On the evening of the 26th, the 180th Corps was divided into two routes, and the division headquarters and the 538th Regiment and the 540th Regiment broke through to the north from Chenghuangtang and Zhiyanli. On the other hand, the 539th Regiment fought westward, that is, in the direction west of the City God's Hall, and agreed to meet at the foot of Eagle Peak after dawn.

Among them, the 538th Regiment, which was fighting to the north, served as the vanguard and path-opening regiment, planning to kill a bloody road for the right army at the cost of destroying two battalions.

The company that stayed behind the palace to take charge of the rear of the palace even more explained, if you want to catch up with the large army, you have to step on my corpse This feat, the whole company sacrificed.

The Right Army and the Left Army of Dawn met at the foot of Eagle Peak.

However, on Eagle Peak, what awaits them is not the response of friendly forces, but the enemy's heavy machine gun strafing, heavy artillery coverage, and bomber bombardment.

The 179th Division was violently blocked by the US troops on the way, and communications were interrupted for a time. The military headquarters of the 60th Army could not contact the 181st Division at all. It was only possible to send people through the enemy's positions to pass on orders verbally, and by the time all the 181st Division received orders, it was already dawn.

Even more desperate than being surrounded was the isolation and helplessness, and the 180th Division held its last division headquarters meeting and decided to abandon the breakout from Eagle Peak and break through in all directions with small units scattered in all directions.

To be able to live one, is one.

They burned all the documents, destroyed the radio, and destroyed the artillery, and the 180th Division was completely scattered in the mountains and forests.

Under the encirclement and interception of enemy planes, artillery, tanks, and armored vehicles, the chief of staff of the 539th Regiment led a team of 50 people to miraculously break through the encirclement, and what is even more incredible is that they also brought back more than 10 prisoners. The second, the commander of the 539th Regiment, led a team of more than 40 people, also fought their way out of the encirclement, and they were the only team that brought back the battle map and documents.

Then, the third, fourth, and fifth divisional commanders, deputy division commanders, chief of staff, and directors of the Political Department, were under the division commanders, deputy division commanders, chief of staff, and political department directors were fiercely pursued and intercepted by the enemy, the sky hovered over their heads, tanks and armored vehicles were in hot pursuit, and the division commanders and detachments lost all combat effectiveness and could only disperse to find cover, and finally, relying on almost negligible weak firepower, in a desperate situation, the commanders of the 180th Division returned to the front of our army with sporadic troops.

However, he did not see the director of the Political Department, Director Wu. It turned out that the team led by Director Wu was blocked in a narrow ravine head-on, and it was already a miracle that they survived under the indiscriminate bombardment of aircraft and artillery, so they gave up the idea of breaking through and went up the mountain to fight guerrillas, which lasted for a year.

During the year-long guerrilla operations behind enemy lines, due to various reasons, this unit was seriously reduced and dispersed, and Director Wu was even captured and taken prisoner by the US military, becoming the highest-ranking officer and soldier of our army captured in the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea.

According to post-war statistics, the number of casualties and missing under unknown circumstances was 7,644, and less than 4,000 people, including the wounded, returned to their positions.

Coming from the future, he was favored by the division commander again, since he was able to make a decision, Xia Yuan would definitely not allow such a situation to happen again. The reason why the location of the battle was chosen at Yingfeng, instead of Huidongli, Mapingli, or Zhiyanli, was to take into account what would happen in the future, especially the turning point of the 180th Division's breakthrough and the resumption of communication with the Third Corps.

It was the 3rd Corps that restored communications, and an order to block the attack on the spot and cover the retreat of the wounded allowed the 180th Division to completely lose the opportunity to retreat.

Xia Yuan stared at Eagle Peak, thinking about how to make the 180th Division able to complete the task of blocking the enemy and retreat safely, if he did not consider breaking through to the enemy's rear, Eagle Peak was obviously the best choice.

"Eagle Peak is located between Chenghuangtang and Zhiyanli, it is a huge mountain peak that the enemy can't bypass in the north, Yingfeng to the north, up to the position of our volunteer army Shicangli, to the south can reach Chenghuangtang, to the east can go to Zhiyanli, Mapingli, Huidongli, to the west is a huge rolling mountain range."

Xia Yuan, who was standing in God's vision, was very clear.

The 180th Division cannot retreat!

At least until the twenty-seventh!

