Some of the key battles in the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea (III) were serialized

VII. The Battle of Pingli

　　On the eastern front at this time, the Deng clique was first faced with the difficult choice of whether to encircle and annihilate the three divisions of the South Korean Army and the US troops that had advanced to the north of Hengcheng, or to attack "Tonpyeong-ri, which is located west of Hengcheng, east of Yangpyeong, and north of the South Han River", which is the combat hub of the US army on the central line. After several repeated deliberations, based on the ten major military principles, Deng Hua finally decided to attack the Weak Li Puppet Army first.

　　At 17:00 on February 11, 1951, the Volunteer Army launched a counterattack on Hengcheng, and the troops quickly won the battle with the momentum of destruction and decay. The Deng and Kim groups "annihilated all three regiments of the 8th Division of the South Korean Army and one part of the 3rd and 5th Divisions and the 2nd Division of the US Army after 35 hours of fierce fighting, totaling more than 12,000 people, of whom more than 7,800 were captured (including 7,100 South Korean soldiers and 500 American troops)."

　　Deng Hua then decided that Yang Guofu, commander of the 119th Division of the 39th Army, would unify the command of six regiments including the 119th Division (343rd Regiment and 344th Regiment of the 115th Division, 356th Regiment and 357th Regiment of the 119th Division, 359th Regiment of the 120th Division, and 376th Regiment of the 126th Division) to lay the groundwork in a "field manner" at this time, which was actually defended by a reinforced regiment of the US Army (the us infantry regiment was more than 3700 people). The volunteer forces involved in the battle, including two regiments that subsequently participated in the battle (377th Regiment and 378th Regiment of the 126th Division), for a total of eight regiments.

　　At this time, the volunteer troops had been fighting continuously for more than four months, participated in four large-scale operations, and had not received the supply of troops and materials and the fatigue of effective rest.

Taking the 40th Army as an example, "when it entered the War in Korea, the number of troops was 48,357, and the number of participants in the Fourth Campaign was only 28,618." In the 125th Division, the number of participants in the first campaign was 13,231, and the number of participants in the fourth campaign was only 8,149."

　　Among them, the three regiments of the 125th Division participated in the battle:

　　125th Division First Campaign Fourth Campaign Downsizing Attrition Rate

　　173rd Regiment 3335 1615 -1720 51.57%

　　174th Regiment 3257 2018 -1239 38.04%

　　175th Regiment 2887 2035 -852 29.52%

　　Total 9470 5668 -3802 40.15%

　　Division 13231 8149 -5082 38.41%

　　[Note] This table does not count the situation of the division's direct subordinate team, which should be the difference between the last two columns.

　　It can be seen that by the time of the fourth campaign, the strength of the regiments participating in the battle of the Volunteer Army was only 1/2 to 2/3 of the previous battle. As a result, each regiment participating in the battle of Tohei was about 1,500 to 2,000 men. Together with the troops, the total strength of the volunteer army in the battle was about 15,000 people.

Tongpingli is a small town located in a small basin, the diameter of this mountain basin is about 5 kilometers, surrounded by small mountain packs, of which the geographical elevation of 297 meters of Wangmei Mountain is located in the south, southwest, northwest, north and northeast of the commanding heights are 248 highlands, 345 highlands, 207 highlands, 212 highlands, respectively.

　　The defender was the 23rd Regiment of the 2nd Division of the US Army (Regiment Commander Paul M. Thompson). Colonel L. Freeman, 3324 men), The French Battalion (1017 men), the Field Artillery Battalion 37 (18 105 mm howitzers, 669 men), the 507th Artillery Battalion B Company (6 155 mm howitzers, 178 men), the 82nd AAF Battalion B Company (16 two-type anti-aircraft guns, 158 men in total), a tank squadron (21 M4 Sherman tanks) and other service detachments, totaling 5,719 men, or nearly six thousand men.

　　Among them, this French battalion was mainly composed of the French "Foreign Legion", that is, a group of mercenaries who did not wear helmets during the war, "only wore a red turban on their heads", and always shouted "Camorone", and had 1 command company, 3 rifle companies and 3 heavy weapons companies, and at this time also commanded a South Korean company. Battalion commander Ralph Montclair, originally a French lieutenant general (Inspector General of the Foreign Legion), voluntarily demoted his rank to lieutenant colonel in order to participate in the war.

