In a temporary military tent, Division Commander Zheng, Deputy Division Commander Duan, Chief of Staff Wang, and Director Wu of the Political Department of the 180th Division, who received the news of casualties from each company, held an impromptu meeting.

Division Commander Zheng got straight to the point and said: "This air raid was very sudden, but it was also expected by us, but this time we did not carry out any effective precautions, first stabilized the mood of each regiment, we have just set off, the battalion commander Xu Zhengfang of the 540th Regiment died, and all companies were injured. We have made a temporary adjustment, and at present, all companies must speed up their marches, send scouts to reconnoiter in the front, and when they encounter enemy planes, they will take the sound of the whistle as their letter, and when they hear the whistle, they will first disperse the ranks and then lie down. Enemy aircraft bombs will be dropped on dense formations."

After a pause, he added: "The main reason for our losses in this air raid is our lack of experience with American planes, which flew as low as possible, and the bombs they dropped were really powerful and loud, and many of the fighters were still around the bombing point, and they were completely blinded."

The first time they encountered an air attack, the main reason was that the volunteer soldiers were in a fixed thinking of dealing with Japanese planes and aircraft, the bombs dropped by Japanese planes and aircraft were less powerful, and the scattering range of shrapnel was not as terrifying as that of US planes.

Deputy Division Commander Duan said, "Yes, at present, we can only march at night, and the military headquarters requires us to march 1,500 miles in 15 days to reach the front line, which shows that the battle ahead is very tight. We need to send the plan to the companies as soon as possible and order them to speed up the march."

Director Wu also said: "Division commander, the 540th Regiment also lost a propaganda team member named Zheng Xiaojun, just when he was attacked by an air raid."

Master Zheng waved his hand to show that she knew, and a wrinkle appeared on her forehead.

The time for their 180th Division to fight in Korea was at 6 p.m. on 21 March, which was at the end of the Fourth Campaign, and the front line of the Volunteers contracted its defense, retreated to the north bank of the Han River and switched to movement defense, so as to gain time for the second army to advance.

At this time, the dead people in the tent were all in the same mood, the comrades who were killed by the air raid at night were killed by enemy planes before they reached the position, and many of them were veterans with rich practical combat experience in the eight-year War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, and they were all good guys and good soldiers.

The team only had a short rest, and the order to open was issued from the division headquarters, and in the battle, the 180th Division would not be given much time to rest, and they needed to hurry up and continue on their way.

The air is cold, the wind blows, as if mixed with knives, the temperature in the country has begun to gradually warm up in the days close to April, and even some areas have worn short sleeves, and in the Korean battlefield, the wind here is like a knife to cut people's faces.

A platoon of fighters huddled together to fight the cold wind, stepping on the footprints of the fighters in front of them, step by step towards the front line.

Xia Yuan had a lot of thoughts in his heart, this time he traveled to the 180th Division to the front line to prepare for the fifth battle, and the Battle of Changjin Lake was the second battle, and unconsciously, the world-famous Korean Volunteers had already participated in two of the five battles, and I don't know if they would participate in the remaining three battles in the future.

With anticipation and heavy contradictions in their hearts, after a day and a night, the team arrived in Sinuiju, North Korea, at dawn.

The team drove to the top of the mountain, the soldiers in front of them stopped, staring blankly at Sinuiju in front of them, under the greeting of the company commanders and instructors, the soldiers began to climb over the mountains and enter Sinuiju, Xia Yuan stepped on the top of the mountain, the sun shone on his face, there was a trace of almost insensitive temperature, and the cold wind blew, and the temperature disappeared.

What caught my eye was a ruin, not a single house intact, broken walls and charred houses everywhere, the ground was full of rubble and broken stones, there was no farmland on the ground, all of them were uneven, large and small impact points, and some craters were still emitting smoke, indicating that the bombing was dropped

The interval between bullets did not last long.

The hearts of the soldiers who saw this scene for the first time were a little heavier.

The further they went, the worse the situation became, and when they came down from the mountain, the warriors could still see intact trees, but when they got down, there was not a single tree in sight, and the ground was scorched earth, and there were broken roots all over the ground, so that no sign of life could be felt.

The march slowed down markedly as the team entered Sinuiju, and the warriors held their guns and watched the ruins in silence, with the clatter of crumbling rubble under their feet.

