I Became Stalin?!

Chapter 183

The Imjin River defense line was easily breached.

“Aaaah!”

“The battalion commander is down!”

The 23rd Battalion, which the Japanese army had deployed to prevent the Joseon army from crossing the Imjin River, was shattered by a single shot of high-explosive shells from the Soviet-made tanks.

The battalion commander, who was holding a sword and giving instructions to his soldiers on a hill overlooking the Joseon army’s tank unit, was hit by a 100mm high-explosive shell and blown to pieces beyond recognition.

The Japanese soldiers, who were already demoralized by the thought of having to face the powerful Soviet tanks with their outdated rifles and bayonets, scattered like ants in the rain as soon as their command post was destroyed.

“Huh? What’s going on? Why are they in such a mess?”

“I don’t know!”

“Well, let’s secure that bridge first.”

The Joseon army was puzzled by the sight of a man wearing something similar to a Japanese army uniform in the distance. 

They fired a high-explosive shell at him, just in case.

They couldn’t imagine that he was part of the Japanese army that had come out to stop them from crossing the Imjin River.

The company, which was unaware of the Japanese army’s presence, focused only on securing the bridge that would allow the following 1st Division and Artillery Division to cross.

“According to the plan, we should cross here…”

The Japanese army had failed to occupy the large rivers that were the best defense lines against the tank units.

If they had blown up the bridges in time, the tank units wouldn’t have been able to advance so quickly. But the panicked high command and the corrupt lower units lacked the ability to make such decisions on their own.

“There they are! Come on! Let’s advance!”

“Ura! Ura! Long live the liberation!”

The target was Gyeongseong. The tanks started to run.

The Joseon army chose the direction of Uijeongbu-eup as the bottleneck to enter Gyeongseong. 

They planned to cross the Miarigogae pass and enter Gyeongseong to receive the surrender of the Governor-General’s Office.

That was their basic goal.

The Japanese army also had an idea of the possible routes that the tank units would take to enter Gyeongseong.

“We have received a report that the Soviet tank units have entered Yangju-gun (currently Yangju-si, Uijeongbu-si). The 23rd Battalion was annihilated in the battle with the enemy, and the few survivors are retreating. The rest of the 120th Division is deploying to the direction of Sungin-myeon, Goyang-gun (currently Mia-dong) to build a defense line, but…”

“…but, what?”

“The morale of the soldiers is very low, Your Excellency. Also, if we deploy the 120th Division to Goyang-gun, we may lose the Governor-General’s Office in the worst case scenario due to the riots in Gyeongseong!”

The Koreans marched in line along the main streets of the city, proudly displaying their spirit. 

The Koreans, who mostly lived in the Bukchon area, as well as the Honmachi (本町, currently Jung-gu) area, invaded the streets wearing white clothes and staged protests.

The Governor-General’s Office managed to suppress the protests from turning into riots by mobilizing the police and military forces, but there could be serious problems if the 10,000-strong force moved north.

Beeeeeeeeeep! Beeeeeeeeep!

Outside, the Soviet-made fighters with loud horns were flying around.

“Damn it! Can’t we do something about that?”

“Your Excellency, the anti-aircraft artillery units have been neutralized…”

“Stupid bastards!”

The Japanese mainland was bombarded by the US forces, leaving the Korean peninsula with almost no anti-aircraft weapons system to stop the fighters. 

The Soviets, who noticed this, sent out fighters with horns at any time.

“Those bastards, they must think we’re powerless now!”

They were not just powerless, but actually powerless. 

The fighters dropped leaflets instead of bombs over Gyeongseong.

[Japan must surrender]

The leaflets, which boasted the military power of the Soviet Union, or rather the ‘Independent Joseon Tank Army’, and urged surrender, covered the cloudy sky of Gyeongseong with white.

“Stop them somehow! Stop them!”

***

“Ha… how can we stop that?”

“…”

The Joseon army was not suffering from the battle with the Japanese army, but rather growing in size as they joined with the Koreans who came down from the north.

The company’s tanks were only 45 in number, but armed forces from the National Foundation Preparation Committee joined them from various places, swelling to almost a thousand.

“Where did they all come from?”

“Ah… the police stations surrendered and handed over the armories…”

“Damn it…”

Compared to the Japanese army, which had most of its forces withdrawn to the mainland or the continent and only had the dregs left, the armed status of the Joseon uprising army, which had armed themselves with the Soviet weapons that the Joseon army had brought as a spare or raided the armories in various places, was not much different.

Except for the tanks. 

The Japanese army sweated profusely as they saw the steel beasts that were as big as houses, roaring and approaching with low noises.

No one had the courage to launch a suicide attack with grenades to break the tanks. 

They would probably be torn to shreds by the machine guns or the rifles of the infantry before that.

‘If we ambush them on both sides of the hill and wait for them to come in, we can break the tanks! A tank without infantry cover is powerless!’

The division commander said that and took a few of his close officers and went somewhere. But his words were wrong from the premise.