In this battle, "the volunteer army suffered a total of more than 3,300 casualties", of which the three regiments of the 40th Army participating in the attack suffered more than 1,830 casualties, and the officers and men of the three battalions of the 359th regiment suffered almost all casualties. According to "according to U.S. military statistics, there are more than 4,000 battlefield corpses that the volunteers have not had time to take away or bury." The French battalion and the U.S. 23rd Regiment alone collected and buried 4,689 corpses of volunteers in front of the positions, and the remains that were shattered by artillery fire could not be counted in detail."

　　"The Battle of Tongpingli was the third offensive and defensive turning point of the Korean War. The Battle of Tongpingli marked the end of the large-scale, stride-forward, and in-depth movement of the Volunteer Army's strategic offensive, and the stage of strategic stalemate based on positional defense warfare was coming(soon)."

　　Since then, the Americans have also begun to dare to hold isolated point positions, no longer like before, once the two wings are divided into encirclement, they will retreat, which is of great strategic significance to the US army. After the war, the U.S. 23rd Regiment and the French Battalion were also awarded the "Meritorious Service Unit Commendation Order" by U.S. President Harry S. Truman.

After the above two operations, from February 17, 1951, the entire line of the Volunteer Army and the People's Army was transferred to the movement defense. Three lines of defense were deployed in the area from the north bank of the Han River to the first line of Hengcheng in the south and from the 38th line in the north to cover the advance and assembly of the second combat force in the country and to prepare for a counterattack.

　　From March 10, the armies of the first echelon gradually moved north, the second echelon continued to carry out sports defense, and on the morning of the 14th, our army took the initiative to withdraw from Seoul. By the 31st, the entire Line of the Sino-Dprk Coalition Forces had been transferred to the area north of the 38th Line.

　　On April 15, the 3rd and 19th Corps of the newly recruited Volunteer Army entered the area near the 38th Line to complete their assembly, and the 9th Corps, which had rested in the Wonsan area, also returned to the front. By the 21st, the Volunteer Army had stopped the "United Nations Army" from the front lines of Kaesong, Changhu, Gaolangpuli, Wenhuili, Huachuan, Yangkou, Yuantongli, and Gancheng, and the fourth campaign was over.

　　The fourth campaign (January 25 to April 21, 1951), "the Volunteer Army and the Korean People's Army under very difficult conditions to carry out defensive, campaign counterattack and movement defense operations, lasted 87 days, killed and wounded more than 78,000 enemy prisoners (including more than 53,000 volunteers annihilated the enemy), completed the defensive mission, won time, covered the assembly of the volunteer army's follow-up corps, and created favorable conditions for the fifth campaign." In this battle, the volunteers suffered more than 42,000 casualties."

VIII. The Battle of The Iron Plains

　　The battle, which was at stake in the fate of the Volunteers at this time, took place at the end of the Fifth Campaign.

　　In this thirteen-day battle, the 63rd Army turned the tide, and more than 20,000 officers and men successfully resisted the attack of more than 50,000 United Nations troops armed to the teeth with rudimentary infantry weapons, blocking Van Vleet south of Chewon City, and buying valuable time for the main force of the Eastern Volunteer Army to move north of Tieyuan to build a new defensive line. "The participating units in the Tieyuan Blockade War really played the role of the mainstay at an important juncture in history."

The fifth campaign was a period of mobile warfare in which our army had the largest number of troops involved in the battle, the largest in scale, and the most thrilling offensive battle. In "Peng Dehuai's Self-Description", it was said that the boss's biggest concern at that time was the war attempt of the United States to "land from the flank and rear to cooperate with the frontal attack", and in order to foil the enemy's plot, the volunteer army launched an attack in advance.

　　At this time, Peng Zong already had "1.3 million Chinese and North Korean armies (including 950,000 volunteers, including 770,000 combat troops)." Among them, the first line combat strength of the Volunteer Army has three corps, eleven corps, thirty-three divisions, three ground artillery divisions, and one anti-aircraft artillery division, with a total of more than 548,000 people, together with the three first-line corps of the People's Army, and the front-line combat strength has reached nearly 700,000." These included the newly entered 19th Corps of our "Second Force" (Commander Yang Dezhi and Political Commissar Li Zhimin, in charge of the 63rd, 64th, and 65th Armies), the 3rd Corps (Commander and Political Commissar Chen Geng, Deputy Commander and Deputy Political Commissar Wang Jinshan, who took over the command of the troops during General Chen's illness and could not enter the DPRK, and had jurisdiction over the 12th, 15th, and 60th Armies), the 9th Corps (commander and political commissar Song Shilun, the 20th, 26th, and 27th Armies), and the first four armies directly under the headquarters of the Volunteer Army (39th, The 40th, 42nd, and 66th Armies), while the 38th and 50th Armies, which had previously suffered heavy losses at the Battle of the Han River, had been ordered to return to China for recuperation. "A large number of newly formed special forces have entered the DPRK one after another, and the 120,000 reinforcements drawn by the domestic troops (including 40,000 veterans) have all arrived." In addition, "the three corps of the Volunteer Army are located in the Suchuan, Wonsan, and Pyongyang areas, and the two corps of the People's Army are located in the Huaiyang and Shaliyuan areas, respectively, to undertake anti-landing and anti-airborne tasks."

