Into Goryeo land.
After the battle, one deputy commander spoke carefully.
"We've encircled the castle. Their provisions inside are drying out.
Now we just open the gate and it ends."
Another commander continued.
"Why do we stretch the siege and the search and the fighting this long.
Why pile this labor all the way to here."
Park Seong-jin watched soldiers covering the dead,
then opened his mouth slowly.
"We came to earn the name of victory."
The commanders lifted their heads.
"We harden this island into Goryeo land."
Those words struck their chests.
"Tsushima does not end in a single day's outcome."
"Even after they bow, we cut the habit of raising a blade again and repeating it along the sea road."
"For decades, for centuries, the wakō have used this island as a base and tormented the people."
Park's voice stayed low and hard.
"I know why they became pirates."
The commanders swallowed in silence.
Park pointed toward forest and mountain.
"The land to eat is narrow."
"Farming is thin, harvests are short."
"So plunder became their livelihood."
The wind shook the end of his long robe.
"We strike the origin."
"Breaking wakō does not stop at the sword tip."
"We change the grain of the land they return to, cut the road of plunder, and open another road of living."
A commander asked.
"…Do you mean to make Tsushima our territory."
Park nodded.
"We establish a foothold."
"We open the port."
"We set trade and fishing and production turning."
The commanders drew breath.
"When the cause changes, the result changes."
Park swept his eyes over the soldiers' motion again.
"The blood and labor of today become the foundation that holds this land."
"Do not forget the first intent."
Through the wind came their answer.
"…Loyalty!"
It was dawn on the second day of siege.
Inside the castle, sleepless soldiers leaned against walls with exhausted faces.
The firelight was faint, and cold wind pushed through gaps in the parapet.
Even the air seemed to shrink.
Then, beneath the gate, panting footsteps sounded.
"Open up, scouts, open up!"
Two scouts slipped in as if hiding.
Their armor was smeared with mud and blood,
their eyes unfocused.
Commanders and the Lord of Tsushima hurried out.
The scouts bent at the waist and reported.
"The rear ambush force…"
Their breath choked, the words broke.
A commander snapped.
"Speak. Now."
The scout forced it out.
"All of them are dead."
That single line swept through the castle.
The first moment was stillness.
The next moment the commanders went pale.
The next moment a murmur erupted among soldiers.
"All…?"
"That hundreds…?"
"So the castle is… completely…"
One soldier sank to the floor.
His hand trembled,
the tremor clicked against the stone.
The rear ambush had been their hope of reversal.
That place of hope was empty.
"They're monsters…"
"This war's grain is different…"
Blame surged among commanders.
"Who sent the rear force."
"It was the lord's order."
"He told us to lure a siege and strike the back."
"That lure was an idea. The ground below is fixed now."
The Lord of Tsushima raised a hand and shouted.
"Enough. I ordered defense—"
The words did not reach the end.
Fear had already split the castle's grain.
Below, soldiers began asking each other.
"If enemies stand behind too, where is the road."
"How many days of provisions."
"If hunger comes first, the blade follows from behind."
Some covered their mouths and stared outside.
Palisades. Pits. Low shadows.
No loud movement.
Only steady hands continuing work.
"They truly mean not to leave…"
"The end is near…"
The lord struck the parapet rail and pressed the scouts.
"Truly all dead."
"Not a single returner."
The scout said with tears.
"The enemy general commanded in person."
"In the forest, not one man could pull out a foot."
Those words drove into the lord's ear.
The general commanded in person.
He left the castle untouched
and cut hope first.
Cold sweat soaked through to the underlayer beneath his armor.
A chamber samurai said in a trembling voice.
"My lord. The encirclement line is complete."
Commanders inhaled.
"The rear ambush has vanished."
"There is no way to shake the ring, no way to pierce a messenger."
"The enemy does not hurry to storm the castle."
"They mean to dry us to death."
The Lord of Tsushima forced his shaking steps under control
and climbed onto the wall.
Below his sight were palisades raised overnight, pits, and tight formations.
Soldiers who did not give a single step.
It was a shape of despair clearer than words.
He tried to speak,
and his throat hardened.
A chamber samurai whispered.
"…My lord. The time for decision has come."
The lord's lips trembled.
"Why… to this extent…"
In the soldiers' hearts inside the castle, the same question echoed.
"Why has our life turned into this grain…"
---*
It was the open ground below Kaneishi.
A half-moon palisade wrapped the fortress,
and iron stakes in pits reflected weak winter sunlight.
When commanders gathered, Park Seong-jin looked up at the citadel.
A fortress of layered soil and stone hung on the mountain.
Its momentum was high.
Its breath inside was drying.
