Volume 3 The Third Battle Chapter 8: Sino-North Korean Cooperation
"Set off!"
As expected, everything developed according to the original history. We received the order to march that night, but where to go and what to do, not only did I, the nominal company commander, not know, even Instructor Zhao beside me had no idea at all.
But I think it should be like this. The third battle was launched in extreme secrecy. The US military did not receive any In the words of the US military, the Volunteer Army soldiers seemed to emerge from the ground and caught them off guard.
The confidentiality work is well done! In this regiment, perhaps only the regiment commander and the political commissar know the goal and mission of our march. If the new recruits knew about this, there might be a few who fell behind and accidentally became prisoners of the coalition forces. That would be...
Oh! Thinking of those new recruits gives me a headache. They are still excited about being soldiers. The whole army is marching in silence, but you can always hear some Sichuanese voices talking quietly. They seem to be very interested in the snow all over the mountains in North Korea. They grab a few handfuls of snow and play with them in their hands from time to time. If it weren't for the old soldiers of the beach company helping to calm them down, I think they would have started a snowball fight on the march.
However, this situation soon changed. In the second half of the night, the smiles on the faces of the recruits disappeared, replaced by fatigue and pain. They all had sad faces and their feet began to stagger.
This is just the beginning! Looking at the new recruits, I am worried. They are like this during just a march. If they are attacked by machine guns and artillery, they will be scared to death!
"Hello, comrades!"
"Thank you for your hard work, comrades!"
…
Several cars loaded with Korean People's Army soldiers drove past us. The soldiers on the cars waved to us enthusiastically in Chinese, which made me realize that the Korean People's Army had also joined the war.
From modern sources I know that after entering North Korea, the Chinese People's Volunteer Army fought two brilliant battles and gained more than twenty days of precious time. The Korean People's Army, which had been reduced to a mess, was able to rest and organize itself. By the third battle, it finally had three corps (the 1st, 2nd, and 5th Corps) with a total of 14 divisions and more than 75,000 people.
The Sino-North Korean Joint Command was subsequently established , and the Third Battle was the first joint battle between the Chinese People's Volunteer Army and the Korean People's Army.
It is said that Kim Il-sung wanted to get the command of the Sino-North Korean joint army at that time. This is a bit puzzling to me. He only had 70,000 soldiers while we had hundreds of thousands of soldiers. Why would he ask for the command when he had just suffered a great defeat and almost wiped out his entire army?
"Captain, Captain!" At this time, Xiao Shandong ran up and shouted, "Then, the new soldier can't walk anymore, and he wants to rest!"
"What the hell!" I couldn't help but curse, "If we take a break, how can we catch up with the troops? We'll drag them behind!"
"yes!"
"I'm talking to you, Shandong!" I couldn't help but say with some dissatisfaction, "Your platoon has new recruits, and other platoons also have new recruits. Why are other platoons unable to move because they don't have new recruits? Only your platoon has them?"
"I, I..." Little Shandong I didn't know what to say.
"Other platoons had it too!" Zhao Yongxin caught up and joked, "It's just that other platoon leaders knew they couldn't rest, and they scolded the new recruits who asked them to rest. Only Xiao Shandong heard that the new recruits wanted to rest and came to report to the company commander. It seems that it's a habit he got from being a signalman, he's used to passing messages!"
With a cry of "Booooo...", all the volunteer soldiers around who heard this burst into laughter, except Xiao Shandong, who was blushing and standing there stupidly, not knowing what to do.
"I'm talking to you, Xiao Shandong!" I said unhappily, "You are a platoon leader after all, you are not just passing the message, understand? Learn from the other platoon leaders!"
"yes!"
Looking at Xiao Shandong running back to the team, I couldn't help but shake my head. The time was too short. The new soldiers and veterans alike hadn't adapted to their positions at home. Although the third battle was not difficult to fight and was a great victory, the fourth battle that followed...
"Stay where you are!"
"Stay where you are!"
…
At this time, orders were continuously issued from the front of the troops. When the new recruits heard the orders, they all lay down at once, wailing and complaining. Instructor Zhao and I could only shake our heads, but there was nothing anyone could do.
"Captain Cui, Instructor Zhao!" Soon a messenger came running over and shouted, "The regiment commander wants you to come over for a meeting!"
When we arrived, cadres from all battalions and companies had all arrived. Dozens of people were sitting sparsely on an open space of more than ten square meters. A platform was set up in front of them with several ammunition boxes. A military map was nailed on the front. Captain Chu and Political Commissar Chen Ye were holding flashlights covered with black cloth, shining them on the map and whispering something.
"Comrades!" Seeing that most people had arrived, Captain Chu pointed to the map and said, "We are here now. Two kilometers ahead is the Imjin River. Our mission this time is to hide in the nearby forests and break through the Imjin River once the order to attack arrives!"
"Great!" When the soldiers heard that there was another battle, they all clenched their fists and showed excitement on their faces. Of course, except me.
"Let me first talk about the enemy's troop deployment." Captain Chu said solemnly, "The troops deployed along the river are puppet troops with relatively weak combat effectiveness. The north bank of the crossing point is a plain, and the south bank is a cliff that is seven to ten meters high. The river is 100 to 150 meters wide, and the water is one to two meters deep."
At this point, the volunteers couldn't help but gasp. This terrain meant that the volunteers had to be exposed on the plains on the north bank, then rush across the Imjin River, and climb up the seven to ten meter cliff on the south bank...
"Is the river frozen?" asked a soldier.
"Although it has frozen over," said Captain Chu with a straight face, "the puppet troops on the other side have been destroying the river surface with artillery fire day and night, and the river surface is in a semi-frozen state. According to reconnaissance, there are about two or three barbed wire fences on the south bank, and there is a large minefield with a mixture of various mines. The key points of defense are all built with light and dark bunkers, and the number is unknown."
When Captain Chu said this, the soldiers were silent. Everyone knew that the combat effectiveness of the puppet army was not a concern. Our biggest enemies now were the plains, rivers, cliffs, and mines...
The plains meant that we would be exposed to the enemy's artillery fire too early, the river water meant that many soldiers would be frozen in the Imjin River, the cliffs meant that we had to climb up under the enemy's bullets, and the mines meant that the troops could not launch a group charge.
