Chapter 10: Turkish-Style Humor (5)
The snow stopped and the sky cleared, Stevenson, wearing a bulletproof vest and carrying an M3 submachine gun, arrived at Base Camp by helicopter. The US paratrooper commander who witnessed the massacre of the cavalrymen was assigned to interrogate the so-called prisoners.
The corpses were piled up like mountains, the smoke of gunpowder filled the air, and the mountain tops were almost flattened by cannon fire. The semi-permanent fortifications were completely destroyed, and the stunned prisoners of war stared with dead fish-like eyes, shouting for help in Korean to Stevenson.
Stevenson interrogated a dozen or so captured ROK soldiers and got to the bottom of things. Unlike other US military officers, he believed that polite orders and diplomatic language were the first sharp blade hanging over the heads of soldiers. He poured all his coarsest curses on Yaz?c?, accusing him of mistakenly injuring friendly forces, making false reports, and claiming that he would take him to a military tribunal. Yaz?c? seemed to be shocked, and in front of this officer who was lower than himself, he did not get angry, but kept muttering that he had not made a mistake. In front of Stevenson, Yaz?c? stripped several ROK soldiers, whipped them, kicked them, and forced them to admit that they were wearing ROK military uniforms as North Korean People's Army soldiers. The interpreter who tried to explain that he was not a Chinese soldier was even more unfortunate, being beaten by Turkish soldiers with the back of a knife and breaking his ribs.
Stevenson watched the commotion dispassionately, he personally inquired of Korean and Turkish soldiers, got a detailed account of the battle, looked over the ambush points on both sides of the road and the Turkish rear echelon units that had been mortally hit, and shot up all the film he was carrying.
Returning to Eighth Army Headquarters, Stevenson dumped a thick stack of photographs on the commander's desk.
"The Chinese main force troops may have already penetrated deep into our occupied areas and are perhaps now hiding in a nearby place sharing the spoils of war."
The commander looked at the footprint of the Liberation shoes in a photo: "Your imagination is too rich. It did not attack the Turks, nor even had the ability to annihilate the Korean army that lost its combat effectiveness. It should be a small scattered force without threatening strength."
"It's a silent landmine, and what happened in Turkey is the best proof." Stevenson pulled out a photo and handed it to the commander, on which Turkish soldiers were smashed into a pile of flesh, he turned his face away in disgust, Stevenson pushed the photo in front of him across the table.
"Get out of here, you stubborn donkey!"
"On the mountain top where the cavalry was ambushed, there were several corpses that had also been struck by cold weapons. I think it's very likely that they belonged to the same unit, which possessed astonishing combat power, with a commander who remained calm in crisis, bold and meticulous, and extremely militarily wise."
The corpses in the photos are all masterpieces of Hou's madness, and the tyrannical arm strength that wields an iron hammer is enough to make any soldier of any skin color fragmented beyond recognition, even his own parents can't recognize him.
"The Chinese army has the habit of using cold weapons, chopping knives, long spears, iron rods. Sometimes they would rather use hand grenades as hammers to smash our heads. I said this is a small force, not worth making a fuss."
Stevenson stormed out, shouting: "Our failure is due to arrogance!"
Before the Volunteer Army entered Korea, Stevenson often led a parachute team to search for forced landing points in northern Korea, collecting intelligence. He reported in time that there were large numbers of Chinese troops gathering on the banks of the Yalu River, but it was not taken seriously. This time, he firmly believed his intuition, a sharp sword was quietly stabbing into the abdomen of the US military.
