Mourners no longer came to our house, and since I was in mourning, it was convenient for people to gather and discuss.
No one was suspicious if they said they gathered to keep an 11-year-old in mourning company so he wouldn’t be lonely.
All eight people who decided to cross the border gathered and discussed.
Taeseok said.
“We must run away quickly before that bastard Ibang Jeong makes a move.”
When I nodded, Gwi-hwan asked.
“Don’t the government soldiers catch you when you cross the Tuman River?”
I shook my head.
“The government soldiers aren’t very interested in that lately. If many people cross together, they just let it slide, or if not, they pretend not to see if you give them a little bribe.It’s a bit difficult to come over from that side, but it’s not very difficult to go over from here. However, since we have ten horses, they’ll think there’s something to it and swarms of guys will gather to extort bribes. So we have to cross at night.”
“Is the lower Tuman River the only way?”
“The upper stream is difficult to cross because the current is rough. So it’s better to go to the lower stream and cross. The depth there is shallow, the water doesn’t even reach your knees, and the current is slow, so it’s perfect for crossing. The water is a bit cold now, but it’s bearable. But if it rains heavily, the water could swell much more, so it’s better to cross quickly.”
I was the only one with experience crossing the Tuman River border, and because of my track record of bringing Father’s body and ten horses not long ago, my words had high credibility.
Jae-ho asked.
“What should we prepare and take?”
“First, we have to prepare food. Since we happen to have ten horses, it would be good for everyone to prepare and take half a year’s worth of food.”
Jeong-sun asked.
“Even if there are ten horses, they are all your horses, so is it okay to load our food?”
“I don’t have much to take anyway, so it doesn’t matter if you load it.”
“Then should we prepare things like potatoes or corn?”
“That won’t do, prepare rice.”
“Rice is too expensive.”
Originally, Hamgyeong-do is an area where rice is scarce and very expensive.
Eating white rice is unthinkable normally, and most people here eat potatoes or corn.
“It’s expensive here, but it becomes even more expensive once you cross the border. So it’s much more profitable to prepare rice, take it there, and exchange it for potatoes or corn. If you lack money, I’ll lend it to you.”
Thousands of Joseon people are already living in Russia.
And some who crossed early have already settled down and are living quite stably.
However, because rice farming doesn’t work in Russia, the only way for them to eat rice is to smuggle it from Joseon, so naturally, the price of rice is extremely high.
Hong-i asked.
“But do we have a destination? We don’t know the geography of Arasa, so we don’t know where to go.”
“Yeonchu Village is the best. There are already over a thousand Joseon people living there. Besides, there’s a Russian Army camp nearby, so Ma-jeok can’t approach. Additionally, the Arasa people built a church and even a school in the village, so it’s more convenient to live.”
Seon-hui said.
“If it’s a church, do you mean that Catholicism? Isn’t Catholicism forbidden by the country?”
“No, it’s a church called Russian Orthodoxy, which is different from Catholicism. Well, they serve Jesus the same way, but the teachers there are thankful people who teach the Arasa language and writing and give a lot of help in various ways.”
Taeseok asked as if worried.
Indeed, since they had decided to leave their hometown for an unknown foreign land, they couldn’t be without fear.
“Then don’t the officials there also extort and plunder? If so, wouldn’t it be better here in Joseon, where we’ve already experienced those bastards?”
“It’s not that those people are completely without such things, but it’s much better than Joseon. They think of the right to property as importantly as a person’s life, so they don’t mess with others’ property recklessly. If you cultivate land, they recognize it as the land of the person who cultivated it.”
After making a plan to cross the Tuman River like that, we hurriedly bought rice and crossed the Tuman River.
According to what I heard later, it was two days before Ibang Jeong stormed in leading government soldiers.
We avoided the raid of Ibang Jeong and the government soldiers, but having crossed the Tuman River, we could not avoid nature’s raid.
We were immediately surrounded by a group of over twenty Wolf Pack.
