Midstream of the Valley of Sin
Part Five: Offense and Defense — Midstream of the Valley of Sin.
The First Battery.
"Hurry up and load!"
The battery commander was bellowing at the top of his lungs.
"We already broke our backs hauling these catapults down to the midstream and reinstalling every last one of them, didn't we?!"
The midstream of the Valley of Sin was a chaos of retreating friendly forces fleeing enemy shelling, enemy troops pouring in like a flood, and the friendly units thrown in to cover the rear of the withdrawal — a full-scale melee grinding on without pause.
"The enemy could overrun our position any second now!"
His voice could not help but rise.
"You bastards! You planning to die without even getting a single shot off?!"
When the punitive campaign against the Valley of Sin had ended, he had believed they would receive at least a proper commendation, even if they fell short of top honors.
"A truly impressive performance!"
And after the battle, No-gunsa of the War Advisory Group had come in person and given them exactly that — no, more than that: praise and a generous cash reward.
"But I'm afraid you'll have to dismantle every catapult right away and move them down to the midstream for reinstallation."
Remembering that living hell, the battery crew clenched their teeth, and the reloading finished at a record pace.
"Loading complete! Ready to fire!"
And almost in the same breath, the spotter posted on the neighboring rooftop received the order from headquarters.
"Fire order from command!"
In that instant the smile that bloomed on the battery commander's face was identical to the ones on every man under him.
"Fire!"
Krrrrrk!
Metal chains screamed as they unspooled at blinding speed; sparks showered from the pulleys.
KWAANG—!
With a thunderous jolt the massive boulder, having received every ounce of force, hurtled into the sky.
It arced over the heads of the enemy forces flooding the midstream, past the enemies swarming like ants through the lower reaches to burn and loot, over the panicked commercial districts of Luoyang, past the Third Wharf, and finally reached the Yellow River — where it slammed dead-on into the spotter of a pirate mercenary vessel who could only gape at the rock rushing toward him.
The boulder that reduced a single man of flesh and blood to an unrecognizable pulp then—
KWA-DEUK!
—snapped the massive timber of the main mast in a single blow and at last spent its momentum, crashing onto the deck.
"U-uwaaa—?!"
The scream never even finished; the pirate mercenary on deck was crushed flat beneath the fallen stone.
Farther back, aboard the flagship of the pirate mercenaries of the Fresh Blood Fleet—
"Number Five ship hit!"
The spotter's cry was less a report than a scream.
"Number Five ship hit!"
The sight of the heavy main mast of Number Five snapping and toppling—
U-jijijik—!
—was like a giant tree uprooted, tearing up the very earth as it fell.
The deck of Number Five twisted and split like ground in an earthquake, swallowing pirate mercenaries whole.
"E-enemy bombardment continuing…!"
The first rock had struck Number Five with perfect accuracy.
Fortunately the second, third, and fourth boulders that followed in rapid succession fell short nearby.
Drenched in flying spray, the flagship crew were just beginning to feel a flicker of relief when—
KWA-JIJIK—!
The fifth boulder smashed into Number Five's side.
"…!"
The pirate mercenaries on the flagship screamed without even realizing it.
KWA-DEU-DEU-DEUK—!
The hull that had already been wrenched by the falling mast now shrieked and began to split clean in half.
Number Five combat vessel had stubbornly survived countless artillery duels across the southern seas.
Yet under the overwhelming mass of the catapult stones, it was reduced to a wreck in a single, almost anticlimactic instant.
"Friendly batteries scoring successive hits on target!"
The spotter of the First Battery shouted.
"Target wrecked! Confirmation of target destruction!"
In that moment every last man of the battery roared in triumph.
"Yes!"
"You son-of-a-bitch pirates! How do you like the taste of Lady Seon-nyeo's tender, loving rocks?!"
Yet the battery commander standing behind them wore an oddly dazed expression.
It actually worked?
