Friday, February 11, 2022

The Opium Wars


The Manchu emperor sent his best to confront the English invasion, a direct descendant of Ghengis Khan who had passed the exams (special exams for sons of princes) and assigned him thousands of troops. They knew that the goal was Ningbo, so the Mongol prince built tall walls to stop the invaders. He was convinced that the English could not run nor climb the wall because of their heavy woolen uniforms so that if they fell they could not get up again. The Brits climbed easily the wall and planted their flag. The Chinese ran away and the Brits (Irish, Scots, Hindus, etc.) found an empty city. That was 160 years ago, one wonders if the Chinese have developed better martial skills in the meanwhile. Foto: The battle of Chosin Reservoir, Korea, Chinese prisoners, 1950. 

The Battle of Chosin Reservoir took place in November and December 1950 in North Korea when 25,000 American Army soldiers and Marines were surrounded by 150,000 Chinese forces.

In “The Battle of Chosin Reservoir: Surrounded, Not Defeated,” a symposium, these brave men share what it was like to fight against overwhelming odds in extreme temperatures (as low as 40 degrees below zero) and the struggle to bring out their dead and wounded.

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