Chapter 24: 203 Hill Stained with Fatigue

‘Is this making any sense?’

Of course, unless one is a fool, even the Japanese army knew about the story of Ok Jinseo and was well aware of it.

But seeing it in person is a different matter.

To be honest, I had thought the rumors were spread by the Joseon army to inflate their own achievements.

The ranks were already in disarray, and the situation was deadly.

Now, cavalry was pushing through from behind. ‘How could we hold on?’

“Dammit. Of all times for this!”

‘Had there ever been such a Joseon army in the history of Joseon?’

Nogi had heard that Joseon’s military was weak, but he knew some history.

From the founding of the country to the era of Goguryeo, what had happened to the spirit of the people?

A country that bowed to China, offering women and tribute, and in return, received far greater rewards.

During the Imjin War, they survived thanks to the help of Ming China.

More recently, with the great powers encroaching, even when the First Sino-Japanese War broke out, they couldn’t even make a sound.

He thought a country like that wouldn’t have a strong military.

Honestly, he had viewed the army of the Korean Empire that had come with them as little more than cannon fodder, just there to make up numbers.

‘But now, what was this?’

‘This army seemed as though they weren’t just regular Joseon soldiers. They were stirring up the ranks of the Imperial Army.’

‘They say the northern troops of Joseon are strong. Could it be true?’

‘Could it really be true?’

Unlike the other cavalry holding guns, the woman was only holding a sword.

At her waist was a hand axe soaked in blood.

The Japanese soldiers, who had been fighting to break through 203 Hill after defeating the Russian troops, had no strength left to stop the cavalry regiments coming from behind.

Bang! Kshaaaaa!

Cavalrymen died from gunshots and were trampled by hooves.

The woman at the front was beheading the Imperial soldiers with her sword.

Even compared to the Russian Cossack cavalry they had fought earlier, they were a worthy match.

As the cavalry swept through the Imperial forces, leaving them dazed, a new army appeared from the distance, carrying a three-legged crow banner.

Unlike regular Joseon troops, this army was filled with morale.

This time, their numbers were considerable.

Perhaps they were about half the size of the Imperial forces here.

“Let’s avenge the military (Gojong)!”

“We’ll stain Manchuria with the blood of the Japanese!”

“This is not the land for you, filthy Japs!”

The worst-case scenario that should not have been happening was unfolding before Nogi’s eyes.

It was great that they had driven back the Russian troops, but now, it seemed that victory was slipping away.

He wanted to tell his fallen son that he had avenged him here, that his death wasn’t in vain, and that it was for the victory of the Empire.

But now, that was slipping away.

Tears streamed down Nogi Maresuke’s eyes.

“Did the Imperial Army lose this battle?”

Nogi suddenly looked up at the sky.

‘Was the sky abandoning the Empire?’

Even if their surprise attack succeeded, it seemed like a close call.

They hadn’t been able to capitalize on the advantage of the ambush and were suffering great losses.

The Imperial Army had been defeated, and the dream of rising among the great powers of Eastern civilization was fading.

Indeed, the yellow race would become a model of how they could never defeat the white race.

Then, at least, they had to salvage something.

The woman at the front of the cavalry.

She would become a huge obstacle to the Empire in the future.

She would surely become a threat.

Just watching her move with such agility and skill in battle, it was obvious.

She had to die.

Nogi Maresuke hurriedly ordered the nearby soldiers.

“Stop her! Shoot the woman! Concentrate fire!”

Still, these were elite soldiers who had fought in wars.

At Nogi’s command, the soldiers quickly took shooting positions and began concentrated fire on the woman at the front.

Bang! Bang bang bang!

The Imperial soldiers’ Arisaka Type 30 rifles fired, hitting the woman who was charging madly toward them, but that was all.

She had clearly been hit several times by the gunfire.

The Imperial soldiers weren’t an untrained mob; even if they weren’t perfect, concentrated fire should have hit her at least once.

“You’re telling me that you couldn’t kill one person with all those bullets? You should have shot the horse instead. Idiots.”

The woman, unaffected by the gunshots, continued to charge forward.

She even mocked the Imperial soldiers.

There was no sign of injury, and she was even smiling.

