Black Corporation: Joseon [EN]: Chapter 298

“All sails are deployed!”

“Maximum speed!”

“That’s it! Good job!”

Upon hearing his subordinates’ reports, Gang Nam-gil, the captain of the Challenger-class No. 3 ship, ‘Maengjin’ (맹진, meaning ‘Fiercely Advancing’), clenched his fist and cheered. Beside Gang Nam-gil, the chief mate, who was directing the sailors, raised his voice.

“It seems faster than the maximum speed we achieved during training!”

“Good! Good!”

Gang Nam-gil, nodding repeatedly, raised his voice.

“Our ship’s name is Maengjin! Don’t disgrace the name of the ship! Destroy those pirates!”

“Aye!”

The sailors responded loudly to Gang Nam-gil’s command.

The morale of the sailors and officers seemed to pierce the sky. However, there were two people who did not feel the same.

“Uweeck!”

“Gack!”

Opening the window of the cabin located at the stern, the physicians who had boarded this ship for the first time were vomiting.

The physicians, who had taken seasickness medicine just in case, sighed.

“The ship and the crew….”

“Even the name is ominous.”

* * *

After the Challenger-class No. 1 ship was named ‘Challenger’ (도전자), the names of the Challenger-class battleships that continued to be launched were consistently… ambitious.

The name of No. 2 ship was ‘Invincible’ (무적), No. 3 was ‘Maengjin’ (맹진), and No. 5 was ‘Aggressive’ (진취).

The same was true for the Sea Eagles. From No. 2 ship onwards, they were named after fast birds of prey or ferocious beasts.

Thanks to this, those who named the ships and presented them to Sejong [King Sejong the Great, the fourth ruler of the Joseon Dynasty] had to wrestle with dictionaries.

“It would be nice if we just used place names like before!”

There were those who cried out like that, but it was difficult because the Panokseon ships [a sturdy, oar-and-sail-powered warship predominantly used during the Joseon Dynasty] had already taken those names.

* * *

The Joseon Navy had one criterion when selecting the captains of the Challenger-class and Sea Eagle-class ships.

‘Since we must experience unknown regions that we have never experienced before, we must choose those who are adventurous and excellent at improvisation.’

In accordance with these criteria, the Navy began to select suitable captains.

“Isn’t it too early?”

The Joint Chiefs of Staff and the high-ranking officers of the Army expressed concern about the Navy’s movements. This was because the selection of commanders had already begun when the blueprints for the Challenger-class ships had just been created.

However, the Navy scoffed at such concerns.

“Humph! It’s too late to choose people after the ship is built! We need to have enough time to pick and choose so we can select the right guys without being late!”

In the end, this issue was brought to Sejong, and Sejong sided with the Navy.

“The Navy’s argument is valid.”

Those who were selected in that way were people like Oh Ha-seok. The reason why Oh Ha-seok and his group went to Aden with Mansour was not just to teach how to use cannons. It was to see and feel the reality of the distant sea, which was different from the familiar coastal waters of Joseon, as future commanders of the ocean-going fleet.

As an aside, as the Challenger-class ships were being launched one after another, Hyang was able to meet the captains.

‘What, what is it? These crazy bastards!’

It was Hyang who was unaware that he was also a considerable madman.

* * *

In many ways, Gang Nam-gil was like a symbol of these madmen.

‘A guy who will either become a famous general or become a great bandit and become infamous.’

This was the evaluation of the family elders and village elders who saw Nam-gil in his childhood.

Although he came from a civil official family, Nam-gil rose to officialdom through the military examination because of his personality.

After becoming a military officer, Nam-gil steadily built his career in the Army and Navy. He became a cavalry commander and fought skirmishes with the Jurchens [a Tungusic people who inhabited the region of Manchuria], and he became a naval commander and commanded ships in the Tsushima Island expedition led by Yi Jong-mu.

While ordinary military officers preferred either land or naval service, Nam-gil liked either one.