　　In terms of campaign command, the biggest feature that distinguishes this campaign from the previous four battles is that Shiji no longer directly commands the army, and implements the three-level command structure (chain of command) of The Shiji → Corps → the front-line armies. The campaign revolved mainly around the "Central Corridor" of the peninsula, which was located between the 38th and 37th Lines, with the towns of Huachuan, Chuncheon, Hongcheon, Hengcheng, Wonju, and Cechuan.

　　On the "United Nations Army" side, it includes the 1st, 9th, and 10th Armies of the United States, the 1st, 3rd Armies of the South Korean Army, and some units of the Minions (of which the three countries of Britain, Canada, and Turkey are dispatched at the brigade level, and the battalion-level formation is the seven countries such as AFBI, Australia, New Fisaise). Its first-line strength was 12 divisions and 2 brigades, and its second-line and rear strength was 5 divisions, 1 brigade and 1 regiment. The reserves were the U.S. 1st Cavalry Division, the U.S. 187th Airborne Regiment, and the 2nd Division of the South Korean Army.

In the first phase of the operation, the 63rd Army of our right-wing Yang Corps successfully broke through the Linjin River, and the 187th Division (Division Commander Xu Xin) annihilated the British 29th Brigade Gloucester Battalion (the British "Double Emblem Battalion") in Xuemari, and captured 63 famous British combat heroes Liu Guangzi from here. However, five divisions of the 64th and 65th Armies, which crossed the river during the day, and more than 60,000 people, "crowded in a small area of 20 square kilometers on the south bank of the river, were attacked by enemy artillery, aviation (US 1 army artillery, US Navy warship guns on the west coast, and US Far East Air Force) fire, and suffered heavy casualties." Even under such circumstances, the 64th Army launched the famous "Daofeng Mountain Hero Detachment" and "broke into the enemy's depth of 25 kilometers, seriously threatening the flank of the 'United Nations Army'". The left-wing Song Corps "annihilated one unit each of the US 24th Division and the Han 6th Division", and commanded the 39th and 40th Armies to "advance to the Mudongli area south of the '38th Line'" and "successfully complete the task of dividing the campaign" in the area of Yuanchuanli south of the '38th Line'" and "successfully completing the task of dividing the campaign" under their command. However, the breakthrough of the Central Wang Corps was not smooth, and it "formed a confrontation with the enemy in the sentinel city, treasure mountain, Yongping area and other places."

　　In this way, the volunteer army "fought continuously for three days and nights, although it opened a gap in the battle in the direction of Gaping, posing a serious threat to the flank of the 'United Nations Army' on the western front, but the development of the campaign formed a flat push, and there were not many enemies annihilated." In view of the lost opportunity to annihilate the enemy north of Seoul, and the soldiers themselves basically ran out of food and ammunition, the main force stopped the attack on April 29 and ended the first phase of the operation. At this stage of the operation, a total of 23,000 enemy troops were annihilated." The enemy was repulsed from the "Kansas Line", which had previously occupied the "Kansas Line", which basically covered the 38th Line, to the area south of it.

In order to realize the determination to eliminate the three US divisions and expand the results of the battle, Peng Zong decided to move the 3rd and 9th Corps "covertly to the east and carry out the second phase of operations" in accordance with the characteristics of the front at this time showing a "southwest-to-northeast diagonal posture", and destroyed the main forces of the South Korean Army (the 3rd, 5th, 7th, and 9th Divisions, as well as the Capital Division and the 11th Division) that were prominent on the Eastern Front.

　　Beginning at dusk on May 16, after fierce fighting, our army annihilated a large number of enemies, and many units broke into the depths of the enemy army, among which the 91st Regiment of the 31st Division of the 12th Army (regimental commander Li Changlin and political commissar Zhang Shicheng) even went all the way to the brother peak area south of the 37th Line, southeast of Sanju-ri, north of Ha Jin-fu-ri, and was preparing to attack the headquarters of the Third Army of the South Korean Army, that is, the unit that was directly "disbanded" by the Yankees as a "guest" shortly after.

