Hit and Run
"This is a hit-and-run!"
Two hundred ships — one hundred eighty Black Whales of the Tail-Star Fleet and twenty fast couriers for communications — left the inner waters of Ryeonhwa in a line, each ship chasing the tail of the one before it.
There was something almost cute about the way the thirty-meter vessels filed out one after another, like ducklings waddling after their mother.
"Commodore, we can see Gunpo."
"Send the signal."
At the first officer's gesture, a soldier waiting at the bow picked up a bow. The arrow in his hand had some strange white canister strapped to it; he lit the cord trailing from its end and, quick as anything, drew and loosed.
Shuuuunk
The rather long-looking arrow soared high into the sky.
Whump
A moment later, a small explosion scattered puffs of red smoke across the air.
They had packed dye powder in along with the explosive charge. In this era, it was the most revolutionary signaling method imaginable.
"Right then — we're counting on you."
The fleet split into three squadrons at Gunpo.
The First Squadron would head for the shipyards they had already scouted along the Sui coastline, the Second would push through the middle of the Daehan Sea, and the Third would sail straight on toward Joseon, smashing enemy vessels along the shore.
The first contact with the enemy would come where the Second Squadron, driving down through the center, was — including the commodore's flagship.
While the First and Third Squadrons swung toward the coast, the central force had pushed farthest out.
"Enemy ships sighted! Confirmed Sui vessels!"
Repeated reconnaissance had gotten them the shape of the Sui warships, and the battle plan was already drawn up.
"They keep appearing beyond the horizon — one hundred, two hundred, and counting!"
Thanks to the curvature of the Earth, no matter how sharp your eyes, there's a limit to how far you can observe from the water's surface — yet the number of ships being sighted only grew as they closed the distance.
"This should be fun."
Just how iron-hearted could these men be? The commodore was actually enjoying himself. Ship after ship kept appearing beyond the horizon, overlapping until they were far beyond what the naked eye could count.
"They say it's hard to count the enemy ships."
"Hahaha! Does the number matter?"
"Of course not. Heh heh heh."
Truly, no man of the sea was ever quite sane. To look at ships crowding the horizon edge to edge and feel no fear at all.
"Even the wind is on our side."
"Isn't it just? This is supposed to be westerly season, but a northwesterly — remarkable."
"I'd take it as an order to smash them all to pieces."
"Then we'll proceed as planned."
"Right. Let's go."
The army of Daehan had its operational plans drawn up in advance. And there was a contingency plan in case the first plan stalled, and a system of sending a messenger for fresh orders if even that failed.
In an age without real-time communication, it might well have been the best method available.
"General! It's the Daehan fleet!"
"Wh-what did you say!"
The fleet he commanded was a supply fleet. Fighting was a poor proposition under the circumstances — so of course terror took hold.
"How many are there!"
"Sixty ships."
"Eh? Only?"
He was ashamed of how badly he'd frightened himself. Sure, it was a supply fleet, but wasn't he the man commanding a full six hundred ships?
But then confidence came creeping back. Wasn't this his chance to claim the first naval victory against Daehan?
"Turn the ships around! Let's show them what our main force can do!"
"There are so few of our soldiers aboard — will that be all right?"
"Aren't we already outmatching them in ships by more than double? If we run now, what exactly do you plan to report?"
Even the first officer had to admit it made no sense. True, they carried fewer soldiers than a war fleet would, but they still had a quarter of full complement aboard. And with the enemy outnumbered roughly ten to one in ships, wasn't this a lopsidedly favorable fight?
"Understood."
"Post the oarsmen and prepare for battle!"
The ships of the Sui were a hybrid — the galley design acquired from Rome mixed with the flat-bottomed hulls used along the coasts.
The Black Whale: twenty ja long, six wide, two and a half high.
The Sui galley: fifteen ja long, two wide, one and a half high.
The difference in ship class was enormous. They hadn't even closed the distance yet, and the Sui navy, which had never actually put out to open sea, had no grasp of it whatsoever.
