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From a prisoner of the Red Army to a founding major general, he loves to play basketball, and the most regrettable thing is that Shangganling has lost too much
On October 24, 1935, in the town of Zhiluo, the Red Army won a battle and completely annihilated a regiment of the 109th and 106th Divisions of the National Army.
This was a great victory for the Red Army after it arrived in northern Shaanxi, and at the same time, they also captured many soldiers.
At that time, there were two options for dealing with these captives, one was to educate them and recruit them into the army appropriately, and the other was to give them three oceans and let them go home.
It's just that the soldiers never expected that among the prisoners they absorbed, some of them made great contributions and became the founding major general all the way.
Later, this major general also led the 45th Army to fight fiercely in Shangganling in the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea.
This major general is none other than the fierce general Cui Jiangong, who likes to attack cities and seize villages, loves to play basketball, and stands tall in the first battle of Shangganling.
However, this battle is also the biggest regret of his life, and he always says that this battle can be fought better.
What did General Cui regret about, how did he fight in the first battle of Shangganling?
l Regret in Shangganling
Among General Cui's memorable battles, the most frequently mentioned is the Battle of Shangganling, which was extremely fierce and of great significance.
This battle greatly shocked the US military, and after the war, they had to admit that the US army had indeed failed on Shangganling.
Regarding this battle, General Cui said that the soldiers fought bravely, but he always regretted this battle.
He felt that the losses in this battle were very large, and the first battle of Shangganling was particularly tragic in this battle.
In the early morning of October 14, 1952, the Battle of Shangganling began.
The US troops were menacing, and as soon as they came out, they bombed them with 300 cannons, supplemented by planes and tanks, which was their usual trick.
General Cui was the commander of the 45th Division of the 15th Army, which was later the 45th Army.
For three days in a row, they fought repeatedly on the Shangganling position, and the situation was particularly tragic.
Many years later, he recalled the situation on the first day of the Shangganling battle, and what he regretted the most was the pre-war deployment of the artillery of the 45th Division.
As a matter of fact, General Cui was not ignorant of the US army's night attack on Shangganling in an attempt to take the position in one fell swoop, and everything was premonitored.
Before the war, they observed that the enemy had been moving troops frequently, and that the bombardment of our positions was gradually intensified every day.
The most obvious is that in the South Korean army, a staff officer surrendered, and during the interrogation, he revealed information about the enemy's imminent attack.
Everyone knows this information, and generals at all levels have paid great attention to it.
However, in September of that year, Shiji issued an order for all units on the front line to prepare for a tactical counterattack and take important enemy heights.
A soldier's first priority is to obey orders, so even if these speculations have become clear, he cannot abandon the tasks he has set before.
Their 45th Division had already received an important task, that is, the 134th Regiment would attack the Nanshan position in Zhuzidong.
This mission was originally planned to be carried out on October 18, 1952, and before the war, General Choi transferred the artillery battalion to the direction of the target, and there was a great momentum that he would inevitably take this position.
However, this preparation directly led to the absence of artillery support on the first day of the Shangganling Campaign.
In the Battle of Shangganling, there were two highlands that were repeatedly contested, one was the 597.9 Heights and the other was the 537.7 Beishan Heights.
There is a high mountain with an altitude of more than 1,000 meters to the north of it, called Wusheng Mountain.
Although the battle began on October 14, in fact, the enemy was already preparing artillery fire from the 13th.
The enemy they faced was the US Eighth Group and other two armies, and the commander was Lieutenant General Van Vliet.
If the soldiers can hold these two positions, they will be able to keep the enemy out of danger, and if the enemy occupies, the volunteers will have no danger to rely on and retreat hundreds of kilometers.
The enemy took the lead in attacking the two heights in front of the Wusheng Mountain, and in order to hold the front line, the soldiers on the two heights could only fight alone.
When the battle began, the enemy continued to bombard for more than an hour, firing more than 300,000 shells.
Many soldiers were shocked to the point that their teeth and tongues were pierced, and there were young soldiers as young as 17 or 8 years old who were killed by the relentless artillery fire.
At the end of the first round of bombardment, the elevation of the main peak on the position was cut by 2 meters by artillery fire, and even the rock and soil as hard as steel plates were scattered.
As a result of this round of bombing, the fortifications that their 45th Division spent four months building were in ruins.
In addition, their telephone lines were also blown up by shells, and the signal flares were not visible at all in the rear positions.
Therefore, the warriors in the front position of the Five Sacred Mountains could only face several times the enemy alone.
After the bombardment, two companies of surviving fighters, using the remnants of the fortifications, resolutely held back the enemy.
However, without artillery support, everyone was just physically resisting the enemy's shelling.
At 1 p.m. that day, most of the surface positions as far as the eye could see were lost.
It was not until 7 o'clock in the evening that General Choi found an opportunity to counterattack, and while the enemy had not yet gained a foothold, he immediately organized his troops and recaptured the position.
