Volume 1: The First Battle Chapter 9 Translation
As the sun sets, goose-feather-like snowflakes fall from the sky, soon covering the craters in front of the position, the dark red bloodstains, and the enemy's corpses, and the world becomes white again.
It’s so cold... The chilly wind is whistling in my ears. I wrap myself in a thin blanket like a hedgehog, shivering and trying my best to tighten every leaking place.
The South Korean army attacked twelve times in total. Although they continuously sent reinforcements, and finally a regiment attacked the hill, they were never able to get close to the positions of the Volunteer Army. They only left hundreds of bodies in front of the positions. As the sky gradually darkened, the South Korean army, which had been unable to attack for a long time, had to withdraw to Wenjing.
If you ask me, why bother to get these enemies to retreat to Wenjing? In fact, just use a loud speaker to shout at the enemy: "We are Chinese", which is more effective than any bomb. But if that were the case, I would be shot as a traitor.
I tightened the thin blanket covering my body and shivered involuntarily.
The first batch of volunteers entered North Korea secretly. Commander Peng Dezong even went to see Kim Il-sung with only a few guards before the volunteers entered North Korea. The volunteers we see in modern movies, beating drums and gongs, singing heroic songs and crossing the Yalu River to openly enter North Korea, were all the batches of volunteers after the war broke out.
This was done to make the arrogant American and South Korean troops mistakenly believe that the Chinese army did not participate in the war, or that even if they did, it was only a small number of Chinese troops. In order to achieve this goal, we even received orders to downgrade our unit number to a battalion-level unit if we were captured. For example, a certain division and a certain regiment were all called a certain battalion...
Facts also prove that the Volunteer Army did a very good job of keeping secrets, because until the end of the second battle, the US military commander MacArthur still insisted that they were facing only a small number of Chinese troops.
This famous American general in World War II said: "The Chinese are not a force to be recanted" and "If the Chinese army dares to cross the Yalu River, he will organize a massacre and let the Chinese army bleed into a river." He even boasted that the fighting would end before Thanksgiving and Christmas, but the three-year-long war gave him a hard slap in the face.
I listened to the sound of my teeth chattering and rubbed my numb feet vigorously, fearing that they would become a part of my body without me noticing.
After the enemy retreated to Wenjing, the volunteers had time to rest. But once it got dark, the weather was terribly cold, and because they were worried about exposing their targets and being bombed by American planes, the entire army was not allowed to light a fire. How could they sleep in such a cold weather? I could only wrap myself in the marching blanket and seek a little warmth in this small space.
But as the saying goes, there are three urgent things to do. After a long, contradictory and intense struggle between myself and myself, I finally plucked up the courage to crawl out of my blanket.
"Where are you going, comrade?" Hu Zi showed a pair of sleepy eyes from under the quilt, and looked like he had just had a nap.
"You...you also want to mind my own business?" I responded unhappily. My voice was trembling with cold and I could hardly recognize it.
"Take this with you." Hu Zi threw a thin iron rod in front of me.
"What are you bringing this for?" I picked up the thin iron rod puzzledly, and couldn't figure out what this thing was used for.
"Just take it with you if I tell you to! Why are you talking so much nonsense!" Hu Zi moved away and buried his head in the quilt again.
The cold weather made me unable to think too much, so I hurriedly ran to a nearby bush and squatted down. But after a while, I suddenly thought to myself that it was not good - the weather was too cold and we were all frozen.
At this moment, I couldn't help but think of the thin iron rod that Hu Zi had thrown to me just now. Listening carefully, the clanging sound of the iron rod hitting something continued one after another in this gray sky...
This can be said to be the most difficult and painful task I have ever had. After finally finishing it and jogging back, I found that my comrades were busy sorting out their equipment.
"Where...where are we going?" I asked painfully. I knew in my heart that we would have to march again and I hadn't even had a chance to rest.
"The superiors have given the order to march 20 miles and attack Wenjing at night." The old squad leader helped me pack my marching blanket, brought it to me and said, "Comrade, count your equipment, the kettle, the shovel... These things may not seem important at ordinary times, but they may save your life in a battle."
"No way! We have to go to war again?" Although it was not unexpected, I was still in so much pain that I almost cried. What kind of life is this? Not only are we not well fed, not well clothed, and not able to sleep, but we are marching and fighting all day long, and then after the battle, we march again and fight again. Even the strongest man can't stand it. I've seen that after a few days, if they are not killed on the battlefield, they will be exhausted to death!
"A forced march is good!" Hu Zi, as if to deliberately annoy me, packed up his equipment and jumped a few times in front of me and said, "It's freezing cold, a forced march will warm us up!"
