The Grand Confrontation Opening the New Era (1)
"Advance!"
With the officer's command that branded the very spirit of the war—whether the Independence War or the Asian Revolutionary War it would later be called—directly onto his face like a brand, the army bound by fate began its morning.
The faces of the Republic soldiers advancing also showed solemnity, obstinacy, tension, and anger simultaneously, then vanished. They had long realized that only the virtue of silence and obedience would exist, and that it was directly linked to their survival.
The next day, after the red sun rose clearly, as morning came, the Republic army, which had broken through the Shenyang city walls and destroyed the entire city, began advancing northward.
The Qing army's desperate counterattacks and resistance in the city, which had intermittently halted the Republic army's footsteps like the intermittent drizzle that started falling in the evening, were completely erased by the Republic army's silent advance, just as the red sun that had risen today.
The city was as quiet as if mice had been killed, so quiet that the sound of a needle dropping was audible, and the shadow of the city, which had finally acknowledged the fall of those who were once its masters, welcomed the new rulers in silence.
The northern part of the city was a vast and empty land. Unlike the Korean Peninsula, with its blue mountains, forests, and vegetation under the Yalu River, it was a land of emptiness consisting only of short grass, shallow marshes, and barren wasteland. A land so immensely vast that it was like the history of Goguryeo's glory or the vastness of the ocean, beyond human measure.
At the horizon of such a land, the two collections of violence, having confirmed each other, finally stopped at a distance where they could barely recognize each other.
The commands of the Republic officers, who had received reports from the vanguard units, echoed under the cloudless sky where only the hot sun shone.
"Each regiment, sound the bugle!"
"Each battalion, sound the bugle!"
"Bugle!"
The bugles and horns of each platoon, company, battalion, regiment, and finally the division proclaimed this battlefield as the true domain of the northern forces. Even the expressions of the conscript militias, who had been silently following the person in front and advancing, changed.
"Battle ready!"
The officers' commands clearly proclaiming the battlefield caused the waves of blue, gray, and black, which had been pushed like waves onto this vast and empty land, to halt in place.
Seeing this spectacle, some might think it strange and bizarre that they had arrived in this world. Especially if he had shown interest in the Oriental mysticism and shamanism unique to the East.
"Pi-yiik!!!"
The Qing army, dressed in similarly colorful traditional clothing, lined up under the Yellow Dragon roaring towards the yellow sky. Unlike the Republic army, their movements accompanied by drums and gongs, and their resolve, no longer held any arrogance or arrogance towards the Han. In a place they could not retreat, they finally faced the newcomer challenging the throne after hundreds of years of silence and peace with clean eyes.
The total strength of each side reaching 170,000 and 110,000, totaling 280,000 on this battlefield, where perhaps more young people from both nations were deployed, maintained a quiet silence while a cold tension hung in the air.
Since both sides had greedily mobilized large armies to decide the outcome, they spent time organizing formations, assigning targets to each regiment and battalion facing each other, and sensitively reacting to the opponent's formation and minor movements to finalize tactical movements, which took over an hour.
The first to move was the Qing army, the invaders. The environment of the vast open field stretching north of Shenyang had no special features regarding terrain, so there was no meaning of Yin and Yang between the invaders and the defenders.
Rather, the Qing army was anxious because they felt a sense of duty to protect this land. The political pressure from the Forbidden City, using this sense of duty as an excuse, was immense. Desperation and despair weighed on the Qing army's leadership.
That decision had blocked the Qing army's remaining counter-will, opportunities, and choices. Instead of fleeing to the vast Inner Mongolia and Northern Manchuria to wait for the future, they chose to confront it.
From the center of the Qing army where dozens of Yellow Dragon flags were planted, the horn sounded to signal the start of the battle.
"Boo-woo!"
The Qing army, standing alone in the vast open field of the north with no retreat left, hurriedly organized their lines while sensing the final battle, regretting their arrogance, laziness, and vanity. However, belated regret only held them back. Rather, now it was better to pray to the legacy of their ancestors who had crossed the fortress and finally grasped the world, and the souls of the fallen warriors for victory. Each regiment's soldiers and the Beiyang Army prayed to their ancestors for the courage to overcome this hardship.