Striking while the iron was hot, the 45th Division sent four companies of troops, and after three hours of fierce fighting, killing and wounding more than 2,000 enemies, it regained the surface position of Shangganling.
Seeing this situation, the US troops did not want to continue the struggle, so they put out the fire, and the first battle of Shangganling ended in such a tense atmosphere.
General Cui and other generals are in a hurry, how to fight next, in order to hold the position and drive the American troops out?
l Fight until the last moment
On October 14, 1952, the U.S. army attacked Shangganling at night, and this battle was brutal since the first battle.
After barely regaining its position in the first battle, the 45th Division urgently held a meeting, how to fight this battle to turn the situation around?
After the first battle, it was mostly clear to everyone that this battle would not be easy, it would only be more difficult.
In fact, many years later, General Cui recalled the battle, saying that there were more than 10,000 people in the 45th Division that year, and more than 6,000 comrades left in the first battle of Shangganling.
Moreover, in the battle to seize the position, General Cui Jiangong made a decision, if he died, let the deputy division commander General Tang Wanshan go up.
His determination to die is enough to prove how dangerous that battle was back then.
At 10 o'clock in the evening of the first battle, the 45th Division, which had suffered heavy losses, urgently held a meeting to discuss how to fight this battle.
Everyone unanimously agreed that the first thing to do was to apply to the military headquarters to put aside the battle at Nanshan in Zhuzidong and turn the firepower to Shangganling.
In addition, there are too many structures on the two heights, which are easy to cause confusion, so the operational command personnel are adjusted.
Both measures were approved, and in the ensuing battle, the capricious battle for the battlefield took center stage, and the fighting became more difficult.
General Cui Jiangong, who was the commander of the 45th Division, simply moved his bed to the command post in order to fight this battle well, and stayed in the duty room every day to pay attention to the situation at any time.
He especially attaches great importance to this stage of the battle, if he doesn't fight well here, it will only be more sad, and it will affect the entire battle situation, this battle must be fought well.
For the next six days, he tensed his nerves, and whenever a phone call came, he sat next to the staff officer and listened.
Sometimes, the staff officer and the chief of the operations section could not hold on, so he let his comrades rest more, and he himself answered the phone and commanded the battle.
According to the memories of the comrades present at that time, during those days, the general ate very little, and relied on drinking tea and smoking to strengthen his spirits, and his voice was dumb.
Although the battle of Shangganling was brutal, under the tempering of artillery and fire, a large number of fearless soldiers emerged from the 45th Division.
There was Comrade Long Shichang, who blocked the enemy's blasting canister, and Comrade Huang Jiguang, who blocked the enemy's gunhole.
There are many comrades like them, and most of them have become role models for comrades inside and outside the army to follow.
On October 18, 1952, on this day, the U.S. army once again threw in a regiment and attacked with all its might, and the front-line troops suffered heavy casualties, so they could only retreat to the tunnel and temporarily avoid the front.
To make matters worse, this was the first time that all surface positions had been lost, and the situation was even worse than the first battle.
General Cui has always been steady and tenacious in battle, and in the face of such a situation, he couldn't help but complain to his superior, the commander of the 15th Army, General Qin Jiwei.
How serious was the situation of the 45th Division at that time? General Cui said that his troops were almost exhausted, and some companies had only a few men left.
General Qin was also a person who refused to admit defeat, he didn't want to suffer defeat on Shangganling like this, so he explained the situation to General Wang Jinshan, commander of the 3rd Corps.
"Commander Wang, this battle is too hard, and the casualties are too great!"
You must know that General Wang has always had a character of artillery warfare, and he will never complain about hardship until the most difficult time.
However, this time he was also silent, and after a long while, he replied: "Comrade Qin Jiwei, listen well, if you don't take down the mountain tonight, you will go home and herd the cattle!"
After hanging up the phone for 10 minutes, General Qin called General Cui Jiangong: "Old Cui, the position is lost, it's not good to see me when you turn back." ”
General Cui took the phone, was stunned for a moment, and then replied: "Of course." ”
Years later, when he recalled that phone call, General Qin's words were calm, but the words were solemn.
It was this phone call that made him determined to fight to the end, no matter what the final situation was.
Putting down the phone, he immediately held a meeting and said in front of everyone: "Let's fight, there is one company left, I will be the company commander, there is only one squad left, I will be the squad leader." ”
He also said that if he sacrificed, he would let the deputy division commander, General Tang Wanshan, be the first agent.
At that time, the battle for positions had been going on for seven days and nights, and the 45th Division had successfully killed and wounded more than 7,000 enemies, but more than 3,200 soldiers had also slept on the battlefield.
It was in this situation that General Cui made up his mind to give it a go, and this undoubtedly infected all the commanders and fighters, and they expressed that they would fight to the end.
