Chapter 58: The Grenade

Chapter 58: The Grenade

"We have to take the path," I said to Li Pinghe, Liu Shunyi, and the battalion commanders who came up.

"Regiment Leader" Wang Xin looked at the path drawn by Li Yongen on the map, and said hesitantly: "It may be difficult to take the path, I can't bring heavy weapons, and the distance is twice as long as the road, plus it is the rainy season now, in case of a landslide or something, our task will be completely completed......"

I couldn't help but look at Li Yongen, who frowned, and said with some worry: "There may be a landslide, you can go around." If there is no landslide, more than three hours. I don't know about the collapse."

Li Yongen's stiff Chinese made us sound a little difficult, but what he said was to the point, so we could understand what he meant.

After listening to it for more than three hours, we couldn't help but take a 'gasp'. Wang Xin's worries are not unreasonable, it is already more than ten o'clock, and taking the mountain road means arriving at the destination at one or two o'clock in the evening, even if we launch an attack on the enemy as soon as we arrive, we must occupy three targets in more than three hours, including a 585.2 high ground with complete fortifications, otherwise it will be very difficult to attack the puppet army troops with modern equipment as soon as the sky is 'dark'.

This is still the assumption in the absence of a landslide, and if there is a landslide, then we have no possibility of capturing the target before dawn.

"Regiment Commander" Liu Shunyi also hesitated and said: "If it takes more than an hour to reach the 585.2 Heights along the road, which is twice as fast as the time to walk the mountain road, and there are many uncertain factors in the mountain road, I think we can wait a little longer, and the comrades of the 539th Regiment should be able to break through the puppet army defense line soon."

"Yes, regiment commander" Hu Biao continued: "Even if the soldiers of the 539th Regiment fail to break through the defense line of the puppet army in time, we can also help them, if it is not the 539th Regiment, if the guys are really not good, just let our regiment go up and fight well, no matter how you say it, it is faster than walking on the mountain road, and the fight is also happy."

"I think it's still necessary to take the mountain road" After staring at the map for a while, I gritted my teeth and said: "I don't believe in the combat capabilities of the 539th Regiment, but because things will not be as simple as we imagined"

"Comrades, look," I said, pointing to the map, "the puppet army on the North Han River was routed by us, so they retreated to defend the Jinseongcheon Bridge, which already tells us a problem: the puppet army is no longer the rabble we fought in the first place. Now, even if we defeat the enemy at the Jinchengchuan Bridge, they will retreat to Heights 551.6, and when we capture Heights 551.6, the remnants will retreat to the ferry and the Joaquin Highway. If this continues, by the time we reach the 585.2 heights, the enemy will have long been prepared for battle, and we can't fight like this, and if we fight like this, we will be fighting to the death and fighting a dull battle."

After a pause, I continued: "What's even more terrifying is that when we reach the 585.2 height, it will be almost dawn, and if the puppet army transfers tanks and artillery to defend in time, it will be difficult for us to capture the 585.2 height, and even if we defeat it, we will not have the strength to stop the rout of the puppet army."

"If you take the mountain road...... Li Yongen pointed to the rear of the 585.2 heights and said, "It's here, you can be surprised"

"Hmm" Liu Shunyi and Li Pinghe couldn't help but be stunned when they heard this, and they both looked at Li Yongen and said, "Are you saying that if we take the mountain road, we can come out from the south of the 585.2 Heights?" ”

"Yes," Li Yongen nodded.

"That's another point I want to make," I added, "and the 539th Regiment is on the front line to attract all the enemy's firepower and attention, and the enemy is constantly sending troops and resources to the front line, not paying attention to his own troops. Our strange army unexpectedly penetrates deep into the enemy's rear, and it will certainly be able to catch the enemy by surprise. We can even divide a unit with the 539th Regiment to attack the puppet army that is resisting on the front line, so that they will retreat on all fronts."

"Consent"

"Consent"

Hearing me say this, Li Pinghe and Liu Shunyi no longer have any objections.

