American: Native Empire

After the British fleet was annihilated, Britain completely lost its naval supremacy. 

That meant that the only means to resist the imperial army’s landing was the coastal fortresses equipped with coastal guns.

The coastal guns had some advantages over the naval guns. 

They were installed in fortified positions, which made them easier to defend. 

They also had no shaking, which increased their aiming and firing accuracy. 

They were better than naval guns in many ways.

However, that was only true if they were at a similar level. 

The problem was that there was a huge gap between the two sides in terms of the range, accuracy, and power of their guns.

“Fire!”

Boom! Bang! Boom!

The scattered imperial fleet targeted each coastal fortress. 

The imperial guns had a much longer range than the British ones, so the imperial fleet bombarded the coastal fortresses without any retaliation.

The result became clear soon enough.

“Report, damage!”

“Aaaargh!”

“Oh God, why have you forsaken us…”

The thick walls of the coastal fortresses crumbled under the powerful fire of the imperial guns. 

As time passed, the coastal fortresses were thoroughly destroyed.

“Damn it, how are we supposed to fight against those things!”

“This is madness…”

The morale of the British soldiers plummeted as they felt the destruction of their positions. 

The outcome was practically decided at that moment.

“Hold your ground! Fight for Her Majesty!”

The commanders tried to encourage their soldiers with all their might, but their words sounded like nonsense to the panicked soldiers.

Soon, rebellions and desertions broke out everywhere. 

The will to fight was almost gone.

“Can we approach them now?”

One of the staff officers of the imperial fleet suggested this, but the captain did not agree.

“We have plenty of shells. It’s better to eliminate any possible variables. And don’t forget, our goal for this expedition is to obliterate Britain. We’re still far from that, so keep pouring shells on them.”

“…Understood.”

The other imperial officers who heard this clicked their tongues at the captain’s ruthless decision.

‘Let’s give them more combat experience while we’re at it. Who knows when we’ll have another war like this.’

Training was important, but it was never the same as real combat. 

The captain wanted to make the most of this opportunity.

And most of the other captains made similar decisions. 

As a result, all of the British coastal fortresses were reduced to rubble.

“Begin the landing operation.”

“Yes!”

The landing operation started as soon as the coastal fortresses were wiped out.

But by then, the coastal defense capability was already lost,

Whoosh!

And in the sky, planes were providing cover for any possible ambushes.

The landing operation ended too easily.

“We have secured the coast!”

“Well done.”

The imperial army prioritized capturing all of the ports and nearby port cities in Britain. 

Then they quickly unloaded the necessary military supplies at the ports.

In this process, many cargo ships were mobilized.

The cargo ships that crossed the Atlantic Ocean spewed out military supplies endlessly at each port.

“Wow… Are all those supplies for this war?”

The sight was magnificent. 

The observers felt the immense economic power of the empire as they saw the enormous amount and quality of the military supplies.

‘So this is what they meant by a war of economic power. They were not wrong about that.’

Kang Kyoun-woon realized this harsh truth.

After that, as soon as all of the military supplies were unloaded on British soil,

The real war began. 

No, it was retribution.

**

“Move quickly! The imperial army will be here soon!”

“But my stuff is still over there…”

“Hey! Hurry up!”

It had been happening for a while, but then it became more serious.

The residents of the coast started to evacuate inland.

Of course, being an island nation, there was nowhere else to go but deeper inland once they lost control of the sea.

“Fire!”

“Yes!”

Then, the British army made their last attempt.

They had already lost all of their ports, but they dug trenches in various places inland and prepared to defend them with machine guns.

Unfortunately,

Whirring!

All of these preparations were captured by reconnaissance planes.

And this information was immediately reported to Blue Earth.

He was now commanding the imperial army directly on British soil. 

Of course, he was not at the front line, but at a command post in the rear.

But even in the rear, he could receive real-time reports on the war situation thanks to the advanced communication technology.

“How pathetic.”

Blue Earth muttered this and chuckled. 

The British army was moving exactly as he had expected.

It was inevitable. 

With their current weapons and tactics, trench warfare with barbed wire and machine guns was the best they could do. 

But trench warfare was not a universal tactic for the imperial army.

‘Then I’ll have to make them realize. 

That trench warfare is already an outdated tactic.’

He organized his thoughts and gave an order.

“Start the scorched earth operation.”

“Yes, sir!”

The order was quickly relayed to the commanders of the imperial army.

“So it begins.”

“Tsk. It’ll be a sea of fire soon.”

The commanders announced the start of the scorched earth operation to the imperial army and imagined the hell that was about to unfold.

And their horrible imagination soon became reality.

Rumble…

The first ones to move were the heavy tank units.

“What is that…”

“Gasp! Those metal monsters are coming!”

“Sh, should we shoot?”

“…What else can we do? Do you want to just watch them until they get here? Shoot them when they enter our range!”

“Yes!”

The British soldiers followed their commander’s order and started shooting as soon as the imperial tanks entered their machine gun range.

Dadadadadadadadang!

An incredible rate of fire.

The firepower was impressive. 

If the targets were imperial soldiers, they would have been turned into bloody corpses.

