Korean War in the Far East

Forty years ago, when China and India exchanged fire in the Himalayas, MacArthur, the former commander of the U.S. Far East Army, said: "Whoever wants to fight the Chinese Army must be sick." "The "Far Eastern King," who fought extremely beautifully in World War II and bound many countries in Asia, learned this experience during the ruling war. He was unlucky because of the Chinese, and the final years were very bleak. However, in 1950 and 1951, the water of the Han River turned white many times. Wang Shuzeng, the author of "The Korean War in the Far East," lamented to me on a late autumn night: "Exactly 50 years have passed, and who still remembers the Chinese soldiers whose bodies were left on the cold and snowy fields?"

This writer of the Bondage Army did nothing else for three years (even his wife Wang Ying "accompanied" to become an expert on the Korean War), and buried himself in the materials of the Korean War in poverty, loneliness, and excitement, interviewing the final veterans in their old age, and going to those troops whose people did not know about the years to find possible traces. Wipe away the tears and try to be objective. After reading these two books with a difficult heart, I would like to say that whoever wants to know the real history without pretenses, and who wants to touch the bravest and most vulnerable side of the nation, please read "The Korean War in the Far East".

Wang Shuzeng's books have been published in tens of thousands of copies, plus a large number of pirated copies, and the popularity is quite large. This is the question that asks him the most.

Some college students also said that if we don't resist US aggression and aid Korea, we will be next to South Korea, and how convenient it is to engage in trade and support, Dandong may be the second Hong Kong. "Judging from the pre-existing situation, I think the Chinese Communist Party has no choice but one way, fight!" Wang Shuzeng replied. There are only two countries that are not recognized by the Western world beforehand, one is White China and the other is North Korea. When the UN forces advanced towards the Chinese border, MacArthur said - "I will let the Asian communist countries bleed", "The UN forces cannot be expected to stand still on the Yalu River".

At the center's meeting, Zhou Enlai said worriedly that if the United Nations forces were pressed to the Yalu River, China's more than 1,000-kilometer border would face troops armed to the teeth. In this way, Chiang Kai-shek could counterattack on the southeast coast at any time. If you attack from front to back, your regime will not have a day of peace. Mao Zedong saw this very clearly, he was well versed in the art of war, and knew that the best defense was to attack, to keep the enemy out of the country. The bold and heroic words of a generation of leaders quoted by Wang Shuzeng are intriguing.

One look at what the Soviets did shows Mao's boldness. In reality, it was the Soviets who were most anxious about the Korean War, but their relationship with the Americans was that of a knife and a beast, and they were all afraid of each other. The Soviet Union desperately wanted the Chinese to send troops. In September 1950, Peng Dehuai led more than 200,000 troops of the 38th, 39th, 40th, and 42nd armies to enter North Korea as the Soviets wished, and Mao Zedong sent an urgent telegram to recall him from the Yalu River.

It turned out that an American bomber had accidentally bombed a Soviet airfield. The Americans were frightened, fearing that they would anger the Soviet bear, and hurriedly apologized, saying that they would send the pilot to a military court for trial and promised to compensate for all losses. A few days later, and a few more days, there was no reaction from the Soviet side, and the Americans became even more frightened, believing that the Soviet Union was preparing for war, a calm before the war. As everyone knows, the Soviet Union was frightened by the ability of the United States to attack any part of the Soviet Union at any time, and Stalin believed that it must not fight the United States unless absolutely necessary. So he sent a telegram to Mao Zedong that "the Soviet Air Force is not prepared and cannot be dispatched".

Without the cover of the air force, hundreds of thousands of volunteers will allow US planes to bomb and strafe in the hilly plains where the government is in power, and this battle cannot be fought. Mao Zedong fell into a huge contradiction and decided that the volunteer army would not be mobilized for the time being, and at the same time let Zhou Enlai go to the Soviet Union immediately. Regarding the inability of the Soviet Air Force to dispatch, Stalin said: "If there is a full-scale conflict with the United States, the war will be bigger, and it will also affect China's tranquility and support......." Stalin was silent for a long time before he said: "Let Kim Il Sung, then, create a government-in-exile in northeastern China." ""

The UN forces quickly advanced towards the Sino-Korean border, and Mao Zedong finally decided to send troops anyway. According to historical records, when Zhou Enlai told Stalin that China had decided to send troops even without the support of the Soviet Air Force, Stalin shed tears and even said, "Chinese comrades are still good, Chinese comrades are still good." This mutual fear between the Soviet Union and the United States just proves the boldness of the Chinese communists. Mao Zedong and Peng Dehuai did not fail to consider the issue of defeat, Peng Dehuai said at the central meeting: "If I am defeated, at most it will be a few years late in bondage war." China has mountains, let's just go up the mountains. ""

The surprise attack of the Chinese army was successful

"The Chinese army in power mainly fought five wars, and remember, the five wars are the history of resisting US aggression and aiding Korea. Wang Shu emphasized that "we won all the first two wars, and the last three were victorious and defeated, and the more unsatisfactory was the fifth war. ""

The suddenness of the Chinese army laid the foundation for victory in the First and Second Wars. The reason why there can be a sudden interstitial relationship is because the US military made a serious mistake in judging China's intentions, and how dare the Chinese send troops to fight us Americans, and the disparity in strength between the two sides is too great! There is no comparison. Mao Zedong and Peng Dehuai took advantage of this point, not afraid of a strong enemy, and attacked by surprise.

Americans do not understand the Chinese Communists at all. How many Chinese Communists have they met? Except for a few in Peiping when Marshall mediated between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party over the past few decades, their views on the Chinese army have remained on Li Hongzhang's Qing army. We have to suffer the losses of one or two wars in order to recover our strength.

The Chinese army is very ruthless when it strikes, and any army in the world will stumble for a while. There is a lot of hatred in this, among which is resentment against the Americans' interference in Taiwan. Before the outbreak of the Korean War, the Americans were ready to abandon Taiwan, and they did not have a single soldier on the island, and as soon as the Korean War broke out, the Americans' first reaction was not aimed at North Korea, but Taiwan, and they immediately sent the Seventh Fleet to blockade the Taiwan Strait. This shows that the Americans misjudged from the beginning, thinking that it was "an "overall expansion of the Asian Communist Party" and that they overestimated the alliance of the Communist Party in the Asian region. In reality, when the war broke out between North Korea, China's ruling government rarely even had an embassy. This misjudgment is one of the main reasons for China's dispatch of troops, in the words of the common people, aren't you blockading, anyway, I can't restrain Taiwan, let's help my brother fight.

