In the second stage of the Fifth Campaign to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea, for all the commanders and fighters of the 180th Division, it will always be a lingering pain in their hearts. After the war, around the 180th Division, whether to withdraw the number or rebuild, the shiji leaders at that time had a great disagreement on this.
In the end, Peng Zong, who was furious, quickly calmed down and decided to rebuild the 180th Division to revitalize the army. To this end, Zhisi assigned Li Zhongxuan, deputy commander of the 44th Division of the main force of the 15th Army, and Yuan Benhui, director of the Political Department of the 60th Army, to serve as acting division commander and director of the political department of the 180th Division, which had been withdrawn to the rear for reorganization, respectively, and together with Wang Zhenbang, the only remaining chief of staff in the leadership of the division, they formed a new division leadership team. At the same time, the Central Military Commission dispatched three basic cadre regiments from Sichuan to supplement the 180th Division, which had already suffered most of the losses in the war, and demanded that the new leading body should go all out to grasp the work of "rectification and rectification" and make sure that the troops come out of the shadow of defeat.
Li Zhongxuan, the regimental commander who had been praised by Chen Geng as the "First Meritorious Regiment for Crossing the River", in the first stage of the Fifth Campaign, as the deputy commander of the 44th Division of the 15th Army, he commanded the 44th Division side by side with the division commander Xiang Shouzhi, and successively annihilated most of the regiment of the US 3rd Division, and won the first battle.
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In the Battle of crossing the river, Li Zhongxuan, the commander of the "First Meritorious Regiment", who was hit in the nose by the enemy and still insisted on commanding the operation
This time, Shiji named him to preside over the overall work of the 180th Division, and Li Zhongxuan knew that his responsibility was heavy. To this end, he united with Wang Zhenbang and Yuan Benhui, two military and political assistants, and while vigorously rectifying the thinking and work style of the commanders and fighters of the whole division, he also comprehensively trained and improved the combat skills and tactical qualities of the commanders and fighters. After more than a year of unremitting efforts, the mental outlook of all the commanders and fighters of the 180th Division has been renewed, and the ideas of "shame for the 180th Division" and "fighting a good turnaround battle for the 180th Division" have penetrated deeply into the hearts of every commander and fighter in the whole division.
In the autumn of 1952, after the division leaders repeatedly requested Shiji, and moved by the snowflake-like petitions of the vast number of commanders and fighters of the whole division, the shiji leaders finally agreed to the request of the 180th Division to return to the front line of battle.
Unfortunately, at this time, during the armistice negotiations, the situation of talking about fighting and fighting and talking was intertwined, so that the 60th Army, which was on the defensive task of defending the front line from Moondeng-ri to Bac Giang on the eastern front of Korea, was always in a war situation of a small counterattack war. During this period, although the 180th Division continued to win small victories, the division's eagerness to fight a big battle and turn around the urgent desire to turn around could never be realized.
In May of the following year, faced with the fact that Syngman Rhee's government was doing everything in its power to sabotage the Korean armistice negotiations, Shiji issued orders for a summer counterattack mainly against the South Korean army.
△ In 1953, during the summer counterattack operation of the Volunteer Army, the commanders and fighters of the 60th Army were studying the operation
In the direction of Square Hill, the 179th Division and the 181st Division of the 60th Army successively seized the 902.8, 973, and 883.7 heights held by the heavy troops of the 5th Division of the South Korean Army, creating the greatest record of annihilating most of the enemy's 1 regiment in the strong position since the first volunteer defense operation, and won the commendation of The Zhiji Bulletin.
Seeing the successive victories of the fraternal units, all the commanders and fighters of the 180th Division were anxious. At this time, a preliminary agreement had been reached in the Korean armistice negotiations, and the war could stop at any time. The 949.2 height opposite the defensive position of the 180th Division is the enemy's main defensive position, and the fortifications are strong and powerful, but here the enemy has been temporarily isolated and helpless because its peripheral positions have been captured by the 179th Division and the 181st Division of the 60th Army at this time.
However, Shiji considered many unfavorable factors such as the enemy's refusal to defend and the fortifications here, so this time was considered in the consideration of fighting or not fighting.