It was as though she was asking, “Is this your best?”

Her smile was filled with contempt, as if mocking them.

Seeing the woman who wouldn’t die, the soldiers who had been charging forward with bayonets hesitated and took steps back.

In that moment, the cavalrymen behind her began firing at the Imperial Army.

Tadadang! Taan!

The Imperial Army collapsed once again under the sound of gunfire.

The soldiers who had been fighting the Russian forces were now falling to the Joseon army’s gunfire.

‘Is this even possible?’

It was despicable.

So despicable.

Attacking the tired Imperial Army from behind—’what kind of cowardly act was this?’

Of course, it was a natural response since the Emperor of their country had died, but Nogi Maresuke felt terribly wronged.

What was even more ridiculous was that this monstrous woman was a member of the Joseon army.

The soldiers kept shooting at the same woman, but it was useless.

They started to panic.

“Oni! That’s an oni!”

Throwing down their rifles, the soldiers began to flee.

The mighty Imperial Army, which had fought Russian troops without fear of death, was now running away in fear.

They were human, after all.

They had been fighting to kill Russians, and while they had seen them as enemies, at least they were human.

‘But fighting someone who wouldn’t die? Who would want to fight something like that?’

There was a fundamental fear in fighting something that wasn’t human.

Perhaps the woman knew this, or maybe it was the confidence in her invincibility that took over her entire body, but she trampled over the Imperial soldiers as she kept smiling cruelly.

As soon as she saw soldiers turning their backs, she mercilessly stabbed them with her sword or shot them with a pistol.

Finally, after removing all obstacles, the woman charged directly toward Nogi without hesitation.

With the bright sun shining behind her, it was as if she was charging straight at her enemies like the sun god herself.

“Ah… Amaterasu.”

An officer who had been guarding Nogi Maresuke mumbled with a dazed expression.

The sun goddess Amaterasu.

The imperial ancestor of the Japanese Imperial family.

The absolute being.

Yes. If this wasn’t a god, such a thing would be impossible.

Having already lost nearly all his soldiers and his son, Nogi Maresuke, exhausted and dazed, somehow found himself agreeing with the idea that this mad Joseon woman could be Amaterasu.

‘Was the goddess of creation trying to create a new world with the blood of the Japanese people?’

Amaterasu, filled with madness, ran toward Nogi, her expression ecstatic as bullets mercilessly pounded her body.

Soon, the woman, who had relentlessly trampled on the Huang army, was right next to Nogi.

***

For a brief moment, Nogi’s mind was flooded with memories, and the faces of his dead sons flashed before his eyes.

And then…

Schlick!

In an instant, Nogi felt as though the sky was spinning, and before he knew it, his head hit the ground.

He saw his own body, head severed, blood spraying from the wound.

In that brief moment, Nogi fell into an eternal sleep and never awoke.

“Ugh! The commander! The commander!”

“Surrender! Please, spare my life!”

“We are fighting for the future of the East! What side are those Joseon bastards on?”

As Nogi’s head fell, the soldiers grew even more frantic.

Some ran away in fear, others collapsed and screamed, and there were even those who began blaming the Korean army for siding with the Russian forces.

But there was one thing everyone felt.

They were already defeated, and none of them would survive here.

When Nogi Maresuke died, the army he had struggled to maintain fell apart completely.

By the time the main artillery unit arrived, the remaining Japanese soldiers surrendered.

The officer wiped the blood off his sword.

“If there’s one thing I can say, the Japanese sword is just perfect for killing people.”

With a soft, satisfying sound, the officer easily beheaded the Japanese soldiers.

Perhaps it was because he was so familiar with it, but the Japanese sword had its advantages in many ways.

It was great for decapitation or hand-to-hand combat, as expected.

I grabbed the hair of a severed head near my feet and walked toward the frightened Japanese soldier.

“Is this Nogi Maresuke? Your commander?”

“Th-th-that’s… cough… AAAAAHHH!”

“I’ll ask again. Is this Nogi Maresuke?”

“Y-yes, it’s him. Please, I beg of you, treat me as a prisoner of war.”

“Good. That’s how it should be. A mad dog must be beaten to obey.”

Bang!