　　At this time, "the Chinese and DPRK people's armies were quite tired after continuous combat, most of the front-line armies had run out of food, and it was difficult to continue the offensive." In addition, the battle did not eliminate the US divisions and regimental formations, in order to maintain the initiative and make the main force rest, the attack was stopped on May 21. In the second phase of the operation, more than 23,000 enemy personnel were annihilated." On 21 May, Shiji ordered the front-line armies to quickly retreat and turn to the vicinity of the 38th line for defense. "It was decided to move the main force north to the north and south of the '38th Line'. In order to cover the transfer and rest of the main force, each corps retained the strength of 1 division to 1 corps to carry out mobile defense and slow down the enemy's advance."

Before the war, just as the "courageous action" of the US military was still in progress, MacArthur, a "war maniac" who constantly clamored to expand the scale of the war because he exceeded the political norms of the AMERICAN military, was dismissed by Truman in a rather humiliating way from all his positions overseas.

　　At the same time, Ridgway was appointed Commander-in-Chief of the Far-ASEAN Forces, Commander-in-Chief of the Far-ASEAN Forces, Commander-in-Chief of the US Occupation Forces in Japan, and Commander-in-Chief of the United Nations Forces. He immediately recommended that General Marshall confuse a drunkard of the same name with himself, but that the "Omaha" beach in Normandy allowed the U.S. 29th Division to "wake up" in an instant, lieutenant general James VanVleet, a West Point alumnus who had wiped out the partisans in Greece, and take over as commander of the U.S. Eighth Army.

　　At this time, Ridgway's "magnetic tactics" became more and more mature, and new content was added. In fact, it is to learn from our army's roundabout interspersed tactics, using tanks, artillery vehicles, and infantry to form a battalion-level motorized "task force," such as the 7th RegimentAlth Cavalry Assault Team of the US 1st Cavalry Division, the "Delwin" Armored Detachment of the US 25th Division, and the "NiumanJianbing" Contingent of the US 10th Army, "mainly along the areas on both sides of the Seoul-to-Lianchuan, Chuncheon-to-Hwacheon, and Hongcheon-Linhe Highway, and (in parts) counterattacked against me in multiple ways." The enemy took advantage of the gap in the front on the way back of the volunteer army to penetrate deep into our rear, "creating a situation in which our army was very passive in the early stage of the transfer, and there was a momentary confusion on the central front."

　　This caused a great deal of passivity and losses to our army's operations in the retreat phase of the Fifth Campaign. By May 24, "the 12th Army headquarters and its subordinate 2 divisions, the main force of the 27th Army, and the 180th Division of the 60th Army were cut off by the American army south of the 38th Line." However, with the exception of most of the losses of the 180th Division, the rest of the old troops were successfully withdrawn.

　　This was the military background of the Tieyuan Blockade War.

　Tetsuhara is located in the middle of the Korean Peninsula, in a mountainous hilly area, and is the rule of Tetsuhara-gun, Gangwon Province. Three railways intersect here, heading south to Seoul, Wonsan to the north, and Mount Kumgang to the east. It is adjacent to the 38th Line and is also a convenient transportation hub for the 38th Line. To the north is the plain of the Ichima Hirakawa River, which is very suitable for the operation of American armored units. Nearby Wukaili was the most important rear supply base for the pre-war Volunteer Army, and the Empty Temple Cave of the Volunteer Army headquarters was less than 50 km away.

　　On the day after Ridgway launched operation "tearing operation", Peng Zong accurately determined the main direction of Van Vliet's main attack, and directly ordered the 63rd Army (commander Fu Chongbi and political commissar Long Daoquan) to retreat to the rear to recuperate in the early stages of the battle, and marched south to build a defensive line for 15 days to ensure the transfer of large troops and build a new front.

　　The boss gave Yang Dezhi's order to "stick to Tieyuan for 15 to 20 days" and asked them to take into account the overall situation, not hesitate to fight the 63rd Army, and not to let the US troops enter Tieyuan City at the specified time. The headquarters of the Volunteer Army instructed the corps, "You shall order the 187th and 189th Divisions to advance rapidly to the south and resolutely resist the enemy's attack." The main forces of the two divisions should buy time to repair the fortifications in the predetermined area, and should order the first unit of the 188th Division to rush to repair the fortifications in the designated area of the Tieyuan Shiji and the northwest area of the inner and outer Ishibashi, and order the 188th Division to make preparations for a resolute battle in Shuoning and the southeastern region." According to the officers of the headquarters later recalled, every night of these days and nights, Peng Zong spent a long time silently looking at the battlefield in the south at the headquarters of the Empty Temple, which was less than 50 kilometers away from the Iron Plains, and people also became particularly haggard.

