The heavens start from Changjin Lake

On December 1, the troops continued to block the attack, pursue, encircle and annihilate the enemy.

A commendation telegram signed by Commander Zhi was sent to Zhisi:

"In this battle, our 38th Army carried forward its excellent combat style, especially the 113th Division, which moved quickly. It occupied Sansuoli and Longyuanli before the enemy, blocking reinforcements escaping from the south and north. Although the enemy had more than a hundred aircraft Under the cover of bombardment all day long, more than a hundred tanks repeatedly failed to break through, and the results were brilliant. Nearly a thousand tanks and vehicles were surrendered. There were still many enemies besieged. We hope to overcome the difficulties, muster up the courage, and continue to annihilate the besieged enemies. , and pay attention to blocking the enemy's reinforcements from the north. I will commend you with a special order and wish you continued victory!"

"Long live the Chinese People's Volunteers!"

"Long live the 38th Army!"

"Volunteer Army - Headquarters - Political Department!"

The commendation order came in a timely manner and was conveyed to all units, which greatly encouraged the fighting spirit of all the commanders and soldiers in the army to continue to win, and stirred up the morale and morale of the entire army.

After thirty days and thirty-one days of fighting, the US Second Division, the US 25th Division, the US 1st Cavalry Division, the Li Puppet Army's First Division, and the remnants of the Turkish brigade, which were surrounded by the 38th Army, failed to break through. It was destined to be wiped out and was forced to abandon a large amount of baggage and equipment. At 8:00 on December 1, it began to turn towards Anzhou to break out.

At this time, the 38th Army's right neighbors, the 39th Army and the 40th Army, had already occupied Qichuan and Junyuli.

The enemy's 42nd Army on the left occupied Yinshan, was responsible for cutting off the enemy's retreat in a roundabout way, and was advancing in the direction of Sunchuan and Suzhou.

At the same time, the 7th and 43rd Divisions of the Korean People's Army, which participated in the Western Front, fought bravely in the northeastern area of ​​​​Pyongyang and destroyed transportation, making it impossible for the enemies in Seongcheon and Gangdong areas to move north to rescue MacArthur's urgent need, and had to wait Bad news kept coming from the front lines.

MacArthur originally wanted to defend the first line of defense in Pyongyang and the distant mountains.

However, because the 66th Army captured Chengchuan, he felt that he had no support and had to order the United Nations troops to quickly retreat to the '38th Parallel'.

Seeing that the enemy relied on its motorized equipment to retreat rapidly and it was difficult for the volunteer soldiers to pursue it on foot, Shiji stopped the offensive on December 2.

The two divisions of the U.S. Tenth Corps on the Eastern Front (the First Marine Division and the Seventh Infantry Division) were in a more dangerous situation than the Eighth Army. The Ninth Corps on the Eastern Front overcame the high mountains and dangerous roads, and had poor clothing and shoes. The extremely cold temperature of -40 degrees below zero tightly surrounded the enemy in the Changjin Lake area.

On the evening of November 11000, they launched a full-scale attack on the surrounded enemy. After more than days of hard fighting, they annihilated most of the st Marine Division of the US Ace Army and the first section of the th US Division, a total of more than people. Fighting all the way to the Hamhung and Hungnam areas on the eastern coast, the remaining enemies had to blow up their supplies and flee by sea.

The encirclement and annihilation battle on the night of the 30th was quite spectacular.

After a short rest, Xia Yuan led the remaining four uninjured soldiers of the third company, including a health worker, and continued the operation with the battalion headquarters.

On a high slope, they looked south to see the battlefield where the cold moon and cold stars shone brightly. The thunder of the explosion in the position tore through the sky, and the rumbles spread between the sky and the earth, continuously.

On a front line dozens of miles long, strings of tracer bombs, illumination bombs, and signal flares were flying in the air.

The screams of artillery shells, grenades, blasting tubes, and explosive packets made muffled explosions that echoed endlessly in the canyon.

The fierce fighting between the enemy and ourselves along the road was such a spectacular sight that Xia Yuan, a modern person, had never seen before. It was probably only a few years ago. The atmosphere of the year was strong. He stood on the top of the mountain and looked at the villages, towns and county towns. Only with fireworks can we have such a spectacular sight.

But that's peace.

And in front of us is war.

This scene is also a majestic and magnificent scene that Feng Yuxiang, a battalion commander who has been in the army for more than ten years, has never seen before.

The enemy's abandoned artillery, tanks, armored vehicles and various large and small cars stretch endlessly, and there are scattered documents, papers, photos, artillery shells, US military flags, puppet "Bagua Banner" and other miscellaneous things everywhere. supplies.
MacArthur used more than 20 troops to launch the "Christmas Homecoming Offensive", which was completely declared bankrupt.

