Attack on Iki Island 2
The blades the forest spat out one last time came rushing down again.
From that moment, the battlefield shifted into the breath of consolidation.
Blue shields bit into the earth and advanced inch by inch.
Long spears drove straight in along the grain of killing intent.
Archers no longer swept the forest with their eyes; their focus was nailed only to the gaps.
When the forest's grain of hiding men unraveled, cooling fingers lay beneath the fallen leaves.
Beside them, broken resolve hardened together.
A prisoner Song I-jeong had dragged over was thrown to the ground.
The man, his face caked with dirt, clenched his teeth.
His eyes wavered first.
"This one was trying to send a signal."
Park Seong-jin approached and bent a knee.
"To where."
The man sealed his mouth.
Instead of pressing further, Park Seong-jin gestured.
"Untie him."
The adjutant's eyes shook.
"General, if we untie him—"
"Untie him."
When the ropes came loose, the man crawled backward on instinct.
Park Seong-jin laid his voice on quietly.
"Run."
The man's eyes flew open.
His face swelled with a question that rose to his throat.
Park Seong-jin added one more line.
"I will confirm the path you run with my own eyes."
Gritting his teeth, the man bolted for the forest.
His running form was familiar.
Footwork honed dozens of times revealed the grain of the path.
Park Seong-jin raised a hand.
"Do not shoot."
The man ran.
He cut between trees.
Brushed past a boulder.
Then—he faltered.
Two members of the martial unit were already standing before him.
When he turned, there were more behind him.
The man collapsed.
He looked like a rat lost in a maze he had woven himself.
Song I-jeong smiled.
"General, path confirmed."
Park Seong-jin nodded.
"Good."
He looked toward the forest and spoke very low.
"Iki Island is the beginning."
Beyond the trees, the Karatsu Strait hung faintly in view.
Beyond that, the larger situation took shape in documents and in the grain of roads.
Song I-jeong ran up.
"General, there are many of them."
"At least twenty shogunate warriors, thirty island warriors, and with the remaining pirates included, fifty."
"There are skilled fighters mixed in."
Keeping his expression fixed, Park Seong-jin asked,
"Can Lord Song take this."
Song I-jeong drew his sword.
Light sliced thinly through the dawn mist.
"More than enough."
Turning back, he poured orders at the martial unit, low and fast.
"Two—get up that tree, cut the straight route, break the ankles of runners."
"Three—circle left and choke their breathing."
"The rest—take them head-on with me, drive forward one step at a time."
Before the orders even finished, the unit scattered.
Their dispersed movement carved the forest into lines and seized ground.
Upward. Sideways. Forward.
Breath split. Leaves were pressed down.
The forest spat again.
Groups with black cloth wrapped around their heads tore out from between the trees.
Their eyes were bloodshot.
Animal breaths burst from their mouths.
They held blades, and those blades led with the face of death.
"Block them!"
Song I-jeong went in first.
The first exchange passed as light alone.
Steel flashed—and only then did a neck tilt.
As the head fell slowly, the body took two more steps before finally collapsing.
The second was a spear.
At the instant its tip drove toward Song I-jeong's chest, his toe struck first.
Thud—!
The abdomen caved in and breath burst out all at once.
As the opponent folded, Song I-jeong shifted position sideways.
The third was caught by the martial unit's long spear.
The point pierced the shoulder and swept down through the waist.
The body broke before blood could spray.
The remnants abandoned any grain of retreat and charged in greater frenzy.
"Die—!!"
"Do not cast away your souls—!!"
The shrieks made the battlefield sound eerie.
From above, arrows laid in low.
Whii—thud.
They shattered the ground beneath running feet.
Ankle snapped.
Center collapsed.
In the instant of falling, the shadow of the front shield wall and long spears swallowed them.
On the left, three martial fighters who had circled in stabbed the air behind heads.
They chose places where breath, not blade, would end.
Back of the neck. Armpit. Below the waist.
When hands locked from front and rear at the same time, the suicide unit tangled among themselves.
"Behind—! There's someone behind!"
Before the shout could climb out of the throat, the throat was cut.