As soon as we discovered the Wolf Pack, we immediately turned our horses back and drew the spears we had prepared.
When humans and a Wolf Pack meet, it might look like the Wolf Pack is unilaterally superior, but humans are animals that use tools, and if they face them with spears, they can sufficiently deal with a few Wolf Pack.
When facing a person with a spear, the Wolf Pack shows an instinct to turn to the side and attack, and as a result, we naturally formed a Circular Formation.
I tested if my Control Ability, which worked on horses or dogs, would work, but it didn’t work at all.
As God said, it seemed it didn’t work on untamed animals that were not livestock.
I thrust the spear I was holding with all my might.
The Wolf Pack that was pouncing on me jumped and pulled back, avoiding the spear I thrust.
Perhaps it saw me, the smallest in our group, as an easy target and pounced, but it seemed to have pulled back because the spear I thrust was quite sharp.
Seon-hui, who was stuck next to me, said.
“Myeong-jin, are you okay? Are you tired? Can you handle the spear properly?”
“I’m… can you handle the spear properly?”
“Don’t worry because I’ve handled spears a lot too.
Except for you, the young one, everyone can use at least a spear.”
There is no way a woman from the north of Hamgyeong-do wouldn’t be able to handle a spear.
To survive in this harsh land, even a woman must be able to handle a spear.
Taeseok said.
“Everyone, be careful not to lose too much strength. There are many cases where those bastards’ trick is to drain people’s strength and look for an opening, so if you feel exhausted, don’t try to be a hero, speak up, and go inside. Since there are eight of us, one or two people can fight while resting.”
I said.
“Everyone knows I’m strong for my age. More than me, is Cheonjin-daek okay?”
Cheonjin-daek shouted when her name came up.
“I’m okay too. I’ve also heard that I’m quite strong.”
The other woman, Jeong-sun, said.
“I’m still okay too.”
From Taeseok, who was over 30 years old, to me, who just turned 11, and including the three women, a total of eight people and ten horses from Joseon and Manchuria were fighting for their lives, surrounded by a group of Wolf Pack in the middle of a vast open field.
Damn it, far from enjoying life in an Opium Palace in Shanghai or on a yacht in the Mediterranean Sea and Caribbean Sea, I might die and become Wolf Pack food right here.
We formed a Circular Formation with the ten horses in the middle and were sticking out spears to prevent the Wolf Pack from pouncing.
In this state of confrontation, Seon-hui’s brother, Gwi-hwan, said.
“Myeong-jin, you have a gun. Don’t you know how to shoot?”
When I brought Father’s body and ten horses, various rumors spread, and among them was a rumor that was exactly true—that I had shot and killed all the Ma-jeok with a gun and recovered Father’s body.
And because of those rumors, although I didn’t say it for certain, I was known as a marksman.
Among the guns I took from the Ma-jeok bastards, I only kept the pistols and rifles and sold all the Matchlocks.
So now I still have two rifles and one pistol.
“I know how to shoot, but if a gunshot rings out here, the Russian Army might come. We are people who crossed the border without permission. If the Russian Army catches us having a gun, they won’t like it. And it might attract the Chinese Ma-jeok, who are even scarier than the Russian Army.”
“Isn’t it better than being eaten by the Wolf Pack?”
Taeseok stopped him.
“It’s still bearable, so let’s endure a bit more. As Myeong-jin said, we are people who crossed the border as we pleased, so nothing good will come of being caught by those people now. Even putting aside the Russian Army, if by any chance we are caught by the Ma-jeok bastards, we are as good as dead.”
Gwi-hwan shut his mouth when Ma-jeok was mentioned, even though he felt an immediate threat to his life surrounded by the Wolf Pack.
Gwi-hwan also knew well how cruel the Chinese Ma-jeok rampant in this region were.
Everyone here knows the fact that right now, even my Father was killed by Ma-jeok and only I survived.
While we were talking, one Wolf Pack pounced on Jeong-sun and then retreated from the spear Jeong-sun thrust.
