The Naval Battle of Venice (1)
After the Papal delegation had come and gone, I sat down and penned a letter to Venice with all the care and sincerity I could muster, then sent it on its way.
Plenty of merchants were headed that direction anyway, so it wasn't hard to find a courier.
I didn't write anything long. Just a simple message: one year from today, I would come, so either surrender or get ready.
"Why do you insist on a formal declaration of war?"
"Ahh~ Mose, you just don't get it~"
"Is there a reason?"
Of course there's a reason. A very important one.
"Okay, say someone announces they're going to attack our country at a certain time! What would you do?"
"I would mobilize the army."
"Ooh!"
Exactly! That's what I want them to do!
"Huh? Wait, you're planning to finish this in one go, aren't you?"
"Correct! Their ships are scattered in every direction, so if I crush them properly this once, they'll never dare raise their heads again."
Strike half-heartedly and the sprouts just grow right back. You have to stomp them into mush, thoroughly and enthusiastically. It's less of a hassle that way.
"But what if they surrender?"
"Hmm, who knows? They're a pretty successful bunch — I doubt they'll fold that easily."
In all my years, I've never once seen anyone surrender without getting beaten senseless first. They always need a proper thrashing before they come to their senses.
Besides, they're merchants, aren't they? That makes them my competition. Might as well sweep them off the board once and for all.
"I asked for three Whale Shark class ships. Are they coming?"
"They say it'll be fine — they're pulling vessels that were slated for other deployments to cover it."
Apparently they'd expanded the shipyards and massively enlarged the steelworks, and now they were building ships in earnest.
Taking the first prototype apart, examining it from every angle, and patching up its flaws took what, two years or so?
They were busy the whole time — more ships in the yards, steelworks expanding, all of it.
"Crossing the ocean has gotten so comfortable! Isn't that right?"
"They say it's still not all that different from taking the train — plenty of people still prefer the rails, apparently."
The speed is still a bit slow, I suppose, but honestly, these people have no sense of romance whatsoever.
You've got to feel the sea breeze on your face! Get splashed by the waves a little! That's what makes it fun.
"Now I can't wait for Venice's reply!"
"I doubt there's anything pleasant written in it."
"Isn't that the fun part? It means I got under their skin!"
CRASH!
"UWAAAAH! The audacity!"
The office of Leonardo Loredan, Doge of Venice, was being smashed to pieces.
Then he picked up his pen and began to write. The War of the League of Cambrai had ended not long ago, so he intended to ask France for help.
"Next year, you say? Then we shall prepare a surprise they will never forget."
His eyes flashed as he scrawled across the page.
Apparently he meant to bring in the French army, even at enormous cost.
And so a great host of French soldiers began marching into Venice.
Venice, meanwhile, began buying up every seaworthy vessel it could find with cold, hard coin.
"HAHAHA! They're selling us gunpowder too? Are these people idiots?"
And so the Venetians concluded that Daehan, happily selling them gunpowder by the shipload, must be out of their minds.
Handing weapons to the enemy nation itself?
"Go ahead and sink by your own weapons, you fools. AHAHAHA!"
Venice was making every preparation imaginable. A year was plenty of time to gather their scattered fleet — time enough to do anything.
Even the French, unaccustomed to the sea, were coming along nicely in their training.
It did mean, quite unintentionally, that a bit of seamanship had leaked over to France, but still….
"Heh heh heh. I look forward to that day."
The reply from Venice had arrived!
"Look at this! I knew it would be like this!"
"What is it?"
"Would it kill you to play along?"
"Wooooow…."
Ugh. What was with that deflated wooo….
"Look! They filled it with the most spectacular cursing!"
Wow! The letter ran ten pages, and nine and a half of them were pure insults! Impressive, honestly.
"It is, isn't it."
"They must be absolutely furious! Everything according to plan!"
I do have to collect for the mess they caused during the Crusade, after all!
"You're not even a pervert, but you like getting cursed at… and you enjoy tormenting people, don't you?"
"Nope! He tormented me first!"
Order of events matters, you know? I clearly got hit first — twice, no less!
