Matchlocks and Northern Expedition (10)

Time passed, and before long the day arrived when 25,000 Joseon soldiers set out to punish the Jurchens.

The Commander-in-Chief of this army, Choe Yun-deok, stood atop a platform and looked down at the soldiers lined up in perfect ranks and files for inspection.

“They are truly a reassuring sight.”

Ever since formal drill training had been introduced, the Joseon army had changed completely.

In the past, all they could do was somehow gather and train a ragtag mob of men drafted for military service around a handful of elite soldiers and military officials, then form up and fight.

Now, everyone could form their ranks quickly and firmly as though they had become a single body, and every unit could coordinate its movements as if it were a single person.

Even Choe Yun-deok could not predict how strong these transformed soldiers would prove in actual combat...

But he had become convinced that, as long as their numbers were sufficient, they could fight and defeat even the Jurchens, the Japanese, or the Ming army.

“Commander-in-Chief, don’t the soldiers look truly valiant? They have done nothing more than match a single step and a single movement, yet look at them.”

“Isn’t that the most important thing? You, Chief Military Commissioner Yi Sun-mong, know better than anyone what separates an elite soldier from an ordinary one, so why say such a thing?”

“I am simply astonished that such a small thing can create such an enormous difference. Seeing more than several hundred soldiers perfectly matching even their footsteps as though they were one body, I cannot help but look forward to seeing how powerful they will be on the battlefield.”

“Whatever you imagine, the result will be even greater than that.”

Choe Yun-deok shrugged.

“The Jurchens will soon no longer dare to touch any place where Joseon people live. While I cannot say how we compare in numbers, the current Joseon army has grown so strong in quality that it cannot even be compared with the sort of Ming army hastily assembled from able-bodied men taken from military households—families whose men serve as soldiers for generations.”

“Their individual martial prowess must be greater than ours.”

“Individual martial prowess? It is important, but... isn’t the most important factor deciding victory or defeat in war none other than unity?”

“That is true. Once, before training newly conscripted soldiers under the Right Army, I staged a mock battle between thirty men trained in drill and one hundred able-bodied men who had not yet learned it. Even though they wielded the same weapons and wore the same armor, the thirty men who knew drill won.”

Choe Yun-deok was startled inwardly.

He knew that drill training could transform a rabble into a unified fighting force in an instant...

But he had never imagined that the difference in combat power between those who knew drill and those who did not would be this severe.

However, he did not want to reveal his surprise in front of Yi Sun-mong, a man notorious for drinking, chasing women, and causing trouble, so he answered as though nothing were amiss.

“The Joseon army has truly grown strong. It is beyond comparison with what it was before.”

“Isn’t all this thanks to that fellow, Jibu Kim Daebung?”

At the mention of Jibu Kim, Choe Yun-deok let out an involuntary sigh.

He regretted it deeply.

“I wish His Majesty had sent Lord Kim Hogun to our army instead of Jeolje Kim Jong-seo and Jibong Hwangbo In. It is such a shame that His Majesty ultimately refused to grant permission.”

But Yi Sun-mong thought differently from Choe Yun-deok.

He was afraid of having Kim Daebung under his command.

If Kim Daebung were under his command, all the administrative matters within the camp would proceed without a hitch, and supplies would be managed so brilliantly that the soldiers would never go hungry during the campaign against the Jurchens...

But it was equally obvious that Kim Daebung would strain every nerve to uncover and resolve every problem in the army, and if any wrongdoing came to light, he would hound Yi Sun-mong until it was corrected unless he fixed it immediately.

And if he were caught diverting military supplies or plunder, or turning prisoners into slaves...

Until now, King Emeritus Yi Bang-won had sometimes been willing to overlook even fairly serious corruption, but the moment Kim Daebung became involved, Yi Sun-mong felt as though his own head would be caved in by a mace.

“As long as Jibu does a good job keeping us supplied from the rear, our soldiers will not go hungry.”

“Indeed. Without Lord Kim Hogun, it would not even have been possible to fight while keeping the soldiers well fed.”

Choe Yun-deok put his regret aside and looked at the soldiers who had finished their review.

Then he raised high the buweol at his waist, an axe symbolizing military authority, and declared,

“This is His Majesty’s command. Show the Jurchens the true terror of Joseon! The entire army, advance!”

When he gave the order, the soldiers began marching with their ranks and files perfectly aligned.

They were determined to eradicate one of Joseon’s principal enemies from the face of the earth.

**

The Jurchens—or, more precisely, the Jianzhou Jurchens who shared a border with Joseon—had become Joseon’s archenemy after Yi Seong-gye’s death.