Another reason for the victory was Mao Peng's commanding talents. China sent troops in a hurry, Peng Dehuai said, I have never fought such a battle, I have no idea of the enemy's situation, I do not know the friendship, I don't know where the United Nations troops are entering, I only have the battle plan agreed with Chairman Mao, and then I found that it didn't work at all, because the United Nations troops marched too fast. Peng Dehuai's resilience will be severely tested.

The victors of all wars for 200 years have suffered great humiliation

How did the Chinese win the first battle with the Americans? On the evening of 19 October, hundreds of thousands of volunteers crossed the Yalu River. By this time, Pyongyang had been occupied, and Peng Dehuai, with a haggard face and white hair, overtook the vanguard and searched for the unknown Kim Il Sung in the mountains with only a few guards. Mr. Peng had already gone deep behind enemy lines and rubbed shoulders with a regiment from South Korea. The Volunteer Army Headquarters lost contact with him for two whole days, and it was unbelievable that Mr. Peng walked out of the encirclement alone.

Mr. Peng met Kim Il Sung in a gold mine called Bukjin. The KPA had been dispersed, and Kim Il-sung's message was out of order, unaware that MacArthur was personally parachuting his troops north of Pyongyang to outflank the soldiers and officials who had withdrawn north from Pyongyang. As soon as the People's Army encountered the Volunteer Army on the road, the first thing the People's Army said was: Do you have an airplane? As soon as they heard that there were none, they shook their heads vigorously.

A week after the volunteers entered North Korea, the US and South Korean troops did not know about it. On that day, the South Korean vanguard pursued the KPA while sitting in a car munching on apples and laughing, and the volunteers lay in ambush on the hill and slowed down the South Korean battalion in less than 20 minutes. Then the US planes carried out the right retaliatory bombing, and the whole hill was like a huge flame. But what was fresh for the South Korean soldiers was that some fresh shadows showed their heads in the fire and shot stubbornly. Such a combat-ready army was something they had never encountered. When more than 20 South Korean soldiers finally climbed the hill, they saw a ragged soldier standing up from his fortifications with a blaster in his arms and almost smiling towards them. The South Korean soldier suddenly had a clear time, but it was too late to run, and the blaster in the soldier's arms exploded. This is Chinese, it must be Chinese! The South Koreans exclaimed.

This day is October 25, 1950, which is designated by the Chinese government as the Day of Remembrance to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea. The first time the Chinese army engaged in a direct confrontation with the American army was at Unsan, not far from the border between China and North Korea, when the Americans replaced the South Korean army, which had already suffered a nervous breakdown: "They (the South Korean army) are clay sculptures, and they are completely in a state of mental confusion, and they are completely unconcerned and expressionless about the occasional gunfire in the vicinity. "The Chinese army almost couldn't see the formation of the attackers, and the flow of people appeared and disappeared in all directions, and they rushed in front of the American troops in an instant. "The history of the U.S. military records that China's artillery fire was very fierce, and when I checked the trajectory, I found that it was the 82 mm "Katyusha" artillery that appeared in Stalingrad in World War II and made the German army tremble. The appearance of such weapons means that the attacking army is not an ordinary army. Its soldiers were surprisingly brave, and a Chinese soldier caught up with the American machine gunner and rolled down the cliff after going around the enemy's machine gun position when the troops were blocked—a similar scene happened everywhere in the first battle between the Chinese and American armies, and the Americans were constantly killed and wounded in the "fresh shouts" and scrambled for their lives.

"The night is Chinese. Wang Shuzeng said. The history of the U.S. military also wrote: "In the night melee, the Chinese seem to be everywhere. The Marines, who had fought against the Japanese night attack in World War II, found that the Chinese's tactics were very similar—they shouted "You're there" or "I saw you" in English Chinese. A Russian-made T-34 tank broke through a roadblock and fired indiscriminately at mortar positions, vehicles and even individual soldiers. A Marine rocket hit the tank, and its turret suddenly spun around and knocked out the Marines' rocket launch group with a single shell...... At least part of the enemy's attacking force climbed to the position of E Company from behind, apparently along the field telephone line. The Chinese caught many people sleeping in sleeping bags and killed them. ""

At this time, the United States could not be sure whether the Chinese army had officially entered the war. To their surprise, Chinese radio stations openly admitted that their military was in power, saying that it was a "volunteer army" to protect hydroelectric power areas. Willock, an intelligence officer of the U.S. Far East Army, speculated that this was a trick of Chinese playing "the best of both worlds." He believes that the Chinese are extremely sensitive and face-loving, and they insist that there is little regular organized army in power, so that they can not only not damage the reputation of the CCP army in the event of defeat, but also give substantial support to the defeated North Korean army.

The series of battles around Yunshan Mountain in the past week since the beginning of the DPRK have been called by Western military scholars as "an example of undeclared war" and "a rare encounter in the history of world wars." This encounter has enabled the Chinese to understand what it feels like to fight a war with the Americans. The military of one of the world's most advanced industrial nations is nothing more than that. The US 24th Division once picked up a booklet entitled "A Basic Summary of the Yunshan Combat Experience" compiled and printed by a certain Chinese unit on the battlefield, which not only expressed envy for the US military's ability to coordinate artillery and tanks, infantry firepower, and air support, but was also very disrespectful to the combat effectiveness of the US soldiers:

When the American soldiers are cut off, they will discard all their heavy weapons, throw them everywhere, and play dead. Their infantry lacked combat effectiveness, were timid and afraid of death, and did not have the courage to attack and defend. If they hear gunfire as they advance, they will retreat. They can only fight during the day. They are not accustomed to night fights and white-knuckle fights. If they are defeated, they will be crushed, and if they are not supported by artillery, they will be helpless. When supplies stop, the infantry loses morale completely.

Such a description embarrassed the U.S. military, which had never suffered such a humiliation as the victors of all wars in the past 200 years, and who had defeated the military incompetence of Japan and Germany in World War II and become the savior of the world.

