Black Corporation: Joseon

Events in Liaodong were reported to Emperor Xuande as secretly and swiftly as possible.

After confirming the report from Liaodong, Emperor Xuande let out a bitter laugh.

“Ha! Hahah! They’re starting in March? March? March?”

After checking the report’s contents several times, Emperor Xuande shook his head slightly and muttered.

“Being bold is good, but failing to read the timing is fatal. It’s fortunate we pushed him out.”

Emperor Xuande had thought it would take about three years for Zhu Qizhen to take action.

He had assumed it would take that long to gather around 300,000 troops and train them.

However, in just a few months after arriving in Liaodong, they had already gathered 300,000 troops and were preparing to invade Joseon.

“Did I make a mistake in selecting personnel?”

The generals Emperor Xuande had assigned to Zhu Qizhen were capable but had been passed over for promotion due to other issues.

“Since they’re capable, they should be able to build a solid army.”

However, these generals had exceeded Emperor Xuande’s expectations. Looking at this report, Emperor Xuande furrowed his brow.

“With their level of experience, this should be too much…”

The generals sent to Zhu Qizhen had the critical flaw of shallow experience.

Even Zhao Bingde, the highest-ranking commander, had only ever led 10,000 troops at most.

The problem was that there were no veterans like the Left and Right Commanders or their subordinate generals who had experience moving hundreds of thousands of soldiers and seeing the bigger picture.

***

“Hmm…”

As Emperor Xuande assessed the situation, he analyzed his own mistake.

“Was the funding the problem? Should I have sent it in installments?”

Creating weapons and maintaining an army required substantial expenditure. However, Liaodong’s situation was too tight to create and maintain an army of hundreds of thousands.

Therefore, Emperor Xuande had arranged to send funds for this purpose.

The scale of funds Emperor Xuande sent to Zhu Qizhen was enormous, nearly half of the Ming court’s annual operating budget.

The source of these funds was a secret fund accumulated by setting aside a significant portion of the profits from joint merchant groups with Joseon.

When sending these secret funds, Emperor Xuande had briefly contemplated.

“Should I send it all at once? Or split it into several payments?”

After brief consideration, Emperor Xuande quickly reached a conclusion.

-If it’s exposed while sending in installments, there’s a high chance Joseon will notice.

“Can’t be helped.”

Worried about Joseon finding out, Emperor Xuande had chosen to send it all at once.

It was a decision made without knowing how closely Joseon was watching Liaodong.

And using these funds, Zhu Qizhen had created an army of 300,000 in just a few months.

At this point, the nature of the army Zhu Qizhen had created changed.

They had become mercenaries.

***

After organizing the situation, Emperor Xuande reached a conclusion.

“Unlike my expectations, I hope this won’t require direct intervention. By the way, pushing Qizhen out of the Crown Prince position was definitely the right decision. With that personality, he would have ruined everything immediately if he had become Emperor.”

Emperor Xuande made a cold assessment of Zhu Qizhen.

However, this was both an excuse and an evasion of responsibility for himself.

He used his own son, his eldest son at that, as bait.

It was an excuse to ease the guilt of making such a ruthless decision. But this was merely self-deception.

The most representative example was the secret order sent to Zhu Qizhen through Wang Chong.

-If you obtain Joseon, I will allow you to proclaim yourself Emperor.

When delivering this secret order, Wang Chong had added:

“The choice lies with Your Highness.”

However, Emperor Xuande had removed the word ‘if’ from this secret order.

Emperor Xuande knew well what decision Zhu Qizhen would make, having suffered a major blow to his pride after being pushed out of his promised position as Emperor. In the end, this wasn’t a choice but coercion.

***

While Emperor Xuande was deceiving himself in Beijing, in Hanseong, Hyang was engaged in a heated debate with the military.

The reason for the debate was about the scale of forces to be deployed at Insan Garrison and its vicinity along the Yalu River, where Ming forces were expected to attempt a crossing.

“There are no major disagreements about the expected crossing points, first defense line, second defense line, and follow-up measures. However…”

Pausing briefly, Hyang tapped the report with his finger and continued.

“The troop deployment is the problem. Having just one division for the first defense line, including the forces at Insan Garrison responsible for defending the expected crossing points, is ridiculously insufficient in my opinion.”

A full-strength division averaged around 17,000 troops, though this varied depending on the number of soldiers handling supply and administration.

Hyang was pointing out that this force was insufficient.

However, it was the military personnel who questioned Hyang’s criticism.

“That should be sufficient for defense.”

Hyang immediately countered the generals’ response.

“Among factors that determine the outcome of battle, isn’t timing listed first, followed by terrain? They have taken the timing, and we have the terrain. Shouldn’t we then secure the next important factor, military strength? Think about the recent Manchu invasion by Yi Manchu and Mengtemu. What our Joseon army secured first was the advantage of terrain, followed by numerical superiority.”

At Hyang’s point, the military generals’ expressions became peculiar. Most of the generals present had participated in those battles. Hyang was bringing up those events right in front of them.

However, no one dared to step forward and challenge this.

This wasn’t just because the person before them was the Crown Prince, their current supreme commander, but because of the achievements Hyang had accumulated.

Hyang was the one who had developed weapons that overwhelmed foreign armies, methods to properly use them, and research into impregnable fortresses.

