Black Corporation: Joseon - Chapter 582

Episode 582: Broken Dream (5)

The main camp of the Joseon army located about 5 ri (about 2 km) away from Liaodong Province.

Choi Yun-deok climbed on the horse and looked at Liaodong Castle in the distance with an expression filled with various emotions.

“We’ve finally come this far…”

Choi Yun-deok, who was mumbling to himself, turned and looked around.

His eyes caught the sight of hundreds of thousands of soldiers preparing for battle, monks floating in the sky who kept informing him of the battlefield situation, and cavalry troops running here and there and constantly scouting the surrounding area.

“Huh!”

Choi Yun-deok took a deep breath and straightened his body.

He is 72 years old this year. It was already two years ago that King Sejong and Hyang personally held an old wedding banquet.

In history before the intervention of Hyang, Choi Yun-deok was one of those who should have already died, but whose fate changed when Hyang intervened.

“Huh!”

Choi Yun-deok took a deep breath again and straightened his body, overflowing with the momentum he had when commanding the North in the past.

Choi Yun-deok, who straightened his body, turned his head.

Where he headed, all the major generals of the Joseon Army, including Lee Jing-ok, were gathered.

“Is it time to remove the character su (守)?”

Choi Yun-deok, who was muttering softly, raised his voice towards the generals.

“Notify the commander! It’s finally a rock! What kind of place is this fluctuation? It was the former river station of the Three Han Dynasties and is where Balhae, the Northern Dynasty, was located during the Southern and Northern Dynasties! This is Liaodong, a place that has been dreamed of being restored since the fall of the Northern Dynasty! And now! at las!”

After pausing for a moment, Choi Yun-deok stretched out his clenched right hand and shouted loudly.

“We are back! “It’s finally back!”

“Wow!”

The generals responded to Choi Yun-deok’s declaration with shouts. When the shouts of the generals subsided, Choi Yun-deok gave an order.

“Now, let’s plant the Hwangtaegeukgi, the new symbol of Joseon, on the highest point of Liaodong Province!”

“I will definitely plug it in!”

“Then prepare for battle!”

“insect!”

The generals who paid military respect to Choi Yun-deok’s order hurried to the unit they were commanding.

The generals who would command the troops on the front line left and Choi Yun-deok returned to the camp at the main camp with his staff.

* * *

Entering the military camp, Choi Yun-deok opened the box placed on one side. Choi Yun-deok took out a beautifully wrapped silk cloth from the box and unwrapped the cloth.

“Hang this flag on a flagpole and raise it high!”

After receiving the yellow flag contained in the wrapping cloth, the young general immediately left the military camp, and Choi Yun-deok followed behind him.

After a while, the Taegeukgi with a yellow background rose in the center of the Jwadokgi and various military flags and fluttered in the wind.

The yellow background of the flag represented the gold color, the symbol of the emperor, and in the center was the Samtaegeuk, which the Korean people have used since ancient times. And the Bagua surrounding Samtaegeuk symbolized heaven and earth and all things.

Putting all of this together, Joseon became the country of the emperor and the center of everything in the world.

The only thing that was different from Jwadokgi was that the background cloth was yellow, not black.

* * *

Both the Hwangtaegeukgi and Jwadokgi were newly created.

“Both the Yeo flag and the left and right flag were received from the Ming, so we should take this opportunity to change them!”

“okay. It is certain that there will be a conflict with the Ming in the future, and it would not look good to use the flag given by the Ming.”

“It will become a laughingstock of the world.”

King Sejong and the ministers all agreed to Hyang’s proposal, and a new flag was created accordingly.

Accordingly, the pattern of Samtaegeuk also changed to a familiar one. The fish flag was also made from a red background to a yellow background, and the graffiti on the left flag disappeared.

This was also due to the strong claims of the fragrance.

“Why do we have to honor the founder of Jungwon!”

On the day that the new flag and left flag were born, King Sejong, who was admiring the new flag, looked back.

“Can you see these flags flying before I go?”

Hyang answered King Sejong’s question firmly.

“I certainly will!”

In response to Hyang’s answer, Sejong smiled and patted Hyang’s shoulder.

“Don’t just trust you.”

And after a while, I realized the smell.

“Homework has increased! Ah-oh!”

* * *

As the huge Hwangtaegeukgi was fluttering at the main camp, the Hwangtaegeukgi began to flutter at the main camp of the Joseon army.

“What flag is that?”

While the soldiers were curious about the newly raised flag and started whispering, the commanders stepped forward and explained its meaning.

“Through victory in this battle, Joseon will become an empire! “There will no longer be a superior state over us!”

At the commander’s declaration, the soldiers looked at their comrades and whispered.

One of those soldiers, Gapdol, asked a colleague next to him.

“Becoming an empire? “What do you mean?”

“What do you mean, from now on, Joseon will become the kingdom of the emperor?”

“huh? So does this mean that Sangammama will become the Son of Heaven?”

“Draw!”

“So you’re saying I don’t have to pay the damn tribute anymore? “The princess is gone too?”

The soldier next to Gapdol made a bewildered expression on his face.

“How long has it been since you stopped paying tribute? Are you still asking for tribute? The princess too? Are there still towns that make a fuss about accepting tribute?”

As the soldier said, after the negotiation between Hyang and Emperor Seondeok, the issue of tribute and princesses disappeared.

However, Gapdol, who mentioned the tribute, asked back with a bright face.

“No matter what, you don’t have to pay?”

“Draw! “As long as you win, you don’t have to pay!”