"How do I go on the mountain road?" I turned my gaze to Lee Yong-eun.

"Two miles ahead, Wutong Mountain," Li Yongen replied, pointing to the map.

"Report the situation to the division headquarters immediately," I immediately ordered, "and ordered the troops to advance towards Wutong Mountain."

"Yes" Liu Shunyi responded, got up and went to arrange.

The reason why I ordered the troops to advance towards Wutong Mountain before receiving the order agreed by the division headquarters was because time was victory at this time, and I knew that Division Commander Pang would definitely support my decision. Besides, I'm also the kind of person who will not be subject to foreign military orders, even if Master Pang doesn't agree, I will follow my own ideas.

Of course, this had to be on the basis of not disrupting the overall situation of the battle, so I didn't immediately ask the fighters to abandon heavy equipment.

Sure enough, after a while, Liu Shunyi came to me and reported: "Regiment commander, the division headquarters completely agrees with your combat plan and supports the 538th Regiment to 'insert' into the enemy's rear from the mountain road, but Division Commander Pang 'instructed' us to pay attention to the covert march, so as not to let the enemy discover the traces."

"Hmm" I nodded, Master Pang's worries are justified, the puppet army is also a native of Koreans, we will know this road, and of course the puppet army will also know this road. If they find out the whereabouts of our troops, it will not only be a matter of not being able to complete the mission, but our 'elite' troops will most likely be locked down in this forested mountain.

Thinking of this, I immediately ordered: "Give up all heavy weapons and advance covertly"

One by one, the soldiers passed on the orders, and immediately the whole unit was busy. The combat troops were nothing, and all they had to give up was a few 'guns' of small-caliber mountain guns drawn by mules. It is said that these mountain artillery pieces are all old-fashioned equipment captured from the Japanese, but the volunteer soldiers who have always lacked equipment have been reluctant to throw them away, so they have been carrying them, this time in the hope that they can play a role in attacking the puppet army heights.

I can understand the soldiers' reluctance to throw away the mountain artillery, especially these veterans of the 538 Regiment, most of them fought all the way from the War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression and the War of Liberation, and some of them are still worthy of the name of "three guns and eight roads", and they have really experienced the era when there were no bullets after three shots, and it is the people who have come from that era to understand how difficult it is to have such good equipment and so many bullets in their hands now, although there is still a gap between these equipment and the enemy.

So if you want them to lose their guns, and they snatch them from the Japanese with blood and lives, it can almost be said that it is a fantasy.

But now, they have to do it again. The reason is very simple, as a member of the 538th Regiment, they know that they must resolutely carry out the orders of their superiors on the battlefield, and there is no room for questioning

This is not? Although several volunteer soldiers were reluctant, they still dragged the mountain cannons to the side of the road and covered them with thatch and branches as fast as they could. While covering his mouth, he said: "Brother, just wait here, and when my brother comes back from the battle, I will pick you up."

In the past, I would have thought it would be ridiculous for anyone to give affection to something inanimate, but now it completely turns that idea upside down. Haven't I had feelings for this rifle in my hand? Even if it has a lot of 'faults' now, it is reluctant to change it......

This is not to say that we are stupid, nor that we are overflowing with feelings, but because even if we know that these things are lifeless and emotionless, we do go through many secondary lives and deaths with them, and it is often because of them that we can escape death again and again and win on the battlefield. So, it's hard to have no feelings for them

"Commander Cui" was about to hit the road when Liu Shunyi walked towards me with a thin soldier.

I only felt that this soldier was a little familiar, and after thinking about it, I remembered that he was the commander of the engineer battalion, and I can't remember the exact name, but I only know that his surname was Zhang, and he appeared in front of me once when the engineer battalion was assigned to our regiment.

"Report to the regiment commander" Battalion Commander Zhang hurriedly rushed forward and said, "Regiment commander, I heard that you are going to walk the mountain road?" Is it true? ”

"It's true," I nodded.