"Is that so?"
"Right! Let's go!"
…Go where? We still had to wait a whole year, didn't we? Our ships hadn't even arrived yet….
FWOOOOSH—
"Hmmmmm~"
"Ahem, ahem."
Ah, that familiar smell of smoke and soot. The taste of industry itself.
"My babies!"
"Wow… how did you give birth to something that big?"
"You give birth with your heart!"
"Truly remarkable, my lady."
Hahaha! Well, if the ships have gotten even better, who am I to complain?
The upgrade report was so long I didn't bother reading it all, but apparently the cannons got bigger too? That's all I needed to hear.
"Tell everyone to hurry the departure preparations!"
"You only need to board, my lady."
"Ah! Let's go!"
It was a shame there were still no high-explosive shells, but the bursting charges now packed into the wider bores would have to do.
Wait for me, friends of Venice! I'll be there not a single day later than promised!
"Ahh~"
"My lady, what are you doing?"
"Look at this! The cannons are enormous! My whole head could fit inside!"
"If you hunched your shoulders, I think your whole torso would fit too."
Could it, now? Should I fold myself up and give it a try?
"No! You'll dirty your clothes! Don't you dare actually do it!"
"Ah. Right, the clothes."
Clothes were meant to be worn with care — they didn't wash themselves, after all.
"Honestly… a grown woman, acting like a child."
"It's fun! The rule of the world is that cannons, chests, and ships are all better big!"
"Something very strange slipped into the middle of that list."
"Must be your imagination! Just your imagination!"
As Haneul gleefully led her three Whale Sharks toward Venice…
"They really set sail, then?"
"Yes. The legendary sailless ships, they say."
"Do they row them? Like our galleasses?"
"Since they carry no sails at all, the oars must simply be hidden from view."
Naturally, sailless ships had to be rowed — that was simply how the Venetians reasoned. If you squinted and counted the screws as oars, they weren't entirely wrong.
"Are the fleet deployments in place?"
"Yes. They're scattered on all sides; the moment the messenger departs, the encirclement closes."
"All this, gathered against a mere three ships? It almost seems excessive…."
Venice's fleet at the time numbered well over three thousand vessels, great and small.
Only about a hundred were true warships, but hundreds of armed merchantmen could still fight, and with the smaller craft thrown in, they had assembled a force exceeding a thousand ships.
"They made it look like a war was coming, so we'd best wrap this up swiftly and prepare to strike their stronghold as well."
"Yes. We are gathering supplies and troops."
Leonardo Loredan had braced himself for a massive fleet from Daehan — and against merely three ships, he felt oddly deflated, like air hissing out of a sail.
"Perhaps we should prepare to strike the mainland itself…."
One misstep, after all, could mean running a deficit. And so the Doge of Venice began to dream of a full invasion of the continent.
An enormous crowd of onlookers surged toward the coast near Venice.
"Hoo, hoo."
"This is the highest hill around, right?"
"I believe so…."
Some had climbed the hills to watch from afar — after all, from the shoreline there was too much in the way, and too little to see at any distance.
"Wow… so a truly tremendous war is about to begin?"
"Who would have thought I'd witness such a spectacle?"
The sea before Venice was already a magnificent sight: an endless line of ships stretching to the horizon.
And beyond what could be seen from shore, vessels lay hidden all around, waiting to spring the trap.
Such a staggering number of ships had gathered.
"Heh heh — you don't suppose we'll get shelled just sitting here, do we?"
"How would they possibly hit a boat this small?"
Some had even rowed out in little boats to watch the battle up close. Every idle aristocrat and pleasure-seeker in Europe had flocked to the Adriatic.
"Today is the day, isn't it?"
"The Doge of Venice did say today, I heard."
"Well, it's a long voyage — a day or two of give or take is only natural."
Some had even brought bedding, planning to stay several days.
A naval battle of over a thousand ships — surely it would drag on for at least a month, they reasoned.
"Hmm? What is that?"
"You're right — smoke? Smoke rising over there?"
And then the eyes of those on the high hills caught sight of it: smoke on the horizon.