“Then we must win!”

It was Gapdol whose fighting spirit burned in a strange way.

Such reactions were occurring throughout the Joseon military camp. For the young soldiers in their teens and twenties, who were the main players, it was a story of a distant country, but for the soldiers in their thirties and older, who were in the middle, ‘tribute’, ‘princess’, and ‘sangguk’ were symbols of pain.

“I must win if I don’t want something like that to happen again!”

“cancer!”

These were old soldiers who had more fighting spirit than the younger soldiers.

* * *

Meanwhile, inside Liaodong Castle, the commanders of the Liaodong Army were doing their best to maintain the soldiers’ fighting spirit.

“The walls of this Liaodong Castle are as strong as those of the Koreans!”

“Trust the walls!”

“Reinforcements will arrive in a little while! “As long as we hold on, we will win!”

The commanders shouted to their soldiers that reinforcements were coming. This was partly to maintain the morale of the soldiers, but it was also self-hypnosis.

There are currently 100,000 troops guarding Liaodong Castle. And most of them were Ming soldiers who retreated from the Battle of Sinuiju and Ming soldiers who rushed from nearby Wiso. And the rest were Jurchen people who had already become Hanhwa.

* * *

In the process of retreating, most of the Jurchen soldiers and a significant number of Korean soldiers deserted. Because of this, the morale of the soldiers who returned to Liaodong Province was at rock bottom.

Joo Ji-jin, who saw this, looked helpless.

“Defeat? Defeat? “Where is Jo Byeong-deok?”

“The general has died.”

Joo Ji-jin slumped down in his chair at the answer of the most senior general among the generals who managed to return.

“A warrior?”

“yes.”

“Huh…”

Wang Chong, seeing Ju Ji-jin completely entranced, stepped forward.

“Please report it to Beijing.”

“To Beijing?”

“yes. Didn’t you say that if you don’t have lips, your teeth will be cold? Without fluctuations, even Beijing would become dangerous. Please ask for help.”

“….”

Joo Ji-jin did not answer right away but was lost in thought. It was the generals who became impatient.

“majesty. The Korean army is coming here now. “I don’t have time.”

“The number of soldiers and their morale are not good. We need reinforcements.”

In the end, unable to withstand the pressure from the generals, Ju Ji-jin wrote a letter requesting help and sent it to Beijing.

* * *

That night, Ju Ji-jin, who had called Wang Chong aside, asked quietly.

“Is this even what Your Majesty had in mind?”

“yes? How dare you! “You are speculating!”

Wang Chong strongly denied it, but Ju Ji-jin shook his head.

“no. When I think back, I think Ah-gwi was right. A while ago, His Majesty asked me who my main enemy was. At that time, when I answered that I was from Bukwon, he said no. He probably thought about conquering Joseon from then on. But there was no justification. That’s why he sent me here. This may be the same reason why he offered the bait, ‘If you acquire Joseon, I will allow you to be called emperor.’ “You would have been sure that I would move, and I did.”

“Your Majesty is Your Majesty’s legitimate son. “How can you use me as bait?”

“Don’t you know Your Majesty’s disposition?”

Wang Chong kept his mouth shut in response to Ju Ji-jin’s question. Joo Ji-jin filled and emptied the glass on one side and continued speaking.

“The most important thing to your Majesty is the country. If he failed to do his job of making the country strong, he would mercilessly abandon even the most loyal of his servants. “He’s like that. Would it be any different if he were his own child?”

“But please think of the military funds and craftsmen you sent! “Your Majesty, sincerely…”

Ju Ji-jin cut Wang Chong off with a sarcastic expression.

“He must have sincerely wanted to attack Joseon. If I had used those funds to laze around in Liaodong, he would have definitely put pressure in a different direction to attack Joseon. “Your Majesty is worthy of that.”

“Your Majesty…”

Wang Chong, who had an earnest expression on his face, tried to continue speaking, but Zhu Zhujin stood up and turned around.

“It may have been worse than your Majesty expected, but it must have turned out as you wanted. As soon as my general arrives, he will move the soldiers. Then there is only one thing for me to do. To guard this place until they come. Your Majesty doesn’t have to worry about that part. Even though it is Your Majesty’s stone to throw away, my pride does not allow me to end it with a death stone. “Stop leaving.”

Wang Chong bowed politely to Joo Ji-jin’s order to congratulate the guests and left the room.

Joo Ji-jin, who was left alone in the room, looked at the moon in the night sky and muttered.

“Was it a daydream?”

And on the day that the advanced Joseon army appeared in front of Liaodong Province, a reply came from Beijing.

-I will send 800,000. Defend Liaodong Castle until the troops arrive.

* * *

With the appearance of the Hwangtaegeukgi, preparations were completed for the full-scale battle to begin.

“Winning or losing the battle is in our hands! “We are the true main force!”

The commanders commanding the artillery units of the Joseon army shouted to their subordinates with faces full of pride.

At the commander’s shout, the artillerymen nodded with faces full of pride.

The commander raised his baton and pointed to the red walls of Liaodong Province.

“It’s a battle of pride over whether that red brick wall is stronger or our cannonballs are stronger! Are you confident?”

“I am confident!”

“Then prepare to fire!”

“ancient!”

After some time, flags were fluttering at each of the Joseon Army’s artillery positions, indicating that preparations were complete.

The commanders of the battery looked at the dried needles and watched the monk floating in the sky.

The battery commanders finally saw the signal flashing in the beam and shouted to the flag bearer.

“Let go!”