At six o'clock in the afternoon of February 15, 1951, ten tanks of the advance party supporting the 5th Regiment of the 1st U.S. Cavalry Division in Pingli entered the defensive circle, indicating that the encirclement of the volunteer army had been torn through. He sat on such a tank and followed the Allied armored forces to liberate Belgium and the Netherlands, which were ravaged by the Nazis. However, this strange scene only gave him a few seconds to remember, and he woke up to the roar of almost all the retreating volunteers chased by mortars and machine guns.
Where are the Nazis? Who is the real devastation? These houses, mills, elementary schools and churches were destroyed by the Korean nation's own murderous forces long before the confrontation between the American army and the volunteers. Thomson's vision blurred, and in the telescope, several volunteers who had evacuated at the last moment fell under artillery fire, and he put down the telescope heavily and lowered his head sadly.
The sky was dark, but the American artillery fire turned the sky into a bloody red like a burning cloud, and he saw the Americans and French who could pity Baba an hour ago to avoid the rain of bullets and bullets of the volunteers firing at the volunteers highly, and the excited neurotic excitement made Thomson think of the Romanian army that fought against the water during World War II against General Antonescu, and saw the Czech rebel army that broke away from the Nazi camp, and he saw history repeating itself? But he was confused again, these armies were originally "Nazi" invaders. Thomson felt baffled, and although he had never had the opportunity to see a bigger war scene, he had the opportunity to regain his faith in the fact that the U.S. military was always liberators, and why did they always find "just-made excuses"?
Thomson did not have the slightest excitement, and Cali was surprisingly silent, and the two were in the command post bunker, and even the orderlies went out to cheer the tanks of the cavalry regiment, and the joy of seeing the savior made the chefs of the regiment headquarters take turns in the cannonball skin and rubble to dance foxtrot with a soldier, only the two who returned from Hengcheng stared at the map in a daze.
Cali's mood was the same as that of Thomson, he had no interest in the victory he seemed to see, and as a commander of military intelligence, what his brain thought was by no means what ordinary officers and soldiers thought, and Cali was summing up the battle. In the past three days, the battles that have taken place are mostly the kind of close individual combat, the opponent's tactical flexibility is insufficient, making Cali feel that the opponent has been tentatively attacking, and does not want to invest too many troops, although heroic and tenacious, the determination to hold the position is still touching, but Cali feels that what is missing in this, what is it? Cali couldn't find an answer for a while.
One thing puzzled him was that the expected large-scale attack of the volunteer army never appeared, and the kind of volunteer army troops that attacked like a tide in the mountains of the Qingcheon, Imjin and Hengcheng rivers never seemed to appear. At first he was nervous about the confessions of the prisoners of war, who said that on the back of Heights 506, there were still 8,000 volunteers who were not used, and Cali was almost breathless, but before the battle on the third day had officially begun, the volunteers had systematically withdrawn under the onslaught of ten tanks, and although it was impossible to predict that they would not return, judging from the scale of the volunteers' current retreat, their second attack would definitely be postponed.
When they will come, whether they can come, Kali began to draw question marks in his mind. "Thomson, what are you thinking?" Cali touched his beard a few centimeters long and came over and asked. "I was wondering if there was any point in us staying here." Thomson's words are very emotional. "You say, we might be in a trap?" Cali touched Thomson's pulse.
"If only there was that well, I feel like if I keep it like this, I can't see the result, it's a basin, and under our ass is a burning volcano." Thomson did not say his true thoughts, he had almost understood the strategic intentions of the volunteers, it was pure campaign deception, and he did not want to win the Pingli at all, and the number of combat troops of the comprehensive volunteer army was far less than the legendary four divisions, and even one-third of the expected was not enough. But he won't say it, but it is expected that the volunteers' strategic deception plan has almost been realized, so at this time, he needs to be "smart". Kali has this intention, but he hasn't figured out the context yet.
"I just thought, why did Gongpingli hold so smoothly, you know, our peripheral intelligence shows that there are at least 6 enemy divisions, they can completely throw the troops withdrawn from Wonju into the east, and then attack from both sides from Gongpingli, not much, the strong attack of 10,000 people, just when we run out of ammunition, will definitely break through." If the enemy had done that, you and I would have been taken prisoner long ago. "Cali has a lot of brains, and he kind of got to the crux of the problem.
"I didn't speak just now, just thinking about this problem, I think that the 23rd Regiment has been guarding this place for more than 20 days, which is really a bit like what Chinese said." Thomson thought of a Chinese novel he had read and shrugged his shoulders, at this time Thomson had to make Cali feel like his helper, a smart helper, and he would have to rely on this kid in the future.
"What words? I want to hear it. "Kali is a man who usually has a mouth like a knife, but he is as good as a stream, especially the opinion of his brother Thomson, he pricked up his ears to listen." It is to draw the ground as a prison. "Thomson briefly explained the meaning of this sentence, and then drew a circle." That is an ancient Chinese allusion, a person is in the circle of painting, motionless, he thinks that he cannot get out of this circle, according to the rules, since this circle is drawn into a cell, you must abide by the rules..."