The industrial capacity of the United States has caused the Chinese military to sigh

The Second War of the Volunteers was a journey to tease MacArthur. Peng Dehuai concealed nearly 400,000 troops in the mountains near the Chinese border, and lured the enemy into this huge encirclement by such methods as hitting and running, discarding baggage, and releasing prisoners. MacArthur, a general who is regarded as a "god" by Southeast Asian countries and Japanese countries, made a careless advance, so that the US military intelligence department and officers who had a large range of communist movements were bigger than him, but "trembled with fear in front of him like a school boy who met a street bully in the city", and even President Truman was deeply suspicious. A proud old man who makes low-level mistakes.

After MacArthur gave the order to attack on all fronts, he ordered his special plane to fly north along the Yalu River, ""Look at the signs of the Soviets and the Chinese." "This stunned everyone present, because Soviet MiGs and Chinese anti-aircraft guns were all over the river. But they didn't see anything, they didn't know it, and just under their planes, nearly 400,000 Chinese troops were hidden under the endless snowfields. All of a sudden, the Chinese army tightened its huge encirclement, and the Second Army of the Republic of Korea was wiped out, and in less than 24 hours it was completely wiped out under the ferocious attack of the Chinese army, and no trace of the army was to be found. ABC reports.

MacArthur's right flank was finished. Americans on the left also suffered heavy losses. Blotton, a platoon commander of the vanguard company, saw a scene that he will never forget: in the trench at the top of the peak, suddenly a row of Chinese soldiers stood up, ""hands raised, it looks like surrender", "when the Americans were "you can see the distance between the buttons of the Chinese soldiers' uniforms" and "stood up in a straggler formation, a South Korean soldier who could speak Chinese began to shout: "Come out of the trench and surrender!" The Chinese soldier replied: "Come here and catch it!" During the conversation with the Chinese soldiers, many more Chinese soldiers joined in raising their hands. "All of a sudden, they threw grenades all the way and then they got into the trenches. "Bloomon's platoon suffered heavy losses.

The Americans encountered one of the freshest armies in the world, and they were accustomed to using hand grenades, and the density of the grenades thrown was a hell for the American soldiers. In the small depression, the American soldiers crowded along the road could not dodge the grenades. Crawford, a 17-year-old ordnance officer at the time, recalled that grenades rained down on him, kicking out more than 40 of them alone.

Mao Zedong was extremely eager to use superior forces to completely annihilate several entire divisions of the US army just as the Huaihai War wiped out the people's party army. At this time, the 27th, 26th, and 20th armies led by Song Shilun really surrounded the 1st Marine Division, which was the ace of the US army, on the bitterly cold Gaima Plateau. However, when an official at the Marine Corps Headquarters in the United States heard the news, he said with ease: "There are Chinese Yankees who are pleasing to the eye." "The 1st Marine Division can really fight tough battles. There was a high ground called Dedong Ridge for them to retreat south to the main pass. Division Commander Smith sent Barber, the company commander who had fought a fierce battle with the Japanese on Iwo Jima, to lead his troops to defend it. The battle was unprecedentedly brutal, with more than half of the US troops killed and wounded, and they still engaged in hand-to-hand combat with the Chinese soldiers who rushed out. Both sides used all the equipment at their disposal, pickaxes, shovels, butts, bayonets, and fists. The soldiers twisted and turned in gloom all the way, pinching each other's throats, gouging out their eyes, and biting their faces. The summit was once occupied by the Volunteers, but was soon counterattacked by the American forces...... "Near 6 a.m., accompanied by a shrill whistle, the Chinese soldiers quickly withdrew from the battle. ""

The proud sailors were amazed by the courage of the Chinese soldiers: "All of a sudden, the Chinese soldiers appeared in the snow, some without shoes on their feet, which made the American soldiers look like an illusion in temperatures of minus 40 degrees Celsius (the Gaima Plateau in North Korea is close to Eastern Siberia)." "As if they didn't care about the blazing fire of the American army, after the first group of soldiers fell, the second group stepped over the corpses, and the third group and the fourth group. His spirit of not fearing death was like a martyr, which made the US officers and soldiers very fearful. However, the Deokdongling Heights were not occupied by the Volunteers in the end, and it played a pivotal role in the retreat of the 1st Marine Division.

Just as the "Desert Storm" was followed in the 90s, countries and news networks around the world will be paying attention to this unprecedented retreat of American troops. The United States almost threw all its strength into protecting the 1st Marine Division from total annihilation. Fighters, reconnaissance planes, medium and heavy bombers that took off from aircraft carriers such as "Sicily", "Wright", "Foji", "Good", "Philippine Sea", and "Princeton" formed a metal canopy over the head of the 1st Marine Division, covering its advance inch by inch.

On the retreat of the US army, there is a bridge of life and death of 10,000 US troops, the Watergate Bridge. Its steel beams have no piers and are suspended above the abyss. The Volunteers blew up the bridge three times, and finally blew up the cement interface between the steel girders and the cliff once. As a result, the U.S. military should have been unable to fly, so the Volunteers did not send troops to guard it. At the time of life and death, the engineers of the 1st Marine Division urgently designed, and then urgently telegraphed the United States to use giant transport planes to transport eight sets of giant steel beams to conduct airdrop tests in the Japanese country, and changed to use super-large parachutes to airdrop the steel beams directly to the Watergate Bridge...... In less than two days, a steel bridge was erected over a cliff in a remote mountainous area in northeastern North Korea to pass through tanks and vehicles of all types. After the Volunteers found out, they regretted it, and the 1st Marine Division finally escaped.

"The Commander of the Eighth Unified Army respects the Commander-in-Chief of the Chinese Army!"

Wang Shuzeng had the privilege of flipping through Mao Peng's telegrams with "more than one foot thick", and he found that Mao Zedong's command of the Korean battlefield was beyond the imagination of ordinary people. The intensity of the telegram and the degree of detail involved in the war are probably the highest in the world. It is detailed to the control of a certain commanding height, the transfer of a division-level unit, and the three major wars of the bondage war. All of this is premised on the premise that all Chinese generals were convinced by Mao's military command art.

After the Second War, the U.S. military retreated to the 38th Parallel and expressed through various channels that it would restore the pre-war situation. If the Chinese side had favored a ceasefire, the war might have ended. But Mao Zedong said to Kim Il Sung, who was secretly visiting China: "The first war and the second war were won, but it was not enough, and we had to continue to fight." If you dare to cross the 38th parallel and go north, then why can't I cross the 38th parallel and go south?"

