Chapter 26

Counterattack (3)

Two bombs fell in northern Pocheon, one on the road connecting Yeoncheon and Pocheon, and one in central Pocheon. They weren't aimed at the corps' forces, but had struck precisely the locations where North Korean tanks were concentrated.

"···Wait."

"Then that means···?"

"Huh? R-really?"

The soldiers began to understand what Bong-tae was saying, one by one. Only then did life return to the faces of the battalion members, which had been pale with fear.

"They're friendly."

"It's the Air Force!"

"The Republic of Korea Air Force is back! Fuck!"

"Kill them all!"

With someone's shout, the gloomy atmosphere on the mountaintop changed in an instant.

There weren't that many fighter jets. Perhaps four or five. But to the soldiers, the number wasn't particularly important.

The Republic of Korea Air Force had returned.

That fact alone made them feel as though an enormous weight had been lifted from their chests.

And apparently, the 33rd Battalion on the mountain wasn't alone in feeling that relief. The 7th Corps armored units fighting in downtown Pocheon began breaking through the enemy's front.

The Black Panthers, which until moments earlier had been cautiously firing their guns while using buildings and intersections as cover, now charged through downtown Pocheon at maximum speed.

The tanks following behind the massive hull of the lead vehicle spread out sharply to the left and right. It was a wedge formation. The corps' armored forces advanced straight toward northern Pocheon, crushing everything in front of them.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

A tank battle that had raged back and forth for hours had shifted entirely in the 7th Corps' favor with a single round of air support.

"They're pushing! They're pushing them back!"

"Good!"

"Everyone, pay attention. That's their battle, and this is ours."

"Huh? Isn't it all over?"

Staff Sergeant Kim Hong-je shook his head.

"No. It's far too early to relax. The armored forces driven back from downtown Pocheon might retreat this way, and surrounded infantry could also hide in the mountains."

The relief vanished from the soldiers' faces at his words. Thinking about it, that was only natural.

Tanks and armored vehicles moved along roads, but people could go anywhere. Retreating troops in particular would choose mountain paths like these over major roads if they had any sense.

After all, densely wooded mountain paths like this were the best places to avoid the eyes of pursuing tanks and aircraft.

"We're resuming security operations. First Platoon will watch from the summit, and Second Platoon will guard the forest road."

"Yes, sir."

Bong-tae gestured for the members of 2nd Platoon to gather.

"Pair up and keep taking turns watching."

"Yes. Understood."

Hwang Gi-tae took an observation scope from his backpack and began slowly scanning beyond the ridgeline. The remaining soldiers used the magnifiers attached to their rifles, or simply their own eyes, to search every part of Cheonju Mountain.

The busiest person among them was Kang Min-jun. He went around to all fifty members of the 33rd Battalion, checking each soldier for injuries and assessing their condition. He was particularly persistent with Hwang Gi-tae, whose neck wound had been serious enough to bleed.

"Sergeant Hwang Gi-tae. Could you show me your wound again? I think we should change the gauze."

"I'm fine. I'm fine. I'm not going to die from something like this."

Hwang Gi-tae laughed and waved his hand dismissively, but Kang Min-jun's expression was extremely serious. Looking at the bandage wrapped around Hwang Gi-tae's neck, he spoke slowly.

"What I did was only emergency treatment. Normally, a wound like this would need several stitches. I couldn't disinfect it properly, either, and there might still be dirt or foreign material inside the wound."

Hwang Gi-tae casually scratched near the wound. Hearing Kang Min-jun, who had once been a famous doctor, say that made the wound he'd thought was perfectly fine suddenly seem itchier.

"Hey, don't exaggerate. It's not like I got shot."

"An infection can be more frightening than a bullet."

The soldiers listening nearby pricked up their ears. Since everyone was standing guard in silence, the platoon members were all paying attention to Kang Min-jun's words.

"···What? Isn't that something from the old days?"

"It's still true today. You took the medicine I gave you, right?"

"Uh, yeah. I did."

"Let me check the wound again. Please stay still."

When Kang Min-jun, whom Hwang Gi-tae had considered a useless soldier, spoke in the slow but firm tone characteristic of a doctor, Hwang scratched his head and extended his neck again. Kang Min-jun removed the bandage, disinfected the wound, and applied fresh gauze and medical tape.

"The same goes for all of you. Even if you have a tiny wound, show it to me immediately."

No sooner had Kang Min-jun finished speaking than voices came from soldiers standing guard in various places.

"Uh···. Is a scratch this small okay?"

"I didn't mention it, but a branch scraped my calf···."

"Everyone, please wait where you are. I'll check each of you individually."

