In December 1950, the Volunteers adopted a bold tactic in the second campaign: to lure the indomitable "United Nations Army" into our army's elaborate "pocket array".
In order to make it impossible for the enemy to escape, the key lies in whether we can firmly tighten the mouth of the "pocket array" and achieve the effect of "closing the door and hitting the dog".
The unit carrying out this arduous task is the famous 113rd Division of the Thirty-eighth Army.
In the face of the meticulous setup of the volunteer army, the US military, as the absolute main force of the "United Nations Army," really won the plan. As the war progressed, they gradually realized that the situation was not good, and began to pull down and flee south.
Of course, it was not so easy for the enemy to escape, and the 113rd Division immediately pursued it according to the established deployment.
The U.S. military has sophisticated mechanized equipment, sitting in tanks and cars, and is certainly much faster than walking on two legs.
In the face of such an unfavorable situation, the instructions given to the troops by the commanders of the volunteer army had only three points: one was to speed up, the second was to speed up, and the third was to speed up!
Following this instruction, the volunteers, with their belief in victory and astonishing perseverance, struggled to penetrate and pursued at full speed.
What was unbelievable was that the soldiers of the 113rd Division, who could only rely on two legs to hurry, actually ran to the front of the enemy's car.
After marching for more than 260 miles, the force finally reached the vicinity of Sansho-ri on time at 7 p.m. on November 28, blocking the American troops to the north.
That is to say, the 113rd Division did not fail in its mission and completed the arduous task of intercepting the enemy and tightening the "pocket" as scheduled.
This tired division of continuous marching and fighting urgently needed to rest, but at this moment, they received a new task from the commander Liang Xingchu: to dispatch a regiment of troops, immediately set off in full gear, rush ahead of the enemy, rush to Longyuanli, northwest of Sansholi, and completely cut off the enemy's route of fleeing south!
The 337th Regiment of the 113rd Division became Liang Xingchu's designated pursuing force, and they acted quickly, finally reaching the designated area at 4 a.m. on November 29.
After only 10 minutes, the enemy's vanguard appeared, but it was too late, and their way was already blocked by the 337th Regiment.
A blockade battle was thus fought, and the soldiers of the 337th Regiment, despite fatigue, hunger and cold, threw themselves into battle with full fighting spirit, caught the enemy's vanguard troops by surprise, and cleanly eliminated them.
The U.S. Twenty-fifth Division, the Second Division, the Turkish Brigade, and the ROK First Division realized that they had been divided and surrounded by volunteers and became turtles in an urn.
Of course, the enemy was not willing to be caught with his hands tied, and launched a fierce attack, in a vain attempt to open a breakthrough from the Dragon Source and continue to flee south.
The U.S. Second Division took the lead in attacking the 337th Regiment and The First Battalion, which was holding the left wing position of the Volunteer Army. However, under the stubborn counterattack of the commanders and fighters of the first and third battalions, more than a dozen of their group charges were fruitless.
The U.S. Twenty-fifth Division, which had escaped from the north, saw that the U.S. Second Division could not be attacked for a long time, and also joined the battle, launching a frenzied attack on the positions of the three battalions of the 337th Regiment. The two sides were caught in a fierce battle, and the fight was very fierce.
Although the distance between the two American forces was less than a kilometer, they were each blocked by the volunteers, and there was always no way to meet together.
The US army had no choice but to change its style of play, transfer most of its troops to the right wing position of the volunteer army, and dispatch heavy weapons and equipment such as tanks and armored vehicles to carry out a fierce attack in an attempt to break out of the encirclement of the volunteer army.
At that time, the personnel of the second battalion of the 337th Regiment and some of the regiment's direct subordinate units were holding the right wing position, and they were undoubtedly under tremendous pressure in the face of the enemy's desperate and wild attack.
Particularly troublesome was the severe lack of weapons against enemy tanks and armored vehicles, such as blasters and anti-tank grenades, so the fighting was extremely difficult and the casualties of the soldiers were increasing.
At this time, it is particularly necessary for commanders to stabilize the morale of the army and hold their positions with a cool head and effective countermeasures.
However, the commander of the second battalion was not like the vast majority of battalion-level cadres of the Volunteer Army, who had rich practical combat experience, but a cadre from a student background. Although he had read many military works, he was still at the theoretical level, and he was at a loss in the face of the sudden onslaught of the US military.
In this situation, the right wing position of the Volunteer Army fell into an extremely critical situation, and if effective measures could not be taken immediately, the position would immediately fall into the hands of the enemy!
At this moment, Wang Shurui, director of the political (administrative) office of the 337th Regiment, stepped forward and took the initiative to take on the heavy responsibility of commanding the entire battalion to fight back heroically.
Wang Shurui's strength is that he has a strong ability to work in politics (and governance) and is rarely directly responsible for military command, but he understands that at this critical juncture, he must stand up and take over the command.
To this end, he first organized all the personnel of the regimental organs who could participate in the battle, and replenished them to the weakly guarded areas of the position to stabilize the defensive line of our army.
Immediately afterward, he called the second battalion commander over, helped him find a way to deal with the enemy's onslaught with concise and powerful words, and at the same time gave him psychological support and guidance, so that the second battalion commander quickly stabilized his mood and focused on the battle.
Under the command of Wang Shurui, the morale of all the commanders and fighters in the position was greatly boosted, and they burst out of their extremely strong fighting spirit; at the same time, they made full use of the terrain and features, concentrated their forces on blowing up the enemy's tanks and armored vehicles rushing in the front, blocked the enemy's offensive route, and plunged them into chaotic warfare.
The situation of the battle was reversed, and the volunteer soldiers became more and more courageous, repelled all the enemy's next three charges, firmly held the position of Longyuanli, and made an important contribution to the victory of the whole army in the second battle.
At that time, Margaret Kings, a reporter for the British "New York Herald Tribune", was serving as a reporter accompanying the army on the Korean battlefield, and after learning about the course of this battle, she lamented in the article: The US military dispatched heavy troops with mechanized equipment to launch a continuous onslaught on the volunteer army, and it was impossible to cross the defense line of a battalion of the volunteer army, which was undoubtedly a shameful record for the US army that was blind to everything.
The 337th Regiment performed very well in the longyuan attack, and was commended by the general order of the division headquarters, the military headquarters and even the headquarters of the volunteer army, and Wang Shurui's practice of stepping forward at a critical moment to take over the command was also highly praised by the chiefs, and was praised as "capable of writing and martial arts, and both military and political superiority."