- The Long March (遠行) — Ambush_1
Company Commander Gagyeongpil shouted in front of the tents.
Orders had come down.
The First Company, which had been gathered together and resting in rare leisure, snapped into emergency motion.
The enemy had drawn close.
They were deploying.
Gagyeongpil looked as if he had already finished preparing.
He was fully armed, gripping his horse’s reins tight.
His cuirass, pauldrons, and belly-guard—deliberately treated in a dull gray so they wouldn’t stand out—were fitted perfectly.
“Deploy! Deploy!”
As the squad leaders and the sergeants bellowed the same words over and over, the soldiers—already used to this—assembled in no time.
Soun also dragged out his weapons, panting under the weight, as if he were hauling a whole bundle.
“Three days. We lie in ambush.
I’ve already given the exact positions to the sergeants.
Pack rations for three days.
Finish preparations in case we meet enemy cavalry.
Then assemble behind the palisade within half a sijin.”
It sounded like the sergeants had already been briefed.
No detailed instructions were given on the spot.
Everyone scattered again.
Sosam called over the four men under his command.
“It’s been a while.
Once we go out, we won’t be back for a while.
Pack as much as you can.
Combat matters, but so does surviving the cold.
Got it?
Light, but warm.
We can load it on the horses, so bring what you can.
The cold doesn’t care how tough you are.”
“Yes.”
All four answered at once.
Soun had already brought his things out, so he didn’t need to go back inside.
He started toward the stables with heavy steps.
He had so much gear that he couldn’t imagine fighting while carrying it all.
“That’s too much, Soun.
Bow and arrows, and the weapon you handle best—nothing huge.
Just a small shield, or only as much as you can strap to the saddle.
If you load all that, your horse won’t even move.
And not that helmet—take a lighter one.
You know the one reinforced with leather.”
“Yes.”
Sosam turned back toward the tents.
Soun, reminding himself of the words “as light as possible,” began choosing again.
The standard gear—bow, arrows, spear, small shield—had to go.
But they also told him to carry everything, and then told him to make it light.
He couldn’t tell which rhythm he was supposed to follow.
What he used best, of course, was the sword.
He took up his heavy blade and strapped it at his waist.
Worried it might rattle on horseback, he tied it down tight.
You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.
He disliked the long cloak that reached past his height, but at Sosam’s urging he added it anyway.
He rolled up a small, thick sleeping mat and tied it behind the saddle.
Sosam, packing his own load, glanced at Soun’s gear.
“Flint.”
Soun turned, rummaged, grabbed the flint he’d dropped on the floor, and shoved it into his pouch.
“Gloves.”
He found the mittens with strings tied to them behind the bed and hung them around his neck.
“An extra bowstring.”
On a long march, if the bowstring snapped, the bow became useless.
Other things could be substituted out in the field.
A bowstring couldn’t.
Soun climbed back onto the bed, pulled out two spare strings from the locker, and stuffed them into the inner grip of his small shield.
It was Soun’s first long-range deployment.
Each time Sosam muttered something, Soun realized he’d missed something and hurried to add it.
There wasn’t enough time.
Sosam was calm, but fast, calling out each item one by one.
Cavalry carried a lot.
They had to pack not just for fighting, but also for camping and sleeping out.
Even after trimming, the load was never small.
Soun finally understood how foolish it had been to leave Taewon with nothing at all.
Back then, he hadn’t known.
If he’d known even a little, he never would have set out that way.
Inside the tents, the White Dragon unit’s frantic packing made it feel like a marketplace.
Following Sosam’s instructions, Soun was able to reduce his load to a proper amount.
It was light enough that he could carry it himself.
All that remained was to strap the mat, shield, and spear onto the horse.
Sosam ran his eyes over Soun’s kit, nodded once.
“Let’s go.”
Sosam turned and went out.
The three men of their group followed.
Soun sprinted last, chasing after them.
Heavy gear clanked from every corner of his body.
At the noise, Sosam frowned.
The others made no sound at all.
Soun’s equipment was so heavy that running was hard, but he couldn’t fall behind.
He forced himself to sprint anyway, and that made the noise worse.
Clank. Clank. Clatter. Jingle—
“It’s an ambush.
If you don’t get rid of that sound, I won’t let it slide.”
Sosam’s voice was a threat.
“It’s not just your problem.
You can drag your comrades into a death trap.