Before entering the DPRK, the 19th Corps of the West African Field Army was deployed in the northwest region, and after the war to resist US aggression and aid Korea began, it was transported as a second-line unit of the volunteer army through the Longhai-Jinpu line to the Qufu area of Shandong Province for reorganization and training and replacement of Soviet-style weapons. During this period, the commander-in-chief personally went to this place to visit the officers and men of the troops.

　　The predecessor of the 63rd Army was the Third Column of the Field Army of the North China Military Region, and the first commander was the famous general Zheng Weishan (then deputy commander of the 19th Corps). "In the War of Liberation, it was the first-class main force of the North China People's Liberation Army, and its cadres at and above the division level were all Red Army cadres with excellent work style." After replenishing new recruits in the northeast (of which young farmers accounted for 1/3 of the troops' posts), the troops were fully loaded and had more than 42,000 people. After the preliminary battle, when entering the Tieyuan Defense Zone, the whole army was about 24,000 people (including 14,000 people in the 189th Division).

　　"The Tieyuan Blockade Battle was the largest, fiercest and most brutal battle in the history of the 63rd Army." The party committee of the army demanded that "all commanders and fighters have the courage to shoulder heavy burdens, have the courage to fight a vicious battle, do not cry bitterness, do not call for tiredness, are not afraid of fighting alone, are not afraid of bloody sacrifice, give play to their ability to fight independently, like nails, nail to the forward positions, be resourceful and brave, live on the positions, fight on the positions, and destroy the enemy in front of the positions."

On the defensive front, which was 25 kilometers wide and 20 kilometers deep in the Chain River and Tiewon area, our volunteer army faced more than 50,000 strong troops of the US 1st Cavalry Division and the 25th US Cavalry Division, the British 28th Brigade and the 29th Brigade, the 1st Division of South Korea, and the Canadian Brigade, which were attacking the right flank of the United Nations Army.

　　In this regard, General Fu Chongbi's battlefield layout was to put the troops in the shape of "inverted characters", of which the right wing was the 189th Division with Seed Mountain as the core position, the left wing was the 188th Division with Gaotai Mountain as the focus, and the 187th Division was located on the second line. The military department was determined to "concentrate its forces and weapons in the central defensive area, block the enemy in the first position for 10 days, resist and block the enemy for more than 5 days in the second and third positions, 'no army order, no retreat', and resolutely complete the tasks entrusted by the volunteer army command!" ” 。

　　The headquarters of General Cai Changyuan, political commissar and acting commander of the 189th Division, first undertook the most arduous task after the battle began. In view of the tactical characteristics of the US military of advancing one after another and never exposing the flanks, he invented a new tactic of "throwing beans for soldiers" under modern war conditions. The units to which they belonged were in battalions and platoons, and more than two hundred "steel nail" positions (some positions even had only one squad) were scattered on the defensive front. The purpose is to reduce the lethal effect of enemy fire, as far as possible to delay the enemy's advance speed, he called this "dancing chain."

　　The forward troops "arranged three-person combat groups at several points, with party members among the frontline soldiers as the center and veterans as the backbone, to lead the new recruits" to resolutely implement this method of warfare. This completely depends on the revolutionary consciousness and sacrifice spirit of the officers and men of the Volunteer Army, and is the absolute firepower superiority brought by the flesh and blood as a "steel nail" in the face of the 250-500-pound aerial bombs that the "United Nations Army" continues to roar in, and the large-caliber howitzer shells under the "Van Vliet Ammunition Quantity".

　　At the most tense moment of the war, when Commander Fu asked Commander Cai what he needed, the answer was only "Please build a second line of defense." Commander Cai Changyuan led the whole division to successfully hold out at Seed Mountain for four days, and when the position was withdrawn, the troops could only be reduced to one regiment. Subsequently, "retreated to Wacaoli and Daoxinli, 15 miles north of the chain river, and laid out new defensive positions." The thin General Cai was seriously wounded in this battle, and the 11 pieces of shrapnel that could not be removed from his body accompanied him throughout the rest of his life.

