Chapter 33

Overflowing

Hole Seven.

On a gently raised grassy mound, the members of 2nd Platoon aimed at the North Korean soldiers while keeping their bodies as low as possible.

"Huff···. Huff···."

"Hiss···."

The distance was less than 150 meters.

Not one of the twelve soldiers said anything unnecessary. They focused every ounce of their attention on keeping their assigned targets within the red dots of their sights. They were even careful about exhaling.

"You remember···?"

"···Yes."

If everyone aimed at the same North Korean soldier simultaneously, their firepower would be wasted. To prevent that inefficiency, Staff Sergeant Kim Hong-je had taught the soldiers a very simple method of target distribution when they gathered the previous night.

Starting from their own position, they would fire at the enemy directly in front of them. If a soldier was third in a line of twelve men lying prone, he would aim for a target roughly one-quarter of the way across the North Korean formation from the left.

The next target would be immediately to the left, then to the right. They would alternate between targets in that order, starting with those closest to their original target. It was simple, but it greatly reduced the chance of multiple soldiers firing at the same enemy simultaneously.

"Left. Right."

"···Left, right."

The soldiers continued repeating the words quietly, as though afraid they might forget. It was almost like chanting a spell. Bong-tae contacted the artillery battalion in the rear by radio.

- 33rd Battalion, 2nd Platoon. Engaging enemy reconnaissance unit.

- Ready to fire. Can commence firing immediately upon receipt of coordinates.

A brief, businesslike response came back. To hit those bastards with self-propelled artillery shells that would take several dozen seconds to land, they needed to keep them pinned in place. They couldn't allow them to spread out or retreat.

"Prepare to fire."

"···."

Bong-tae glanced over the faces of the soldiers lying beside him. They were all covered in dirt and sweat. Yet amid their disheveled appearances, their eyes alone were strikingly clear and alert.

Just two days ago, these men had trembled at the thought of firing a single shot. Now they were concentrating silently. There wasn't even the slightest tremor in the fingers resting on their triggers.

Bong-tae smiled faintly and pressed his cheek firmly against his rifle stock. Strangely enough, he was finding it easier to concentrate too. The ground was filthy, his body reeked of sweat, and his muscles ached all over, yet his mind was clearer than ever.

There were only two thoughts in his head.

Survive. Kill the North Korean soldiers.

"Shall we?"

"Let's do it."

BAAANG!

The instant Bong-tae answered, Song Min-jae's bullet pierced the back of a moving North Korean soldier's neck. It was the man wearing rank insignia on his shoulders. Before the man's body could topple sideways and hit the ground, the rifles of 2nd Platoon erupted in flames.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Ratatatatat!

One second to notice the comrade who had fallen beside them.

One second to turn their heads toward the source of the gunfire.

One second to realize they were under attack and flatten themselves against the ground.

During those three seconds, eight North Korean soldiers collapsed almost simultaneously.

"Ambush! It's an ambush!"

"Spread out! Spread out!"

"Take cover! Over there, into the sand bunker···!"

Urgent shouts erupted from the North Korean soldiers. But they were in the middle of a golf course, on the flattest part of the hole. Even running to the nearest sand bunker or hill would take at least fifteen seconds.

"There aren't many of them! We outnumber them! Push forward!"

"Fire! Fire!"

"They're on that hill! Shoot!"

"Yes, sir!"

After receiving the first volley from 2nd Platoon, the North Korean commander realized that the force attacking them didn't have particularly great firepower.

If the enemy had a force comparable to their own sixty men, or even larger, more than half his unit should have fallen in the initial surprise attack. But only about ten men were lying bleeding on the ground.

The North Korean soldiers believed they could concentrate their firepower to pin the enemy down, then direct self-propelled artillery onto their position and wipe them out in one stroke.

Ratatatat! Ratatat! Ratatat!

"They're returning fire!"

"Keep your heads down!"

Whiz! Whiz!

Bullets flying toward the hill tore through the air. Clumps of well-maintained turf were blown into the air along with the soil beneath them. The members of 2nd Platoon pressed their heads tightly against the ground.

"Fuck! They're shooting like crazy! Those bastards!"

"We can't even raise our heads!"

"Then don't! You'll get your fucking head blown off!"

After firing for some time, the North Korean soldiers detached a portion of their main force to circle around. About ten to twelve light infantrymen began flanking the hill where 2nd Platoon was positioned.

"Flanking unit! Circle around and attack!"

"There definitely aren't many of them!"

"Drive them back!"

On the wide-open seventh hole, this was the only hill in the surrounding area.

