Black Corporation: Joseon [EN]: Chapter 768

768. A Self-Inflicted Disaster… (3)

Bang! Bang!

“Use all your strength to escape as quickly as possible!”

Admiral Ahn Sang-soo shouted loudly to his men, taking down an Aztec warrior rushing towards him with his reloaded sidearm.

However, contrary to the admiral’s desperate wish, the Imperial Army’s escape didn’t pick up speed.

One problem was the movement of the carts, and the other was the Aztec warriors swarming from all directions—more precisely, the Aztec warriors who were dead or wounded and had fallen to the ground.

To suppress the Aztec warriors rushing out in droves from the front of the escape route, they had to concentrate fire with the gun wagons. Each time, the Imperial Army had to turn the lead cart sideways, and each time, the procession had to stop.

The concentrated fire from the gun wagons decimated the onrushing Aztec warriors. The problem was that the corpses of the Aztec warriors who died that way and the heavily wounded Aztec warriors who fell to the ground blocked the road.

No matter how large and sturdy the wheels of the Imperial Army’s carts were, and no matter how strong the horses pulling the carts were, it was almost impossible to pass through while trampling on the corpses and injured blocking the road like this.

Therefore, every time the road was blocked like this, riflemen had to run out and move the corpses and injured to one side.

The problem was that about half of the riflemen who ran out were also in charge of guard duty.

This was to prepare for attacks by Aztec warriors disguised as corpses, Aztec wounded who still had strength left, and possible ambushes.

As this situation repeated itself, the Imperial Army’s escape became sluggish.

“Damn it! If we get bogged down here, it’ll be a disaster!”

Admiral Ahn Sang-soo frowned deeply at the unfavorable situation.

The admiral’s subordinates felt the same.

Tat-tat-tat-tang! Tat-tat-tat-tang!

Imperial Army soldiers cursed, pulling the triggers towards the Aztec warriors swarming from all directions.

“Damn it! It’s like we stirred up an anthill!”

“No matter how many we kill, there’s no end!”

“Kill to survive!”

As the Imperial Army was struggling fiercely like this, they soon gained an unexpected helper.

It was the men and slaves from the surrounding tribes who had been dragged in to be used as sacrifices.

“@#$^$$#@!”

“Huh?”

The Imperial Army riflemen, who were moving around to clear the corpses of the Aztec warriors blocking the road, all aimed their guns at the urgent shouts coming from one side.

There was a pen with sturdy wooden fences, and people painted with colors were shouting at the Imperial Army warriors with knives and shackles on their necks and legs.

The Imperial Army soldiers, who initially tried to ignore them, stopped at their desperate expressions and voices.

“Fuck it! I don’t know!”

In the end, Moksue, an Imperial Army soldier who was nearby, took out a small hand ax that he was wearing on his waist and struck down on the thick rope that was tying the entrance of the pen.

For Imperial Navy soldiers, a hand ax was one of the tools that they had to have.

This was because it was the most useful tool when they had to quickly repair a ship due to a storm or other accident, or when they had to cut the ropes thrown by desperately attacking pirates.

The rope was cut with two or three swings of Moksue’s ax, and the door of the pen was wide open.

The prisoners and slaves who came out through the open door held out the knives, shackles, and handcuffs that were binding their bodies to Moksue.

“Damn it! I saved you, and now you’re asking for your baggage back! What the fuck!”

Moksue, who had opened the pen, cursed and cut off the handcuffs and shackles of the prisoner who ran up to the front with his ax. Moksue, who had cut off the prisoner’s handcuffs and shackles, handed the ax to the prisoner.

“Damn it! Now do it yourselves!”

Having finished his own business, Moksue ran to join the main force.

However, Aztec warriors rushed in, not missing the gap, and Moksue pulled the trigger of the rifle he was holding.

Bang! Click! Bang! Click! Click!

“What the fuck!”

