Chapter 3: 597.9 Highland

Wusheng Mountain is located in central Korea, about 19 kilometers southeast of Pingkang and about 5 kilometers north of Jinhua, with an altitude of 1,061.7 meters. The next morning, accompanied by Wang Yuehan, I climbed the world-famous Five Sacred Mountain, accompanied by Wang Yuehan.

Wang Yuehan was a staff officer assigned by Commander Wang to cooperate with me in my work. He assigned him to me, so that I could solve the problem of inconvenience in walking with the soldiers of the 77th Division on the position, and the other was that I could be my guide, take me to see the terrain, give some advice, and promote the connection between the 538th Regiment and the 77th Division.

Wang Yuehan is a man outside of thirty years old. He doesn't like to talk much. He often stands beside me without saying a word. He never takes the initiative to introduce anything to me. He even has important information such as elevation of the high ground, the number of people stationed in the garrison. He didn't answer until I asked him.

At first I was a little surprised how Commander Wang sent such a person to cooperate with us. Because in my impression, if someone was to send to receive foreign guests, then no matter how you say it, you should send someone who understands human relationships and is more talkative! But Wang Yuehan, who is beside me, even looked a little dull...

However, I understood a little less than half a day after I contacted him. It took him less than an hour to allocate more than 800 soldiers from our 538th Regiment to the 77th Division, and all of them were registered and registered. Where each soldier was assigned, where he was at, where he exchanged experience with the troops, etc., and all of them were done clearly and organized. This skill was almost as good as Liu Shunyi, the deputy commander of the 538th Regiment.

From this I know the reason why Commander Wang would assign Wang Yuehan to me, and this should be the reason why he could become a chief of staff at such a young age.

This is the difference between modern society and war years! If you send guests to receive guests in modern society, you must be able to speak, drink, sing, and play... But on the battlefield, what you need is a practical worker and an efficient person.

Wusheng Mountain is the highest altitude mountain in this area. I walked and looked at the terrain. It took me half an hour to climb to the top of this steep mountain. Standing on this high ground, the mountains below are undoubtedly visible.

October in North Korea is late autumn, and summer is quietly leaving. The blue sky is cloudless. The mountain wind blowing towards me brings a burst of chill. This makes me unable to help but think of the biting cold winter here, and also reminds of the last winter when thousands of volunteer soldiers were frozen to death because they were not equipped and not had enough supplies.

This situation will never happen again this winter, which is certain, because I know that after the summer and autumn defense battles passed, the US military returned to the negotiating table again, so the front line was relatively stable. For a long time, both sides only had some small-scale highland battles with the progress of the negotiations. The bombing of our supply line by US aircraft also slowed down with the growth of the Volunteer Air Force and the need for negotiations.

Therefore, the supply of the volunteer army has been transformed from the previous transportation to the amount of domestic support.

Standing in front of a cliff facing the whistling cold wind, I raised the telescope in front of my chest and looked down. The mountains at the foot of the mountain were surrounded by mountains, and at first glance there were rolling high ground. There should have been tall evergreen trees here, with fiery red maple leaves, but due to the previous battle, they turned into gray-black scorched earth and potholes.

But this is also good. I can easily see the high ground at the foot of the mountain and the people as big as ants on the high ground, and even the defense lines built by enemies with sandbags and the sunshine reflected from their helmets...

At the foot of the mountain south of Wusheng Mountain, there are five high grounds like five open fingers. Two of the high grounds are distributed on both sides of Wusheng Mountain like thumbs and index fingers, one left and one right. There is an east-west mountain connection between the two high grounds, forming a natural barrier. These two high grounds form a triangle with the Wusheng Mountain, so the US military calls the Wusheng Mountain "Triangular Mountain". I think this is the 597.9 and 537.7 Highlands that both sides fought desperately in history!

Looking from my perspective, these two high grounds are only the size of two tables, but who would know that these two high grounds with an inconspicuous area of ​​only 3.7 square kilometers, a year later, the Volunteer Army and the United Nations Army will invest more than 100,000 troops here to engage in a large-scale battle.

To the west of the Five Saints Mountain is Douliu Peak and the Western Mountains. To the west is the Pingkang Valley, which is eight kilometers wide. From the Pingkang Valley to the north, it is almost a flat land to enter the Pingkang Plain.

It is precisely because of this eight-kilometer-wide Pingkang Valley that the volunteers misjudged the enemy situation.

The US military has always chosen a relatively flat place that is conducive to the development of their mechanized troops as a breakthrough. Therefore, the Volunteer Army always thought that if the US military wanted to attack Wusheng Mountain, it would definitely choose the Pingkang Valley to the west to attack. Therefore, before the war started, heavy troops were laid on the two high grounds of Xifangshan and Douliu Peak, and the cannons in the tunnel were also towards the Pingkang Valley. Who would have thought that this time the US military would give up the easy and difficult, and actually used Shangganling, which was not conducive to the development of mechanized troops as a breakthrough. So until the US military launched an attack, the two high grounds of Shangganling had only two companies...