Park said.
"We delay the assault."
The commanders lifted their eyes in shock.
"If we force it, the blood of hundreds of our men flows first."
"Once we enter, rocks, fire, and thrown blades pour down at every alley."
Park tapped the ground beneath the wall with his toe.
"Kaneishi is the beginning."
"Iki Island, Nagasaki, Hirado, the Kyushu coast— they will stand on the same grain."
The commanders swallowed.
"If we spill thick blood in one place, the next road grows thin."
"We must connect roads."
Park raised a long spear and pointed north of the fortress.
"The pirates' base does not end with this one island."
"They exist on Iki."
"They exist on the Kyushu coast."
His eyes hardened.
"If we keep the grain of our force, the road continues."
A commander asked.
"Then do we take the castle by siege alone."
Park answered.
"The grain of siege is enough."
"Stench and despair rot the inside in days."
He continued.
"Inside, hundreds are pressed together."
"The moment one gate opens, we pay blood on that threshold."
"We use another method."
Park looked up at the wall.
"Provisions are short."
"The water line clings below the mountain."
"Command is shaking, commanders doubt each other."
"The rear ambush force is wiped out."
"Fear and division spread first inside the castle."
A faint motion showed beyond the wall.
Chimney smoke was sparse and thin.
A deputy commander asked quietly.
"General, if they ask to surrender, what do you do."
Park said without hesitation.
"We do not accept surrender."
Several commanders looked at each other.
Park continued.
"They hold pledges lightly."
"I've seen it dozens of times— today's kneeling becomes tomorrow's blade."
"Island pirates live by hunger and plunder."
"A promise weighs less than hunger."
Park looked at them.
"We draw everyone out."
A commander asked softly.
"And after we draw them out."
Park said.
"We send them north."
"We use them for land-clearing and palisade works."
"We pull out the root that lets them hold a blade again from this place."
The commanders nodded.
"…We will follow the general's will."
Park kept his eyes on the fortress and raised his hand toward the palisade line.
"Set the stake spacing again."
"Dig the pit mouths deeper."
His gaze moved to the engineers' backs.
Axes split winter wood grain,
and small chips flew onto snow.
It was the night of the third day of siege.
Moonlight was faint.
The wind was colder.
Below the southern wall of Kaneishi, five shadows moved carefully.
They had thrown off armor,
and held short ropes instead of blades.
"Now is the chance…"
"Shut your mouth. Even your breath, cut it."
Hunger and fear inside the castle pushed them out.
The gate would not open.
The lord and commanders could not set a decision.
Below the southern ravine, there seemed little human presence,
and between palisades a single gap looked visible.
A rope hooked over the wall,
and they began climbing down.
The first man relaxed as the ground neared.
"…Alive."
He stepped down and moved a few paces.
After about ten strides,
a sound of ground giving way rose.
The earth collapsed.
His leg was sucked into a pit.
"Uh… uh."
In the next instant, his body folded downward,
and bamboo stakes pierced flank and thigh.
Thud. Thud. Thud.
His body sank deeper, pressed onto the stakes.
"Aaaaargh—!"
The scream spread through the whole forest.
The four still on the rope lost hold.
Thump. Crunch. Screech— Aah—!
Two fell into other pits.
Each fall met stakes already waiting.
One rolled away from a pit,
then a hidden iron rake tore his leg.
As the last man crawled across leaves to flee,
two arrows from darkness pierced his back.
He lifted a hand,
then collapsed.
Only wind scattered their breaths.
The screaming from pits did not cut off quickly.
Even on the battlements, the scene was visible.
At first only a few noticed,
then the entire castle shook with screams and the sound of bodies dropping.
"What fell there…"
"It's our people…"
"Stakes… that's…"
Faces went white.
"Outside is also the end…"
"Inside is also the end…"
A soldier pressed his forehead to the wall and murmured.
"The road is gone…"
Someone sank and cried, clutching armor cords.
"Save me… save me…"
From far along the wall, the Lord of Tsushima stared down.
Fall. Impalement. Dull impacts.
Bodies pinned by arrows and laid on leaves.
It was the failure of escape,
and the snapping of hope.
His mouth went dry.
Governance inside the castle became not command,
but fear.
The lord said in a shaking voice.
"Traps… like that…"
The chamber samurai said nothing.
Below, five corpses in pits,
shadows around them,
and the unmoving ring of siege
set a single meaning.
They cut the road of running,
the road of breathing,
the road of lines.
"It's over…"
"Now…"
"Even the lord…"
From that night on, almost no fires were lit inside the castle.
Fear spread faster than fire,
and sank deeper than water.
Park Seong-jin watched that flow in silence.