Chapter 1: The First Battle

  "Boom... boom", can't help but admire the Americans' wealth, haven't even seen the enemy's shadow, artillery preparation has been continuously bombarding for nearly an hour.

  In the simple team command post, the commander of the second regiment Liu Ke and several team leaders were using binoculars to observe the main position of the second battalion. This was the first battle for their regiment in entering Korea: blocking the South Korean puppet 1st Division that invaded North Korea on the outskirts of Yundu Mountain.

  The enemy's shells exploded row by row, turning the dense forest into a bare expanse of tree stumps. The burning pine trees quickly became torches, and rocks and soil were blasted high into the air, only to come crashing down like hailstones. After the artillery bombardment, several American planes took over, strafing and bombing the position in low-altitude sorties, plowing it twice with bombs. The intense bombing lasted for a long time, until two planes flew in to "add fuel to the fire" - dropping napalm bombs on the position. The flowing gasoline ignited a massive fire that engulfed the entire hillside, sending up an even more ferocious blaze on the already burning mountain top. The position was completely consumed by flames, and thick smoke shrouded the entire high ground.

  Liu Ke, although he looks a bit old-fashioned, is actually only thirty years old this year. He has a tall and thin build, with the standard appearance of a "Hubei native". However, he is a veteran who has participated in the Long March and has been through many battles. But like today, using such strong firepower to launch a surprise attack on a regiment-level defensive position, he had never seen it when fighting against Japan, nor when fighting against the fully armed and equipped divisions of the Nationalist Party.

  "Commissar, shouldn't we get some artillery support?" Chief of Staff Wu Zhen asked cautiously.

  "No need, it's just the beginning, save those few rounds for the crucial moment!" Liu Ke thought and said, he was also helpless. Although the regiment had a mortar battalion equipped with eight captured Japanese and American mortars, they only had two base numbers of shells after repeated replenishment before going abroad. The battle had just begun, and it wasn't time to use their trump card yet.

  "Alas!" Wu Zhen sighed, no wonder when they first entered the dynasty, the officers of the People's Army saw their equipment and shook their heads. At that time, he was not very convinced. His own troops were the main force division, all equipped with Japanese-style weapons, some of which were American-made, and at home, they were considered to be well-equipped. Now, in comparison, it was truly a case of "a small sorcerer meeting a great one". The enemy's first artillery attack had fired enough shells to equal several rounds of their own artillery preparation.

  "It's a terrible mess on the second company's position!" The guards and communication personnel in the command post muttered quietly, their faces filled with worry.

  "Damn it, intelligence said we were intercepting the South Korean puppet army, how did it turn out to be American devils?" a staff officer said with hatred, looking at the battlefield.

  "Watch out, the planes and tanks are American, but the soldiers are South Korean puppets!" The reconnaissance staff officer retorted in dissatisfaction.

  After the enemy's artillery fire and aerial bombing ended, the tanks began to move out. The machine guns swept continuously, and the tank cannons fired shells without hesitation whenever they saw moving figures. Behind them, a group of pseudo-soldiers wearing steel helmets and holding carbines followed closely behind the tanks as they advanced. The enemy probably thought that their position had been destroyed and no one could survive, so they didn't conduct any tactical reconnaissance but instead kept pace with the tanks in a fierce charge up the mountain.

  Liu and the chief of staff exchanged a glance, their eyes filled with worry. He thought for a moment and said to one of his staff officers: "Order the reserve troops to prepare to charge forward and drive the enemy back!"

  "Wait a minute!" The adjutant had just turned around and picked up the phone when he was suddenly stopped by Political Commissar Xu Yimin.

  "Old Xu, what's wrong?" Liu asked with a frown.

  "Commissar Xu put down his binoculars and excitedly said to the regiment commander, 'The second battalion has started a counterattack!'"

  Liu Tuanzhang somewhat unbelievingly raised his binoculars from the observation port and looked towards the second camp's position, clearly seeing that when the enemy attacked to within about 20 meters of the mountain top, the cadres and soldiers of the second camp suddenly jumped out from who-knows-where, as if standing in a great fire, using all firearms to fiercely shoot at the enemy. Batch after batch of hand grenades flew out of the trenches and exploded among the enemy ranks. The fake army troops that were killed or wounded rolled down the mountain like logs, while those who weren't killed retreated like a tide, escaping back to their starting position. The tanks, having lost infantry cover, hastily and clumsily turned around and followed the soldiers' backsides, spewing black smoke as they ran back and forth. Our army's soldiers on the positions began to pursue with firepower, and the fleeing enemy were constantly being knocked down...

  The people in the command post were excited for a while, and then they were puzzled: The second battalion's position was so severely damaged by the enemy, why could there still be people who insisted on fighting? What method did the troops use to fight in the midst of the great fire? After the enemy stopped attacking, Liu Tuanzhang, who was full of questions, took his guards and went to the second battalion's position to see what had happened. Along the way, he saw that there were shell craters and newly overturned earth everywhere, and the tree trunks and branches that had been broken by shells were still burning with flames.

  When Captain Liu arrived at the battlefield engulfed in flames, he was astonished to see that some soldiers' hats and clothes still had sparks on them, while others were still smoking. Their hair and eyebrows were singed by the fire, and their skin was covered with blisters. However, they didn't care about this at all and continued to dig trenches crazily with a "ding-ding-dang" sound. Even a wounded soldier sat on the ground, using an iron shovel to throw soil out of the trench. The entire mountain top had been dug into one ditch after another, separating the burning area and the fortifications into segments.

  "Squad leader, how did you come?" The second battalion commander Zhang Tianhao was surprised and asked Liu squad leader.

  "Second Battalion Commander, why aren't you at the command post!" Liu Battalion Commander asked back.

