Chapter 359
Chapter 359
The Iron Emperor — Chapter 359
Perhaps because they had shaken off the fatigue of the previous day, the soldiers emerging from their barracks in the early morning moved with a lightness in their steps.
What greeted the risen soldiers was steaming-hot food. All they had to do was eat, sleep, and run. Wherever they went, places to rest and food to eat had been prepared in advance. Of course, if they were late, they would have to pass those places right by.
To Go Jin-cheon, who had risen first and finished his meal, and all commanders down to the junior officers, the orders for the troop reorganization that had been delivered to Yeon Hwi-garam the day before were now disseminated.
"General, here it is."
"Good work."
The messengers delivering the orders to the commanders in each barracks were busier than on any other day.
Geochil Mu-heo unfolded the deployment orders brought by the messenger and for a moment wore a puzzled expression.
"Well now."
"What's the matter?"
Gu Yu-sang, also middle-aged and perhaps only a year or two younger than Mu-heo, approached and asked. Mu-heo gave an awkward laugh in Yu-sang's direction.
"Didn't we get word yesterday evening that there would be a troop reorganization?"
"That there—is that the orders for the troop reorganization?"
"It is."
"Let me have a look."
With a curious expression, Yu-sang took the orders from Mu-heo and began reading them slowly.
And a moment later, he wore an expression little different from Mu-heo's.
"What in the world is this?"
"What else—troop reorganization."
Mu-heo answered Yu-sang's question with a hearty laugh. Watching him laugh, Yu-sang scratched his head, handed the orders back to Mu-heo, and stepped outside the barracks.
"Damn, I have no idea what this is about."
At Yu-sang's parting words, Mu-heo looked over the orders once more before beginning to gather his gear.
The messengers moved busily, and a good while later, the troops began assembling in the wide open ground in front of the encampment. With the units reorganized unlike the day before, the scene was a bit more bustling than usual.
"Huh?"
"Eh?"
Geochil Mu-heo and Gu Yu-sang, having gathered all their gear and making their way to the assembly point, stared wide-eyed at the figure walking before them.
"Sa-yu, what are you doing here?"
"Huh? Yu-sang and Mu-heo?"
Ye Sa-yu, who had been walking ahead, recognized Yu-sang and his eyes went round with bewilderment.
All three men were leading their gear and horses. In short, every one of them was in the middle of a unit transfer.
But the truth was, they were moving alone with only their gear, without the units they commanded.
"Damn. This makes less and less sense. Hey, did you leave your unit behind too?"
"Of course—the orders came this morning, so I handed them over to a commander under Daesaja Gowin and came."
"This is something...."
As Yu-sang took on a meaningful expression, Sa-yu began to put on a no-way sort of look as well. Between them, Mu-heo quickened his pace and stepped forward.
"We'll find out when we get there."
"L-Let's go together!"
Behind Mu-heo, who strode briskly forward, Yu-sang and Sa-yu hurried to keep up.
Hihihing. Snort.
"Whoa, it's been a while, huh?"
"What do you mean, a while—we saw each other just the other day."
"No, I mean all of us gathered in one place like this."
When they reached their assigned spot, Geochil Mu-heo, Gu Yu-sang, and Ye Sa-yu all fell speechless at the scene spread before them.
"I knew it! Mu-heo came too. And Yu-sang and Sa-yu are here as well?"
"Mu-heo!"
Amid the boisterous chatter, voices greeting them poured out one after another. Mu-heo smiled back at the faces welcoming him, yet his eyes never stopped scanning his surroundings.
All of them were men who looked middle-aged....
"This is definitely...."
Yu-sang asked as if seeking confirmation.
Mu-heo nodded as though in agreement with Yu-sang's question and spoke.
"Yes. Except for the added years, it's the same as before we were flung into this unfamiliar world."
"You're right."
In Yu-sang's eyes as he answered Mu-heo in a dazed voice, deep emotion was plain. The men who had scattered to command their own units as the state was founded and the army grew had now gathered once more.
They were the ones who had laughed and wept together when Jin-cheon, before he proclaimed himself Yeolje, roamed the battlefields as a Daesaja. The objects of terror whom the enemy had called the Black Armored Ghost Cavalry were assembled here. Though they had not ridden horses back then, these were all the men who had fought the wars together as axemen, as Dosu, as spearmen, as shieldbearers.
"You lot are noisy!"
A stir.
"Heh, it's just heartwarming, that's all."
"Quiet, Gomtaengi."
A voice that rang in their ears.
When Gye Ung-sam parted the men and horses and appeared, Samdopyo came grumbling behind him. And as expected, Buyeo Gi-yul and Mong Ryu-hwa revealed themselves as well.
