Black Corporation: Joseon [EN]: Chapter 1153

1153. Whose Responsibility Is It? Your Responsibility (5)

As the Hwachas [Korean rocket artillery] began to spew fire in unison, the Spanish soldiers who had been removing the barbed wire at the front collapsed like bundles of straw.

“Covering fire! Fire!”

“What are you doing in the next row? Remove the barbed wire!”

“If you move sluggishly, you’ll die!”

At the shouts of the commanders, the Spanish soldiers in the next row grabbed axes and cutters and clung to the barbed wire. While the Spanish soldiers with cutters and axes were desperately removing the barbed wire, nearby, other Spanish soldiers poured bullets into the Imperial Army trenches.

The commander, surveying the situation, called a messenger and gave an order.

“Tell the artillery to keep pounding!”

“Understood!”

The messenger, having received the order, immediately turned and started running, but collapsed, bleeding.

“Damn it! You, come here!”

The commander, cursing at the fallen messenger, called a nearby soldier and gave the same order. The soldier, having received the commander’s order, removed the gorget [a piece of armor protecting the throat]—the symbol of a messenger—from the dead messenger’s body and hung it around his neck. Then, carefully crawling back, the soldier got up at a suitable distance and sprinted to the rear with all his might.

* * *

As similar requests continued to pour in from the front, the Marquis of Alba asked his aide,

“Why are the cannons silent?”

“They are cooling down, sir.”

“Damn it… Tsk!”

At the aide’s answer, the Marquis of Alba clicked his tongue in annoyance.

Cannons were as sensitive as they were powerful. Therefore, special care was required even during battle, the most important of which was heat management. Continuing to fire in an overheated state could cause a friendly fire incident due to an internal explosion.

“It can’t be helped. But, the situation at the front is not good, so tell them to resume firing as soon as possible.”

“Understood!”

The aide conveyed the Marquis of Alba’s order through a messenger. However, the artillery battery remained silent. At this, the Marquis of Alba cursed and jumped up from his seat.

“Those damn French bastards! They should understand even if I speak roughly!”

It was an order from the Marquis and commander. Therefore, no matter how much overheating was a problem, it was their duty to carry out the order as quickly as possible. However, the French artillerymen, who made up the main force of the artillery battery, valued their cannons more than his orders.

What was even more infuriating was the silence of the Spanish artillery battery. Even if the French artillery battery was like that, the Spanish artillery battery should not be so quiet. Enraged, the Marquis of Alba rose from his seat and mounted his horse.

“I’m going to the artillery battery!”

* * *

When the command, including the Marquis, arrived near the artillery battery, the soldiers nearby began to point to the sky and shout.

“Avion! Avion!” [French for airplane]

The French soldiers, who had come all the way here to protect the French artillery battery, pointed to the sky and shouted. At the sight of the soldiers making a fuss, the Marquis of Alba turned and looked up at the sky.

From the distant sky, kestrels [a type of small falcon, here referring to early warplanes] were descending. As they descended towards the enemy artillery battery entrenched on the ground below, the kestrel squadron leader’s face was filled with joy.

“Gibraltar is the best opportunity! We must not miss this opportunity!”

There were still plenty of high-ranking officials who doubted the value of not only the kestrels but also the albatrosses [another type of early warplane, larger than kestrels]. Of course, the Taesang Emperor, the Sang Emperor, and the Emperor were actively promoting them, but the high-ranking officials of the military could not hide their doubts.

“Is there any use other than reconnaissance?”

“Is there really military value in the combination of guided bombs and albatrosses?”

“What about kestrels, even if we consider albatrosses?”

To prove their value to these high-ranking officials who doubted their existence, only performance in actual combat was the answer, and Gibraltar was the best place to demonstrate it.

“They are lined up very nicely!”

The squadron leader exclaimed with delight, staring at the approaching enemy artillery position.

The enemy cannons, lined up to attack the allied heights, were neatly arranged in a long triple row.

As the cannons began to come into clear view in the sight attached to the front windshield of the cockpit, the squadron leader pulled the trigger on the control stick.

Tat-tat-tat!

* * *

As the Hwacha fire from the kestrel descending from the sky raked the ground, bullet marks began to appear on the ground in two lines.

“Aaaagh!”

The soldiers in the path of the bullets screamed and fell to the ground.

“Here they come again!”

“Scatter!”

As another kestrel approached, the soldiers scattered in all directions in a hurry.

The Marquis of Alba and his aides also hurriedly dismounted and threw themselves into the nearby bushes. After strafing the ground, the kestrels rose again and circled around. As they circled, checking the situation on the ground, the kestrels began to descend again.

“Hwacha! Hwacha!”

“Shoot at those planes!”

However, the French soldiers on the ground were not just taking it.

Following the French commander’s order, they raised the muzzles of the Hwachas high, but there was a limit to doing so on the ground. So, the soldiers in charge of the Hwachas pulled the Hwachas onto nearby carts, or took the Hwachas off the mounts and placed them on their comrades’ shoulders, pulling the triggers at the kestrels.

It wasn’t just Hwachas.

Soldiers with rifles also raised their muzzles high and pulled the triggers at the kestrels. However, the kestrels were faster than expected, and the French soldiers’ shots missed.

No, it would have been fortunate if it had ended with just misses.

The French soldiers’ struggles became good prey for the kestrels that followed. The kestrels turned the ground upside down three times and disappeared into the distance.

“Is it over…”

As soldiers rose from here and there in the artillery battery position, where smoke was rising from all directions, the albatross squadron appeared.

“Here they come again!”

