The Korea-China War — Urban Combat
Urban combat is often called hell on earth. Enemies can appear from anywhere. Every building becomes a bunker, and uncooperative civilians impose a crushing penalty on any attacker.
Even in Dandong, Chinese troops had attempted to wage a street fight.
"Is this really okay?"
A soldier who had occupied a seven-story building and gunned down passing Korean troops asked, watching his officer carefully for a reaction.
"What's the problem?"
The company commander, carefully counting and distributing their remaining supplies, answered as if the question itself were a nuisance.
"I, uh… I heard we were supposed to fall back to another city."
"The place is already crawling with Korean troops. How the hell are we supposed to retreat?"
The soldier was right. China had already written off Dandong and was establishing a new defensive line elsewhere. But the company commander could not bring himself to abandon the advantages of urban warfare. In his mind, China needed to leverage the one thing it still held over Korea: manpower.
A mere company commander could not openly refuse orders, so he had deliberately dragged his feet, stalling for time until he was "forced" to remain in Dandong.
"…We could have pulled out a long time ago."
The soldiers knew it perfectly well. He had made every excuse imaginable to keep his ass planted right here, then seized this building the moment the opportunity presented itself.
Crazy bastard. If we fight here, we're dead for sure.
Even under the soldiers' resentful stares, the company commander stood firm. A soldier fights for his country!
"Things go wrong in the field! That's just how it is!"
He scolded his men harshly. The company commander was disappointed! Cowards like these, in his company!
Son of a bitch.
He should just die alone.
Isn't this insubordination?
The company was equally disappointed in their commander.
The soldiers' simmering rage reached him clearly enough.
"…Ahem. We're already surrounded. Fighting here is the only option left!"
He shouted bravely, hoping to rally their fighting spirit. It did not work at all.
You're the one who got us surrounded!
Maybe we should just shoot him and surrender.
Forced into a last stand by their own commander, the soldiers' resentment only deepened.
Fortunately for him, news arrived that temporarily made them forget their anger.
"Korean troops approaching!"
At the sentry's report, soldiers already hypersensitive to the threat of death moved with sharp efficiency.
"To your positions!"
The commander's order came late. Soldiers who no longer retained even a scrap of loyalty answered him with curses.
"Fuck!"
"Goddamn it!"
They took their assigned places at the windows and rechecked the traps laid in a continuous line from the building's entrance.
"Anyone who tries to break through this will pay a massive price."
As the confident company commander said, any enemy crawling into a fortified building like this would find themselves at a severe disadvantage.
The Korean forces knew that perfectly well. Keeping a safe distance, they chose a simple, certain method.
The company commander had a mortar squad temporarily attached to his unit.
"Suppress that building with mortar fire!"
The mortar squad leader responded at once.
"Mortar squad, coordinates received. Loading data!"
As the squad leader called out the coordinates, the soldiers adjusted the barrel angles and shouted briefly.
"Ready to fire!"
Hearing the report, the smile on the company commander's almost boyish face deepened.
"Commence fire!"
The squad leader's hand rose, and the soldiers nearly shouted the firing call in unison.
"Fire!"
"Fiiire!"
Boom! Boom! Boom!
In the smoke and thunder of the barrage, the Chinese company dug into the seven-story building became a scene of pure chaos.
"What the fuck!"
"We're screwed."
Feeling the building shudder, the soldiers looked desperately to their commander.
What do we do?
The Chinese company commander became a mute, honey-tongued fool and turned away from their stares. He finally understood Yuan Shu's end, dying in search of honey water. His throat felt scorched dry.
I don't know either.
Every gesture he made conveyed exactly that.
You son of a bitch!
Under his men's murderous gazes, the company commander wondered how things had come to this.
Ah! There are too few units left fighting in the city, aren't there?
The realization came far too late.
He had expected to put up some kind of heroic resistance. Instead, he understood that he had simply planted himself in the middle of the enemy and shouted, "Here I am!"
There were no friendly forces to help them. He had ignored orders on his own initiative and dug in behind enemy lines.
By making excuses and delaying departure, the company commander had voluntarily isolated himself here. Put another way, they were a straggler unit.
Wasn't that just how it went with armies that had no real combat experience? You grew through experiences like this.
If he survived here, the company commander would grow!
Boom! Booom!
Under the continuous roar and vibration of the barrage, the soldiers — whose morale had been low from the start — began eyeing one another.
At this rate the walls come down and we all die.
That bastard's always been a piece of shit.
As the soldiers started fingering their weapons, the company commander felt a genuine threat to his life. So he issued his next order.
"We charge out of the building!"
At that command, the company checked outside through cameras they had installed in advance.
Korean forces had already surrounded the building. Stepping out the door meant certain death!
"Show them the spirit of Greater China!"
Eyes bulging, the company commander roared with valor!
Booom!
An explosion crushed the insignificant human roar flat. The mortar barrage was still ongoing.
That barrage, and the commander's roar, gave the soldiers courage!
"Either surrender or die right here."
The courage to frag him.