With the main force pouring overwhelming firepower onto the hill to prevent the enemy from raising their heads, the North Koreans intended to surround the position quickly, accepting a few casualties if necessary, and completely pin their opponents in place.

"Good. Everything's going according to plan. Let's move!"

"Yes!"

Bong-tae signaled his platoon members. All twelve soldiers ran down the hill at once. The golf carts they had parked earlier were waiting there. The platoon moved through the underground passage to the opposite side of the hill.

"I'll check outside first! Wait here!"

"Waiting!"

Bong-tae was the first to poke his head outside. He could see the backs of the flanking unit that had separated from the main force and was running toward the hill.

"Come up!"

"Yes!"

"Quickly, quickly! Run!"

The platoon members rushed out and dropped prone beside Bong-tae one after another. Without even having time to catch their breath, they mentally checked their remaining ammunition.

"Fire!"

"Kill them!"

Bang! Bang! Ratatatat!

The twelve soldiers unleashed a simultaneous volley into the backs of the North Korean flanking unit running toward the hill. A few bullets struck the armor plates attached to their backs and threw off sparks, but the platoon's gunfire swiftly took the lives of the flanking soldiers.

The North Korean main force fell into confusion. As they crossed the golf course, they had taken great care to examine their surroundings. There hadn't been a single person visible in the bushes on the opposite side of the hill, where the latest gunfire had come from.

"A-an ambush! There are enemies hiding over there!"

"The entire flanking unit has been killed!"

Their firepower was also divided. Should they continue shooting at the hill where they'd first been attacked, or should they fire into the bushes on the opposite side, where a new ambush position was suspected? The North Korean commander couldn't make a proper decision.

"W-where are we supposed to shoot?"

"We can't even see them!"

From the North Korean perspective, it looked as though one enemy unit had acted as bait while another lay hidden and eliminated their flanking force.

Furthermore, their original commander, the company commander, had been killed by Song Min-jae's first shot. They were now being commanded by an NCO who had been the leader of 1st Platoon.

Bong-tae had no intention of giving them time to reorganize. He led his platoon toward the underpass once again.

"Only the men from Cart Three stay behind! Everyone else moves!"

"Yes!"

"Keep shooting! We're going to catch them in a crossfire!"

"Yes, sir!"

Leaving four men behind, the remaining eight concealed themselves in the bushes and ran back down to the underground passage entrance. Bong-tae shouted toward Kang Min-jun.

"Hey! Kang Min-jun! How do we get behind those bastards?"

"We can go behind Hole Five! Follow me!"

The eight members of 2nd Platoon traveled directly beneath the North Korean main force through the underground passage. The underpass exit at Hole Five was located on the flank of the main North Korean formation. Once again, they had positioned themselves in the enemy's blind spot.

Before the platoon members could even assume firing positions, Bong-tae called for Hwang Gi-tae.

"Gi-tae! Transmit their coordinates with the observation scope!"

"Yes! Yes, sir!"

Hwang Gi-tae quickly captured the North Korean soldiers, who stood frozen in the middle of the golf course, through the lens of his observation scope. A transmission from the artillery battalion came through Nam Gi-baek's radio.

- Beep.

- Move away from the target area. Firing in forty-five seconds.

Only then did Bong-tae show his platoon members his clenched fist. It was the signal to open fire.

Ratatatatat! Ratatatatat!

"Aaaagh! Behind us again! They're behind us!"

"We're surrounded on three sides!"

"Where the hell were they hiding!"

A reconnaissance unit of sixty men had been surrounded by just twelve soldiers. They mistakenly believed that the force attacking them numbered at least forty men.

Deciding which direction to turn the unit, or whether to abandon everything and retreat even now, was an extraordinarily difficult problem for a platoon leader who had only just inherited command.

"Smoke! Deploy smoke and get down!"

"We're all going to die! Get down!"

Fwoooosh! Fwoooosh!

The North Korean soldiers chose smoke grenades, which were arguably the best option available to them.

But a 155mm artillery shell that came flying from somewhere pierced the exact center of the North Korean smoke cloud.

As the shell passed through, the smoke was pushed aside in a cylindrical shape, briefly revealing the sky. It was the last sky the North Korean soldiers inside the smoke would ever see.

Wheeeeeee! Wheeeee! Wheee!

KABOOOM! KABOOOM! KABOOOM!

Once again, three shells landed in succession. Turf that had cost hundreds of millions of won a year to maintain was hurled into the air along with great masses of earth.

The platoon members, who were closer to the target area than they had been during the clubhouse bombardment, grimaced. Most of them were lying flat on their stomachs and rubbed their abdomens as though the vibrations from the explosions had made them ache.

