Master Zheng was anxious, but he never showed the expression on his face, he puffed out his cigarette and stared at the map with a calm face.

Deputy Division Commander Duan stepped forward and said to Zhao Guobang: "Hurry up! Keep contacting Corps Radio! ”

Zhao Guobang immediately responded: "Yes!" ”

Division Commander Zheng took his eyes off the map and said to Deputy Division Commander Duan: "Old Duan, it's useless to be anxious now, the Corps must have encountered some problems, as long as the Corps' radio station is turned on, it will definitely contact us, you come over first." ”

In fact, Division Commander Zheng is now more anxious than Deputy Division Commander Duan, after today's battle, the losses of each regiment are not small, and many seriously wounded have come down from the front line.

Loss of contact with the Corps, replenishment of food and ammunition, difficulties in the transport of the seriously wounded to the rear.

Since joining the Red Army in 1929, Division Commander Zheng has been fighting for more than 20 years, and as the No. 1 commander of the whole division, he has been experienced and calm in handling and operating all kinds of emergencies in the front-line battles.

At present, in addition to ordering the signal corps to continue to contact the corps, they also have to deal with today's various battles, and judging from the situation presented by the regiments, today's battle has been quite unfavorable to them, and even at night, they can still hear the flames of war and the roar of artillery on the front line.

"The Yankees are going to toss until the next day, they don't want to give us any time!"

Master Zheng lit another cigarette, and his chaotic thoughts were about to drown him out.

On the way to the transfer, when the Corps organs passed through the area east of Shanyang-ri, they were blocked and bombed by enemy planes day and night, and two radio cars were blown up, and the radio personnel and confidential personnel on the vehicles had also run away, left behind, and disappeared.

Two days later, these missing comrades and confidential personnel returned to the corps, and after they were separated from the main unit, they walked hungry for two days before they were found.

The U.S. counterattack on May 23 was seven days after the Chinese and North Korean forces launched the second phase of the offensive in the fifth campaign.

Seven days is the time period when our soldiers have run out of food to carry and eat, and this is clear to every soldier of the enemy, and they know that the volunteers are running out of food, so they will increase their offensive. It is not that the Volunteer Army fell for the ploy of Ridgway's offensive, but that the logistical strength cannot be compared with the US Army, and it also proves that the Volunteer Army does not have an advantage in fighting with the enemy for food and ammunition consumption.

However, this does not mean that the Volunteers have no chance of winning, and the Volunteers can also compete with the enemy for the will to fight, just as General Liang Yulin recalled: "Our soldiers can endure much more hardships than the American army." ”

In a word, no matter how long the war goes, the volunteer soldiers are not afraid of sacrifice at all, while the American army is afraid of death.

This is the only chance of victory for the volunteers.

Fighting the commander-in-chief of the Volunteer Army was Van Vliet, who succeeded Li Qiwei as commander-in-chief of the Eighth Army.

It was also under the ideological guidance of Van Vleet that the second phase of the Fifth Campaign of the US Army fought quite well, especially the Eighth Army, which was even more abnormal, and when defending, special emphasis was placed on distancing itself from the pursuing troops of the Volunteers, and constantly hitting the spearhead of the Volunteers' offensive with heavy firepower. When it is time to turn to the offensive, boldly intersperse, seize the commanding heights and ferries, suddenly insert troops in multiple routes, and then carry out a deep movement.

In the summer offensive that followed, under the command of Van Vliet, 360,000 rounds of shells alone were consumed in just nine days, a method he later called 'Van Vliet's ammunition. ’

It's not that the Volunteers have no way to deal with Van Vleet's style of play. Understanding the enemy in battle is the experience summed up by our army from the period of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression to the War of Liberation, and the volunteers have an in-depth understanding of the enemy and then crack the enemy's tactics, which is a major characteristic of the commanders of the volunteers.

At present, the opponent of the 180th Division in the past few days is the US Tenth Army, the main force under the command of Van Vliet's Eighth Army, and the commander is Almond.

Because of his misguided guidance, his 10th Army was too scattered in northeastern Korea and was routed by the 9th Corps of the Volunteers.