Beginning on October 19, 1952, the remaining soldiers of the 45th Division fought a bloody battle with the US army for a whole day, and recaptured all the surface positions in Shangganling.
On October 20, 1952, this battle against the enemy came to an end, but the battle of Shangganling was not over, and the next battle was even more difficult.
l The years are like a song
On October 20, 1952, the 45th Division recaptured the surface position in Shangganling, but a more difficult counterattack was about to begin.
In such a grim environment, General Cui Jiangong rose to the challenge and showed his housekeeping skills.
Speaking of the first battle of Shangganling, General Cui said that the biggest feature of this battle was the tunnel battle.
As early as before the battle, 306 tunnels were built, 8,800 meters long, and 50,000 meters of trenches and communication ditches were built, and the results of other fortifications were also quite amazing.
Before participating in the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea, General Cui was the best at attacking cities and capturing villages during the war, and tunnel warfare was undoubtedly his forte.
Few people know that the general was captured as a prisoner when the army first arrived in northern Shaanxi, and at that time, no one could have imagined that the prisoner would later become a fierce general galloping on the battlefield.
In his own words, he himself was "the victorious product of the Long March."
Before joining the Red Army, he was a small soldier under the Northeast Army, and as soon as he joined the team, he had to fight in the Red Army in northern Shaanxi.
He happened to participate in the battle of Zhiluo Town, and at that time, many soldiers in the Northeast Army defected to the Red Army, and he himself understood this thought.
Therefore, in this battle that year, he fired a shot into the sky and surrendered as a prisoner.
In August 1948, he led the brigade headquarters to conquer Zhaobao and opened the way for Liu Deng's army to cross the Yellow River.
Three months later, the general took the support of the 45th Division and used the trench tactics to tear open the iron wall of Huang Wei's corps.
The trench warfare method, he also showed it in the battle of Shangganling.
From October 21, 1952, they fought a nine-day tunnel battle, which was the second stage of the Shangganling Campaign.
As soon as the two sides came up, they fought to the death, and both sides had to suspend and recuperate, and on the 21st, the battlefield fell into a dead silence.
On the second day, the two sides kicked off the prelude to fighting for the tunnel, and the enemy was particularly afraid of our army's tunnel warfare, and attacked with a dead hand.
They blockade the outside, bombing, dropping incendiary bombs, or bombs with poison gas, doing everything they can.
The soldiers in the tunnel persevered, and the seriously wounded soldiers did not make a sound, and the grass startled the snakes.
In that battle, the story of "an apple" was also born.
The comrades in the rear were worried about the battle of Shangganling, and only when the tunnel troops withstood could they have a chance to counterattack.
Therefore, the comrades in the rear tried all kinds of ways to send supplies to the tunnel.
The enemy, sensing this, used artillery fire to block violently, as a result of which most of the supplies were scattered halfway through.
At that time, in order to cheer up the warriors, the chiefs wrote their names on the apples.
However, in the end, only one or two apples were sent into the pit, but this also inspired the confidence of the fighters.
The second phase of the battle opened up the situation, and in this stage of the battle, our side took the initiative to attack 158 times, and only lost 9 times, which provided the conditions for the next big counterattack.
On October 30, 1952, General Choi did not let his guard down, and the real counterattack officially began.
And this last stage also means that the Volunteer Army is recovering and consolidating its positions, and the US Army is already weak.
General Cui gave a clear policy, asking everyone to concentrate their forces, but not to be in a hurry, and gradually counterattack one by one to consolidate the positions they have taken back.
After the counterattack began that day, the remaining soldiers of the 45th Division, together with the friendly and neighboring troops who came to support, launched an attack on the enemy.
Until the early morning of the next day, they gradually reclaimed part of the surface positions, and soon, they held the 597.8 heights and drove out the American troops.
More and more friendly troops came to support, and the battle became more and more intense, but this time our army had the upper hand, and the situation in the first battle of Shangganling was successfully reversed.
On November 4, 1952, considering the heavy casualties of the 45th Division, the higher authorities decided to leave artillery, communications, and logistics, and other personnel to withdraw from their positions for rest.
The next task was taken over by the 31st Division of the 12th Army, and the 45th Division persisted until the last moment and successfully completed the preliminary tasks of the Shangganling Campaign.
In these 22 days, they engaged in 29 large-scale battles with the enemy, killing and wounding 14,000 people, while losing more than 5,600 of their own.
Two days after the withdrawal of the 45th Division, the American troops had already realized that they had failed on Triangle Hill, that is, on the 597.7 heights.
Under the leadership of General Cui Jiangong, the 45th Division entered the ranks of the main divisions of the whole army by virtue of the Battle of Shangganling.
General Cui's command art, as well as the brave and fearless fighting style of the soldiers, played a style for the volunteers and demonstrated the fighting spirit of the mainland in the international community.