Sword of Light: Humanoid Self-Propelled Artillery

Chapter 297 Treating Prisoners Well
Looking at the telegram order, Wang Gensheng felt a pang of emotion. Even after doing so much and leaving behind so many wounded soldiers and prisoners, he still couldn't change the fate of having to blow up the Shuimen Bridge.

Although Wang Gensheng himself understood that simply blowing up a water gate bridge wouldn't change anything, given America's industrial capabilities, building a steel bridge would be incredibly easy.

Of course, when accepting this mission, Wang Gensheng also told the front-line commander about his plan to have the US military send transport planes to pick up the seriously wounded US soldiers and prisoners of war from the Hagaru-ri airport camp.

As for Wang Gensheng's decision to command the front lines, they naturally agreed. After all, although treating prisoners of war well might seem like a woman's kindness, the goal of war is never how many enemies are killed, but to achieve victory. Therefore, treating prisoners of war well can also undermine the enemy's will to resist.

It's important to understand that prisoners of war are an inevitable product of war; where there is war, there will always be prisoners. However, the Eastern and Western worlds treated prisoners of war in a completely different way. Before the world entered the modern era, prisoners of war in the Western world were considered a general equivalent, becoming part of a transaction, without human rights or autonomy. For example, in medieval Europe, ordinary prisoners of war were usually sold into slavery, while high-ranking prisoners could be used to obtain ransom.

The practices of the Khmer Rouge and the Qianfang Kingdom are quite different. The Khmer Rouge has a long-standing tradition of "not killing those who surrender." With the rise of Confucianism, the Khmer Rouge not only do not kill prisoners of war, but also give them the same rights and preferential treatment as free people. There are even historical cases of "treating prisoners of war well and getting them to surrender."

Therefore, although many of these thousands of wounded soldiers and prisoners of war must have had the blood of the reinforcements on their hands in previous battles, war is never a place where personal hatred takes precedence. For the sake of victory, all personal grudges must be put aside.

After the end of World War II, the Geneva Convention clearly stipulated that both sides of the war should treat prisoners of war humanely, not to force them to do dangerous or humiliating things, not to use torture on them, and that prisoners of war should be released or repatriated immediately after the end of the war without delay.

However, this is only an idealized scenario in the convention. In actual wars, some leaders and officers did not follow the provisions of the convention.

Take the Mi Guo on the Chao Guo battlefield as an example. On the one hand, they demanded that the Hua Guo reinforcements treat prisoners of war well. On the other hand, they subjected the captured Hua Guo soldiers to inhumane treatment, often inflicting torture on them, and sometimes even failing to provide them with the most basic food on time.

However, treating prisoners of war well has always been a fine tradition of the Liberation Army, and the Chaozhou battlefield was no exception. Humanitarian treatment was consistently upheld for enemies who laid down their arms, granting them a degree of freedom, and even wounded prisoners of war received the same medical treatment as their own soldiers.

However, treating prisoners of war well does not mean that we will not use them to formulate strategies and tactics.

For example, right after the first battle, the frontline commander ordered the release of one hundred American prisoners of war. The soldiers were somewhat puzzled, and some officers and soldiers offered their opinions on this matter.

These were captured by the soldiers amidst gunfire, and some even risked their lives to obtain them. Although they were to be released after the war ended, the war is not over yet. How can we face the soldiers who died on the battlefield if we release the prisoners now?
The frontline commander began to work on the soldiers' mindset, explaining to them that releasing prisoners was for better combat, which would dispel rumors, publicize the army's prisoner policy, and win international support.

For both the United States and China, the Korean War was their first direct confrontation. Both sides knew very little about each other, and some high-ranking U.S. military officials were spreading rumors within their ranks about the mistreatment of prisoners of war by the Chinese army, intended to intimidate lower-ranking U.S. soldiers. They attributed the brutality of Japanese soldiers killing U.S. prisoners of war during World War II to the Chinese People's Liberation Army in aiding Taiwan, claiming that Asians were simply bloodthirsty and ruthless. Many soldiers, unaware of the true situation, were misled by the U.S. high command into believing that Chinese soldiers were extremely cruel and that even if they died on the battlefield, they should not be captured.

It must be said that although Mi Guo's methods were extremely despicable, they were somewhat effective, greatly hindering the Hua Guo's relief efforts in Chaozhou. So how to dispel the rumors? It's simple: release the prisoners. Rumors may not stop with the wise, but in the face of facts, they will crumble on their own.

After the frontline commander patiently explained to the soldiers, the 39th Army began releasing prisoners in batches. After determining the release time and place, our army also sent healthy American prisoners in advance to notify the American army to come and pick up the prisoners, ensuring that the prisoners would not be used as bait for military plans.

Was the frontline commander's action merely to create public support for the aid-to-Chaozhou army? Actually, he had another consideration.

Before releasing these prisoners, the frontline commanders specially organized some soldiers to conduct "ideological education" on the prisoners of war in a subtle way.

The soldiers often feigned weakness when chatting with prisoners, saying things like, "We are just volunteer militia who came to Chaozhou. Your weapons are too powerful, and our weapons are outdated. We can't beat you." "If we release you now, please stop bombing us with napalm." "We are not a main force. We are short of food and need to move back. We are no longer fighting. We have no ammunition or medicine and are preparing to return to the country."

It was precisely because of this that, after listening to the prisoners' report, Michael Aser completely lowered his guard against the Chaozhou reinforcements. He attributed the reason for the first encounter with the Chaozhou reinforcements to a lack of understanding of the enemy's situation. He was confident that he would be able to achieve a great victory when facing the Chaozhou reinforcements in the future. After all, they had inferior weapons, fewer men and less food. If he couldn't win against them, then he would really have no reason to continue his army.

Michael Aser had a major misjudgment of Korea. He had previously told the high-ranking officials of the United States that Korea would not send troops into Korea because the best opportunity for Korea had passed. If the Korean army dared to send troops into Korea at this time, he would drive Korea back to the "ancient Stone Age".

From another perspective, we really have to thank Michael Aser. It was because of his underestimation of the enemy that we were able to inflict heavy losses on the US army in the early stages. If he had paid enough attention to the Huaguo, the casualties of the reinforcements would probably have been even greater.

After hearing the confirmed news from the prisoners of war, Michael Aser even less valued the reinforcements from Chaozhou. In his view, although the American army's offensive pace had been disrupted, it was not a big deal.

With this in mind, Michael Aser ordered the U.S. 10th Corps on the Eastern Front and the 8th Army on the Western Front to launch a general offensive to the north. He also gave his troops a death order that the battle must be ended before Christmas. The U.S. army was jubilant, but what they did not know was that they had fallen into a trap set by the front-line command.

(End of this chapter)