The same was true of Zhang Yinghui's 188th Division. Resolutely carrying out the orders of the headquarters, so that the heavy troops of the US army stopped in front of the Gaotai Mountain position held by the 563rd Regiment (regimental commander Ma Zhaomin), it was always difficult to overcome, and guo Enzhi, commander of the 8th Company, made another miracle. The last seven remaining warriors of the 1st Company and 2nd Platoon, at the last moment when they ran out of ammunition and food, led by deputy platoon leader Li Bingqun, shouted "Victory belongs to us, long live the motherland!" "Jump off a cliff resolutely. Among them, Zhai Guoling, Hou Tianyou, and Luo Juncheng were supported by branches under the cliff to survive, "carrying wounds through the enemy's blockade, climbing back to their own troops step by step, and the other five were heroically sacrificed."

The most dangerous moment occurred a day or two before the 63rd Army was about to complete its mission.

　　In the face of a head-on stalemate, the commander of the US 1st Army, "Prawns," decided to organize a "mech force" and planned to detour back to the flank of our army through a lonely mountain (place name) next to a village called Neigade and Waigade in South Korea. Cao Buqi, commander of the 564th Regiment of the 188th Division, placed the five companies that could best fight in the regiment on this two-hundred-meter-high hill and blew up the nearby reservoir, and these more than seventy commanders and fighters made mitchell unable to move.

　　On the evening of June 9, as the U.S. army was approaching the city of Chewon, Fu Chongbi commanded the artillery and the katyusha rocket artillery battalion reinforced by the headquarters to launch a rapid fire attack on the U.S. position, thus winning another precious day of time.

　　In this battle, the 63rd Army "killed and wounded more than 15,000 American troops", and the 3rd Battalion of the 561st Regiment of the 187th Division was awarded a pennant by the 63rd Army as "Guarding Mount Tai".

The 63rd Army was not alone. "In the transfer stage of the entire Fifth Campaign, the joint command (joint division) of the Chinese and DPRK armies deployed the 64th Army, 63rd Army, 26th Army, 20th Army, and 15th Army of the Volunteer Army, and later supplemented the 65th Army with a total of six armies, the 5th, 2nd, and 3rd Armies of the People's Army", and thereafter there were "the 47th, 42nd, 26th, 20th, and 27th Armies of the Volunteer Army that carried out the task of establishing a defense system in the rear", of which the 20th Army carried out the blocking task in the Huachuan area and the 15th Army in the Shibaura-ri area at the same time.

　　From May 27 to June 10, 1951, after thirteen days of blood and fire fighting, when the 63rd Army withdrew to Ikawa to rest, the troops suffered heavy casualties. "Among them, the 563rd Regiment of the 188th Division had 2,700 soldiers when it entered the DPRK, but only 266 were left after the Tieyuan I War." It has been estimated that after the war, "there are still more than 14,000 people left in the whole army of the 63rd Army." Subsequently, the volunteer army headquarters added 20,000 people to Commander Fu Chongbi, many of whom were veterans, to fu Chongbi, whose first words to Peng Zong after waking up from the wounded and saying, "I want soldiers." Among them, "the 189th Division was supplemented with 1 formed battalion of the First Field Army and 4843 new recruits, and the whole division was basically full."

　　At this time, General Manager Peng, who was preparing to return to China to report on his work, personally went to the garrison of the troops before leaving to visit these officers and men who had died nine times. The commander-in-chief of the volunteer army, who has always been serious, said a sentence that will last a lifetime for the officers and men to these ragged warriors who were armed with empty weapons in their magazines:

　　"The motherland thanks you! I thank you Peng Dehuai! ”

On May 27, the Chinese and North Korean People's Army quickly deployed the main forces of the 63rd, 64th, 15th, 26th, and 20th Armies of the Volunteer Army and the 2nd, 3rd, and 5th Armies of the People's Army to organize a defense in the areas of Shibaura-ri, Huachuan, Yangkou, and Gancheng north of the Linjin River and the Hantan River. From the 28th to the 30th, the 65th Army and the 20th Army counterattacked the 1st Army of the United States that attacked Lianchuan and the 9th Army of the United States that invaded and occupied the Huachuan area, annihilating one of them and recovering Huachuan.

　　On June 1, the 47th, 42nd, 20th, and 27th Armies of the Volunteer Army began to form a deep defense line along the xinmu, Yichuan, Jixiongshan, and Heiyun Tuling lines. On the 10th, our army took the initiative to withdraw from Tieyuan and Jinhua, and blocked the enemy army on the wenshan, Gaolangpuli, Tieyuan, Jinhua, Yangkou, and Mingboli lines near the "38th Line." Both the enemy and us turned to defense, and the fifth battle was over.