The Chinese volunteers were very tired, while the enemy retreated in great strides, and the losses of the living forces were not large. Militarily, their retreat was also cunning, abandoning the undefended plains. At the same time, an extremely cunning and cautious deputy chief of staff of the US Army, Li Qiwei, who later changed the fate of the US military, took off from the US mainland.

Angered by the disorganization and decadence of the U.S. and South Korean troops, Ridgway ordered the gendarmes to aim their dark guns at six fleeing South Korean trucks, and they had to turn around and drive to the front line (though Ridgway's staff said they would return at a faster pace in a moment). He gathered the officers and said: "Writing work can be done at night, and during the day, the place where the guns are loud is the place where you must go! The commander's position must be the place where the enemy and the enemy shoot at each other." Once you come into contact with the enemy, you must bite like a dog and never let go...... Ambush the large forces on the flanks and suddenly launch ferocious attacks, most importantly killing the Chinese. Wash the red China to white!"

On the last day of 1950, hundreds of thousands of officers and men of China's six armies suddenly jumped out of the vast snow and rushed to the 38th parallel. Thus began the Third War. Even this resourceful Li Qiwei did not expect that only two hours after he arrived at the Korean front, the Chinese army launched a breakthrough on all fronts that was no less than the Normandy landing. The UN forces were completely dispersed. The long line of fleeing South Korean soldiers, Wolf, emaciated, blackened and exhausted, walked south around the jeep on which Ridgway waved his pistol.

On January 3, 1951, Syngman Rhee announced the "relocation of the capital", and Seoul was immediately plunged into great chaos, and at least half of the citizens (about 500,000) decided to flee again. Standing at the head of the Han River bridge, Li Qiwei saw: "Hundreds of thousands of refugees are carrying burdens, helping the old and the young, and rushing to the Han River. Refugees crossed the river from the ice. Mothers with babies in their arms, men carrying the elderly, the sick, and the disabled on their backs, people carrying large burdens and pushing small two-wheeled bicycles...... Nobody helped that

Those who have fallen. In this tragic escape, no one has time to help their neighbors. No one wept or wept, only the painful gasps of walking on the ice could be heard. ("Memoirs of Ridgway") Ridgway, who was almost the last American to withdraw from Seoul, picked up the family photos on the table, and then wrote a sentence on the wall: "The commander of the Eighth Unified Army respects the commander-in-chief of the Chinese army!"

In his book, Wang Shuzeng described that after Li Qiwei took office, a huge shadow slowly approached the volunteers. A huge celebratory parade was held in Beijing. On 5 January 1951, the "People's Daily" announced an editorial entitled "Wishing the Restoration of Seoul Rules," calling in the tone of a front-line commander: Advance to Daejeon! Advance to Daegu! Advance to Busan! Drive the US invading troops that refuse to withdraw into the sea! When the domestic newspaper arrived in Peng Dehuai's hand, he felt calm and anxious: "Some people only know that we have won the battle, but they do not know the cost and difficulties of our victory. The idea of quick wins is harmful. How can our newspapers publicize it like this?" "Peng Dehuai and other generals have experienced countless wars, and they will not be too hurt by the casualties in the war. But the speed and number of casualties among the volunteer officers and soldiers of the Korean War exceeded their emotional capacity.

The advance of the Chinese army reached the 37th parallel, and Peng Dehuai gave an order that caused a fierce controversy: the whole army immediately ceased the pursuit. Peng Dehuai recalled the third war at a combat gathering meeting after returning to China to take up his post: I have fought all my life and have never been afraid, but when the volunteers fought the 38th parallel and always reached the 37th parallel, I looked around and was indeed very afraid. The US military almost retreated without a fight, and the officers and men of the volunteers all knew that the 38th parallel was not what they had fought in the past, but almost said to have gone in the past. Whenever there is such a large-scale retreat on the battlefield, a shrewd military strategist must be very careful. Seeing that hundreds of thousands of Chinese and North Korean troops were on the enemy's defensive, I couldn't sleep well for a few days and nights, and I always wanted to get out of this predicament. It was already difficult to maintain the supply of materials in the rear, and at this time the enemy sent planes to bomb our army's transport lines. The soldiers were underfed and clothed, there were planes in the air, the ground was facing the tanks and artillery of the US army, and the left and right coasts were the fleets of the US army, and the shells could be fired without getting off the boat. The volunteer army may suffer doom at any time, and I can't take the lives of hundreds of thousands of troops as a child's play, so I must stop decisively!

Stalin's military investigator and Soviet ambassador to North Korea, Razovaev, was extremely dissatisfied with Peng Dehuai's sudden halt to attack, and he told Stalin that Peng was "a "military conservatist"...... Peng Dehuai was furious: "Razovaev? What kind of battle did he fight? During the second war, we stopped pursuing because he did not approve of it." Wang Shuzeng said: Indeed, the arrival of Ridgway began to reverse the inferiority of the US army. In Lizhou, he pondered for three days all the battle records of the Chinese army after entering Korea, and finally discovered the "life" of the Chinese army - every time the Chinese army attacked by the seventh or eighth day, there was no food, no drink, no ammunition, and if it did not withdraw, it had to withdraw. Ridgway called it "the "worship defense." He therefore summed up the method of dealing with it: When the ferocious "worship defense" was coming to an end, he immediately threw himself into the front line with a strong counterattack force and pounced on the Chinese army, which had run out of ammunition and food. Destroy by fire in a sea of fire in order to kill and injure the living forces of the Chinese army......

The whole world, including the US Congress and the Chinese army, did not expect the US counteroffensive to be launched so quickly, and it was at a time when the Chinese army was most reluctant to fight. Faced with this situation, Peng Dehuai commanded the Volunteer Army, forcing the enemy to stop the offensive by blocking and moving defense. All the battles were extremely brutal, and the Chinese soldiers used their flesh and blood to block Ridgway's tactics of fire at Xiushan, Taixiyue, and on the south bank of the Han River. The loss of the positions of the Volunteers took place as usual after a mutilated soldier rolled towards the enemy with a bundle of grenades or blasters. Wang Shuzeng said that the situation is indeed very dangerous, and if hundreds of thousands of Chinese troops continue to advance southward, they will fall into Li Qiwei's trap. On the 37th parallel, the United Nations forces had built very strong fortifications and were waiting for the hungry and ammunition-starved volunteer soldiers to break into the fire net. "The winter of the Volunteer Army, a phase of unprecedented bloodshed and sacrifice, began. Wang Shuzeng's description of this paragraph poured the most emotion.

