The European Coalition (5)
Bang! Boom-boom! Bam!
"Gyaahk! Aaagh!"
"Somebody save me!"
Amid the screams echoing from every direction, Leo struggled to collect himself and figure out what to do. If he, the commander, collapsed, then everyone here would die.
"Ghk…."
Having made up his mind about something, Leo clenched his teeth hard.
"Everyone, surrender! Throw down your weapons and raise the white flag!"
"Surrender, sir?"
"That's right! We surrender. Pass it down the line, quickly!"
In the end, Leo had chosen to surrender. All around, soldiers began laying down their muskets and waving white flags. The gunfire didn't stop immediately, but the volleys gradually grew fewer and farther between.
"Better to become prisoners and at least salvage our lives."
"Guh-huk…."
The prisoners numbered a staggering 120,000. An endless stream of soldiers was being herded through the gates of Qajar.
"Huh? What is this place?"
"So this is how they've been living?"
"It was right in front of us this whole time…."
Once they crossed the gates, the soldiers were all left gaping. Unlike their own trenches, which reeked of filth and waste, the barracks and buildings here were spotless — and even the clothes on their captors' backs were clean. It was a different world entirely. No one could believe they had supposedly been fighting a war side by side.
"Ugh-huk…."
"What on earth have we done?"
The majority of the soldiers who crossed the wall wept openly as they followed the man in front of them, step by step.
"Everyone, over this way. Can't very well send you off without a meal first."
Led by the Qajari soldiers who promised them food, they arrived at a barracks on one side of the camp — and were stunned yet again.
"What is this?"
"Hm? It's just meat wrapped in bread. Pretty tasty, though. Here, try it."
"Meat, you say?"
It was impossible to believe. Meat wrapped in bread was one thing — but eating meat like this on a battlefield that had been right in front of them?
Grrrrrrumble.
"Haha? What's that — you're hungry? Want more?"
"Gah!"
He'd been handed one piece of bread, and they'd give him more if it wasn't enough.
"Yes! Please, more! I want to eat my fill!"
Captured only moments ago, the man decided that this was a better place than the coalition trench he'd just come from. Warm bread and meat, and a thick, hearty soup ladled out with a generous hand.
"Thank you. Hh-huk."
"Sounds like you've been through a lot. Take your time."
Watching all of this from behind, Leo felt his heart grow heavy and tangled. These people treated even their enemies like this — while their so-called allies had been too busy clawing for profit to look out for anyone but themselves.
What on earth were the Qajari soldiers thinking as they watched us from the walls?
Leo simply could not bring himself to feel any affection for these Europeans.
Filthy lot. Let the whole continent rot, for all I care.
They couldn't even hold together, each man grasping only for his own gain, and this was the result. Honestly, watching Europe collapse entirely didn't seem like such a bad outcome. If these were the people he had to share a fate with, then even a life of captivity felt bearable.
The Qajari army advanced with excruciating slowness.
"Keep this in mind! Supply is everything! Advance only as far as your supply lines can reach!"
It was the single point Daehan's war ministry had hammered home above all else: if your supply fails, never, under any circumstances, push forward. The age when armies could somehow scrape by on plundering the countryside was over, they said.
And it was sound advice. Run out of ammunition out here, and there was nowhere on earth to get more.
"These are the words of men who understand war better than we do. Burn them into your memory!"
To be fair, Daehan's war ministry had done a great deal of thinking — but these were still words born at a desk. Qajar would carry them out on Daehan's behalf, and Daehan intended to learn from watching them do it. Even now, soldiers of Daehan's war ministry crowded the command barracks, deep in council together.
The command barracks of the Qajari invasion force.
"I believe we should head north first."
It was Daehan's war ministry that proposed pushing north before anything else.
"Why?"
"Because the population is sparse and the land is vast."
"We are not marching for the sake of land."
