The heavens start from Changjin Lake

Chapter 898: Raising Food
The people here have experienced the ravages of war and felt the brutality of Li's puppet army and the US army, and are particularly friendly to the volunteers.

After settling down, the soldiers felt like they had returned home. The armies of the Chinese and Super League countries were like long-parted relatives. Some of them hugged each other tightly and refused to let go, telling each other about the joy of victory and the difficult journey.

No one could suppress the excitement in their hearts.

Some of the cadres of this heroic Korean People’s Army once supported the Chinese revolution and participated in China’s War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression and War of Liberation. Later, when Korea was in trouble, they returned to their motherland to continue the revolution.

For them, China is like their second home.

Today, we are once again fighting side by side to combat our common enemy, American imperialism. How can we not be excited?

Some Korean comrades who returned from China said that they often missed their Chinese comrades behind enemy lines. They firmly believed that American imperialism would never win and that the Chinese people would definitely come to help them!
They were looking forward to it and hoping for it, and today it finally came true.

In victory, we joined forces with our Chinese comrades.

They warmly entertained the cadres of the 38th Army, holding up large copper bowls filled with rice wine and toasting them cup after cup.

At the lively party, they talked about the battle of the Nakdong River and the guerrilla warfare behind enemy lines with such grief and indignation. Our soldiers also told them about the first battle, how they were careless and let many enemies go, and they felt sorry for the Korean people.

Fortunately, the second battle was a great turnaround, in which tens of thousands of puppet troops and UN troops were wiped out and a large amount of weapons, equipment and supplies were seized.

The atmosphere was tense. The political director and the head of the civil movement section of the 335th Regiment were unable to refuse the hospitality and were actually drunk.

The North Korean people are straightforward and they are happy when their guests are drunk.

The troops of the 113th Division also received warm hospitality from the People's Army at their base. When the division heard that a regiment (regimental headquarters) of the People's Army lived nearby, they specially sent the chief of the organization department and the chief of the secretariat department to visit and express their gratitude.

The regiment commander holds the rank of colonel and speaks fluent Chinese. He participated in the War of Liberation and served as a section chief in a regiment of the 47th Army. After returning to China, he served as a regiment instructor.

He had already gone to bed at that time. When he heard that the volunteers were coming, he quickly put on his clothes, warmly welcomed them, and accompanied another political cadre to the meeting.

Chairman Bin sat on the kang and talked about the years they fought together during the Chinese liberation and the great victory of the Second Battle.

In order to cooperate with the troops' frontal attack, they destroyed the enemy's important transportation routes in the rear, blew up all the bridges they knew, tied down the enemy's escape to the north and south, and blocked the US military and Li's puppet army. They fought many tough battles and seized a lot of spoils.

Now that the volunteers have arrived, they have received orders to break through the 38th parallel together with the volunteers.

Before leaving, the head of the Organization Section and the head of the Secretary Section expressed their gratitude again, saying that coming here was like coming home for the troops, and that they had to trouble the comrades of the People's Army.

The captain said modestly: "We are one family and we should keep our differences. This is what we should do."

At this time, after a short period of reorganization, the Korean People's Army had three corps capable of participating in front-line combat.

The First, Second and Fifth Corps have 14 divisions and more than 7.5 people.

In order to enable the Chinese and North Korean armies to cooperate effectively in combat, the two sides agreed to establish a joint command of the Chinese People's Volunteer Army and the Korean People's Army in early December, and decided that "all activities within the combat scope and on the front line" would be commanded by the "Joint Command".

The Chinese People's Volunteer Army recommended the "Volunteer Commander" to be the "United Commander", and the Korean People's Army recommended two comrades to be the deputy commander and deputy political officer of the "United Commander". From then on, the Chinese and Korean people's armies fought side by side under unified command.

The troops were getting farther and farther away from the Yalu River, the transportation lines were lengthened, and the supply of food and ammunition became difficult, especially food became an even greater problem.

In order to solve the food difficulties and transportation and supply shortages, Zhisi and Chaozheng consulted and, with the assistance of the local government, borrowed grain locally.

At that time, the Korean people were suffering from the ravages of war and had a great difficulty in getting food. In order to help the Chinese People's Volunteers win the battle, they would rather not eat themselves but provide food support to the troops. They loved the Chinese People's Volunteers.

