He Became King Sejong’s Lifelong Prime Minister - Chapter 147

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Matchlock Guns and Northern Expedition (11)

Just half a si-jin (1 hour) ago, Lee Man-ju had thought that victory was already as good as theirs.

The Jurchen tribes’ only flaw was that they didn’t unite well among themselves, but once united, they prided themselves on being strong enough to make the world tremble in fear.

It wasn’t baseless confidence at all.

Even Kim Dae-bung, who was buried in paperwork in distant Hanyang, single-handedly handling the task of supplying provisions to a great army of over 25,000, had been wary of the strong Jurchen Cavalry.

However, that well-founded confidence, pride, and arrogance melted away like snow the moment they laid eyes on the Joseon Army.

“Commander, is this really the Joseon Army that was nothing but a ragtag bunch except for the Gapsa and some elite forces?”

To the Jurchen tribes, who had learned warfare through hunting all their lives and had actually continued fighting life-and-death battles with each other, the former Joseon soldiers had looked like nothing but a ragtag bunch.

Ride up on horseback, shoot arrows a few times, then flee, come back and shoot again, then flee again.

After repeating this several times, the Joseon soldiers’ morale would hit rock bottom…

They had thought that by seizing that opportunity and deploying Heavy Cavalry, they could easily trample them.

“Look over there! Even from a distance, there’s not a single break in their ranks and files, and despite us being in front of them, they show no sign of fear whatsoever.”

“Do you think I don’t know that?”

“Shouldn’t we reconsider our strategy?”

Lee Man-ju’s hand instantly moved toward his sword hilt.

He was contemplating whether he should behead this man making morale-crushing remarks to restore discipline.

However, he controlled his emotions and stopped himself from beheading the small tribal chief before him.

They needed to fight as one body somehow to have any chance of victory, and if he beheaded someone speaking the truth now, it would cause discord and be disadvantageous to their forces.

‘If we scatter, we die.’

Among the chiefs, one with white hair even voiced an inner sentiment he shouldn’t have while looking at the Joseon Army.

“It’s like seeing the Gabyeolcho from when Daehyeong (Lee Seong-gye) was still alive.”

Lee Seong-gye didn’t know Drill Training, so even when the Gabyeolcho was at its peak, they couldn’t align their ranks and files as precisely as the current Joseon Army.

However, their high morale and the way they all moved as one body was enough to remind him of the Gabyeolcho.

“Commander!”

“Shut up! So you’re saying it’s fine if our homeland gets completely ransacked by those Joseon Army bastards? You selfish bastard, so worried about your own life that you can’t even think about the future of your own tribe’s warriors and wives and children.”

Lee Man-ju had already adjusted his assessment of the Joseon Army, raising it several levels higher than before.

But he still thought it was worth a try.

‘The moment the Joseon Army realizes they have no choice but to be completely overwhelmed by our mounted archers, their morale will hit rock bottom.’

“Shut up and send out all the mounted archers to disrupt the Joseon Army’s battle formation first – that’ll solve the problem right away! Once their formation crumbles, we’ll seize that moment to send out all our heavy cavalry. If we crush them like that, we win.”

Warfare in this era had roughly similar forms, whether in East Asia or the West.

Even if the enemy had a million-strong army, as long as their formation collapsed, a small force could easily defeat them.

Conversely, even if one’s own army was numerous, if the formation collapsed, they would inevitably suffer a crushing defeat to a smaller enemy force.

“We are all warriors, but the Joseon Army doesn’t have many who can be called warriors! Only the cavalry called Gapsa and some elite soldiers deserve to be called warriors – the rest are essentially like dragged-along slaves. No matter how you put spears in the hands of lowly bastards who used to plow fields, their true nature doesn’t change!”

Lee Man-ju couldn’t even dare to imagine.

That drill training had transformed those he now disparaged as slaves into strong warriors.

So he mistakenly thought the odds of victory were on his side.

And his delusion spread like an epidemic to the other Jurchen tribal chiefs.

The common knowledge they knew was that farmers who plowed fields were lowly beings like slaves, and weaklings.

“I’ll personally lead the mounted archers and ravage the Joseon Army’s formation, and when their formation collapses, I’ll send a signal… Ahugai, you receive that signal and lead the heavy cavalry to smash the Joseon Army’s formation.”

“Yes, Commander.”

Lee Man-ju finished giving his orders and immediately led the mounted archers in a charge toward the Joseon Army.

And he prayed inwardly over and over again.

That those bastards only looked decent on the outside, but inside were still the weak Joseon Army he knew.

Lee Man-ju, who normally never sought Buddha at all, now sought Buddha more earnestly than anyone as he slowly charged toward the Joseon Army.

Riding at full gallop was something to do only when they entered the range where Joseon Army arrows could reach.

If they galloped at full speed from now…

There was a risk that the horses would collapse from exhaustion when they actually needed to unleash their attack.

“Commander, the Joseon Army has entered the range of our Mounted Archers.”

“Follow me! Everyone shoot your arrows freely!”

Among the Joseon Army soldiers visible to his eyes, only the soldiers carrying Long Spears wore Scale Armor, while many other soldiers were not properly equipped with Armor.

So if they shot arrows, many would be helplessly struck down.

“Shoot!”

As Lee Man-ju shot arrows, Joseon Army soldiers began to die.

The Joseon soldiers were also full of desire to counterattack, but the range at which Matchlock Guns could expect to hit was only around 50 meters.

However, the effective range of Lee Man-ju and the other Mounted Archers was around 150 meters.

It was a distance that the Musketeers and Spearmen couldn’t reach even if they tried to counterattack.

Therefore, counterattacking now would be futile.

And due to the characteristic of Matchlock Guns taking a long time to reload, if they shot once incorrectly, they would be defenseless for a long time, making counterattack even more impossible.

