Chapter 16: Ice and Snow Lurk

The snow fell heavily and was very stable. At first, it was accompanied by a light rain, but soon the rain stopped. Only the large snowflakes fell down from the cloudy sky like goose feathers. After a while, a vast white area outside the tunnel became.

The long-lost winter has finally come!

Although the cold in North Korea still makes me afraid from time to time, the deaths of those who were frozen to death last winter are still vivid in my mind, this year, I hope it will arrive earlier.

In the tunnel, the soldiers of the Cold Gun Army and I were busy disguising each other. Unlike in the past, our disguise this time was not brown sacks, but white cloth that had been prepared long ago.

It is not difficult to find some white cloth in North Korea, because every household in North Korea likes to wear white clothes. It is precisely because of this that they are called the "white nation". So, I just called the headquarters and soon a correspondent sent us a lot of good cloth.

"Comrades, these are donated by North Korean villagers!" I still remember the correspondent said: "It's snowing. North Korean villagers are afraid that we will be frozen, so they keep the fabrics they prepare to make new clothes during the New Year. A grandma even gave us a large bundle of clothes in thin clothes! The soldiers couldn't bear to accept them! Comrades, you must make good use of these fabrics! Don't let the North Korean villagers down!"

This reminds me of the time when I was injured. The old man who took care of my life to take care of me and a few soldiers and took care of me and the simple mountain village. I can’t remember the name of that village now. The Korean fellow villagers are really speechless. Since they learned that our Volunteer Army is here to help the People’s Army fight, they have always brought food, clothing, etc. to the Volunteer Army soldiers on the front line. There are even many Korean people spontaneously organized themselves to go to the front line to act as migrant workers for the Volunteer Army...

I don’t understand why the attitudes of the Korean people and the People’s Army toward us are so different.

While I cut a white cloth with a bayonet and wrapped it around my gun, I was thinking, maybe it was because of politics! The People's Army's ideas about us are not as simple as the people, and they love and fear us now.

But I don’t need to consider these things for the time being. I am thinking about how to act tonight!

"Comrades!" Seeing that the soldiers were ready to pretend to be "white people", I patted a soldier beside me and said, "I want to introduce to you a new comrade, Wang Xianru, the 'Mine Moving King' of our group. Everyone should be familiar with him! The explosives used to blow stones in our two high grounds during this period are all his masterpieces!"

"Hello, comrades!" Wang Xianru stood up and saluted the soldiers, and then joked: "Those explosives that exploded stones cannot be said to be all my masterpieces, and they also have a contribution from the American devils, right?"

With a coaxing sound, the soldiers all laughed into a ball.

"Comrades!" After a while of laughter, I continued: "Although my actions tonight were still lurking and killing the enemy, they were a little different from the past and were different from our previous training. Let me briefly talk about this mission..."

As I said that, I stood up, circled several positions on the map hanging on the wall of the tunnel with a pencil, saying, "Our lurking location is here, here, and this..."

"Captain!" Looking at the location I drew on the topographic map, Hu Zudi couldn't help but ask in confusion: "Have you made a mistake? The places you are all the positions of Americans..."

"That's right!" I nodded and said, "The place we want to lurk is the Americans' position!"

Although the soldiers did not discuss or make noise because of the actual training during this period, and they were still sitting quietly in front of me, I could still see from their surprised eyes that they were confused in their hearts. Even Wang Yuehan, Wang Yiming and others who were helping by the side were the same.

In the past, most of our lurking was lurking on the top of the high ground, and the most daring thing was lurking on the front slope of the already squared position. However, the position of this lurking mission would actually penetrate deep into the enemy's position.

"Captain!" Hu Zudi asked a little uneasy: "Didn't you teach us to quickly evacuate the battlefield after destroying the enemy? If we are lurking on the enemy's position now, how can we withdraw our own position? If we want to withdraw our position, we must first run down the valley, then run through the front slope of our position, and then enter the safe zone! For such a long time, the US military can completely eliminate us on the road! This, this... can the soldiers come back?"

"Yes! Commander Cui!" Yang Zhenshan also agreed: "We are not afraid of death, but I think we cannot increase the unnecessary casualties of the soldiers like this, and we cannot blindly go to the battlefield to fight the enemy with our lives! Isn't this what you taught us?"

"Huang Sihu, what do you think?" Among the three squad leaders, only Huang Sihu didn't say a word, and I couldn't help but ask casually.

"Report to the commander!" Huang Sihu stood up and stood up and said, "I think Captain Cui would never let us go up and make unnecessary sacrifices like this, so I think Captain Cui must have a reason for the commander, but... I can't understand what this is for!"

