Chapter 5 – and Alive
The gate finally opened.
Yeong-woo ran inside the moment he crossed the threshold.
He rushed straight toward the soldiers removing the heavy gate beam.
*The jangdaemokwas a massive wooden bar used to lock fortress gates.
His fist smashed into a soldier's face.
"Hey, you bastard!"
Caught completely off guard, the man's head snapped sideways and he slammed face-first into the ground.
Another guard rushed in to stop him.
Yeong-woo kicked the man hard in the shin.
As the soldier bent down in pain, Yeong-woo drove his knee into his face.
Blood burst from the man's nose as he fell backward.
"What the hell are you doing!"
The gate officer shouted.
"Why didn't you open the gate?!"
Yeong-woo lunged toward him, but the gate guards grabbed him immediately.
They blocked his path, seized both arms, and threw him to the ground.
Rage burned through his head.
But several men pinned him down at once.
He writhed across the wide courtyard of the South Gate like a trapped animal.
"What?! What?!"
Yeong-woo rolled on the ground before forcing himself up.
"Why didn't you open the gate, you sons of bitches!"
His shouting stirred the survivors behind him.
The routed soldiers began shouting as well.
The gate commander barked back.
"You think I didn't want to open it? Orders from above! They said not to!"
"We almost died out there! If I ever get my hands on you again, I swear I'll kill you!"
"If we opened the gate, the enemy cavalry would have broken through!"
"Then let us in and shut it again!"
Yeong-woo stood and argued fiercely with him.
Then a gongrang.
The sound cut through the air.
It was a signal to stop.
Even the fiercest quarrels quieted when the gong sounded.
The rising anger slowly settled.
"Silence!"
The voice came from the gate tower.
Only then did Yeong-woo regain his senses.
He realized he had gone too far.
But they had lived.
Still—
He could not forgive those who had abandoned them outside the walls.
He looked up toward the tower with burning eyes.
Standing there was Nangjang Park Cheol-gu, commander of the South Gate.
His gaze was cold.
"Be quiet."
Yeong-woo shouted back.
"We almost died!"
"There was no other choice."
Yeong-woo muttered quietly.
"Soon there will be no choice for us either."
"What was that? Are you defying me?"
"I'm saying there are things we cannot help either."
"Insolent."
"We almost died."
Park Cheol-gu spoke without hesitation.
"Throw them into the cells."
"Yes, sir!"
Soldiers rushed forward and bound Yeong-woo.
Several others behind him—Cheol-ryong and about ten more—were seized as well.
"Let go! We just came back from the fight! What did we do wrong?!"
Their protests meant nothing.
The officers who needed to calm the disturbance began exercising their authority.
Most of the survivors were wounded.
Yet twenty men were dragged away to the prison.
They had survived the battlefield—
only to be imprisoned inside their own fortress.