On March 25, 1952, Peng Dehuai held an operational meeting in the Hinogakura Gold Mine, the main content of which was to consolidate the existing positions and squeeze the enemy positions with cameras. At this meeting, Peng Dehuai made an important decision, that is, to transfer the 15th Army into the Area of the Five Holy Mountains to take over the defensive positions of the 26th Army.
After the meeting, Peng Dehuai left Qin Jiwei, the commander of the 15th Army, alone, and he solemnly said to Qin Jiwei:
"The Five Holy Mountains are the gateway to the korean central line, and without the loss of the Five Holy Mountains, we will retreat 200 kilometers without danger." You have to remember that whoever loses the Five Holy Mountains is responsible for the history of Korea! ”
< h1 class = "pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track = "7" > the fifth battle, the 15th Army performed well</h1>
Peng Dehuai's judgment stemmed from the outstanding performance of the 15th Army in the Fifth Campaign, and Qin Jiwei and all the commanders and fighters of the 15th Army not only orderly during the retreat, but also completed the task of blocking the attack at Jiaoyi Peak, Pu Dafeng and other positions, making outstanding contributions to the stability of the entire front.
Ridgway is not a simple character, the Battle of Pingli in the Fourth Campaign, and the Great American Counteroffensive in the Fifth Campaign are all written by him. Ridgway summed up the combat experience and discovered the weakness of the volunteer army, that is, an offensive could only last for 7 days, and on the 8th day, the Chinese army could only stop the pace of the attack due to the fragile logistics system.
Therefore, in the fifth campaign, the US army retreated very quickly, until the Chinese army was tight on food and ammunition and stopped attacking, and the US army began to counterattack in a big way.
The Volunteers were retreating, and the Americans began to counterattack on all fronts, which plunged the entire front of the Volunteers into chaos for a while, and the Third Corps failed to strictly implement the order, which was a big problem. The corps headquarters was transferred ahead of schedule, and during the transfer, the radio was destroyed by enemy aircraft, so the third corps headquarters lost contact with the three corps under its command for three days.
At the most passive time, it is best to see the command level of a general, the more chaotic, the more important the role of the command system, after receiving the order to retreat, Qin Jiwei did not rush to issue an order, but first turned on all the radios of the whole army, called out the regimental commander of each regiment, and explained the retreat route and time one by one.
In order to save time, Qin Jiwei directly asked Zhang Yunyu, chief of staff of the army, to organize a detachment directly under the army, and after the assembly, Zhang Yunyu said "turn backwards" and directly took the miscellaneous personnel away from the station. Qin Jiwei's superior command conveyed the order very well, and the troops retreated in an orderly manner, avoiding a lot of trouble.
In fact, in large corps combat, retreat is much more difficult than attack, in the narrow area of Korea, it is easy to cause chaos when retreating, and once chaos occurs, even the commander is difficult to stop.
Retreat is necessary, but in order to stabilize the position and stabilize the front, there must be an army on the front line to block the enemy, and only by blocking the enemy can the troops in the rear re-establish the front.
At that time, the volunteer defense line was frequently flawed, and the US 25th Division, the US 3rd Division, and the Canadian 25th Brigade were rushing toward Shibaura-ri, directly threatening Tetsuhara and Jinhua. In other words, if Tieyuan and Jinhua were captured by the American army, the Ninth Corps on the Eastern Front and the two corps of the People's Army would be trapped in a narrow strip of land from north to south, and there would be no danger to defend, and if this happened, the consequences would be really unimaginable.
The 15th Army was tasked with blocking Shibaura-ri, because the mountains here were continuous, and it was a natural barrier between Iron Plains and Jinhua, and if it was preserved here, it would be able to keep the Iron Plains and Jinhua fronts.
The 15th Army, which had just withdrawn from the battle, had to return to the front line again, and although the 15th Army was exhausted in the retreat and was seriously short of food and ammunition, Qin Jiwei still gritted his teeth and agreed:
"Rest assured Commander that we will do everything we can to hold out for at least ten days!"
The order was personally conveyed by Peng Dehuai, because the task of the 15th Army was too important, which was related to the life and death of hundreds of thousands of volunteers.
Due to the urgency of time, the 15th Army reached Jiaoyi Peak and Park Dafeng at the speed of forced marching, and the grain was basically eaten, and the soldiers could only dig up some wild vegetables to fill their hunger.
After the 15th Army reached its position, it fought with the Canadian Brigade and the US Army, both sides knew the importance of the geographical location here, under the cover of aircraft and artillery, the US army launched a series of charges, the two sides repeatedly fought in Jiaoyi Peak and Park DaFeng, within a few days, the soldiers were exhausted to the extreme, and on June 4, the shaky position was broken by more than a dozen US tanks.
Peng Dehuai, who learned the news, was anxious and immediately called the 15th Army, and it was the political commissar Gu Jingsheng who answered the phone, and Peng Dehuai roared angrily:
"I can't hold the Horned Peak, I will revoke your military number!"
Peng Dehuai's words were not alarmist, and at such a critical moment, if the 15th Army really could not hold on, it would be in big trouble. Fortunately, the 29th Division immediately organized firepower and recaptured the position in time.
The 15th Army showed its tenacious will to fight in the blockade battle, and launched a large-scale white-knife battle with the enemy on the position, and after 10 days of bloody battle, the 15th Army held the position and crushed the attempt of the American army.