★ When Peng Dehuai found out, he ordered a halt to the attack ★

For this book on the Korean War, Wang Shuzeng searched all night for information in the impetuous situation in Guangzhou, and someone said to him: Are you sick?" "I have a small wish, that is, I want the contemporary youth to see the past experienced by our nation...... Remember the soldiers, those soldiers!" Wang Shuzeng's wife, Wang Ying, said: "You didn't realize that this book of "Far East: Korean War" is dedicated to our soldiers. At the mention of ordinary soldiers, he could not help himself. ""

"I was a paratrooper for 10 years, and I have feelings for soldiers. The predecessor of my unit was the army of Huang Jiguang and Qiu Shaoyun. Thinking about those warriors lying in a foreign land, I can't say anything, they are so young, they are the sons of farmers......" Wang Shuzeng faced me silently and coldly. An indescribable feeling stung the reporter. What about our peasant sons when some countries have a spirit tablet for every child who sacrificed, or when a memorial monument is engraved with a dense name, and is forever remembered by the nation as a whole?

Not long ago, a Japanese scholar who specialized in the study of the Korean War (Korean War) came to China, and he wanted to see the college students in Qiu Shaoyun's country, and he told the college students that Qiu Shaoyun is really a rare brave person in the world and the pride of a nation. A college student actually replied, "There will never be such a stupid person anymore." "This is the tragedy of our nation!" Wang Shuzeng couldn't let go of this incident for a long time.

On hot days in previous years, the United States was planning to hold a large-scale simulated landing with the ROK at Incheon, and invited all the military delegations of the Western countries that participated in the UN forces to commemorate the 50 th anniversary of the Korean War.

Warriors who swore to die with the enemy abounded

Wang Shuzeng described to us the Fourth War, which was a magnificent battlefield built by youth, blood, defeat, and victory that we never knew existed. Mao Zedong once wanted the Volunteers to attack the 36th parallel and rest there. Peng Dehuai, who was on the front line, knew in his heart that there was no possibility in this, and he could only force the enemy to stop attacking by blocking and defending, which was the fourth war.

All the battles were extremely brutal, and the Chinese soldiers used their flesh and blood to block Ridgway's tactics of fire at Xiushan, Taixiyue, and on the south bank of the Han River. The loss of the positions of the Volunteers took place as usual after a mutilated soldier rolled towards the enemy with a bundle of grenades or blasters. Wang Shuzeng said: Can you imagine what it would be like after dozens of artillery pieces and more than 30 tanks bombarded a small hill for one hour and eight planes dropped a large amount of napalm in turn? When the hill was cut off by one meter, even the soil would be burning. The Chinese soldier was still alive and stood up and shot. The psychological shock to the American soldiers was extremely strong, and they even doubted whether the bullets fired from the carbine in their hands were meaningful, and the Chinese could not be killed.

Peng Dehuai took advantage of a small negligence on the enemy's eastern front to launch a counterattack in Hengcheng, which made the offensive of the United Nations army fail and the whole front was strong. In the Hengcheng counterattack, the bravery of the Chinese soldiers diminished the most modern weapons of the US army. "When one person has the mindset of dying together, the situation changes. Wang Shuzeng mentioned a former deputy division commander named Zhai Wenqing, he can never forget when he was a battalion instructor, a soldier named Yu Shuilin, in the Hengcheng counterattack, the enemy tank cluster rushed over, the situation was very dangerous, Yu Shuilin carried a grenade, braved the rain of bullets to rush to the tank, blowing up two heavy tanks in a row, the situation changed. He again pursued the American soldier who jumped out of the tank. He was shot several times, his whole body was bloody, and 8 prisoners were captured.

Wang Shuzeng was particularly moved by the story of Yu Shuilin after returning to China after being injured. He disappeared into the vast sea of people, losing contact with the troops. only knew that he was from Rehe, so Zhai Wenqing sent someone to the Chengde area to find him. I searched for many years, and it was not until the "Cultural Revolution" that I found him in a poor village in the Zhaowuda League in Inner Mongolia. He was the poorest in the village, his right arm had been amputated, he had no parents or siblings, and he lived alone in the stables of the production team. No one in the local area knew that this ragged disabled man was a great contributor to the first-class meritorious service. Deputy Division Commander Zhai Wenqing came all the way and hugged him tightly, tears pouring out. After the local government knew that Yu Shuilin was a big hero, they built him a room and found a woman for him. When he got married, Zhai Wenqing took him and the woman to the army...... Life is arduous, and the old soldier is affectionate and righteous. After that, Yu Shuilin would be taken to the army every year until he died of illness. Deputy Division Commander Zhai personally blocked the aftermath of this old soldier.

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In the Hengcheng counterattack, a division of the Volunteer Army set a record for destroying the most enemies in one battle, destroying 3,350 enemies. However, in Tohei-ri, a position jointly defended by the American and French forces could not be taken, so that the Volunteer Army finally failed to win a major victory in the fourth war. It was an unusually tragic battle, and it was unforgettable for both sides (the Americans lavished their nostalgia for the Battle of Tohei-ri at home in previous years). The US heavy bombers took off from the Japanese mainland, the airport in Busan, South Korea, and aircraft carriers, and flew low and swept across the battlefield with strange screams, turning the attack line of the volunteers into a sea of fire. The casualties of the volunteers were so great that there were often only six or seven men left within a few minutes of a company. The company commander and instructor all died, the commander and the cooker commanded the battle, and in the end, one of them died with the enemy, and Yang Gensi-style soldiers abounded...... The assault on Toheira-ri was stopped at the decisive request of the lower-ranking officers of the Volunteer Army. The requirement of a junior officer not to fight is extremely rare in the army under the leadership of the Communist Party of China. When Peng Dehuai found out, he was in favor of stopping the offensive. The Volunteer Army's attack on Tohei-ri failed.

In Tohei, our casualties were heavy. The three regiments of the 40th Army suffered 1,830 casualties. The officers and men of the 3rd Battalion of the 359th Regiment almost suffered all casualties, and Niu Zhenhou, the commander of the 3rd Battalion, said that he would not leave the position full of the corpses of the soldiers of the 3rd Battalion when he retreated, and was finally dragged down. Forty years later, an American historian came to Topyeong-ri, South Korea, and dug up the remains of 19 Chinese soldiers, as well as bullets, water bottles, toothbrushes, and rubber shoes from the volunteers in the frozen soil near the 37th parallel......