Moksue, who saw the gun with the magazine empty after firing only two shots, turned pale. When the Aztec warriors saw this and rushed in with shouts, the prisoners he had released rushed at the Aztec warriors with *macuahuitls* [obsidian-edged wooden swords] that had fallen on the ground.

The prisoners, who quickly subdued the Aztec warriors around Moksue, looked at Moksue. Moksue, certain that they wanted him to go with them, shouted.

“Damn it! Follow me!”

* * *

With the addition of the prisoners, the Imperial Army’s retreat actually sped up.

This was because the prisoners who joined the Imperial Army’s ranks began to play a big role.

They cleared the corpses of the Aztec warriors who had died from the fire of the gun wagons and rifles to clear the road, and they wielded their weapons at the ambushing Aztec warriors.

In particular, the prisoners looked like *Yakshas* [fierce, demonic figures in Hindu and Buddhist mythology] when dealing with the Aztec warriors.

Admiral Ahn Sang-soo shook his head without realizing it at the fierce and desperate sight.

“How much resentment must they have… but I can understand.”

It was certain that the supply source of the human meat that came out at the banquet was these prisoners. Ahn Sang-soo understood how they must have felt, knowing that their comrades had turned into food and that they would certainly be the same.

“Is it a relief that they know they shouldn’t go too far?”

The prisoners rushed at the Aztec warriors without regard for anything else, but as time passed, they did not stray far from the Imperial Army’s ranks.

They also realized that they should not stray far from the Imperial Army in order to escape this place.

* * *

After such a fierce struggle, the Imperial Army and the prisoners were able to break through the gates of Tenochtitlan.

Admiral Ahn Sang-soo, seeing the long causeways and bridges leading to where the main force was located, stretched his hand forward and ordered.

“Increase speed! Join the main force!”

At Admiral Ahn Sang-soo’s order, the carts lined up in a single row and climbed onto the causeway.

While the horses pulling the carts moved at a trot, Imperial Army riflemen and prisoners moved together, looking to the left and right of the carts.

“Enemy!”

Bang! Ta-tang! Tat-tat-tat-tang!

As canoes carrying Aztec warriors rushed in from the left and right of the causeway crossing the lake, the gun wagons on the carts began to fire all at once.

“This place is advantageous for us! Suppress the enemies as efficiently as possible!”

Admiral Ahn Sang-soo, who was commanding the unit, had a much more relaxed expression. As he had just said, this causeway was a very advantageous terrain for them.

Although it was a single, narrow road, if you imagined the carts running in a row and the soldiers lined up on the left and right as the Imperial Army’s front line, and the enemy’s wooden ships running across the lake as pirate ships or Ming Dynasty battleships, it was essentially the same as the naval battles that the Imperial Navy had fought.

The Imperial Navy was invincible in naval battles fought in the open sea where there were no shelters to hide.

“If only we had armored assault ships, the situation would have been over long ago! Come to think of it… an armored tractor would be perfect as an armored assault ship!”

Admiral Ahn Sang-soo, who had a slightly regretful expression while thinking about the armored tractor used by the Imperial Army’s mainland army, soon straightened his expression and raised his voice.

“Think of the enemies as pirates! Our Imperial Navy has never lost to pirates! Sweep them away! We must pass before those guys mess with this causeway! Don’t let them approach the causeway!”

Tat-tat-tat-tat-tang!

As if responding to the admiral’s order, the gun wagons on the carts poured bullets fiercely at the canoes rushing in from the left and right.

The Aztec warriors who were rushing in on the canoes became covered in blood and fell into the lake. Canoes that lost their balance and capsized as the Aztec warrior driving the canoe died and fell also began to appear one after another.

The tragedy of the Aztec warriors did not end there.

Shoo-oong! Bang! Kwa-kwang!

The *Biyeokjincheonleis* [rocket-propelled explosive arrows] fired by the Imperial Army waiting on the opposite side exploded, and the Aztec warriors were swept away by the pillars of water created, shattering along with the canoes or losing consciousness and falling into the water to drown.

