The heavens start from Changjin Lake

Xia Yuan has always been a man of action. He will not put off things that can be done early.

The regiment did not assign any mission to the third company, but it did assign them a task. However, in order to successfully catch the tongue this time, Xia Yuan arranged a supporting mission for the third company, and took a few additional reconnaissance soldiers with him to work together with the regiment's reconnaissance company.

The regiment's reconnaissance company had a heavier task, so he only gave Xia Yuan a squad.

One squad of soldiers is enough.

That night.

They arrived at the area north of Yongping on the banks of the Hantan River, which was close to the 38th parallel and across from the enemy positions. After arriving here, they immediately launched reconnaissance work on the enemy.

According to the soldiers of the regiment's reconnaissance company, in order to ensure that there could be no volunteer troops near the 38th parallel, the enemy had a small force maneuvering on the front line every day, and enemy reconnaissance planes were always hovering over the north of the 38th parallel for reconnaissance.

The enemy artillery blocked every intersection in northern Sichuan with intermittent artillery fire.

The rumbling sound never stopped at night.

Whenever night falls, flares will fly from near the 38th parallel, and sky lanterns will be lit in the night sky, one row after another, illuminating the icy and snow-covered 38th parallel as if it were daytime.

It seemed that the enemy was really guarding the 38th parallel as if it was saving their lives.

This also shows that the enemy is frightened and afraid of the arrival of the Chinese and North Korean troops.

The enemies in front of the formation were defending themselves tightly. Xia Yuan planned to follow the old routine and sneak into the enemy's rear to cause trouble. Unexpectedly, after many observations, he found no opportunity to take advantage of.

It turned out that the enemy had learned their lesson after the first and second battles of the Volunteer Army. In order to avoid having their retreat route cut off by the Volunteer Army as in the previous two battles, the two forces no longer ignored each other in the junction area, but strengthened their defense measures.

Support points are formed at the junctions between divisions, forming a front and rear system.

Careful arrangements were also made for the depth of the positions, and the enemy believed that their 500-mile-wide frontal defense system was an impenetrable wall of steel.

Seeing that there was no opportunity to take advantage of, Xia Yuan decided to take a look at the loopholes in the enemy's position.

There is no impenetrable wall in the world, and there is no position with absolutely no blind spots. Under the flickering flares, the enemy's position situation is clearly visible.

He asked the comrades of the regiment's reconnaissance company: "The enemy troops you mentioned operating on the front line of the 38th parallel, do they only operate during the day?"

Wang Yaoxian, the second platoon leader of the regiment's reconnaissance company, nodded. "Yes, they all retreated at night. We conducted several reconnaissance missions and found that the enemy's position was quite complicated. It was a bit difficult to get in, and it was even more difficult to catch them. During the day, we thought about dealing with the roaming enemy troops, but they were numerous and equipped with tanks and armored vehicles. Even a single company might not be able to take them down."

He pointed to the top of his head again: "What's more, there are enemy planes in the sky constantly monitoring us. It will be very difficult to catch the tongue."

The American devils have learned their lesson. The entire 38th parallel defense line is now like a solid wall of iron and steel, impenetrable. Xia Yuan looked for their junction, intending to pass through it, but found it basically impossible.

Xia Yuan nodded. He agreed with what Wang Yaoxian said.

Indeed, the American devils' defense on the position this time was very strict, but to him, it was nothing.

After observing for a while, he actually found a feasible path, but the process was very dangerous.

There is no absolutely impenetrable wall in the world. The enemy has arranged a large number of sentries, which looks like an iron wall, but the sentries are only human beings and there will always be times when they are careless.

After a brief observation, Xia Yuan decided to take a risk.

The enemy has many outposts and watchtowers, so it is basically impossible not to be discovered.

He quickly made the next arrangements.

"I will take people in to catch the tongue later. You guys provide cover outside. Don't shoot until you are discovered. Once we are discovered, quickly shoot down the searchlight on the sentry tower."

"it is good!"

Wang Yaoxian asked about his action plan and was immediately shocked.

"Your plan is too risky."

"We have to take risks. The Americans have learned their lesson. They no longer station reconnaissance posts on the periphery." Xia Yuan said, "Let's follow this plan."

Wang Yaoxian had no choice but to agree.

The regiment headquarters asked him to obey Xia Yuan's command and cooperate with his actions. In that case, he could only follow his plan.

Even so, he was still worried about Xia Yuan's bold plan.

Looking at the reconnaissance comrades from the third company who had sneaked in, he ordered the soldiers to get ready.

