Click! Click!
As soon as they heard gunfire, soldiers sitting on the wagons connected ammunition canisters to the mounted firearms and fed in ammunition belts.
Other soldiers loaded their military rifles and released the safety catches.
After completing battle preparations, the soldiers immediately shouted to their commanders:
“Ready!”
At the soldiers’ call, Kim Jangsaeng, the commander in charge of the troops—with the rank of Manho (Ten Thousand Household Commander)—stood rigidly on his saddle, surveying the palace direction through a telescope.
“Sir! It’s dangerous!”
To the soldiers’ warning, Jangsaeng responded confidently:
“Hey! My name is Jangsaeng—It means ‘Long Life’! Don’t worry!”
As he answered confidently while watching the palace, Jangsaeng saw Admiral Ahn’s party bursting out from the palace entrance.
Seeing that a couple of soldiers seemed to be injured from the escape, requiring support to move, Jangsaeng immediately ordered the wagon in front of him:
“The admiral’s party is in danger! Wagons 1 and 3! Move immediately! Save the admiral’s party!”
“Yes, sir! Hyah!”
Neigh!
At Jangsaeng’s command, two wagons sprang out from the fortified circle.
“Aaahh!”
“Eeeek!”
Seeing the horses charging fiercely as if they would trample anything in their path, nearby Aztecs scattered in all directions, screaming.
Meanwhile, still standing on his saddle watching the situation, Jangsaeng saw Aztec warriors rushing from all directions and shouted to his soldiers:
“The situation’s already broken down! Sweep them away if they come within 100 paces!”
“Yes, sir!”
Seeing the soldiers answering resolutely, Jangsaeng continued:
“They’re cannibals! Abandon all mercy!”
***
When Admiral Ahn Sang-su’s party entered Montezuma I’s palace and recoiled in horror at the sight of human flesh, those outside were equally horrified.
The soldiers who had formed a defensive formation and were catching their breath saw corpses being smoked while hanging by ropes around their necks.
“What the hell is that!”
At that time in Aztec society, sacrificial victims from human offerings were processed in several ways.
One was to collect bodies that had rolled down the pyramid’s slope, behead them, cut off their limbs, and boil them.
Another was to hang them by ropes, as if executing them by hanging, and burn them.
However, this wasn’t burning like immolation, but closer to smoking.
This was the scene that horrified the waiting soldiers outside.
Seeing this, soldiers from the homeland turned to those from the New Frontier.
“Did you do this too?”
“Not anymore!”
The New Frontier soldiers hurriedly denied the suspicious gazes of the homeland soldiers. But the homeland soldiers were not easily convinced.
“Not anymore?”
“It used to happen in the past, but I heard it all disappeared after the Emperor Emeritus prohibited it! And I heard it wasn’t as severe as this!”
****
The New Frontier soldier’s words were true.
Cannibalism was common among Native Americans.
However, it was mainly directed at prisoners captured in war or those who trespassed on their tribal territories.
There was even fierce competition because of the belief that eating a warrior’s heart would make oneself braver.
The natives would kill captives through cruel lynching and torture, then consume their flesh.
This primarily served as a spectacle and entertainment, and secondarily to instill caution in warriors.
If you lose in war, you’ll be eaten like that!
Consequently, warriors fought more desperately and fanatically to avoid becoming food for other tribes. (Note 1)
The Joseon troops exploring the New Frontier immediately reported this fact back home. However, King Sejong and his cabinet ministers—the Prime Minister and the Left and Right Deputy Prime Ministers—immediately buried this report.
This was due to political reasons based on the national ideology of Neo-Confucianism and for extremely practical reasons.
It is clear that those who commit such abhorrent acts should not be allowed to live, but they never learned proper principles from the beginning. We must teach them principles and give them opportunities for reform.
Of course, complete annihilation might be right. But considering Joseon’s current population, such a method would be equivalent to abandoning the New Frontier.
After making this decision, King Sejong placed his hand on his forehead and sighed.
“Sigh. Cannibalism is frequently reported in the Bell-Shape Peninsula and the northern islands. How cruel this world is…”
To Sejong’s words, Hwang Hui, who was the Prime Minister at the time, replied:
“They lived in such isolated places that they couldn’t learn proper principles, and they lived in areas where survival itself was difficult. Isn’t that why? I believe the only answer is to teach them principles diligently to reform them and create an environment where they can live properly as humans.”
“I agree. And keep this report from the Crown Prince. That son of mine has a surprisingly fastidious character in unexpected areas…”
“I will do so, Your Majesty.”
Thus, King Sejong and his ministers concealed the reports about cannibalism and issued new orders to Joseon forces in the New Frontier.
Try your best to persuade tribes that have submitted to us or formed alliances to prohibit cannibalism. If they disobey, you may use force.
The Joseon forces who received Sejong’s orders implemented them aggressively.
Tribes that submitted to Joseon or formed alliances had to stop cannibalism immediately. There was resistance at first, but they soon had no choice but to accept the orders.
This was because the Joseon military was the strongest in the area, and they had witnessed cases where tribes who resisted disappeared without a trace.
Later, when King Sejong arrived in the New Frontier and began managing it personally, cannibalistic customs in the New Frontier rapidly disappeared.
