November 25, 1950, dusk.
The crucial second battle in the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea is about to begin. It is worth noting that in the telegram between Beijing and Shiji (Volunteer Army Headquarters) before the war, the chairman repeatedly mentioned a city, Tokugawa.
Tokugawa's northern border with North Heian Province, the mountains to the east and west, and the Daido River flowing through to form the Tokugawa Basin are strategic points in the northern part of the peninsula. Capturing this place would be tantamount to tearing apart the right flank of the U.S. coalition forces on the Western Front and opening up the battle gap. To this end, the chairman asked General Peng to use the 38th and 42nd armies to occupy Tokugawa as quickly as possible, so that not only could the connection between the eastern and western fronts of the coalition army be completely severed, but also this gap could be used to cut across the rear of the main force of the coalition western front and the 8th Group Army, so as to achieve a large encirclement of the enemy's entire western front troops.
Map of the battlefield situation on the Western Front of the Second Campaign
(1) Liang Xingchu issued a military order: I don't need reinforcements, and the Tokugawa 38th Army is round!
The plan was decided, and General Peng immediately prepared to leave, personally commanding the 38th and 42nd Armies to attack Tokugawa. But his actions were strongly opposed by the Shiji personnel: the number one of the volunteers came to the front line, in case of an accident, what would the army do?
After a long debate, it was finally decided at a meeting that deputy commander Han Xianchu, on behalf of Shiji and Peng Zong, went to the front to command the attack on Tokugawa. Before leaving, Mr. Peng specially confessed: "The battle must be fast, we must accept the lessons of the last battle, make a decision when the situation occurs, and then the mother-in-law hesitates, don't blame me for not being polite!" ”
The lesson peng said was that in the first battle, the 38th Army did not penetrate in place on time due to concerns about the enemy situation, resulting in the escape of most of the main force of the US 8th Army. For this reason, the commander of the army, Liang Xingchu, was scolded by General Peng, and also made the 38th Army up and down hold their breath. In order to fight this battle well, Liang Xingchu looked at the map and remembered the topography of the area attacked by the 38th Army, and the officers and men of the whole army were also full of energy, and everyone asked for battle and had a high morale. When he saw Han Xianchu, who had come to supervise the battle, Liang Xingchu opened his mouth and said, "I don't need reinforcements, let the 42nd Army go where to go, Tokugawa, my 38th Army is round!" ”
The three generals of the 38th Army: Liang Xingchu (left), Jiang Yonghui (center), and Liu Xiyuan
Such a big breath! Looking at the fierce general who was born in iron in front of him, Han Xianchu knew that his words must be done. However, for the sake of safety, he still decided to provoke the general: "Liang Daya, General Peng said, it is not polite to have another problem, and there is no joke in the army." "We set up a military order, began to attack on the 25th, and defeated Tokugawa on the 26th."
Han Xianchu reported to General Peng that if the 38th Army could really attack Tokugawa alone, it could just use the 42nd Army to attack Ningyuan, so that at another point, it could tear open a hole in the right wing of the Western Front Coalition army from the periphery, and the 38th Army would carry out a double encirclement of the enemy from the inside and the 42nd Army from the outside.
Mr. Peng was happy in his heart, and it seemed that Liang Xingchu was really energetic. Or just to see if the 38th Army can fight a beautiful turnaround battle. "Tell Liang Daya, fight Tokugawa, not only to occupy the city, but also to annihilate the defending enemy, can I do it?"
"Mr. Peng is assured, the pseudo-7th Division (Tokugawa defenders) I am sure!"
(2) Wu Ruilin was furious: "Will Liang Daya fight?" ”
During the long revolutionary war, the commander of the 42nd Army, General Wu Ruilin, was wounded in one leg and could not be healed, causing him to walk with a limp, so he received a nickname. When the 42nd Army first entered Korea, it fought alone for 13 days at Huangcaoling and successfully completed the task of blocking the attack. However, fighting and blocking is not the specialty of the 42nd Army, and compared with the movement war, the resistance war consumes a lot and captures less, which makes Wu Ruilin, who never suffers losses in the war, very hot. Like Liang Xingchu, he also held his breath and was eager to show his hand in the next battle.