"Yeah!" I couldn't help but nodded when I heard this, and thought to myself that Huang Sihu was not only calm, but also thought deeper than others.

"Comrades!" raised his hand to signal the squad leader to sit down. I said heavily: "We have sacrificed a lot of comrades during this period, Duan Weisen, Chen Qijian, Zeng Xuewu, Xu Zhixin, and Zhang Mancheng... They are all good comrades! The Party and the people remember theirs! Their sacrifices are all worth it, because they not only added a lot of money to our credit book for resisting U.S. aggressing Korea, but also provided us with a lot of experience and information. Especially Comrade Zhang Mancheng!"

After pausing, I continued: "Comrade Zhang Mancheng's sacrifice was because the enemy's large-caliber artillery accurately fired shells at the designated position within one minute. Staff Wang and I analyzed that the reason why the enemy was able to fire shells at our position so accurately in such a short time was because their cannons had locked the various positions on our right slope in segments and blocks. So once they knew where we were, they could quickly fire shells at this position..."

"But the regiment commander!" Hu Zudi is worthy of being a famous sharpshooter in the division. He quickly put forward different opinions and said: "The reason why the enemy discovered our position is because the green smoke from the gun was exposed when we shot. Isn't it just snowing now? White snow can be used as a cover for Qingyan, so the enemy will lose its target, right?"

"Squad Leader Hu said it well!" I said, "But, with the American style, if someone is beaten to death by us and cannot find the target, what do you think they will do?"

"Call the guns!" Several squad leaders looked at each other and replied in unison.

"That's right!" I nodded: "Once we start fighting, the US military will be killed and injured, and they can't find the target, so of course they won't let it go and retreat. The biggest possibility is that they will fire shells into our positions, and at this time their cannons lock on all areas of our incline, so..."

"So if we lurk on the front slope of our position, casualties are inevitable!" Wang Yuehan, who had been listening on the side, replied: "But if we lurk on the enemy's position, the situation will be different. First of all, the enemy will never fire the cannon at its position. Even if it fires, the enemy's forward slope is the back slope for their cannons. Their long-range cannons cannot hit us at all, so the enemy's position is the safest place..."

Speaking of this, Wang Yuehan couldn't help but sigh: "Captain Cui is really powerful. He can actually think about the situation of the enemy. Our two sides are so meticulous and thoughtful. It really makes me, the chief of staff, feel inferior to me..."

"Chief of Staff Wang!" Wang Yiming couldn't help but quips: "You won't sigh to the sky like Zhou Yu: 'Ah! Since you have given birth to Yu, He Shengliang...'."

The last sentence of Wang Yiming was sung in Beijing accent, which made the soldiers laugh!

I couldn't help but smile. I didn't expect that Wang Yiming would sing Peking Opera and had a bit of humor. When will the art troupe perform again, he can still perform on stage?

"Captain! We understand!" After a while of laughter, Hu Zudi said embarrassedly: "We should have believed that the commander's command ability has firmly obeyed the arrangements of the commander, but they have made so many mistakes!"

"Yes, the leader!" Yang Zhenshan continued, "We won't interrupt, you can continue to assign tasks!"

"Well!" I nodded and continued, "Just as Chief of Staff Wang said, lurking on the enemy's position can help us avoid the killing of enemy artillery, but the difficulties Hu Zudi still exist, that is, when we complete the mission, if we want to evacuate the battlefield, we must cross the valley and then pass through the forward slope of our army to enter the safe zone. It is almost impossible to complete these under the eyes of the US military! Therefore, after completing the mission, the soldiers must not make any moves. If they fire again, they must be careful. They must not expose their location and lurk in place and wait for darkness!"

"Land until dark?" Wang Yuehan couldn't help but exclaim: "Captain Cui, are you talking about lurking on the enemy's position for a day and a night?"

"That's right!" I nodded and said, "In the past, when we performed missions, we had to quickly evacuate the battlefield regardless of whether we hit or not. But now, we must lurk on our own positions regardless of whether we hit or not, until it was dark again. Warriors must pay attention, because we were lurking on the enemy's positions, and some positions were only 40 meters away from the enemy's trenches, and maybe even closer. At such a close distance, once you exposed your position, you can basically say that there is no possibility of survival. Are comrades determined?"

"Yes!" The soldiers raised their fists and replied without thinking.

"Wang Xianru!"

"arrive!"

I walked up, patted Wang Xianru on the shoulder and said, "Because we are going to lurk in the enemy's position, there is a very likely enemy mines on the road. Once a mine is stepped on, our operation will be exposed. Are you sure to bring us into the lurking location separately?"

