company commander took out a matchbox and lit the fuse, and soon the distance between them and the enemy began to close in inverse proportion to the sound of it burning.
“Please, please!”
The company commander aimed his rifle at the enemy again, hoping to properly light the fuse, and pulled the trigger hastily.
As the enemies running towards him shouting got closer enough that even the outlines of their faces could be seen as silhouettes, the 3rd Platoon Commander threw his rifle on the ground, pulled out the pistol he had on his left waist, and aimed it at the approaching enemies.
Exactly one shot flew at the enemy, and the fuse finally burned out completely as the grenade inside the cylinder spun around to fire straight away.
At the same time, the rock mines hidden underground exploded, throwing numerous pebbles at a 45-degree angle forward.
It was as if a giant shotgun had been fired, wiping out the enemies rushing past the front line.
Although some of the mines failed to explode, reducing their power, the results were still catastrophic.
Enemies whose entire bodies were impaled on gravel were either collapsing in grotesque fashion or screaming in a manner that was almost like they would have died right away, as if their will to live had not yet been dashed.
“Now! Everybody, throw grenades, throw grenades!”
“Throw the grenade!”
As soon as the order was given, the soldiers who had been firing back with their rifles quickly pulled out the grenades they had stuffed between their pouches and rifles.
And as I rolled it down the slope, all the grenades, with their fuses properly set, exploded all at once.
Just as spring approaches and flowers bloom, as grenades exploded here and there, even the enemies who were lucky enough to survive among the debris from the rock mines were no longer lucky and were either torn apart by the tyranny or fell, their bodies torn apart by the debris and blood spraying everywhere.
“Let’s completely destroy them! 3rd Platoon, open rapid fire!”
At the company commander’s command, the infantrymen picked up their rifles again and fired rapidly.
As a standard for infantry fighting, regular riflemen were expected to fire 15 rounds per minute, but assault infantry were expected to fire at a much faster rate.
The principle was to maximize firepower by firing 10 rounds every 30 seconds.
“Now! Strike, strike! They’re collapsing under friendly fire! Now push the front line back and drive them out of their forward lines!”
When they drew their swords and charged at once, the enemies, who had lost their will to fight, retreated, leaving only the spirits of the wounded and the dead between the vanguard and the main fishing boats.
After recapturing the forward line, it seemed like they wanted to take a breather for a moment, and at the very moment when they were about to give instructions to check for the wounded and the remaining bullets,
“···The enemies, the enemies are coming!”
“Those damn kids. They’re really struggling to survive.”
This may be the end for their enemies, but they will surely be exhausted before that happens.
Of the 600 men in the battalion, one third were killed or wounded and evacuated to the Sahajji area, and the situation of those who remained was not good either.
In the process of continuously pouring in troops and gradually attriting them, they did not allow the friendly forces proper changing of ranks, securing reserves, or even rest and meals.
Soldiers who could not eat or rest quickly suffered from physical exhaustion.
It would not be an exaggeration to say that it was a miracle that we have survived this long.
Similar to before, or rather slightly more enemies than before, were running again, trampling on the fallen.
Everyone has different reasons, but they all rush towards certain death in order to pursue the life they definitely want to lead in the future.
Captain Kim Si-jin looked at those who remained, thinking that they were no different from him.
“It is impossible to fight any longer, your Majesty the Battalion Commander.”
“Everyone is just too tired. There are too many enemies.”
As tough company commanders and even senior instructors began to say such things, despair that everything was over spread like an epidemic through the defense lines.
All of this was warning the 2nd Assault Infantry Battalion that it was reaching its limit.
Only their hatred for the enemy and a sense of duty made them take up arms and barely manage to stand their ground on the defensive line.
“Commander, if things continue like this, it will be difficult to secure the main fishing boats, let alone the forward outposts.”
“It’s time for all of us to choose.”
“Exactly, it is the choice of the battalion commander. Do we have any choice?”
The 3rd Platoon Commander, leaning against the wall and measuring the cylinder of the cannon with the remaining door clip, said.
As he said, the choice of the 2nd Assault Infantry Battalion was now entirely in his hands as commander.
It’s been that way since I was promoted to battalion commander, but it’s even more so now.
More than ever, the power to decide the fate of my allies felt more important than the power to decide life and death over my enemies.
And he looked at the approaching enemy, the hands of the pocket watch, and the sun slowly rising.
If they could give up their lives and gain just a little more time in the remaining time, if the rising sun could finally rise in the sky and brighten up all the darkness that still lay ahead, there would be no greater exchange than that.
Looking at the fallen enemies, the groaning souls in the trenches, and the souls who had not yet been transferred to the death camp, a deep self-loathing question of whether this was truly an equivalent exchange arose in him, but he tried to ignore it.
He had mixed feelings about this, but in the end, there was only one thing he could say.
You must fight until the last man, the last step remains.
That is the only way for them to survive this brutal offensive.
The words that used to come out as if they were a set rule did not come out at this moment today.
As everyone waited for his words to come out, Lieutenant Kim Si-jin slowly began to speak in a different way than before.
“···If this is the end for us and the 2nd Assault Infantry Battalion today.”
Amidst the shouts, the sound of a blast passed by him, but Shijin pulled out his long sword as if he didn’t care.
And that was also the object my father was holding when he collapsed in the year of the monkey.
“Let’s give them an unforgettable nightmare. Even if everyone forgets our struggle and our existence, let’s make it a nightmare that will make them shudder every night in their dreams and every morning when they wake up, and let’s make it a nightmare that will be remembered forever. So that the enemy will never invade this land again, and will never force chains on our parents and brothers!”
He still wielded his sword on the battlefield, replacing the old handle with that of a Western-style saber, and he thought that today might be the day when he would fight the invaders like his father and die gloriously.
If that’s the case, it would be best to drag as many enemies as possible to the afterlife.
That way, it will be easier for the older brother commanding the Sunmuyeong, the old man Lee Gyu-tae commanding the Tongeoyeong, or the famous generals of the Marshal’s Office to make their next choice.
“So rise up! If we do not burn, who will light this darkness?! Now that the dawn of our homeland has dawned, our death will shine brighter than ever! Dear comrades of the 2nd Assault Infantry Battalion! Let us march toward the final battle!”
“Long live the Korean Empire! Long live our fatherland!”
Then, finally, the assault infantry battalions that had remained on the defensive line began to emerge from their trenches and forward lines.
So, as they refused to retreat in the face of defeat, and faced it with dignity and made their final charge, the familiar sound of gunfire that had been waiting and waiting for them rang out from afar.
It was the roar of the fatherland’s guns that shook the heavens and the earth and brought inevitable death to the enemies.
With him, joy and sorrow intersected on both sides.
As friendly artillery fire began to pour clearly through the enemy lines, the assault infantry battalions began to rush out of their trenches.
The fall of the Japanese army came with the morning sunlight.