"Pi-yiik!"
In contrast, for the Republic army, which had embarked on a grand journey to recover the ancestral homeland of the ancestors who had been the masters of this land for thousands of years, to avenge the tragedy of the dynasty and the revenge of the previous generation, there was fervor instead of tension, and fighting spirit instead of fear.
"Pay attention! Concentrate!"
"Commanders, trust your superiors without doubt!"
"With the spirit of the Three Principles of the People! With the spirit of loving the race, the nation, and the people, stand tall! You are the proud soldiers of the Han!"
The platoon, company, and battalion officers tightened the spirits of their subordinates based on the bugles received from the French military advisors and the American military observers. Some gave long speeches, others walked back and forth between battalions and companies, brandishing large swords and glaring.
"Your Excellency the President is watching us!"
"It is our righteous cause! Our young sovereign is with you!"
"Report the victory to the Republic leader!"
Especially this was centered around the Youth Vanguard.
No need for idle thoughts. Only loyalty and belief towards the party, the people, and the nation could bear fruit for victory.
The political officer, the instructor, encouraged the soldier recruits whose hands were trembling from tension, and it was not uncommon to see him boosting their courage towards each other. They had long realized that the only secret to approaching victory was the 'warm' iron discipline established with the spirit of the Three Principles of the People.
Only the spiritual ideology that took human form, uniting the Korean people with love for the people and the race, could awaken the offensive spirit of the Korean people who had been consistent for centuries in a world filled with violent barbarism.
"Long live the Republic!"
"Long live the Great Qing! For the Heavenly Emperor!"
Thus, the armies of the two extremes, with completely different natures, finally stood facing each other fully. Without any ambushes, sinister traps, or schemes.
Large army against large army, strength against strength. This is the real battlefield.
*****
"Citizens of the Republic! Revolutionaries!"
The north wind carrying the hot atmosphere of Manchuria and Liaodong blows.
I stood at the forefront.
"I will not give you a boring speech full of empty rhetoric today! I won't speak long! I am proud of you!!!"
I maintained a forced neutral expression while wandering around the Youth Vanguard, who were trying to suppress the hot excitement, expectation, and anxiety rising from their waists, shouting with all their might.
"Revolutionaries!!!"
Today, these were the protagonists, and these were the ones who should be reborn first through today's battle. They were the units that would have to face the most bullets and shells from the front today and experience the most deaths. It was only natural for me to pour my efforts into them.
"Young Vanguard!"
And just as iron entering the furnace grows through painful suffering and is finally forged into steel, these people before me, who would experience the terrible suffering comparable to today and be reborn to be mobilized in the future for the development of the nation and the revolutionary cause.
They must not fear war, nor underestimate it. They must face war as it is, and become those who respect war.
As predecessors, they had to contribute to the nation's modernization project. The cleaner the upper water, the cleaner the lower water. Its influence gradually flows into rivers and seas, becoming a medium to naturally spread our Royal Way to the vast sea of the nation.
So, they had to be pure!
"I am proud of you! Proud!"
Miracles are born in pain.
Just as a child is born in the pain of a mother cutting the umbilical cord, just as worthless ore is born as steel and gems in the hands of artisans and flames.
We needed it. That pain. Not just words, but real pain. The pain of severed arteries, the pain of blood spurting to the throat, that pain that never submits weakly to injustice!
"Our nation! Our people! Our blood!"
Nationalism! Blood-based nationalism.
I pulled out the bloodline. The greatest invention of this era is not mere steam or spitting machines. It is the word that establishes the origin and continuity of the red blood flowing through our veins, the will of our ancestors, and the embodiment of living history.
I shouted to them while riding my horse.
"Korean people! Comrades!"
I sowed courage, anger, goals, and community spirit into them simultaneously. So that they would not lose courage in the face of the guns they would face, so that they would not be frightened.