The reason was extremely simple.

Their ancestors and chieftains had rendered such great service in founding Joseon that their names were recorded alongside Yi Ji-ran’s at the very beginning of Yongbi Eocheon-ga...

Yi Seong-gye had wanted to provide them with every possible form of support so that they could settle and live in Joseon if they wished.

But the Jurchen chieftains wanted to return to the nomadic life they had once led.

Having returned to their nomadic way of life, they chose instead to submit to Ming, which left them alone regardless of whether they lived as they had before and showered them with rewards like feed tossed to pigs.

The many chieftains gathered there were listening intently to Mentemu, the most powerful man among the Jianzhou Jurchens.

“You must be tired after traveling such a long way.”

Yi Man-ju was a former meritorious founder who had participated in the founding of Joseon, as well as the man with the greatest power in the Suksuhu division of the Jianzhou Jurchens.

Although there was no clear hierarchy among the Jurchen chieftains, his great power naturally allowed him to lord it over them.

No one objected.

At any other time, perhaps they might have, but with a crisis at hand, they all had to unite now.

"As you all know, Joseon is about to raise a great army determined to wipe us completely from the face of the earth. According to the beonho (Jurchens living around the border) who pretend to have submitted to Joseon, several hundred thousand seok of grain for military provisions have been transported to Hamgyeong Province."

"Could Joseon really possess that kind of strength, Commander?"

"From what I have heard about the days when my grandfather was alive, as well as the stories passed down until recently, Joseon truly did not have the capacity for such a thing. But according to the stories being told these days, Joseon’s national power has suddenly grown tremendously over the past few years."

"Good heavens..."

The Jurchens had not abandoned Joseon and chosen Ming because Joseon was an easy target.

They had made that choice simply because living under Ming and plundering Joseon’s food and people was more profitable.

Indeed, even in the Battle of the Pajeo River, in which Kim Daebung did not intervene, Yi Man-ju, the chieftain of one of Jianzhou’s great tribes, nearly died as soon as the Joseon army crossed the Pajeo River, only barely escaping the crisis and fleeing.

He had been in such desperate circumstances that he could not even look after his own wife, and he had failed to inflict any damage on Joseon whatsoever.

"Therefore, I believe we must not dismiss this as merely a situation in which Joseon intends to cross the Hamgyeong border and punish a few tribes."

From Yi Man-ju’s perspective, only a few decades had passed since the Gabyeolcho was still intact—that is, since his grandfather Ahapchul turned his back on Joseon—yet the Joseon army of today was incomparably weaker than it had been when Taejo Yi Seong-gye, whom the Jurchens often called 'Daehyeong,' was alive.

In the past, whenever the sound of the Gabyeolcho’s conch trumpets rang out, even thousands or tens of thousands of Japanese pirates could be trampled beneath the hooves of their horses...

But the Joseon army of today had grown incomparably weaker than it had been in those days.

The Gapsa guards and military officials were still strong, as they were elite troops, but the men dragged into military service...

The jeongbyeong (ordinary soldiers) who made up the majority of the army had long since become so weak that even a few arrows were enough to make it difficult for them to maintain their formation.

"Although Joseon has grown much weaker than it was when the Gabyeolcho was still intact, it is still strong enough to trample and plunder our territory if it sets its mind to it. Therefore, we must win a crushing victory over Joseon to protect our homeland—and, even more importantly, to capture more Joseans living in the north, sell them to Ming as slaves, and obtain iron and weapons."

Everyone nodded at Mentemu’s words.

In truth, it had been a long time since they had needed to unite and fight toward a single goal as they had when Genghis Khan was still alive and Northern Yuan was known as the Great Yuan Empire.

But now that they had learned Joseon was raising a great army, it was obvious that if they scattered and fought separately as they always had, they would be defeated one by one.

"We are infinitely weak when we are separated, but if we unite and fight together, is it not certain that we will be strong enough to fight and defeat even Ming’s elite troops?"

That claim was true to some extent.

Ming was eventually destroyed by the Qing.

And in the Tumu Crisis that would soon occur, the 'Ming army of hundreds of thousands' would be annihilated in an instant by the Yuan cavalry, already a shadow of its former self...

Why had that happened?

The reason was not that the Ming army was weak, but that Mongol and Jurchen cavalry were simply too strong.

"Joseon will never dare defeat us now that we have united."

In actual history, Yi Man-ju had been caught in a sudden attack and had been too busy fleeing to gather the surrounding tribes properly.

But now, multiple tribes were sharpening their swords and preparing to fight Joseon...

"...... We will definitely defeat Joseon."