The distance from the midstream of the Valley of Sin all the way to the Yellow River was by no means short. In a pure straight line, it was a range no catapult — not even a cannon — should ever have reached.
They said the difference in elevation would stretch the range enough to make it possible…
The moment proved that No-gunsa of the War Advisory Group had measured true.
"What the hell are you all standing around for?!"
He quickly wiped the look from his face and barked at the cheering men.
"The fight isn't over! Reload right n—!"
The instant he stepped forward while shouting—
Sseeeeing—.
The sound of air tearing apart reached them.
"Our position's been spotted!"
The spotter's voice cracked as it rang out, and then—
KWA-KWA-KWANG!
A chain of explosions hammered their eardrums; the ground itself began to shake like a mad thing.
"E-enemy bombardment!"
"Down! Get down!"
It was the heavy naval guns of the Fresh Blood Fleet.
Rather than pull back beyond catapult range, the Fresh Blood Fleet — veterans of artillery duels — had chosen to answer with shipboard cannon fire.
"Uwaaaa—!"
The spotter on the neighboring rooftop had barely flung himself off when a cannonball blew out the side of that building.
KWA-REUNG!
Everyone was screaming with their heads covered, but amid the continuous thunder of the barrage the cries of men without internal qi could not even be heard properly.
"Down!"
The battery commander huddled in a corner, arms wrapped around his head, and bellowed until his throat tore.
"Everyone take cover!"
They were all veterans of the Northern Wars, long accustomed to massed archery and enemy catapults. The power of a fleet-scale cannon barrage, however, was something beyond imagination.
"…!"
A vicious hand cracked across the back of the battery commander's head while he was still shouting meaningless words.
"Get a grip, damn you!"
He jerked his head up and found an old man standing over him.
"N-No-gunsa…?"
"That's right, you bastard!"
No-gunsa of the War Advisory Group seized the battery commander by the collar and hauled him upright in one motion.
"Why are you here, sir—?!"
KWAANG!
The commander, jolted back to himself by a near miss, shouted even louder in an attempt to shake off the shock.
"This place is dangerous! You should be at headquarters!"
"Danger, my ass—!"
KWAAANG!
Another shell buried itself close by, yet the old advisor's eyes never wavered.
"We've got the firepower advantage!"
The voice that rolled out of the bent old man was thunderous enough to silence any thought of frailty.
"This is a contest of who flinches first! So start returning fire, damn you!"
Under a presence that seemed to overwhelm even the enemy barrage, the battery commander nodded on pure reflex.
"Y-yes, sir! Understood!"
The ground and his body shook without mercy; dust and stone chips flew in every direction, yet nothing could stop No-gunsa.
"Get up this instant!"
The old man kicked the battery crew in the backside one after another.
Feeling an inexplicable surge of fighting spirit boil up from his chest at the sight, the battery commander raced about hauling his men to their feet.
"You bastards! Snap out of it and get up!"
On a nearby rooftop an old woman known as the Crouching Dragon of the Southern Barbarians stood tall.
"They've begun the counter-fire?"
Through the enemy's concentrated shelling she caught the sight of the First Battery lofting another boulder skyward.
"No-gunsa of the War Advisory Group has succeeded…!"
The hastily launched rock flew hopelessly wide and splashed into the far side of the Yellow River, yet its meaning was more than enough.
Courage proved contagious; the other batteries opened counter-fire as well.
Without this valley's terrain and the catapults working together, such a return barrage would have been impossible.
Friendly batteries, ringed on all sides by stone buildings, endured the enemy fire while their catapults, firing on a high arc, could still pour their strength onto the enemy fleet.
"Good!"
The old woman turned and slammed her staff against the rooftop.
"We must do our part as well!"
At the end of her gaze, members of the Six-Man League came pouring through every alley.
Once the first shots had exposed the friendly batteries' positions, an enemy charge was only natural.
"Don't let a single rat near the batteries!"
And so the First Young Master's side was already prepared for the assault.
