After ten hours of labor, several lanes marked with small red and white flags appeared in the southern sector of the El Alamein line. Red represented mines; white represented safety.

As dawn illuminated the desert, the Chinese Air Force resumed its bombardment of the El Alamein defenses. In the northern sector of the line, a dense barrage of rockets blasted a path through the sand. Much of the dust billowing into the sky was kicked up by the rockets themselves, but a significant portion came from the sympathetic detonation of buried mines.

The Anglo-Italian forces had experienced the fury of Chinese rocket artillery during their previous encounter. That first Battle of El Alamein had exerted immense psychological pressure on the Allied troops—until they realized the attacking force was composed entirely of green recruits.

The primary difference between a "rookie" and a "veteran" in a regular army is that the rookie believes he can rely solely on superior equipment to overwhelm the enemy. He forgets that the enemy is a living entity, capable of adjusting his deployment to meet the tactical reality.

In the previous battle, the Italian units had withdrawn from the WPLA’s artillery kill zones with remarkable speed. While the British retreat was not as swift, they did not hesitate either. Where the British surpassed the Italians was in leaving behind sufficient observation posts.

These observers quickly discovered that the WPLA units merely followed the paths opened by their firepower. Their ability to expand the front after a breakthrough was amateurish. To the astonishment of the British command, even after sacrificing heavily to breach the line, the WPLA failed to leverage its numerical advantage to open additional corridors and deploy its full strength effectively.

Consequently, the British command quickly formulated a plan for a decisive counter-stroke. British jet fighters were scrambled in full force to tie down the Chinese Air Force, while their infantry launched a pincer movement against the WPLA. Simultaneously, the Italians were ordered to bypass the southern end of the line and strike the Chinese flank.

To ensure the Italians complied, the British command went to great expense, providing them with 800 trucks and the necessary fuel. The WPLA breakthrough units fought heroically, but they were too "green"; their understanding of modern warfare was severely limited. After a bloody struggle, the WPLA was forced to retreat.

Because there was only a single corridor, the retreat was agonizingly slow. By the time the units finally pulled back, they were hit by the Italian flanking maneuver. Sustaining heavy losses in men and equipment, they only managed to escape with the help of the Chinese Air Force, eventually retreating all the way back to Cairo.

This time, while the Anglo-Italian forces were still awed by China’s overwhelming firepower, they were no longer terrified. The Italians, in particular, after securing another 540 trucks and fuel from the British, formed a strike force, intending to repeat their successful flanking action.

However, this time, the first to encounter the enemy was not the main British force at the center, but the Italians in the south.

Asian soldiers were far more disciplined than their European counterparts. Once the armored units passed through the minefields, the engineering units—including Corporal Obama—began large-scale mine clearance. Because rocket strikes left behind vast amounts of metallic shrapnel, and because the "damned Italians" had used so many wooden-box mines, all three engineering battalions of the 43rd Corps in the southern sector employed magnetic detectors for their sweeps.

With armored units and air support suppressing the Italians ahead, the engineers no longer needed to stay under cover. They formed long rows and swept forward in a "level push." This change in posture dramatically increased their efficiency.

After eight hours of combat, six new lanes—each 100 meters wide—had been opened through the minefields, providing breakthrough corridors for the three divisions of the 43rd Corps. By 2:00 PM, the infantry of these divisions, riding in ten-wheeled trucks, followed the armor through the minefields and reached the staging area for the assault.

When the Black infantrymen leaped from their trucks, their trembling hands and uncoordinated movements betrayed their extreme tension, even if their complexions didn't show the typical paleness. Many had fought white colonial armies and their levies in Southern Africa, but those engagements were small-scale. They rarely involved even regimental-level maneuvers, let alone division-sized operations. Capturing a white-held town, even if it meant house-to-house fighting, could usually be handled by a battalion.

Looking at a desert front so wide the eye couldn't find the end of it, the Black infantrymen felt a profound sense of shock.