Originally, when he heard that he was going to serve as an assistant to the 38th Army to attack Tokugawa, Wu Ruilin was not happy. When Han Xianchu sent a new instruction, asking the 42nd Army to study like the 38th Army and strive to monopolize Ningyuan, Wu Ruilin couldn't help but angrily ask, "Will Liang Daya fight?" Please rest assured that his 38th Army will single-handedly attack the Tokugawa Pseudo-Seventh Division, and our 42nd Army will also single-handedly attack the Ningyuan Pseudo-Eighth Division. The matter of showing his face, he Liang Da Teeth don't think that one person occupies it all! ”
It seemed that the fighting spirit of the two generals under his hand was fully aroused, and Han Xianchu happily put down the phone. However, whether or not they can quickly occupy Tokugawa and Ningyuan, no one's heart is bottomless. However, Han Xianchu understood that the matter had come to an end, and he did not need to say anything more for the two troops that were already on the string.
(3) Rapid attack, the enemy of Tokugawa became a lone army
At dusk on the 25th, three divisions of the 38th Army launched an attack together.
At this time, the most uncomfortable thing was the 112th Division of the 38th Army. Before that, they had just completed the task of luring the enemy deeper, and in two days they had climbed seven or eight mountains in a row and walked north for more than two hundred miles. Now that the order has come, they will turn around and head south again, and then go over the mountains that have already been turned over, and the taste in the hearts of the officers and men can be imagined.
Military orders are like mountains, and no matter how tired they are, they must be overcome. Division commander Yang Dayi and political commissar Li Jitai cheered up the officers and men: "Climbing over a mountain is victory, and whoever crosses the mountain is the real warrior!" "The officers and men of the whole division acted quickly, I pushed you, you dragged me, gritted my teeth and crossed the mountain." However, after all, it was a tired division, and although the mountain was turned over, the number of troops was completely confused. By the time they reached a road to recuperate, they could not find even a battalion that remained intact.
However, this is a blessing in disguise. The enemy troops on the front of the 112th Division were equally confused: not only the troops of the Han 7th Division and the US 2nd Division, but also the Turkish Brigade. More crucially, the coalition forces had no understanding of the enemy situation and had no idea that the volunteers had pounced. When they saw the vanguard of the 112th Division coming from the road, they thought it was a friendly army that had come to support!
Deputy Division Commander Li Zhongxin saw that the enemy did not respond and immediately ordered fire. Suddenly, the sound of gunfire filled the valley. After a burst of popping beans, the coalition troops who were lying on the car resting suddenly turned on their backs. The 112th Division effortlessly destroyed an enemy battalion and an artillery company. Since they had to continue the rapid march, the prisoners could not be taken with them, so they simply bundled the ROK prisoners of war into rice dumplings and threw them into the ravine; the US advisers could not throw them, so they tied them to poles, and carried them two to carry them away.
At 5 o'clock on the 26th, the 112th Division captured Unsongli southwest of Theogawa, cutting off the retreat of the Han 7th Division in one fell swoop. The 113th Division also crossed the Datong River, cutting off the connection between the Han 7th Division and the Han 8th Division. In the first campaign, the 113th Division was the least performing well in the 38th Army. Therefore, the yangtze river tide of the division and the political commissar Yu Jingshan were under great pressure, and they each took a unit and always walked in the forefront. Each regiment drew out the most elite officers and men to form a reinforcement battalion as a forward, concentrated the entire regiment's bazookas and recoilless guns into this battalion, and when encountered the enemy's obstruction, they used the strongest offensive to crush the opponent with one impact, never dragging mud and water.
At 8 o'clock on the 26th, the 113th Division occupied the south of Theogawa, such as Shri Peak and Gedong, completely cutting off the contact between the Tokugawa defenders and the surrounding coalition forces, and the Han 7th Division became a lone army.
