In the middle of the Korean War, with the entry of the Volunteer Army into the Korean War, the United Nations Army was pushed all the way south of the 38th Line, especially the three campaigns launched by the United Nations Army to see the strength of the Volunteer Army.
MacArthur, the former commander-in-chief of the United Nations Army, was also defeated by the Volunteers, and the American top brass lost confidence in MacArthur and removed MacArthur from his post in April 1951.
With Ridgway as commander of the United Nations Forces, the Volunteers have since ushered in a formidable opponent.
In his previous battles with the Volunteers, Ridgway discovered the weakness of the Volunteers' logistics.
Due to weak logistics, the volunteer army can only launch a "weekly offensive", that is, the attack cycle is consistent with the logistics cycle, that is, a week's time, and the follow-up is weak; at the same time, the volunteer army still has the problem of "insufficient firepower", even if the US army is surrounded, as long as it does not retreat, but adopts trapped defense, the firepower of the Chinese army is not enough to completely annihilate the US army.
In the fourth campaign, Ridgway proved the accuracy of his judgment through practice, so Ridgway carefully planned the "magnetic operation". It is to consume the limited late stage, ammunition and physical strength of the volunteer army by not making too much contact with the volunteer army and retreating while fighting.
As the campaign progressed, the volunteer army's front line was advancing too long, resulting in logistical supplies that could not keep up and reached its limit, at this time Ridgway seized the opportunity, gathered the most powerful and most mobile forces of the US army, and prepared to directly attack the key center of the volunteer army, that is, the center responsible for logistics supply - Tieyuan.
Although Peng Dehuai discovered Ridgway's intentions and quickly ordered the troops to retreat, the battle line had been stretched too long, coupled with the fact that the volunteer army's physical strength had reached its limit, there was not enough transportation, and there was no way to face the US armored troops who were waiting for work, so the US troops quickly broke into the rear of the volunteer troops and pointed directly at The Iron Plains.
If Tieyuan was taken, it meant that the large troops of the volunteer army that had not yet withdrawn completely cut off their logistics and became turtles in the urn, and the volunteer army headquarters at that time was also near Tetsuhara.
Therefore, whichever side takes Tieyuan, which side will gain great initiative and even victory in the Korean War.
In the face of the enemy's approach, Peng Dehuai found the 63rd Army, which was closest to Tieyuan at that time, and asked the commander Fu Chongbi to hold out in Tieyuan at all costs for 15 days to block the armored troops of the US army and buy time for the large troops of the volunteer army.
General Fu Chongbi
At that time, the 63rd Army had just withdrawn from the front line, and it was ready to fight before it had rested.
The U.S. troops they will face are 50,000, while Fu Chongbi has only 24,000 troops.
The 63rd Army understood that this was an almost impossible task, but each of them was determined to fight for time for the large army. Before the start of the blockade, the 63rd Army did not even have time to build a position, because the fast-running American armored vehicles were only 40 kilometers away from them.
The 63rd Army could only use the flesh of light infantry to block the steel torrent of the American army.
The first unit responsible for blocking the attack was the 189th Division of the 63rd Army, which was the most capable unit of the 63rd Army, with a total of more than 14,000 troops. In order to block the ARMORED forces of the US army, Cai Changyuan, commander of the 189th Division, made a tragic decision, dividing the division into more than 200 blocking positions and distributing them throughout the blocking battlefield.
If the Americans wanted to pass through this place, they had to pull out the nails one by one and wipe out the more than two hundred positions.
General Cai Changyuan
What does this mean?
The end of almost every warrior in the blocking position was sacrifice, but none of them retreated. The 189th Division suffered heavy losses - many troops were exhausted, the regiment was scattered and downsized into battalions, the battalion was downsized into a company, and even the logistics personnel of the organs were organized into companies...
When the position was lost, there were constantly soldiers jumping off cliffs or pulling glorious bullets on their bodies to die with the enemy, and even the chief officer of the cai changyuan division level carried his gun to the front line more than a dozen times. During the battle, Cai Changyuan was injured in the foot, and the shrapnel embedded in the body could not be removed.
It was not until his death that he removed the shrapnel left on his body at that time from the ashes, a total of 11 pieces!
These more than 200 positions were defended for 3 days, buying time for the other two divisions of the 63rd Army to build blocking positions, under the attack of the American army tilting 4,000 tons of artillery fire per hour.
The 63rd Army held its position for another 10 days, paying a huge price, with 12,000 casualties and more than 20,000 enemy troops killed, and Fu Chongbi was also seriously injured in the battle and sent to the hospital for 4 days before waking up.
For 13 days, the 63rd Army bought valuable time for the large volunteer army, and also delayed the arrival of the 40th Army, which successfully thwarted Ridgway's idea of encircling and annihilating the volunteer army.
Later, Fu Chongbi said only three words to General Peng Dehuai, who came to offer condolences:
"I want soldiers"
。 Peng Dehuai burst into tears and quickly added 20,000 new soldiers to the 63rd Army, which shows how tragic the Tieyuan War was.
After returning to China, General Fu Chongbi did not return to his hometown of Sichuan until his death.
General Fu Chongbi, a native of Tongjiang County, Bazhong City, Sichuan Province, began to participate in the revolution from the time of the Red Army, and along the way many of Chuanzhong's sons joined the revolutionary army under his mobilization, but in the Tieyuan Blockade Battle, most of the Sichuan soldiers who followed him along the way died heroically.
Fu Chongbi thought that when he first took them out of Sichuan, now only the soul returned. He was sorry for his fathers and fellow villagers in his hometown, and he could not face the father and elder of Kawachu who asked him about his children.
Therefore, until Fu Chongbi died in Beijing in 2003, he never returned to his hometown, but in 2001, Fu Chongbi sent his son back to his hometown of Tongjiang County, Sichuan Province, with his life savings of 200,000 yuan, all donated to the local area, built a Hope Primary School.