The situation in the No. 1 tunnel was slightly better, the interior space was large, there was a continuous supply of wet soil, and the soldiers wiped the wet soil on their faces, wrapped the soil with cloth to cover their mouths and noses, and made damp mud masks to fight the enemy outside the tunnel.

After two days of attack, the enemy concentrated artillery fire to bombard the mouth of the tunnel, trying to blow up the tunnel, trying to suffocate the volunteer soldiers in the tunnel due to lack of oxygen, at this time the role of the second tunnel mouth dug by Xia Yuan was revealed, they dug the second tunnel mouth to let the air in, and at the same time waited until the enemy's artillery fire ended, and quickly dug the mouth of the tunnel.

The mouth of the No. 1 tunnel is still so difficult, the other tunnel mouths are even more difficult, because there is no spare tunnel mouth, the enemy's shells will blow up the tunnel, the volunteer soldiers will brave the artillery fire to dig the tunnel mouth, when the enemy wants to destroy the tunnel again, the soldiers will rush out again and again to fight with it, until the enemy is repulsed.

The enemy was furious that the U.S. troops, armed with strong ships and guns, could not deal with the volunteers in the tunnel, and they adopted another method, that is, digging a hole from the top of the tunnel, and after digging and passing, they threw grenades, explosive packets, gas bombs, and incendiary bombs at the soldiers in the tunnel from above.

From top to bottom, it is difficult for the volunteer soldiers in the tunnel to hit the enemy above from below, the grenade cannot be thrown, it is impossible to shoot the enemy on the head with direct fire such as machine guns, after brainstorming, the volunteer soldiers thought of a way, that is, to use the curved fire of the mortar to shoot the enemy, the gunner climbed to the mouth of the tunnel, held the gun body with one hand, loaded with one hand, the shell exploded on the top of the cave, causing huge damage to the enemy, after finding the trick, as long as you heard the enemy digging overhead, The gunner used this method, and the enemy stopped using this method.

The United Nations military has spent a lot of effort and resorted to all kinds of vicious means, which not only failed to wipe out the volunteers in the tunnels, but on the contrary, enhanced the experience of the volunteers in tunnels.

From the 20th, the enemy occupied the surface position, until the 23rd, it was constantly maneuvering with the volunteers in the tunnel, every night, Xia Yuan would take the volunteer soldiers to attack the enemy on the position, each time he could always destroy a large number of enemies, blow up many enemy bunkers, and cause huge casualties to the enemy.

At night, the enemy strengthened the defense of the surface position, making it more and more difficult for the soldiers in the tunnel to attack the fortification, and even Xia Yuan could feel that the enemy's firepower had become extremely fierce.

The number of enemies on the No. 1 surface position has increased to a reinforced battalion, because since the U.S. army occupied Shangganling, every night, the No. 1 surface position will encounter the ferocious attack of the volunteers, and the ordinary three to five pillboxes can not stop the enemy's attack, often the enemy blows up the pillboxes in two hours, and no matter how many soldiers are sent, the casualty statistics after the war are shocking.

The UN forces then strengthened the No. 1 position, which they themselves called the devil's position.

Reinforcements from the rear also arrived in the tunnels, the soldiers in the various tunnels were replenished, and the fighting enthusiasm of the soldiers was like a raging flame. Tunnel No. 1 was replenished with two squads, and the wounded fighters were finally able to rest, but the enemy's strength on the surface positions was expanded, and any counterattack had to be carefully considered.

In North Korea in late October, the air is getting colder, and the tunnel is fine, but the tunnel mouth is blowing with gusts of cold wind. In addition, the enemy's surface positions were strengthened, and the bunkers were built one after another, and the tunnel soldiers who had no artillery reinforcement had no choice but to retreat to the tunnel and continue to hold on.

During the night the enemy strengthened the defense of the position, but the soldiers in the tunnels devised a new method, and if the small troops did not go out at night, they had to arrange a guard post outside the mouth of the cave. The number of warriors in the tunnels was not large, and they often needed to work in shifts, but in this way, the weather was very cold, and the warriors did not have time to rest, which was a great drain on the warriors, and in order to solve the problem of going out at night to harass the enemy, the warriors came up with all kinds of ingenious methods.

For example, the machine gun was used to suddenly shoot a few bullets outside, or to throw canned food boxes to make a noise, etc., so that the United Nations forces thought that the volunteers were going to counterattack, and all the weapons of the enemy in the plan opened fire together, and one dozen was an hour or two, and when the enemy fired, the soldiers in the tunnel fired a few more rounds and threw something, and the enemy would fight for another hour or two. This dragged the enemy, greatly shortened the time of the sentry, and at the same time caused trouble to the enemy.