Song I-jeong stood before the last remaining man.
The man tore off the black cloth and lifted his head as if in ritual.
"A warrior dies like this!"
As he charged with blade raised high, Song I-jeong moved once.
Thud.
The sword point punched through beneath the throat.
The man froze where he stood.
Still staring, he slowly sank down.
Before the words reached their end, the body stamped the conclusion first.
The shouting from the forest faded away.
What remained was wind.
Wind rolled leaves and carried the smell of blood.
By the time Park Seong-jin reached the forest's edge, the fight's ending had already been stamped.
More than fifty fallen Japanese soldiers.
Among them stood Song I-jeong and the martial unit.
Park Seong-jin asked,
"Casualties."
"Two from the advance party, one from the Gyeongsang troops injured—breath still holds."
"Good."
Park Seong-jin's gaze passed over the corpses and nailed into the forest's depths.
The forest's black hue still held the grain of remaining blades.
Song I-jeong grinned.
"That's why we're here."
Park Seong-jin gave a short nod.
His voice settled very low.
"From here on, the work grows heavier."
The day after the battle, the island's entire current changed.
Yesterday's stench of blood sank into the forest's shade, and morning sunlight settled quietly.
Women from the southern fishing villages cautiously came out to the water's edge.
Around the fortress, the sound of Goryeo horses' hooves set a steady rhythm.
The plaza before the keep.
Park Seong-jin gathered the administrative and military officials and opened a large council.
He looked around and spoke.
"Iki Island, as of today, is land to be guarded and governed."
A hush fell, as if breath had stopped.
"This land becomes territory of Goryeo."
"To uproot the pirates and the footing behind them, we must hold the sea's gate."
Faces of civil officials and local administrators flickered with unease.
One local official spoke carefully.
"General, this island is also, in name, territory of the shogunate."
Park Seong-jin answered at once.
"Then we establish order through occupation."
He pointed to the high window of the keep.
"This island greets a morning now where no smoke rises from anywhere."
"The lives of the people have rolled only in the grain of being taken."
"Now we show them whom they can trust to live by."
First: the census.
"We create household registers."
Civil officials' eyes widened.
"Survey the entire population of the island."
"Classify those who lived as pirates."
"Protect the livelihoods of fishermen and farmers."
"Place those who hold weapons under surveillance."
Song I-jeong added,
"What fishermen fear most is losing their boats and starving."
Park Seong-jin nodded.
"Then boats are to be protected assets."
Second: taxation.
"We change the grain of collection itself."
He jerked his chin toward the lord's storehouses.
"Collect only half of what the documents state."
"That half is enough to run the island."
A local official asked with a troubled face,
"Then the tribute that was sent to the mainland—"
Park Seong-jin's reply fell cold.
"This island's grain goes into this island's mouths."
Third: security.
"Station three tenths of the forces permanently."
"Any ship that lands without leave is to be sunk at once."
A martial officer bit his lip.
"General, even the force to guard this island alone is not small."
Park Seong-jin smiled quietly.
"That is why we turn this island into a military camp."
He pointed to the sea.
"Bind Tsushima and Iki Island, and they become one camp."
"We now hold the sea."
Fourth: public sentiment.
"Do not sow fear among the people."
"The permanent people of this land are its residents, and those residents are the root of order."
He stamped out specifics.
Amnesty for those who fled, and bring them back.
Protect boats and guarantee fishing.
Station physicians and interpreters in the southern fishing villages to handle disputes.
After investigation, separate those involved with pirates and put them to labor.
Civil officials' hands flew as they wrote.
The methods used on Tsushima were lifted whole—and this time with greater speed.
Song I-jeong let out a half-sigh, half-laugh.
"General, you're placing this island squarely into a framework of governance."
Looking out to sea, Park Seong-jin said,
"The land we stand on is a crossroads."
"They bit at us through this island—now we seize the sea's throat through it."
Song I-jeong stood beside him.
"Where next."
Park Seong-jin looked across the water toward Hizen.
"Next is the place they fear."
His gaze stopped on the horizon.