Then they stared at the enemy's position. They could see the figures of several people. Under the enemy's flares, the American devils would fire flares every once in a while to ensure that there was sufficient light on the position. This had a significant impact on the soldiers who were trying to catch the enemy.

Especially the enemy sentry tower which was high above them, staring at the wilderness, they could see the figures of several of them.

Fortunately, these American devils were rather careless on guard duty. An American devil standing on the watchtower was shivering in the cold wind, with a cigarette in his mouth, and the cigarette butt emitted a warm glow.

Xia Yuan sneaked in quietly and was not discovered.

However, due to the minefield right in front of them and the obstruction of barbed wire, a lot of time was wasted and everyone was worried about them.

In the minefield, comrades who had previously conducted reconnaissance had marked the mines on the table and cut the barbed wire, but the careless American soldiers did not notice. They thought their defense was quite strong.

At this moment.

Xia Yuan and his team passed through the minefield, crossed the barbed wire, and successfully approached the enemy's front line. It was inside the enemy bunker on the front line that he heard the enemy's voice.

He sneaked in with a few comrades and captured a spy.

The tongue was restless and kept struggling.

Xia Yuan lowered his voice and told him in English: "You have to be obedient. We, the Volunteer Army, treat prisoners well and can guarantee that you will not die. But if you make any noise during the retreat and we are discovered by your people, they will definitely shoot us, and you will not be able to survive."

There was a gleam of fear in Tongue's eyes.

Xia Yuan knew that his words had worked, so he waved his hand and began to retreat. But an accident still occurred, and they were discovered by the enemy on the sentry tower. Xia Yuan reacted quickly and shot down the enemy's searchlight and the American soldiers on the sentry tower with two shots.

Wang Yaoxian was worried about Xia Yuan and quickly ordered the soldiers on standby to cover them.

Several people evacuated quickly. Xia Yuan remembered the way they came and said, "Follow me!"

The minefield was densely covered and the soldiers had already opened a safe path, but due to the emergency situation, it was inevitable that some soldiers would take the wrong path.

He wanted to lead them to retreat quickly.

Xia Yuan fought and retreated at the same time, and he shot down several searchlights on the enemy's sentry towers. However, the enemy's lighting did not entirely rely on searchlights, but more importantly on flares. He had no way to deal with the flares in the sky.

Bullets rained down around them.

The American soldier was so frightened that he retreated with the help of two soldiers.

"Company commander, the enemy's machine gun!" A soldier heard the sound of a machine gun and looked back.

"Keep going!" Xia Yuan was calm and unhurried. He fired and first took control of the enemy's bunker. Then they fell on the reverse slope and crawled all the way to the back.

This American soldier seemed to know his fate. In order to avoid being beaten into a sieve by his own people, he could only grit his teeth and crawl on the ground.

The whole process was safe and sound. Although they were discovered by the enemy, they managed to escape successfully because of Xia Yuan and the cover of Wang Yaoxian and others, who then led them to retreat to the rear.

However, one tongue is obviously not enough, especially since they only captured an ordinary soldier and they certainly would not know much intelligence about his troops.

Xia Yuan thought it over again and again and decided to strike while the iron was hot and catch the tongue again.

Wang Yaoxian was shocked: "I've already taken a risk once, do you want to go again?"

Xia Yuan said calmly: "We have to go. At present, the enemy has two mindsets. One is that we have been here before and will definitely not come again. They are in a relaxed state. The second is to strengthen the defense here, but I prefer the first one."

When they grab the tongue, they rarely grab it twice in the same place. Such actions will make the enemy careless and paralyzed.

But at the same time, there is also a second possibility.

Grabbing the tongue is a risky action. Whether it is the former or the latter, it will not have much impact on him.

If the enemy is heavily guarded, it would be a little easier to defeat them. There are many people and it is late at night, so mistakes are easy to occur when the mind is highly concentrated.

It was the first time that Wang Yaoxian had met such a bold person, but he had to be impressed by his courage.

The enemy's pursuers did not follow. After a short rest, they sneaked up again.

Looking at the enemy's position, they fell into calm again.

Wang Yaoxian was a little surprised: "Hey, you guessed it right. Even the lights on the sentry tower were not fixed. It's just that there are more flares here and more sentries on duty."

Xia Yuan said: "They want to wait until tomorrow to repair it."

Wang Yaoxian asked: "What should we do next?"

"Repeat the same trick!"

In the process of capturing prisoners, our army never used any strange techniques. We just took advantage of the enemy's carelessness and paralysis, quietly approached, defeated the enemy with one blow, and then several people covered their tongues and quickly retreated.

