In the second campaign at the end of November 1950, after the 38th Volunteer Army captured Tokugawa, the commander Liang Xingchu (1955 lieutenant general) received a call from Han Xianchu (1955 general), commander of the 19th Corps, asking the 38th Army to quickly attack and advance towards Junyuli, and at the same time send a division to Sansholi to block the enemy's retreat and reinforcements.
After putting down the phone, Liang Xingchu frowned and tightened his brows.
He understood that the Battle of Tokugawa was only a small prologue, and the real battle was still to come.
Under the frontal attack of the four corps of our army, the three divisions of the US army are estimated to escape from the three institutes, and the thirty-eighth army sending a division to insert it into the three houses is a key chess piece and a dangerous move.
Whether or not it can be inserted into the three institutes on time has a bearing on whether or not several US divisions can be annihilated; and if it is inserted, it will suffer serious losses if it cannot be defended and forms a lone army to go deeper.
At that time, the three divisions of the US Army combined more than 300 tanks and more than 400 artillery pieces, while one division of the Volunteer Army had only a dozen mortars and some anti-tank grenades... The task is not too great!
According to Shiji's report, in order to plug the gap opened by the volunteers in the direction of Tokugawa, the enemy had sent two battalions of the 1st Cavalry Division of the US Army and the Turkish Brigade in an attempt to seize the Gazhi Ridge west of Tokugawa and prevent the main force of the Volunteer Army from advancing westward.
Even if the troops in the three institutes were able to make a detour and succeed, it would be difficult to support them without the cooperation of the main force. Therefore, it is necessary to seize the Gazhi Ridge first!
Liang Xingchu made up his mind: the 113rd Division immediately set out and inserted from the southwest of Tokugawa to Sansholi south of the Gakugawa River; the 112nd Division took the country lane along the Road from Tokugawa to Gakugawa and attacked from the north; and the 114th Division attacked along the Road from Tokugawa to Gagacheon and quickly attacked Gazhi ridge.
On the night of November 27, two jeeps sped away in the darkness of the night on the road from Tokugawa to Gagakawa. Liang Xingchu jolted in the jeep and urged the driver to accelerate from time to time.
The 114th Division was rushing to attack The Gazhi Ridge. However, Gari Ridge was only 60 miles away from Gazhichuan, and the enemy's mechanized troops moved quickly, while the 114th Division could only walk, and it was difficult to occupy Gaari Ridge before the enemy.
Under such circumstances, it seemed that the only way to capture The Gazhi Ridge was to attack it quickly.
Liang Xingchu was somewhat relieved, so he and political commissar Liu Xiyuan (a lieutenant general in 1955) drove to the headquarters of the 114th Division, which was only two kilometers away from the main peak of Gazhiling.
"What's going on? Did the enemy go up? Liang Xingchu pointed to the piles of reeds at the mouth of the mountain and asked the deputy Yang Yonghui (major general in 1955).
Jiang Yonghui had already descended from the army earlier to the 114th Division to personally command the battle.
He told Liang Xingchu: "According to the report of the sharp knife platoon, a reinforced company of the Turkish brigade has occupied the main peak of the Gazhiling Mountains, and the enemy is thinly dressed and is making a fire for warmth. ”
"Come, let's study how to do it well!" Liang Xingchu said to Zhai Zhongyu (colonel in 1955), commander of the 114th Division, and the regimental commander and political commissar of the Vanguard Regiment, "Is it by means of sneak attack?" ”
"Yes, sneak attacks are better." Wang Pili (Colonel 1955), political commissar of the 342nd Regiment, said, "It is a good opportunity for the enemy to build a fire for warmth, the enemy is in the light, we are in the dark, so that we can approach concealment..."
"Well, the enemy is only a reinforced company, the main force has not yet arrived, I see that we use one company to go up from the front, one company to climb up from the side cliff to detour, and take this Gazhi Ridge with one blow!"
Liang Xingchu said, suddenly stopped, and said angrily: "Who is playing the piano?" , fucking! ”
Sure enough, from behind came the faint sound of the accordion, and everyone was stunned.
Division Commander Zhai Zhongyu was on fire, and he followed the sound to find the team resting on the side of the road, only to see a volunteer cadre carrying an accordion. He scolded angrily, "You... What an asshole! ”
The cadre stopped in shock, not knowing what was going on.
It turned out that he was a battalion commander who was responsible for leading the battalion to guard the division command post during the Battle of Tokugawa. After the battle, he was ordered to return to the team, and on the way, he picked up an accordion from the captured booty, which he thought was strange and funny, but unexpectedly ran into trouble.
When the battalion commander saw the division commander's eyes, he realized that there was an enemy situation in front of him, and he hurriedly threw the accordion into the ravine.
Unexpectedly, the accordion rolled down into the ravine and made another sound.
Zhai Zhongyu was furious when he ascended: "How did you do it?" Alarmed the enemy, I shot you! ”
At this time, under the personal command of Liang Xingchu, Sun Hongdao (colonel in 1956) of the 342nd Regiment and political commissar Wang Pili had led the Seventh Company and the Eighth Company to sneak up to the main peak of Gariling, respectively.
The warriors were lightly armed, with only rifles and grenades left, but their big-toed shoes still made a "creaking" sound when they stepped on the snow.
Wang Pili took the lead in taking off his large shoes, advancing barefoot on the snow, and the soldiers also took off their shoes and quietly approached the enemy along the sides of the road.
There was a raging fire on the top of the mountain, firewood burning on Mars, and the enemy split into several places around the fire, smoking and roasting fire.
Suddenly, the grenade exploded into the fire, and a roar of "surrender the gun and don't kill" seemed to fall from the sky... The enemy was suddenly in a mess, dead and dead, running, and it took only 20 minutes to end the battle.
When Liang Xingchu stepped on the main peak of The Gari Ridge, the remnants of the enemy had been wiped out, and more than a dozen cars were blocked on the road, all of which became the booty of the volunteer army.
The 113rd Division drove 145 miles in one night and captured the heart of the American army on the Western Front- Sansholi in one fell swoop.
Subsequently, the division repelled many attacks by the US army and blew up the highway bridge, so that the enemy's attempt to flee south and come to the north through Sansholi was ruined.
As a result of the victory at Gaziling, the Thirty-eighth Army not only successfully completed the task of breaking through from the left flank and opening the gap in the campaign, but also boldly interspersed and resolutely blocked the enemy's retreat, ensuring the victory of the entire western front battle, and was given the reputation of "Long Live the Army" by General Peng, and has since been known as the history of the army.
It can be said that the Battle of Gazhiling, which took only 20 minutes, created a great victory in the famous military history of the Three Houses Interspersed Operation, and let the Thirty-eighth Army fight a very beautiful turnaround battle.