The 180th Division was surrounded by the enemy, not because there was a mistake in the command decision, but because Shiji made a big move.

Xia Yuan had learned about the Fifth Campaign, and had previously said that the Fifth Campaign was because the enemy might organize a landing operation like the Inchon landing, and it was almost impossible for the Volunteer Army to resist the enemy's landing operation in the absence of a navy and air force.

Shiji's man was the first to think that the U.S. military might carry out a second landing plan like the Inchon landing, and after the fourth campaign of the Great Pursuit, he strongly advocated the start of the fifth campaign. At that time, many people in the Shiji were opposed, and they advocated abandoning the Fifth Campaign and fighting in the rear, because the suggestion that the US military might carry out a landing operation plan similar to that of Incheon was completely unbased and completely guessed, so to speak.

The fourth battle seemed to be a victory, but in fact, the 'great pursuit' staged in the later part of the fourth campaign suddenly exposed the weakness of the volunteers, and also exposed the fact that the US army had mastered the weakness of the volunteers.

Not only did the great pursuit staged in the later part of the fourth campaign cause heavy casualties to the volunteers, but the most critical point was that the fourth campaign consumed a lot of materials, and it was very reckless to start the fifth campaign immediately on the premise of consuming a lot of materials.

Moreover, the second Inchon landing by the US military again was completely conjectured by the person himself, and there was no intelligence to base it on.

He was able to convince the others in the end, and the fifth campaign began.

In the seventeenth minute of the first episode of "Iron is Burning", MacArthur's memoirs recorded in detail that MacArthur had already thought of using radioactive materials to cut off the logistics supply route of the volunteers from Manchuria to North Korea in the future after the end of the second battle, and the so-called radioactive materials were nuclear bombs.

It is also documented below, if allowed, that MacArthur would carry out a landing in the upper part of North Korea, and at the same time cooperate with the Airborne Forces to encircle the Volunteer Corps, which would starve to death or surrender without logistical supplies.

It can be seen how terrifying the analysis of the battlefield situation is by the Shiji, the fifth battle is bound to be fought, really according to other people's ideas, close the defensive line, block in place, once the US army implements the second Inchon landing again, the enemy in the waist, directly threatens the troops on the front line, their defense line will be retracted again and again, and they may return to the starting point of the first battle.

Only by standing in God's eyes can we understand how terrible that person is. Whether it is MacArthur, Ridgway, or even the future Clark, they are not worthy of carrying shoes, and the reason why they can fight back and forth with the volunteers is completely dependent on advanced weapons and equipment, absolute sea and air suppression, extremely fast logistics supply routes, and even the joint actions of more than a dozen countries.

It can be said that they have Wang Fang, four twos, and four sharp points in their hands. Under his leadership, the volunteer army, which was poor and white, carried out five battles successively, making the reputation of the volunteer army resounding all over the world and making all countries in the world, including the United States, dare not underestimate this country that has just been established for only one year.

"Therefore, the 180th Division cannot be withdrawn yet."

When Xia Yuan spoke, his voice was heavy, and it wasn't until the real crisis came that he figured out the true role of the 180th Division.

In fact, as originally thought, the real purpose of the 180th Division was to contain the enemy.

The purpose of containing the US Tenth Army was to not affect the subsequent Cheorwon Blockade and Hwacheon Blockade.

"Can't be withdrawn?"

Everyone followed closely and had some doubts, if they did not retreat, according to the current situation, the 180th Division might be surrounded by the enemy, and there was even a risk of being annihilated.

Senior Commander Zheng stared at Eagle Peak and said: "The geographical location of Eagle Peak is good, if you don't consider retreating from the cave-Mapingli, retreating from Eagle Peak is a good road, Eagle Peak can go north to Shicangli." ”

Shi Cangli is the headquarters of the 60th Army, there are no troops of our army there, think about it carefully, if the 180th Division is really surrounded by the enemy, our army may not send troops to respond.

Xia Yuan nodded, what he thought was the same as what Division Commander Zheng thought, the 180th Division could not be withdrawn now, and the 180th Division had retreated, so the unhindered US 7th Division, US 24th Division, Pseudo 6th Division, and 1st Marine Division would go all the way north unimpeded until Huachuan.

Hwacheon is the current location of the 181st Division, which will be under heavy attack from the enemy of four divisions.