Peng Dehuai has one of the most important characteristics: he loves soldiers

"It's interesting to compare the commanders of the two armies. Wang Shuzeng focused on describing these two people in the book: "Peng Dehuai, the commander of the Volunteer Army, is like a boulder, he has never had a smile on his face, only Mao Zedong dares to joke with him in the whole party and the whole army, which has something to do with his life experience, he is a child of extreme poverty, which is different from Mao Zedong and Zhou Enlai, he has always been at the lower level, on the front line, and has not enjoyed a day of happiness. "From Wang Shuzeng's words, you can feel his deep feelings for Peng Dehuai.

When he was about to send out his troops, he held a final meeting in Shenyang, and suddenly he exclaimed, "My life is miserable!" and everyone present was surprised, because he had never said such a thing before. "During the Long March, I fought the most strenuous battle, and during the Anti-Japanese War, I was in the Taihang Mountains...... Now it's the Korean War again...... I was destined to suffer. In the end, he said: "If there is no suffering, what do you want the Communists to do?" Wang Shuzeng wrote about Peng Dehuai, and he often wanted to cry. He said that when he thought of the fate of Peng Lao, he felt that he might as well sacrifice the battlefield of the ruling party.

And the commander of the 8th Integral Army of the United States (the US invasion of Korea was mainly the 8th Integral Army) Li Qiwei is a typical modern soldier, he is elegant and rational. The MacArthur tradition, by contrast, is much older. He was more than twenty years younger than MacArthur and was distinguished by his keen and bold judgment of the war situation. The complexity, strangeness, and magnificence of the Korean battlefield are mainly the result of the battle of wits between Peng Dehuai and Li Qiwei.

Peng Dehuai has another most important characteristic, that is, he loves soldiers. His heart swept away from the cadres and went straight to the lowest, most lovable, most laborious warriors. When the US planes blew up the entire logistics line to pieces, and the soldiers lay in the snow and couldn't even eat fried noodles, and many of them froze to death and starved to death, and they had to suffer damage from napalm, his hair turned inexorably white.

In order to make the situation of these soldiers better, at the most critical time of the Fourth War, Peng Dehuai reluctantly left and returned to Beijing, and he urgently needed the center to understand the most real situation on the Korean battlefield - some people have written about these episodes, but there is the most authentic record in "Far East: Korean War" - when the plane landed in Shenyang to refuel, the military and political chief who came to greet him invited him to the rest room to rest and eat, and he frowned tightly and was in a bad mood: "I don't eat! I don't rest! You leave me alone!" He stood next to the plane and waited, and after the plane was refueled, it flew to Beijing. When he arrived in Beijing, he went straight to Zhongnanhai. When he learned that Mao Zedong was not in Zhongnanhai but in Jingmingyuan in Yuquan Mountain in the western suburbs, he immediately rushed there. When he arrived at Jingmingyuan, because Mao Zedong was taking a nap, the secretary and security personnel did not let him in. He shouted: I have something urgent to report to Chairman Mao! Without saying anything, he pushed the door and entered.

Mao Zedong was not annoyed, and said while getting dressed: "Only you, Mr. Peng, will break out to give advice while people are sleeping!" Peng Dehuai reported to Mao Zedong the difficult conditions of the Korean battlefield and the difference between fighting the American army and fighting the people's party. Mao Zedong finally said that, judging from the current situation, the Korean War should not be rushed. At the enlarged meeting of the Military Commission presided over by Zhou Enlai, Peng Dehuai said with emotion: "China only knows the side of winning three wars, but does not know the side of serious difficulties. After three months of fighting, the first batch of nine armies to enter the DPRK suffered more than 45,000 casualties, and about 40,000 people fell ill, frostbitten, or froze to death...... Hundreds of thousands of volunteers could not get enough food supplies, let alone fresh vegetables, and the front-line troops could only rely on handfuls of fried noodles and handfuls of snow to keep fighting. The warrior is malnourished, and his face is yellow and thin......"

Some leaders began to stress their own difficulties, but Peng Dehuai really couldn't listen to them, and couldn't help but take the case: "This is also difficult, and that is also difficult to do, what are you doing all day long? I think you know patriotism, and hundreds of thousands of volunteer soldiers don't know patriotism? You go to the front line in Korea to see what the soldiers live in, what they eat, and what they wear! These lovely soldiers lie down in the snow and suffer from hunger under the repeated bombardment of enemy planes, tanks, and artillery...... It was even more laborious than during the Red Army. After several months of hard fighting, so many soldiers were killed or wounded, for whom did they sacrifice their lives and shed their blood? Those who died in battle, wounded, starved to death, and froze to death, these are all young dolls! Can't urgent measures be taken in the country? "The people were silent and held their breath.

Back at his residence, Peng Dehuai said angrily to Pu Anxiu: "The front-line soldiers are so bitter, and Beijing is still dancing everywhere!" Of course, I, the old man, can't be hungry or cold, but what about those young soldiers? I, the commander, can't keep my eyes open and not speak for them!" Peng Dehuai's return to Beijing played a considerable role. He prompted the Central Military Commission to make a series of decisions that were beneficial to improving conditions at the front. A few days later, he hurried back to the place where hundreds of thousands of troops were suffering and dying.

★ Sixty-third Army, the motherland thanks you! ★

Another veteran that Wang Shuzeng and Wang Ying cannot forget is Fan Tianen. The commander of the main division of the main force in the main army (38th Army) was the famous Fan Daring, who fought many tough battles and won battles, and was very famous in the whole army, and then became the commander of the Yantai garrison area, 79 years old in the past, and was reported critically ill. After Wang Shuzeng and his wife heard about his whereabouts from the 38th Army, they rushed to interview. But he won't say a word about the war 50 years ago.