Seeing that the fighter plane was about to be lost, all the commanders and fighters of the 180th Division were really anxious at this time, and the depressed emotions that had been suppressed for 2 years finally broke out. Grassroots cadres and fighters' letters of request for battle, letters of determination, and even "blood letters" of blood Mingzhi, are reported from squads and platoons to the next level like snowflakes. The battalion and regiment cadres even ran to the division headquarters like marquees, demanding a rapid attack on the 949.2 heights, which was a shame for the 180th Division.
△ Li Zhongxuan on the battlefield of the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea
At this time, Wang Zhenbang, chief of staff of the division, finally couldn't bear it. The only remaining division leader of the 180th Division also shouted directly at the division commander Li Zhongxuan: "If this battle is not fought again, I will have no face to see the brothers of the 180th Division, and in the future, our division will never have the opportunity to turn around in the Korean battlefield." Speaking of this, this steely man actually cried bitterly in front of Li Zhongxuan and other people.
Seeing the painful scene of Wang Zhenbang's chief of staff, Li Zhongxuan was also in a hurry to attack his heart. I didn't want to fight, when I was hand-picked by Shiji to work in the 180th Division, I came with a lot of mental pressure and ideological baggage. For this reason, he left the 144th Division, an old unit that he had been sincerely for many years, left the old leaders such as Qin Jiwei, Gu Jingsheng, and Xiang Shouzhi, who had promoted him well, and left his comrades-in-arms who were familiar with each other. In the nearly two years of work of the 180th Division, Li Zhongxuan was well aware of the grievances and dissatisfaction in the hearts of the cadres and soldiers of the whole division.
Prior to this, he had repeatedly asked Zhang Zuyu, the new commander of the 60th Army, for battle, expressing the eagerness of all the commanders and fighters of the 180th Division to turn around in battle, but because Shiji ordered the 60th Army to wait, the battle orders had not been issued.
Now that the fighter plane was about to be lost, Li Zhongxuan, together with Wang Zhenbang, once again went to the military headquarters to ask the commander Zhang Zu for forgiveness. Zhang Zuyu, who had been on horseback for half a year, looked at Li Zhongxuan and Wang Zhenbang, who were in a hurry and sweating heavily, and understood their feelings at this moment very well, so he picked up the phone and specially explained to Zheng Weishan, commander of the 20th Corps, all the commanders and fighters of the 180th Division, their determination to fight this battle well and the specific arrangements for the enemy's strong fortifications.
In the picture, Zheng Weishan, holding a telephone in his hand, is studying the operational deployment with Yang Dezhi, commander of the 19th Corps
Zheng Weishan, from the time he came to Korea as deputy commander of the 19th Corps, from the fourth campaign offensive battle to the current defensive battle of the position, the whole army is known for his strange strategy and good fighting. After Yang Chengwu, commander of the 20th Corps, returned to China to recuperate due to illness, Zheng Weishan, a tiger general who had been very optimistic about Xu Xiangqian during the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression and strongly recommended to Nie Rongzhen, was transferred to the acting commander of the 20th Corps by General Peng because of his outstanding performance in the Korean battlefield.
Although at this time Zheng Weishan had just arrived at the 20th Corps and had just taken office, and the 60th Was also temporarily assigned to the 20th Corps to defend the eastern front position, in the face of the 60th Army's request for battle report and the impatient revenge of the 180th Division, Zheng Weishan, in addition to being moved, had a clear understanding of the terrain and landform of the Korean battlefield, or calmly ordered the 180th Division to formulate a practical and feasible combat plan against the enemy in front of him, and to fight hard and impatiently.
Zhang Zuyu judged from Zheng Weishan's commanding tone that there were still battles that could be fought or not, so he instructed Li Zhongxuan and Wang Zhenbang to return to the division as soon as possible, and warned the whole division to overcome impatience, quickly follow the enemy's defensive deployment, and in line with the principle of avoiding excessive casualties, formulate a thorough and detailed battle plan to report to the Zhi division, so that the army and the corps could report to the Zhi Division and promote the Zhi Division to issue battle orders with practical actions.