The greatest problem was that gap in height. How the Sui would overcome it, no one could say.
"Commodore! The enemy ships are turning!"
"Haha! So they want a fight?"
"Let's grind them all into paste."
"The squadron commander will handle the battle his own way. We'll just tag along and watch."
Commodore or not, commanding the individual squadrons was ultimately the squadron commanders' job. However senior you might be, you couldn't second-guess their every move.
Booooom! Booong, booong!
The signal horn blared from the squadron commander's ship. Sound carried a long way over open water, and the distant ships could be relied on to take the hint.
The eight courier ships peeled off to the sides while sixty warships formed up into a double column, shaping themselves into a wedge.
They apparently intended to punch straight through.
"Boys! Gifts ready?"
"Yes, sir! All loaded!"
"Then let's bury them nice and deep in the enemy's backsides!"
"They'll be jumping from how hot it is!"
The sailors had raised wooden panels along the railings to block arrows, and behind them they waited, each man clutching a crate of the vessels in question — firepots or plague jars, depending on who you asked.
These men didn't use bows. However well you protected a bow from damp, it was hard to maintain at sea, and besides, they all seemed to consider it a bit of a cheat.
"Why hasn't a single one of you brought out a bow!"
"It flies just as far thrown, sir!"
"Who the hell are you, boy!"
Not one man on deck held a bow, so the deck boss could only fly into a rage. If he took a stray arrow and died, the captain's chewing-out would be waiting for him.
"Ah, forget it! They're close enough already — get ready!"
"Careful not to drop any on OUR ship! We all die together!"
The Sui ships were built long and pointed like galleys, with a great many oars. Their charging speed in battle was tremendous.
The two fleets bore down on each other bow to bow, closing the distance in the blink of an eye.
The Sui, with their greater numbers, intended an encirclement, spreading wide and curling around like a net.
The Daehan fleet, meanwhile, charged straight in without a glance to flank or rear.
The Sui, scheming to surround them, had one fatal flaw in the plan.
"Huh? What is THAT?"
"How are they so fast?"
The Black Whales of Daehan were tremendously heavy — and tremendously fast. Because the ships were so heavy they rode all the more stably, they'd been fitted with enormous sails.
Before the encirclement could close, the Daehan fleet crashed into the heart of the Sui formation.
Daehan had a truly absurd number of ships, but only about six hundred were classified as heavy tonnage — Black Whales. These monsters had been built with hulls so thick, they claimed, that they wouldn't sink even ramming drift ice. The prow of the lead ship was practically a solid log.
As a result, their volume hadn't grown all that much for their size — but they'd gained crushing weight and hardness in exchange.
Daehan's tactic was the ramming charge. In other words: a hit-and-run.
"Aaaaagh! Get out of the way! It's going to hit us!"
"Aaah! How is it that BIG!"
The Sui ships were thin, long things — toothpicks of vessels. Fast, with decent turning, but their relative weakness was how light they were.
And now the enemy was deliberately steering into them, adjusting their rudders to ram — how were you supposed to dodge at this range?
"No! No no — don't bunch up!"
"Get apart!"
Worse, there were already cases of allied ships crowding together so tightly they couldn't hope to disentangle in time.
KA-RAAACK
"AAAAAGH!"
And there, dead ahead, came the Black Whale's jet-black pointed prow — fitted with iron plates for exactly this day, one bolted on over the other. Just in case.
KRAK-BOOOM
The Black Whale sliced lightly through two ships at once, its speed not even slackening.
Rat-tat-tat-tat! Rat-tat-tat-tat!
"Good grief, these bastards fire a filthy lot of arrows!"
"Stay down, damn you! You already took one in the arm!"
"Eh? So THAT's why it stings."
Perhaps it was the heat of battle, but a great many men never even noticed their own wounds.
"I TOLD you lot to bring bows, you blockheads!"
"But sir! You didn't bring one either!"
"Wh — er — I —!"
