Past Glory
"To think I'd get dumped by a slave after all this. What a life."
Good grief, how ridiculous. Even if it doesn't look like it, I'm not one to be ignored anywhere I go.
Lately, Injun—who's not even some moody teenage girl—has been especially keen on drawing lines between us. Sure, I've been shoving him into those stinking niter beds for hours, and the iron cannon manual work has kept him swamped, but still.
Speaking of which, I decided to check on the musketeers training with the iron cannon manual and the development team's progress.
Bang bang bang! Boom!
The sight of smoke rising with the gunfire still fills me with awe every time. Their postures are getting pretty solid now, and the three-stage firing is starting to take shape.
"What if we end up dying to the Mongols in a war before that happens?"
"You're way too calm about it, you know."
"At this point, we couldn't hide it from the Mongols even if we wanted to. How's iron cannon production?"
Iron cannon production is ramping up even faster. Through the Song merchants, we're importing iron ore and all sorts of timber, and from Kyushu, we're bringing in sulfur thanks to the soap trade. We plan to secure at least 15,000 by the thirty-first year minimum. The goal is to fight with a single decisive strike and ensure victory.
"Production's sped up since the Jin artisans joined us. Same for the cannons."
"Then grape shot should be feasible too."
We're already prepping a batch of grape shot.
"What's that?"
"This right here."
I urge the iron cannon separate troops' artillerymen to load the cannon. We stuff small lumps of iron—call them scatter rounds—into the barrel. Then fire at the target all at once.
Kaboom boom boom!
"If we unleash this simultaneously, even the Mongol horde would get swept away."
This'll definitely reduce casualties. I'm mulling over thunder crash bombs too, but we're too busy with these preparations right now. And honestly, what good would divine fire arrows do against the Mongols? They'd guzzle gunpowder like crazy. Against infantry, maybe, but those hit-and-run Mongol cavalry dodging parabolic trajectories? Who knows how many it'd actually kill. Low precision, that's the issue. Unless it had homing capabilities to nail each rider individually.
"That three-stage firing is pretty efficient, huh."
Three ranks of soldiers cycling through fire, reload, advance. Relentless continuous fire. I've fused it with the wagon fort formation for an offensive twist. Fire, reload, fire—repeat.
The front rank of musketeers fires, drops to a knee, and reloads. Second rank holds, third rank holds. Front rank finishes reloading and falls back, second advances and fires, third holds. First moves to the rear and reloads, second reloads as third advances and fires, then first advances again. In short: first rank fires → second advances and fires → third advances and fires, repeat. Drums unify the rhythm—one beat per second, full three-rank cycle in exactly 45 seconds. K-Tercio with an advancing assault style. If they try flanking, spearmen and Goryeo cavalry counter.
"You mapped the Gwiju Plains terrain properly?"
"Yes, ma'am."
I dispatched Byeolcho Army scouts to chart the Gwiju Plains' features, then got the details from Injun.
Hmm, nice. Hills, riverbanks, central plains with marshes. Perfect spot for Goryeo forces to turn the tide in one battle.
"We'll need to tweak the deployment. Put archers and grape-shot artillery on the hills."
Front: iron cannon wagon forts. Hills: arrows and cannon fire raining down.
"You know all this just by looking?"
"By this era's standards, it's not that hard."
We exploit the central plains, flanking hills, rear riverbanks, front marshes. Archers on both hills, engineers too. Main position: fused tercio-wagon fort iron cannon formation. Four tercio legions, 40,000 total. 20,000 spearmen, 15,000 musketeers. Wagon forts shield against Mongol arrows while advancing, spears thrust from the gaps to hamstring their horses. Then tercio muskets unleash three-stage fire. Archers from the hills pepper them, countering hit-and-run tactics as we press forward. Tercio handles exposed flanks, Goryeo cavalry from the rear engages the Mongols. Clash big in open field. Wagon forts become walls, tercio the Goryeo porcupine, muskets deliver the blows. Arrows and grape shot from hills scatter their formations, rear cannons hit their infantry. Front iron cannon tercio advances amid the chaos. If they come to Gwiju, no way they stop us. Even if they head straight for Gaegyeong, station 5,000 night separate troops there to buy time for pursuit. Plenty feasible.