The Japanese officer, who had begged for his life moments ago, was now lying dead with a hole in his head.

The Japanese soldiers, who were disarmed and surrendered, were left dumbfounded, unable to move, paralyzed by fear.

The order I gave them was simple:

“Open fire, all units of the artillery.”

The artillery, a force with a single goal: to annihilate the enemy.

That was the artillery unit.

“The prisoners would eventually be sent back to fight again.”

“We had to wipe them all out to minimize the enemy’s war potential.”

Leave just enough alive to use as slaves.

“Isn’t this unreasonable treatment for surrendering soldiers? Isn’t Joseon a country that understands virtue?”

Some of the surrendered soldiers, probably because they still considered themselves part of the Huang army, were defiantly raising their voices.

“Usually weak, but now they talk about virtue?”

“Does the victor not show mercy to a defeated enemy?”

“I’ll ask you this. If we, Koreans, killed your emperor, how would you have treated us?”

“!!!”

“It would probably be the same, wouldn’t it?” That’s why they were speechless, their faces full of shock.

“Exactly. Just like how they worshiped their emperor as a divine being, the emperor of the Korean Empire was considered a father to the people.”

“Therefore, this revenge was a perfectly justified law.”

Bang!

The soldier, who had been resisting moments ago, stood there, unable to say a word, before a bullet tore through his head and he fell to the ground.

“Not just surrendering, but trying to survive in an unwinnable situation? What now? Kill them all. And even bring the machine guns from the Russian army.”

“Yes, sir!”

Tat tat tat tat tat!

With my gunshot as the signal, ruthless gunfire poured toward the Japanese soldiers waving white flags.

“Is this okay?”

“Well, they should have never killed the emperor. Killing the emperor was much better for us, because we could wipe them out this way.”

“This was a war that had the attention of the whole world. By using the emperor’s death, we had to completely destroy the Japanese army.”

“Don’t leave a single one of the Japanese bastards who killed our emperor!”

The artillery had already blocked any chance of retreat.

The remaining Japanese soldiers, with no means of resistance, were dying where they stood.

With their deaths, the Japanese army was effectively finished.

Now, they couldn’t even target the naval base at Lushun Port or the remaining main forces in the region.

The supplies that had once been sent from the Korean Empire were also running out.

“What about the war correspondents?”

A soldier from the artillery unit asked.

Indeed, in the middle of the battlefield, there was a foreigner diligently writing an article.

I was curious about what he was writing, so I decided to get closer and take a look.

“War correspondent, what are you planning to write?”

“U-um…”

The foreigner couldn’t speak, so I snatched his notebook away and read it.

So, ‘he was going to write this?’ Oh! He was calling me the goddess of the battlefield, the Joan of Arc of Korea.

He was writing it in such a positive light!

I thought he would have called me barbaric, but it wasn’t that bad.

I was described as Korea’s Joan of Arc, the goddess of the battlefield.

I was depicted as a beam of light in the hellish chaos, having slaughtered the invading Japanese army and brought victory.

I was Korea’s hero, unable to do anything in the face of the Western powers’ invasion.

“U-uh… well…”

The correspondent couldn’t say anything, his mouth moving but no words coming out.

He didn’t need to be so scared.

I wasn’t planning on doing anything to him since he wasn’t Japanese.

In fact, he should be on my side, trying to get on my good side.

I handed the notebook back to him with a smile.

“If you write it like this, I’ll be thankful. I hope you write that the artillery unit fought for my country.”

Honestly, I was planning to threaten him if he had written about us as barbaric, but from a distance, it would probably look like we were resisting, not surrendering.

The only real problem was with the Russian army.

The Russian forces, emerging from Hill 203, were fighting the enraged Japanese army and were on the verge of being completely wiped out.

The Russian soldiers, on high alert at the appearance of the Korean Empire army, quickly realized we weren’t the enemy, and all their tension eased.

In fact, only Anatoly Stessel, their commander, was dead, and Roman Kondratenko was the only one left.

“Why aren’t you waiting on the hill? What’s going on?”

Kondratenko, with dark circles under his eyes and covered in blood, stared at me as he sat exhausted.

The term “duke of jade” was still unfamiliar to me.