　　In this campaign (April 22, 1951 to June 10, 1951), the Chinese and North Korean People's Army invested a total of 15 armies, fought for 50 consecutive days, killed and wounded 82,000 enemy prisoners, thwarted the "United Nations Army" with a flank landing to cooperate with the frontal attack, established a new defensive line at the waist of the Korean bee, got rid of the passive situation in the fourth battle, and trained the newly entered North Korean troops. After this contest, the "Un Army" had to turn to strategic defense and was forced to accept armistice negotiations. Commanders at all levels of our army have also further deepened their understanding of the military attributes of the war against the United States and aid korea, and then began to adapt to this modern war and gradually turned to the initiative. "Our army also paid a considerable price, and the number of combat casualties reached 85,000" (the casualties of the enemy and us were 1:1.038).

　　Later, when summing up the mistakes made in this campaign, Mao once said, "Leaders at all levels have certain responsibilities, but they cannot bear all the responsibilities."

Nine, three giant breakthrough

　　When the 31st Division of the 12th Army of the Volunteer Army (division commander Zhao Lantian and political commissar Liu Xuan) was blocked by the enemy in the rear of the front, Zhao Lantian, the commander of the Division, who was the first commander of our army when it formed the 15th Airborne Army of the Air Force in 1962, resolutely decided to lead the 93rd Regiment to block the enemy on the spot in the area west of Shushali (at this time the 92nd Regiment had been changed to the command of the 34th Division), waiting for the 91st Regiment, which was nearly 100 km far south, to be rebuilt, "and then the whole division was concentrated and moved backwards." At the same time, Feng Ting, deputy chief of the division's operations section, was ordered to take the urgent letter from Lin Yousheng, the chief of staff of the division, to go deep behind the enemy and go south to find the main force of the division.

　　When Feng Ting, who led two guards and was guided by a platoon leader surnamed Park of the People's Army, finally found Lee Changlin alone (the other three were all sacrificed on the way) after many hardships, he found that the old Red Army from the Red Fourth Front army was "preparing to attack the headquarters of the Third Army of South Korea." In fact, the regiment had been encircled by the enemy in the Sanjuli area north of Lower Zhenfuli.

　　At this critical moment when the troops had lost contact with the main force and were isolated from the enemy, "the situation was unknown, the terrain was unfamiliar, the food and ammunition were scarce, and there were many wounded", Commander Lee decided to follow the division commander's second plan (detouring from Lower Jeonfuli to the northeast, looking for a gap to return from the east coast to the north), disguised as the South Korean Army, and with this unit of more than a thousand people, unexpectedly first entered the mountain jungle area to the east, and then turned north in the Jianshan area, crossed the South Han River, crossed the Xueyue Mountain, crossed the east coast of Korea, and passed through seven days and seven nights. Eventually rendezvous with the divisional headquarters. It also brought back 119 South Korean prisoners. General Peng immediately appointed Li Changlin as the deputy commander of the 31st Division, after which Li Changlin once again played the heroic role of the volunteer army at the Battle of Shangganling.

　　The authoritative sources of our army commented on this: "The officers and men of the whole regiment united as one, braved the difficulties, fought and fought on the way, annihilated 1 company of the enemy successively, destroyed 1 battalion, replenished themselves with captured weapons, ammunition and grain, smashed the front blockade and rear chase of the South Korean army, and withdrew safely from more than 90 kilometers behind the enemy's rear with all the wounded, and finally (on May 29) broke through the heavy siege and met the main force of the division at Wendeng-ri."

This feat of Li Changlin was highly praised by the head of the volunteer army.

　　Marshal Peng Dehuai said at the relevant post-war meeting that "the 91st regiment of the 12th Army is more than a hundred kilometers away from the large army and goes deep alone." Why was the regiment able to withdraw in its entirety? It depends on whether the cadres are strong and powerful."

　　General Hong Xuezhi wrote in his memoirs, "The 91st Regiment of the 31st Division of the 12th Army is an old unit of the Red Army with good quality. Losing contact with their superiors, the lone army went farest behind the enemy's lines, and under the enemy's heavy encirclement, the cadres were firm and powerful, leading the troops to break through the enemy's encirclement with the wounded and prisoners in the absence of ammunition and food, and finally the whole regiment withdrew intact."

