The Seoul Evacuation

[Gooblah]

March 3, 1915 AD.

It was inevitable, looking back, that war would occur. After the swift invasion of Korean beachheads half a century hence by the Arabian doughboys, the Portuguese Empire became the fiercest critic and enemy of Arabian 'imperalism'. The walls of Seoul and P'yong'yang had fallen before the unceasing barrage of mobile artillery; the infantry divisions guarding the ancient cities had fallen before the raw firepower of Arabian tank brigades. The juggernaut had swallowed whole the Third Korean Dynasty, subjugate of Portugal. It had been a brazen assault, ultimately resulting in the exile of King Wang Kon to Oporto. His former subjects, a fierce people, had received his pleas of nonviolence gratuitously, and any resistance quickly subsided. To the west and north, in the great cities of Khurasan, Mecca, Washington, and Poverty Point, a great spaceshpi was being constructed to take a lucky few Arabian subjects to the stars. However, in the fervor of constructing a vessel worthy of the final frontier, the western frontier was forgotten. The Gaema Heights hid the growing power of the Portuguese...until that fateful date.

Within two hours of the official declaration of war, patrolling Arabian Airships had been shot down by Portuguese Fighters; railroads had brought in tanks, infantry, marines, and artillery; and paratroopers had entered the outskirts of P'yong'yang. With rifles, artillery pieces, and turrets pointed at the city, the order was given to invade.

 

[BakingTheArt]

Earth map or randomly generated?

 

[Gooblah]

March 7, 1915

For four days, bombers had rained destruction on the city of P'yong'yang. The occasional pause in bombardment signaled the appearance of fighters, which had begun to take their toll on the Arabian troops guarding the city. When communication was established with Seoul, thus to the outside world, it was brief and limited to talk of military strategy.

The technological upper hand was with the Arabians, but the Portuguese Imperial Defense Forces had the greater numbers - and an Air Force. The Arabian equivalent had been shot down during the first three days of war. Now all that remained was a solitary Airship performing reconnaissance on the troops. Truthfully, it was a joke - completely worthless and just there to provide the pilot with something to do.

However, by noon, the stirrings of action had taken hold of the guard. Routine maintenance checks were doubled, and ammunition supplies counted and handed out accordingly. Whatever tank shells were left were loaded into their respective vehicles. The mobile artillery were readied for battle, their treads being checked and rechecked to ensure quick movement. Word came in through the shortwave that similar preparations were being undertaken in Seoul and smaller cities to the south.

At exactly 1300 hours, the mobile artillery undertook the first Arabian action of war. Shells bombarded the Portuguese attackers for over thirty minutes, with no significant response from the other side. The bombers and fighters had paused, and without radio communications, they could not be called back. The gates of the Old City were thrown open, and the tanks rumbled out. Portuguese infantry fell like pawns before a king, some being run over by treads, the rest either gunned down or standing in the way when a shell barreled towards an opposing tank. Finally, when the shells were spent, the armored vehicles beat a hasty retreat. Quickly, the infantry rushed forward, firing all their weapons in an attempt to catch the enemy before he could regroup.

Sadly, they were too late. Portuguese armor, with more munitions and a better angle of fire, mowed down the Arabian infantry. Just when the last few brigades were prepared to wave the white flag of surrender, Arabian reinforcements from Seoul attacked the flank of the armor divisions, cutting off their line of retreat. the survivors rallied, and the armor were quickly forced to retreat. By dawn the next day, prisoners had been taken, bodies counted, and the spoils of battle decided. For now, at least, there was hope.

Spoiler :

This story is based of the Saladin LHC map, and my conquest/surrender of Korea.

 

[BakingTheArt]

Spoiler :

Ah! The Portuguese, Arabs, and Koreans should've set off a bigger lightbulb than they did. I personally went for the Portuguese, as they were the biggest and best AIs on the map and I needed to take them down a notch. Then again, my invasion fizzled after the initial push to Lisbon, so best not to take advice from me.

 

[Gooblah]

April 4th, 1915

After the initial Battle of P'yong'yang, and the retreat of the Portuguese military to the Gaema Heights, a lull had fallen in the fighting. The city streets remained deserted after dusk, even though the New City had a reputation for its nightlife. The great spaceship had become even larger, with accommodations for hundreds in stasis, to colonize the Alpha Centauri system. No reinforcements had come to old Korea from Arabia or the American continent, but surviving troops had been pulled from Seoul, Hyangsan, and Uzbek to fortify those remaining in P'yong'yang. Generals still plotted troop movements, but without an airforce, knowledge of Portuguese military strength had dwindled to a few reports by Korean civilians every few days. This information was repetitive and useless, but the soldiers clung to every word, hoping to gain some sort of advantage against the faceless and numerically superior foe.

It was in this state of affairs, then, that the second Portuguese invasion caught the generals by surprise. Farmers, waking up to greet the Korean sun, were the first to notice soldiers ransacking their fields for food. Most of those who tried to inform the city guard were shot dead by soldiers who were looking for target practice; the few that got through tended to be either incoherent or stunned. However, the trickle soon became a flood of refugees seeking shelter in the already crowded facilities of the city.

Reconnaissance gave only a limited picture of the invaders. It appeared that at least 30 battalions of Marines and Infantry, 16 tank divisions, and a full forty pieces of artillery had been committed by the Portuguese Emperor to this fight. The odds for the city seemed slim.