Beyond the Ashen River Pass

Set against the sweeping history from the Mukden Incident of 1931 to the War to Resist U.S. Aggression and Aid Korea, Beyond Jinchuan Pass tells the turbulent life story of Lin Jinchuan, heir to a Northeast Army family. Raised in the mountains of Liaodong, he learned wilderness survival and combat skills from his grandfather, a hunter, and honed his practical knife skills under a retired veteran. He should have been able to live in peace with his family on their ancestral land, but the guns of Liutiao Lake shattered every dream. The Beidaying garrison fell overnight. His father vanished amid the chaos, and his sister, a student in Shenyang, disappeared into the flood of refugees. His grandfather fell to Japanese bullets to help him escape, leaving the boy to carry his blood feud alone as he crossed Shanhaiguan into the mountains. He left behind his wild mountain ways, entered the Central Military Academy, and tempered himself into steel. He built an elite company with exceptional combat strength and joined the 88th Division, plunging into the meat grinder of Shanghai. He witnessed the Nanjing Massacre and the flames of war in Wuhan, then crossed the savage mountains and desolate wilderness of the Yunnan-Burma expedition. Amid the smoke and gunfire, he met the woman who would share his life, while never giving up the search for his scattered family. On one side was the Nationalist Army battlefield where he fought in blood and fire; on the other was his sister's separate path to saving the country through revolution. Their two fates echoed across the chaos of war. Victory in the War of Resistance did not lead him to settle into comfort. Instead, he began preparing cold-weather combat supplies in advance. When war broke out in Korea, his battle-hardened unit rushed to the front in its hour of need. With ample provisions and the experience of a hundred battles, they plugged the gap in the line and turned the tide in a desperate crisis. Family vengeance and national calamity intertwine, while personal joys and sorrows are woven into the great current of the times. Every page is steeped in a devotion to family and country forged in blood.