Chapter 1 Land Warrior

"China has jumped from their victory to a world power that cannot be despised anymore. If the Chinese had not been firmly in the battlefield of Qingchang in November 1950, the course of world history would have been different since then."

Excerpted from "The Battle of the Qing Dynasty" by Dr. Robert O'Nell, a strategist at the University of Oxford in the UK.

...

In late November 1950, although winter just began, there was already a snowy and ice on the Gaima Plateau in northern North Korea. The Siberian cold wind blowing from northeast China across the Yalu River kept whistling on this land, stirring up layers of blurred snow fog on the peaks, killing a piece of haze and scattering on this land that has already contained too much smoke and war.

As soon as he walked out of his command post, Smith, the commander of the 1st Marine Division of the US Army, couldn't help but shiver. He couldn't help but curse the damn ghost weather in his mouth. If he remembered correctly, the temperature today would be minus twenty-five degrees Celsius even during the day. But looking at the energetic young men in his army, Commander Smith still couldn't help but smile on his face.

The First Marine Division of the Army is the pride of all American soldiers! The First Marine Division of the Army Division participated in the Pacific War, the most cruel battle in Guadalam, and shone brightly in the Battle of Okinawa. These young men fought bloody battles with the elite Japanese troops who believed in the spirit of Bushido and were vowed to surrender and fought desperately, and were invincible.

During the Pacific War, dazzling combat heroes continued to emerge in the First Marine Division. There were soldiers from the First Marine Division who held grenades tightly when attacking the bunkers built by the Japanese army on the hilltops, held grenades tightly into the Japanese bunkers to blast them to prevent the Japanese soldiers in the bunkers from pushing out the grenades. It was because of this record that after the Battle of Guadalcanal in 1942, the First Marine Division became the first American army to win the "Excellent Force" award issued in the name of the president. It is not an exaggeration to say that this is a heroic force that has been growing in the war!

Most importantly, almost all of the current soldiers of this unit, including the reserve members, are volunteer soldiers who actively enlisted. Among them, there are many soldiers who have participated in World War II, have rich practical experience, and have "liked" to war. Such a unit composed of veterans and adventurers has huge differences from those troops recruited through recruitment, both in terms of morale and combat capabilities. It is because of this that the First Marine Division became the trump card of the US military on the Korean battlefield and won the first batch of landings in Incheon.

This army even has an indispensable connection with China.

In 1900, among the Eight-Nation Alliance that invaded Beijing and burned the Old Summer Palace, there was the First Land War Division; after the end of World War II in 1945, American soldiers appeared in Beijing, Tianjin, Qingdao and other Chinese cities in Beijing, Tianjin, Qingdao and other Chinese cities with the attitude of a victor. In 1946, the "Shen Chong incident" of raped a female student at Peking University in Beijing was also a news created by several officers and soldiers of the First Land War Division.

At this time, although the Chinese army, which calls itself a "volunteer army", had appeared on the Korean battlefield and launched a head-on strike against the United Nations forces, after analysis, military experts still believed that China was just a symbolic dispatch. General MacArthur, the highest commander on the Korean battlefield, even hoped that China would send troops. Looking at China's modern history, every negotiation and every war between countries ended in China's failure. In the minds of Western powers, China is synonymous with slavery, weakness, selfishness, and scattering. General MacArthur, even abandoned his declaration in public: "If Red China wants to send troops to North Korea, that's better! I can just kill them back to the Stone Age!"

Out of "absolute understanding" of the Chinese people, General MacArthur, commander-in-chief, who had determined that the Chinese army would never intervene on a large scale, even put forward the slogan "let the soldiers go home for Christmas". In this case, General Almond, the commander of the battlefield in the Eastern Front of North Korea, asked Smith, the commander of the First Marine Division, to lead the troops to advance boldly along Changjin Lake, quickly reach the river border, and meet with the Eighth Army on the Western Front.

Every day, Commander Smith can receive General Almond's simple and direct orders: "The First Land War Division, attack, attack north at full speed!"