But machine guns were weapons for anti-personnel purposes. 

They were useless against the imperial tanks, which had paid a lot of attention to their armor strength.

Ting ting ting ting!

The bullets could not penetrate the tank armor and bounced off.

“My God!”

“Lord have mercy…”

The British soldiers who witnessed this with their own eyes were dumbfounded.

“Shoot, shoot the shells!”

“Yeah… maybe the shells will work!”

But the shells were no different.

The soldiers were engulfed in despair.

“How are we supposed to stop those monsters…”

Meanwhile, the tanks slowly advanced. 

They mercilessly crushed the barbed wire and finally reached the trenches.

That’s when the massacre began.

Ratatatatatatat!

The medium machine guns mounted on the tanks fired at the trenches with an incredible rate of fire.

Boom! Bang!

Grenades were thrown into the trenches evenly.

“Aaaargh!”

“Aaah!”

The British soldiers screamed and died miserably in the trenches or ran away to the back.

The puddles that had accumulated in the trenches due to the frequent rain in Britain soon turned red.

It took only a little over two hours to break through most of the trenches built in Britain.

***

At that time.

“When will he wake up?”

“What if he…”

“Hey! Shut your mouth!”

“Oops! I almost said something stupid. I’m sorry. I’m just too anxious…”

“I understand how you feel, but you have to be careful what you say.”

As Kim Ki-woo remained unconscious for a long time, various worries surfaced.

In this situation, the pressure on White Sugar, Kim Ki-woo’s physician, was tremendous. 

He kept praying and praying.

‘Please wake up…’

And today, he watched over Kim Ki-woo’s condition again.

Then.

Twitch!

“…Huh?”

White Sugar saw it clearly.

Kim Ki-woo’s right index finger moved.

“Your, your majesty. Are you awake?”

White Sugar asked Kim Ki-woo with a trembling voice.

Then Kim Ki-woo’s eyes slowly opened.

“…Hmm.”

“Aaaah!”

When Kim Ki-woo regained consciousness, White Sugar shed tears of joy.

And this news was quickly spread throughout the palace. 

The palace was instantly filled with excitement.

Regardless. Kim Ki-woo tried to recover his fuzzy mind.

‘…Right. I was shot in the chest and collapsed.’

The image of a bullet flying into his chest. 

And the image of many guards throwing themselves at him.

All of that replayed in his head.

“Help me up.”

“Yes, your majesty!”

Kim Ki-woo slowly sat on the bed with the help of the attendants. 

White Sugar tried to stop him.

“Your condition is still very bad. The gunshot wound was not good.”

Kim Ki-woo looked down at his chest.

‘…I survived a gunshot to the chest. It’s a miracle.’

And he asked White Sugar.

“What’s going on right now?”

“Well…”

“I’ll explain it to you, father.”

At that moment, Crown Prince Wide Sky entered the room and spoke.

“It’s been a while. How have you been?”

“Yes, father. I’m sorry for being so busy.”

“No, it’s fine. I know you have a lot of work to do, so don’t apologize.”

From the start and completion of the construction of the Panama Canal in Central America, to its opening.

The place that was in charge of this series of events was none other than the Central American Governorate.

The crown prince, who was the governor, was already very busy due to the development of Central America. 

And because of the canal, he became even busier. 

So he couldn’t come up to the capital for a while.

This was his first face-to-face meeting with Kim Ki-woo in four years.

‘It’s ironic that our reunion is in a sickroom. Not very pleasant.’

He had this thought for a moment, but Kim Ki-woo soon snapped out of it. And he changed the topic.

“So, you’re here in the capital. That means you made some decisions on my behalf.”

“…Yes, father.”

The crown prince’s expression was very dark.

Kim Ki-woo sensed something from his face.

“By your look, you must have made some difficult decisions.”

“…Yes, father.”

Kim Ki-woo hardened his face and ordered the crown prince.

“Tell me everything without leaving anything out.”

“Well…”

The crown prince told him everything from the moment Kim Ki-woo collapsed to the current situation of the war.

“Hmm…!”

After hearing all of it, Kim Ki-woo held his head.

‘Britain is being obliterated?’

He just found out that the culprit who shot him in the chest was Britain’s plenipotentiary ambassador. 

But there were already countless casualties in Britain…

As soon as Kim Ki-woo’s displeasure showed on his face, the crown prince knelt down.

“The war that started without your permission was all my decision. I take full responsibility for it.”

“No. It’s not your fault. Everyone wanted revenge, so how can you be blamed for that?”

“But…”

“Enough. I understand. You can leave now.”

At Kim Ki-woo’s dismissal, the crown prince left the room weakly.

‘How ironic. It wasn’t enough to take this land, North America, from Britain. Now we’re going to destroy them completely.’

Of course, the original owners of this land were the natives. 

But if Kim Ki-woo hadn’t been there, the British would have surely become the masters of the vast North American continent. 

And they would have won the War of Independence and become the United States.

But because of one person, Kim Ki-woo, the British never reached North America. 

And now, even their homeland was being utterly destroyed.

Perhaps Kim Ki-woo was the one who caused the most damage to Britain by his arrival.