Kang Min-jun let out a deep sigh, then began running between the soldiers. Watching him, Lee Jin-gu quietly spoke to Bong-tae.

"Sergeant Kim, that bastard's actually pretty good, isn't he?"

"What? Who?"

"Kang Min-jun."

"Don't call a fellow platoon member a bastard. Besides, he outranks you."

"···."

Lee Jin-gu pressed his lips together in disbelief. He was fairly certain he'd heard Bong-tae call people 'this bastard' and 'that bastard' at least two thousand times.

After a brief silence, Bong-tae chuckled softly.

"Well, he's not bad. He doesn't freeze up during combat, and he was a big help when we detonated the Claymores."

"Exactly."

Lee Jin-gu muttered with an embarrassed expression.

"Actually···. Every time that guy showed up in my YouTube recommendations, I hit the dislike button."

"···Why?"

"Because he was always fucking showing off his house, his cars, and his girlfriend."

After a moment of silence, Bong-tae lightly bumped Lee Jin-gu's shoulder with his own.

"···Me too."

Bong-tae answered so casually that even Lee Hwan and Hwang Gi-tae, who were beside them, burst into laughter.

"Hehe. I guess everyone feels the same way."

"Wow···. Fuck, you too, Sergeant Hwang? Sergeant Lee too?"

"No, I mean, you can't help being jealous. He owned more than ten imported cars before he even turned thirty."

"True."

Kang Min-jun, who was treating wounds in the distance, looked curiously toward the soldiers snickering at him. When all four soldiers turned their heads away at once, he returned his attention to treating the other soldiers' minor injuries.

"Still, I think I'll subscribe to his channel now."

"What about the like button?"

"I'll have to think about that one."

#

The 33rd Battalion defended the summit of Cheonju Mountain until shortly before sunset. Fortunately, they spotted no North Korean soldiers.

The fighting in downtown Pocheon also ended quickly. The North Korean forces turned all their remaining armored units toward Cheorwon.

The 7th Corps did not pursue them recklessly. Rather than chasing down and annihilating the enemy, the corps commander chose to establish a new corps encampment south of Pocheon and reorganize his forces.

If they hadn't been caught by surprise from the direction of Yeoncheon,

If they hadn't issued the order to advance before properly identifying the enemy's armored forces, the 7th Corps might now have been seriously considering an advance toward Cheorwon.

Just ten minutes.

A single decision made during that brief interval had resulted in the loss of numerous tanks, armored vehicles, and soldiers.

Yet inside the command post, the commander of the 7th Corps showed no change in expression. In front of more than ten staff officers, he didn't let out a single sigh or show any sign of regretting his decision.

From the outside, he might have appeared shameless. But during wartime, a commander needed precisely that attitude.

The moment a supreme commander began wavering because he believed his judgment had been wrong, that uncertainty would rapidly spread down the chain of command. Reviewing mistaken decisions and assigning responsibility were matters to be dealt with after the war.

Just as it had established its encampment in Icheon, the 7th Corps constructed a long, snake-shaped defensive position along the foot of the mountains.

The infantry who had been dispersed among the mountains surrounding Pocheon were also recalled to the encampment, where they established security positions facing northern Pocheon and Yeoncheon.

Vehicles carrying wounded soldiers headed directly toward the medical battalion remaining in Icheon, while medics and military doctors rushed about without rest, providing emergency treatment and determining evacuation priorities.

The busiest people were the maintenance soldiers.

Even when tanks and armored vehicles weren't struck directly by shells, several hours of repeated rapid maneuvers and driving over rough terrain inevitably caused mechanical problems, large and small.

Out in the field, without proper maintenance workshops or lifts capable of raising vehicles, the maintenance soldiers switched on their flashlights and crawled beneath the hulls with their backs against the dirt.

The 7th Corps encampment began coming alive. Despite having just returned from an intense battle, the soldiers' faces were bright with energy.

Most of the soldiers chose to talk not about their own units' accomplishments, but about the Republic of Korea Air Force, which had played a decisive role in today's battle in Pocheon.

"Hey, did you see that? I'm telling you, a Type 99 was blown to pieces right in front of me!"

"Hehe. Seriously, if our driver hadn't hit the brakes properly, we might've been caught in that bombing too."

Beside the soldier stood a Black Panther covered in dust. Even from a distance, a long scrape left by a 125mm smoothbore shell was visible along its side.

"Don't exaggerate···. We were pretty far away."

"It's just a figure of speech, you bastard."

"So does that mean our communications are working?"

"Don't know. I saw the communications guys running around like fucking crazy···. Well, ours should be working again soon, right?"