Commander Smith, 57, worked at the US Embassy in Paris when he was young. This was his experience that gave him a more elegant scholarly atmosphere. In addition, his tall and majestic body, and the gentle smile that always rose on his face made him easily a favored object for women. After participating in two world wars, he was known as a prominent military achievement. In the First Division of the Land War, Commander Smith was a hero admired by everyone. Looking at Commander Smith from the perspective of the Chinese, he could undoubtedly be called a Confucian general.

Commander Smith is an excellent professional soldier. The soldiers are obeying orders. However, after receiving the order from Commander Almond to attack with all their might, Commander Smith issued the following order to his subordinates: "Slow down the pace of progress, and return to normal offensive speed after we and other troops truly meet. Every day, the offensive target and distance must be determined in advance before attacking, so as to ensure that the troops can maintain the maximum response and counterattack power when facing raids!"

The reason is very simple. Commander Smith dared not take risks with the lives of his 25,000 soldiers!

If possible, Commander Smith really wanted to pull General Almond out of the warm fireplace room with his own hands, let him feel the biting Siberian cold current on the Gama Plateau, and let him open his eyes and see clearly the situation facing the First Land War Division.

There is only one simple road with a very complex terrain on the more than 100 kilometers of the rear base between Xingnan Port and Changjin Lake area. It is a narrow road paved with mixed soil and sand and gravel. It is winding through the mountainous areas and can only be regarded as a highway. Especially in the nearly 80-kilometer section of the mountainous area, the road is so narrow that only one car can be allowed to pass, and it is on the mountainside, next to the abrupt rocks and a steep abyss! All troops and supplies must pass through this road, so that the entire marching formation will be dragged very long. In addition, in order to ensure the smooth flow of this lifeline, garrison forces must be deployed on several key points, which will inevitably cause the force to be dispersed. Once divided and surrounded, it will be easily defeated by each one.

Moreover, the weather is too cold, and cars cannot be started at night. The first thing soldiers do is to carefully roast the carbine in their hands on a portable military kerosene stove. This gun has a good fire rate and strong melee firepower suppression. Compared with those enemies with miscellaneous equipment, they have an absolute firepower advantage. However, the same is because there are too many parts of the gun. When the US military ordered weapons from arms dealers, it did not consider that it would invest a large number of ground troops in such a cold environment and did not make too many requirements for the low temperature resistance of the guns. Therefore, after a night of freezing, some of the parts of these weapons have failed. If they are accidentally dealt with, it is likely that during the battle, these carbines with strong firepower and complex structures will become a fire stick with no substantial significance.

When the soldiers finally heated the carbine and restored their effects, they would pair the compressed biscuits with chocolate and a toffee milk candy to cook a steaming soup. Just when the soup was boiled, these soldiers would take off their clothes under their command, and stand in the cold wind like shrimps to be thrown into the oil pan, grabbing a lot of snow under their feet and applying them on their bodies. According to some special forces instructors who are proficient in polar combat, "snow bathing" every morning can not only clean the soldiers' bodies, wash away the sticky things on their bodies, help them save their physical strength, and effectively prevent frostbite.

Even if you have sufficient cold protection tools, you can get three Class B and three Class M cans from the junta officer every day, as well as a soup with high calories and high protein cooked by yourself. You have to wash the "snow bath" at least once a day, but every day, soldiers still have frostbite in their hands or feet and lose their combat ability.

Commander Smith, who had rich practical experience in the world wars, clearly understood that in such a harsh environment, the first thing he fought was logistics supply. The unsecured logistics supply line could not be ensured and went deeper. Once he was attacked by the Chinese army with all his might, the First Land Warfare Division would likely suffer a Waterloo on the Gama Plateau!

It is because of this concern that Commander Smith always devoted considerable energy to logistics supplies when the First Marine Division was advancing backwards... Rebuilding roads in Xiaguli to ensure that the M-26 Pershing tanks could pass through and build an airport for small reconnaissance aircraft to lift and lower. On November 19, Commander Smith even bet on the cost of his military future, in a small town called Xiajieyuli, he sent engineer troops to build military airports with five large bulldozers, and opened a supply station to store a large amount of military supplies.

Facing the repeated disobeying general orders by Commander Smith and the elite ace troops like the First Marine Division, they crawled forward at the speed of a snail under the leadership of an old sheep. General Almond, the commander of the 10th Army, finally couldn't help it.