At the beginning, Almond's popularity was not good, and the relationship in the US command system was also average, he had a very bad relationship with the previous commander of the Eighth Army, Lieutenant General Walker, and later Lieutenant General Walker was pursued by the volunteers, and escaped in a jeep and fell to his death, which gave Almond a chance to grow and made him understand the importance of connections, so after Li Qiwei became the commander of the Eighth Army, he got along with him better.

Li Qiwei had just entered Korea and urgently needed the respect of his subordinates, so he took Almond's olive branch into his hands, and soon Li Qiwei reported to his superiors that Almond was his aggressive army commander, although the US Tenth Army was defeated by the Ninth Corps of the Volunteer Army and its reputation was greatly damaged, but Li Qiwei still retained his position as army commander, let him continue to serve, and participated in the fifth campaign.

Almond also vowed to be disgraced in the Fifth Campaign.

Who would have thought that in the second phase of the Fifth Campaign, Almond would encounter the 180th Division, which was like an insurmountable chasm, which made Almond lose time and also lose his vital strength. After the end of the Korean War, Almond retired from the army in 1953 and spent another 10 years in insurance.

At this time, Almond did not realize that he might be going to work for ten years in insurance, and at this moment he was full of ambition to annihilate the 180th Division.

Commander Zheng of the 180th Division was a commander with a completely different personality from Almond, and in this battle, Commander Zheng continued the combat experience in China to command the operation, and at the same time, he has been actively understanding the enemy and exploring the characteristics of the enemy in order to adjust countermeasures.

Learning in the war is a necessary skill for every commander of the Volunteer Army.

As a matter of fact, at this stage, most of the commanders of the Chinese People's Volunteers were still accustomed to taking guerrilla tactics as their guiding ideology, but as far as the current Korean battlefield is concerned, factors such as unfamiliar terrain and lack of intelligence have determined that guerrilla tactics cannot play a great role.

The logistics can't keep up, it's too backward, and it still doesn't work. Taking this campaign as an example, the 180th Division of the 60th Army was originally used as a reserve, and the ammunition and food of the 180th Division were supplied in accordance with the standards of the reserves, which was one to two days less than the food maintenance time of the combat troops, and the ammunition base was a little more than two bases.

The situation abruptly changed, and the reserves turned into combat units. The weaknesses in the logistical support capability were revealed at once, and all the loopholes in the operations of the large corps of the Chinese Volunteers were all manifested one by one after the 180 th Division took up the role of combat troops.

Therefore, after the end of the fifth campaign, there was no sixth campaign.

At this point in the current battle, our army's combat effectiveness is already at the end of its strength, and what the whole city is fighting for is courage, courage, and the will to fight for sacrifice and victory.

Since the second stage of the Fifth Campaign, when it officially engaged the US army, the 180th Division has begun to obtain information about the enemy through battle summaries.

The 180th Division pointed out that the commanders were all working nervously, and Deputy Division Commander Duan, Chief of Staff Wang, Director Wu, and Division Commander Zheng, like Division Commander Zheng, had not closed their eyes for several days, their eyes were bloodshot, and the whole person looked very vicissitudes.

Deputy Division Commander Duan sat on the stool and looked through the documents for a while, and fell asleep as soon as he lay on the table, no one could bear to wake him up, and they all wanted him to sleep a little longer, he was really sleepy.

Master Zheng yawned and smoked cigarette after cigarette, trying to relieve his mental fatigue.

The artillery fire on the front line roared continuously, some of the stray bullets hit far away, relatively close to the division fingers, and with a boom, the division fingers were trembling slightly, the table shook slightly, and Deputy Division Commander Duan sat up with a flutter, his eyes covered with thin bloodshots.

When Chief of Staff Wang heard the movement, he turned his head to look at it, and said with a smile: "Old Duan, what are you doing, you are stunned?" ”

Deputy Division Commander Duan sat in a daze, not recovering from his sleep, he patted his cheek, wanted to make himself refreshed, and asked in a hoarse voice: "Lao Wang, how long have I been asleep?" ”

Chief of Staff Wang rolled up his sleeves very seriously, looked at his watch, and said, "You have only slept for eight minutes. ”

Deputy Division Commander Duan was very concerned about the troops on the front line, rubbed his eyes, yawned and said, "I've only slept for so long, how are the troops on the front line?" Nothing has changed, right? ”

Master Zheng said on the side: "Old Duan, you take it easy, the front line is quite stable, it's not early in the morning, you go to sleep for a while, I'll call you at four o'clock." ”

Deputy Division Commander Duan took off his hat and scratched his scalp vigorously, feeling a lot sober.

