Introduction to Iron-Blooded Campaign: A Chronicle of the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea
In the winter of 1950, bitter winds swept the banks of the Yalu River. Hundreds of thousands of Chinese People’s Volunteers crossed its frozen waters and headed for the Korean battlefield. This was no distant war, but an epic of family and country written in the blood of countless young lives.
From the daring crossing of the Imjin River during the Fifth Campaign to the desperate defense of the tunnels on Triangle Hill; from round-the-clock watches beside the Suwon Reservoir to prevent US forces from blowing up the dam, to sharpshooters’ precise shots in the “Cold Gun, Cold Cannon Campaign”; from the forceful arguments at the Panmunjom negotiating table to the final strike against the South Korean army in the Battle of Kumsong… In 140 chapters, this book carefully traces the key battles of the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea. It recreates sweeping events, including the Volunteer Army headquarters’ strategic plan for “breaking through along multiple routes,” the ingenious construction of the tunnels as an “underground Great Wall,” and the grueling nighttime supply runs undertaken by logistics units. It also focuses on the personal stories of ordinary soldiers: Zhou Weiguo charging forward with a satchel of explosives during the Battle of the Imjin River, Huang Jiguang using his body to block a bunker’s firing slit, and Zhao Jianjun giving his enamel mug to an elderly Korean as he withdrew… Behind every name lies a memory of courage, faith, and protection.
There is no deliberate embellishment of the spectacle of war, only a faithful recreation of historical details: letters from home tucked into bags of fried-flour rations, cotton shoes frozen stiff in the snow, half a ration biscuit shared in a tunnel, and silence on the battlefield when the ceasefire began… These details come together to paint the most vivid portrait of the battlefield, showing readers that behind victory stood a Great Wall built from countless lives and years of youth.