Fortunately, their commanders were Chinese veterans, many of whom had served in the Australian campaign and were well-versed in desert warfare. The Japanese and Korean volunteers also brought combat experience. Under the leadership of Japanese junior officers and Korean NCOs, the orders of the Chinese officers were carried out to the letter.

"On the vehicles! On the vehicles!"

"Follow the vehicles!"

The Japanese and Korean soldiers directed the Black troops to follow behind the tanks and IFVs or to climb onto them. Regardless of the method, the Black soldiers were placed in the safer positions, while the Japanese and Korean soldiers took the more exposed, dangerous perimeter spots, effectively maintaining the formation's integrity.

Before the campaign, the Japanese and Korean volunteers had attended briefings to clarify their post-war compensation.

Even without a specific citation for bravery, simply completing their combat duties would earn them immigration quotas for two to three families. If they performed with distinction on the battlefield, they could earn more.

Should they unfortunately fall in battle, regardless of their performance, their families were guaranteed quotas for three households. The destination regions included Australia, New Zealand, and Africa.

If they chose not to emigrate, the Chinese authorities guaranteed them administrative positions within the Japanese or Korean systems or permanent employment in their respective state-owned enterprises.

Any of these options relieved the Japanese and Korean volunteers of their worries. The Chinese system’s ability to guarantee institutional benefits was exceptional; every individual had a personnel file, ensuring no one would simply disappear without a trace.

With steadfast command and resolute execution by the junior officers, the offensive was—even by the standards of elite Chinese units—at least "competent."

Faced with a competent offensive, the initial Italian reaction was also competent. The Italian units on the El Alamein line were standard for the time, utilizing a "2-2" organizational structure rarely seen in that era.

Under this system, an Italian infantry division numbered over 12,000 men. A brigade consisted of two infantry regiments, each with two battalions, which in turn had two companies. This structure differed from most WWII armies and was somewhat reminiscent of the "Square Divisions" of World War I.

To maintain combat effectiveness, Italian infantry squads were unusually large: one squad leader, one assistant, and the squad divided into two four-man machine gun fire teams and one eight-man infantry maneuver group. Totaling 18 men, an Italian squad was essentially equivalent to a reinforced squad in other contemporary armies.

Due to the sustained fire from their machine gun teams, the Italian reinforced squads fought with some determination at the start. The curtain of fire from their machine gunners and riflemen looked quite formidable.

However, ordinary Italian infantry companies lacked mortars or other heavy support; such assets were concentrated at the battalion level. An Italian infantry battalion included a weapons company, also following the "2-2" structure, with two heavy machine gun platoons and two light mortar platoons, totaling eighteen 45mm mortars.

In contrast, the 11th Army—under direct Chinese command—featured ten-man infantry squads, each equipped with its own machine gun and a 60mm mortar.

Following the Chinese Army's tradition of a powerful land force and its extensive experience with light infantry, these machine guns and 60mm mortars were extremely lightweight, designed to be man-portable on the battlefield.

While the 11th Army was not "heavy" infantry, each platoon had at least one truck. The Black infantrymen carried their mortars and machine guns, and when they encountered resistance from the oversized Italian squads, they immediately halted and deployed into formation.

While the machine gunners engaged in duels with their Italian counterparts, the 60mm mortars hammered the Italian positions. Within the 11th Army, Black soldiers already accounted for 21% of machine gunners and mortar crews. Future plans called for this to rise to 60%. In other units where white volunteers handled technical roles, there were virtually no Black technical specialists.

However, the presence of Black technical troops in the 11th Army did not hinder its efficiency. Although they lacked foundational education and experience in modern warfare, the Black soldiers selected for these roles demonstrated competent combat skills.

Even if their scores in geometry and ballistics exams were "indescribable," it did not mean they failed to understand how to use those principles to achieve their combat objectives. It was simply that, at this stage, they lacked the specialized vocabulary to communicate fluently using modern technical descriptions.

The Italian battalion-level artillery also fought hard, firing fiercely at the WPLA infantry and armor, which did have some effect.

