Lan Xiaolong's new book "Winter and the Lion" recreates the Battle of Chosin Lake in the "Seventh Company of Steel"

Famous writer Lan Xiaolong's latest novel "Winter and the Lion", recently published by the People's Literature Publishing House, tells the story of the "Seventh Company of Steel" in the Korean War at the Battle of Chosin Lake. This is another masterpiece of Lan Xiaolong's war theme after "Soldier Assault", "My Regiment Leader My Regiment", and "Life and Death Line".

Wu Qianli, Wu Wanli, Mei Sheng, Tan Ziwei, Lei Gong, Yu Congrong, Pinghe... "Winter and the Lion" shows the cruelty and greatness of the Battle of Chosin Lake with the character group portrait, interpreting the brotherhood, comradeship, and family conditions of the birth and death, in order to pay tribute to the most lovely people!

"Understanding" and "Proof" of the Battle of Chosin Lake

The main setting of the story of Winter and the Lion is the Battle of Chosin Lake on the Eastern Front of the Second Battle of the Korean War. At the turn of the autumn and winter of 1950, the Ninth Corps, where the Seventh Penetration Company was originally stationed in East China, was urgently requisitioned to the Chosin Lake Battlefield in Korea. Because there was uninterrupted air reconnaissance by the US army during the day, in order to avoid exposure, the soldiers of the Ninth Corps traveled for three weeks in the extreme cold of nearly minus 40 degrees Celsius, covertly engaging the enemy, and completing the division and encirclement of the US army. Before the 100,000 volunteer soldiers launched a general offensive, the American army was unaware... In the end, our volunteer army relied on great sacrifice spirit and war wisdom to defeat the Ace Unit of the US Army, the First Marine Division.

"Winter and the Lion" takes us to feel the greatness and indomitability of the volunteer soldiers in this war through the description of the seventh interspersed connection.

In the novel, Wu Qianli, the commander of the Seventh Company, and Mei Sheng, the instructor of the Seventh Company, could have not belonged to this war, but since the war came, the peace and stability that Chinese min had just won ushered in a test, and they did not hesitate to participate in the battle, rushing to the cold place they had never experienced before, to compete with planes and tanks far beyond imagination. Wu Qianli, the commander of the Seventh Company, is a figure of the backbone of the nation, with both heroic courage, the wisdom of commanding Ruoding, and the touching responsibility. He and his eldest brother fought so that their younger brother's generation could not fight, and he and Meisheng "did their best and did their best" for the sake of war. Mei Sheng has a deep attachment to his wife and daughter, and he may be the most eager person in the Seven Companies to "go home", so when the Seven Lians are not left until one-fifth of the seven companies are left, the instructor will also roar, "We just want to go home with the broken ship!" Every single one! Every one! However, in the most dangerous times, he would also use his beloved bicycle to drag explosives into the smoke.

Lei Gong, the commander of the artillery platoon, was the 17th soldier of the Seventh Company and was also recognized by the whole company as a father-like "Lei Dad". The severe cold of Chosin Lake made the only heavy weapon mortar of the Seventh Company freeze to the chest, the shells could not be loaded, and the battle situation was extremely tight, Lei Gong roared angrily, "Can't shoot out the shells, Lao Tzu himself is the shells", grabbed the shovel and went to block the bullets for his comrades, shouted the battle slogan of the Seventh Company, "Kill from me", and pushed to zero distance with his flesh...

"Lions don't belong to winter, but lions in winter are still lions." This group of warriors of the Seventh Company is the lion who guards the gate of the country with his flesh. In the chosin lake battlefield, they relied on three or eight large covers to resist the aircraft and tanks of the US army, and fought against the cold of minus forty degrees with thin cotton uniforms, "almost frozen to death, but still in pursuit"... Such a war needs to be understood, such a sacrifice needs to be proved, and "Winter and the Lion" is such a "understanding" and "proof".

"He's so young. They're so young."

In the preface to "Winter and the Lion", Lan Xiaolong reveals that his father participated in the Korean War as a military doctor, but he has always lacked a deep understanding of the true meaning of the Korean War. By chance, Lan Xiaolong saw a photo of an eighteen-year-old warrior, "he held an orange (maybe a pastry), holding on to the music, a little ignorant, full of life, a little jumpy", and then was poked, resulting in a strong desire to create. Lan Xiaolong sighed, "He's really young. They're so young."

"Winter and the Lion" portrays such an eighteen- or nineteen-year-old teenager, Wu Wanli.

Wu Wanli was originally a naughty teenager, a little naughty, a little ignorant, and joined the army with his second brother Wu Qianli for "longer out of breath". On the military column rushing to Korea, Qianli told Wanli about the past of the company and the mountains and rivers of the motherland, and Wanli's sense of responsibility for his homeland was awakened little by little. On the battlefield of Chosin Lake, the firepower between China and the United States is very different, and There are Wanli who have the ability to fight water and drift, and accidentally transform into a human version of the mortar, and repeatedly win by surprise. However, every time he jumped up and threw, there must be comrades-in-arms to cover and sacrifice him with their flesh... In the mutual assistance and sacrifice again and again, in the second brother Qianli's entrustment voice of "I cover you, my life is in your hands, your life is in my hands", Wanli more and more realized where the passion flowing on the second brother and comrades-in-arms came from...

Young beings like Wu Wanli guarded the world behind them for the sake of their homeland.

Tell the story of the "Seventh Company of Steel" entering the DPRK, the prequel to "Soldier Assault"

Fifteen years ago, Lan Xiaolong's screenwriting work "Soldier Assault" was launched, and the image of the "Seventh Company of Steel" Xu Sanduo, Shi Jin, Gao Cheng, Wu Liuyi and other soldiers created in the play, as well as the battle song of "Seven Companies of Steel", "A thunderbolt and a sword, a group of fierce tigers and seven companies of steel; the will of steel, iron blood to defend the country and protect the homeland...", has touched countless audiences and touched people deeply.

At the ceremony of joining the company, Wu Liuyi introduced the history of the "Seven Steel Companies":

"During the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea, almost all of the Seventh Steel Company was killed and cancelled, but the three private soldiers who were covered by all the companies returned with nine deaths. They brought back the will of one hundred and seven martyrs to rebuild the Seven Companies of Steel on these three young men with an average age of seventeen! Since then, the Seventh Company of Steel has lived with their martyrs forever! ”

And "Winter and the Lion" writes the bloody history of the "Seven Companies of Steel" in the Korean battlefield!

In "Winter and the Lion", Wu Qianli, the 162nd soldier of the Seventh Company, Wu Wanli, the 677th soldier, Mei Sheng, the 135th soldier, Lei Gong, the 17th soldier, Yu Congrong, the 305th soldier, Pinghe, the 623rd soldier, and Tan Ziwei, a close comrade-in-arms of the Seventh Company who met in the battle, will appear one by one, and the battle song of "Seventh Company of Steel" will sound on the battlefield of Chosin Lake in North Korea! The theme of "I'll Take You Home" will continue again.

Winter and the Lion also accompanies the book with an excerpt from Lan Xiaolong's forthcoming new work, War and Ritual. "Winter and the Lion" describes the Battle of Chosin Lake, while "War and Worship" depicts the tenacity and forbearance, indomitability and resistance of the Chinese people on many fronts from military to diplomatic, during the Korean War, and reproduces the twists and turns of international politics in the 1950s...