For this reason, as Lee Man-ju and his subordinate Mounted Archers watched the Joseon soldiers who couldn’t counterattack fall one by one each time arrows flew, they breathed sighs of relief.

While it was true that they had been frightened because the Joseon Army looked elite on the surface, they turned out to be like hollow Wooden Buckets, and they mocked them freely.

At the same time, they felt pride that the Jurchen Mounted Archers were still strong.

However, the scene that unfolded next shocked them.

“Reform the battle line.”

When that command was heard from various places, the Joseon Army soldiers immediately filled the empty spots of their fallen comrades despite being terrified.

The soldiers stepping forward trembled with fear, and some even urinated in their pants…

The important thing was that without a single exception, they maintained the Battle Formation.

Even the posture, gait, and movements of the soldiers standing in line matched exactly as if they were one person.

There was no sign that the formation would break.

This was possible because during Drill Training, soldiers who broke formation were subjected to very strict corporal punishment through brief but proper procedures, imprinting ‘breaking formation’ as something more terrifying than death in the soldiers’ minds.

“…”

It was absurd.

Even well-trained elite infantry begin to show gaps when Mounted Archers on horseback start shooting arrows at them, but Joseon’s soldiers continued to show no gaps whatsoever.

And from behind Joseon’s infantry, arrows shot by Joseon Army archers poured down toward Lee Man-ju and the Mounted Archers.

“Arrows are incoming!”

An enormous number of pyeonjeon and arrows flew toward the Mounted Archers.

Of course, since they were Mounted Archers running at high speed, most could avoid the arrow attacks, but still their numbers began to slowly decrease from the arrows shot by the Joseon Army.

From Lee Man-ju’s perspective, it was a tremendous disaster.

The Joseon soldiers hadn’t suffered major damage, and their Battle Formation was holding up perfectly.

Yet only the Mounted Archers, who could be called the tribe’s finest elite, were being consumed?

‘Damn it.’

Flustered by the fact that he had achieved no results whatsoever, Lee Man-ju slightly missed the timing to give the retreat order.

And Lee Sun-mong, targeting that gap, thrust forward.

The spear cavalry led by Lee Sun-mong, along with Pyeongon cavalry wielding the Pyeongon created by Kim Dae-bung, began slaughtering the Jurchen Tribes’ Mounted Archers.

“If you behead Lee Man-ju, His Majesty will grant a very great reward, kill him!”

Lee Man-ju desperately fled from Lee Sun-mong.

“My lord, if we continue like this, only our Mounted Archers will die! What use is it to circle around shooting arrows when their Battle Formation won’t collapse?”

“Damn it! Retreat! And send a signal to that bastard Ahugai to trample the place we just attacked! Long Spears alone won’t be able to completely stop our Charge!”

“Yes, my lord!”

Of course, the Jurchen Tribes vanguard charging toward the cavalry with Long Spears would all be slaughtered.

However, weren’t they currently in a crisis of losing their place to live?

Even accepting sacrifices, they had to deal a blow to the Joseon Army.

To the extent that the Joseon Army wouldn’t dare continue their expedition further.

“My lord! Joseon’s mounted archers, the mounted archers are targeting our flanks! At this rate, we’ll be annihilated!”

“Retreat without looking back, we’ll reorganize afterwards!”

“Yes, my lord!”

Lee Man-ju experienced firsthand just how insanely solid the Joseon army was.

Now he realized that the Joseon army was far more terrifying than the Ming army.

If the Ming bastards were just a ragtag bunch with numbers, the Joseon army had decent numbers and possessed an unbreakable strength.

**

Left Army Commander Lee Jing-ok was inwardly marveling greatly at the scene before his eyes.

It was natural for Jurchen mounted archers to be thoroughly crushed by Joseon mounted archers and spear cavalry, so that wasn’t what surprised him.

What was truly amazing was that the Joseon army maintained their formation without wavering even in the face of the Jurchen arrow barrage.

“The outcome of war depends not on the number of soldiers but on how well the formation is maintained…”

Even though there were casualties, the Joseon soldiers endured the mounted archers’ arrow barrage to the end.

Although the soldiers trembled with fear, and some even urinated themselves in terror… the formation remained solid.

If such an army had sufficient numbers, they could trample even the Ming army.

No, they would trample them and more.

The ‘Goguryeo spirit’ that had long slumbered within him suddenly awakened and began to stretch.

“Commander sir! The Jurchen cavalry are charging toward us!”

“Form battle formation!”

An anti-cavalry square formation created by mixing line infantry and tercio.

A strategy where long spearmen block cavalry approach while matchlock gunners endlessly fire their matchlock guns with a range of about 50 meters to annihilate the enemy.

Soon its true value would be demonstrated.

Even in the situation where heavy cavalry charged with spears, not a single Joseon soldier acted rashly, maintaining a perfect square formation.

This was possible because during training, even the slightest deviation from formation was strictly punished with whips.

The Jurchen cavalry shot arrows just before their charge.

At this moment, the battle formation wavered very briefly, but since the soldiers automatically filled the gaps immediately, the formation continued to hold firm like a solid rock.

“Ready spears, and matchlock gunners aim for the enemy’s torso!”

After all, anyone would die from a single hit anyway.

So aiming for that area would be the best choice.

“Fire!”

When that command was given, the soldiers of the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th rows fired their matchlock guns in sequence.

Before the power of the matchlock guns, not only the vanguard but even those behind them were massacred one after another.

Lee Jing-ok swallowed his saliva as he watched this scene.

“… The Jurchen cavalry couldn’t even get close, let alone break through the soldiers’ battle formation.”

Before his eyes now lay thousands of Jurchen corpses scattered about.

Anyone could see it was an overwhelming victory for the Joseon Army.

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