Cali understood, he blinked, understanding what Thomson meant. When the shelling paused, Cali wiped his dusty face. "Yes, three days of battle, it looks like there is a thrill, as if... I played Indian games as a child, I did not understand why the enemy did not use artillery to bombard a weak point, and then directly destroy our company and platoon positions with the strength of a battalion, even if it tore through one place, this three hundred and sixty degrees of defense, we are weak in every place. As long as they work harder, they can storm the town, at that time our artillery is basically crippled, we cannot receive airdropped supplies, the wounded cannot retreat, the entire medical battalion will be taken out, the command center will be bloody, this seemingly large number, but very scattered combat team will basically be saved. ”
Major Cali pursed his mouth, feeling that his train of thought matched Thomson's "draw the ground as a prison" metaphor. "But the enemy stopped and burst in twice, but both felt that the troops were thin, like a stream flowing in the desert, and it quickly dried up. I don't understand, the enemy has so many men and horses outside, why should they compare patience with us to consume ammunition, you know Chinese the trick to defeating us before was speed and interspersion, but this time they changed to confront our army with excellent weapons, and it was a confrontation without trenches to rely on ... In the morning, I was still thinking that the commander of Pingli was a stupid pig! But the stupid pig held the fence, do you know why? He asked Thomson an interesting question.
Thomson shook his head and said that he was not interested, but Cali looked at the barrage of red tongtong in the sky, raised his eyebrows and said: "A stupid pig can lead a group of pigs to guard the fence, and that is because it is not a pack of wolves, but a group of foxes." For foxes, no matter how fat a wild boar is, it is not prey on their menu. ”
The U.S. Air Force flew in again to bombard the mountains around Pingli, and the artillerymen and tankers gave everything they had to fire the last shells, because a new round of ammunition droppings was about to begin. The 23rd Regiment of the US Army has undergone a severe test and is thrilling. However, since the war, the American troops and the French, who had never tasted the sweetness of holding a position, did not seem to believe in such victory, and two battalions asked to pursue the enemy to expand the victory, but the commander, Lieutenant Colonel Chels, was cautious, knowing full well that there were still tens of thousands of volunteers around him, and that the American troops who had left the trench positions were not at all the opponents of the volunteers who were good at field combat, and it was better to maintain their honor and maintain a complete structure and prepare for another battle.
Lieutenant Colonel Chelles told Cali that the battalions must accumulate ammunition and not pursue the enemy, perhaps this was a trick of the volunteers. When night fell again, the 23rd Regiment was still like a disciplined schoolboy, crouching in the trenches to "draw the ground as a prison", waiting for their familiar trumpets and brass horns to blow.
On a cold night, the mortars of the volunteers continued to fire, and the American troops were waiting for them from top to bottom, and because of the continuous influx of new troops of the Fifth Cavalry Regiment, the number of troops in Pingli was now suddenly increased and ammunition was sufficient. However, when the moon was thin and the stars were thin, they did not see a single figure, and then expected the volunteers to attack when they were most sleepy in the early morning.
Cali organized multiple patrols and went out to reconnoitre at midnight. However , they soon sent back information that they had been blocked by communist forces near heights 397 and 506. The American artillery fire again roared and continued into the early hours of the morning. When the patrol set out again in the early morning of 16 February to reconnoiter the heights, it found thousands of temporary individual bunkers in "fox holes", but the volunteer units had long since left. When this news was transmitted back to the regiment headquarters, Lieutenant Colonel Chers still did not dare to be careless, and ordered the patrol to continue to patrol, make sure to find the whereabouts of the volunteers, and prevent the enemy from attacking the west.
In the morning, the reconnaissance plane took off to reconnoiter the outskirts of Gongpingli, and finally sent back news that reassured the combat team of the 23rd Regiment: The enemy had withdrawn, and the southeastern road was littered with the abandoned artillery of the volunteers, basically all of which were the US military equipment they had captured. Cali and Thomson took people to check the types of weapons, hoping to judge the reasons for Chinese abandoning these precious weapons, or to find the real reason for the sudden withdrawal of the volunteers.
When Cali saw the equipment, American soldiers were scrambling to get pictures taken by war correspondents, unkempt like prisoners in the Bastille who had seen the light of day, standing in front of artillery trucks badly damaged by the volunteers, leaving the long-lost victor's smile on the film. But Cali could not laugh, nor did he have the heart to laugh, and when Thomson compared the number of the missing and reported howitzer vehicles from the headquarters with these weapons, he was shocked to find that these weapons were the weapons of the 15th Field Artillery Battalion of the US Army in Hengcheng and the artillery company of the 38th US Infantry Regiment.
Bombard the American troops in Pingli with the cannons of Hengcheng, and then use up the shells and discard them, and then let the Americans in Pingli feel the joy of capturing the spoils of war and tears of joy for victory, who is the winner? Cali's heart swelled with tragedy and inexplicable burning feeling, and in his memory, he still retained the appearance of the boys in the alive artillery battalion of the 38th Regiment of Hengcheng, but nine times out of ten these guys disappeared into the dust to see God.