"The regiment commander didn't say that I wanted to raise difficulties, but ......" Battalion Commander Zhang hesitated, and finally gritted his teeth and said: "We have a lot of ammunition and 'medicine', and it is ...... if we take the mountain road."

"You can bring as much as you can," I interrupted Battalion Commander Zhang's words: "The rest of the ammunition and 'medicine' will be distributed to the combat units as much as possible, and those that cannot be taken away will be left for a small number of people to watch, and we will come back to pick it up if possible."

"Yes" Seeing that I said so firmly, Camp Commander Zhang had nothing to say.

Although it is a pity to leave behind the bullet 'medicine' that cannot be taken away, it is also a matter of no choice.

I think so, if you go by road, here is only a little more than an hour away from the 585.2 heights, if everything goes well, after we capture the 585.2 heights, we will be responsible for cooperating with the 539 regiment to flank the puppet army's front-line troops, and the soldiers will have time to return here to replenish the ammunition 'medicine', and maybe bring a batch of ......

So he gritted his teeth and ordered: "Go"

The troops were again on the march, and in order to get into the enemy's hinterland as quickly as possible, I ordered the soldiers to throw away all superfluous things, such as marching quilts. Because I can foresee that in the near future, we won't even have time to eat and drink, let alone sleep. Another example is the kettle...... A company can prepare two or three pots to drink on the road, and now at this time, it is raining heavily, and if you want to drink water, you can use a tarpaulin for a while, and you can still carry such a heavy kettle?

I even asked the soldiers to throw away part of their dry food, and I, who had fought in 'intervening' battles, knew that we didn't know hunger at all when the battle was 'fierce'.

This is actually very easy to understand, I think that even if I didn't feel nervous when I was in the college entrance examination, I still couldn't sleep for two or three days, and I could only barely eat a little bit of food. Now it's time for war, and when life is threatened all the time, even if you want to, you can't eat so much.

Of course, I still let the soldiers leave three days' rations, and it is not possible to replenish physical strength without food on the battlefield. Some of the fighters were reluctant to throw away their dry food like this, so they shoved fried noodles and rainwater into their mouths as they walked...... All of this is done to be able to bring a few more bullets. Because we all know that in the upcoming battlefield, bullets will definitely be more important than food

However, after a while, the troops walked up Wutong Mountain, and Li Yongen was right, this mountain road is indeed very steep and dangerous, especially when the ice and snow melt and it rains, and we have deeply understood this from the beginning of the mountain. How can it be called a road, in fact, it is that grass cannot grow on the stones, so it looks like a road. Sometimes these roads are so narrow that they can only be passed by one person, and sometimes they have to be used with both hands and feet, so I was worried about the comrades in the engineer battalion, who each carried two boxes of ammunition and walked this mountain road in order to get more ammunition......

"Everyone pay attention to concealment and try not to make a sound" Thinking of Commander Pang's 'delivery', I gave an order to the soldiers.

"Yes," the soldiers answered, and passed on the order.

Liu Yangxing's troops and Li Yongen, who led the way, were also sent to the front of the troops as spearheads. Li Yongen is familiar with the road, and the soldiers of the cold gun unit are equipped with night vision devices, I believe that if the puppet army has arranged any secret posts in this mountain road, they can easily solve it.

Moreover, Li Yongen seems to be very experienced in leading the way, because if there are any dangerous places or places that are easy to make mistakes along the way, he will leave one or two KPA soldiers to remind, help or guide the way in dangerous places. This has made our journey very smooth. It wasn't until we entered a village called "Duli" that Liu Yangxing reported the situation through a walkie-talkie, and the troops stopped.

"What's the situation?" I walked to the front of the unit with my rifle and whispered.

"Regiment Commander" Liu Yangxing handed the night vision device in his hand to me and said: "I found the enemy sentry in the village, in the slightly larger grass house in the middle."