On land, he liked being a cavalry commander and riding horses in the fields of Liaodong [a historical region in Northeastern China], and when he moved to the Navy, he liked firing cannons mounted on battleships. What Nam-gil hated was being stuck in fortresses or camps.

As time passed, with Sejong’s reforms, the separation of military branches progressed, and Joseon’s military officers had to decide on their career paths. From now on, the Navy would continue to be the Navy, and the Army—renamed from the Army—would continue to live as the Army. Therefore, military officers like Nam-gil had to decide on their future paths.

While Nam-gil was contemplating this, he heard an interesting rumor.

-The Crown Prince argued in front of the King and ministers that ‘Joseon must take control of the sea if it wants to expand!’

-The King also said that the Crown Prince’s words were reasonable!

Upon hearing the rumor, Nam-gil felt his hazy mind brighten up.

“That’s right! It is said that ‘men should play in big waters!’ Isn’t the sea the real big water? Eumhahahaha!”

The colleagues who were listening to Nam-gil’s words whispered softly.

“Is *that* the big water he’s talking about?”

“I don’t think so?”

In any case, Nam-gil was able to become the captain of the newly built Challenger-class ship because of his abilities, experience, and performance.

“Good! Very good!”

Nam-gil was very satisfied with the new ship. It was fast and had many cannons.

* * *

Since most of the captains of the new battleships were similar to Nam-gil, ‘capable madmen,’ the sailors under their command were also formidable.

Recruiting the necessary sailors for the new ships was on a ‘volunteer first’ basis.

The first reaction of the sailors who saw the posters posted throughout Joseon was negative.

“Why would I join a voyage to a place where I don’t know what’s there, and I don’t know when I’ll be back? It’s not like I have extra lives to spare.”

However, the sailors who regularly visited Mansour’s merchant ships and went to Aden and Alexandria with Oh Ha-seok immediately volunteered to operate the new ships.

The crew members who had visited strange foreign countries told their colleagues about their experiences.

“The courtesans in the taverns of Alexandria have hair like they’ve let loose gold, and their breasts and buttocks are as big as washbasins!”

“Even if you take a common bamboo mat from Joseon and sell it, you can easily earn a few gold coins!”

“If you go there, they sell spices like pepper like they sell rice at a rice store!”

The sailors, who were tempted by the exaggerated stories mixed with some truth, began to waver little by little.

And Mansour’s fleet, which regularly visited Joseon, also shook the sailors’ hearts. As people with distinctly different skin colors and appearances from Koreans, Japanese, and Chinese, such as the Ogwija (烏鬼子, black people) sailors, became less unfamiliar, curiosity began to outweigh fear.

And the court posted a new proclamation in time.

-Additional payment of rewards (褒賞金).

“Let’s go!”

“Uwoooo!”

Whether the proclamation’s effect was amazing, the reception window for receiving applications was overflowing.

What was interesting was that this was not only happening within the Navy. Many young and middle-aged people who heard this rumor knocked on the doors of the naval camps. It was a different aspect from the past when they avoided the Navy, saying it was ‘Shinryangyeokcheon (身良役賤, status is commoner, but the work is base).’

* * *

Because the ship was full of such people, the atmosphere of the Maengjin was full of excitement rather than fear.

However, the soldiers and commanders handling the cannons did not lose their last bit of reason.

“Handle it carefully! If you make a mistake, it’s not those pirates who will become fish food, but you guys!”

“Yes!”

The artillery officers commanding the cannons on the first and second decks shouted, grabbing the telephone after the preparations were completed.

“Preparation complete!”

“They say the preparations for the cannons are complete.”

Upon hearing the chief mate’s report, Gang Nam-gil checked other parts.

“What about the placement of the grapeshot cannons and riflemen on the first deck?”

“Completed!”

“Are all the riflemen positioned in the watchtowers?”

“Completed!”