"After a long time, he finally spoke, guess what he said?" Wang Ying asked me. "It's a child's business. There is only one thing that I can't let go of before I die, and that is the child. The old soldier had tears in his eyes, as if he wanted to entrust it to Wang Shuzeng and his wife. The child was an orphan who lived on the streets of Harbin before being taken in by the Soviet Red Army. When the Soviet Red Army evacuated, they wanted to take him away, but the policy did not allow it, so they had to leave him at the Qiqihar railway station, and he wandered again. Fan Tianen led the troops to pass by, and when he saw the child curled up alone in the cold wind, he was very pitiful, so he took him in. This kid is very smart, so he let him be a secret officer, and he follows Fan Tianen all day long, like father and son. After the second war, Fan Tianen wanted to take him all the way when he returned to China for rotational training, but he was afraid that people would say it...... When he returned, he heard that the child had died in battle, so he made a thin coffin from the villager's wardrobe and buried it by the Han River. "Where is his family? His surname is Wang, and I want to find his family." "Fan Tianen always said this at the end of the day. Wang Shuzeng knew that this was an old man's dream that would never come true. "It's been 50 years, and even if you have a family, you'll be dead a long time ago. ""

Peng Dehuai rushed back from Beijing to the battlefield of the Fourth World War, and the first news he received was that the situation in which the Chinese army was advancing was out of control. The strategically resourceful Li Qiwei launched the "Butcher Operation" and the "Tearing Operation" one after another, breaking through the Han River. Peng Dehuai then proposed to the center to abandon Seoul. Chinese troops retreated to the north of the 38th parallel. The two sides are back to the beginning of the war. In the process of fighting and retreating, the Chinese soldiers made great sacrifices. The severe shortage of ammunition deprived the volunteer fighters of the basic conditions for defending their positions and themselves. The rocks on the hills of central Korea were often the weapons they used to fight tank artillery. Many Chinese soldiers collapsed in the barren mountains and mountains with their bellies empty and their clothes uncovered. When the troops retreated, they could only watch the bodies of their comrades lying in the bleak wind and cold rain gradually distant. The American soldiers who arrived later couldn't help but shudder when they saw the corpses. The U.S. 1st Marine Division's military history records: "These corpses lay in a haphazard manner, and many were still holding the corpses of American soldiers. Because of the cooling of the corpses, it was no longer possible to merge them. ""

The Volunteer Army retreated north of the 38th parallel, and Truman and Washington politicians, believing that the Volunteer Army was incapable and unwilling to fight any longer, withdrew MacArthur, who had always opposed it and maintained that it would fight to the Yalu River. But Truman did not know the Chinese as well as MacArthur, who lived in Asia for 14 years. Peng Dehuai and colleagues are planning the largest war since the outbreak of the Korean War. He telegraphed Mao Zedong: "This war is extremely important, and it is a great and vicious war. Even if you pay the price of 50,000 or 60,000 people, you have to destroy several divisions of the enemy......" Mao Zedong appreciated it very much, but Zhou Enlai reminded: "The situation of our previous frequent wars has proved that it is difficult to achieve the goal of eliminating several divisions, a whole division, or even a regiment of the US army at a time, and the first stage of this war is scheduled to destroy 5 divisions of the enemy, including 3 divisions of the US army, I am afraid it is objectively difficult to do it......" But Mao Zedong approved Peng Dehuai's battle plan.

By this time, Ridgway had replaced the proud MacArthur as commander-in-chief of the United Nations forces, and he chose Van Vliet, a military geek, to replace his original position. This man was even more ruthless, and when the Chinese army was preparing to attack, he broke the routine of the American army, did not build fortifications, and still ordered the north to attack. He said that for the Chinese, defense is not possible, only offense. He used Ridgway's "sea of fire tactics" even more ruthlessly, using more than five times the limit set by the US military. Some members of the U.S. Congress wanted to question this "Van Vliet ammunition volume" "wasting American taxpayers' money." Fan was furious: "Let those congressmen come and see the corpses and prisoners of the enemy...... "The American army crossed the 38th parallel.

On the night of May 29, 1951, it rained heavily in central Korea. In the cave, Peng Dehuai, who was shirtless, said to Hong Xuezhi in the lowest voice: Something has happened! The 180th Division of the 60th Army was surrounded on the south bank of the Han River. The heavy rain caused the water of the Han River to rise sharply, and more than 10,000 Chinese officers and soldiers of the 180th Division could only pull the only three wires to cross north to break through. U.S. flares hung overhead, and artillery and high-altitude hovering planes smashed the dense barrage of shells into Chinese soldiers who were powerless to fight back. The chest-deep river is turbulent, the weak female soldiers tightly pull the horse's tail, people call each other and greet each other, and there are still people who are constantly swept away by the river. The blood of Chinese soldiers turned the waters of the Han River white.

The 180th Division was surrounded by 5 times the American army, and extremely brutal battles took place in every direction of the breakout. Even more terrible than death was hunger, the whole division was without food for many days, the wounded soldiers were even more miserable, and the wounds festered because they could not be treated in time. Some soldiers advocated killing and eating the mules with the cannons, but they were immediately opposed, and the soldiers preferred to starve to death rather than kill the mules and horses that followed them to death. The riders, fearing that they would be eaten, untied the reins and let them go, but the horses and mules were in love with their masters, and the men followed wherever they went, causing the artillerymen to cry aloud. When Commander Wei Jie of the 60th Army learned that the 179th and 181st Divisions responsible for rescuing the 180th Division had failed, he fell headlong in the army headquarters.

The 180th Division held the final party committee and decided to gather to break through. Division Commander Zheng Qigui led the guard detachment and some of the organization personnel to be chased and killed by US tanks at dawn, and the steel tracks rolled out the bodies of Chinese soldiers and then threw them up. Several guards ran in the opposite direction to Commander Zheng's actions to attract American fire. Zheng Qigui and the others took the opportunity to rush over the mountain. Zheng Qigui looked back and saw that one soldier had been killed on the spot, and the other soldier had been wounded and fell on his back, being grabbed by two black soldiers and dragged away. According to the information of the Volunteer Army Command that was declassified 40 years later: "In addition to the division commander, the chief of staff, and a formed battalion that served as a cover for the big baggage, there were about 7,000 people who could not walk due to hunger and exhaustion, were poisoned by eating wild vegetables, or died or were separated in battle. ""

The Chinese army continued to retreat northward, and the battle line was getting farther and farther away from the 38th parallel. The soldiers endured an indescribable emotional torment. Peng Dehuai believes that there can be no more retreat, whether it is militarily or politically, and whether it is rational or psychological. He decided to govern the high mountains and dangerous places in the central part of Xian to hold the final line of defense. Who to send to defend it? The various armies suffered heavy losses, and only the 63rd Army led by the 36-year-old army commander Fu Chongbi was slightly better. The most tragic page of the 63rd Army was opened. On one side is the flesh and blood of Chinese soldiers, and on the other side is the steel dragon of US tanks, rolling and fighting on both sides. The battlefield was no more than 100 miles from Peng Dehuai's headquarters, and he refused to retreat. Often a man looked south in gloom, and he knew that his soldiers were falling on the ground one after another, distressed and anxious. He knew how Chinese peasant families wanted their sons to grow up and be safe. A few days ago, the father of an only son of the Volunteer Army wrote to ask if he could let his son go home, and some people accused the old man of not having a high consciousness and sabotaging the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea. When Peng Dehuai found out, he became angry and ordered that this soldier be immediately found out of the nearly a million soldiers and sent back to the old man: "The soldier was not raised by his parents?