"Enough grumbling."
"E-Even the Great General?"
The figure who appeared from the other side was none other than Eulji Uru.
Behind him, Avilrun followed in silence with Buru's great axe slung over him. In one hand he carried the old Three-legged Crow Flag.
A stir.
With every step Avilrun and Uru took, the murmuring grew louder. And gazes converged on a single point. The Three-legged Crow flag, old and worn, blotched with stains that had never washed out.
Uru, Gye Ung-sam, and the other commanders cut through the crowd and advanced forward, then halted.
But the positions they took were not positions for issuing commands.
"No way?"
The murmuring of everyone grew louder and louder.
This was certainly not a position Uru ought to occupy now, yet he had taken the position they had once been sick of seeing—no, the position they had once taken for granted.
"The Yeolje approaches!"
At the thundering announcement, every commander turned their heads. Go Jin-cheon, mounted on Gangsoe, was slowly approaching. Toward him, they all rendered the grand salute.
"Your Majesty, Supreme One of All Heavens—"
"Enough!"
At Jin-cheon's resolute shout, the voices of thousands halted at once. Before them, Jin-cheon spoke in his characteristic low tone.
"Henceforth, all ceremony shall be unified under military courtesy. The morning march-out shall be no exception. No—until the very day this war ends, everything shall be conducted by military courtesy alone."
Jin-cheon had always preferred simple military courtesy, but even he, when the entire army assembled, had accepted at least a brief, simplified ceremony, troublesome though it was.
Yet now he waved his hand and ordered that everything be done by military courtesy. Even more striking was that Hwi-garam, following Jin-cheon, did not try to restrain him at all but went along with an expression that said this was only natural.
"It seems everyone is assembled."
Hwi-garam swept his gaze around from Jin-cheon's side and smiled with satisfaction.
"So it seems."
Jin-cheon nodded and looked at those gathered before him. Familiar faces met his eyes.
Of course, more than half were not the faces of old but were filled with those of Northern origin and slash-and-burn farmers and the like, but the remainder were all men with whom he had once shared life and death, hardship and joy.
"Twelve years, then?"
"Yes. For the first few years after arriving here, we maintained this structure."
Jin-cheon and Hwi-garam's voices were not especially loud, yet to those assembled they seemed louder than any other sound.
They were thinking the same thing as Jin-cheon and Hwi-garam. Then, cutting through their thoughts, a clamor of hoofbeats rang out.
"Your Majesty!"
Alarm showed on Gowin's face as he galloped up calling to Jin-cheon. He raced to Jin-cheon's side in a single burst, halted his horse, and called out urgently.
"What in the world is going on here!"
Gowin looked past urgency to outright panic.
"What's with the fuss, you fool. The bastards'll laugh."
"And am I supposed to not be shocked right now?"
At Uru's scolding, Gowin poured out his words as if pleading. At the sight, far from explaining, Gye Ung-sam, Giyul, Ryu-hwa, and Dupyo were all snickering.
"Is the troop reorganization finished?"
"Your Majesty!"
Instead of answering Gowin's question, Jin-cheon asked again about the state of the troop reorganization. To his question, Gowin let out another piteous cry.
"Well, at a glance the soldiers' ranks seem to have almost no problems."
"That is not the issue! If you strip every commander from every unit and gather them here, it could cause immediate disruption to the force's operations!"
"Gowin."
At Gowin's vehement, almost anguished protest, Jin-cheon looked at him with a sober expression. As Gowin said, those gathered before Jin-cheon were all commanders who led large and small sub-units. Having assembled every last one of them, command confusion could arise at once.
And were these mere forces of one or two thousand men? Hardly.
"Speak."
As if asking to be convinced, Gowin pressed his lips tight and looked at Jin-cheon. Toward him, Jin-cheon slowly approached, placed one hand on his shoulder, and opened his mouth.
"I'm asking you."
"......."
At Jin-cheon's single phrase, Gowin wore a blank expression like a man whose soul had left him.
'I'm asking you! I'm asking you! I'm asking you! I'm asking you! I'm asking you!'
Jin-cheon's voice echoed in Gowin's ears even as his face went blank.
Ignoring Gowin, who had turned into a statue, Jin-cheon turned his gaze to the roughly forty thousand troops.
In truth, though it was called a reorganization, it amounted to little more than pulling a small number of troops to form one new unit.
But the composition of that small number of troops had become a problem for Gowin. Nearly a thousand commanders who led Gauri's forces had been pulled out at once.
