Chapter 2 – Before the Gate That Would Not Open
They retreated toward the gate, fleeing the enemy.
Archers on the wall fired down in support.
The enemy cavalry could not ride any closer.
The charge had stopped.
But the rain of arrows grew even heavier.
Yeong-woo crouched behind a shield he had picked up during the retreat.
He hunched low, trying to leave not even a strand of hair exposed.
Every time an arrow struck, the thin wooden board shuddered violently.
It felt as though his lifeline had been stretched thin and pulled tight.
As if it might snap at any moment.
But the gate did not open.
Yeong-woo turned his head.
About a hundred and fifty paces away, heavy cavalry were forming up.
They were waiting for the moment the gate opened.
"Open the gate, you bastards!"
It was So Cheol-ryong.
He was still alive.
When curses failed, he began to plead.
"Please! Just open the gate! Please!"
A young recruit behind them shouted through tears.
"Open the gate!"
War was not only outside the walls.
A shout came down from above.
"We can't open it! The enemy are mixed in!"
Yeong-woo looked back again.
Enemy heavy cavalry were waiting for the order to charge.
If they charged, they would take losses too.
But that was what commanders did.
If victory was possible, they would push their own soldiers into the valley of death.
Arrows from the gathered archers began dropping the confused soldiers one by one in front of the gate.
At this rate, they would all die.
The battle had already been unwinnable.
Why had they been sent outside the walls in the first place?
Yeong-woo felt the urge to cut down the man standing atop the gate tower.
He grabbed Cheol-ryong and pulled him down.
"They're not opening it! Grab a shield and keep your head down!"
Cheol-un quickly dropped to the ground and raised his shield.
When they had first reached the gate, they thought they had survived.
Now the three of them crouched like moles pressed against the earth.
"If the cavalry charges, we're finished."
"I think they will."
Yeong-woo spoke calmly.
"The target isn't us. It's the gate."
"So what do we do?"
"We fight. What else is there?"
There were no officers.
No banner officers.
No veterans.
They had probably died during the retreat.
Yeong-woo shouted.
"Form up! Ten-man line! Shields forward!"
Who would listen to a lowly archer?
But when Cheol-ryong and Cheol-un stepped forward, soldiers who still valued their lives moved beside them.
There was nowhere to retreat.
Even those who wanted to stand behind had no space.
"Raise the shields! Higher!"
"Long spears forward!"
It was easier said than done.
Yeong-woo struck their backs and shoulders with a stick.
It was the method Lieutenant Jong-hui used.
The soldiers reacted instinctively.
The line formed.
The slaughter under the rain of arrows slowed.
It did not stop completely.
But fewer men died.
Yeong-woo pressed himself behind the shield of a pavise bearer.
No one was coming to help them.
They had to survive on their own.
The gate remained closed.
They were meant to die outside the walls, not inside them.
But—
Yeong-woo had no intention of dying quietly.