The three Whale Sharks were steadily closing on Venice.
"Huh? What? Only three ships?"
"Can you even see anything?"
"They're tiny as dots, but… yes, three of them."
"Huh?"
Disappointment rippled through the crowds as the mere trio of ships appeared.
"What is this…? Did they come to surrender?"
"Ha… figures. Who could ever beat Venice at sea?"
Some were already brushing themselves off, ready to pack up and leave.
But then—
KU-BOOM. KU-BOOM.
"What? They're firing cannons?"
"Are they mad? It's only three ships!"
"Whoa? The range is incredible — the Venetian ships are just getting hit!"
With so many Venetian vessels packed together, the distant shells were striking targets simply by virtue of sheer density. It wasn't aimed fire at all.
Shotgun-blast diplomacy: hit or miss, who cares.
KWA-KWANG! KWANG! KWA-KWANG!
"What? What's exploding out there?"
And then the shells that chanced to land on Venetian ships began to burst.
Not the devastating punch of a true high-explosive shell, but the exploding iron-cased rounds sprayed shrapnel in every direction, and sailors began to be torn apart.
"Dear God! What is that thing?"
On some ships, the burst of red mist was so dense it was almost a storm of blood.
"Uuurgh."
"Good… heavens…."
"The enemy has arrived!"
"Send the messenger at once and order the fleet to sortie!"
"Yes, Doge!"
In Venice, mounted riders galloped off in both directions.
The plan was simple: ride hard under a white banner, and the ships waiting along the nearby coast would sortie the moment they saw the flag.
Detailed orders were impossible to issue to so many vessels, so every ship had been instructed to simply close in and encircle the waters before Venice.
And so the Venetian fleet, unable to fight on the open sea, had sat patiently in wait.
"The messenger! The white banner!"
"Hoist the sails! We sail now!"
"Away!"
The sailors, nearly feverish from days of waiting idly aboard their ships, stretched out their aching limbs and set their vessels in motion.
Their quarry had come; now all that remained was the joyful slaughter.
The enormous pay was a bonus, of course. They said the enemy's queen was a beauty beyond compare, too — capture her, and you could do as you pleased with her.
With so many ships gathered, no one wasted a thought on losing or dying. The crowds surged out to sea like waves breaking over one another.
KU-BOOM! KU-BOOM!
And what they beheld was two strange cannon blasts, and ships bursting into shreds and powder.
"What are those things?"
"No sails? No oars?"
The black warships, moving under nothing but ominous plumes of dark smoke, planted a seed of dread in every heart that saw them.
They felt utterly — inhuman.
"Could they be… ships of the Devil?"
"Bah! Don't be cowards! All we have to do is board them!"
"Right! Devil or no Devil, once we're aboard and wringing their necks, they'll die just like any man!"
The smaller, nimbler vessels raced forward, using their speed to close in for the boarding.
"Wait — why isn't the distance shrinking?"
"It feels like they're getting farther?"
The three enemy ships were spinning in lazy circles, shelling in every direction, and no matter how diligently the Venetians rowed in pursuit, the moment they hit headwinds the gap blew wide open again.
"What is that thing!"
"Its speed doesn't drop even against the wind!"
"We can't catch them — what do we do!"
Fwiiiine—
And then, an ominous whistling sound, drawing near.
"INCOMING!"
KWA-JIK!
"That startled me…."
KWANG!
And the shells burst without fail, scattering shards of iron everywhere.
The wider bores truly did their work — more fragments, far greater lethality.
PA-BA-BA-BAK!
"Guhak!"
"Kk-! What is—"
Men died in the shrapnel before they even had time to panic at the sight of an exploding projectile — something no one had ever seen before.
Still, the smaller vessels carried no cannons of their own, and with no magazine to detonate, the hulls held their shape.
KWA-JIK! KWA-JIK!
Oblivious, the enemy fired again.
This time, two shells punched clean into the hull.
KWANG! KWANG!
Kurururu…
Perhaps a weak point in the hull had been struck and torn open — with just three shells in total, the ship began to sink.
No one aboard was alive to feel it.