Following the direction of Liu Shunxing's finger, I raised my night vision device and looked towards the village, and sure enough, I vaguely saw two puppet army sentries walking around boredly under the eaves of the grass house.

"Originally, we wanted to sneak up and kill them," Liu Yangxing whispered, "but Comrade Li was worried that there were other Korean villagers in the village......

"Hmm" I nodded, I understood what Liu Yangxing meant. In this village called "Duli", there are only seven or eight grass houses in total, and it is not difficult for the soldiers of their squad of cold-gun troops to sneak up and get rid of all the puppet troops in the village with lightning speed. But the difficulty is that in the dark of night or even in the night vision device, it is difficult to tell whether the other party is a puppet army or a civilian.

"They are not secret sentinels" Li Yongen said a sentence: "Because, because of ......"

Li Yongen is not good at Chinese, so I don't know how to express it below, but I know what he wants to say.

"Because the dark sentry won't stand so openly" I helped Li Yongen finish the following words: "And looking at the appearance of these two puppet soldiers standing guard, it seems that they didn't know that we were coming"

"Yes" Li Yongen nodded, relieved.

Li Yongen is undoubtedly a smart man, and I think that's why the People's Army sent him to assist me, even though he doesn't speak Chinese very well.

"It doesn't matter what they do," I whispered to Li Yongen, "The important thing is that we can pass through this village safely, so those two sentries must not be left behind."

Later, I learned that the appearance of these puppet soldiers was only because an officer went home to visit his family.

"Hmm" Li Yongen nodded, but his face was full of doubt.

He obviously didn't understand why I was talking nonsense, it was obvious, even if it was dark now, even if it was raining, even if the path was a little far from the village, it was impossible for our team of nearly five thousand men to pass under the noses of the two sentinels.

So he was a little skeptical that he was not good at Chinese, so he didn't hear me clearly.

"But those two sentries can't do without," I ignored Li Yongen's doubts and continued: "It takes a long time for our 5,000-strong troops to pass through the village, and in such a long time, if there are no sentries, it is easy to make the enemy in the house suspicious, for example, when they change the guard."

Hearing this, Li Yongen's eyes immediately lit up, he looked at me in surprise, nodded and said, "I understand, I'll arrange two people"

"Got what?" Looking at Li Yongen, who was leaving with his waist bent, Liu Yangxing was still confused, and asked with a confused face: "Commander, what are you talking about?" ”

I smiled lightly and shook my head, this Liu Yangxing is still too much worse than Li Yongen. Of course, I'm referring to the head, but I haven't seen it before, so I don't dare to make a judgment.

"It's nothing" I handed the night vision device back to Liu Yangxing and said: "You take a few people, go and get rid of those two sentries, you can't alarm the enemy"

"Yes" Liu Yangxing responded, but immediately asked: "Commander, is this ...... It's too dangerous? I'm not saying the mission is dangerous, I'm saying ......"

"You're not stupid," I smiled, "Don't worry, Li Yongen will arrange for two people to pretend to be puppet army sentinels, and they can speak Korean...... If you can do it, try not to 'stain' the military uniform of the puppet army sentry."

"Oh" At this time, Liu Yangxing suddenly realized, clenched his fists and said: "Don't worry, the head of the regiment, I promise to complete the task."

As he spoke, he beckoned and went up with three or four people.

Everything went smoothly, under the guidance of the night vision device, even if the mountain road was difficult, Liu Yangxing and a few people could approach the grass hut silently, and then with the help of the walkie-talkie, they pounced on the puppet army like a ghost when they turned around......

The two KPA fighters quickly donned the uniforms of the puppet army and became sentinels, and they will hold back and hide from the puppet army for as long as possible, even after we have successfully passed through the village.

"What did you tie them to?" When I was on the march again, I asked Lee Yong-eun. I noticed that he had strapped something to the two "sentinels" before leaving.

Li Yongen glanced back at me, gritted his teeth and squeezed out a few words: "grenade"