At that time, in order to transport the remaining food to the front line, they would rather chew tree bark themselves. When the soldiers heard the news, they burst into tears and refused to accept their food. If it were not for the order, they would rather starve.

After the US-Li puppet army launched the Korean War, countless people peeled off the bark, soaked it in water, mashed it, and cooked it to eat.

The comrades who participated in raising funds for borrowing grain were under great pressure at that time. They saw the villages ravaged by the US military, which were riddled with bullet holes, piles of rubble, and scenes of wives and children separated and families broken up. They thought to themselves, the Korean people had been treated like this by the invaders, so how much surplus grain could they lend us?

But the facts were beyond everyone's expectations. The internationalist spirit of the North Korean people was great and touching.

The comrades who went to Yichuan County to raise and borrow food were very excited whenever they thought of this past event.

The work of raising food was a joint effort between the Volunteer Army and the local government. After the government representative explained the purpose of the Volunteer Army comrades to the masses, the Korean people, men, women, and children, rushed to say:
"We can't let the volunteers fight on an empty stomach."

They carried shovels and ran up the mountain with rice cans and bags. Some of them dug and some dug, and finally dug out all the hidden food.

A North Korean comrade named Kim Ki-sun, captain of the Self-Defense Forces, worked harder than anyone else. His feet were broken and oozing pus and blood, but he was resolute when carrying food, trip after trip, and refused to sit down to rest no matter what.

Especially the local women, who carried their children on their backs and food on their heads, and went up and down the mountains without feeling tired at all.

The elderly in the family helped to make the grain into cakes, packed them in bags, and shipped them to the front line one bag at a time.

The arduous task of raising grain was completed in this way, which made all the comrades who participated in the grain raising feel incredible.

But they also learned that the North Korean people had taken out all their food, leaving only a little behind. They were all moved by the spirit of the North Korean people to support the front line even if it meant selling everything they had.

However, the next day when they were about to say goodbye to their fellow villagers, they suddenly received an order from their superiors:

"Double the original amount of food!"

The troops will soon launch the offensive of the third campaign. Every soldier must carry at least seven days of dry food. With more than 100,000 people on the front line, the amount of food needed is astronomical.

Their superiors asked them to prepare the materials within three days, but they found it really difficult. The people had taken out all their food rations, and only rice was left. It would be impossible to prepare the materials by pounding the rice into rice within three days.

Things always develop in a direction that they did not expect. After discussing with the village cadres, they convened a village meeting to explain to the masses that they were preparing to continue the war. Before they could mobilize the people, the villagers said:

"In order to defeat the American invaders, we would rather not eat a grain of rice than not let the People's Army and the Volunteer Army have enough to eat!"

"Don't worry, we promise to collect the food on time. We have our own way." An old lady named Li said, "I only need to keep one month's worth of food. We are old and eat less. The rest will be sent to you."

Comrade Liu Qun, who was in charge of raising grain, saw the enthusiasm of the masses, but was still worried that the task could not be completed within three days because the labor force in the village was limited.

At night, he couldn't sleep again, so he went outside with the landlord's children to take a walk and have a look.

The sky was filled with snow and wind, and the whole place was in chaos. The outline of the Hantan River could no longer be distinguished.

The cold wind pricked his face like needles, causing him to cry in pain. But when he took a few steps outside, he heard some people talking and laughing, and some humming songs in a low voice.

His heart was filled with warmth, and when he got closer he saw that it was a group of villagers pounding rice for the volunteers.

At that time, rural areas in North Korea were still relatively poor and backward. Most people used wooden pestles to pound rice into white rice in wooden pits made from large trees, or used stone pestles to pound rice, which was a relatively primitive way of threshing.

In a rice pounding room, eight or nine women were treading on heavy stone pestles, making monotonous, heavy banging sounds amid their loud laughter.

When Liu Qun saw this scene, he felt very warm in his heart, "Thank you for your hard work. It is us who are troubling you."

The women giggled and said, "No, it doesn't matter. You're fighting the Americans on an empty stomach, aren't you? It's nothing for us to fight for two nights of rice."

Liu Qun and the landlord's children walked around the village and saw Korean villagers busy everywhere, some pounding rice with stone pestles, and some pounding rice with wooden pestles.
The east was getting pale, and the wind was biting. The cold morning breeze was still filled with the women's laughter, singing, and the pounding of rice.
The three days were up and all the food had been collected. When the food-collecting group was about to leave, the village committee, primary school and all the villagers held a farewell party with singing and dancing, and the soldiers and civilians were immersed in laughter and joy.