"How many troops have you stationed on Shangganling?" Thinking of this, I couldn't help but ask Wang Yuehan beside me.

"Shangganling?" Unexpectedly, Wang Yuehan replied with a confused look on his face: "We did not arrange troops on Shangganling!"

"What?" I was stunned when I heard this. Shangganling could be said to be the gateway to the Five Sacred Mountains no matter what. The 77th Division did not arrange troops? But when I thought about it, I felt something was wrong. First, the soldiers of the 77th Division could not make such a low-level mistake. Second, I was clearly seeing volunteer soldiers moving on those two high grounds in the telescope.

There must be something wrong...

"I'm talking about those two highlands..." I pointed to the 537.7 and 597.9 highlands to the south, and asked in confusion: "Aren't our soldiers stationed in these two highlands?"

"Well! It turns out that Captain Cui was asking about these two high grounds!" Wang Yuehan replied with a sudden realization: "There are some of these two high grounds, and there are soldiers in a company and two platoons respectively. However, due to the serious reduction in personnel, there are only a hundred people on these two high grounds!"

"What? You only have more than 100 people on Shangganling?" I was stunned for a moment when I heard this.

"Captain Cui!" Wang Yuehan replied in a daze: "These two high grounds are not called Shangganling, Shangganling is there..."

As he said that, he pointed to the valley between the 537.7 and the 597.9 He said, "There is a small village there, and the village is called Shangganling!"

"Well!" Only then did I realize what the misunderstanding was. It turned out that the Battle of Shangganling was named after the village between these two high grounds.

Thinking of this, I couldn't help but raise my telescope to look at the valley between the two high grounds. This time, I saw a small village, which was only a dozen families. Due to the war, the village was already empty, and some of them had obviously been bombed. Only some ruins left can prove that it was originally a house.

"Then..." I continued to ask: "Did Commander Wang focus his defense on the Western Mountains and Douliu Peak to the west?"

"Of course!" Wang Yuehan nodded and said, "Team Commander Wang has arranged a regiment of troops on the Western Mountain and Douliu Peak!"

Then he asked in confusion: "Isn't this supposed to be? The west is the plain, and the American tanks can be surrounded by a lot. The south is the mountains, and the tanks must come in one by one along the valley! Then we can just get one after another!"

"What Staff Wang said makes sense!" Li Pinghe next to him also nodded in agreement: "Under the usual combat habits of the US military, of course, they will attack from the Pingkang Plain to the west. If they attack from the Shangganling direction, we can beat them up!"

Upon hearing this, I couldn't help but smile bitterly! It seems that no matter who it is, when you come to these Five Sacred Mountains to see the terrain, you will quickly draw a conclusion: the US military will not choose Shangganling in the south as a breakthrough, but will launch an offensive from the western mountain area at Pingkang Valley entrance to the west. But the fact is that the US military launched an attack from the direction of Shangganling...

It doesn't matter if the 26th Army stationed here is now stationed here, because in a few months, they will withdraw to the country to rest. But even the 15th Army that came to take over the defense also deployed this way!

This directly led to insufficient fortifications in Shangganling, and insufficient reserves of strategic materials such as grain, water, ammunition, etc. In the early stage of the battle, there was a problem of insufficient troops and the main artillery force did not rush to adjust the shooting direction. There were only fifteen small cannons in the entire Shangganling to support. In the later stage of the battle, when the soldiers turned into the tunnel and insisted on fighting, the combat materials could not be transported into the tunnel at all. In the end, they reached the point of drinking their own urine. Later, even the urine could only be drunk by severely injured...

But then again, if it weren't for the historical knowledge I had, let me draw conclusions after looking at the terrain, I would have made the same judgment as them with certainty.

"Staff Officer Wang!" I couldn't help but frown and put away the telescope, turned to Wang Yuehan and said, "Since that's the case, why don't you tell Commander Wang that the two high grounds of Shangganling should be used as a demonstration site for building tunnel fortifications for our regiment! We dug tunnel fortifications on these two high grounds, and your other high grounds will be dug according to our appearance!"

"Captain Cui! This is not great!" Wang Yuehan said with some embarrassment: "Didn't you say yesterday? Disperse the soldiers of your regiment to our soldiers to guide them personally, so that you can learn better and faster?"

Hearing this, I couldn't help but complain. How could I know this was the situation yesterday? I just wanted to let the soldiers disperse the fortifications on each high ground and control the fortifications in each high ground, but I didn't expect to lose the focus... There are only more than 100 people in the two high grounds, and the altitude of each high ground is more than 500 meters. If I want to dig into the kind of tunnel I want, I don't know how many years it will take to dig!

Besides, even if I proposed this plan yesterday, it would be an extremely inefficient teaching method, and others would definitely not agree. After all, in the current 77th Division, I am not the final say.

Damn! Thinking of this, I had to curse secretly, "What are you doing to teach me experience, now I can't even use my own soldiers..."

"How about this!" At this time, I had to settle for the second best: "I will guide the soldiers to complete the fortifications of these two high grounds! However, the number of people in these two high grounds is too small. Staff Wang, go and talk to the division commander to see if we can allocate more staff to us!"