After receiving the chief mate’s report, Gang Nam-gil turned his head back.

The other two sister ships were following the Maengjin, which he was on, forming a single-line formation (單縱陣) at a suitable distance.

“Indeed….”

Satisfied with seeing his fellow ships moving quickly and accurately, like the Joseon Navy that was notorious in the Joseon coastal waters after the reforms, Gang Nam-gil took out his telescope, stretched it out, and observed the pirate ships.

“The size is like a transport ship…. The number is about twenty? And they’re moderately clustered together. How grateful should I be?”

After confirming the situation, Gang Nam-gil handed the telescope to the chief mate, opened the door to the wheelhouse, and shouted.

“Go straight!”

After giving the order, Gang Nam-gil looked at the pirate ships and envisioned the future situation.

The Joseon fleet, forming a single-line formation, would charge into the center of the dense pirate group and tear apart the dense pirate fleet.

“Hmph! This is probably the first time they’ve experienced such a battle.”

Gang Nam-gil’s expression as he looked at the pirate ships resembled that of a beast in front of its prey.

* * *

If Gang Nam-gil was making the expression of a beast in front of its prey, the pirate fleet’s leader, Zhao, was making a similar expression.

“Single-line formation? Are they saying they’re going to push through?”

Seeing the formation of the Joseon fleet and grasping their intentions, the leader Zhao nodded slightly.

“If it’s that big, it’s understandable that they would think that way. I don’t know which country made it, but it’s quite large.”

The large gray battleship approaching from the front was quite large. It was as big as the treasure ships of Zheng He’s fleet [a famed Chinese admiral and diplomat] that he had last seen a few years ago. The problem was that it was a ship he had never seen before. He had never seen a ship that looked similar in Ming, Japan, or even Joseon in the corner.

“But they’ve underestimated us too much.”

His fleet was also one that had been pirating in this rough sea for generations. If they believed in size alone, it would be a fatal misjudgment.

“And….”

Leader Zhao glanced at the deck of his ship. There were six cannons on the deck. They were Ming army cannons that he had secretly obtained by contacting a Ming black marketeer some time ago.

* * *

It was a terrifying weapon that could fire heavy iron balls weighing almost 30 geun (approximately 18kg) up to 200 paces (approximately 240m).

The black marketeer who handed over the cannons confidently assured him.

“The best cannon in the Ming army! There’s no one who can beat this!”

“I heard that the Joseon Navy’s cannons also go far?”

At Leader Zhao’s words, the black marketeer shook his head.

“Joseon? Ah, Joseon also uses a lot of cannons. But how good can the performance of cannons made by such a small country be? This cannon is made in Ming, made in Ming!”

* * *

Leader Zhao, pondering the words of the black marketeer, came out of his thoughts and checked the situation.

“Are the cannons ready?”

“Yes, leader!”

“And the fire arrows (火箭, bulhwasal) are properly prepared?”

“Yes, leader!”

“This time, tell them to aim only at the sails properly. Don’t make us suffer from putting out fires because they hit the wrong place like last time.”

“Yes, leader!”

Fire arrows were one of the attack methods most commonly used by pirates. Fire was the biggest enemy of wooden ships. Of course, hulls that floated on the sea and contained moisture for a long time did not catch fire easily. However, the moment the fire arrow hit, the attention of the opposing sailors was distracted, creating an opening.

In addition to that purpose, fire arrows were useful, and the first thing they aimed for when firing fire arrows was the sails of the opposing ship. The moment the sails burned, the opponent would be like a fish on a cutting board.

After confirming that his subordinate pirates were ready, Leader Zhao looked at the other pirate ships. As the enemy ships approached in a single-line formation, his fellow ships were slowly gathering.

The moment the enemies forming the single-line formation jumped into the center, the pirate ships gathered around would all rush in.

Those ships he was seeing for the first time might have been planning to break through, believing only in their size, but the situation would be like a wild boar trapped in a net.