Bai Xiaosheng on the History Series: Heroes, Models, and Special Heroes of the Volunteer Army No. 6 - Hu Xiudao
"Why is the battle flag so picturesque that the blood of the hero stains it red." Why is the earth always springing, and the life of the hero blossoms. "People who have seen the movie "Heroes and Children" must not be unfamiliar with these two lyrics. Whenever the melody of the theme song sounds, our minds are taken back to that war-torn era.
Stills of heroes and children
At that time, it was the age-old famous sentence that Mao Zedong said, "We think we should go to war, we must participate in war, the benefits of participating in war are extremely great, and the damage of not participating in war is extremely great." Countless young people picked up their backpacks and guns and bravely joined the volunteer army to rush to the Korean battlefield. On the battlefield of the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea, artillery fire roared and gun smoke filled the air. Countless young people blocked the muzzle of the cannon with their flesh and forged the Great Wall with their blood, and the first group of fighters fell in the rain of bullets and bullets, and the latter group of fighters immediately rose to the top. When the war does not stop, they will not relax. They shed their heads and blood to fulfill the orders and responsibilities granted by the state. They were resourceful and brave, creating one victory after another, but some of them were full of regrets, and even before they could say goodbye to their families, they sacrificed themselves, leaving in vain the phrase "Poor Luding River bones, like people in spring dreams" made people wet their eyes.
The wheels of history slowly rolled over, stained with blood and mud and shell residue, and posterity learned the story of the Battle of Shangganling through the mud.
A panoramic view of Shangganling
[Shangganling: a bloody flesh grinder]
Lin Biao said it was a "meat grinder", General Qin Jiwei bluntly said that "it was the most painful battle I have ever experienced in my life", and Chairman Mao Zedong mentioned that it was also chilling. It has even led many newspapers to conceal the number of dead and injured in order to avoid excessive grief for the people, and it has also been written into the textbooks of major authoritative military schools as special combat examples. This was the Battle of Shangganling, which lasted for forty-three days and suffered 40,600 casualties on both sides.
So how did this battle evolve from a small offensive and defensive battle to a human flesh war?
In the memoirs of General Qin Jiwei, the commander of the Battle of Shangganling, there is such a passage: In the Korean battlefield in 1952, The Chinese and North Korean troops won successive victories, but the US military did not want to lose face at the negotiating table and wanted to win more bargaining chips on the battlefield, so it formed a situation of talking while fighting, fighting and talking, and talking about fighting. In October, the U.S. military arbitrarily and unilaterally suspended the negotiations, and the chief negotiator of the US side, Harrison, shouted: "Let the guns and guns speak!" Then there was the "Golden Offensive." With its superior geographical location, the Five Holy Mountains have become a "place where soldiers must fight", with a special status that can influence the war situation, and winning the Five Holy Mountains Defense Line can be described as the most important, so the key to the struggle between the two sides began to revolve around the main point of the Five Holy Mountain Defense Line: Shangganling.
Three-dimensional topographic map of Shangganling
At 3:30 a.m. on October 14, 1952, planes flew in one after another, shells exploded densely, and the Jinhua Offensive began! The 7th Division of the US Eighth Army and the 16 artillery battalions of the 2nd Han Division, with 300 artillery pieces, more than 3,000 aircraft and 120 tanks, fired more than 300,000 shells and dropped 500 bombs at the two highlands of Shangganling 597.9 and 537.7. Almost all of our army's superficial fortifications were destroyed. On this day, the 135th Regiment of the 45th Division annihilated more than 1,900 enemy troops, destroyed 3 tanks, captured 1 tank, and suffered more than 500 casualties.
According to records at the time, there were 38 young soldiers who blocked the muzzle of the gun with their flesh, and many more were separated before they could leave their names.
Hygienists receive water from the crevices of the stones and rescue the wounded
Even more difficult to persevere is the severe shortage of water and food and grass. Many people can only eat half a cookie a day, many people can not drink a drop of water, so they have to drink urine from each other to relieve their unbearable thirst, and the officers and soldiers also jokingly call it "glorious tea." Warriors put biscuits in their mouths to cut their tongues. Due to poor medical conditions, many of the wounded died in the tunnels. There was a tunnel where more than 10 soldiers stood guard at the mouth of the tunnel with submachine guns until they starved to death. The tunnels were filled with the remains of combatants, wounded and martyrs. Shrapnel and gore mixed together. Food is gone, water is gone, medicine is gone...
