50.
The fire faltered for a moment.The siege cart that had been forced up to the gate was swallowed by flame, and the wind split the smoke and scattered it.
Beyond the smoke, black shapes showed themselves again.Without looking back at the fallen, they rewove the broken line at once.
Shieldmen took the front.Shield locked to shield, a single wall.Spearmen stood behind them, and the ladder units followed.At the rear, the drums began again.A heavy beat shook the ground, and a vibration spread as if the earth itself were drawing breath.
"They're coming!"
With the cry, the wall trembled again.The second assault.
This time, arrows did not stop the advance.The first ranks raised shields over their heads.When arrows stuck, another shield layered over it.When arrows from the towers pinned into the ground, the enemy used them as footholds to climb higher.
It was brutal, reckless movement.More relentless than the first, more obsessed.A will that had already paid for death shoved the formation forward.
"Ladders! Push the ladders off!"
Long spears thrust out from the parapets.Each time a ladder toppled, bodies fell with it.Screams were crushed between stone and stone.
But hands and feet kept coming.If one ladder failed, another was hooked into place at once.The wall felt like living flesh being gnawed away.
Then—
From below the South Gate chi, a thick sound rose.Not stone striking stone, but the wall itself groaning.A corner of masonry split away, and dust burst upward.
"The tower's collapsing! Hold!"
Baekin-gun's voice cut through the smoke.
Before the shout even settled, a chi west of the South Gate collapsed.Stone poured down, and through the gap fire flashed.The enemy did not miss it.They surged in.
Iron bars and spearheads clashed.The first defensive line cracked.
Baekin-gun decided instantly.
"South Gate formation, fall back!Second archer unit at the North Gate—move to the South Gate at once!Cease fire until further orders!"
Messengers ran.His gaze held on the flag whipping atop the wall.Through the smoke, it was already half torn.A hard wind carried embers, and the timber above the gate began to burn.
Enemy soldiers with maces hammered the gate.Each impact of the battering wagon made the boundary between wood and iron howl.Cracks spread.Iron nails spat out.
Baekin-gun watched without flinching, then said low,"At this rate, it breaks."
He made the call.
"Abandon the gate. Bring the tower down."
The air around him hardened.
"General—then our men—"
"We pull them all back.The men holding the gate do not need to return alive."
His voice did not waver, not once.
As the words landed, soldiers moved in silence.Lids were opened on powder casks stacked under the South Gate tower.The stinging smell of powder spread into the air.Someone turned, one last time, to look at the gate.
Then the ember was thrown.
In a single instant, the world overturned.A detonation shook the fortress as one body.A pillar of fire rose and swallowed the tower.The South Gate shattered—lifted and flung apart.Enemies rushing into the blaze scattered in midair.Stone and bodies flew together.Fire and smoke tangled and surged up into the sky.
Baekin-gun closed his eyes beneath the tower.A storm of wind slapped his cheek.
In the dust and smoke, he said quietly,"Even if we lose the gate, we do not lose the country."
When he opened his eyes, the battle still ran on.Beyond the ruined gate, the enemy's third wave appeared.
Liaoyang held for one more day.That one day remained—later—like the weight of countless lives.
Footnotes¹ Chi (雉): A projecting section of wall built to attack and observe the base and flanks, enabling crossfire; many Goguryeo fortresses repeat such projections for intersecting fields of fire.² Liaoyang Fortress (setting): A strategic stronghold built atop an older Goguryeo-style Yodong fortification, later re-faced in stone; the interior earthworks are aged, leaving certain sections vulnerable to collapse.
The sky was red.Black smoke and sparks wrapped the walls, and each gust made the flames twist like a living beast.
A ladder rose inside the fire.Soldiers swarmed up it.They climbed over one another's backs; order vanished.Only upward motion remained.
Flame burned their flesh from behind.From above, stones fell.Those caught between pressures lost their shape.
"Climb!If anyone hesitates—stab him forward!"
Yarutai's roar split the plain.Officers shoved men with long spears.Before the spearpoints could touch, bodies were already thrown ahead.
If someone fell into the blaze, another stepped onto the place he left.A long, improvised ladder reached the wall, and arrows poured down like rain.Those struck broke and fell without a sound, and below them another ladder was set.
Ten, twenty climbed at once on each ladder.From above came boiling water and stones.The smell of flesh searing filled the air.
One soldier screamed and grabbed the ankle of the man ahead.Even in fire, his hand would not let go.Madness clung to his eyes.
The man in front kicked him away.He spat blood and clung again.Finger by finger, his grip failed.Yet his body stayed pressed to the ladder.
In his last sight, the burning sky above the fortress was captured whole.
From the wall, long spears stabbed down.A spearpoint pierced the nape, and blood scattered.Below, another climbed over the corpse.
The line between living and dead blurred.The ladder was slick with blood and oil.Someone's arm snapped; the ladder tilted.Ten fell together into the fire.
Yarutai watched it all from behind.His gaze stayed fixed.
"This is war.Whoever stands on the wall is a commander.If he reaches that place—even dead—then he is today's victor."
Then, atop one ladder, a flag rose.
Someone crawled up and drove the pole into the edge of the wall.His arm was burning away; half his body was covered in flame.A stone fell.A spear pierced his chest.His body swayed, but the pole did not fall.
In the flames, the flag shook.
"Look!That is our road!"
The soldiers roared.Their roar detonated through blood and smoke.
At last, one side of the wall gave way.Stone poured down, and men on the ladders surged in together.Some stood on the rubble.Some were crushed beneath it.
Those who gained the wall ran, stepping through fire.In their eyes, only one will remained.
Up.
From the wall, Goryeo's cry burst out."Stop them! Do not lose the fortress!"
Spear met spear.Sparks flew.Sparks blended into flame and spread into the sky.
Living and dead fought in the same place.
That day, Liaoyang's wall shone red with blood.When the fire finally slackened, a single flag remained in the sky.
It stood as the battlefield's memory.