The 1st Battalion suffered heavy casualties in the Battle of Songgu Peak. They did not participate in the subsequent mission of chasing and annihilating the enemy. They were going to clean up the trophies dropped by the enemy on the road. Working with them were military logistics personnel.

When Xia Yuan took the remaining four soldiers of the Third Company down the mountain and ran to the road to clean up the loot, some cars had not yet turned off, and the radios on the communication vehicles had not yet been turned off.

He skillfully opened a box, revealing a can full of cans that glowed brightly under the gunfire.

Some soldiers picked up cameras, radios, telescopes and other miscellaneous things from the cars, while others were playing with the radios when they suddenly heard an inspiring voice and burst into joy:

“It’s the motherland!”

The logistics soldiers who were sorting supplies stopped.

Under the flickering of artillery fire and the sky of flying tracer bullets, the passionate and majestic national anthem was playing on the radio:

"stand up!"

"People who don't want to be slaves!"

"Take our flesh and blood!"

"Build our new Great Wall!"

"."

The national anthem from the heart of the motherland inspired all the commanders and soldiers who were immersed in the joy of victory. The valley was boiling, and everyone couldn't help but sing along with the intermittent sounds coming from the unstable signal on the radio. Everyone's The blood seemed to boil under the gunfire.

It started dancing, everyone was singing and dancing, and the majestic sound resounded throughout the ravine.

Xia Yuan was so excited that he sang along while sorting out supplies. When he got excited, he couldn't help but burst into tears.

From the day I entered the DPRK with a heavy heart, I haven’t heard the voice of the motherland for more than a month. The soldiers’ faces were covered with smoke and dust, and their teeth exposed when they laughed were exceptionally white.

The clothes on their bodies were riddled with holes, but their joyful mood and excited movements were difficult to describe with words.

The motherland, North Beijing, occupies the heart of all commanders and soldiers.

At the end of the song, some major events in the country recently came from the radio. They even heard the name of the 38th Army. Some people put their ears to the radio and cheered excitedly.

"Long live the Chinese People's Volunteers! Long live the 38th Army!"

That was their award, an honor that belonged exclusively to the 136th Army. In this battle, the 253th Army captured 1500 howitzers, 14 other guns, more than 6 cars, 5 tanks, armored vehicles, and radio stations. These equipment were enough to enable the th Army to mechanize.

It is a pity that the 38th Army lacked technical strength and high level of education at that time. Not only was it unable to protect these equipment, but it also made many jokes.

The Second Battalion of the 6th Regiment went out for the first time and reported to the regiment that six tanks had been seized. However, when the regiment sent people to inspect and accept them, they found that the six tanks had actually come to life again, and several people sitting in the car smoking were removed. A soldier took him far away.

They didn't have anti-tank weapons, and they didn't have enough grenades. Everyone was scratching their heads anxiously, so they had no choice but to jump off the tanks, fire a burst of guns at the tanks, and watch helplessly as the six dead tanks slipped away.

The large number of captured cars would not be as helpless as the tanks, but not many people knew how to drive them, so they had to use some of the prisoners to drive away a small number of cars.

A few military cadres can drive some motorcycles away, but most of them don't understand mechanics.

The army leaders thought of this in advance and asked each division and army to organize a platoon of unarmed drivers to rush to transport the cars and prepare to transport the cars.

It was a pity that the division did not allow them to advance with the front line. In addition, the front line troops were only focused on chasing the enemy and failed to take preventive measures. They lacked vigilance against the reconnaissance of enemy planes the next day.

A large amount of loot was originally captured, but before the arrival of the unarmed driver platoon, a large number of U.S. military planes arrived. They strafed and bombed wildly. Except for the artillerymen and some comrades who could drive, most of them drove away a few cars. The cars and baggage were destroyed by enemy planes.

Otherwise, the loot they captured in this battle would have doubled.

One night, the first battalion cleaned up almost all the loot, and the comrades from the unarmed driver platoon drove the car back. The remaining items were probably transported back in several batches.

Xia Yuan estimated that when the battle was over, he might go back.

As the troops moved, he calculated his experiences during this period. It took just over a month after arriving on the Korean battlefield to complete the first battle and the second battle.

When the fierce sound of gunfire came down, the correspondent of the 335th regiment headquarters found Feng Yuxiang, the commander of the first battalion, and handed a letter to the commander of the first battalion.