Chairman Li made a speech: "When the enemy came, we hid the food. The American soldiers and Li's puppet army pointed bayonets at our heads, but we did not give them a single grain of food. Who would be willing to feed good food to the robbers? Today, the Chinese People's Volunteer Army and the Korean People's Army will severely strike these murderous and arsonist robbers. We support you, but who will support you!?"

These words deeply moved our comrades who were participating in the grain fundraising.

In order to resist the levy of grain and the robbery by the US and Li's puppet troops, the Korean people had their entire families or even their entire villages killed. The cruelty of the puppet security team was even worse than that of the "returning home group" on Chinese soil.

The people who opposed the invasion were shot, buried alive and burned in an inhumane manner.

Every grain of food was protected by their lives and blood.

Thinking of this, the comrades of the grain collection team said excitedly: "Please rest assured! We will definitely drive the enemy back to the 38th parallel!"

When they returned, the whole village came out to see them off. The elderly held their comrades from the grain-raising group, the children held their clothes, and the women secretly wiped away their tears as they bid farewell to their loved ones.

Once they leave, they may never come back.

People are all made of flesh and blood, and they are using their lives to fight their own battles.

An old man named Jin said excitedly: "Although I am old, I must live. I hope to see you drive away the American bandits with my own eyes!"

The 50th Army raised more than kilograms of grain in this area, which not only met the needs of its own army, but also supported its brother units.

The Army Propaganda Department publicized to all units the experiences of the comrades in the grain-raising group and the expectations of the Korean people, inspiring all officers and soldiers to continue their courage to fight and their determination to kill the enemy.

In the severe cold, the soldiers marched quickly on ice and snow, and on December 12th, they arrived secretly near Hantan River and assembled.

There are many rain-cracks in this area, and the terrain is complex with caves, which makes it convenient for the troops to hide. After settling down, each unit began to prepare dry food for war.

Xia Yuan led the third company and quickly caught up with the 112th Division. They arrived at the rear division headquarters and met with Yang Dayi.

Yang Dayi said: "You are such a young soldier. You have taken on such a big responsibility at such a young age. When I was your age, I still followed the troops through mountains and rivers."

Yang Dayi looked at the young Xia Yuan and thought of the time when he joined the army.

At that time he joined the Red Army. He was young and there were many child soldiers. The old comrades of the Red Army took a gun, compared the height of the gun on the tree trunk, drew marks, and asked them to line up and compare one by one.

If you are not tall enough to hold a gun, don’t do it.

He was thin and weak at the time, and was not as tall as his gun. The Red Army did not want him, so he followed the Red Army. Wherever the Red Army went, he followed.

He stayed away from his hometown until the Red Army discovered him and reluctantly accepted him.

Xia Yuan said: "Commander, you are joking. On the battlefield, it is never about strength, but more about luck."

Yang Dayi said: "Luck is also a part of strength. Okay, I won't keep you at the division headquarters for dinner. Don't waste time."

He just wanted to meet this young warrior.

"Yes!"

Xia Yuan knew that the war was about to begin and he could not stay here for long. He had to rush to the front line without stopping.

The 335th Regiment was just in front of the 112th Division. It took them less than half a day to reach the regiment headquarters. Fan Tianen was very happy to see Xia Yuan arrive:

"I will assign a mission to your third company. Our army needs to understand the enemy's deployment. You take your men to the area north of Yongping and capture some tongues."

Xia Yuan is a top-notch expert at catching slanderous people. He had caught many slanderous people at the beginning of the second phase of the battle, providing our army with sufficient intelligence on the enemy. No one can compare to Xia Yuan in catching slanderous people.

"I will have the regiment's reconnaissance company cooperate with your operation. They have gained a thorough understanding of the enemy's situation in the past two days."

Fan Tianen called over comrades from the regiment's reconnaissance company, a dozen or so comrades who were short in stature, but they exuded a fierce spirit from the inside out, and were the kind that were very well trained.

The eyes of these young soldiers looked at Xia Yuan with enthusiasm.

They heard that Xia Yuan caught a lot of slander during the second battle and was the person that everyone in the regiment's reconnaissance company envied and admired.