First of all, they may not have been properly trained, but there were at least hundreds of infantrymen following the tank unit.

The tank unit, which knew that the Japanese Empire and the Governor-General’s Office could do nothing even if they gave them a little more time, did not speed up and look around, but instead showed their dignity and marched slowly.

“Wow, how can they be so big…?”

And the tanks were big. 

They seemed to be four times bigger and heavier than the Chi-Ha tanks, the only tanks that the Japanese army stationed in Joseon had seen.

The round dome-shaped turret looked hard to attach a satchel charge to. 

The huge main gun that stretched out looked powerful enough to have devoured many Japanese.

How could I stop that with these pitiful soldiers?

For whom?

Joseon was better off than Japan in terms of food, so the soldiers ate a little better, but they still had nothing but watery soup and rags.

Their faces were blackened by smoke, their cheeks sunken, and their wrists thin and trembling. I knew how they had been dragged into the army.

They were poor and jobless, trying to save a military service, or taken by the country.

“Commander, what are you going to do?”

“…Wait, just wait a minute.”

The commander started to spin the abacus in his head.

How long could I delay them by taking them there and charging with grenades? What could I do by delaying them? What would change the tide… the tide?

“Commander?”

“Oh, just wait a minute!”

The Joseon army’s tank unit was now marching toward the last pass to enter the Governor-General’s Office. 

The tank, which had exposed its side armor that could be broken by this crude satchel charge, ran forward and forward.

The soldiers who had been waiting in ambush for them waited for the commander’s charge order, but looked at him curiously when the order did not come.

“Radio operator! Radio operator!”

“Yes, sir!”

“Connect me to the headquarters.”

“Yes? Yes!!”

He felt the eyes of the staff who looked at him curiously. The commander also felt his chest heavy and his spine cold.

“Headquarters, headquarters, respond.”

[This is headquarters. What is it?]

“The Soviet tanks… are not sighted. We will retreat to the last defense line.”

[Got it. Retreat.]

He felt relieved when he reported that to the headquarters.

“Hahahahaha!!”

The staff looked at him in horror as he laughed. He had just lied to the headquarters that he had not seen the Joseon tank unit that had just passed by!

“Commander…?”

“We can’t stop them anyway. Do you want to die here? Don’t you have parents and wives and children?”

“But…”

“But what, die and go to Yasukuni? Ha! What’s the point of that? We’ve lost this war anyway! It’s best to save your life and survive!”

The officers were stunned to see him suddenly shouting like that. He was the one who used to sneer at the ‘loyalty to the state, sacrifice for the empire’, but no one knew he would disobey the order outright.

But the soldiers were not like that.

“Waaaaaa! Long live the commander!”

“Long live! Long live! We’ll follow you!”

They didn’t want to throw their bodies there again when the grim reaper had turned away from them. 

Except for the officers who only talked about loyalty with their mouths, not holding the guns themselves. When the officers showed signs of opposition, the soldiers rather pointed their guns at them.

“Are you not going to follow the trend?”

“…The commander is right.”

“I, I think so too.”

The officers, who had been dozing off, closed their mouths and praised the commander’s excellent judgment as they looked around at the soldiers who pointed their guns at them with fierce faces.

After all, no matter how much they talked about loyalty, honor, and sacrifice, they were cowards at heart.

‘Cowards, including me…’

They were cowards and could only muster courage selectively. They had the courage to disobey the order, but they had no courage to face the Soviet tanks.

***

“What do you mean they didn’t come down there?”

“Well, that’s what I was told…”

The Soviet army, which had passed the last pass to enter the Governor-General’s Office without any trouble, had now entered Gyeongseong.

They were shocked to see the Joseon tank unit that suddenly appeared when they didn’t even get a proper report. The Governor-General’s Office was in a mess, with various screams and shouts, and they blamed each other for the responsibility.

“This is all your fault! How did you control the troops that the Soviet army had already reached here?”

“How is that my fault? There is no realistic way to stop them! Why are you blaming me when you can’t even control the riots in Gyeongseong?”

“Well, well, let’s stop and see what to do with the ‘National Foundation Preparation Committee’s’ negotiation proposal…”

“How can we accept that? Rather, rather, let’s burn everything!”

While no concrete measures were taken, they heard loud cheers from outside.

“Waaaaaa!!!”

“Long live the independence of Korea!!!”

“What is this noise! Damn it, how dare the Joseonjings in front of the Governor-General’s Office…”

The governor-general, Goiso Kunyaki, who spat out curses and went out the window to see what was going on, had no choice but to be terrified.

“Th, that, what… ah…”

“Governor-General, sir? What’s wrong…”

The bureaucrat of the Governor-General’s Office, who also went out to support him, who was pale and backed away, could not finish his words and fell to the floor.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

The Soviet tank’s cannon fire shattered the Governor-General’s Office.

The crowd cheered as they saw the dust flying and the building collapsing.

“Long live the independence of Korea!!!”