Because the 1st Battalion performed outstandingly at Songgu Peak and made great achievements, but also suffered heavy casualties, the plan was to transfer it to the rear for repairs, but the battle was not completely over yet. The enemy was defeated and there were enemy skirmishers everywhere.

The new mission of the first battalion is to catch the skirmishers wandering in the valley.

In addition to some troops who sacrificed a lot, there were many units involved in catching enemy skirmishers. Even the dressing station and art teams began to catch skirmishers.

The health worker’s surname is Hong, and his name is Hong Jiwen. He is in his early twenties. I heard from the company commander that his family runs a medical clinic and once helped the Red Army. Later, the reactionaries came and the medical clinic was raided by the reactionaries. Both his parents died tragically. With first aid knowledge, he joined the People's Liberation Army and worked as a health worker in the third company.

Hong Jiwen called this capture of enemy skirmishers "catching lice". The name sounds inelegant, but it is appropriate. The invaders are like lice on a human body, sucking human blood and stinging at the same time. No peace.

Different from previous arrest operations, this time they arrested Americans.

A lot of funny things happened during this time.

There were only a few people left in the third company, so they were temporarily merged with the second company. Feng Yuxiang said: "I originally planned to let you go to the rear to rest, but it seems that it will have to wait until after this mission is over."

Xia Yuan said: "Batalion Commander, it's okay, we are in good health."

The Second Company Commander's surname was Han, and he and Captain Sun were old comrades. Seeing Xia Yuan, he was particularly friendly. When talking about Captain Sun, he felt emotional again, "When I first entered the court, he told me that after the battle was won, I would go to their place to drink and eat. Meat, I didn’t expect it has only been out for more than a month.”

Captain Han was a little emotional.

In the past, they traveled all over the country and fought no hard battles, but they survived them all, but they did not survive this time.

Company Commander Han was a little sad.

He didn't chat much. The superior just gave them the task and set off without stopping.

Searching at night, with the light of burning cars, they saw more than a dozen enemy corpses, lying neatly together. Xia Yuan looked a little strange, and found that the chests of these 'corpses' were still rising and falling gently. , the amplitude is not big, if it is at night, you really can’t see it.

He stepped forward and kicked with his foot. The 'dead corpse' suddenly knelt down, raised his hands, and said, "nonono."

Captain Han found it funny: "This American actually pretends to be dead."

An interpreter comrade who knew English walked up to him and told him about our army's policy of preferential treatment of prisoners. They would not kill or search their pockets. The American soldier was very happy and stood up at attention: "OK!"

Then, he took the initiative to kick the 'dead body' next to him. The enemies who were pretending to be dead all got up and talked about the policy of preferential treatment of prisoners. They all heard it, and they were discovered again, so they simply stopped pretending.

There were more than a dozen American soldiers. Captain Han asked them to take them away first, and the troops continued to move forward.

It seems that a telephone soldier of the 114th Division encountered dozens of enemies in a ravine when he went to check the line. He took out his pistol and shouted: "Don't move!"

A group of enemies hiding in the ravine surrendered one after another. When they came out, the young telephone soldier was shocked. There were people No. 70 and 80.

Fortunately, these American soldiers were very calm, raised their hands, and were very conscious.

There was also a group of soldiers chasing the troops in the dark night. Suddenly they heard a scream of "ah" and something bounced from the ground. They were so shocked that they stopped in unison. When they looked carefully, they saw an American soldier holding his hands tightly. The nose, it turned out to be a soldier's big-toed shoe touching his big nose. There are too many American soldiers like this lying among dead bodies and pretending to be dead.

Of course, we can't blame these "young master soldiers". They simply don't understand why they traveled across the ocean and came all the way to North Korea to die.

In his memoirs, Li Qiwei made this comment on the US military's war of aggression: "This is a panicked army. It has lost confidence in its own leadership. It doesn't know what it is doing there. It is always looking forward to returning home by ship as soon as possible. Maybe they don’t understand the meaning of this war at all.”

He added: "If there is one war that our country has fought that can be called a war that is not understood by people, then the Korean War is such a war."

Ridgway complained that this war was not understood by American soldiers. In fact, if American soldiers really understood the unjust nature of this war, most of them would be even less willing to sacrifice their lives for the invaders.

Just like the confused recruit Joshua, their team was completely scattered during the Chinese counterattack that night. In order to escape, he and the team leader abandoned the useless tanks and hurriedly followed the broken soldiers up the mountain to escape. , there were enemies everywhere, gunshots everywhere, they quickly lost their way and hid in the ravine.

Distant gunfire shimmered.

They couldn't tell whether the shells were fired by their own people or the shells fired by the Chinese. (End of chapter)