The brutal blocking battle ended for 10 days, the 63rd Army successfully completed its obligations, and the US army's attack was blocked. Peng Dehuai personally greeted the 63 officers and soldiers who had come down from the past. The soldiers' clothes had turned into strands of cloth, and many were left with bloodstained trousers. As soon as Peng Dehuai said, "The motherland thanks you," the officers and soldiers all cried, and they thought of their comrades-in-arms who had fallen on foreign soil.

The final outcome of the Fifth War finally made Mao Zedong and Peng Dehuai familiar with the fact that being in power and beating the Americans was fundamentally different from fighting the People's Party at home. In the face of the enemy's three-dimensional superiority in land, sea and air, we are too optimistic about our superiority in strength and the enemy's lack of ability to fight in close quarters, especially since the US military has mastered some temporary weaknesses of the Chinese army...... Getting this familiarity paid the price of blood.

Which side is the Goddess of Victory on?

Knowing that reporters were writing about the Korean War, many people asked whether we won or lost. More people are asking Wang Shuzeng. He replied: "People like you and me fought Tyson to a draw in the ring, do you say this is Tyson's victory or is it your victory?" China's leaders, on the other hand, have faced the more important issues of Taiwan and Tibet, and have successfully prevented UN forces from attempting to occupy all of Korea.

Truman" "looked like a hunting dog everywhere for clues that could be exchanged with the Chinese side", and in the end he could only convey some information to a distant relative of Mao Zedong, in Marshall's words: "Stuff a letter in a bottle and put it in the sea near San Francisco", "It is too slim to expect Mao Zedong to receive it." After a series of diplomatic mediations, Truman withdrew the order from the Supreme Commander of the Far East, Ridgway, asking him to take it back verbatim from the Commander of the Korean Communist Forces: "I have been informed that you may wish to hold a meeting to discuss the cessation of hostilities in Korea in the future...... I propose that this meeting be held on a Danish ship with wounded soldiers in Wonsan Harbor. ""

On 1 July, Peng Dehuai and Kim Il Sung replied: "General Li Qiwei, Commander-in-Chief of the United Nations Forces: We are in favor of meeting with your representatives for the purpose of holding negotiations on the suspension of military operations and the creation of tranquillity. At the meeting point, we initiated the Kaesong area on the 38th parallel...... "After the two sides began to negotiate, the South Korean government, which was almost forgotten, felt greatly insulted. Syngman Rhee repeatedly said that he would "swear to the death not to negotiate with the Communists," and many mass demonstrations were held in Seoul, shouting "Fight to the north!" But no one paid any attention to this government. The negotiations lasted for two years, during which there was no large-scale war. However, there have been countless positional battles, the most famous of which took place in Shangganling.

Although the South Korean Army regarded the Volunteers as gods and fled when they heard the slightest rumor of the Chinese Army, when the signing of the armistice agreement was about to take place, Syngman Rhee did not want the United Nations Army and wanted to "go it alone." The Volunteers launched the Battle of Geumseong to fight the South Korean Army, which wanted to "go it alone." As a result, the South Korean army suffered heavy casualties and lost large tracts of land. Clark, the newly appointed commander of the United Nations Forces, said: "Let the Chinese teach the Koreans a lesson!" "The 38th parallel has always been a straight line, and a piece protrudes from the Jincheng area, which is the result of the Jincheng War."

On July 27, 1953, the armistice was signed. When the loud gunfire of the dumping of ammunition on both sides subsided, the battle line suddenly fell silent, and the officers and men of both sides poked their heads out of the trenches to investigate, and then cheered all the way. Several Chinese soldiers slipped up to the U.S. positions and took out a few pieces of candy and a handkerchief to give to the U.S. soldiers. The peasant children brought out the best things they had, and they thought that the American GIs who ate steaks and slept in eiderdown sleeping bags also thought they were treasures......

Wang Shuzeng recorded such an incident. On the day of the armistice, a small volunteer soldier was ordered to deliver orders to the forward positions. The artillery fire became extremely fierce that day, and he ran and dodged, and was repeatedly buried by the dirt kicked up by the shells. When he was about to reach the position, he was blown down and woke up to find that one of his feet had been broken at the wrist. He began to crawl towards the position, holding his severed foot in one hand. It was evening when he climbed to his position. The little soldier took out the order from his chest, which read: An official truce at 22 o'clock tonight. Not a single shot will be allowed at that time. The commander picked up the little soldier and shouted: "Come and carry him down!" Don't let him die! Take this foot of his!"" Fifty years later, Wang Shuzeng and Wang Ying inquired about the name of this little soldier, but to no avail. In the years and frosts, is he at peace? Wang Ying asked me or asked herself.

On the night of the armistice, Peng Dehuai went to the front, where fighting had been going on a few hours before. A team of stretchers carried the remains of volunteer soldiers down, and Peng Dehuai lifted the white cloth on each stretcher, and his eyes gradually filled with tears. He choked up and said, "It's just a few hours, and they're so young...... Write down their names, bury them, and put up a sign......" As he left the position, Peng Dehuai suddenly ordered the jeep to stop, and he picked out a white enamel cup full of bullet holes in the dirt, which read: To the loveliest person...... After a long time, he muttered and asked, "This soldier has died, and is he still wounded?" I can't help but think of the famous words that MacArthur, who was also the commander-in-chief, blurted out in his speech to the US Congress after he stepped down: "The veteran soldier will not die, he will only die quietly......

That night, a celebratory party was held in Kaesong. Someone invited Peng Dehuai to dance, and he said no. He was invited again by a very young girl. Peng Dehuai said: "Child, I'll pull you, let's go around!" So an old man with a haggard face and a lot of vicissitudes pulled a little girl like a flower, walking in the slow and soft music. All the people cried the story of the military history corridor