The operation of the units from which a thousand commanders had been removed had been left entirely to Gowin. So it was that Gowin, unable to say a word, had fallen into a panic. And no one was comforting him.
"Mu-heo, it's been a while, hasn't it?"
Riding to the center and coming to a halt, Jin-cheon smiled faintly and posed the question to the commander before him. Geochil Mu-heo, abruptly questioned, straightened his body rigidly and answered.
"It has not been long at all! Daesa— I mean, Your Majesty!"
"Heh."
"Heheheh."
Around Mu-heo, who had slipped up, small ripples of laughter spread.
"I figured that bastard might've straightened out some after becomin' a commander, but he's still a blockhead, I see."
"Pffft!"
When Uru chimed in as if adding a rim-shot, the laughter grew louder.
"Daesaja, huh... it's a fond word."
Jin-cheon gave a small laugh, and Mu-heo, standing rigid, let out a breath of relief.
Turning his head from Mu-heo, Jin-cheon raised his gaze again.
"Familiar faces, a little under a thousand."
The number assembled before him was roughly three thousand. Among them, about five hundred wore white breastplates, and the rest were in dark-hued scale armor, carrying weapons of every kind.
"Well, aside from the boatmen, and aside from the ones who've gotten old and crotchety, there's not much difference from before."
"Wahaha!"
Unlike Mu-heo, when one commander spoke casually, laughter erupted again. Listening to their laughter with pleasure and smiling together with them, Jin-cheon nodded and added one more remark.
"That is, if we also subtract fools like Buru who went on ahead."
"......."
"......."
Unlike Jin-cheon, who still bore a smile, the smiles vanished from the faces of those who had been laughing easily just moments before. A chill settled over the place.
"It's been over fifteen years. Seventeen, maybe?"
"That is correct."
Jin-cheon's question referred to the number of years since they had come to this otherworld. To his question, Hwi-garam answered as if confirming it.
"Heh, same as my wife's age."
Whether his thoughts had suddenly turned to her, Eulji broke into an even more cheerful smile.
But on the faces of those before him, there was no change beyond that chill.
"When we first crossed over here by ship, our number was a little over two thousand. Of course, excluding the workshop personnel including Elder Jang and those who still sail the ships with Gerard, roughly fifteen hundred of us made up our fighting force."
As Jin-cheon continued speaking, the smile that had lingered on his face began to fade, little by little.
"Among them, about a hundred died in the initial settlement...."
A little more of the smile faded.
"After that, the ones who ended up crippled were about a hundred fifty."
Again, a little more of the smile faded....
"The ones who got old and are stuck at home watching the children number about a hundred. And yet, here's the thing."
Even that last trace of a smile faded.
"In this one battle at Gaemun Mountain Fortress alone, a hundred fifty fools died."
The moment those words came out, something began to surge from the bodies of the thousand men at the front.
Auras that rose like blades.
"That means as many as died over the past ten-plus years went and died all at once at Gaemun Mountain Fortress."
It was different from the way the earth shimmers when heated by the sun. It was a tangible force visible only from the thousand men standing before Jin-cheon.
That was none other than killing intent.
"Urgh."
Among the three thousand troops, the roughly two thousand younger soldiers were stepping backward before the killing intent of the thousand in front. It was as if the killing intent was deliberately pushing them away.
"So, of those who first followed me, the ones still fit to stand and wield a sword are the thousand here."
Jin-cheon, his voice now composed, continued.
"Don't you want to rest?"
At Jin-cheon's question, whose meaning they could not grasp, the surging killing intent subsided as if it had been nothing.
"Not yet. Not yet."
From one side came the answer of a man grinding his teeth.
"Even though you're all past forty or fifty, you don't want to rest?"
"That's not it. We can't rest."
At Jin-cheon's question, Gu Yu-sang, standing beside Geochil Mu-heo, stepped forward and spoke in a growl.
To him, Jin-cheon asked again.
"Yu-sang, the reason?"
When Jin-cheon fixed his gaze on Yu-sang and asked, Yu-sang answered in a low voice edged with rage.
"Those filthy rags calling themselves the Holy Empire or whatever won't let us rest. And Geom Muhyul, who died like a fool at Gaemun Mountain Fortress, comes to me every time I fall asleep and tells me—"
Yu-sang's voice grew steadily louder. The words he spoke were the cry of the thousand here.
"—to show them a lesson so they never dare set their filthy feet forward again."
"Now that's speaking your mind."
Uru threw in a punctuating remark. As Yu-sang's words ended, the force that had quieted now boiled up once more.
Looking at them, Jin-cheon nodded and spoke.
"And so I have called you again."