Zhang Zuyu, commander of the 60th Army, who was commanding the operation
When Li Zhongxuan and Wang Zhenbang heard the commander's order, they happily rushed back to the division. They concentrated on transforming the terrain according to the defects of deep ditches and open areas between the positions they were in and the enemy's defensive positions, which were inconvenient for the movement of troops. In order to shorten the distance between the enemy, maintain physical strength, and reduce casualties, the 180th Division hastily repaired a 125-meter-long forward tunnel leading to the square mountain. Three temporary tunnels were constructed on the enemy's front. In order to achieve the suddenness of the battle, it was specially planned to deploy 3 companies on the flanks of the enemy position, and to infiltrate the pine forest west of the 949.2 highland the day before the attack was launched, in order to cooperate with the main attack force to launch a surprise attack.
When the 180th Division reported this practical battle plan to the army, the commander Zhang Zuyu agreed with their plan. Therefore, the army reported the battle plans of the 180th Division to the Corps and Shiji respectively. After half a day of anxious waiting, the 60th Army received the battle order from Shiji forwarded by the corps and agreed to launch the operation immediately.
When Zhang Zuyu informed Li Zhongxuan of this xixun on the phone, the headquarters of the 180th Division cheered. On the phone, Li Zhongxuan learned that in order to support them in this turnaround battle, Commander Zhang Zuyu decided that after the battle of the 180th Division broke out, the 181st Division would send 2 companies directly behind the enemy to blow up the bridge on the North Han River near the Sammu Valley and cut off the enemy's retreat; the 179th Division also sent 4 companies to expand the results of the enemy's 586.1 heights and 706 highlands; at the same time, the 33rd Division attacked the 1089.6 heights with 3 companies to meet the 180th Division.
Listening to the commander fight this battle for the 180th Division on the phone, and specially mobilizing the brother divisions to cooperate with their detailed deployment of the battle, Li Zhongxuan on the other end of the phone could not help but burst into tears, and he choked up and assured Zhang Zuyu on the phone: ""
Never fail to live up to the high expectations of the commander, the 180th Division will definitely fight this battle! ”
Putting down the phone, Li Zhongxuan made advance arrangements, and the division leaders went down to each regiment to organize the battle.
On June 14, 1953, the latent troops of the 180th Division entered the lurking area, and the forward attack forces also entered the advance tunnels dug in advance on time. At about 8 p.m. that night, a signal bomb took off, and the artillery of the 180th Division and 108 guns with attached artillery roared in unison. After 15 minutes of fire preparation, the enemy positions on Square Hill have been destroyed by 60%. At this time, the 180th Division attacked the enemy's 9 points at the same time in 9 routes, and divided the defense forces of the 5th Division of the South Korean Army into several sections, so that they could not take care of each other.
After a night of fierce fighting, the 180th Division, with the cooperation of fraternal troops, annihilated one and a half battalions of the enemy, and in the ensuing pursuit battle, captured more than 250 enemy personnel, captured more than 50 artillery pieces of various kinds, more than 700 guns, and 60 vehicles, resulting in countless drowning of the enemy fleeing south due to water.
South Korean troops captured by the 180th Division in the Battle of Square Hill
When the news of the victory of the 180th Division reached the 60th Army, the commander Zhang Zuyu and other leaders of the army jointly sent a congratulatory message:
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All commanders of the 180th Division, congratulations on your victory. With a heroic and tenacious fighting style and a resourceful and flexible command, you captured another main position of the enemy army, the 942.2 heights, in one fell swoop, and took advantage of the victory to pursue, pushing the battle line to the water hole and sun Youmu's line, and the good news came and the whole army was excited. Your bravery and tenacity in fighting and your mission have been accomplished, which is your glory and the glory of the whole army.
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For the victory of the 180th Division, the 20th Corps sent a commendation telegram to the 180th Division, encouraging them to continue their efforts. After the 3rd Corps learned the news of the victory of the 180th Division, commander Xu Shiyou, who was quick to speak, sent them a congratulatory message, saying"
The 180th Division fought well and fought a timely rain-like turnaround battle. ”
In the face of the praise and praise of the superior leaders, all the commanders and fighters of the 180th Division wept bitterly. It has been 2 years, the Battle of Square Mountain, let them avenge the sacrifice and captured comrades- and shame for the 180th Division, and now they can finally raise their eyebrows and breathe again.