"Drink some water." Director Wu took a glass of water and handed it to Deputy Division Commander Duan.

Deputy Division Commander Duan took a sip of it, calmed down, and said: "Forget it, I can't sleep, I just had a dream, the Yankees' 155 howitzers kept smashing on our positions, many soldiers were sacrificed, and the division headquarters also dropped a few." ”

When fighting the reactionaries in China, Deputy Division Commander Duan had learned the 105 howitzer, which was the first time he encountered it in North Korea, and its power was much greater than that of the 105, and it exploded on the ground, and the killing radius around the explosion point could reach 40 to 50 meters, which was terrifying.

Chief of Staff Wang smiled and said, "Old Duan, you won't be afraid of 155, when we were poor and white, we didn't meet anything." ”

Deputy Division Commander Duan put down the teapot and said: "I'm not afraid, it's this ghost thing that really makes people angry, if the US Tenth Army doesn't use this thing to do it with us, the casualties in the past few days will not be the number it is now, Lao Wang, as you said, the US Tenth Army is equipped with more than 350 57 and 155 howitzers, and we don't even have room to parry." ”

Chief of Staff Wang looked at the casualty tables handed over by the companies in his hand, and couldn't help but say: "Yes, Almond, this kid is relying on these things, and now he is biting us to the death, he will not let go easily." ”

Deputy Division Commander Duan calmed down a little and said, "You reminded me that Almond probably didn't know that only one of us, the 180th Division, was following them at this time. ”

Chief of Staff Wang somewhat disagreed with Deputy Division Commander Duan's opinion, and said: "No, I dare to guarantee that Almond must know, you see the current attack momentum, it is obvious that he wants to make dumplings for us and completely annihilate our posture." ”

Deputy Division Commander Duan shook his head: "No, the sniper of each company in the past two days has been very beautiful, and he is not good at judging our strength." ”

Chief of Staff Wang said: "Forget it, old Duan, they have two hundred planes, and these days, they are buzzing on our heads almost every day, and there are quite a few reconnaissance planes alone. ”

At this time, Division Commander Zheng said: "Okay, you two don't quarrel, whether Almond knows about the deployment of our troops or not, we still have to stop him according to the orders of the military department, no matter what the situation is, we must be prepared." You two have time to quarrel, so you might as well come and study with me about tomorrow morning's deployment. ”

"Or go to sleep."

Deputy Division Commander Duan said very seriously: "Don't sleep, this cannon is so loud, the soldiers on the front line are desperate, let's also hurry up and study the next countermeasures." ”

Chief of Staff Wang smiled and said, "Don't mind, it's still early, it's no problem to sleep for a while, I'm a little sleepy." ”

Deputy Division Commander Duan pushed him on the shoulder with his fist and said, "Okay, you hurry up." ”

In fact, Chief of Staff Wang was right this time, Almond already knew that his opponent was only one 180th Division.

At the same time that Deputy Division Commander Duan was napping on the table just now, the US Tenth Army was stationed, and the transport units in the US army were still busy. Truckloads of fuel, ammunition supplies, and other supplies are being delivered to the station.

In a tent, Almond was sitting on a stool, reading a domestic newspaper, with half a glass of boiled water on his right hand.

Today's offensive is not smooth, the Chinese resistance is very tenacious, even if they already know that today's Chinese army has no food, the offensive situation is naturally fierce, but such a fierce attack, just did not push their front forward much, after a day, only to occupy a few small positions, which made Almond more annoyed, secretly scolded the group of people on the front line are stupid pigs, the war is in the newspapers, those politicians in the country can watch it.

Especially those beautiful bodies, Almond really wanted to take a gun and surprise those guys, and if he didn't do anything all day, he would be blind in the newspapers.

(End of chapter)