"Yes!" Wang Xianru stood up and said, "Please rest assured, the regiment commander, I will never let my comrades suffer losses. As long as I am allowed to walk ahead, no Japanese mines can escape!"

According to the soldiers of the 538th Regiment, Wang Xianru is a dangerous person. He climbed to the enemy's position and dug landmines when he had nothing to do. After digging, he brought it back and put it in a full tunnel. The mines were full of foreign letters, and no one could understand them. It was quite scary anyway. But Wang Xianru liked to knock and smash them there, which made the soldiers in the tunnel not sleep soundly, thinking that maybe they would be gone with a bang in their dreams...

This may not explain the level of landmines that Wang Xianru has taken, but at least one thing I know is that landmines are common for Wang Xianru. But it was also when it was not snowing. Now a snow has already covered the traces of landmines...

Thinking of this, I asked with some concern: "Are you sure if it snows?"

"Yes!" Wang Xianru stood up and replied without thinking.

"You are so amazing?" I felt a little incredible when I looked at Wang Xianru's heart. I pointed to the places we were lurking and said, "These places are not small! Are you sure you can get all the landmines in one night?"

"Captain Cui, actually... isn't my god!" Wang Xianru grabbed his head with some embarrassment and said, "Didn't you ask me to get explosives and blow stones for the soldiers during this period? I went to the enemy's position every night to take mines. Just now, I checked out the several locations you marked. Except for one place, the mines in other places are all staying in my tunnel!"

With a coaxing sound, no matter how patient the soldiers trained, they couldn't help laughing.

"Okay, that's up to you to the battlefield!" I nodded to Wang Xianru: "Remember, your mission is to bring the soldiers safely into the designated location, and return immediately after completing the mission!"

"Yes!" Wang Xianru responded.

I am thinking about Wang Xianru. As the saying goes, "There are orders of hearing and knowledge, and there are specialties in art and profession." Wang Xianru has the expertise in landmines without undergoing lurking training. I will not be so stupid that people like him lurk on the battlefield with us to shoot cold guns.

"Set out!" With my order, the soldiers grabbed the rifles in their hands and ran out of the tunnel without saying a word.

The temperature difference inside and outside the tunnel was very large. As soon as I walked out of the tunnel, I couldn't help but shivered in the whistling cold wind. The strong wind swept with snowflakes, whistling and rolling, covering the sky. The flying snow powder collided back and forth, and I don't know whether it rose up from the ground or fell from the sky. The whole world was chaotic and vast, and the earth and the sky were mixed together by snow. I barely opened my eyes to see the surrounding positions, and it was already snow-white.

So I thought, fortunately the thick clouds blocked the moonlight tonight, otherwise even if we were wearing disguises, we would still be unable to sneak into their positions under the enemy's noses.

All the soldiers, led by Wang Xianru, were lying down on their faces and advancing forward, and sometimes stood up and trotted toward the target.

The US military is very diligent. They may be thinking about their own lives, or they may know that the volunteers always like to launch attacks at night, so they dare not neglect even in this cold winter night. The searchlights and eight searchlight lights kept firing back and forth over our army's positions, and occasionally one or two flares were fired.

The situation is fine when moving forward on the backscene, because there are not many searchlights that can reach here. The situation is different when entering the top of the mountain. The top of the 597.9 highland is not just a small bare top as ordinary people imagine.

The top of the 597.9 highland is divided into three hills. The main peak faces north and south, pointing to the enemy's position like an arrow. The other two hills are located at the lower left of the 597.9 highland, echoing the main peak. The three highlands are hills and craters are everywhere. Most of the top of the mountain are under the focus of the enemy's searchlight. Snow-white lights are fired like machine gun bullets, which only suppresses the soldiers often lie in the snow and lie for several minutes without moving.

Fortunately, Wang Xianru seemed to have seen this kind of scene. He took the searchlights and quickly ran into various dead corners, moved forward step by step carefully, and finally took the soldiers and crossed the top of the mountain without any danger after more than half an hour.

Once you cross the top of the mountain, the threat from searchlights on the US military positions is much less, because except for the two searchlights that shine down on the front slope, no other US military will focus on this. This may be human laziness! After a tight blockade, other places will be relatively loose.

It was even more so when we crossed the valley and entered the enemy's position. There was no searchlight that would shine here. I think even if we danced a dance here, the enemy would not notice it. Of course, if the soldiers could dance.

At this time, Wang Xianru turned around and gestured at us, then pointed at his footprints on the ground, and we all quickly understood that this was the enemy's minefield.
Chapter completed!