The predecessor of the 12th Army was the Erye Six Columns during the Liberation War, and the commander said when the Jinji-Hebei Luyu Field Army launched the decisive battle of Dayanghu in the Dingtao Campaign: "Our 6 columns will fight resolutely!" Hit the remaining brigade, I will be the brigade commander! There is one regiment left, and I will be the leader of the regiment! There is one company left, and I will be the company commander! With all the light, we are worthy of the party and the fathers and fellow countrymen of the Taihang Mountains who nurtured us! Such a bold statement was called "dare to fight a hard battle, very fierce" by the chief designer, and when compiling the history of the Second Field War, it was evaluated as the famous warlord Wang Jinshan who fought the most meritorious and the most difficult and important battle in the entire field army.

　　It is said that he is also the main prototype of Li Yunlong in the TV series "Bright Sword".

　　"There are no weak soldiers under the strong generals." The Red Army, which had broken through the farthest and was alone behind the enemy, was thus fully loaded and successfully burst out without loss -- the retreat operation was the most able to reflect the command level of the commander and the combat effectiveness of the troops.

　However, among the nine divisions under the command of the corps as soon as he entered the dynasty, the 180th Division, which made Wang Jinshan feel bottomless and was upgraded by the new troops in Shanxi, really had a big problem at this time.

　　Of course, after engaging in the detailed investigation of the supreme commander and even directly consulting a combat staff officer of the corps, this was not the fault of a person in the 3rd Corps or the 60th Army. However, after entering the second stage, the troops were frequently mobilized, such as transferring the main force of the 3rd Corps, the 12th Army, to the Song Corps, and Wang Jinshan had to transfer the 179th Division (that is, the Linfen Brigade) and the 181st Division of the 60th Army to the emergency; so that Wei Jie only had one 180th Division left at this time to undertake the mission of covering the retreat of the entire 60th Army Corps and covering the transfer of 8,000 wounded; in addition, the acting division commander Zheng Qigui had been engaged in political work before, the military business was not his own business, and his firm party spirit and the sharp conflict between the rapid changes in the enemy's situation were caused by a series of factors, which were caused by a series of factors.

　　From this, we need to constantly reflect deeply on our own shortcomings, so as to continuously improve ourselves in these lessons that have been exchanged for blood and lives. In fact, what we should praise even more at this moment are those warriors who have always been unyielding in the face of unfavorable war conditions - they are also heroes of the country and heroes of the people!

Wu Chengde, the only captured volunteer division-level cadre, director of the Political Department of the 180th Division and acting political commissar, killed the warhorse at a critical moment of life and death and chose to stay with the wounded to break through; during the siege of the US and Lee armies, he led dozens of surviving officers and men to fight a guerrilla war in South Korea without any mass base for a year, and finally was wounded in the head by the American soldiers and captured; he persisted in the struggle in the prisoner of war camp, and finally refused to "screen" and returned to the motherland with more than 6,000 comrades-in-arms.

　　In the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea, a total of 21,839 officers and men of the Volunteer Army were captured, "including 608 officers at the company and platoon level, 32 cadres at the battalion level, 5 cadres at the regimental level, and 1 cadre at the division level." After the war, "6,673 people returned to the mainland of the motherland, 14,235 were transported to Taiwan, and a few chose to go to other neutral countries." Wu Chengde is an outstanding representative of him who has adhered to revolutionary beliefs and has always been unyielding in the cruel war environment.

General Xu Yan of the National Defense University believes that only about 3,000 of them have actually volunteered to Come to Taiwan.

　　His analysis of this is that of the 21,000 volunteer prisoners of war, the former Kuomintang prisoners did account for about 70%. However, most of these people were also from poor families, and after liberation, they were educated by the People's Liberation Army, and the Communist Party gave their families land. Therefore, he still supports the Communist Party politically, but at the same time he misses the motherland and his hometown, and he is willing to repatriate him in his heart. As for the real "anti-communist prisoners of war" who were "unwilling to repatriate," according to the analysis of the situation received by later returnees and others, there were about 3,000 of them. ...... There were also about 11,000 PRISONERs of war who were among the "attitude swingers". The reason is that they are willing to return home on the one hand, and on the other hand, they are afraid of the terrorist acts of the scum who have violently controlled the camps. They were forced to tattoo the words "anti-communist and anti-Russian" on their bodies, and many of them succumbed to threats and signed documents concocted by US and Taiwan agents. Therefore, in the face of the test of life and death, we have not been able to firmly express our desire to return to our motherland. When the later explanatory work was disrupted, most of these people were forced to go to Taiwan.

Some of the key battles in the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea (III) have been serialized, please see serial four