While actively civilizing the natives through public schools, he simultaneously used various incentives to persuade chiefs and warriors.
Sejong didn’t rely solely on these moderate measures. He boldly used force when necessary.
As a result, several tribes disappeared, known or unknown, during Sejong’s reign.
Sejong’s policy of using both hard and soft approaches was so successful that Hyang, who arrived later, could only confirm these facts through reports.
However, as the Empire’s territory in the New Frontier expanded, tribes with cannibalistic customs continued to be discovered, and Hyang would mutter while smacking his lips:
“Well… this reminds me of that debate in the 21st century?”
***
To be precise, it was a debate about a subject that frequently appeared in films about the American Revolutionary War or the Western Frontier during the mid-20th century.
That subject was ‘scalping’—scenes where victorious Indians killed their defeated enemies, usually white people, and then took their scalps.
The debate centered around these scenes:
It was a traditional custom of the Indians.
No, it was originally started by white people. They initiated it first to crush the spirit of Indians who resisted them. Subsequently, due to cultural supremacism claiming ‘civilized whites could never have committed such barbaric acts,’ the Indians were pointed to as the perpetrators.
Unfortunately, since this wasn’t Hyang’s area of interest, it was unclear who won this debate.
***
“Debates are debates, but now we face reality and need to find an answer.”
After such deliberation, Hyang promptly found his answer:
Regarding cannibalism, continue and implement the policies of the previous era.
Eventually, following the policies of Sejong and Hyang, native tribes that submitted quickly abandoned their cannibalistic customs.
And at some point, a new generation of natives in the New Frontier came to deeply abhor the act of cannibalism itself.
Thanks to this, even the New Frontier-born soldiers were horrified by the large-scale human sacrifices they witnessed in Tenochtitlan.
***
“Our forces! Our forces!”
“Our forces are coming! Keep up your spirits!”
Admiral Ahn Sang-su’s party, struggling desperately to escape from Montezuma I’s palace, brightened at the sight of wagons carrying their allies rushing toward them.
“Our forces are coming! Keep up your spirits!”
Admiral Ahn Sang-su and a small cavalry, mounted on horses that had been tied to one side, blocked the space between their group and the Aztec warriors, buying time.
Bang! Rat-tat! Bang!
Click! Click!
Having run out of bullets for their pistols, Admiral Ahn Sang-su and his cavalry drew curved swords tied to their saddles and swung them. Then they immediately cursed:
“Ah, damn! The swords are too short!”
***
After the palace reconstruction, there were two places in Joseon and the Empire where bladed weapons—specifically curved swords—were used as secondary armaments. One was the cavalry, and the other was the navy.
Although both used curved swords, the cavalry and navy versions differed in shape and size.
While the cavalry’s curved sword resembled a saber, the navy’s resembled a cutlass.
Though different in size, both served the same purpose: for use in close-quarters combat. Consequently, they looked very similar.
However, it was because of the cutlass, which was smaller than a saber, that Admiral Ahn Sang-su and his cavalry cursed.
For those seated on horseback to effectively use a cutlass, they had to lean their bodies significantly to the left and right. If they made even a small mistake, they could be grabbed by approaching enemies and unhorsed.
To avoid this, Admiral Ahn Sang-su and his cavalry swung their swords more to threaten and prevent enemy approach rather than to kill Aztec warriors.
“Disperse! Disperse!”
When the timely arriving wagons shouted “Disperse!” Admiral Ahn Sang-su and his cavalry scattered to the left and right.
With only Aztec warriors remaining in the suddenly cleared space, the mounted firearms on the wagons simultaneously spewed fire.
Rat-tat-tat-tat-tat!
When all eight mounted firearms on the two wagons simultaneously opened fire, the Aztec warriors gathering near the palace began to fall like stalks of grain.
In that moment, the Aztec warriors who had been advancing with strong momentum all froze like ice.
For them, this was an unprecedented type of battle and death.
They too had often seen warriors at the front suffer heavy casualties in siege warfare or other battles, usually from sling stones, arrows, or javelin attacks.
But there were almost no cases where battle lines collapsed in an instant like with these foreigners’ attack.
When those strange elongated objects attached to the foreigners’ unfamiliar vehicles spat flames, the brave warriors filling the space simply died.
“Not even arrows…”
“Couldn’t even see them…”
As the Aztec warriors, momentarily thrown into panic, froze, Admiral Ahn Sang-su immediately shouted:
“Escape! Rendezvous with the main force!”
The wagons carrying the guards continued firing as they left the plaza in front of the palace.
***
Admiral Ahn’s party, having rejoined the remaining forces in the plaza where the main temples were located, immediately turned their horses and began their escape.
Rat-tat-tat-tat! Rat-tat-tat!
Bang! Rat-tat! Bang!
The mounted firearms on the wagons and the riflemen hiding in the shadows of the wagons continuously poured bullets at the Aztec warriors swarming from all directions.
“Sweep away anyone who charges!”
“Abandon mercy! Everyone in sight is an enemy!”
“Abandon mercy if you want to live!”
Surrounded, the Imperial soldiers pulled their triggers on all Aztecs in sight in order to survive.
***