Later, when Xia Yuan threw things again and made a noise, he found that the enemy had not moved, it turned out that the United Nations army had been fighting for a long time, and found that he was fighting with the air, and the volunteers in the tunnel did not fight back, so they ignored these movements.

Xia Yuanyuan saw that the opportunity came, and immediately led a group of soldiers to attack with lightning speed, and the grenades exploded indiscriminately, blowing up the enemy's pillbox and killing many enemies. This kind of back-and-forth battle has made the United Nations forces on the surface positions unrestful for a moment.

In the continuous battle of Shangganling, the volunteer soldiers who held their positions tenaciously and wittily formed a complete set of positional defense tactics based on tunnels. After the enemy occupied the surface position, the volunteer army relied on the tunnel to contain the enemy and cooperate with the rear artillery to strike at the US troops on the position.

Sometimes, when the enemy carries out a counterattack, the first echelon secretly moves into the tunnel the night before, and uses the tunnel as a starting position for the attack, so as to shorten the movement distance and reduce the casualties caused by the enemy's artillery bombardment, so as to obtain the suddenness of the counterattack, and can flank the enemy with the cooperation of the troops holding the tunnel.

Therefore, even if the ground fortifications are lost, it cannot be regarded as the loss of the entire position, and Shangganling is always in the hands of the volunteers.

The Volunteers relied on the tunnels to repeatedly fight with the enemy, forcing the United Nations forces to invest more troops and weapons and equipment, so as to achieve the goal of killing and injuring and consuming the enemy in large quantities. In the process of repeated battles, some fighters lost their surface positions at first, which was very uncomfortable.

Until the 24th, news came from the rear that the US Seventh Division had withdrawn, and the soldiers in the tunnel sat together excitedly, reading out the documents sent from the rear, and the instructor proudly shouted: "We have defeated the US Seventh Division!" ”

The warriors in the tunnel had happy smiles on their faces.

The fighters only understood at this time that sometimes the abandonment of surface positions was to drag the enemy and annihilate the enemy more,

Xia Yuan also took this opportunity to put forward the slogans of 'protracted combat, active defense', 'destroy the enemy, save yourself', and let the soldiers use everything they can use to expand the tunnel, make the tunnel more solid and reliable, and make the underground tunnel into an underground Great Wall, dragging the enemy unable to move.

Under the leadership of Xia Yuan, the soldiers in the tunnel were not defeated by the harsh environment and the terrible enemy, but became more and more courageous, starting from the battle on the 14th to the enemy changing the defense on the 24th, Xia Yuan led the soldiers in the No. 1 tunnel, participated in more than 100 counterattack operations, captured more than 50 machine guns, 600 automatic rifles and carbines, a number of bullets, and the enemy's individual equipment was as high as a company.

After several days of continuous tunnel operations, the conditions of the No. 1 tunnel became bad, especially the continuous reinforcements increased the consumption of the tunnel, the personnel were crowded, the wounded were in agony, and the concussion of the shelling made the tunnel sometimes unable to light the lights, and in the thick darkness, the smell of gunsmoke, sulfur, blood, feces and sweat made the air dirty and suffocating. The soldiers were crammed into the tunnel, and although it was minus seven or eight degrees outside, the inside of the tunnel was as hot as summer, and the temperature rose to the point that it was uncomfortable to wear single clothes.

Many tunnels lack ammunition, food and water, and at the most difficult times, each person can only eat half a steamed bun a day. The most serious problem is the lack of water, the No. 1 tunnel is fine, because there is a well dug by Xia Yuan before, although there is no water, but the humidity is, put the cloth in it, it will be soaked quickly, and the water can also be squeezed out, saving some drink is able to solve the basic drinking water problem of the soldiers in the tunnel.

The conditions of other tunnels are not so good, especially the conditions of the soldiers in the tunnels in the 537.7 highlands are particularly difficult, the soldiers are so thirsty that they urinate blood, their lips are broken, and sometimes they can only drink urine to quench their thirst. Moreover, the time continued to be extended, the battle continued for a long time, and the difficulties increased day and night, and many troops held on to the tunnels and fought against the enemy for more than a dozen days and nights.

In such unimaginably arduous and difficult circumstances, the stubborn troops were always tenacious, intimately united, full of confidence in victory, full of revolutionary optimism, and fought against the enemy with fearless heroism.