General Almond was a general of the US Army, while Commander Smith was a commander of the Navy. Although there were differences in official positions between the two sides, when ordering Commander Smith, General Almond always felt that he was willing but not capable. Since the telex order was invalid, the command letter sent to Commander Smith was invalid. When he called, he directly ordered the order. General Almond simply took a helicopter and flew to the command headquarters of the 1st Land Warfare Division.

"I am also a soldier. I know clearly how dangerous the section of road you want to pass in front of the First Land Division is. I also know that Mr. Smith, you are so cautious because you care about the good guys in your army. But I must say, Mr. Smith, you are really too cautious. You have lost the courage and strength that a soldier should have! You have even lost the judgment that a commander should have!"

After entering the division command center, the only two commanders left in the room started to talk in secret, General Almond's anger finally broke out. He pointed to the combat map laid out on the command table by Commander Smith and said, "I know the environment here is very harsh. You have soldiers who are frostbite every day. Everyone hopes to go home for a happy Christmas. But have you ever thought about it? With our equipment and supply status, the Air Force is dropping a large amount of air-replenishing supplies every day. We commanders are facing non-combat reductions, let alone those Chinese troops? Commander Smith asks you to see, their long supply line, they lack cars, and the railway line is often bombed by our Air Force. Not to mention basic cold-proof items, they cannot guarantee food, medicine and ammunition. In this case, how could they lurk in the path ahead of you in such a harsh situation?"

"Also," General Almond said this, took a deep breath before continuing: "The First Marine Division is your unit, and you should clearly know the combat strength of this ace unit. Do you think that with peasant Chinese soldiers, with the weapons at most World War I, and their dull tactical ideas, how many troops do you need to mobilize to eat your First Marine Division?!"

Faced with General Almond's reprimand, Commander Smith was silent. General Almond was right. With the equipment and supply conditions of the Chinese army, at least more than five times the troops needed to be mobilized to eat a tough bone like the First Land Division. In other words, the Chinese army must invest at least a large corps of more than 100,000 people to launch a battle to annihilate the First Land Division.

But by common sense, this is impossible.

Commander Smith knew clearly that the Chinese military equipment was equipped with no eye-catching signs on the military uniforms, and the name "Volunteer Army".

The Chinese army, whose logistics supply capacity is not even as high as World War I, looked like rocks in the color of their military uniforms. In the snowy Gama Plain, if their large troops act during the day, this strong visual contrast can allow the bomber pilots to easily find targets in the air.

Commander Smith once saw photos of Chinese troops taken by air reconnaissance planes. It was a unit that was not even fully equipped with warm cotton hats. A considerable number of soldiers could only wrap their heads with military quilts, and the shoes they were wearing... Commander Smith really couldn't imagine that if there were really troops waiting to ambush their Army Division in front, how could these Chinese people survive in the snow and ice with temperatures of minus 30 degrees Celsius at night.

According to the intelligence department's prediction, by tomorrow and the day after tomorrow, the lowest temperature in this snowy plain may reach minus forty degrees Celsius! No matter how strange the Chinese soldiers are, they are also human beings. They lack the necessary heating equipment. In order to lurk, they dare not light open flames in large quantities. They are even wearing thin rubber shoes. In this case, as long as they lie on the ground for more than two hours, they will never be able to stand up again with their own strength. It is even more impossible for them to support such a cold and terrible winter night!

But for some reason, looking at the combat map placed on the table, watching the reconnaissance planes just teleported back, near the Yalu River, there was no reconnaissance information about the activities of the Chinese Corps, and looking at the Almond Commander who had already personally ran to the front line to supervise the battle, Smith felt his eyelids beating constantly, and he felt his chest felt stuffy.

Those who have never been on the battlefield will never understand that people like Commander Smith who have experienced many battles and dance with the god of death are slowly cultivated on the battlefield, like wild animals, and instinctive reactions to dangers that are close to intuition.

If there are really tens of thousands of professional soldiers who have experienced the war and have grown up step by step, lurking in a place on the Gamaping Plateau, quietly waiting for their first Land War Division to step into the death trap that had been prepared, then in the long wait, the opposite of this ice and snow world is these soldiers, the murderous aura that is suppressed to the limit, as hot as flames, is already surging!
Chapter completed!