On November 24, 1950, the 359th Regiment of the 120th Division of the 40th Army of the Volunteer Army received orders to forcibly cross the Cheongcheon River the next day. After receiving the order, no one spoke, because everyone knew the difficulty of this task, and it was not an exaggeration to say that it was an impossible task, at least so far, no army had been able to cross the river under such conditions.
[Crossing the river in ice water is the norm for volunteers]
On the morning of that very day, MacArthur announced to the world that the Coalition would launch a final general offensive, push the front to the Yalu River within four days, and end the war by Christmas. To this end, Mr. Peng ordered the 38th Army and the 42nd Army to take the lead in attacking the American troops in Tokugawa and Ningyuan, and the 40th Army was responsible for blocking enemy reinforcements and ensuring the safety of the right wing of the 38th Army and the 42nd Army.
After receiving the order, the 120th Division of the 40th Army quickly drove to the west of the Cheongcheon River, and at the same time ordered the 359th Regiment to prepare to cross the Cheongcheon River at Yongwon-dong and plunge directly into Yulongpu to block the enemy reinforcements in the direction of the stadium. This is an almost impossible task for any force.
The Cheongcheon River in Yongyeon-dong is about 200 meters wide, and there is not a single bridge on the river. Due to the rapid water of the river, although the temperature has dropped to minus 25 degrees, the river surface has not frozen, only some thin ice near the two banks of the river, which shatters as soon as it is stepped on, and can not stand at all, which means that the soldiers can only wade across the river. What is even more fatal is that there is still an infantry battalion and an artillery battalion of the US army on the other side of the river, and if it is discovered by the enemy halfway through, the consequences will be even more unimaginable, and the difficulty of this task is truly unprecedented. Therefore, after receiving the order, no one spoke at the regimental headquarters for a while, and the atmosphere seemed somewhat dull.
At this moment, Deputy Division Commander Huang Guozhong came to the regimental headquarters, and when he saw this scene, his heart suddenly understood. Huang Guozhong, who was originally the commander of the 359 regiment, immediately cheered up the group: "Old comrades-in-arms, the task is very arduous, how is it?" You have to work hard, the whole army is looking at us grinning, I will rush to the front of you! Hearing him say this, the regimental commander immediately expressed his position: "Old regiment leader, our 359 regiment has no breed and resolutely completes the task." ”
At 20:00 on the evening of the 25th, the 359th Regiment arrived at the riverside, at this time the soldiers experienced a 10-kilometer rapid march, and on the road they also annihilated an enemy that was blocking the way, the soldiers were sweating profusely, their heads were steaming, but time did not allow them to rest, and everyone jumped into the cold and bone-chilling river water one by one and rushed to the opposite side. The steaming body plunged into the cold river water, and his body hurt like a pinprick, and soon someone fell into the river water because of cramps, and the warrior next to him pulled him up and helped him walk towards the heart of the river.
Cotton clothes, cotton pants, cotton shoes became heavy and abnormal because they were full of water, and the legs seemed to be tied with lead blocks and could not be moved, coupled with the uneven height of the pebbles at the bottom of the river, the soldiers' movements became very slow. From time to time, people fell down because they had lost their center of gravity or lost consciousness on their legs, and some were quickly pulled up by their comrades nearby, and some never got up again.
At the front of the line was Deputy Division Commander Huang Guozhong, followed by Zhang Fengyu, commander of the 3rd Battalion. When he reached the heart of the river, the water had flooded to his chest, but Huang Guozhong was short, and the water had reached his chin. Suddenly his feet slipped, and the whole person was planted in the water, fortunately, the guards were quick in the eyes, and pulled him aside, but the cold and bone-chilling river water still choked into the trachea, in order not to be discovered by the enemy, he had to endure and did not dare to cough until his face was held purple.
The harsh environment also paralyzed the U.S. troops, and they never dreamed that the volunteers would wade through the bone-chilling waters across the river, so they did not pay any attention to the movement along the river. Until the frontmost volunteers approached the other side of the river and accidentally stepped on the thin ice, the noise finally woke up the American troops. A flare of illumination took off, instantly illuminating the river as if it were daylight, machine gun bullets and tank guns swept over, and from time to time people were shot and fell, while the rest of the people did not say a word, only struggling to move their bodies in the river water.
Deputy Division Commander Huang Guozhong finally came ashore, and everyone quickly rushed to the cliff on the shore and ambushed next to a railway. The cotton clothes and cotton pants and shoes that were full of water were blown by the cold wind and immediately froze into an ice tube, as if a thick armor wrapped a person inside. The warriors' knees could not be bent, and some of them were anxious to roll on the ground. Platoon leader Yan Zhencheng jumped off the cliff, took advantage of the situation to crouch on the ground, broke the ice armor at the knee, and finally resumed his action. Seeing that this method worked, everyone followed suit, and then the sound of cars came from the side of the road.
It turned out that more than a dozen trucks carrying American troops had come, and the fighters immediately occupied the favorable terrain to prepare for battle, but the problem came again: many gun bolts were frozen and could not be opened. Seeing that the enemy was about to enter the position, Zhang Fengyu shouted: "Fight with the enemy with the bayonet", and the soldiers rushed up with their guns. The soldier Ding Sanyang's bayonet was also frozen in the sheath and could not be pulled out, and he held a rifle without a bayonet and fought with the American army. He knocked a U.S. soldier to the ground, stepped on the other's chest, the muzzle of the black hole hole pointed at the other's head, and the American soldier reached out and touched his cotton pants wrapped in thick "ice armor", and with a look of awe on his face, he immediately gave up the struggle and raised his hands. Ding Sanyang was relieved, because his gun bolt could not be opened.
The battle at the beachhead was over, killing and wounding more than 300 AMERICAN troops, and many of them had heat on their heads, and they unzipped their cotton coats to cool down, and Huang Guozhong hurried to stop it: The weather is so cold that it is evil, don't take off your cotton clothes casually, pay attention to keep warm, you are still young, especially to protect the guys who have passed down the generations. Morale grew higher and higher amid the laughter of the soldiers, and the warriors attacked the 363 heights behind them with a single blow, and only then could everyone really take a break.