One of the soldiers at the front saw a little girl lying on the ground, wearing a saffron dress, which had been dyed black, he ran over, put the gun behind him, and carefully picked up the little girl, the little girl was frozen, and her body was flat when she picked it up, her eyes were closed, her head was tied with a whip on her head, and her dirty little hands were clutched in her arms, and the soldier saw it, she was holding a dirty, simple rag doll made of coarse cloth, which was smoked black by the artillery fire.

The soldier cried, and the commander took off his hat and scolded while crying: "His grandmother's!"

The further they went, the more corpses fell on the road, the elderly, the young, the children, and the women, lying on the ground, some of them were blown off, some of them were lifted onto the houses, and the soldiers walked in silence with tears in their eyes.

Wang Xiaoliang clenched his fists hard, his teeth were tightly pressed against him, and his eyes were bloodshot and crystalline.

Those who fled did not even care about the corpses of their own compatriots, and they were laid on the ground in blood, which made the hatred of the American devils rise in the hearts of the soldiers who saw it.

Without saying a word, Master Zheng looked at the first town they had arrived, Sinuiju.

He said: "This is the enemy we are about to face, we must resist US aggression and aid Korea, and this is our responsibility to save the toiling masses of North Korea. There is no need to do pre-war political mobilization, and when you come to North Korea, you will understand it all."

After a pause, he added, "Order all companies to put away the bodies of the Korean people and bury them on the spot."

"Yes!"

The soldiers of the first company stood in front of several slightly raised graves, they did not pile the graves too high, the piles were too high and could easily be bombed by US planes, Wang Xiaoliang clenched his fists and scolded: "American devils are really not people!"

Xia Yuan put the sapper shovel behind his back and said, "Otherwise, why do you call them devils, pack up your equipment and get ready to go."

After experiencing this incident, all the officers and men of the 180 th Division were full of hatred for the American devils, and some soldiers also understood in their hearts why they wanted to resist US aggression and aid Korea, because if they did not resist US aggression and aid Korea, the tragic scene that happened in Korea would appear in their homeland.

The team was not repaired in Sinuiju, and US planes could spot the 180th Division repairing in Sinuiju at any time, and they would only be safe if they entered a mountain forest.

Just to bury the corpses on the road, the 180th Division wasted some time, and when they arrived at the mountain forest where they were resting, it was already noon, and the soldiers were tired, hungry and thirsty.

"Stop! Rest in place for 10 minutes!"

The voice of the herald began to spread from the division headquarters to the head and tail of the team.

Commander Lei said, "Let's rest in place for ten minutes, and sort out the items on our bodies by the way."

When the soldiers of the first company heard such an order, they put down their burdens and sat on the ground one after another, some yawning and stretching, some drinking water, some smoking......

Wang Xiaoliang was sleepy, the team had been out for two days, they hadn't rested much, leaning on the trunk of the tree, ready to squint for a while, Liu Tiezhu reminded him: "Don't be at this time, it's too cold, it's easy to fall asleep, if you insist on it, the division will give everyone time to rest."

"But I'm so sleepy, I feel like I can fall asleep with my eyes closed."

Wang Xiaoliang yawned again and again, and when he opened his eyes, his eyes were covered with scarlet bloodshot and tears, and Liu Tiezhu said, "In this way, you stand up and stomp your feet, and run."

Wang Xiaoliang said, "That must not exhaust me."

Lao Yang walked over and said, "Okay Liu Tiezhu, don't give the new comrades bad ideas, see that there is no snow in the ditch, catch it."

It's much better to rub your face."

Wang Xiaoliang took a look and found that their platoon commander was grabbing a handful of snow and rubbing his face, his cheeks were rubbed red, and he was a little puzzled: "Isn't the platoon commander cold?"

Lao Yang said, "Rub the snow on your face, it will be cold at first, but it will get hot later."

The soldiers of the company heard their conversation and tried it, and they rubbed the snow on their faces, which was cold at first, but after a while, they were surprised to find that the place where they were rubbed was actually hot.

In the machine gun company of the 3rd Battalion of the 538th Regiment, Ma Shunyao draped his rolled hat on both sides of his cheeks and tied it with a thin rope, so that it would be difficult for the cold wind like a knife to blow on their faces again.