(4) Attacked Tokugawa, and the 38th Army settled the battle in one day
However, the 114th Division, which was responsible for a frontal attack on Tokugawa, was in trouble. On the way, the US reconnaissance plane found their tracks, so the Han 7th Division immediately bombarded the volunteers with long-range howitzers under the guidance of the US planes. Chang Jiang Yonghui, the deputy of the 114th Division, ordered the troops not to stop, so they directly rushed over to kill the enemy artillery. The 2nd Battalion of the 341st Regiment ran to the front of the line and was the first to see the enemy artillery positions. The 2nd Battalion moved immediately, one company hitting the command post, one company hitting the guard units, one company bombing the artillery, and it took only 15 minutes to settle the battle, capturing 50 cars and 11 artillery pieces. At 11 o'clock on the 26th, the 114th Division finally arrived at the predetermined position and, together with the 112th and 113th Divisions, completed the full encirclement of Tokugawa.
That is, on the morning of the 26th, the reconnaissance company of the 38th Army, under the guidance of the local masses, successfully blew up the Wuling Bridge, which was the only way for the Enemy of Tokugawa to retreat south. The Han 7th Division was unable to escape and was compressed into a small area of less than ten square kilometers.
Because the Allies had air superiority, the Volunteers always attacked at dusk and ended the battle before dawn to avoid enemy air fire. However, considering that the time was not waiting for anyone, Liang Xingchu and political commissar Liu Xiyuan, after consultation, decided to break the routine, attack in advance, meet the enemy at the fastest speed, and engage the enemy in close combat, which could also make the enemy fighters dare not attack for fear of accidentally injuring friendly troops. At about 15:00, after 10 minutes of artillery fire, three divisions of the 38th Army pounced on the Han 7th Division from all directions. The ROK army was severely attacked, and everyone did not know what to do, and they ran around in disorder, trampling on each other and killing and injuring countless people. The US plane rushed to pull the brothers together, but found that the enemy was already entangled, and did not dare to drop bombs and strafe, and after turning around a few times, they flew away helplessly.
As soon as the US plane left, the ROK army had no will to fight. Hou Zhengpei, instructor of the 5th Company of the 336th Regiment, led 17 officers and men to chase after more than 1,000 ROK troops and beat them fiercely, capturing more than 200 prisoners. The 8th Company of the 338th Regiment suddenly rushed into the bunkers of the American advisers. The officers and men had never seen the Americans, nor had the American troops inside seen Chinese, and the two sides were stunned for a moment, and then they fought hand-to-hand. Although the U.S. army was tall and powerful, it was obviously not the opponent of the volunteer army in this kind of white-knife battle, and none of the more than 30 people escaped the net, of which 8 were captured, including 1 colonel, 1 lieutenant colonel, and the rest were majors.
Captured U.S. military officer
At 19:00, Han Xianchu, accompanied by Liu Xiyuan, the military political commissar, entered Tokugawa Castle. The city was littered with the wreckage of cars, artillery, and armored vehicles, and all kinds of equipment and materials captured by the volunteers were piled up into 18 hills.
(5) Roundabout division, Wu Ruilin to stage a "good play"
The 38th Army won a great victory, and the 42nd Army was not idle. Wu Ruilin, who had vowed to compete with Liang Xingchu, and Zhou Biao, the military political commissar, decided to adopt the "good trick" that the 42nd Army was best at in the Liberation War, the method of roundabout division, and cut Ningyuan's Han 8th Division into several parts to eat: the 125th Division attacked head-on, the 126th Division cut off the enemy's retreat, and the 124th Division split the enemy in two with a knife in the middle.
However, it seemed that Cheng Xin and Wu Ruilin couldn't get by. The 124th and 126th Divisions were spotted by U.S. aircraft while marching, and were strafed and bombed by more than 20 enemy aircraft. In order to conceal, the troops delayed the march. It was not easy for the US plane to fly away, and I did not want to collide with several Korean troops that had gone the wrong way. As a result, by the evening of the 25th, only the 125th Division had entered the predetermined position.