The soldiers who held the No. 2 tunnel of the 597.9 highland in Shangganling, under extremely difficult circumstances, once managed to write to the superior chief: "Dear chief, now we are being attacked from all sides, and there is no enemy on the side under our feet, but we promise to fight to the end and win the battle, please rest assured, chiefs!" ”

A tunnel on the 597.9 heights was trampled by the enemy for a long time, and the situation was very dangerous, and the volunteer soldiers who stuck to the tunnel vowed to strike at the enemy fiercely, defeat the enemy's arrogance, and the enemy did not dare to approach the tunnel. During the day, they killed and wounded a large number of the enemy who destroyed the tunnels, and at night they sent combat groups one after another to touch the hills to destroy the enemy, and in 32 night raids, they killed and wounded 72 enemies at the cost of only three casualties, thus pushing the focus of the battle from the mouth of the tunnel to the surface position occupied by the enemy.

With the enemy's change of defense, the 2nd Korean Division took over the defense of the 7th Division of the United States on Shangganling, and was responsible for attacking the 597.9 heights.

Under such difficult and difficult conditions, the troops who stuck to the tunnel fully carried forward the spirit of unity and friendship, encouraged and cared for each other, and were full of fraternal friendship. When everyone was dizzy from extreme thirst and hunger, they learned from the spirit of the old Red Army in climbing snowy mountains and crossing grasslands and enduring countless hardships, and also sang songs such as "Battle Hymn of the Volunteers" to boost their fighting spirit. When the soldiers went out to grab a little water, or when the superiors sent someone to risk their lives to send a little supplies, they all pushed me to let other comrades drink and eat as much as possible.

Despite the enemy's strong ships and guns, the volunteer soldiers in the tunnel still successfully resisted the enemy's continuous ferocious attacks with a tenacious and unyielding sense of battle.

The 24th was destined to be the most difficult day, their opponent was changed from the 7th Division of the United States to the 2nd Division of the South Korea, but the change of opponent could not stop the excitement of the soldiers in the tunnel.

"We have defeated the American Seventh Division!"

The soldiers ran through the tunnels to tell each other, and the black dirt could not hide the smiles on their faces.

Xia Yuan also had a smile on his face, what was the most meaningful thing he had crossed over, there was no doubt that he was leading the soldiers to stick to the tunnel, feeling the bond between the soldiers, and he could give his back to the soldiers in front of him with great confidence.

There is no conspiracy, only pure red spirit.

"Company Commander Xia, we have defeated the enemy!" Wang Lan was also very happy, although she did not fight on the surface position, she also felt the cruelty of the enemy in the tunnel and the hardships of the volunteer soldiers in the tunnel.

Groups of people went to the battlefield and never returned, and groups of people came in from outside.

Now that the foreign devils have finally been beaten away, this is definitely a good thing for the soldiers in the tunnel.

It's comparable to the Chinese New Year.

The instructor's emaciated face also showed a hint of a smile, and he said: "Comrades, let's finally defeat the Seventh Division of foreign devils, but we can't take it lightly!" The Seventh Division of the United States has been defeated, and there is also the Eighth Division of the United States and the Ninth Division of the United States! We must work harder to stick to the tunnel and fight the enemy to the end! ”

Today, the fighting enthusiasm of the fighters is especially high, and everyone has a happy smile on their faces.

They said:

"The Eighth Division? The Eighth Division of the United States is here, and it will still defeat him! ”

"That's right! It doesn't matter what division he has, if he dares to come, let them taste the power of the weapons in our hands! ”

The instructor found Xia Yuan and Dai Wannian, and they discussed, "Tonight, treat the soldiers, take out some canned meat, let the soldiers taste the meat, and find a way to send some supplies to the comrades in the other tunnels." ”

Xia Yuan agreed with the instructor's suggestion, these days, the hardships in the tunnels are obvious to all, most of the previously captured materials have been supported to the soldiers in other tunnels, and after the enemy is stationed on the top of the mountain, the defense at night is more tight, and his night combat ability is also greatly limited.

The enemy on the zero position hit a large searchlight at the mouth of the anti-inclined tunnel of the No. 1 tunnel, and the machine gun bunker was also facing the mouth of the No. 1 tunnel, whether it was going out or coming in, it was very difficult, and there was no order in the rear recently, it was estimated that a major counterattack was being prepared, and the soldiers in the tunnel were still under the heavy fire of the enemy's machine guns every night, and launched a night attack on the enemy on the mountain under the leadership of Xia Yuan.

(End of chapter)