Caught carrying nothing himself, the deck boss could only mumble and wave it off.
"Besides! With arrows flying like that, anyone shooting would be a pincushion in seconds. Just stay down and hide!"
Before long the deck boss gave up. Whatever happens, happens.
Rat-tat! Rat-tat!
Arrows came flying into the sails by the dozen, but the cloth held up perfectly.
"Yahaha, you bastards! This is bulletproof fabric!"
"Heh heh heh. Not a single hole!"
This too was a grace of Haneul-nim. Cloth she had personally woven for the warships, declaring that it would never stain, never burn. The sails were made of it — her blessing sailed with them, quite literally.
"Whoa, they're right there. Get ready!"
"At this range, even a plain toss would land!"
"Shut up! What are you going to hit, you can't even land a single throw out of ten?"
"Well, YOU only managed two yourself, so there."
Neither of them looked much of a pitcher. Their throwing arms were, as ever, same gruel, same rice.
But at this distance, it hardly mattered.
"We're hitting them! Grab on tight!"
"Mind you don't get thrown off by the impact!"
If the collision flung you loose, no one was coming back to fetch you. You'd have to survive and swim home on your own — so every shoulder on deck drew tight with tension.
KRRSHHKK
GRIND, CREAK
The Black Whale didn't so much as shudder.
"Huh? What was that noise?"
"Didn't you say we were hitting them?"
"Eh?"
Behind them, countless enemy ships came into view as they passed through.
"Aw, dammit! We must've already plowed through. Quick, start throwing!"
"What?!"
The Black Whale's sailors were the flustered ones. The enemy ships were smashing apart around them, and yet the impacts barely registered.
Was this any stronger than the drift ice they'd been ramming all the way to Dongbaek?
"Throw at the closest ones!"
"Fire at will! There's so many ships, even a sloppy throw has to hit something!"
Whoosh! Whoosh!
Launched on those mighty forearms — hardly human catapults — the firepots soared far and away across the water.
"Aaargh, what is that?!"
"The ship's breaking apart!"
The Sui ship that had struck the Black Whale had been spun nearly ninety degrees. By some stroke of luck, it didn't look like it would sink right away.
CRASH — FWOOSH — KABOOM
"What — what is it! FIRE!"
The soldiers, relieved that the enemy ships were passing them by without so much as loosing an arrow, came running the moment a pot shattered and flame roared up.
"Buckets, now, you idiots!"
Fires that looked anything but ordinary were springing up all over the ship. Nobody could understand how the flames were spreading this fast.
"Move! Water coming through!"
SHWAAASH
SSSSSS
Oil on fire is hard to put out with water — but with enough water, even that gives in.
"Over here! The fire's huge over here! Hurry!"
"On it!"
KUWOOOOSH
Where the soldier had called out, it looked like several firepots had landed at once — oil soaked the deck and the flames had swelled enormously.
"Damn it all! We'll just have to keep bailing!"
This wasn't going to be settled with one or two buckets.
"Water's here! Move!"
SHWAAASH
KABOOOOM!
"AAAAAGH!"
When the oil outmatches the water, the fire doesn't die — it erupts. All around the soldiers rolling on the deck, clothes ablaze, countless ships were spewing black smoke and burning like torches.
But their misfortune didn't end here. Only the first wave had passed; the second was already closing in.
Thirty ships of the first wave punched clean through the enemy fleet and came out the far side, arrows bristling from every surface. The crew's bodies too, of course.
"Ow ow ow. Easy with that!"
"None of your whining! You didn't so much as flinch when you took it!"
The battle was far from over. The medics hurrying to pull arrows and douse the wounds with Holy Water wore urgent, strained faces.
Looking around, quite a few comrades had been unlucky enough to catch arrows somewhere eye-like and vital, and lay dead. Their bodies would have to be carried to the hold as well, so the waves couldn't roll them overboard.
These were comrades they had to bring home, whatever it took.
How many times would they have to repeat this kind of battle? It felt as though this single day would stretch on for a very long time.