I carried all my equipment on my back, braving the biting snow and wind, and followed the troops stepping deep and shallow. This march was different from last night's march. Last night there was only one company of more than 100 people, but now there are 2,000 to 3,000 people. Under the snowy night, the shadows of the volunteer soldiers were everywhere.
Hunger, cold and fatigue tortured me all the time, reminding me of the peaceful modern times, the warm home and the delicious food on the table. Thinking of my mother who took good care , I felt a little sour in my nose, but a few tears froze into ice beside my eyes before they could fall...
Sometimes I wanted to just lie there and not get up, and just stay put to see who could do anything to me. But when I saw that the other volunteers seemed to be fine, I didn't want to be a coward.
And more importantly… I suspected that if I really refused to leave, someone might actually shoot me. Who can predict what will happen in a war? If I refuse to leave, wouldn’t that mean I want to be a deserter? It’s normal for deserters to be shot.
"Comrade, comrade!"
"ah!"
I looked up and saw that Xiao Shandong had already stood in front of me. He grinned at me and said, "Comrade, the regiment commander is calling you."
"The regiment commander called me?" I couldn't help but feel surprised. A regiment of the Volunteer Army has almost two thousand people, and the regiment commander can be said to be a senior general. Why would he call me a nobody?
"What does the commander call me for?" He asked casually as he quickened his pace and followed Xiao Shandong.
"I don't know either. The regiment commander didn't tell me." Xiao Shandong paused, then said thoughtfully, "It seems that they caught a few spies on the way. The regiment commander couldn't understand what they said, so he wanted to find a translator!"
"Oh!" Now I understand. It seems that knowing more languages really has many benefits.
I jogged along the team and turned a corner, where I saw dozens of civilians being held by five volunteer soldiers on the side of the road. Next to them stood a middle-aged volunteer soldier with a disheveled appearance. I said he had a disheveled appearance because his belt was hanging around his neck and his pale face was covered with stubble. If he had a cigarette in his mouth, he would look exactly like a traitor in the movies.
"Reporting to Captain Chu, Cui Wei from the third platoon of the second company of the third battalion has arrived."
"Ah?" After hearing Xiao Shandong's words, I realized that the middle-aged soldier in front of me who looked like a traitor was the commander of the 354th Regiment - Chu Chuanyu.
I quickly followed suit, stood at attention, saluted, and said, "Report to the commander..."
"Cui Wei, right?" Captain Chu said impatiently before I could finish, "I heard that you can speak Korean. Come on, ask these people and see what your background is."
"yes!"
I turned around and looked at the people I was going to question, and immediately understood why they were considered spies. Although these dozens of people were all dressed in civilian clothes, they were all middle-aged men. It was obvious that they were all soldiers.
"Which unit are you from?" I asked their numbers directly in Korean.
Some people say that when interrogating a thief, don't ask him if he stole anything, just ask him how much he stole. Although this trick is very old-fashioned, it often has unexpected results when the other party is nervous. Sure enough, several of them looked up at me in confusion, which further confirmed that they were indeed soldiers.
"Which unit are you from? Confess and get leniency. The Chinese People's Volunteer Army treats prisoners well!" I asked. I had been with the army for a day and learned a lot of what my comrades often say.
"China?" One of the little guys finally responded. In the dark, he looked at me suspiciously, then looked at the long line of people passing by behind me, and asked hesitantly, "You...you are Chinese?"
"That's right!" I nodded, but I didn't expect that such a slight movement and such a brief answer would be met with a stormy response.
Just like what was filmed in revolutionary movies, these "civilians" in front of me suddenly became extremely enthusiastic. They showed happy smiles on their faces, their eyes sparkled with anticipation, and they rushed to shake hands with me and the volunteer soldiers around me, and said meaningfully: "Comrades! It's finally you! The Korean people and the Korean People's Army warmly welcome you!"
"Who are you..." I looked at this group of people in confusion, and at the same time stopped my comrades who were about to raise their guns because of their big movements.
"Comrade, we are soldiers of the Korean People's Army." The little man saluted me straight and replied, "My name is Cui Xixuan, the commander of the 1st Company, 3rd Battalion, 78th Regiment, 15th Division of the People's Army, and they are all my subordinates."
"Our division commander is right behind us." After hesitating for a moment, Cui Xixuan pointed to a small hill not far away and said, "Please ask this comrade to tell your leader to allow me to call the division commander over."
Ah, a division commander has arrived. I was , and quickly turned around and told Captain Chu what Cui Xixuan had said.
"Ball!" After hearing what I said, Captain Chu's face turned cold, and he slapped the cotton hat of a volunteer soldier next to him: "The division commander was lying in ambush next to our troops and we didn't even notice him, so why should we be called a reconnaissance company commander?"