  "Captain, the enemy's firepower is too strong! Our telephone lines are still set up in the old way, exposed on the outside, and they keep getting burned out by the fires. As a result, command between battalions isn't working smoothly. The runners who deliver orders have suffered heavy casualties, and several of our phone operators have been killed while checking the lines. I had to run all the way up here to direct operations myself!" said the Second Battalion Commander, taking off his hat and wiping his face in frustration.

  "How did the warriors manage to persist and fight in the midst of the great fire?" Liu asked further.

  "When we fought against the old Chiang, we had never seen such a way of fighting. The enemy planes dropped incendiary bombs, and the whole mountain was on fire. At first, more than ten people were injured or killed. Later, a new soldier came up with an idea, digging a firebreak in front of the position to separate the fire from the position. This way, the soldiers managed to survive the big fire and repel the enemy!" The battalion commander said with emotion.

  "Where is that warrior?" asked Captain Liu.

  "Ah, it's him, that soldier!" The second battalion commander pointed to a soldier beside him who was digging a ditch with his back bent.

  Commander Liu looked up and down at the soldier in front of him, who was nearly 1.8 meters tall, with a face blackened by gunpowder smoke, his head bare, his hat blown off somewhere by the blast, making it impossible to discern his features. He took two quick strides forward, jumped down into the ditch, and tightly grasped the soldier's hand, saying: "This is a great creation, and also a great contribution! It has solved a major problem that we hadn't anticipated. Well done! You should be commended!"

  The new warrior was startled by the sudden enthusiasm, not knowing what this leader was doing, and withdrew his hand from the team leader's hand, looking around at the class leader with a pleading gaze.

  "King Yong, this is our team leader Liu!" said Yang Zhanfu, the third squad leader, pulling him and whispering.

  "Good, Captain!" Wang Yong hastily stood at attention and saluted loudly. Liu Ke returned the salute, patted his shoulder, smiled and nodded, "Little comrade, do a good job, strive to achieve more merits!" After that, he went with the Second Battalion Commander to inspect the camp.

  "Team leader, is he really thirty years old? And he still calls me little comrade!" Wang Yong asked the team leader in a low voice, looking at the team leader's back.

  "Haha, you're right, Captain is just thirty this year, but he joined the revolution in Northern Jiangsu, fought against Japan and Chiang Kai-shek, compared to a new recruit like you, isn't he an old comrade?" said Third Squad Leader with a jest.

  "Squad leader, quick hide, the enemy is firing cannons!" Just as Wang Yong was about to retort, he heard the whistling sound of shells coming from afar and getting closer. The squad leader pulled him into a nearby bunker just in time. At this moment, the alarm sounded on the battlefield with a "beep beep" warning everyone to hide quickly.

  As soon as they entered the bunker, shells rained down like raindrops, and the explosions gradually merged into a continuous roar, making it impossible to distinguish individual blasts. The human heart was shaken so hard that it seemed to be about to jump out of one's mouth. The small bunker was like a tiny boat navigating through towering waves in the ocean, constantly rocking back and forth with its occupants. The soil on top of the bunker kept falling down with a "chirping" sound, making people feel terrified, as if it might collapse at any moment. Yang Zhanfu looked at Wang Yong, who was huddled in the corner of the bunker, seemingly unfazed by all this. He sat on the ground with his gun in his arms, squinting his eyes as if dozing off. Yang couldn't help but feel suspicious - such intense artillery fire made even him, a veteran soldier who had fought through the entire Liberation War and participated in numerous fierce battles, feel his heart racing with fear. Yet Wang Yong, a new recruit of only a few months, seemed too calm, his face expressionless, without a hint of terror or unease. The thunderous artillery fire outside seemed to be just a game to him - could he really not be intimidated by the cannon fire?

  "King Yong, what are you thinking?" Yang Zhanfu asked loudly, but the outside cannon fire was deafening, and King Yong didn't hear him say anything, still squatting there in a daze. Yang Zhanfu sighed and also fell silent, quietly thinking about his own affairs.

  Yang Zhanfu's old home was in Shanxi, he didn't know which ancestor couldn't bear to stay at home anymore, so they crossed the border into Manchuria and settled down in Heilongjiang. From what he remembered, he had never eaten a full meal since childhood. After the Japanese devils came, life became even more difficult. Fortunately, after liberation, **came**, land was distributed, and there was hope for a better life.

  Later, Yang Zhanfu joined the **troops**, and in three years, they fought from Northeast to Southwest, almost traversing the entire Chinese territory. Before leaving the country, he went back home to take a look, and his new house had already been built, and someone even mentioned a potential wife for him. Now he was just waiting for the war to end so he could go back home and get married.

  At that time, Wang Yong was secretly scolding the garrulous old lady from the street residents' committee in his heart. At that time, it was said that educated youths were being recruited to go to Northeast China for industrial construction. The old lady had taken a liking to him, an elementary school graduate who was studying in a short-term industrial training class, and had come to persuade him several times, implying that if he didn't sign up, she would show up at his doorstep every day. Wang Yong knew that the Northeast was a place where people could freeze to death, and he was unwilling to go there to "make a fortune". Later, he couldn't bear the old lady's nagging, so he gritted his teeth and agreed. The next day, the old lady brought someone to deliver military uniforms to him, and a military dependent's plaque was nailed to his door. He wanted to back out, but it was too late. This is how he became a member of this Northeast border defense army. As for himself, he had fought against Japan for several years, and the calluses on his hands from holding guns had just faded away when he picked up his gun again and followed the troops to Northeast China. After several months of training, they crossed the Yalu River into North Korea on a dark night, marching day and night until they arrived at this place, which he still didn't know the name of. They hadn't even finished digging their fortifications when they clashed with the enemy, and he was furious!