Chapter 13: Happy New Year

On 30 December, when night surrounded both sides of the Imjin River, the whole regiment of men and horses came out of the forest in several groups, climbed over the plain, and quietly dived into the tunnel, and the whole regiment was hidden overnight.

The attack time is set for 5 p.m. tomorrow, which is the favorite attack time of the volunteer soldiers! At this time, it is the time for the enemy to eat dinner and then rest and sleep, not to mention that the sky is getting darker and darker, and the enemy is getting more and more tired from fighting!

Since the attack began in the afternoon of the next day, the whole regiment had to enter the tunnel the night before. As soon as I drilled into the tunnel, I found a very wrong place, usually in the tunnel in and out of the drill I don't think, this time I have to spend the night in the tunnel, only to find that the stuffy inside, just like when I was a child in the train full of people. I hadn't slept for half an hour in the tunnel, and I regretted why I hadn't dug a few more vents in the first place.

But thinking about it, there is no way to do it, the ground is full of mines, and every time I dig a vent to go up, I carefully scout it several times to make sure that there are no mines on it. If I get a few more, I don't know when I'll get it.

This lurking is easy to say, but it is really not so easy to do, more than 100 people are nested in a narrow space, the air is almost empty, and this urine and urine have to be ...... Hi, it's good that each squad and each platoon have prepared several iron boxes!

Although most of the volunteer soldiers have little culture, they are really no worse than me, an excellent graduate of a certain university, no, the tunnel is full of "props" prepared by the soldiers, including door panels and wooden planks borrowed from the common people, which are used to cross the ice caves in the Imjin River; a homemade wooden ladder for climbing the steep arm; Socks sewn from raincoats, which are used to solve the waterproof and anti-freezing ......

There are also straw sandals, which is the strength of the volunteer soldiers, everyone gives themselves a pair, isn't it? I also had a pair of rubber shoes on the outside, which Instructor Zhao helped to beat, which was said to be used to prevent slipping on the ice. I don't know if walking on ice will work, but walking on snow is much better.

From this, I can't help but admire once again that the wisdom of the masses is infinite!

But then my worries also arise, the general offensive will be launched tomorrow, but the dry food distributed to the volunteers is only enough to feed for three days, and each soldier has only thirty rounds of ammunition. When I heard this number, I couldn't help but faint, the ammunition base of a Japanese soldier in the whole World War II was 120 rounds. Now he is also a volunteer soldier with a 38 cover in his hand, but the bullet in his hand is only a quarter of the base of the Japanese army.

Logistics, logistics has always been a big problem for the soldiers of the volunteers, and this problem was not serious when they first entered the Korean War, because the first two battles had not been fought far, and the domestic food and ammunition were basically only shipped out of the country to the hands of the volunteers. However, now that the Volunteer Army has reached the vicinity of the 38th parallel, this not only calls for a major victory for the Volunteer Army, but also exposes a very serious problem -- the supply line of the Volunteer Army soldiers is getting longer and longer. And in the absence of an air force and navy, the supply lines of the Volunteer Army are still very fragile. It can be said that every bullet, every fried mein, and every cotton coat is condensed with the blood of the logistics troops.

However, the problem of lack of bullets should not appear on my body, I checked the ammunition bag on my body, there are more than a dozen pounds! I counted thirty-eight magazines, more than 300 rounds of ammunition, and six grenades, which I picked up all the way during the second battle. And that's not even counting the fifteen magazines that were forced to turn in.

Touching the M1C sniper rifle in my hand, I couldn't help but secretly congratulate myself that this guy was using the bullets of a regular M1 rifle, if it was a competition bullet for sniper rifles, where would I find so many bullets......

For most of the day, no words were allowed, no sound was allowed, and time passed minute by minute in boredom and boredom.

By nearly five o'clock in the afternoon of the next day, the atmosphere in the tunnel was extremely tense, but not to welcome the New Year, but to wait for the upcoming third battle.

At this time, the people in China should be preparing wine and food for the New Year, or a family sitting in front of the warm pit to wrap dumplings.

And we...... Hiding in the tunnel and enduring the corrosive air, shivering in thin cotton clothes, there are only two days of fried noodles left in the dry food bag, if it weren't for the imminent war, I think everyone might still be reluctant to eat a bite.

"Happy New Year!" Instructor Zhao patted me on the shoulder as he passed by me. Stunned, I grabbed my sniper rifle and stood up, checked my equipment one last time in the dim light, and then pulled out a magazine to load my rifle.

"Happy New Year!" I poked Huzi in the back, who was holding a handful of fried noodles and pouring them into his mouth, and when he heard this, he turned around and smiled at me, his beard covered with crumbs.

"Happy New Year!" Huzi shouted at the old squad leader in a slightly hoarse voice, and the movements of the old squad leader's hands couldn't help but stagnate, he was helping Jin Qiulian tie up the marching quilt.

"Happy New Year!" The old squad leader used his hand to check the marching belt on Jin Qiulian's back to ensure that it was strong.

"Happy New Year!"

"Happy New Year!"

……

After a while, the tunnel was full of whispered greetings, and everyone was smiling and blessing each other, not at all like they were going to a big battle, but more like they were going to a banquet!

Outside the tunnel, there is still wind and snow, and there is a vast white patch. At this moment, a string of brilliant signal flares suddenly rose into the air, and hundreds of cannons of the volunteer army roared almost at the same time. In an instant, the silence of the Imjin River was broken by bursts of cannon fire, and swarms of shells swept towards the enemy's position like a whirlwind, and the enemy's position set off a sea of smoke and fire, and the debris of countless destroyed pillboxes, barbed wire, and fences flew into the air.

This was the first large-scale concentrated use of artillery by the Volunteer Army since its entry into Korea, and in order to break through this line of defense, the Volunteer Army poured out all the accumulated artillery shells at this moment.

The sound of artillery continued for more than thirty minutes. The enemy thought that the artillery of the Volunteers was weak and that there was no air force, so he was very relieved to expose the artillery positions and firing points to the observation of the Volunteers. As a result, the artillery fire of the Volunteers successfully suppressed the enemy's artillery and firing points, and many of the enemy's artillery formations failed to fire a single shell within dozens of minutes of the Volunteers' shelling.

At this time, several red flares rose again in the sky, and the artillery fire began to extend, and it was time for us to strike.