Qajar was not setting out because it wanted territory. Part of it was certainly about releasing the resentment they had swallowed for so long — but they had no desire to see enormous numbers of people die.
"Yes, I understand. But we must create something that keeps their sense of dread alive, again and again."
"A symbol, you mean?"
"Precisely. Something they can look upon and be forced to relive the memory of that day. A great wall, for instance."
And above all, Europe was currently a coalition. If they marched as things stood, the greatest victim would be Russia — losing both its people and its land.
If Russia were stripped of territory, how much help would Europe actually give? And afterward, could a Russia that lost its land ever be friendly with Europe again? Absolutely not. If the plan went as intended, they would be able to plant a seed of eternal discord on the continent.
"Now that Qajar's power has been demonstrated, Russia will never be able to turn its gaze eastward again."
"Hmm… but wouldn't the border grow too long?"
"Can Qajar of today not manage it?"
Qajar's south was barren desert, but the north, bordering Daehan, was far better farmland than anyone might expect. That explosive population growth — even more than Daehan's arms support — was the greatest engine behind Qajar's ability to hold off both the Middle East and Europe at once.
"Haha. To know our own situation better than we do — I hardly know what to say…."
"Not at all. I simply looked at your food and materiel consumption figures and made a rough estimate."
At Damdin's sheepish remark, the war ministry officer hurriedly excused himself, worried he might have given unintended offense.
"I was merely saying so — I was surprised, that's all."
"I don't know the details either. It's only an estimate, so please don't misunderstand."
"Hahaha. Misunderstand? Think nothing of it."
Truthfully, Damdin was less worried about misunderstanding than simply astonished that Daehan could grasp another nation's circumstances from such sparse information alone.
"There is so much left to learn."
Damdin wanted to learn more — one more thing, always one more. The more he learned, the more useful he could be.
"If you wish, military exchanges are available in any form."
"Oh? Something else is possible too?"
When the tentative suggestion was met with a yes, Damdin allowed himself a little more ambition.
"Yes. Qajar may have everything. Haneul-nim has said that if Qajar cannot be trusted, then no one on this earth can be."
"Ah…."
Suddenly he felt unbearably small. She had already offered him everything — and had he not trapped himself in his own doubts, staring up at the sky from the bottom of a well?
"Thank you."
"It is Haneul-nim's will."
"Yes. It is Her will."
Fearing the tears that threatened to spill, he clenched his fists and steeled his heart. There was still so much work ahead.
While Qajar was busy devouring European soil, events in Europe itself were growing frantic as well.
"How goes the fleet's preparation?"
"The fleet has reportedly departed London. They intend to wait off the coast and set sail the moment the supply ships move."
For this plan, countless men stood in long relay lines passing signals. For this day alone, twelve nations had gathered thirty-one armored warships, 430 galleys, and 620 armed merchantmen of various sizes. A full 200,000 sailors and 150,000 fighting men.
"But must we really cross the open sea?"
"Otherwise we can't expect support from the armed merchantmen…."
Attacking a single port, Pyeong-an Naru, with a fleet this enormous — wasn't it frankly absurd? The reason was that the plan called for seizing the harbor as a first objective, then assessing the situation before crossing the ocean toward the Eastern Continent.
To the people of Europe, Daehan's lands were regarded as an earthly paradise where even the roads were paved with gold. Naturally, for the purposes of plunder…
"Nothing to be done. The fleet has already sailed; all that remains is the decisive battle."
"Spain is moving its army, I hear?"
"Yes. Portugal won't budge, so Spain is moving directly."
"So it didn't go as they hoped."
A few years earlier, the Portuguese royal line had ended, and the Iberian union had been formed, with Spain now overseeing the entire peninsula. Some had floated the idea of reclaiming lost land while they were at it — why not launch a land assault? — but the memory of butchering the goose that laid the golden eggs left them dithering and hesitant.
"Phew…. This had better work."
"It will."
The executive office in Pyeong-an Naru.
