Chapter 80 - Black Plague (3)

The whirlwind catapult was a siege engine that had been used in the Central Plains for centuries. Much improved from the primitive designs of the Spring and Autumn period, this ranged weapon was built around a pillar called a skyward post, driven into the ground to anchor the entire structure, with the main components mounted on top so they could rotate. As that rotating design suggested, its chief advantage was the ability to change its direction of fire quickly. Its simple construction also made assembly exceedingly easy: the parts could be transported separately and readily assembled whenever needed. For that reason, large expeditions even brought dedicated whirlwind-catapult units. Nearly five thousand catapult crewmen had accompanied this expedition to Guishui as well.

Dong Bongsu was now asking to operate those catapults as he saw fit.

"That's right. And move this camp back to the Yellow River immediately."

Control of the whirlwind catapults alone was a considerable demand, but he did not stop there.

"Move the camp all the way south to the Yellow River? Are you telling me to prepare to withdraw?"

"No. Just move the camp back, and either kill or thoroughly wash every animal in it. The soldiers are no exception. Kill everyone you are certain is already sick, and have those who aren't sick wash themselves thoroughly in the Yellow River at once."

Lee Jasong had no idea why he was saying these things, yet somehow he inspired trust. Besides, Ear Ghost—Dong Bongsu—was the only lifeline he had left. Had there been another, he might have weighed his options, but he could no longer afford to be choosy.

He pretended to consider it for a moment, then agreed to everything. Dong Bongsu immediately continued.

"Finally, don't bury or burn the bodies of soldiers who died of the epidemic. Move every last one of them near the stone-throwing engines."

Once again, Lee Jasong agreed.

'I knew it... '​

There was something different about this man. The way he had laid everything out without hesitation the moment they met, as though he had been waiting, meant he must already have had a plan!

Nor were his demands particularly difficult to fulfill. He wasn't asking for command of the army, merely control of the stone-throwing engines and a slight relocation of the camp to the rear.

With their discussion over, Dong Bongsu walked past Lee Jasong toward the command tent's entrance.

How strange. The sound of the hanging screen being lifted, which had seemed so gloomy only a short while ago, now sounded quite cheerful. Pricking up his ears, Lee Jasong called after the departing man.

"Are you confident?"

There was no need to specify who or what he meant.

Dong Bongsu stopped short. The strands of the screen, pushed upward by his face, swung down and tapped against his cheeks and jaw. Was it merely Lee Jasong's imagination that they resembled the whirlwind catapults' stones battering futilely against Guishui's walls?

"Things will turn out as you wish."

It was little different from the answer he had given when they first met in Datong. He had been the same then, too.

["I merely gave you the answer you wanted."]

With those final words, Dong Bongsu vanished from Lee Jasong's sight, just as he had then.

CLATTER.

The screen that had struck Dong Bongsu's cheeks now merely chattered noisily against itself.

Lee Jasong remained still until its strands had come to a complete stop. Then he leaned back and smacked his lips.

"Will things really turn out as I wish...?"

And do you know the answer I truly want...?

His hollow thoughts struck the screen and shattered, unable to travel any farther.

Lee Jasong immediately carried out all of Dong Bongsu's requests.

He handed over the hundred-odd whirlwind catapults, moved the camp south to the banks of the Yellow River, and had every corpse claimed by the epidemic transported to the catapult unit's position before Guishui Fortress, where Dong Bongsu had gone.

He also exterminated the rats hiding among the supplies and elsewhere, and ruthlessly killed soldiers who showed clear signs of illness. Every surviving soldier was ordered to bathe.

The sickening stench of rotting corpses filled the camp, but Lee Jasong assisted with everything Dong Bongsu had requested, just as he had promised. He even assigned the five thousand catapult crewmen to Dong Bongsu's command.

Dong Bongsu was now a commander leading not only a thousand mercenaries, but five thousand artillerymen as well.

He kept his Status window open rather than dismissing it, so he could respond immediately to even the slightest change. At the same time, he set straight to work on the project he had devised over the past several days of travel.

"Dismantle every whirlwind catapult immediately."

Had Lee Jasong been there to hear that order, he would likely have been horrified. Dong Bongsu was dismantling the very catapults he had been expected to use against the walls? It was hardly an action a commander could readily understand. But Lee Jasong was overseeing the camp's relocation. The only people here were Dong Bongsu, the seven hundred mercenaries attending him—roughly three hundred had been rendered unfit for combat by plague on the journey—and the crewmen responsible for operating the whirlwind catapults.