"Captain Cui! I'm afraid this is not very suitable!" Wang Yuehan said hesitantly: "These two high grounds are very close to the enemy's frontier positions, and some places are only more than 200 meters apart. Warriors are often killed by the enemy's cold guns, for your safety reasons..."

"Um!" I couldn't help but frown when I heard this. It's still even more difficult now.

But no matter what, this tunnel must be done. So I gritted my teeth and said, "If other comrades can go, I can go as well. I will be responsible for my safety!"

"Yes!" Wang Yuehan responded, but continued: "There is another problem. Because our division reduction is very serious, we were all guarded in the guard battalion when we went on the battlefield, so the staff is very tight now. In addition, the focus of our defense is on Douliufeng and Xifangshan, so there may not be many people allocated. I don't know Captain Cui..."

"No problem!" I nodded helplessly and replied: "You can transfer as much as you can! Let them gather at the 597.9 Highland tonight!"

"Yes!" Wang Yuehan responded, saluted me and immediately turned around and went down the mountain.

"Captain Cui!" After Wang Yuehan left, Li Pinghe couldn't help but say in confusion: "I always feel that you have been doing something strange these two days. The mission we are here to exchange experience with comrades from the 77th Army. I see how you..."

"Political Commissar Li!" I interrupted Li Pinghe and said, "This matter of building a tunnel should not involve ideological and political issues!"

"Well! This...no!" Li Pinghe pushed his glasses awkwardly, with an unnatural expression on his face.

"Yeah!" I nodded and said nothing.

Actually, I don’t want to make my relationship with Li Pinghe so frustrated. I just worried that if he continues to ask, I don’t know how to explain it, so I had to use this method that seems arbitrary and stubborn to interrupt the conversation.

Shangganling!

I raised my telescope again and looked at the two inconspicuous high grounds. I couldn't help but feel mixed feelings in my heart. I don't know what will be waiting for me...

That night, I followed Wang Yuehan toward the 597.9 Highland, and as soon as I approached the 597.9 Highland, I felt that the atmosphere was a little different. In the darkness, I always felt that there were a few pairs of eyes staring at our direction. The enemy's position also fired a series of flares at our position from time to time, and sometimes fired a few shots. Although they were all aimless, they still felt like they were returning to the battlefield.

This also made me realize that although both sides returned to the negotiating table, they did not cease to fight. They just did not launch a large-scale attack on the other side's positions for the time being. No one can say anything about shooting guns, shooting artillery, etc., so at this time, it is best not to expose yourself to the enemy's gun...

He followed Wang Yuehan all the way, and sometimes he had to lie on the ground and motionless. When the light of the flare passed, he would get up and run wildly towards the top of the mountain. In this way, after more than half an hour, he finally found a tunnel fortification.

There were a few soldiers waiting at the entrance of the tunnel. When they saw us coming up, they shouted code words when they were far away. As soon as they came to the tunnel, they enthusiastically welcomed us into the tunnel.

"It's Chief of Staff Wang! Chief of Staff Wang is here!" After walking in the dark tunnel for a while, he soon arrived at a slightly larger tunnel. Looking at the fire of the pine oil lamp, there were already densely filled with volunteer soldiers. As soon as he saw us, he stood up and saluted us.

"Comrades!" Wang Yuehan nodded and shouted to the soldiers: "Let me introduce first. This is the Commander Cui who I mentioned to you. I think he defeated the attacks of several enemy divisions on the Western Front with a regiment of troops, and beat up several United Nations ace troops hard on Maliangshan. Everyone knows the deeds of him!"

"I know!" the soldiers shouted, and each looked at me with a kind of admiration and friendly eyes. I nodded and smiled at them one by one.

"Comrades!" Wang Yuehan continued: "Do you know why Commander Cui and others can resist the attack of several enemy divisions with one regiment? Do you know why Commander Cui can block the charge of several enemy ace troops? In these battles that Commander Cui fought, a very important point is the fortification of the reverse slope tunnel proposed by Commander Cui!"

Listening to Wang Yuehan's words, the soldiers' eyes became a little strange, and some looked at me half-believingly.

"I know what comrades are thinking!" Wang Yuehan said as he joined the group: "Comrades must be thinking, aren't we using the fortifications of the reverse slope tunnel, aren't it necessary to be useful? Our army still suffered considerable casualties, right? But comrades, there is nothing wrong with the fortifications of the reverse slope tunnel, and we are wrong with it. Today, Captain Cui personally came to our position to exchange with us about the combat experience of the fortifications of the tunnel, and let us warmly welcome him!"

The crackling applause quickly sounded, making me feel like I was going to perform on stage.

"Captain Cui, I'll leave it to you!" Wang Yuehan saluted me, then smiled bitterly and said, "I heard that you are going to exchange experience with the soldiers in person. The soldiers volunteered. If I hadn't stopped me, I'm afraid that the soldiers of the entire army would come! There are now a total of 352 soldiers!"
Chapter completed!