"Hey kid, you're a recruit, right?"

After doing all this, Ma Shunyao asked a rifleman next to him, it should be from the company next door, he hadn't seen it, this rifleman put down the compressed biscuit he had just eaten halfway, and said, "What? Won't the recruits fight? I joined the army in 1949, a veteran."

He misunderstood what Ma Shunyao meant, thinking that he was underestimating the recruits.

Ma Shunyao said, "Hehe, little ghost, I didn't mean that, don't be in such a hurry to eat, just stand up when you're hungry. I am the platoon commander of the second platoon of the first company, Ma Shunyao."

"Even if you're the platoon leader, you can't stop eating."

The rifleman looked at Ma Shunyao suspiciously, "After eating, I will go to the logistics collar, besides, I am indeed a little hungry, this compressed biscuit is hungry, the flour in the grain bar is dry, and I choke my throat."

Ma Shunyao knew that the other party had misunderstood what he meant, so he explained: "When the war starts, you will know, this North Korea is not as good as the country, and you have to save some bullets and food, believe me and I am right."

After all, Ma Shunyao is a veteran of the battlefield, and he can fully judge from his own experience that the volunteers are facing unprecedented pressure in logistics in the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea. Of course, even if Ma Shunyao does not have such a foresight, as a veteran who has been on the battlefield for a long time and often fights on the front line, he must attach great importance to saving food and ammunition in his hands.

The rifleman may have understood what Ma Shunyao meant, or perhaps because Ma Shunyao was a platoon commander, he took the compressed biscuit that had only half eaten back into his arms.

There is a beautiful sister here in a row, combed with a small braid, small and exquisite, a typical Sichuan girl.

"May I ask where is Comrade Ma Da in the first battalion, one company, and two platoons?"

"How do you get a battalion and a company?"

Xia Yuan raised his head and looked at it, it was Li Mengqi, a special reporter of the "Warrior Life Daily", who was responsible for collecting news from the 180th Division, and had interviewed him when he was talking about the Three Kingdoms before.

Li Mengqi saw Xia Yuan and said unexpectedly, "Hey, Comrade Xia Yuan, why are you here? Is this a battalion and a company?"

Xia Yuan nodded and said, "Here is a battalion and a company, Comrade Li Mengqi."

"Comrade Xia Yuan, I'm looking for Ma Da."

Ma Da is the nickname of Ma Shunyao, the second platoon leader, Ma Shunyao is tall and big, everyone asks him to be called Ma Da, but only cadres will call him that, and ordinary soldiers ask him to be called Ma Platoon Leader.

Xia Yuan pointed to the back and said, "Ma Da should be behind, you go to the back and take a look."

Li Mengqi sighed and said, "Thank you, Comrade Xia Yuan."

Lao Yang smiled: "Why did the platoon commander send it to reporter Li Mengqi."

Xia Yuan thought for a moment and said, "It is estimated that when he first entered the DPRK, Lao Ma shot at the bomber of the American devils."

Towards the back, Li Mengqi asked as she walked.

"May I ask where is Comrade Ma Da in the first battalion, one company, and two platoons?"

"How do you get a battalion and a company?"

The voice was getting closer and closer, and the Sichuan rifleman understood that he was looking for the big man who was resting next to him, and he shouted, "Ma Da is here, here!"

also stretched out his arm and shook it at Li Mengqi.

"Damn, you're talking."

Ma Da kicked him.

"Hey

Yo, you turtle son" kick *** what? You're a platoon commander and you can kick someone?"

Ma Da said, "It's not good to look for me, you see."

"Platoon leader, it's a sister looking for you, come here, it's her who is looking for you, it's so beautiful."

When Ma Da heard this, he raised his head and looked, "Hey, this is not Comrade Xiao Li."

"You know me?" Li Mengqi saw this particularly conspicuous big man in the crowd at a glance.

"The long line you interviewed, that's my brother who was born and died."

Ma Da said.

"I see, hello, I am a special correspondent of "Soldier Life", my name is Li Mengqi, I work in the field hospital of the division headquarters, I am very happy to meet you."

Li Mengqi stretched out her right hand.

Ma Da stood up, he had to be 1.9 meters, Li Mengqi stood beside him, like a villain, but he was a little perfunctory, and simply shook her hand back.

(End of chapter)