Though the crewmen could not immediately understand the order, they did not disobey. Soldiers had no choice in the matter anyway. Were they not mere rank-and-file men, obliged to do whatever they were told, and to refrain from anything they had not been told to do, even at the cost of their lives?

THUD. CLATTER. THUD. CLATTER...

For a time, the site bustled with the sounds of joints being loosened and components taken apart.

The whirlwind catapults had been assembled here in the first place, and with their specialist crews handling the task themselves, the dismantling was soon complete.

They were left with a hundred skyward posts and throwing arms, along with the assorted fittings and ropes that connected them.

Dong Bongsu then ordered everything moved much farther away from Guishui Fortress. Neither the crewmen nor the mercenaries knew why, but they faithfully carried out his orders.

The work was soon finished, and he immediately began the next task.

"Watch what I do closely, then reassemble these parts in the new configuration."

Without even waiting for the soldiers' reply, Dong Bongsu set to work. For him, time was now like a bomb's fuse. The greatest problem was that he knew neither the bomb's power nor the fuse's length.

With no way of knowing when it would explode, he could not afford to waste a moment.

THUD. SWISH. SNAP...

Under his swift, precise hands, the posts and throwing arms were methodically bound together. The machine he had assembled dozens, even hundreds of times in his mind over the past few days rapidly took shape.

Unlike the whirlwind catapult, it looked quite complicated. Rather than simply driving a single skyward post into the ground, he joined several posts diagonally into a unified frame and anchored them to the earth. Where their upper ends met, he mounted a throwing arm upright. He also lashed two throwing arms together, making one far larger and sturdier than that of an ordinary whirlwind catapult.

The crucial difference was that instead of attaching forty to fifty hauling ropes to its end, he fitted it with a large basket. He devoted particular care to making that basket.

As the machine gradually took shape, the catapult crewmen finally began to grasp what he was building. They had never seen anything like it firsthand, but its principle was easy to understand at a glance.

Unlike a whirlwind catapult, which launched a stone projectile using the force of forty to fifty men pulling ropes at once, this machine would presumably have its basket filled with stones or similar objects, then use the force of that load falling to rotate the throwing arm and launch a stone. They had seen plenty of similar devices back home. The waterwheels in every village operated on much the same principle.

If a divine craftsman existed, would this not be what one looked like?

The crewmen could only gape as Dong Bongsu built his "machine." Even setting aside his astonishing dexterity, the strength required to lash and tighten wooden posts two jang long single-handedly was beyond their imagining.

THUD. SWISH. SNAP!

Exactly half a double-hour.

That was how long it took Dong Bongsu to assemble the "trebuchet" on his own. With one powerful tug on the end of a rope, he secured the final knot, then looked around at the catapult crewmen.

"Did you watch closely?"

Still gaping, the crewmen could not readily answer.

"I asked if you watched closely."

Dong Bongsu's characteristically low voice spread across the site once more.

Only then did the crewmen come to their senses and manage a proper reply.

"Y-yes, sir...!"

He looked at each of the senior crewmen gathered around him and spoke slowly, enunciating every word.

"You have exactly the time it takes to eat a meal. If even a single scrap of wood is still lying around here after that, you all die."

One of the senior crewmen swallowed hard at his words. That served as the signal.

THUD. CLATTER. KNOCK...

Assembly of the trebuchets began in earnest.

The trebuchet.

A stone-throwing engine widely used in the medieval West of that other world. Until the development of gunpowder shells, it had been the most powerful siege engine of all.

It boasted three to four times the range of the manpower-driven whirlwind catapult and could hurl much heavier stones. Its mechanical operation also gave it excellent accuracy.

Something similar probably existed in these Central Plains, too, though he could not be certain. Judging by the continued use of whirlwind catapults in battles on this frontier, either such sophisticated devices had yet to be developed, or early gunpowder cannons were already in use farther inland.

But Dong Bongsu had no reason to take any of that into account. Those weapons were not here, and he had not seen one in the entire past year of ear hunting. That made them as good as nonexistent.

To carry out his plan, he needed a siege engine with a much greater range than the whirlwind catapult. Thus, he had chosen the most primitive form of trebuchet. Since he could not build gunpowder weapons, it was the best option available to him.