Doctor’s Rebirth - Chapter 444

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 444
After exchanging greetings with me on the sickbed and sending Tugoe away, Mudang Gwon-je arrived.
“Hehehehe, you brat. Learning martial arts isn’t easy, is it?”
“No, it’s not easy.”
“Getting shot with a single arrow and complaining about it—back in my day….”
I quickly interjected.
“My Master forced me to rest, so there’s nothing I can do about it.”
“Tsk, that Baek Rin fellow still coddles his disciples like a mother hen, even though I told him disciples should be raised like weeds.”
“…That…um… I don’t think you should say that in front of my Master.”
“What? Why?”
My reputation in the martial world for the things I’d done was already infamous…. But Gwon Je didn’t know what was happening in the secular world.
“If you’re too coddled, you’ll sneak out over walls and run away from home. Your age is exactly when you should do those things. When people interfere, that’s when you’re most likely to rebel.”
“…I suppose so. Yes, that’s right.”
The reflexive switch for social interaction flipped on—was this instinct?
Gwon Je still didn’t seem to know the real reason I was injured.
That I’d caught a cannon shell about to explode with my bare hands using the Dual Flower Grafting martial technique, charged out during the siege against the Suksin Tribe’s massive army, smashed their cannons, and ended up like this on the way back!
“Just live freely. Your age is exactly for that. When you cross one threshold between life and death, your martial arts open up one by one. Our Cheonwoo can’t do that. With that build of his, he charges like a bear instead of thinking like a fox, so he can’t approach the Tai Chi.”
“I see. Everything you say is absolutely right, Gwon Je.”
“Hehehehe, you listen well to your elders. Anyway, watch your Master’s mood and get back on your feet quickly. A man lying in bed just because of an arrow in his back—that’s a problem too.”
“Yes!”
Would Gwon Je go out and nag my Master, or wouldn’t he?
If he did….
‘Well. That’s not my problem anymore.’
That’s what social interaction is.
Drawing clear boundaries is the first priority of social interaction, isn’t it?
‘I clearly said it wouldn’t be good.’
I hadn’t expected Gwon Je to come, but Eun Wang-ya dragged him here anyway. Or did my Master pull some strings like Tugoe did?
I was about to ask, but decided against it.
Not asking about things that seem like they’ll become troublesome—that’s also social interaction.
* * *
Dang-a burst through the tent flap.
“Krahaha! What a pathetic sight. My rival!”
She rubbed her mask and burst into loud laughter.
I sighed.
“You’ve come.”
“Summoned from one end of the empire to the other—it’s truly miserable. The journey is harder than fighting.”
Such is the sorrow of Sichuan.
Click—
She removed her Hyeolpyeon-wang mask.
Beneath the mask was a worried expression.
“So, are you in a lot of pain?”
“It’s not a serious wound, so don’t worry. Actually, I could move around already, but Master insisted I stay in bed longer, so I have no choice.”
“That’s a relief….”
She exhaled a sigh of relief.
“You’re foolish.”
“Yes.”
“But you’re not so foolish as to be completely unreasonable. Still, are the Suksin Tribe really formidable enough to require even us to mobilize? We’ve been substituting military provisions with taxes all this time, and now that’s not enough…. Hmm.”
Dang-a’s brow furrowed. Jin Cheon-hee laughed.
“Even so, this isn’t the level where the Gaju himself would need to step forward.”
“That’s true. So you’re saying the lesser family heads should step forward, but not the Gaju himself?”
‘If they had conscripted the Gaju, he absolutely wouldn’t move. Those people.’
This was probably the maximum the imperial court could demand from the martial world.
‘Even in Kim Dra-gon’s martial tales—which could be called the very roots of the martial world—there are stories of martial artists fighting Mongol armies.’
The martial world was so deeply rooted and diverse that sometimes it was completely disconnected from reality, yet other times it was closely intertwined with the course of history.
‘And I am a commoner who bears the obligations of taxes and military service each year.’
Dang-a spoke.
“It’s time for the reputation of this Hyeolpyeon-wang to spread far and wide.”
Perhaps she had read some contemplation in my expression.
Click—
She deliberately donned a bright mask and stepped outside.
“Hahahaha~!! I shall dye this wilderness with blood!”
From outside the tent, Dang-a’s laughter, filled with madness, rang out.
Someone’s voice hastily clarified, “It’s not demonic energy! It’s one of the characteristics of the Tang Family martial arts!”
* * *
Despite Master being selective about visitors, so many people came to see me.
Though the conversations were brief, through them I gathered a rough understanding of what was happening outside the tent.
‘The army composed of martial artists seems to number around this much…’
Some were summoned regardless of whether they were from heterodox or orthodox sects.
Medium and small factions, as well as those with unclear affiliations, had been conscripted.
Completely rootless wanderers like tumbleweeds were beyond the imperial court’s reach, but those with families, homes, and land of their own could be called upon.
‘Including martial artists, it’s roughly 570,000…? That’s enormous.’
However, of these 570,000 or so, about 50,000 were supply units, and another 50,000 would remain to defend Danmok Fortress.
The number of troops being deployed was approximately 470,000.
“To feed this army, we’ll need considerable supplies. And the supply lines will be quite long….”
“Goodness, you bald monk. Lie down, I said lie down.”
Wang Gak-yeon glared at me with an intimidating gaze.
“Why?”
“Rather than go out and take arrows again, just rest a bit.”
Wang Gak-yeon said so and sat beside me, fiddling with a Suksin arrow for quite some time.
I asked her a question.
“They seem to be shooting well?”
“Yeah, they’re good. Even a common soldier appears to be doing about a quarter of what I could do.”
“…That’s insane.”
“You know what’s even more terrifying?”
“What?”