In the Battle of Shangganling, volunteer soldiers relied on the tunnel to shoot
Finally, the warriors have ushered in a turnaround!
After experiencing many wars, Wang Jinshan, commander of the 12th Regiment, put forward a strategic plan that was truly suitable for our volunteer army -- the tactics of small soldiers.
The tactics of small groups refers to the deployment of only a small number of combat units at each combat site, and only two or three people are sent to defend a high ground, which requires a high level of individual combat ability. However, it is characterized by its maneuverability and flexibility, and its ability to adapt to triangular slope terrain, so it is widely used.
And there is a new soldier, who is a god in this battle.
Recruit Hu Xiudao
【Individual soldiers resist the enemy, the gods of the First World War】
On a chilly winter evening in the winter of 1952, the recruit ushered in his first battle. He was ordered to guard Hill 3 position 597.9 with the platoon commander and another recruit, which was at the time the most severely attacked by enemy fire. Under the onslaught of the enemy, the three of them hid only half a stone root, and in the first battle, he sweated in his hands, clutched the grenade, and his eyes were directly in the direction of the enemy. Wolf smoke was everywhere, the artillery was constantly firing, the enemy was getting closer and closer to them, and finally they launched an attack, and his breathing accelerated,
Under the command of the platoon commander, he desperately threw the grenades, grenades, and explosive canisters on his body into the enemy group, and he did not seem to be able to hear the sounds around him, and the black smoke in front of him made him breathless, and he could not think of panting, he had no time to be nervous, he just frantically raised his arms and smashed at the enemy with artillery fire. When the right hand is swollen, he changes his left hand, and the enemies fall one by one, and the shrapnel flies and brings up a gust of dust... "Comrade, comrade! Stop it! It wasn't until the company commander grabbed his wrist that he came back to his senses—the enemy had been repulsed! It was the three of them who worked together to repel the enemy!
What he didn't know was that after many years, he would be very funny in the interview and say that his biggest regret for so many years was that he had wasted a lot of valuable ammunition at that time.
At that time, he was relieved, tightly holding the hand of the platoon leader, and opening his mouth as if he had something to say, but the situation on the battlefield was changing rapidly, and where was the time for them to breathe? Soon after, the enemy launched a second attack under the cover of artillery fire.
This time, they came up with a clever trick! He and the platoon leader first concentrated their fire on both sides of the scattered enemy group, forcing the enemy to squeeze into the middle, and then punched the front for a while, so that the enemy in front could not get up, and the rear hugged forward, and when the enemy was crowded together, he suddenly threw grenades at the enemy group. This method, known as "dumpling wrapping", worked, hitting the enemy with his armor and fleeing for his life.
Topographic map of Shangganling (597.9 highland in red in the middle, no. 9 highland in blue below)
After repelling the enemy's two chargebacks, the platoon leader turned to support Position 9, leaving the new soldiers and comrades to continue to hold, and the two of them repelled several platoons of enemy troops in a row. Seeing that the war situation here is very good, there is an urgent report from the command post: The situation of position No. 10 is critical!
They turned to position 10 again, only to see that the ground was covered with corpses and debris, only a soldier with blurred flesh and blood was still struggling to support, looking at the corpses of his comrades on the ground, he remembered the days of training together, he was in pain, and he saw Camp 0 - that is where Huang Jiguang once blocked the gun hole! Huang Ji Guangmingming was still fighting with him one minute ago, and the next moment... The recruits, filled with rage, fought off multiple enemy attacks with their comrades. In the confusion, he saw the platoon leader creeping towards them to support, he was relieved, and stretched out his hand to pull it, but at the moment when he first entered the hole, a shell exploded next to the platoon leader.
Blood splashed on his face, and his eyes were red. "If you die, you must hold your position!" These were the only words left for the platoon leader before he sacrificed.
The voice on the position gradually became quieter, the platoon leader was sacrificed, the comrades were also transferred, and this little recruit stayed alone on the position, he was physically and mentally exhausted, and he just wanted to lower his head and bite into a steamed bun mixed with stone slag.