Unable to wait, Wu Ruilin ignored the persuasion and limped up to a hill overlooking Ningyuan. He raised his telescope and saw that the town was in ruins. Inside, the Han 8th Division was busy loading things into the car, as if it were going to run. Wu Ruilin summoned Wang Daoquan, commander of the 125th Division: "Send a sharp knife battalion, first remove the command post and dig out their hearts!" ”
At the beginning of the attack, the regiments of the 125th Division were divided into two roads, and the regimental commander and political commissar each led the way and attacked together from two different directions, both to divide the enemy and not to let the enemy determine where the main direction of attack was. The 1st Battalion of the 374th Regiment, as wu Ruilin's sharp knife battalion to "dig the heart", was the first to rush into Ningyuan City. Deputy Battalion Commander Sun Xianshan rushed to the front with 3 companies, attacked a bunker under the cover of mortars, killed more than ten enemy soldiers, and captured two heavy machine guns.
American heavy machine guns captured by the Volunteers
Comrade Liu, the leader of the 2nd Platoon (Note: surname Comrade Liu Ming), was a well-known white-knife combat master in the whole regiment, and he stabbed two people in a row, but was quickly surrounded by three enemies. Comrade Liu was not in a hurry, he violently raised his foot and kicked down one person, and then threw the gun out and smashed down another person, and the remaining one person did not see what was happening, only to see Comrade Liu a carp rolling in front of him and throwing it down. The 3 companies attacked in a fierce attack, knocking down more than a dozen houses, including in a church, and they captured 17 American troops! These people came from the station of the 3rd Division of Yokogawa, and because there was no church in Yokogawa, they rushed to Ningyuan to worship. Only then did the volunteers understand that today was the Sunday that Lao Mei had said.
(6) The two military commanders reported each other the results of the battle, and Wu Ruilin asked Liang Xingchu to eat braised pork
Seeing that the 124th and 126th divisions had not yet arrived, Wu Ruilin was anxious and strictly ordered that if the two divisions missed the fighter, the division commander and political commissar would be punished. The 124th Division was blocked on the road by a Rok army at Zhongli Nanshan, and they wanted to rush forward, while the Rok army fled for their lives, and no one would give in. The volunteers did not even rush over several times, but the vanguard battalion was scattered by the Rok army. The division commander Su Ke was in a hurry, ordered the chief of staff Xiao Jianfei to personally command the impact, and concentrated 9 heavy machine guns to suppress the fire, and finally opened the passage. At 1 o'clock on the 26th, they finally arrived at the stone curtain of the predetermined position and eliminated a unit of the Han 21st Regiment and a machine gun company. The 126th Division was badly damaged in the previous Battle of Huangcaoling, especially most of its artillery was damaged or abandoned, and the attack was weak, and it was never able to break through the enemy's blockade, so that part of the Korean army in Ningyuan escaped.
In this way, in just one day, the 38th Army conquered Tokugawa, the 42nd Army conquered Ningyuan, most of the Han 7th and 8th divisions were annihilated, and the right wing of the coalition forces on the western front collapsed completely. Liang Xingchu, who was tired and collapsed in the command post, let out a long breath, and he called Wu Ruilin: "Old Wu, I heard that you took Ningyuan in one day, congratulations and congratulations!" ”
Wu Ruilin laughed loudly: "Where, where, you old Liang wrapped fake 7 division dumplings in Tokugawa, the harvest is not small, right?" ”
"No more, no more, 1748 enemy personnel were killed, 2878 prisoners were taken prisoner, and they were even bombed and surrendered, with a total of 156 large and small guns and 218 cars." Turn around and send you ten American howitzers, I'm afraid you old Wu won't be able to see it. ”
"It's no secret, this time we killed 1,031 enemies and captured 2,456 people, not as many as your brother, but we have collected more than 500 large cars, more than 100 cars of biscuits and cans alone, and several cars are loaded with whole pork, when the brother sends cannons, I invite you to eat braised pork!"
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