A spear is essential to travel a long way in this area.
People in our village have one or two spears per household, and women like Jeong-sun, Seon-hui, and Cheonjin-daek also handle spears well.
Because they couldn’t survive otherwise.
There were almost over twenty Wolf Pack.
When they continued to fail in their attacks, they threatened us by making growling sounds, but there was no way such a threat would work on us.
The main target the Wolf Pack aimed for was the horses, but the horses were not particularly scared.
Originally, the horses of Joseon and Manchuria have fierce temperaments even if their size is small, and if a human is with them, they don’t get scared easily.
The reason I intentionally didn’t fire a gun and dealt with the Wolf Pack only with a spear was also because I still had the leeway to compete with the Wolf Pack.
Of course, it wasn’t a lie but the complete truth that I didn’t want to make a gunshot and call the Russian Army or Chinese Ma-jeok.
Thanks to several Large Mammal Commands received from God, I killed the eight Ma-jeok who killed Father and took away the horses and riches, but that was strictly because I was hiding and the Ma-jeok were off guard.
If I encounter Ma-jeok on a flat land like this, the story becomes completely different.
Chinese Ma-jeok are existences several times scarier than this kind of Wolf Pack.
They travel in groups of as few as less than 10 to as many as 500, and they are bastards who enter the Manchuria area, the border zones of Joseon, and even this Russia land to plunder and run away.
Those bastards would not only take away everything we have but also would not leave our lives intact.
Especially since Jeong-sun and Seon-hui, as well as Cheonjin-daek, are quite pretty for women from the Hamgyeong-do countryside, they would unconditionally be captured if they catch the eyes of the Ma-jeok.
Even when humans work in a group, some get lazy and some get distracted.
And as if this instinct in the Wolf Pack is no different from humans, one that was momentarily distracted appeared.
At the moment I thought over 10 minutes had passed since confronting the Wolf Pack, I momentarily sprang forward, fed my spear to the Wolf Pack that was slightly distracted, and quickly retreated.
Yelp! Feeling the spear go in quite deep, I quickly withdrew without being any more greedy.
Because I could monitor every single one while confronting the group of over twenty Wolf Pack, I was able to find the one that was distracted in the meantime, give it a blow, and retreat.
“Be careful, don’t do dangerous things.”
Taeseok was about to scold me for something, but he shut his mouth when he saw that my movements were faster than expected and the Wolf Pack hit by my spear was bleeding from a quite large wound.
It was because those bastards might retreat on their own now that they knew we weren’t easy prey and were instead beings that could wound them.
Sure enough, the Wolf Pack group showed a look of being overall unsettled and flustered once one of them received a quite large wound.
And in that flustered appearance, a gap was revealed again.
As soon as the Wolf Pack showed a gap again, I didn’t miss it, quickly sprang forward, stabbed two Wolf Pack with the spear, and then retreated.
Yelp! Yelp!
Two screams of the Wolf Pack were heard, and at the same time, the shouts of other people were also heard.
“Be careful!”
“Be careful!”
Jae-ho and Hong-i shouted out of worry for me, but at the same time, they showed a look of surprise at my fast judgment and agile movements.
It was something I felt after killing the Ma-jeok who killed my Father, but I myself was very surprised by my dynamic visual acuity and fast reaction speed which were not suited to my age.
My judgment is that of an old man nearly 60, so that’s that, but since this level of physical ability is something I never had even in my teens or twenties in my past life before coming to this era, I think the Large Mammal Command given by God is something great.
Anyway, this side has no damage at all, but that side has already had three leave the ranks.
The Wolf Pack I stabbed with my spear whimpered in a low voice, limped their legs, and were dripping blood.
The other Wolf Pack showed a look of retreating a bit while being agitated by the sight of their wounded comrades.
Bang!
And at that very moment when the Wolf Pack thought they couldn’t beat us and were about to retreat, a gunshot rang out and one Wolf Pack fell.
***