Hyang, captain of the Wongak Pavilion maid corps, issued the order by voice transmission.
Repeating crossbows mounted on key rooftops and at every vital alley mouth loosed a simultaneous volley.
Iron bolts sliced through the darkness and punched clean through the lead runners of the underworld forces.
"Gkeu-eok!"
Layers of leather armor meant nothing; the bolts skewered torsos in a single thrust and continued on to spit the men behind them like meat on a skewer. Those charging up the alleys toppled in windrows like cut sheaves of straw.
"R-repeating crossbows!"
"The Sword Family's crossbows…?!"
The flood of men jammed to a halt at the alley corners.
"D-don't push!"
"Fuck!"
Driven helplessly into the alleys by the continuing advance of their own rear ranks, they were pinned to the walls by the iron bolts that followed.
"Flank them! Don't stop moving!"
One underworld officer swung his iron mace and crushed the skull of a friendly soldier who had frozen in place.
"You stupid bastards! If the front's blocked, go around and charge, damn you!"
At his roar they poured into the next alley, then the one after that — only to find—
"Gkeuaaak!"
"Keheok…!"
—that every alley, without exception, also held mounted repeating crossbows vomiting iron bolts.
"Next alley…!"
The forces splintered into multiple streams and had no choice but to surge into yet more alleys, only for the officers to shout again:
"Find an alley without crossbows!"
What waited for them there was a wall of spears and shields blocking the way.
"Mercy Hall Heavy Infantry!"
At the cry of their name, short spears thrust out as one between the great shields.
"Charge!"
With a roar that shook the alley, the first rank of the heavy infantry slammed into the underworld members flooding through.
KWA-JIK!
The weight of the heavy infantry and the advantage of the high ground generated crushing momentum.
"Keep pushing!"
Like men struck by a giant hammer, skin split and bones shattered amid wet, grinding noises as the underworld fighters were simply compressed into the alleys.
"Don't give ground!"
"We have the numbers!"
Even so the underworld officers raised their voices and kept funneling fresh troops into every narrow lane.
Yet in the alley terrain of the Valley of Sin, the Mercy Hall Heavy Infantry — great shields and short spears to the fore — swallowed the enemy like a bottomless pit.
"Damn it!"
Ordinary rank-and-file with shoddy arms and worse discipline simply had no answer.
"You worthless bastards!"
At last the underworld officer who had been driving the advance spat curses toward his own command post.
"Why haven't the heads of our own organizations committed their martial artists yet?!"
Of course the reason was—
"Until you commit your elites first, we will not send in our organization's martial artists!"
"The Danji Society feels the same!"
"Ahem. Our Extinction Armor Sect martial artists are making a wide flanking march to strike the enemy rear."
"Stop talking nonsense! What flanking route is there in a Valley of Sin ringed by cliffs?!"
—the same old power struggle and mutual checks among the underworld bosses that never took a day off.
Preserve your elites here, and later you would hold the advantage when the underworld's interests were divided. That was the calculation.
"What the hell do you think you're doing?!"
They finally gave the order only when—
"Do all of you want to die right here?!"
—Grand Madam Guyang, the woman who held their leashes, appeared before them in person.
"W-we'll commit them at once!"
"Us as well…!"
While she had been away briefly protesting at the Senate, they had made a complete mess of things; only now did they scramble to issue orders. But—
"Grand Madam…!"
It was already too late.
"T-the Fresh Blood Fleet is withdrawing beyond the range of the enemy catapults!"
At that report Grand Madam Guyang's face twisted into something demonic.
"What did you say?!"
In a panic she strode to the window; her maids hurriedly flung open the shutters facing the Yellow River.
Outside, the combat vessels of the Fresh Blood Fleet were spreading sail and catching the wind as they pulled away.
"N-no!"
A scream tore from her throat.
"If the bombardment stops now, our forces will—!"
Before she could finish, the boulders from the First Young Master's catapults began to fall upon the heads of the underworld fighters.