During the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea, Tieyuan in Korea was one of the important logistics bases of the Volunteer Army and was of great strategic significance. In late May 1951, after the end of the Fifth Campaign, all the units of the Volunteer Army had run out of ammunition and moved closer to The iron plains.
Of course, the commander of the US army, Ridgway, also understood the importance of Tieyuan, so he gathered more than 70,000 people, equipped with more than 1,000 heavy artillery and more than 1,000 tanks, and directly attacked Tieyuan with the support of a large number of aircraft.
In such a critical situation, General Peng ordered the Sixty-third Army, led by Fu Chongbi, to hold out in Tieyuan for 15 days at all costs.
At that time, the Sixty-third Army was the only completely formed unit near The Iron Plains, but the task of relying on this unit alone to fight against the Us army, which was absolutely superior in number of soldiers and weapons and equipment, could be imagined.
What is particularly difficult is that the Sixty-third Army must build a complete field fortification against the Us army, but it will take at least three days to complete this step, and the US army is coming at a very late hour.
Faced with such a dangerous situation, The commander Fu Chongbi gave the 189th Division a seemingly "impossible task" - no matter what the cost, he would also have to block the US army in front of the Iron Plains for three days!
You know, at that time, the 189th Division was only more than 9,400 people in full formation, one without heavy weapons, two without terrain advantages (the former Iron Plains were hilly areas), three without complete field fortifications, if you want to block 70,000 American troops for three days, it is tantamount to hitting a stone with a pebble!
Of course, division commander Cai Changyuan understood how arduous this task was, and if this blockade task was not completed well, not only would the 189th Division be completely wiped out, but it would also be possible to wipe out the entire Army of the Sixty-third Army, and even make the entire war situation take a sharp turn!
Incredibly, General Cai Changyuan, faced with such tremendous pressure, actually adopted a strange tactic that was counterintuitive -- "breaking up" the 189th Division!
Our army has always had the operational principle of "concentrating superior forces to fight a war of annihilation," but Cai Changyuan did the opposite, splitting the whole division into more than 200 small units, each with 30 to 40 people.
Subsequently, Cai Changyuan cut the entire battlefield with a front width of 20 kilometers and a depth of 25 kilometers into more than 200 positions, and sent a small force on each position.
That is to say, the 189th Division actually used the unheard of "Heavenly Daughter Scattered Flowers" formation to meet the invincible US army heavy equipment cluster!
This strange formation not only confused the US generals, but even many cadres under Cai Changyuan were puzzled, because this tactic completely subverted their understanding of military theory.
Everyone knows that an army must maximize its power, of course, to be combined into a whole, just like clenching its fists to make a strong force. Now that Master Cai has taken the initiative to break the whole division into pieces and split it into pieces, is it not "self-destructing martial arts"?
However, to everyone's surprise, this strange tactic adopted by Cai Changyuan actually had a miraculous effect.
Although the US army was menacing, when they faced the "Heavenly Girl Scattered Flowers" formation of the 189th Division, it was like a heavy punch on the cotton, and it was not easy to make it strong.
Although each position of the 189th Division was garrisoned by only a small force of thirty or forty men, which posed no threat to the Americans, the Americans could not ignore them and went straight to the Iron Plains.
The reason is that if the US military ignores these more than 200 small volunteer troops, it is equivalent to leaving them in its rear, which will pose a fatal threat to their logistics supplies and command organs, which is equivalent to leaving countless "time bombs" behind them!
Faced with such strange tactics, the US army was dumbfounded, and could only slow down the pace of advancing towards The Iron Plain, first removing more than 200 "nails" planted by the 189th Division.
Because the US military had an overwhelming superiority in strength and firepower, these more than 200 small volunteer troops were mentally prepared to all be wiped out. Without complaint, they accepted the mission, which had little chance of survival, and bravely faced the American troops.
In the face of the bombardment of thousands of US artillery pieces, the crushing of thousands of tanks, the indiscriminate bombardment of 2,000 aircraft per day, and the charge of tens of thousands of infantry, every officer and soldier of the volunteer army fought hard and never gave in!
One unit after another was exhausted, and one position after another was lost, but the commanders and fighters of the 189th Division, with their steely will and proud flesh and blood, bought enough time for the main forces of the Sixty-third Army to build a complete field fortification system, and played a decisive role in the final victory of the Tieyuan Blockade Battle.
The commanders and fighters of the 189th Division stubbornly held out for three days at the cost of blood and flesh. When they received the order to retreat from the military headquarters, fewer than 5,000 men remained.
Over the next 12 days, the 189th Division, together with other units of the Sixty-third Army, fought side by side in a hastily constructed field fortification, heroically resisting the frenzied rotational attacks of the four Divisions of the United States.
In this extremely fierce battle, the officers and men of the Sixty-third Army annihilated more than 15,000 enemy troops, smashed the conspiracy of the American army to quickly seize the Iron Plains, destroy the volunteer communication lines and rear bases, and won a victory in the history of the army.
The campaign also became a masterpiece of General Cai Changyuan's decades-long career as a major general, who was awarded the rank of major general in 1955 and the Order of the Red Star of the First Class by the Central Military Commission in 1988.