But most Italian squads were left without artillery support. Though the Italian Army initially maintained a firm will to fight, they watched as 60mm shells arrived at a rate of ten rounds per minute, tearing their squads apart. At this point, the 11th Army infantry resumed their advance.

With mortar fire and machine gun suppression, and the Type 81 assault rifles proving far more efficient than Italian bolt-action rifles at ranges under 200 meters, Italian morale collapsed as one would expect. Although Italy was mocked as a "beggar imperialist" power, it was still an industrial nation with half the industrial output of France. Unless it was a total victory, dying in an overseas war represented a massive loss for an Italian soldier's family.

Conversely, for the 11th Army, the death of a Japanese, Korean, or Black African soldier earned their family exceptional benefits, raising their standard of living and providing future opportunities.

Though the Chinese military personnel were also volunteers, their benefits remained unchanged, supplemented by overseas combat stipends. Thus, the Chinese volunteers could satisfy their ideals and passion without worrying that their death would leave their families in hardship. In terms of pensions for Chinese volunteers, the opportunities afforded to their families were even greater than those for Japanese and Korean volunteers.

In China, a family with ten *mu* (approx. 1.6 acres) of land per person was considered well-off. If they moved overseas, they were eligible for a minimum of 200 *mu* per person—1,000 *mu* (approx. 165 acres) was not uncommon.

This was the advantage of an expansionist power. The world was vast; once conquered, it could be shared with the laborers of the world. As for the colonialist masters, there were more than enough lampposts in the world to give each one two or three to hang from, swaying in the wind.

When the Italian forces on the southern El Alamein line broke and fled, the British "masters" had no interest in understanding the struggle of the common Italian soldier. They merely snorted with irritation and contempt, cursing, "Damned Italians!" before activating their backup plan: shrinking their perimeter to rebuild a defense centered on British troops.

The British could afford this composure because the 41st and 42nd Divisions of the 11th Army facing them had not yet launched a full assault. The British could still move their troops efficiently. Moreover, after receiving reports from their observers embedded with the Italians that the 11th Army was essentially a "Black army," the 80,000 British troops holding El Alamein felt confident they could hold the line.

By the late night of January 2, the Italians had fled, and the British lines had been adjusted. The British had already prepared to defend alone, constructing a system that protected their eastern and southern flanks from the sea inwards. The Italians had built their own system outside this perimeter.

Even with the Italian collapse, the British maintained their integrity.

After midnight on January 3, the 11th Army engineers attempting to open lanes into the British defenses were quickly hit by British fire.

Unlike the Italians, the British had prepared numerous forward outposts within their defense system, allowing them to control small-scale skirmishes within the minefields and providing a sophisticated early-warning capability.

A British bullet grazed the top of Corporal Obama’s helmet. The impact felt like a hammer blow to his head, and the chin strap tightened like a noose around his neck. Even after he scrambled back to safety, his neck burned with a sharp pain.

Seeing the rigor of the British defense, the units halted their advance. The soldiers either prepared for the next day's battle or hurried to get some rest. On the morning of January 3, the combat would resume with even greater intensity.

Corporal Obama was jolted awake by heavy artillery fire. He scrambled out of his cold sand hollow and looked around to see a flurry of activity. Squad Leader Liu Zhaoji spotted him and immediately told him to get some food.

A long queue had formed near the field kitchen. Soldiers could choose from three meal sets. Although Obama had heard his family might be Muslim, he still chose his favorite: a *Jianbing Guozi* (savory crepe) set with extra eggs and ham. He added a large portion of pumpkin millet porridge, topped with a generous spoonful of sugar.

Still unsatisfied, he went back for two *Caijiao*—fried vegetable pockets. He loved the taste of the vermicelli, minced pork, and chives inside. After setting his portion down, he went to a large barrel of Chinese pickles and grabbed two large chopsticks-full of shredded mustard greens, then sat on the ground and began to feast.

His comrades were also eating heartily; once they entered the battlefield, there would be no time for such a relaxed meal.

As Obama ate with gusto, he pondered how he would handle his engineering duties during the day. The reason his engineer platoon had been spotted the previous night was that the British minefields were interspersed with German anti-tank mines.