The albatrosses, following the kestrels, had large bombs attached to their bellies.

They were bombs with the propellant part removed from the guided bombs, the main weapon of the albatrosses, and filled with more gunpowder in that part. In addition, the size of the wings extending from the waist to the tail was slightly larger. This was to make the bombs fall more accurately vertically through the resistance of the wings.

Flying at a slightly higher altitude than the kestrels, the albatrosses changed their formation to an attack formation.

“A little slower! Straight ahead!”

Following the voice transmitted from the rear through the voice tube, the albatross pilots entered a straight flight at a slightly slower speed. The crew member in the back seat stared at the target through the periscope-type sight unique to the albatross.

At some point, the rear crew member gripped the lever in his right hand and shouted.

“Drop! Drop!”

The albatross, shaken by the dropping of the heavy bomb, soon regained its posture and gained altitude. The albatross, which had risen to a higher altitude, circled and surveyed the situation on the ground.

Bang! Kwa-kwang! [Sound of explosions]

The albatross squadron leader, having confirmed the pillars of fire created by the bombs dropped by himself and his comrades—at least two of which were clearly larger and more powerful than the others—smiled brightly and gave a large hand signal.

Following the squadron leader’s hand signal, the albatrosses began their return journey.

* * *

The Spanish artillery battery, attacked by the kestrels and albatrosses, was in a terrible state.

“Ugh…”

“Save me…”

Amid the groans and screams of the wounded soldiers echoing from all directions, the surviving soldiers were in a state of panic and could do nothing.

“Your Excellency Marquis! Your Excellency Marquis! Are you alright?”

“…I’m, I’m alright…”

The Marquis, whose ornately decorated hat had disappeared somewhere and whose face and body were covered in dust, barely regained his senses and answered the aide’s words.

“What about the others?”

“Some are injured, and some are dead.”

“Damn… Hooo〜.”

The Marquis of Alba, sighing, got up and surveyed the surrounding situation.

Seeing the riddled positions, the cannons that had become scrap metal, and the soldiers who were in a state of panic, standing or sitting blankly, the Marquis of Alba raised his voice.

“Pull yourselves together! Move the wounded and the dead! Clean up the scene! The battle is not over yet!”

At the Marquis of Alba’s command, the aides and officers, regaining their senses, busily directed the soldiers to begin the cleanup.

“Find out how many cannons are broken as soon as possible! And check when we can resume firing!”

“Yes, Your Excellency!”

The Marquis of Alba, giving the orders needed right now, leaned against a small rock nearby.

This was because his body was aching here and there, thanks to rolling on the ground after being swept away by the aftershock of the albatross bombing.

“Hooo.”

The Marquis of Alba, letting out a long sigh, muttered while looking at the still messy scene.

“Is this the ‘new war’ that the French and Italians were talking about?”

After the end of the Italian War and the subsequent war between the Habsburgs and France, European intellectuals began to utter the word ‘new war’.

-The war from now on will be different from the wars we have experienced so far!

When these words circulated, the Spanish military and nobles scoffed.

“Hmph! ‘New war’? War is war! Anyway, it’s just the words of those pretentious guys…”

This was the same for the Marquis of Alba.

However, the battle he had just experienced shattered his values.

-Both armies competing fairly with strength and courage.

-Soldiers of the enemy and ally facing each other directly and deciding life and death.

This was the war and battle he thought of.

And whether it was a pitched battle on the plains or a siege battle with walls in between, all of them did not deviate from this range.

However, the current battle was far beyond that range. The Imperial Army, which had seized that ridge, fought with only their gun barrels exposed, and in the attack just now, he couldn’t even see the enemy’s face.

“Is the new war without the dignity or nobility of a warrior? It has become a truly heartless war.”

The Marquis of Alba, who had experienced a new type of war for the first time, muttered with a hollow expression and then cursed.

“Damn Imperial bastards… Even if it’s a war, there is a dignity to be maintained! Cowardly bastards who don’t even know dignity!”

While the Marquis of Alba was venting his anger, there was someone else who was venting his anger at the airfield where the albatrosses and kestrels gathered.

Shin Nam-il, the pilot of the kestrel squadron, stomped his feet and vented his anger.

“Did you see those nasty bastards! They had to aim there!”

There were bullet holes all over the fuselage of the kestrel he was piloting.

The problem was that there were quite a few holes in the area right below the cockpit.

And in that location was Shin Nam-il’s that part.

* * *

The kestrel was controlled through the control stick and pedals.

The rudders and elevators on the wings and tail were controlled using steel cables connected to the control stick and pedals.

The problem was these steel cables.

To ensure proper control, these steel cables were kept taut.

“If this goes wrong, it’s perfect for cutting off someone’s family line, isn’t it?” [A euphemism for castration]

Hyang, having identified the problem, added a thick iron plate that covered the pilot’s buttocks, back, and even the back of his head to the seat.

While adding this part, Hyang joked to Wan.

“We have to make sure that we don’t get blamed by innocent wives for making their husbands impotent, right?”

At Hyang’s joke, Wan replied with a very serious face.

“Would there be women marrying crazy guys who gladly ride in ‘flying coffins’?

Hasn’t that part already been proven through the Bigu Unit?” [A unit known for its high casualty rate]

The Bigu Unit’s nickname was the ‘Bachelor Unit’.

Anyway, following Hyang’s suggestion, iron plates were added to protect the pilot’s buttocks, back, and the back of his head. What was interesting was the pilots’ reaction.

They, who shaved their beards and even their heads to reduce even the slightest unnecessary weight, did not complain about this part at all.