"Then we might be able to crush those fuckers immediately."

"Probably. I heard the North Korean Air Force is pathetic."

Every conversation among the soldiers ended with hopeful predictions about tomorrow.

The appearance of the Air Force was taken as a sign that South Korea had overcome, at least to some extent, the communications and radio interference that had kept its military immobilized for two days.

"So, are we going to counterattack now?"

"The Americans will come too, right? Or the UN forces? You know, our allies."

"Probably? Maybe the war will end sooner than we thought?"

"Hehe. Who knows."

Just then, an officer's shout came from the distance.

"Hey! Stop chatting and put up the tents!"

"Fuck···. We're screwed."

They could talk about the end of the war all they wanted, but they still had to prepare somewhere to sleep tonight. The soldiers hurried back to work.

Vroooom—

Two two-and-a-half-ton trucks slowly entered a clearing near the 7th Corps' main command post. They were carrying the 33rd Battalion, which had fought the roughest and most intense battle of any infantry unit in the 7th Corps that day.

"33rd Battalion, dismount!"

"Get down slowly! Don't get hurt now that we're finally back at camp!"

"Y-yes."

Like every other soldier, they were covered in dirt and dust.

"Phew···. Fuck, I'm seriously dying."

"My legs are shaking so badly I can't take another step."

Staff Sergeant Kim Hong-je ordered the battalion members to wait in a clearing near the command post.

"Wait here."

"Yes, Platoon Leader."

Every soldier took off his heavy ballistic helmet and vest and set them on the ground.

Thud. Thud.

The sounds of heavy equipment hitting the ground could be heard from all around.

"Now I finally feel alive again."

Hwang Gi-tae flapped his sweat-soaked combat uniform. Bong-tae sat leaning against a nearby tree and shouted to the soldiers.

"Hey! Keep your ballistic helmets on if you can!"

"···Yes, sir."

A short while later, Staff Sergeant Kim Hong-je and Lieutenant Colonel Choi Pil, who had entered the command post, walked briskly toward the 33rd Battalion.

As soon as Bong-tae spotted Lieutenant Colonel Choi Pil, he gestured for the soldiers to stand. Seeing this, Choi Pil waved his hand from a distance.

"No, no. Just stay seated."

"Yes. Understood."

Choi Pil slowly looked over the faces of the 33rd Battalion soldiers. Their faces were covered in dirt and worn down by exhaustion. But not one of them was seriously injured.

"You did an excellent job defending Cheonju Mountain. And without any casualties. That's an achievement worthy of being recorded in the history books."

"First Platoon Leader did most of the hard work."

"He carried us. He's a real monster."

"Hehe···. I seriously thought he was insane when he started running with that grenade launcher."

Unable to endure the soldiers' blatant praise, Staff Sergeant Kim Hong-je turned his head slightly away. Choi Pil smiled faintly at him.

"If it hadn't been for you, Cheonju Mountain would have fallen. The armored units in downtown Pocheon would also have struggled to hold out until air support arrived."

Choi Pil nodded slightly.

"Well done."

He shook hands with every member of the 33rd Battalion, one by one.

As the soldiers shook Choi Pil's hand and heard his sincere encouragement and praise, they couldn't suppress the swelling pride in their chests, and their noses began to sting with emotion.

A short while later, Choi Pil beckoned Kim Hong-je and Bong-tae over.

"Platoon leaders."

"Yes, sir."

"Let's talk for a moment."

The three walked a short distance away from the clearing. Bong-tae noticed that the expression on Choi Pil's face, seen in profile, was somewhat grave.

Their mission had clearly been successful. They had driven the enemy forces out of downtown Pocheon and even received unexpected air support. Yet something still seemed to be troubling him.

Bong-tae cautiously spoke.

"Battalion Commander? You don't look particularly pleased."

"What, can our Sergeant Kim read minds now too?"

"No, well···."

"I hope I'm worrying over nothing, but we'll find out soon enough."

"···Sir?"

Choi Pil patted Bong-tae on the shoulder.

"The 33rd Battalion has been assigned security duty at the current command post. I know you're tired, but it can't be helped. Two men per post, rotating every two hours."

His voice returned to its usual calm tone.

"Ah, yes. Understood."

"The supply battalion is going around the encampment distributing tents, so lead your men over and set them up."

"Yes, sir."

Just because the fighting had ended didn't mean every soldier could sprawl out and sleep. They still had to pitch the tents where they would spend the night, check and replenish the ammunition used during the battle, and inspect their equipment.

Above all, security duty could never be left unattended.

Because war begins the moment you let your guard down, and it ends the moment you let your guard down.

© Jungle Pocket#22844