In the fields of weapons technology and military tactics, even seasoned military veterans couldn’t speak carelessly against someone with Hyang’s proven abilities and achievements.

Finally, Choi Yoon-deok stepped forward to respond to Hyang’s point.

“This humble one also participated in the recent Manchu invasion. Therefore, I understand well what Your Highness points out. However, just as terrain changes with time, our Joseon army’s weapons have also changed. Thanks to this, even with fewer troops, we have achieved an even more advantageous military strength. Look at just the rifles alone. Even the slowest soldier can kill enemies three times faster with a Type-Eul rifle compared to a Type-Gap rifle. A quick-handed soldier can fire five times faster. And it’s not just about speed. These are elite troops with perfect marksmanship. We also have the cannons, which has always boasted the highest power. What about the Type-Eul War Wagon? It’s a weapon capable of being worth a hundred, no, a thousand men. For defense, we have the iron wire net. This iron wire net is extremely difficult to breach without proper tools, so even one net is worth ten thousand men.”

At Choi Yoon-deok’s words, Hyang sighed.

“Huu~”

These men are relying too much on weapons alone!

After catching his breath, Hyang began countering Choi Yoon-deok’s arguments.

“Yes, General’s words are correct. The performance of the Type-Eul rifle is excellent, and the quality of soldiers using them is supremely excellent. However, proper aiming time is needed for perfect shots. When it takes one breath’s time to aim and fire at one enemy, what will you do if three, four, or five come charging in that time? Even if the cannons and Type-Eul War Wagon can be worth a hundred or thousand men, what will you do if ten thousand charge in?”

“For that part, using the iron wire net…”

“Even without tools, breakthrough becomes possible if you destroy the posts supporting the iron wire net. Of course, the enemy would suffer great losses in the process, but if they’re willing to accept that, they will break through.”

“Of course that’s possible, but it would require accepting unnecessary losses. This is something a general should avoid.”

“Wouldn’t they choose this if it’s the only way to victory? What would you do, General, if you were the commander who needed to break through the front line from such a position?”

“Of course, in the worst case, that’s true.”

While acknowledging Hyang’s words, Choi Yoon-deok continued to argue.

“But Liaodong’s forces are known to be around 350,000. After subtracting forces needed to maintain order in Liaodong, they’ll have 300,000 at most. That’s too few troops for such attrition warfare.”

“But it’s more than enough to break through a defense line held by one division. Haven’t you considered how the morale of our soldiers manning the second line will drop the moment they hear news of defeat?”

At Hyang’s counter-argument, Choi Yoon-deok closed his mouth.

He wanted to immediately refute the morale issue, but couldn’t easily do so. There were countless records of defeats from the previous dynasty, and even the disgraceful incidents during the Tsushima Island campaign demonstrated exactly what Hyang was pointing out.

Seeing Choi Yoon-deok’s embarrassed face, Hyang continued.

“The situation we’re preparing for isn’t just Jurchen tribes raiding our borders. If it were just that, I would have praised this plan as excellent. But that’s not the case, is it?”

“…”

At Hyang’s words, the generals stared at their desks with embarrassed expressions. Hyang’s point was striking their weak spot.

Hyang continued.

“We still have time to respond, and we have the troops. In this situation, fighting bravely is praiseworthy, but forcing isolated struggle is something that would deserve criticism even for high-ranking military officials. From the perspective of soldiers who must actually face the enemy on the frontline, wouldn’t they feel more encouraged the more comrades they have protecting their flanks?”

Though there was considerable crude language in the middle, the generals couldn’t bristle at it.

Finally, Choi Yoon-deok raised the white flag as representative.

“Your Highness’s words are judged to be appropriate. Then how many troops would you recommend deploying?”

“I think we need to deploy at least three divisions.”

At Hyang’s words, Choi Yoon-deok showed reluctance.

“Isn’t deploying three divisions at Insan Garrison and its vicinity excessive? If too many soldiers are concentrated in a narrow area, the high troop density could cause command confusion.”

At Choi Yoon-deok’s point, Hyang examined the map and opened the military geographic reference. After thoroughly searching through it, Hyang looked at Choi Yoon-deok.

“According to the geographic reference, that protrusion has a width of about 15 ri (approximately 6 km). Are you saying deploying three divisions in that space is too dense and would cause command confusion?”

“Since that space isn’t just open field but has civilian houses, and there are various constraints including communication and command authority issues…”

To Choi Yoon-deok’s words, Hyang responded firmly.

“Then I will personally go to Insan Garrison to take command. Surely there won’t be any commanders acting foolishly when I’m right there in front of them?”

At Hyang’s bombshell declaration, Choi Yoon-deok turned pale.

“We will deploy two divisions and do our utmost in command!”

“It must be three divisions.”

Hyang insisted on three divisions until the end, and finally Choi Yoon-deok raised the white flag.

“We will deploy three divisions.”

“Thank you.”

After receiving Hyang’s thanks, Choi Yoon-deok asked again.

“This means the position and nature of the second defense line must also change. It seems better to move the second defense line further north and change its nature from a defense line to an offensive standby line.”

“I agree.”

***

After the meeting ended, Hyang, alone in his office, grumbled quietly.

“If only I could show those men some World War I movies…”

Story Arcs