Type 56: Story of the SKS and AK-47 in China

Grenades of the PLA, pt. 1: Why Stick Grenades?

2x EXTENDED CUT: "How the PLA Started Lying to Itself in Vietnam"

How the PLA Lost Control in Vietnam (Patreon-only extended cut)

Patreon-Only Comments Section

Dearest Party apparatus,

I forgot to mention that, we have our own Patreon-only version of the recent video. (For the link, see my last post.)

That way, the Party can confer among ourselves in the comments, with full candor, and not confuse the masses ideologically. ...

Zhang Youxia--The Battle That Made Him (Patreon-Only)

My very dear PLAtrons,

By PLAtron request, I bring you [drumroll] ... the first part of our miniseries on Zhang Youxia!

Zhang Youxia — Episode 1

This begins a short mini-series on how the PLA became modern, told through the story of Zhang Youxia and the brutal Battle of Laoshan in 1984.

I’ll be releasing this episode to patrons on Sunday afternoon, ahead of its public release Sunday night. Thank you, as always, for making projects...

Special episode

Dear PLAtrons,

I’m working on a special episode about Zhang Youxia—the PLA general who’s in the headlines right now, and who fought in the Sino-Vietnamese War in 1984.

It’ll go up this weekend as a bridge between the current General Song episodes and the next phase of the war...

Very special mini-series begins now

Dearest PLAtrons,

You’re hearing this top-secret news first. By order of the Central Military Commission itself, I’m about to fire off a string of episodes faster than a burst from a Type 79 that goes spontaneously full auto.

Normally, I leave episodes here on Patreon for as long ...

Spetsnaz for a Day: Mission to Cao Bang With PLA Special Ops

Few people have jobs so cool that I'd trade places with them, but what if you could ride along for a day with "Chinese Delta Force?" On a top-secret mission that starts with a high-pucker-factor race down the Ho Chi Minh Memorial Sniper Highway into a ruined city that belongs to one army by day a...

Did the PLA Plan to Fail in Vietnam?

People can fail because they don’t plan. But sometimes people fail because they planned. When the PLA planned its war in Vietnam, many staff officers wondered whether they were crazy, or if their top commanders were dreaming. In hindsight, the answer was, “Maybe some of both...

Chinese Military Rank Titles: Why So Outlandish?

In the PLA, people seldom called each other by rank titles. Even superiors were mostly addressed as "boss" or "chief." Why not use ranks titles? Partly because they were so complicated. You'd require a virtual slide rule to calculate somebody's service, branch, grade, career track, and job duties...

How Did the PLA's Color Code Work?

In 1955, the PLA tried to copy something of the Soviet Army's organizational structure, with around 100 kinds of service branches. That was hard enough on the soldiers, but it challenged the quartermasters with another problem: How to tell everyone apart?! They had to distinguish the infantry gr...

China's Liberation Hat and Type 50 Uniforms

Chinese Communist soldiers were getting shot by friendly fire because they were dressed in different colors, so the PLA finally issued uniforms that were truly uniform.

And yet results were still mixed. Is it better to risk friendly fire? Or go postal because you're dressed like a ...

China's Deadliest Handgun--The Type 77 Pistol

Yes, China really did beat Glock! The PLA revived the subcompact striker-fired defensive pistol well over a decade before the Glock 26.

The haters said it couldn't be done! "A new kind of pistol, designed by a proletarian tinkerer with no engineering education?! Just a heart full of Mao Ze...

The Battle of Lonely Mountain: When Seventeen Men Saved an Army

In Vietnam, the PLA's 42 Corps gambled on a war plan that they knew was too advanced for them. Today we conclude their story, and Jason makes a discovery that blows the lid off his brain.

Yours,

Jason

The PLA’s Painful Learning Curve: How One Division Got Disgraced

In reality, Chinese commanders weren't punished for failure with orders to get themselves killed. Except for that one time in Phuc Hoa county...

This is the second of three episodes about the highs and lows of the PLA's 42 Corps during its insane campaign for Cao Bang, when they were ordere...