"F-fuck···."

"My ears are going to burst, seriously."

"But that firepower really is—"

Wheeeee! Wheeee! Wheee!

Wheeeeeeeee! Wheeee!

The bombardment wasn't over yet. At least twenty more K9 shells rained down on the area where the smoke grenades and artillery smoke were chaotically mingling.

"Huh? W-wait a second!"

"Get down!"

The twenty shells struck the ground almost simultaneously. Multiple Round Simultaneous Impact fire, or MRSI. It was an artillery technique in which shells fired at different times were made to strike the same target area simultaneously. Each K9 could make three shells land at once.

KAKAKAKABOOM! KAKAKABOOM! KAKABOOM!

A shock like a giant lifting the entire golf course and dropping it again swept over 2nd Platoon. The explosions overlapped until their individual sounds merged into a single deafening roar.

Although 2nd Platoon was more than a hundred meters away from the target area, several platoon members were knocked backward by the vibrations.

"F-fuck! Fuck! What the hell!"

"Aaaaagh! I'm f-falling!"

"Hey! Grab me! Grab me!"

Lee Jin-gu nearly fell into the underpass below. Fortunately, Kang Min-jun caught his arm.

Staring at the center of the golf course, which had been transformed into hell, Bong-tae shouted at Hwang Gi-tae and Nam Gi-baek.

"Hwang Gi-tae! Nam Gi-baek! You fucking bastards! What the hell kind of target information did you give them? Did you tell them Kim Myeong-seong himself was standing there or something?"

He couldn't understand, within the bounds of his common sense, what kind of fire support could possibly produce a result like this.

"···No, we did it the usual way."

"I didn't say anything special either···. They decided to do all that themselves."

The two men receiving Bong-tae's furious glare felt deeply wronged. They hadn't done anything except measure the coordinates with the observation scope and transmit them. Nam Gi-baek hadn't made any additional requests over the radio either.

Just then, a transmission from the artillery battalion came through the radio.

- Beep.

- Hole in one. Fire mission complete.

Once again, the artillery battalion's voice was utterly businesslike, without the slightest trace of emotion. Bong-tae snatched the radio from Nam Gi-baek's hand with an incredulous expression.

- This is the 33rd Battalion, 2nd Platoon Leader. Didn't you fire a little too much?

- Isn't too much better than too little? I thought you'd appreciate it.

Bong-tae pressed his lips together. It was a fair point. Too much was better than too little. Although this time, it seemed they'd gone a bit too far.

- W-well, that's true, but···.

- We'll remain on standby to fire. Out.

The transmission ended. Bong-tae shook his head from side to side in disbelief. He looked toward the impact area, which was still thick with smoke.

"···Are they all dead?"

"I-I don't know. Should we move?"

"No. Let's watch for a while."

The echoes of the tremendous explosions still lingered over Mount Baekbong. The blasts had spread along the mountainside, bounced off the surrounding mountains of Namyangju, and returned to Bong-tae several times.

"···Anyway, everyone, don't let your guard down."

"Yes, Sergeant Kim."

The platoon members watched the impact area with bated breath as the smoke gradually began to settle. Hwang Gi-tae searched through his observation scope, while the remaining soldiers scanned the hazy smoke with the thermal sights attached to their weapons.

"···I don't see anyone alive. Not yet, anyway."

"Could anyone even be alive···? Unless they're super soldiers···."

"What if there are survivors?"

"We capture them."

"Fuck···."

Contrary to the platoon members' concerns, nothing moved in the area.

The impact site was devastated. The ground struck by the explosions had collapsed completely. The interiors of the circular craters were blackened with soot.

Even the North Korean corpses were difficult to find. Only a few pieces of North Korean equipment protruded from the spaces where the ground had caved in.

Bong-tae beckoned Lee Hwan and Lee Jin-gu over. The three slowly searched the impact area. Without lowering their muzzles, they carefully circled the edges and examined the interior.

"Urgh···."

"Hold it in."

There were no survivors. After confirming that the area was safe, Bong-tae returned to the rest of his platoon. Just then, Nam Gi-baek's radio sounded.

- Beep.

- Second Platoon, report your current situation. We heard an enormous artillery bombardment.

"Sergeant Kim. You heard that, right?"

"Give me the radio."

Bong-tae took the radio and replied.

- All North Korean troops have been neutralized.

For a while, there was no response from the radio. Only faint static could be heard. A few seconds later, another transmission came through.

- Beep.

- Repeat your report.

Bong-tae chuckled.

- All enemy personnel have been neutralized. There are no survivors.

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