Chapter 52: Stepping on a Mine

Chapter 52: Stepping on a Mine

"Yo Cui Regiment Commander...... "In the tunnel of the division headquarters, as soon as Master Pang saw me, he happily waved to me, and when I walked in front of him and stood and saluted, he shook the cotton clothes on his body, looked me up and down, and quipped: "What? When you came back, you didn't even change your clothes and came to see me? When did I, an old man, become so important? ”

With a bang, the warriors in the pit laughed heartily. I also felt a touch of warmth in my heart, I knew that in Master Pang's hometown, the title of old man was generally used for my father. Affection: Master Pang treats himself as my father.

Not to mention, I also have that kind of feeling for Master Pang as a teacher and friend.

"Commander Cui, your battle last night was the prestige of our 180th Division," a volunteer soldier next to him said: "You don't know, now our whole army is up and down, and they are all talking about your battle last night."

"Yes, with the strength of one company, you can take down the high ground of two battalions of the puppet army, and you can still withstand the attack of one regiment of the puppet army...... I wonder if I've heard it wrong."

"I said, is it that the puppet army is getting more and more can't help fighting?" There are also fighters who doubt this.

"you," soon a few soldiers retorted with a smile: "Even if the puppet army really can't help fighting, it won't be as good as two regiments of people and let Commander Cui kill a company."

"If you want to know if the puppet army can't help fighting, you Staff Officer Wu will go up and fight in person."

"If you want me to say that if Staff Officer Wu goes up to fight, he must bring more 'pants' in advance."

"Why?"

"Prepare 'pee' and 'pants'"

There was a coax, and the division headquarters immediately burst into laughter again, and the telephone soldiers, telegraph soldiers, staff officers, and security guards all let go of each other and joked regardless of rank. The tunnel was full of light-hearted and cheerful scenes.

In other words, this situation will only occur in the ranks of our volunteers. If it's with the People's Army...... Let's not talk about the People's Army, even our Kuomintang is also highly hierarchical, not to mention such a "no big or small" joke, a little disrespect to the commander, then it is common to be scolded and punished.

Master Pang seemed to enjoy watching them like this, and after laughing heartily for a while, he changed the topic and asked me, "Is there something wrong?" Why don't you stay in the pit and rest for a while, and you have to run here after a tired night? ”

"Report to the division commander," I replied, "I'm here for tonight's attack."

"Hmm" Division Commander Pang nodded and said: "You don't have to worry too much about this, your main task is to defend the 902.8 Heights, and then provide some fire assistance to the troops attacking the flanks of the 973 Heights Your regiment has fought several battles in a row, and the losses are not small, and the troops are not enough, so tonight's battle will be 'handed over' to the 539 Regiment and the 540 Regiment."

"Master Pang, I didn't mean that......" I couldn't help but smile bitterly, listening to the tone of Master Pang's words, it seemed that my intention was to rush the task. Just kidding, I can't get along with myself, right, I'm tired like this, and I'm still coming to grab tasks.

"Why is that?" Master Pang pointed to the chair in front of me and motioned for me to sit down, and then said: "Comrade Cui Wei, your regiment has fought very well this time, and I also believe in the combat effectiveness of your regiment, but we must also give others a chance to perform......

"Commander Pang" I didn't explain, I just pointed to the two heights of 973 and 883.7 on the map and said: "I think there is a problem with tonight's battle plan, maybe it will bring great losses to our troops."

"Oh" Master Pang couldn't help but be stunned, looked at me with some surprise, didn't say anything, nodded: "Tell me"

"Commander Pang" I pointed to the flank of the 973 Heights and said: "This is the weakness of the puppet army that has just been exposed, and the enemy has no way to make up for this weakness in one day, needless to say, everyone knows it." So tonight's plan to sneak attack the flank of the 973 heights is normal, but we will think about it, how could the puppet army not think of it? If the puppet army also thought of it, then how could we succeed in a sneak attack? ”

"Hmm" Master Pang frowned and nodded: "What you said makes sense, the strategic intention is too obvious"

"So I think ......," I continued, "If we really want to attack in this direction tonight, it would be better to attack the ** Niang with a clear knife and a gun, and the sneak attack will only cause us to suffer greater casualties, such as lurking, and then a feint...... All this will cause unnecessary casualties to our fighters. The puppet army already knows our intentions, and their artillery fire has been waiting in front of us for a long time."

"Then what do you mean ......"

"Can you consider changing the main attack target" I pointed to the 883.7 high ground on the map and said: "The puppet army has 'exposed' a big weakness on the 973 heights, and they think that we will attack this weakness with all our might, so it is very likely to increase the troops to the 973 heights, and turn all the artillery fire and firepower to the direction of the 973 heights." And we just give up the easy and take the difficult, don't hit the 973 highland, play the 883.7 highland."