As for strategies such as making a feint to the east and attacking in the west, secretly marching through Chencang, etc., they are of no use at all.

The same old trick really confused the enemy. Why did they do it again? They just did it once. Their commander cursed and ordered the soldiers to chase them. They must chase them out and preferably eliminate some of the enemies!
In the early stages of the second battle, our army's prisoner-capturing operation was a great success. The intelligence provided by the prisoners enabled our army to grasp the enemy situation in detail. In addition, due to the failure of the first battle, the post-war summary, and criticism and education, we won a great victory in the second battle.

Having tasted the sweetness, before the third battle begins, the tongue must be caught.

While the entire army was busy catching the enemy, Zhisi analyzed the situation of the Korean War in detail based on the instructions from the rear to "fight one more battle and then rest."

Believing that "the Korean War would still be quite long and arduous," he formulated a battle plan to cross the 38th parallel, capture Seoul, and not advance too far south.

The Zhisi decided to concentrate 9 armies to launch an offensive, smash the enemy's defenses on the "th Parallel", and annihilate the puppet rd Division, th Division, nd Division and part of the puppet th Division deployed on the first line in the east bank of the Imjin River and the west bank of the North Han River.

If all goes well, we can successively occupy Seoul, Hongcheon, Xiangyang, and Gangneung, and then rest and prepare for the spring offensive.

The tasks were divided into: the 6th Army, the th Army, the th Army, the th Army and six reinforced artillery regiments formed the Volunteer Army's right column, commanded by Comrade Han, and broke through in the section from Gaolangpuli to Yongping. First, they concentrated their forces to annihilate the puppet th Division, then annihilate the st Division, and then launched an offensive in the direction of Uijeongbu.

The 42nd and 66th Armies, together with the 44th Artillery Regiment, formed the Left Column of the Volunteer Army, commanded by the commander of the 42nd Army. They broke through the Yongpyeong to Mapyeong-ri section, first concentrating their main forces in the Yongpyeong to Yongso-dong section to annihilate one to two regiments of the puppet Second Division. After winning the victory, they expanded their victory in the direction of Gapyeong and Cheongpyeong-cheon, cutting off traffic to Seoul and the Chuncheon River.

Another division crossed the North Han River from Hwacheon and launched an active feint attack on the enemy north of Chuncheon, capturing the puppet Fifth Division and supporting the southward advance of the Second and Fifth Corps of the Left-wing People's Army.

The 38th Army broke through the Hantan River from Loufa to Banjuli, first annihilated the enemy in Yongpyeong, and then attacked in the direction of Dongducheon and Jihyeong-ri, cooperating with the 10th Army to encircle and annihilate the puppet 6th Division. One division occupied the Chilbongshan position to block the enemy's reinforcements from the north, and another part monitored the enemy in Pocheon.

After the 38th Army's mission was clarified, Comrade Liang and Comrade Liu took the army staff and division commanders to inspect the terrain, determined the breakthrough locations and selected breakthrough points for each division. The breakthrough area assigned to the 38th Army was a very important area.

The defense front of the 3th Division at that time was the western battle zone adjacent to Yeoncheon, Pocheon and Yangju. The area included the nearest Highway 588 between Yeoncheon, Dongducheon, Uijeongbu and Seoul, and the east and west sides were Jonghyeon Mountain (Hill 587) and Moui Mountain (Hill ).

The Hantan River in front of the position is located in the upper reaches of the Imjin River, and its broken walls and curved natural obstacles form a strategic area.

Route 3 became the enemy's main attack direction in the early stages of the war.

It is a good approach route for infantry units and mechanized corps to maneuver. Since many roads in the central and western parts intersect with each other, once this place is breached, the South Korean capital Seoul will be in danger.

Moreover, it crosses the Guangzhou Mountains and enters the strategic area in the central direction of Qingping.

This shows how dangerous and important the breakthrough area of ​​the 38th Army was.

Comrade Liang said: "Judging from the terrain and the enemy's defenses in this area, our troops must be prepared to endure hardships and also be prepared to attack with force!"

The military staff said: "We have to break through such a dangerous area, and cooperate with the friendly forces to attack on all fronts. We must be prepared in all aspects. We must be familiar with the terrain. The regiments, battalions, companies, platoons, and even the cadres above the squad who are responsible for the assault mission must be familiar with the terrain. Although the enemy in front of us is Li's puppet army, we must not underestimate the enemy and must fight the weak army as if it were a strong army."

The fighting spirit and vitality of Li's puppet army are not as strong as those of the US army, but in any battle, we should not underestimate the enemy due to objective factors. (End of this chapter)