A large group of enemies in front of him attacked again, and the recruits killed the red eyes, roared angrily and had a burst of grenades, and he just wanted to smash and blow up the enemy fiercely! The fierce battle was in full swing, and The No. 3 Highland applied for support again, he tossed between the two highlands, picking up a grenade in one hand, and the explosive canister in the other hand immediately followed, the war continued continuously, he did not know how many times he ran back and forth, how many shells were thrown, he wanted to leave a grenade for himself, but he was reluctant, the best shells should go to tear apart the most brutal enemy. It was with this madness that he miraculously repelled more than a dozen enemy attacks with a handful of shells.
Afterwards, he recalled: "There was no sound in the position, and it was so quiet that people could not breathe. I waited for the enemy's final struggle, determined to die with the enemy. ”
Another attack is coming,
Having used the last grenade, he grabbed his gun, jumped into position, and shouted, "Rush! Immediately, the soldiers responded to the sound of killing, they suffered many casualties and heavy losses, but none of them flinched on the battlefield, they had put life and death aside, and only by defeating the enemy could they avenge the death of their comrades. At the critical moment, the support troops of the volunteer army arrived, and they finally defeated the enemy completely with divine help. But when Hu Xiudao withdrew from the 597.9 plateau, he could finally relax his tense nerves, and he passed out alone at this time, and this sleep was three days and three nights.
In this battle, this recruit repelled 41 consecutive enemy attacks, annihilated more than 280 enemy troops, and created a miracle in the history of war, and his name was Hu Xiudao.
Hu Xiudao was born in September 1931 to a poor peasant family in Jintang County, Sichuan Province. When he was young, he was often bullied by the young master of the rich man's family, and he did not have enough to eat and wear. When he was 15 years old, the Americans repaired the airport in Jintang County and arrested him as a laborer, because he was young and slow, and he was often beaten by American overseers. After the founding of New China, the poor people were liberated, and he led the armed forces of the whole village to beat the landlords and bullies all over the place to find teeth.
In the second year of the outbreak of the Korean War, Hu Xiudao signed up for the volunteer army without consulting his family.
The mother could only shed tears while sewing clothes for Hu Xiudao, and often cried bitterly when sewing, and for fear of being heard, she could only cover her mouth with her hands. Before leaving, his mother instructed with red eyes: "When you get to North Korea, you must be well, write more letters, kill more enemies and make meritorious contributions, don't embarrass your mother..." Hu Xiudao nodded his head, resolutely turned around and never looked back, leaving only a shadow for his parents and countrymen, but who knows if he is afraid of looking back again and not being able to take a step?
And he did fulfill his mother's expectations. The famous author Yang Shuo wrote at the end of his famous article "The Hero of Venus": "This 19-year-old young man vividly explains why the enemy has run into a bloody situation in North Korea. The enemy cannot attack Shangganling, let alone Korea, because on Shangganling, on every front, we have countless figures like Hu Xiudao everywhere. ”
Venus Hero Painting
【Shells hit the enemy, blood casts the Great Wall】
Repelling the enemy army 41 times and annihilating more than 280 enemy people, such a record does not even dare to shoot in a TV series, so how did Hu Xiudao fight with one enemy and a hundred? Could it be that Hu Xiudao was really full of guts comparable to Zhao Zilong, who had entered and exited seven years?
Speaking of which, Xu Shu, a military historian who has studied the battle in detail, smiled slightly and told us the answer.
First of all, the tunnel, Shangganling has a nickname, called "triangle slope", which intuitively explains the superiority of the terrain, the volunteer army occupied favorable terrain during the period of strategic confrontation between the two sides, and they dug and built a large number of tunnels according to the terrain. Not to exaggerate, according to statistics, until the armistice of the Korean War, the volunteers built a total of 1250 kilometers of tunnels and dug more than 6000 kilometers of station trenches and traffic trenches. At that time, the United Nations army projected more than 1.9 million shells at the 3.7 square kilometer Shangganling position, when the sky was stained red by artillery fire, the stones were broken, and the hills were cut down by two meters, but the volunteers could still hold on, and this tunnel was indispensable.
Secondly, what does Hu Xiudao rely on with one enemy and one hundred hundred? It's a grenade. Because at that time, small groups of soldiers were used to fight, and the damage range of individual soldiers was very demanding.
