After summing up the experience from the first battle, Qu Bing came up with the idea of setting a killing threshold for the soldiers. He hoped this would free them from their worries, so they would not hesitate or shrink back when facing the enemy, afraid to strike.
You Ye and Wen Feiyu also thought the method was excellent. It would encourage the soldiers to capture more prisoners while freeing them from their misgivings. It killed two birds with one stone and could be called nothing short of ingenious.
After the three of them reached an agreement, they discussed the details for a while and eventually drew up a thorough merit-rating standard. They then summoned the commanders and political commissars of every battalion, company, and platoon for a meeting, announcing the standard on the spot. Afterward, they held another post-battle review of the guard platoon's fight. Everyone discussed what they had felt during the battle, identifying strengths to develop and weaknesses to find ways of avoiding.
In the past, the officers and soldiers of our Party had also learned warfare through such repeated post-battle review meetings. Learning warfare through warfare—that was where it had come from.
That night, many tents rose in the woods west of the River Mouth Position. Snow huts large enough for people to live in stood scattered around them. Behind a wind-sheltered rise in one part of the woods was another campsite. To ensure everyone could camp safely, the soldiers living in the Underground Outpost with heated beds had distributed their quilts among the soldiers camping outside. Only then had everyone managed to spend the night safely in this frozen world of ice and snow.
The night passed peacefully. Only a few solitary wild beasts came to lick the bloodstains on the battlefield. Although there were