"Should we yield Hamsinjin?"
Best to turtle up if we can, but if not, sacrifice a few northwest fortresses knowingly and settle it at Gwiju.
"That'd be nice."
"What?"
"Station fast troops along their route for ambushes. To muster 100,000, they'd need every able-bodied man nationwide, right? Hit 'em in canyons—impossible?"
Goryeo did plenty of damage with such guerrilla tactics throughout the Goryeo-Mongol wars. Especially Byeolcho Army routing Mongols before.
"Like General Yang Gyu in the Khitan wars, huh. Could minimize losses."
Back then, Goryeo's 300,000 crumbled, forcing Yang Gyu to lead everywhere himself. But here? Different. Unless their 100,000 routs.
Really? Maybe. Better safe—develop early landmines? Not sure if we have spare capacity with musket production, but sketch blueprints anyway.
"Fill pottery jars with gunpowder, add pressure plates. Wooden board with iron spikes."
Then iron lever below: slight press ignites the fuse. Fuses are easy with cannons already in use. Bury 20cm deep, cover with dirt or leaves. Primitive landmine. Or wire-and-flint tripwire for non-pressure detonation. Lay in mountain paths or pre-fortress roads. Hmm, not bad? Drawback: high failure rate in production. Not making them myself anyway.
The blueprint looks solid. No wonder—I had a carpenter build a dedicated drafting desk just for designs.
"How do you even know this stuff?"
"Why not? Just adapt the musket and cannon tech we already have."
Simply swap cannon shells for a stomp-to-detonate mechanism. Plenty of pottery from Song and Arab traders.
Line their approach with these densely? Hate revealing gunpowder, but after Jin, Mongols likely know basics anyway.
"Will the Mongols even come properly? They might retreat."
Nah. If gunpowder scares them off, great. But Mongol pride? They're rampaging now—would they back off from some 'scary' weapons? Salitai might seem minor compared to other fronts, but he's got Chinggis Khan's trust. Invading with Rights Emperor title, trip a few mines and...? Doubt it. More likely dig in for Goryeo conquest.
"Mongols know gunpowder via Jin already. If they retreated from traps like this, they couldn't have pushed Jin out. For face, they'll push south."
Mongols on a winning streak. Flee from a few ambushes? Nah.
"But you said war's still awhile off, right?"
"Mongols don't fall to one or two years' prep. This much to revive past glory."
They know gunpowder weapons, so key in battle: hide muskets, then one-shot reveal. Perfect prep essential.
"Need routes to Gwiju—canyons, terrain. Old Khitan invasion paths too. Request Father separately. You figure production."
"Yes, miss."
This timeline's Goryeo-Mongol War will be a riot.
Two brothers sighed in the training yard. Simple reason: their sister's gaze had turned downright odd lately.
"Sis looks at us weird these days. Like Father's gaze sometimes."
Conversations felt normal, but the vibe had shifted. That inorganic stare now and then. Not contempt, but not quite human eyes on kin.
"Heard she's gunning for Father's seat. Related?"
"No way she's worried we'll challenge her."
Sister aiming for successor? Open secret. She'd been winning over Byeolcho Army during training. Means she's after Choe clan leadership. Who'd she see as rival? Kim Yakseon, the marriage prospect? Nah. Marriage's off; even now, brothers would block it fiercely. She's their sister, after all.
But getting discarded by her? Worst nightmare.
"No way. She wouldn't see us like that. We're idiots, remember."
Once tried asking outright, but feared cold rejection. Better pretend ignorance—keeps the facade, her relating to them still. She's all they have.
The one who warmed when others scorned, saved from monkhood. Now, entering officialdom under Father, she seemed... changed.
"Sis getting corrupted by Father?"
"Hate that. Bro, she's all we got."
Manjong and Manjeon fretted. Watching her change scared them. Her novels painted women ruthless; was she turning that way?
What choice for brothers? Can't antagonize. Don't want to. Unlike original history, they'd learned from her since kids—can't defy.
Not that it made them competent. Conditioned by her upbringing, they figured abandonment ends them.
So, what scheme from those dim heads?
"Then we work hard so she doesn't ditch us."
Pathetic, but their best.
Sis making wonders to prep for Mongols. Help her earn merits, gift them back? Yeah.