Xia Yuan stared at Hwacheon, the famous Hwacheon Blocking Battle was an encounter between the Ninth Corps and the 1st Marine Division, and the appearance of this encounter directly completely emptied the seemingly unreasonable order to block on the spot encountered by the 180th Division.

"The reason why we can't retreat is very simple, we want to contain this US army and prevent the large force of the US army from continuing to attack north, and Eagle Peak is our best choice at the moment."

Everyone listened to Xia Yuan's voice and looked at Yingfeng, they obviously didn't realize that the 180th Division had decided the future fate of the Ninth Corps in this war, if the 180th Division retreated, then history would change, and it was no longer the 180th Division that fell into the enemy's encirclement, but the Ninth Corps.

"Division commander, Eagle Peak can't be lost, this is related to the fate of my 180th Division."

Xia Yuan's voice was a little solemn, he thought about everything clearly, gathered up all the battles that would take place in the future, and immediately came to the conclusion that the 180th Division could not retreat.

The orders issued by the superiors are not groundless, and every order has its own reason.

Everyone looked at Xia Yuan with some doubts, and Deputy Division Commander Duan said: "With the current situation, the 180th Division no longer has much strength to stay and continue to block the enemy, and you also said before that there is still a Mei 24 existence on our right flank, once they arrive at the City God Hall, our last retreat will be cut off." ”

Division Commander Zheng shook his head: "Actually, there is still a route from Dongli to Mapingli, if the US 24th Division does not continue to go north to occupy Zhiyanli and Mapingli after occupying Chenghuangtang, we will be able to retreat through this route, which can be regarded as a big detour, bypassing the enemy's main force." ”

The big guys are looking at the problem from the perspective of the present, the map of the US military is indeed more detailed than theirs, every road and ravine is very clear, especially the route to the retreat cave, which makes them feel a little relaxed in their hearts.

Chief of Staff Wang said: "As long as we let the two regiments hold these two routes, we still have the strength to fight, and even if we lose, we can retreat smoothly." ”

Master Zheng nodded.

The big guy looked at Eagle Peak, and seemed to realize the role of Eagle Peak, occupying Eagle Peak, he could stop the US 24th Division from going north along the road under Eagle Peak Mountain to occupy Zhiyanli and Mapingli, and its geographical location needless to say.

"But there's also something we have to think about." Deputy Division Commander Duan spoke again: "The U.S. military can be fully deployed on the road, and we are short of food and ammunition, can we cut off the U.S. military with mechanized troops." ”

Everyone fell into silence again, the current firepower of the 180th Division has been completely strong, and the battles on the front line also rely on the terrain, so that the enemy's tanks cannot come up, and can only carry out artillery bombardment and infantry charges on the position, the infantry charge is not so afraid, afraid that in the US army's infantry and tank coordination, in the absence of heavy firepower, the volunteer soldiers often have to organize a squad of fighters, form a death squad to go to the task of blasting the enemy's tanks.

And the US troops on the road, so far, their ammunition consumption is very serious, especially the consumption of Bazooka shells, many companies of Bazooka have basically become burning sticks, no effect, at this time to block the mechanized troops of the US army on the road, the consequences can be imagined.

The faces of the people showed worry again.

Xia Yuan could not solve the problem of the gap between the two sides, he only knew that if the 180th Division did not retreat, the Hwacheon resistance battle might be even more tragic.

"It would actually be better if we fought a positional battle, although the geographical location of Eagle Peak is good, but it is too close to the road, and this is the necessary place for the US 24th Division to attack, if we put our troops on Eagle Peak, not to mention the US 24th Division, the US 7th Division in front will occupy the position of Jiguan Mountain."

Chief of Staff Wang put his hands on the position around Jiguan Mountain and said: "At that time, this area will be occupied by the US army, and we will only be left with Eagle Peak." ”

The solemn expressions of the people, the reason why their 180th Division has not been annihilated by the enemy now, the most is that the volunteer soldiers fought tenaciously and bravely, and a large part of it is also because the 180th Division has a very wide area, with a depth of 200 kilometers before and after, and from Jiguan Mountain to the front line of the 180th Division, their operating space is very large.

If the position is compressed, and the defense area is gathered on such a cockscomb mountain, I don't know what chaos will happen.

This is the advantage of two regiments lined up, it is not easy to be wiped out by the enemy's heavy firepower at once.

(End of chapter)