"Hm. So they've finally crossed the line?"
"It appears a truly enormous fleet is being assembled. What will you do?"
"I suppose we'll have to build them a nice little fish hotel. Hurry up the departure preparations! We'll be waiting for them at sea."
They could come as they pleased — but they wouldn't be leaving the same way. And we're not running short on shells, are we? Just how many of them are coming, anyway?
"The Whale Sharks will stand by at the harbor and defend it!"
"Eh? You're sending out just one Cheongsang-eo?"
"Why? Are you scared?"
Our dear Mose seemed to have a rather small gallbladder, didn't she?
"What will you do if they board you?"
"Just plow through and run!"
How exactly would they board her, anyway? The harbor would have three Whale Sharks plus the fortress — no one was getting in.
"And the Cheongsang-eo's main gun — with its recoil-recovery mount and cooling system — is far more powerful than you think."
"Uuu…."
"If you're scared, stay in the fortress."
From where I stood, the Cheongsang-eo looked like the safest place of all. But I suppose everyone's tastes deserve respect.
"You won't let me be recorded as the first Mose in history to be shot to death, will you?"
"Of course not! Obviously!"
"You're really looking out for me!?"
"No! You'll be recorded as having died to a cannon instead!"
"Gah…."
The sky would be absolutely full of shells — did she really think a stray bullet would get the chance to fly?
"Shall we go wait for them out at sea, then?"
"Uu-huu-huk…."
What's with the crying? And the Cheongsang-eo's bridge armor is thick — no cast-iron shell, no matter how big they fire it, is cracking that.
"Come on, let's get aboard and wait while eating ice cream!"
"Waaah…."
Did somebody die? Already in full mourning?
Funny how these types always ended up squealing with excitement and gawking the moment the real thing arrived.
"Fine, I'm leaving without you."
"Waaaah-haaa…."
Wait, if you're going to trail after me bawling like that, why not just stay on land like I told you? Why insist on coming along?
And so, aboard the Cheongsang-eo, we waited out on the open sea for a full fortnight before they showed up.
"Wow. That is a lot of ships."
"What are all of those?!"
"What else? Fish hotels."
Once they sank beneath the waves, they'd make cozy little homes for the fish. We'd even feed them, after all. This stretch of sea was going to be teeming with fish for years to come.
"Aren't you afraid? I heard they built things called armored warships over there!"
"I can take a cannonball head-on and not die, you know?"
I'd get flung around like a rag doll in every direction, probably, but I wouldn't be hurt. I've taken a sympathetic explosion at point-blank range before and come out perfectly fine.
"I will die!"
"Don't worry — if you're hit lightly it doesn't hurt. Try to get hit gently."
"Guh…."
Ooh…. She's practically a zombie now?
So that's what a person looks like when their face turns that shade of blue.
"Um! May I go below deck first?"
"I'd say it's a bit late for that?"
"They're still so far away, though!"
"Aren't you more likely to get bitten by a shark before you even reach the water?"
Do you have any idea how many sharks are in this sea? Or do you just have some strange fetish for being eaten alive?
"It's over…. My son! My daughters! Your mother's journey ends here. Ah-hee-heng…."
"Come on, you'll be fine! Calm down! You're pushing fifty — why are you acting like this?!"
"I never wanted to come!"
She seemed to be doing it out of some sense of duty, but apparently there was a bit of a lottery involved? It looked like some who'd never volunteered were getting pulled in too.
"It's almost over. You'll be all right."
"Where's the safest spot?!"
"This bridge is probably the safest place there is."
"Thank goodness…."
Don't tempt me into teasing you again, saying that.
"But if the enemy boards the ship, you've got the revolver I gave you, right? You have to shoot fast with that. If you don't, you might end up with a dose of lead in your brain."
"Kkuh…."
Thud.
Huh? She fainted?
Still, call it survival instinct — she went down with the revolver still clutched in her hand. Impressive, honestly?