In such a bloody battle, the Texcoco Lake surrounding Tenochtitlan began to turn red.

* * *

Ta-a-ang~. Ta-ta-tang~.

“Gunfire!”

As the sound of gunfire began to be heard faintly from the indigenous city in the center of the lake, the Imperial Army’s main force, which was guarding the surroundings in a circular formation, was also put on alert.

Click! Click!

While the soldiers of the Imperial Army’s main force were preparing for battle in a hurry, the sound of trumpets and drums was heard faintly from the city in the center of the lake.

As the sound of trumpets and drums began to be heard, the atmosphere of the Aztec warriors surrounding the area immediately changed.

“Woo-woo-woo~.”

As the Aztec warriors surrounding the area shouted the war cry of warriors and raised their weapons high, *Manho* [Battalion Commander] Park Soo-min, who was in charge of commanding the main force, immediately gave the order.

“Fire!”

Tat-tat-tat-tat-tang!

As the gun wagons fired in all directions from the carts that formed a circle, the ranks of the Aztec warriors who were rushing in began to collapse in an instant.

“Fire *Biyeokjincheonleis*!”

Bang! Peo-peong!

At the order of Manho Park, the *Wangu* [rocket launchers] that had been prepared fired *Biyeokjincheonleis* all at once.

The *Biyeokjincheonleis*, which were fired at a high angle to deal with the approaching Aztec warriors, soared high into the sky and fell into the middle of the Aztec warriors’ camp.

Kwang! Kwa-kwang!

The Aztec warriors caught in the explosion of the *Biyeokjincheonleis* fell to the ground without even screaming.

* * *

The area around the Imperial Army’s main force was cleared in an instant by the explosion of the *Biyeokjincheonleis* and the attack of the *Hwachas* [rocket arrow carts].

The Aztec warriors, frightened by the firepower of the Imperial Army, which they had never seen before, retreated without realizing it.

Park Manho, who had secured space, ordered the soldiers.

“Change the circular formation into a Crane Wing formation! The entrance of the formation should face the entrance of that causeway! Secure the escape route for the Admiral to escape!”

“Yes!”

Following Park Manho’s order, the Imperial Army changed the circular formation into a Crane Wing formation. The Imperial Army, which had finished changing the formation, slowly approached the causeway.

Through this process, the Imperial Army’s main force became shaped like a lid covering the causeway.

The Aztec warriors, seeing the Imperial Army led by Park Manho moving to secure the causeway for the Admiral’s party to escape, began to advance again.

Their goal was to surround the Imperial Army, which had its back to the lake and had formed a battle of desperation, from three sides.

“We could be surrounded if we’re not careful.”

Park Manho scoffed at the concern of his subordinate officer.

“What’s so scary about those guys who only have stone knives? When the Admiral arrives, we can just change to a Fish Scale formation and break through!”

Park Manho, who answered confidently, ordered his subordinates.

“Fire *Biyeokjincheonleis*! Make those naked guys piss their pants!”

“Yes!”

Bang! Peo-peo-peong! Bang! Kwang! Kwa-kwang!

As Park Manho had expected, the *Biyeokjincheonleis* terrified the Aztec warriors.

The huge mass that soared high into the sky with a loud noise and fell created a huge flame, smoke, and explosion, and turned the surrounding warriors into corpses.

As the brave warriors who had terrified the surroundings died without even fighting properly, the Aztec warriors began to falter again.

“What kind of sorcery is that!”

“Priests! Call the priests!”

The warriors, who thought that the explosion of the *Biyeokjincheonleis* was the result of sorcery, urgently looked for the surrounding priests.

“Stop that sorcery!”

At the order of the Eagle Warrior, the priests stepped forward with their scepters. However, the priests who stepped forward in that way became the targets of the riflemen.