The First Campaign At dusk on October 18, 1950 I crossed the Yalu River with vanguard units of the Chinese People's Volunteers. We reached the Ragacho Power Station on the morning of October 19 and arrived in a small gully to the northwest of the town of Bukjin on the morning of the 20th. Traveling in trucks and tanks, some advanced units of the enemy had driven to the banks of the Yalu River. On the morning of October 21, a division of our 40th Army passing through Bukjin encountered Syngman Rhee puppet troops not far outside the town. The First Campaign was an unexpected one. I immediately altered our original plan of March. Our troops displayed characteristic flexibility and mobility and wiped out some Syngman Rhee units in the Unsan Area near Bukjin, forcing the pursuing U.S. and puppet troops to retreat. We thus got a firm foothold there. The First Campaign ended in victory for us on October 25,

Because of the high level of mechanization, the U.S., British and puppet troops were able to withdraw speedily to the Chongchon River and the Kechon Area, where they started to throw up defense works. Our troops did not pursue the enemy because the main enemy force had not been destroyed even though we had wiped out six or seven battalions of puppet troops and a small number of American troops. The mechanized enemy troops moved and built fortifications speedily. Their tanks and fortifications formed a system of defense. It would have been unfavorable for our Volunteers to engage the enemy in positional warfare with equipment they had at that time. They might even have suffered defeat.