If Hu Xiudao had come up with a rifle machine gun, he wouldn't have been able to beat it at all. Grenades can kill and injure enemies on a larger scale. Hu Xiudao threw hundreds of grenades and explosive heads on the position in a day, and after the death of his comrades, he was able to repel forty-one attacks of the United Nations army by himself, relying on the huge power of the grenades.
But can these two alone be able to complete with one enemy and one hundred? No, the most crucial thing is the mysterious Katyusha rocket. The Katyusha is a multi-track wheeled self-propelled gun mounted on a truck chassis with good maneuverability and a range of nearly 9 kilometers, but poor accuracy and a salvo to produce better results.
Katyusha position salvo map
It was given the name of a goddess, but it flew towards the enemy with a tongue of fire, accompanied by a huge high temperature shockwave, amazingly lethal, and was a nightmare for the German army in World War II, nicknamed "Stalin Organ". In the second half of 1950, it was provided to us by the Soviet Union. Katyusha, like a goddess, provided a major boost in the Battle of Shangganling, and can even be said to have turned the tide of the war for a time. The 209th Regiment of the 21st Division, with its dense and fierce firepower, focused on attacking enemy infantry, as well as the enemy troops who counterattacked our infantry positions, effectively supported the infantry in consolidating the 597.9 heights and retaking the 537.7 highlands north hills.
At 16:00 on November 11, Hu Xiudao's battalion, supported by the strong fire of 24 rockets of the 209th Regiment of the 21st Division, launched an attack on the enemy on the north mountain surface of the 537.7 highland, and recaptured the position that night, and the enemy was completely annihilated. According to statistics, on average, every second, a shell will explode in the enemy camp.
In the 43 days of fighting, the total casualties of both sides were 40,600, and the ratio of casualties between the enemy and us was 2.3:1. The AMERICAN PRESS commented: "This campaign actually became the 'Verdun' of the Korean War." According to statistics, 70% of the casualties of the Allied forces in the Battle of Shangganling were caused by the artillery of the Volunteer Army. This shows the power of Katyusha.
Katyusha
Hu Xiudao's achievements are praised, and he said emotionally in an interview many years later: "In the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea, the officers and men of the Volunteer Army defeated the powerful aggressors with great heroism for the sake of the motherland and for peace, and many of my comrades-in-arms sacrificed their precious lives, and they were the real heroes." I was just an ordinary volunteer soldier who only did what I should do, but the party and the people gave me great honors. We must learn from the spirit of the heroes and martyrs, inherit their achievements, and build and defend the country well, so as to comfort the spirit of the heroes and martyrs in heaven. ”
In that era of war, many heroes emerged, in addition to Hu Xiudao, who miraculously blocked the enemy's machine gun eyes with his body to open the way for the impact troops; Sun Zhanyuan, who insisted on commanding the battle with both legs broken, and pulled the last grenade at the last breath, and died with the enemy; and Niu Baocai, a communication hero who was seriously injured in battle and used his body to connect the broken lines with his own body at the last moment of his life, to ensure the smooth communication of command and communication. They are the highest embodiment of the people's army's heroic and tenacious fighting spirit.
The Great Wall of Flesh annihilates the mighty brigade, and the battlefield of gun smoke casts the soul of the hero. In the early 1950s, comrade Mao Zedong said when summing up the experience of the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea: "The volunteer army defeated the Yankees by relying on a breath of gas. This "qi" is the indomitable spirit of our army, which will overwhelm all enemies and never be subjugated by them, and no matter what difficult and difficult occasions, as long as there is one more person, this person will continue to fight. Hu Xiudao and other volunteer officers and men showed this invincible heroic nature in the Battle of Shangganling.
Volunteer soldiers on the position celebrated the victory at the Battle of Shangganling
Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea, defend the family and defend the country. The heroic soldiers of the Chinese People's Volunteer Army used their bloody iron bones and national blood to make the enemy frightened and the heavens and the earth moved, and won the great victory of the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea! Composed a heroic battle song that can be sung and wept, and the magnificent mountains and rivers are formed!
Our contemporary Chinese, no matter what age we are in, we must advocate heroes, to respect heroes, and everyone must strive to be heroes in order to be heroes. Worship China's national heroes and remember the great epics they created with the ordinary!
Remember the martyrs and pay tribute to the heroes. The hero of Hu Xiudao will be remembered by us, and the spirit of the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea will be forever praised!