That kind of sound.”
He was right.
The others made no sound at all.
An ambush in a five-man group assumed combat.
Usually they moved in twos—at most, threes.
Lee Hui had devised their standard pattern.
Two shot arrows.
Two struck with spears.
One finished from behind with a blade.
They carried the same equipment, but the way they composed a team varied by training level.
It was how they gained the upper hand when they met a small number of enemies.
Before a direct clash, the enemy would take a volley of arrows, then have to deal with two spears, and finally meet the sword.
Because it happened at speed on horseback, the three attacks would come in staggered beats—yet almost at once.
Groups of five began departing through the rear gate.
Gagyeongpil left with the first group.
After passing out, the White Dragon unit immediately spurred northwest.
They galloped across a vast, empty wilderness buried under snow.
Soun began reducing the rattling sounds one by one.
He quickly found the cause.
The others’ equipment had been designed to kill noise.
Swords had cloth wrapped around key parts or were finished in leather.
Bows were tightly wound in long strips of cloth.
Shield rims were padded with thin leather and soft wood.
Besides the inner grip, shields had rings attached so they could be hung on the horse’s back.
Soun had torn those things off when he first received his weapons.
They looked unnecessary for fighting.
Removing them had created the noise.
Soun felt it—hard.
The jangling rang across the empty plains without stopping.
“Hold up.”
Sosam halted the group.
“Get down.”
He said it flatly to Soun—sternly, heavily.
This wasn’t the Sosam Soun knew.
“You can put others at risk.
Anything that makes noise, anything that stands out—we hide it all.
All of you, get in here and hurry—”
At Sosam’s order, the three men in their group crowded in.
They checked Soun’s load and corrected it.
Out on the freezing steppe, Soun’s gear was stripped off and repacked.
Anything that rattled was tied down.
Anything that made sound was wrapped.
Three men meticulously redid one man’s kit.
A group of five passing behind them slowed, stopped, and jeered as they went by.
That was the army.
“Hey, Scholar.
What now?
What’d you mess up this time?”
The speaker was a man called Paenghyeon—someone who did nothing but tease Soun every day.
He was young, strong, and could swing a spear like it weighed nothing.
His mouth, unlike his body, was restless—and his barbs were always aimed at Soun.
Now, seeing Soun stripped of gear on the roadside, he snickered.
“So the Scholar packed wrong.
It shouldn’t make noise, you know.”
“Yes.
It’s my first long march…”
“I noticed when you came out.
You were loud.
Like an empty cart, huh?”
“Sorry—sorry.”
“It’s fine.
First time, right?”
Soun smiled awkwardly.
“First time, is it.
Then what’s that—are you going on a picnic?
Jerky should’ve been tied to your belt.
Or you should be chewing it as you ride.”
“Ah—yes.”
The three men working on Soun’s kit ignored Paenghyeon, but Sosam looked uncomfortable.
As a team lead, it could look like he was meddling in another squad’s business.
“Master Paeng.
Why don’t you keep moving.”
“Sure, sure.
I just wanted a look—our Scholar here is going on a long march, after all…”
“Just go.”
Sosam’s eyes hardened as he rose in the stirrups.
His horse snorted, stepped back, then settled again.
Paenghyeon could tell Sosam’s nerves were sharp, but he couldn’t retreat in embarrassment.
In his own way, he had an interest in Soun.
“So standing here is a crime, huh? Tch.”
“This isn’t inside the camp.
We’re in a combat posture.
Not a time for jokes.
Go.”
Soun had never seen Sosam lose his temper.
Sosam had always smiled and made things easy for him.
“Well, sure.
I’ll go.
Bad-tempered bastard.
We’ll talk back at camp.”
Paenghyeon turned, then winked at Soun.
“Do well today, Scholar.
This is the battle you’ve been dreaming of.
You’ve got to smash the barbarians.
There’ll be fighting.
They say Gatreulip’s advance scouts are spread all over this side.”
“Advance scouts?”
“Yeah.
Same job as us.
In a full battle, our cavalry loses on numbers.
But scout against scout? Not then.
We have to win.
If you fall back, you just die.
General Lee’s coming behind us too.
Keep your head on straight, yeah?”
“Are the enemy really out there?”
“Yeah.
Do well, Scholar生員??*.”
*生員??: a licentiate who had passed the first civil examination