After the battle, Peng Dehuai sent a telegram: Qin Jiwei, I thank you very much! Peng Dehuai.
With Peng Dehuai's personality, it is rare to send such sincere telegrams, so it can be seen that the 15th Army has made great achievements!
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="96" > Peng Dehuai's reflection</h1>
The fifth campaign was not the most difficult time for the Volunteers, in the first four battles, the equipment of the Volunteers had not been changed, most of them used equipment captured in the Liberation War, but even so, they still fought the United Nations army back to the south of the 38th Line.
In the fifth campaign, the troops were replenished and the equipment was greatly improved. Peng Dehuai fell into a long period of thinking. As one of the greatest military experts in the history of our army, Peng Dehuai has always been very strict with himself, and he cannot tolerate the mistakes of others and will not forgive his own mistakes.
In addition to the problem of inferior equipment and insufficient supply of supplies to the US military, Peng Dehuai has reflected on many generals on many occasions. The fifth campaign was launched too hastily, Yang Dezhi's Nineteenth Corps, not fully prepared at all, directly pulled up and fought, the 64th Army was blocked by enemy fire on the south bank of the Linjin River, and the 65th Army just rushed up, five divisions and sixty thousand people crowded everything, under the enemy's bombardment, heavy losses.
The 3rd Corps retreated in some confusion, and the 180th Division of the 60th Army was surrounded by the enemy, with a total of 12,000 men, and only less than 4,000 successfully broke through, and many fighters were either killed or captured.
North Korea's terrain is narrow and long, a campaign launched hundreds of thousands of horses, it is difficult to complete the interspersed when attacking, and when retreating, once there is a problem, it is a catastrophe. In addition, our army's appetite is also somewhat large, and it wants to eat several divisions of the other side at a time, but in actual conditions, it is very difficult to annihilate the enemy into a formed regiment.
Including Peng Dehuai, the cadres of our army began to rethink, so after this, Chairman Mao also put forward the strategy of "zero knocking on the candy of the cow's skin." Our army took small goals as the starting point, and the accumulation of small amounts and accumulations can still inflict heavy damage on the enemy.
At the same time, in the Korean battlefield, position defense warfare has also been put on the agenda, before the Korean War, our army rarely fought defensive warfare, hindered by the backwardness of equipment, the difficulty of supply, defensive warfare is easy to suffer losses, so in the Korean War, the first five battles were adopted as a mobile war.
Time is passing, then the strategy and tactics must also keep pace with the times, the volunteer army and the U.S. army have realized that it is impossible to achieve a complete victory on one side, so stabilizing the front will receive better results.
Due to the increased firepower of the Volunteer Army, the US army began to build strong fortifications of reinforced concrete, and set up defensive depths on the periphery of the front, and set up a large number of minefields, while our army adopted the combat method of tunnels, which was enough to resist the large fire bombardment of the US army.
In 1952, with the stabilization of the front, Peng Dehuai also determined the direction of the defensive position, and the focus at this time was not to open up and close the offensive, but to maintain important positions and squeeze out the enemy's positions, and its purpose also became to gain the initiative in negotiations.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="97" > h1 class," Peng Dehuai transferred the 15th Army to defend the Five Holy Mountains</h1>
On March 25, 1952, Peng Dehuai held a military conference, which many generals did not know, this was Peng Dehuai's last military conference in Korea, and it was also the last platoon of his war career.
Not long ago, the doctor found that Peng Dehuai had a small tumor on his head, benign or malignant, it was difficult to distinguish, the doctor was worried that it was a cancerous mass, and then the central authorities were ready to transfer Peng Dehuai back to China for treatment and preside over the work of the Central Military Commission.
The good situation of the Korean War was created by Peng Dehuai, and at that time, the positions of the two sides were basically stable, but Peng Dehuai also had the most worrying thing, that is, the Tieyuan and Jinhua areas of the Korean central line.
Korean War Chronicles say:
"The so-called central front generally refers to the Area of Jincheng and Jinhua, and the area east to the North Han River is called the Central and Eastern Region, and the area west to the Tieyuan is called the Central and Western Regions, and the above-mentioned areas include not only the Jincheng Basin and the so-called Iron Triangle areas of Jinhua, Pingkang, and Tieyuan, but also the enemy's key charge of the Five Holy Mountains."
At this meeting in March, Peng Dehuai made an important decision, that is, to transfer Qin Jiwei's 15th Army into the Five Holy Mountains and take charge of the defense of the gateway to the Korean central line, which proved to be how wise Peng Dehuai's decision was, and the Battle of Shangganling half a year later was won because of Peng Dehuai's wise decision.
After the meeting, Peng Dehuai left Qin Jiwei alone, and Peng Dehuai recognized Qin Jiwei's command ability and the bravery and tenacity of the soldiers of the 15th Army, so he handed over the most important areas to Qin Jiwei.
"The Five Holy Mountains are the gateway to north Korea's central line, and without the loss of the Five Holy Mountains, we will retreat 200 kilometers without danger." You have to remember that whoever loses the Five Holy Mountains is responsible for the history of Korea! ”
In the Battle of Shangganling half a year later, our army fought fiercely with the enemy for 43 days, repeatedly fighting over positions of 3.7 square kilometers, and in the end, our army won a victory. After that, it was often said that the Real Understanding of Chinese by Americans began in Shangganling! (Text/Nine Fish Pavilion)