"The souls of our ancestors who have entered eternal rest beneath this land will be proud of you! The souls of our ancestors who regarded Manchuria as their courtyard and Liaodong as their inner yard will bless you!"
Although we were not nomads, nor was talking about the northern spirit and souls truly contradictory, people facing death believed in miracles well, whether fanatical Christians or Confucian scholars. And the members of the conscript division, mostly conscripts, were mostly from impoverished backgrounds. For them, it was like properly fed food.
"And this is justified retribution! This is heavenly punishment!"
In contrast, I constantly instilled revenge into those who joined the Youth Vanguard to rise in the world, whether scholars, or sometimes those who were sons of concubines, bastards, or legitimate sons.
It was revenge with a full spoonful of justification.
"Remember the Three Invasions of Joseon 200 years ago! Lee Jong (Injo) was a king of the previous generation, but in our era's past history and the face of an era! He was the representative of our nation! The ones who trampled and crushed the representative we supported as our monarch under our feet, who humiliated our families and women, are those before us! What should we do!"
Everything is true. Traditional East Asian diplomatic order talking about brothers, parents and children? Ha, passing dogs would laugh at such nonsense.
We lost, and we paid the price. So isn't it natural in this world to seek revenge? Would the Qing people sincerely wish that we, who lost once, would forever submit under them? If so, that is arrogance. And it is nothing but returning their words.
"According to the traditional rules of the steppe, everything is decided by strength! Return that word!"
"Waah!!!"
Like a curse from an apocalyptic prophecy, the tense and anxious atmosphere disappeared from the center, also the long line of Youth Vanguard in black uniforms at the front, and only anger began to rise.
The atmosphere began to rise with the heat of the battlefield.
"With the indomitable will and tenacity of the Korean people! With the will of farmers who obtain the fault of suffering despite being powerless humans before nature! Restore the Royal Way to this disordered world! This is our Republic's destiny!"
I shouted to the soldier recruits with my blazing eyes. Honestly, I didn't know anymore. The speech I started to boost courage in the soldiers ended up with me getting excited and starting to feel anger together.
"Revenge! Only revenge! Recover our legitimate inheritance stolen like thieves from the horse-riding ruffians who took our ancestors' legacy! Make them understand the solemnity of justice and the true way of the world (li) to the barbarians who raped our nation, our wives, our daughters, and humiliated the spirit of the Korean people!"
"Waah!!!"
As I rode on top, without holding the reins, shaking both hands clenched above my head, the Republic soldiers standing on the ground around the Youth Vanguard waved their hands and responded violently.
They followed, shouting revenge!
"Revenge! Revenge! Revenge!"
There was nothing surprising. In fact, the other word for the northward advance was 'revenge'. After the humiliation of the Three Invasions of Joseon, would Joseon people of that time have had no pride? Then why did the late Joseon novel "The Story of Park's Wife" exist? It was so flexible and weak that it could change the word "revenge against Qing" into "northward advance" as if blaming the times, but for Koreans, anti-Qing consciousness was very great. I said that I injected anger and courage into the revolutionary youths who lacked confidence in the homeland as a medium for the anti-Qing consciousness sleeping underground.
"Northward Expedition, Northward Advance, Revenge! This is the spirit of the times we are facing! Revolutionaries standing at the forefront, never back down from your fate! This is the natural call of the nation, the people, and the family towards you!"
Excitement and anger finally reached its peak. From the hands of some soldiers who could not control their excitement, military caps, steel helmets, and helmets floated in the air and fell. No longer was there any vague fear of tension and death inside the Republic army.
Courage is contagious like fear.
Finally, all preparations were complete.
I realized that and shouted "Long live!" continuously from battalion to battalion, regiment to division, waving my horse.
"Long live the Republic! Long live the Revolution! Long live the Three Principles of the People!"
Following my back, which disappeared like lightning, the cheers of 170,000 soldier recruits followed.
"Long live! Long live! Long live!"
Well, now the decisive battle begins.