“They have many types of arrows, and they can shoot all of them.”
Wang Gak-yeon could see things others couldn’t because she herself wielded a bow.
She continued speaking.
“Do you know how damn problematic that is? They can do curved shots, strong shots, and direct shots all at once. As entire military units.”
“…I see.”
Wang Gak-yeon let out a sigh.
“It’s remarkable that we’ve held out this long.”
“The inner garment you received from Baekrin…?”
“I’m wearing the one you sent me before. But it can’t block all the arrows raining down.”
She already knew, of course.
Wang Gak-yeon continued.
“It seems the Patriarch is seeking my advice on this matter, but I don’t know what I can do.”
“Master is helping the soldiers.”
“Yes. But from what I can see, we absolutely cannot win.”
Wang Gak-yeon’s expression darkened.
While other martial artists merely grasped the situation as ‘Is it really that serious? Well, yes,’ only Wang Gak-yeon understood the hell they faced.
“Every archer shoots these. With overwhelmingly longer range too.”
“What if someone unleashes a Qi Sphere?”
“It would deal damage. But the martial artist who casts it will surely die. Unless they’ve mastered Shaolin Temple’s Diamond Body Scripture, at the very moment of creating a Qi Sphere, no matter how skilled in Hyeongyeong…”
Wang Gak-yeon made a gesture of slicing her neck.
She continued.
“You know this too. Even a master on the verge of Ascension dies if half their neck is severed. There’s one heart, two lungs, two eye sockets. If any one of these ruptures, you die.”
Humans die easily.
Even martial artists who could split mountains and cleave boulders were no exception.
This was something Jin Cheon-hee knew better than anyone, having performed surgery on countless martial artists.
“That’s what they are. Creating natural disasters by human hands. That’s the true nature of their cavalry.”
“Still, we’ve managed to fight somehow.”
“You’re getting absolutely destroyed out there.”
“Haha, we’ve won some localized battles at least. The defense of the fortress succeeded too.”
“A madman has an arrow stuck in his back and acts like he did well. If that had been a saw-tooth arrow, you wouldn’t be laughing. Those things gouge out chunks of flesh. Consider yourself lucky.”
Jin Cheon-hee’s eyes widened at those words.
“I haven’t seen such arrows while treating patients?”
“They apparently improved the design while you were bedridden.”
“…Wow…. That’s fast.”
“Full supply distribution will take time. But isn’t this the issue?”
“What are you talking about?”
“They don’t carry just one bow. They carry two or more. Think carefully about what that means.”
* * *
Wang Gak-yeon’s words lingered in my mind.
Still, I had already suspected several things.
‘Why do they have to resemble the Mongol army of all things.’
This world bore some resemblance to Earth’s 12th to 14th centuries.
If someone asked why there was a 200-year discrepancy, well… there was nothing I could do about it.
Yoo Ho wore Qing dynasty clothing, others wore Ming dynasty garb, and the hills behind had sugarcane and tomatoes growing—it was truly difficult to make accurate guesses.
‘If I had been a historian, I might have been able to deduce things more precisely.’
In any case, since entering medical school, the only historical works I’d read were the famous ones from my youth like “Stories of Romans” or “Ramesses,” and with only occasional history documentaries under my belt, I could only guess so much.
The standards I used as indicators were administration and military affairs.
Cannons existed, but in primitive forms, and firearms still lagged far behind bows in practical combat effectiveness.
Perhaps on the western continent, more advanced firearms existed.
In any case, drawing a bowstring was faster and caused fewer accidents than igniting gunpowder.
Even now, misfires occurred regularly, and occasionally cannons would explode from within without warning.
How did I know this?
‘I didn’t want to know either.’
When patients arrived, I naturally came to understand such things.
Before any major engagement, they’d fire test cannons, and when one exploded, didn’t the Baekrin Medical Guild barracks rush out immediately?
Moreover, the Suksin Tribe had contributed martial prowess to Genghis Khan’s Mongol Empire.
Martial prowess Mongols, no less!
If this were a film, history enthusiasts would have gasped and risen from their seats, crying out about such historical inaccuracies.
Martial arts enthusiasts would have started pushing through cinema doors, saying “Is Kim Dra-gon’s boom finally coming at Hollywood scale?”
Martial arts enthusiasts hunger for authenticity at their core.
In any case, in this martial world Disneyland where martial prowess, shamanism, spiritual creatures, blood lines, and even Eungryong coexist, it would be evolutionarily unfortunate if nomadic peoples alone lacked martial prowess.
Thus I, the doctor, sipped bitter medicinal broth while reasoning based on Earth’s history.
Without reincarnation buffs, system windows, or constellations in this damned situation, the only weapon I possessed was Earth’s history.
In the parallel dimension world of my home planet Earth, the Mongol army had truly played the game in the worst possible way.
So it seemed they were playing the game just as badly in this martial world.
In real-time? Improved new arrows?
‘Cannons. We need more cannons.’
With the blood of the K-people who obsess over artillery flowing through me, overcoming this required greater firepower, yet we inevitably arrived at the conclusion that our firepower was insufficient.
I, Doctor Jin Cheon-hee, sprang to my feet and cried out internally.
‘It would be better not to have this war in the first place!’
But if it could have been prevented, it would have been long ago.
The Empire would have pursued strategic marriages with the Suksin Tribe long before.
Sending envoys, receiving tribute, sending gifts in return.
Traditional diplomatic methods didn’t work with this opponent.
‘A way to prevent this war…’
Was this some kind of K-instinct? I found it difficult to let go of my obsession with greater firepower.
I wanted to increase the firepower first, then add wheels to make it mobile, then increase the firepower again, and then add wheels to make it mobile once more.
Lost in an endless cycle of these thoughts, I lay back down, trying to organize my mind.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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