The South Korean army in a battalion of the military fortress in Xiajieyu had more than 1,000 troops, and most of them were strong men who had been captured from a radius of dozens of miles a few days earlier, and a small number of them had fled from the north to the south.

As for the battalion commander Li Dooxuan, there are still injuries on his arms that have not healed, and he is still wearing bandages, even a few days ago, he was still in the rear US army field hospital, and he did not want to return to the cruel battlefield here so soon.

However, due to a military order issued by his superiors, he had to choose unconditional obedience, and with Kim Sung-ki, an operational staff officer who had recovered from his injuries, and his former subordinates, who had less than a company of troops, rushed to Xiajiayu-ri three days ago to serve as the battalion commander of the ROK army unit and assist the US troops of a regiment stationed here to take charge of guarding this military fortress.

After lunch, Lee Doo-hyun returned to the barracks to get ready to rest, but his combat staff officer Kim Sung-gi knocked on the door and walked in, and reported to him angrily: "Battalion commander, these Yankees are really hateful, after we came here, we have to eat their leftover meals every time, just today's lunch, none of our soldiers in the company ate vegetables and meat, so they were given a bowl of rice to eat." ”

After listening to this little report that Kim Sung-gi made to him, instead of getting angry, Lee Doo-hyun smiled at him and comforted him: "Brother Sung-ki, it's not worth it at all for you to be angry about this kind of thing.

"We arrived at Xiajieyuli three days ago, and I believe that not only me, but you should also have seen that the villages and towns along the way have been bombed by US planes, and many villagers have been displaced and starved to death because they have not had enough to eat.

"For us, if we hadn't joined the army, followed by the US military to deal with the Korean People's Army attacking from north to south, and the powerful Chinese People's Volunteer Army, we would probably not be hungry now." Not to mention that being able to eat a large meal of rice at every meal will become a luxury.

"As the saying goes, people have to raise their heads under the roof, even our country's supreme leader Syngman Rhee has to look at the faces of the Americans, we, the grassroots officers, it is better not to provoke the Americans, endure the calm for a while, take a step back and open the sky, and it will be good for our dogs to fill their stomachs."

To Kim Sung-gi's great surprise, his old boss, Lee Doo-hyun, hated the American soldiers for treating them differently and treating them as "inferior" people.

Now he found that Lee Doo-hyun's attitude towards Americans was so negative and low, which was much beyond his imagination.

Out of curiosity, Kim Sung-gi couldn't help but ask: "Your Excellency Battalion Commander, didn't you like me before, you were very disgusted with the Yankees and looked down on us South Korean soldiers, what's wrong with you now, do you want to give in to the Yankees?" ”

In the face of Jin Shengji's question, Li Dooxuan continued to smile slightly, patted him on the shoulder, and said: "Shengjijun, why can't you see the current situation clearly, without the help of the US military, our army alone, even if it is plus other United Nations forces, cannot fight against the more powerful Chinese People's Volunteer Army." For the sake of your survival, we must obey the arrangements of the Americans. ”

Seeing that Lee Doo-hyun, who was depressed and languishing, was in this situation, Kim Sung-gi was still a little reluctant to give up, and said with added fuel and vinegar: "However, your Excellency the battalion commander, you don't know, but I heard a few Yankees say that the military supplies and supplies in this military fortress in the lower corner of the city where we are stationed are about to run out, and the rations of their American soldiers have not been reduced in the slightest.

"It's true, starting tonight, all our soldiers and officers, including you and me, will only be given a bowl of rice and half a can of canned beef, and won't even coffee and whiskey be provided for each meal, do you think the Yankees should protest against treating us like this?"

If this had been placed in the past, Lee Doo-hyun would have protested to his boss a long time ago, of course, more often than not, the reply from his boss was that the protest was invalid, and everything was subject to the arrangements of the US military in coordinated operations.

He knew that the result would be like this, but now after listening to Jin Shengji's report, he replied in a light tone: "Shengji-kun, don't be too excited. Didn't you just say it, it's just a reduction in the amount of rations supplied to our battalion, at least the staple food has not changed, you can eat a big bowl of white rice at every meal, it's already good, it's better than starving.

"What's more, the Yankees didn't do anything perfectly, not every meal also distributed half a can of canned beef to each of us, as for coffee and whiskey, let's not drink it, it's a big deal to drink boiling water."

On this side, the US-ROK coalition troops stationed in Xiajieyuli are also about to run out of rations, and they still have enough to eat for a day, so they must send planes from the rear of the US military to airdrop food before tomorrow night.

Among the ROK troops stationed in Xiajiayu, some ROK servicemen represented by operations staff officer Kim Sung-ki expressed extreme indignation and resentment at the US military's act of reducing their rations.

On the other side, the three companies of the Volunteers' Sharp Knife Company, which were stationed on the hillside five kilometers south of Xiajieyuli, were now on the verge of collapse when all their rations were exhausted, and before dark, more than twenty soldiers had fainted from hunger, but there was no fried noodles that could be taken out to save their lives.

Just when Sun Lei felt the fire burning his eyebrows, he observed through the military telescope in his hand that there was a large pine forest about 300 meters away on the south side of the hillside, and autumn was a good time to pick pine nuts.

Although it is winter now, Sun Lei at this time thinks that if he is lucky enough, maybe there are still some pine nuts on the pine trees that have not been picked, after all, this place is also inaccessible and belongs to the remote mountainous area of the poor.

When the company commander Zhao Yifa and the instructor Wang Wenju listened to Sun Lei's report, after a short discussion, the two of them had no choice but to agree to Sun Lei's proposal, and Sun Lei led the soldiers of the cooking squad to the large pine forest three hundred meters south of the hillside to find edible pine nuts to eat.

As soon as the soldiers of the cooking squad heard that 300 meters away from the south side of the hillside, there might be pine nuts in the large pine forest, they rushed to the place under the leadership of Sun Lei.

When they arrived at the pine forest, they were disappointed, because they had searched the pine forest with a radius of about 200 meters, and they had only a handful of pine nuts collected from the pine trees.

A group of more than a dozen of them, together with the pine nuts they collected, not even fifty, suddenly, let the leader of the team Sun Lei began to worry again, standing in place for a long time beating his chest, but vigorously stomped on the thick snow on the mountain.