The Italian mines were merely "clever," their wooden casings accidentally hindering the effectiveness of magnetic scanners. But German mines were truly high-tech.

The German pressure-triggered mines were of such high quality that once the fuse was set, the casing was completely sealed and nearly impossible to dismantle. They would trigger under the slightest required pressure. They couldn't be disarmed from the edges or the bottom, and the top was too sensitive; they had to be carefully unearthed and moved elsewhere to be detonated, as they couldn't be disarmed in place.

As he finished his *Caijiao*, Obama pulled open his camouflage jacket to check the strap on his chest. There weren't many paperclips left. He had used too many in the previous sweeps. Obama gulped down the last of his sweet pumpkin porridge, grabbed his *Jianbing*, and hurried to the logistics point, where he asked a Black comrade for a box of paperclips.

He shook the small cardboard box, the rattling sound inside bringing him a sense of peace. Even a German pressure mine wouldn't explode from a paperclip touching its surface.

On January 3, the battle raged on. Despite the WPLA’s rocket barrages, the British command did not panic. Instead, they ordered heavy guns in pre-constructed, concealed positions to return fire fiercely. At the same time, British units followed their comprehensive defense plans, engaging in a head-to-head duel with the 11th Army’s technical branches.

After analyzing reports from British intelligence assets embedded within the WPLA, the British command concluded that the newly arrived 11th Army was a unit favored by the "Chinese faction." If they could defeat it, they could deal a heavy blow to the prestige of the Chinese military within the WPLA, potentially further inflaming internal conflicts.

British intelligence had initially sought to suborn white volunteers within the WPLA, only to be rebuffed repeatedly, losing several agents in the process.

However, by chance, they discovered that many white volunteers from humble backgrounds held a deep admiration for the "freedom and rule of law" typically associated only with the European upper classes, and they maintained this stance firmly.

Originally, British intelligence had intended to exploit personal grievances to incite infighting. To their surprise, a conflict did indeed break out, but its focus was not personal revenge. Instead, it centered on whether the WPLA should be built into a strong, highly disciplined organization, sparking an ideological clash between the "Democrats" and the "Republicans."

In Europe, "Democracy" was not a positive political term. In European politics, democracy was synonymous with "mob rule," chaos, and slaughter.

Classic examples of democracy in European eyes included the Athenian citizens voting to kill Socrates, and in the modern era, the French Revolution, where citizen representatives voted to send Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette to the guillotine, allowing groups of knitting women to decide which aristocrats should hang from the lampposts.

Currently, the Soviet Union firmly claimed to be a democratic state, yet it had built Stalin’s reign of terror, sweeping away the old Tsarist elite and establishing a new state ruled by workers and peasants.

Another example was Nazi Germany, a fanatically anti-communist regime that had used democratic systems to propel the commoner Hitler and a group of Nazis without "von" in their names to the pinnacle of German power.

Thus, when the Pétain government was established, it declared with satisfaction: "I may not have defeated Germany, but I have defeated democracy!"

Anything "democratic" was viewed as inherently evil by European conservatives.

In contrast, while He Rui’s government also spoke of democracy, institutionally, China was a standard Republic. The difference between a republic and a democracy was that while democracy relied on the ballot box, a republic relied on an institutionalized selection process. All power-holders underwent layers of screening and testing, obtaining power only after passing these institutional hurdles.

Every member of He Rui’s government had gained power this way, including He Rui himself. While this power did not stem from bloodline, the exceptional education and resumes of these individuals commanded the respect of even the British elite.

Consequently, the strength of the democratic leanings within the WPLA surprised British intelligence and brought them great joy. The British leadership placed immense value on this opportunity, releasing radical democrats from within Britain whom they had previously been unwilling to let go, allowing them to join the WPLA.

These democrats believed they had escaped Britain through their own strength or the help of their comrades. They had no idea that the greatest force supporting them was the British government.

The British believed that if the "Democratic" faction within the WPLA could overwhelm the "Republican" faction, British victory in Africa would be assured.