The Chinese Panzers of Dong Khe

When PLA tanks went to war for the first time since Korea, they were handed a mission that looked batsh**-crazy.

But "crazy" is not the same as "doomed," provided you have enough colonels and commissars ready to give their lives!

What Do Political Officers Do? Are They *Really* Force Multipliers?

By popular request! We needed a few months to set this up properly, but we're finally there!

Hunker down on your tiny PLA folding stool for your weekly political indoctrination lesson--this is going to better than the Selected Works of Chairman Mao!

Channel Update: Our Plan to Export the Revolutionary Conquest

A strategic update, straight from the Central Military Commission for Party eyes only.

We have our marching orders for 2026, and they'll take us from the radioactive waste zone of the Lop Nur testing grounds, by a 10,000km foot march in fungal Liberation sneakers, through Nationalist shell...

Why Political Officers Are (Mostly) Not "Commissars"

My dear PLAtrons,

"From gun barrels comes power," said the Chairman, so nothing is more important than "political work." Before I make a full-length episode on PLA political officers' duties and superpowers, I'm answering one question I'm asked often: "How come you say 'political officer' a...

How Did China Use Its Huge Militia Against Vietnam?

Dearest PLAtrons,

Getting called up and sent to Vietnam is one thing; but it's another to get sent without even a rifle! Yet somehow, China made it work!

Thank you as always for contributing so kindly to the channel. Because of you, I'm still getting political officer Mrs. 56...

Problem Set for "Battle of Hill 815" PLA Organizational Math Lesson

Education begins and ends with Mao Zedong Thought, but in between, socialist modernization requires some math.

Here is the problem set to accompany our primer on PLA unit math in our recent "Battle of Hill 815" episode.

The Longest Day: The Battle of Hill 815

Thanks to your support, PLAtrons, I managed to do some cool (to me) new battlemap graphics.

More than ever, the masses owe a debt of gratitude to you, the vanguard of the revolution, but propelling history forward through your zeal for class struggle!

Now Editing ... "The Battle of Hill 815!"

Brought to you by special request, following the episode about machine gunner Wang Zhijun's (mis)adventures on Hill 815, with the gracious help of Huy/Lustanda, our "Faithful Former VPA Militiaman" and veteran of this channel's Long March from the Jiangxi Soviet, whose father once defended the ve...

Type 81 Rifle: The Truth Is Even Cooler Than the Myth

Dear PLAtrons, this day has been a year in the making! We are finally doing the history of the "Eternal 81-Dash," in excruciating detail!

PLA Logistics When China Invaded Vietnam

You know the saying, PLAtrons: "Amateurs talk tactics, professionals talk logistics." So when the professionals double-checked the PLA's readiness to invade Vietnam, they put their chief logistician on the case, and he was horrified by what he found!

Execution By Gunshot in China (UNEXPURGATED) (Q&A #2)

Today's lesson is a real gut-bucket. PLAtron Eric asked, "Why would a country with chronic ammo shortages choose to execute people by gunshot?" The answer is part math and part Chinese literary circumlocution, and also sprayed with a volcano of blood from a botched execution, as a sort of chef's ...

Behind the Scenes of China's 2nd-Generation Automatic Rifle Program

Dear PLAtrons,

It's here! We are coming to the story of the Type 81 family! Put on your bibs and belly up to the table to eat your historical vegetables!

-Jason

Q&A #1: Where Are the Pictures of Chinese Cops With Nambus and Other Bizarre Guns?

Dear PLAtrons,

Your first, unexpected Q&A!

It just kind of happened, but I think we'll try this out as a perk of PLAtronship! After all, you are the vanguard of history, and "rank hath its privileges," even in (or especially in) the socialist camp!

Yours,

JTC...

Cowards, Commanders, and Casualties in the Sino-Vietnamese War

Dear PLAtrons,

When the PLA was ordered to war against Vietnam at the beginning of 1979, the tippy-top brass panicked with good reason. Their army’s readiness was in the toilet, and they lacked everything from food to vehicles. Though they had plenty of (fairly raw) basic riflemen, they s...