Especially under the heavy blow of the second battle, the enemy retreated thousands of miles from the Qingchuan River to the south of the "38th Parallel" and temporarily switched to defense.

After the invasion of Incheon, the "United Nations Army" led by the United States gradually took the initiative on the Korean battlefield, and even threatened the vicinity of the Yalu River. After the Volunteer Army entered the DPRK, they finally turned the situation around after two battles. Especially under the heavy blow of the second battle, the enemy retreated thousands of miles from the Chongchuan River line to the south of the 38th line, and temporarily switched to defense.

After the second battle, the US military, which had always been arrogant, also suffered a heavy blow. Not only did it lose a large amount of baggage, but its morale also became depleted. Originally, the US military had always despised the volunteers, but after the second battle, it gradually began to fear the volunteers. According to MacArthur 's idea, he hoped that the US military could stick to the front lines of Pyongyang and Wonsan . However, because the morale of the US military was completely lost, he had no choice but to withdraw all troops to the south of the "38th Parallel" in order to Stop the volunteers from continuing southward.

After experiencing two consecutive battles, the volunteer army itself was already very exhausted. During these two battles, the volunteer soldiers marched and fought almost every day. They could not even eat well and needed to rest and recuperate at the same time to replenish the missing soldiers. At that time, many people believed that the first-line troops should rest and recuperate, and the second-line troops should come up to continue fighting. But in fact, the new batch of troops dispatched from the country were still far away in the customs at that time, and it was impossible to reach North Korea in a short time.

In terms of the strength of the troops at that time, the enemy's front-line troops were much more numerous than the volunteers. It stands to reason that it is necessary to postpone the next battle. However, from an overall perspective, the enemy urgently needed time to readjust. Once they regained their composure, they were likely to continue their attack northward. If the next battle can be launched quickly without giving the enemy a chance to breathe, it can inflict a heavier blow to the enemy. At the same time, after experiencing the second battle, Britain, France and other countries have expressed their dissatisfaction with the Korean War . If they attack the enemy again, it is likely to force the internal conflicts of the enemy to break out. Under this circumstance, the Volunteer Army decided to strike while the iron was hot and launch a third campaign.

Starting from mid-December, after various units of the Volunteer Army took a short rest, they began to continue marching towards the "38th Line". In order to understand the enemy's situation in advance, various departments of the Volunteer Army sent reconnaissance teams and advance groups to the "38th Line" in advance. On December 25, the reconnaissance detachment and advance group of the 38th Volunteer Army arrived at the area north of Yongping on the Hantan River. It was close to the "38th Parallel" and faced the enemy's position across the river. After arriving here, the advance troops of the 38th Army immediately began the operation to capture prisoners.

However, it is not easy to capture prisoners. At that time, the enemy had just experienced a disastrous defeat and had already become a frightened bird. They were afraid that the volunteers would continue to attack south, and the defense was very tight. The enemy not only built five lines of defense south of the "38th Parallel", but also sent small troops to the front line every day to prevent the volunteers from launching surprise attacks. In addition, enemy aircraft continued to conduct reconnaissance north of the "38th Parallel", and artillery continued to fire, blocking various intersections north of the "38th Parallel".

At night, the enemy did not relax their vigilance. They continued to launch flares, illuminating the area near the "38th Parallel" as if it were daytime. According to the previous practice of the Volunteer Army, they conducted fire reconnaissance on the enemy's front line to find weak areas at the enemy's junction, and then penetrated into the enemy's rear to capture prisoners. However, after experiencing the first two battles, the enemy strengthened the defense of the junction and built a strict defense system with no gaps at all.

Seeing that there were only a few days before the start of the third battle, in order to understand the situation of the enemy on the opposite side as soon as possible, the 38th Army headquarters had to let the advance regiments organize manpower to capture prisoners. After receiving the mission, the leader of the 342th Regiment, Sun Hongdao, handed it over to the 7th Company. Deputy Company Commander Qiu Lihai personally led a platoon to capture the prisoners.Considering the difficulty of the task, Wang Pili, political commissar of the 342nd Regiment, told him that if he really couldn't capture prisoners, it would be a good idea to bring back two local people.

After Qiu Lihai set out, he ran into the enemy just after crossing the river. After a battle, Qiu Lihai was unable to break through the enemy's blockade, so he simply withdrew and randomly found two ordinary people along the way to make business. What was more embarrassing was that these two common people were not from the south of Hantan River, but from the north. Wang Pili got angry on the spot and severely criticized Qiu Lihai. Qiu Lihai took action again the next night and captured the prisoners.

Another advance regiment, the 338th Regiment of the 113th Division, had worse luck than the 342nd Regiment. The team attacked several times but failed to capture any prisoners. The regiment leader Zhu Yuehua and the political commissar Xing Ze were so anxious that they could not even sleep well. Later, Zhu Yuehua simply led the 5th company to capture the prisoners himself. As a result, he came down several times in a row without even seeing the shadow of the enemy. Seeing that the time for the start of the third battle was getting closer and closer, Zhu Yuehua became more and more anxious.

On this night, as usual, Zhu Yuehua led the 5th company to the enemy's front line and searched for the enemy everywhere. As a result, their luck was just as bad this time. At the end of the night, they didn't even see the shadow of the enemy. At dawn, Zhu Yuehua led the 5th company to a place where enemy patrol posts often moved. Seeing that he had gained nothing all night, he no longer had any hope for this operation. He just placed a sentry at the front and took the people to a nearby small yard to rest, preparing to rest for a while before going back.

Because he was too tired, Zhu Yuehua fell asleep quickly after entering the room. What he didn't expect was that the sentry fell asleep leaning against the tree because he was so sleepy. After a while, there was a sudden shouting outside, which surprised Zhu Yuehua from his sleep. He looked outside and found that it was still dark. He should not have slept for long. The sudden shouting made him realize Accidents are likely to occur. At this time, there was still shouting outside. When he listened carefully, he found that he could not understand it at all. This could only mean that the enemy was coming.

Although he didn't understand the specific meaning, listening to the noise outside, it seemed that the enemy had surrounded the courtyard. Zhu Yuehua guessed that the enemy was calling them to surrender. Thinking of this, Zhu Yuehua was shocked: "Who is talking outside? Could it be that the enemy is coming? But there is no movement at all from the sentry." In fact, just after the sentry fell asleep, a platoon of enemies came over , they directly surrounded the courtyard and set up machine guns outside. They did not attack but wanted Zhu Yuehua and others to surrender.

Of course, Zhu Yuehua could not surrender. He quickly left the house and prepared to organize the 5th company to counterattack. Unexpectedly, before the 5th company took action, there was an explosion of grenade outside, followed by gunshots. It turned out that after the enemy surrounded the yard, a squad leader from the 5th company sneaked out and found the opportunity to throw a grenade at the enemy's machine gun. The grenade not only destroyed the enemy's machine gun, but also scared the enemy so much that many people began to run away.

Zhu Yuehua did not miss this opportunity, he immediately sent 5 companies to attack. This time, the enemy became even more chaotic. They were unable to organize effective resistance and began to flee in all directions. Interestingly, the previous grenade injured an enemy's foot. He was unable to escape at all and could only become a prisoner of the 5th company. Finally the prisoner was captured. The soldiers picked him up and ran back, quickly returning to the camp. From this prisoner, the 338th Regiment obtained a lot of intelligence and made preparations for the third battle.