More than five muzzles were pointed at the company commander.
"Platoon leader! These vile traitors—"
Calling on a fellow officer only earned him one more muzzle. It belonged to the platoon leader.
"That's enough."
The company commander's eyes darted wildly. No one was backing him.
From their great troll of a company commander, every single man in the company had learned wisdom! The wisdom of ignoring a superior's orders.
You ignored the battalion commander's orders? Then the platoon leader can ignore the company commander's orders too, right?
You think I'll fold under this kind of threat!
The company commander was furious!
But reality was cold.
This is ten steps back for one step forward! If it looks like I'm retreating a little, that's just my imagination!
He persuaded himself of this. People get strange ideas when they're cornered.
And so he bravely decided to surrender. It was absolutely not because the prospect of a dog's death made him suddenly value his own life.
"Raise the white flag…"
The company commander swallowed bitter tears. Bastards who didn't even know what chain of command meant!
The troll company commander had no awareness that he had been the first to ignore orders.
Unlike the darkness that settled over the troll's face, the faces of his men brightened.
"Surrender! We surrender!"
The soldiers tore down a suitable white-ish curtain, fashioned it into a white flag, thrust it out the window, and waved it frantically while shouting — taking extreme care not to expose their bodies.
Before long the shelling stopped, and when the order came to disarm and come outside, they complied without resistance.
Life comes first.
They pay us a rat's-tail salary and expect more? We already fought harder than we got paid for.
Country? What is this, the twentieth century? This is the age of globalization.
My hometown is Manchuria, so I was Korean all along. Meaning I haven't betrayed my country!
Korea's richer than our country anyway. If we merge, don't we come out ahead?
That was roughly the fighting spirit of the Chinese soldiers. They simply did not want to fight very hard — even though they had been the ones hit by a surprise attack.
"Nya! All of you, stand up straight and move!"
When a cute Korean cat-eared sergeant appeared, the decision to surrender felt even better!
We're going to live with these people from now on, right?
Once we're Korean, marriage is on the table, isn't it?
They had already forgotten the nameless comrades who had died on the border.
"Waaah! We won!"
"Hehe, His Majesty will be so happy, right?"
Watching the beautiful women hop and bounce with joy, the Chinese company busily daydreamed about the future.
Even in military uniforms that imposed a massive penalty on attractiveness, their eyes were drawn helplessly.
The soldiers I shot were probably that lively too, right?
Some of them even felt guilt — despite having nearly died under mortar fire only moments before.
"Remaining enemy forces in Dandong are surrendering one after another."
I took the news of cascading surrenders in stride. Part of it was that we had been winning steadily, but more than that, the national capability had been there from the start.
The function of Moe Moe Nation mode that penalized enemy loyalty and war support seemed to be working exactly as intended.
If I remembered correctly, the description had gone something like this.
"You're going to shoot these adorable children? Are you out of your mind? I simply cannot do that!"
"I fell in love with that woman at first sight!"
"I want to become Korean!"
"We want to become one with Korea!"
…It had just been funny when I was playing the game. Facing an army like that in real life, though, I could see how your will to fight might simply evaporate.
Suppose I lived in China.
Hearing people trash China every day would piss me off. I'd be furious that Korea had launched a surprise first strike.
But then I'd actually see the enemy on the battlefield and think, Wait… am I the bad guy here?
Humans are creatures that rely heavily on visual information. In the real world, criminals get fan clubs just for being good-looking.
You'd fight, sure — but the moment the tide turned against you, you might surrender without much fuss.
And that line about wanting to become one with Korea had seemed like pure nonsense at first…
"Your Majesty, rest is important."
A beauty of the maman type, with undulating lavender hair that reached her lower back, spoke gently at my side. She was the eldest of the three maids I called the Three Sisters — First Sister.
"I shall keep watch by your side tonight."
Second Sister, whose cool expression softened the moment I looked at her, wore her blue-tinged silver hair in a low ponytail gathered at the nape of her neck — unlike First Sister.
"You have to keep your bedtime!"
Third Sister, the petite, busty, mischievous type, had pure white hair in a half-twintail. The black choker around her slender neck and her face full of laughter pulled the eye irresistibly.
One look at their completely different hair colors made it obvious: I just called them the Three Sisters on a whim. The three of them were not related by blood at all.
Anyway, the moment I saw the three maid sisters, that flavor text made perfect sense. Korea was full of beauties like them. Merge with us, and maybe…? Plenty of people would probably think that.
How pitiful.
That was never going to happen.
A mode that had torn the entire game apart with settings so obsessively detailed you had to wonder if the creator had lost their mind was never going to allow something like that.
They would learn that only Koreans lived in Korea.
Moe Moe Nation mode was invincible, and I was a god! Humans could not contend with gods.
They say you can never over-prepare — and look at the astonishing wisdom of me, installing a mode this powerful!
Praising myself felt insufficient. So I demanded praise from the head maid as well!
"Your Majesty is greater than anyone."
Coming from a five-star head maid, that had to be the truth!