"The strength of the puppet army is limited, and increasing the troops on the 973 heights means that the 883.7 heights are not enough reinforcements" Commander Pang nodded and said: "And once the 883.7 heights also fall into the territory of our army, the 973 heights are actually under siege from three sides of our army, even if its geographical location is higher than the two small surrounding highlands, it is difficult to do anything."

"That's right," I continued: "If the 883.7 Heights are successfully defeated by us, then the 973 Heights can be said to be leaking 'holes' everywhere, and the defensive leaks that have just been 'exposed' on its right flank have not yet been urgently filled, and the left flank has been 'exposed' again, and the reinforced concrete fortifications built by the puppet army cannot be completed in one or two days. ”

"We can do this" After a pause, I continued: "Everything is like the original plan, still feint on the 973 heights, the difference is that we secretly put the main attack force on the 883.7 heights, and send a small detachment on the flank of the 973 heights, creating the illusion that there are large forces lurking, and even the 902.8 heights garrisoned by our 538 regiment still provide fire support, so that the puppet army is convinced that the main attack direction of our army is on the flank of the 973 heights. Wait for the battle of 973 Heights to start, and then suddenly attack 883.7 Heights......"

This battle plan is almost carved out of the same mold as our plan to seize the 902.8 heights. As we all know, it can be said that it is taboo for a similar battle plan to be used twice in the same place. However, sometimes it is precisely this taboo of soldiers, who can often surprise the enemy and catch the enemy off guard.

"You kid" After thinking about it for a while, Master Pang couldn't help laughing: "The three highlands called the 'Gyeonggi Fortification' by the puppet army, and they deserve to be unlucky for these puppet soldiers to be 'played' in the palm of your hand, bless me not to meet you as a nemesis again in the next life."

Soon, Division Commander Pang summoned the cadres of the 539th Regiment and the 540th Regiment to come to the meeting, the protagonist of this battle was not our 538th Regiment, and Division Commander Pang also intended to let me go back to rest, so he did not let me attend this meeting.

After returning to the regiment headquarters this time, I could no longer control the fatigue of my whole body, and I couldn't care about the muddy water and blood stains all over my body, so I fell asleep on the 'bed' and buried my head.

Perhaps it was because I knew the big picture, so I slept very deeply, and for a long time, until the rumbling sound of cannon fire woke me up from my bed that night.

I didn't reach for my rifle as soon as I was awakened by the sound of gunfire, or jump out of my bed and rush out of the pit as soon as I was the first to go. In the past, I might have thought I was sluggish, but now I don't.

Because I have developed a habit of recalling in my mind what environment and state I am in the moment I open my eyes, or more correctly, before I open my eyes. For example, just now, when I was awakened by the sound of cannons, I quickly recalled in my mind that I was in the place before I went to bed. When I opened my eyes, I knew that I was at the regimental headquarters, that it was safe here, and that I was not in a state of war......

So I was able to sit up from the 'bed' very calmly, and without even touching my rifle, I grabbed the binoculars and walked out of the tunnel.

It was another starry and moonless night, all the light came from the fire that burst when the shells exploded on the 973 heights, and occasionally a few flares jumped into the sky happily, they wanted to show off their brilliance in front of everyone, but they lost their 'color' in the fire and smoke of the cannonballs, but after a while, they dragged their tails with regret and fell into the dark abyss.

I held up my binoculars and looked towards Heights 973, but it quickly became clear that it didn't make a difference with or without a telescope, because I couldn't see anything in my sight except for the artillery fire.

After more than ten minutes, as soon as the artillery stopped, the charge horn sounded, it was a battalion of the 540th Regiment, which was launching a feint attack on the 973 position.

In the aperture of my telescope, the front of Heights 973 was full of gunfire and artillery fire, and the soldiers of a battalion spread out as far as possible on this side, forming a battalion like a regiment.

This may seem like a big deal, but the feint is obvious. Because the 973 highland has the same characteristics as the 902.8 highland, that is, the terrain is complex. Even if there is no resistance, it will take about four hours for our troops to climb the 973 heights. It's nine o'clock, and it's only seven or eight hours before dawn, so if you really fight like this, I'm afraid that you won't hit halfway up the mountain until dawn

But it doesn't matter, whether the puppet army believes that we are a feint or not, in short, it is not the point. It is important that the puppet army will not believe that there are a large number of volunteer soldiers lurking on the flanks of the 973 heights.

Thinking of this, I couldn't help but turn my gaze to the flank of 973 Heights. Although it was still pitch black and I couldn't see anything, I knew that there was a small detachment lurking there, a small detachment that would make the puppet army mistakenly think that there were a large number of volunteer soldiers here ready to launch a surprise attack from this direction.

How would they use to create this illusion? At this time, I couldn't help but be curious.

This may seem like a simple task, but it's not easy.

Let the fighters be scattered to shoot guns to attract the attention of the enemy?

As we all know, our army has extremely strict discipline when it is lurking, even if a shell explodes next to us and an incendiary bomb burns on our body, we can't move, so there will still be people with guns to shoot at the enemy's position? It's also a little too obvious

Pull up a large force and charge at the enemy positions?

It is true that this can achieve the goal of fooling the enemy, but ...... With the bombardment of artillery and the sweep of machine guns by the puppet army, the number of casualties of our army will not be small. If this is the result, then whether it is a real charge or a fake charge, then in reality it makes not much difference

With a "boom", a flash of fire exploded on the flank of the 973 position, and at this time, the aperture of my telescope was exactly facing this part, so I could clearly see that five or six fighters were overturned to the ground in the firelight, and one of them was forced to fly directly into the sky.

It was a mine, and I couldn't help but feel a pain in my heart, knowing that it was the squad lurking on the flank of 973 that stepped on the mine.

Why were they so careless, they actually stepped on a landmine at this time I couldn't help frowning, and secretly said that this plan was in vain.

But just when I was disappointed, there was another explosion more than 200 meters away, and this time there were seven or eight volunteer soldiers in the fire.

It's impossible to see this scene, I can't help but be shocked, isn't there only one small detachment of soldiers lurking in the 973 Heights? I don't think there will be more than one platoon, how can they be so careless, stepping on mines one after another, and they are still stepping on mines in such a dense formation, and there will be seven or eight people around a mine......

At this point, I suddenly realized something, and I couldn't help but look at 973 in disbelief.

It dawned on me how they were trying to convince the enemy that there were a large number of volunteer fighters lurking. I can't believe it's true, because I don't think anyone would step on it without hesitation, even in groups, knowing that there are mines in front of them

But they did it, they did not step on the mines carelessly, but did it deliberately, and even calculated the distance between each other, and the mines in two places more than 200 meters away exploded at about the same time, which easily gave people the illusion that this area was full of people......

Soon, a volley of flares came down from the hilltop position, and the pale and blinding light illuminated the entire side of the 973 position. The critical moment has come, whether the puppet army can really believe it, what you see is the moment.

I turned the circle of my telescope to the area where the mine had exploded, and was surprised to see that there was nothing there. Dead and wounded, wounded, blood...... There was not a shadow of anything, as if nothing had happened.

The volunteer soldiers were obviously ready to hide the corpses that had been killed and injured under the mines as quickly as possible.

I have to admit that this psychological tactic is indeed very clever. This is what we often say as we say "'desire' to cover up", and the more it is hidden, the more people are hidden in this area. What's more, there are occasionally some 'flowers', 'flowers', grass or small trees in the grass in this area. The movement is very light, and you can't notice it if you don't look closely, but that's exactly what makes it work best......

The frontal feints, the explosion of mines on the flanks and the deliberate concealment of corpses, coupled with these abnormal wind and grass movements, quickly convinced the puppet army of everything, so before the flares could be dimmed, there was a whistling of shells in the sky

Then the artillery fire exploded in the shape of a radial 'fire', burning the entire side of the 973 Heights. What surprised me even more was that with a sharp and strange whistling, more than a dozen fighter jets came out of the clouds, including wild horses and pirates, as well as several night aircraft equipped with night vision devices "Black Widow".

These planes were apparently ready for combat long ago at some air base behind the battle line, waiting for reinforcements to arrive as soon as the war began. It's even possible that they've been hovering around here for a long time, waiting for the puppet army to signal their help before coming out of the clouds to fight.

The target of their bombing was obvious, ignoring the volunteer soldiers who were feint on the 973 heights, and as soon as they swooped down, they dropped one incendiary bomb after another on the side of the high ground......

"Boom ......" With a few loud bangs, the entire side of Heights 973 was plunged into a raging fire, and the entire sky was illuminated red. In the blink of an eye, there was not a single living creature to be found in that "suspicious area" except for the crackling plants that were still moaning in pain.

U.S. planes even made an exception to enter the war

It is said that before this battle, the discord between the U.S. military and the Syngman Rhee regime was well known to the world, so the U.S. military has always adopted a silent attitude toward our attack. In fact, the Yankees also want to borrow our hand to teach the disobedient Syngman Rhee regime a good lesson.

But this time, the U.S. military obviously also knows the importance of these three heights in front of them to the defense line of the puppet army, and once these three heights fall into the hands of our army, the defense line of the puppet army will very likely be torn apart by our army and threaten them defending on the second line.

Besides, if the puppet army is defeated too badly and the land is lost too much, Eisenhower will not be able to fulfill his promise to end the war with dignity, so it is necessary for the US military to help the puppet army in this battle.

It's just that what they don't know is that all this is a hoax, things have developed to this point, and the war situation is no longer under their control, the puppet army can't do it, and the U.S. army can't do it

I slowly lowered my binoculars, and although I knew that I had successfully taken the first step, I did not have the slightest joy of victory in my heart