Zhu Tian: Beginning to Cross the Changjin Lake

Wu Wanli replied: "This is the defense zone of the 45th Division."

Li Guotao asked, "Is it the 15th Division of the 45th Army?"

"Correct!"

Wu Wanli nodded and said, "Yes, it is the 15th Army."

"map!"

Mei Sheng quickly took out a map and spread it out in front of Li Guotao.

Li Guotao looked at the map carefully and found that their map was not accurate enough. The names of the two hills in front were not marked at all, and even the name of the village below was not marked.

However, the Five Sacred Mountains in the north are marked.

Li Guotao already had a guess in his mind.

Li Guotao raised his head and observed carefully, then asked, "What is the name of the village below?"

Wu Qianli and Mei Sheng shook their heads.

At this time, Wu Wanli said, "I know. I just asked the brother troops nearby. They said that the village on this side of the mountain is called... Shangganling! Yes, Shangganling."

Li Guotao turned his head and glared at Wu Wanli, saying, "Why didn't you say so earlier?"

Wu Wanli said doubtfully: "You didn't ask? Besides, does it matter what the name of a small village on the frontier is?"

Li Guotao was too lazy to pay attention to Wu Wanli, but what Wu Wanli said was right. At least now this is just an ordinary small village.

But it won't be long before Shangganling will become famous throughout the world.

"The Battle of Shangganling! It really is the Battle of Shangganling!"

Mei Sheng asked doubtfully, "Is this Shangganling very famous?"

Li Guotao was stunned for a moment, and suddenly remembered that these guys had followed him through time, and they didn't even know about Shangganling.

However, Li Guotao quickly realized that in the Changjin Lake world, Li Guotao returned to China with the troops in September 52, and then traveled to this world.

Wu Qianli and the other people were also brought here by Li Guotao. Although they retained some memories of their past lives, they all stopped before September.

The Battle of Shangganling did not begin until October, so it is no wonder that they did not know about this place.

After figuring this out, Li Guotao said softly, "I have a feeling that a war that will shock the world is about to break out here."

Li Guotao spoke this in a very low voice, and only Wu Qianli and Mei Sheng, who were closest to him, heard it.

A gleam of light flashed in the eyes of the two men. They naturally knew Li Guotao's background and understood the source of his so-called "premonition".

There were a lot of people here, so the two of them tacitly agreed not to ask any more questions.

Wu Qianli said with some anticipation: "Then we will stay here from now on."

"Ok!"

Li Guotao nodded and said, "Such a good opportunity is quite rare, how can we miss it."

After Li Guotao finished speaking, he looked up at the two hills in front of him again.

The hill that looks like a V and a triangle is Hill 597.9.

The hill that looks like a camel hump and consists of two peaks, north and south, is Hill 537.7. The northern hill of Hill 537.7 is in the hands of our army, while the southern hill of Hill 537.7 is occupied by the enemy.

The Battle of Shangganling that shocked the world was actually fought around two inconspicuous hills, Hill 597.9 and the north hill of Hill 537.7.

Before this, no one would have thought that any normal military commander would not have invested tens of thousands of troops for such two inconspicuous hills, let alone that both sides would have paid the price of tens of thousands of casualties in order to fight for such two inconspicuous hills.

Even Li Guotao thought that such a battle was too crazy.

At the beginning, the enemy just wanted to pull out these two nails, but as the battle progressed, it finally turned into a battle for face.

As for the Volunteer Army, their purpose of defending these two inconspicuous hills was not only to keep these two positions, nor for the sake of ridiculous face, but more to take advantage of this opportunity to consume a large number of the enemy's manpower.

It was precisely because of the victory in this battle that the enemy was completely defeated.

"Let's go! Let's go to Shangganling and take a look."

Li Guotao waved his hand and led the task force soldiers down the mountain.

Li Guotao and his men arrived at the battalion headquarters near Shangganling Village. At the moment, the 45st Battalion of the 135th Regiment of the 135th Division was stationed at Shangganling, with Deputy Commander Wang of the th Regiment in command.

The arrival of the task force was warmly welcomed by Deputy Regiment Commander Wang, Battalion Commander Miao and others.

Li Guotao met with Deputy Head Wang and directly stated his purpose.

I hope to stay in Shangganling for some time and exchange and learn experiences with the soldiers on the front line.

Deputy Headmaster Wang naturally agreed readily, welcomed the arrival of the task force, and then arranged a base for the task force.

During this period, the Volunteer Army had been stationed in the nearby area. No large-scale fighting broke out. The two sides just fired cold shots at each other. Although the enemy occasionally launched artillery bombings, it did not launch any large-scale attacks.

The volunteer soldiers stationed here were not idle on weekdays. They dug many anti-artillery holes, tunnels and other defensive fortifications in hidden places nearby.

Therefore, there was no difficulty in arranging accommodation for the task force. A hidden anti-artillery cave became the task force's barracks. It was close to the front line. Other soldiers also lived in this dug anti-artillery cave to prevent enemy bombing.

That night, Li Guotao led Wu Qianli and others to the northern mountain of Hill 537.7 to familiarize themselves with the terrain.

上面有九个阵地，组成一个不规则的十字形，从西到东依次是9号、3号、4号、5号和6号阵地；由南到北依次是1号、2号、7号和8号阵地，其中8号阵地是最前沿的突出部。

The northern hill of Hill 537.7 was defended by the 135st Company of the st Battalion of the th Regiment.

After Li Guotao and his team scouted the terrain, they came into the tunnel and chatted with the company commander of the 1st Company and others.

Company commander Wang Fuxin introduced some specific conditions on the position to Li Guotao.

The two chatted for a while, and Li Guotao suddenly asked: "We are on the north mountain of Hill 537.7, and the south mountain is occupied by the enemy. Moreover, the two peaks are not far apart, and the positions are also very close."

Wang Fuxin smiled and said: "The positions of both sides are right next to each other, and the closest place is less than 100 meters away."

Li Guotao asked with a smile: "At such a close distance, the cold gun should have achieved considerable results."

Wang Fuxin said, "Of course not. In our entire battalion, or even the entire regiment, if we talk about who is the best at shooting from behind, then Old Zou from our company is undoubtedly the best."

Li Guotao smiled and said, "I also heard at the battalion headquarters that the platoon leader of your company's machine gun platoon is very good at shooting from behind."

"Yes, yes, yes!" Wang Fuxin said with a smile: "The platoon leader of the machine gun platoon is Lao Zou!"

"Now the enemies on the other side have been beaten so badly by Lao Zou that they dare not show their heads. They dare not come out at night."

Li Guotao had heard of the famous Platoon Leader Zou a long time ago.

It is precisely because of the existence of Platoon Leader Zou that the US military called the northern mountain of Hill 537.7 Sniper Ridge.

Platoon Leader Zou had been promoted to machine gun platoon leader because he had killed a large number of enemies and made many military achievements.

At that time, the Volunteer Army did not have professional snipers. After the cold gun and cold artillery operations were launched, the front-line troops set up some cold gun teams, which were temporarily transferred from each company to the soldiers with the best marksmanship.

Platoon Leader Zou had been in the machine gun platoon before.

Later, Li Guotao met Platoon Leader Zou and the two had a conversation.

At this moment, Platoon Leader Zou already had rich experience in shooting from behind.

According to Li Guotao's judgment, his level has completely reached that of the world's ace sniper.

However, there are still differences between them and those ace snipers of the US military.

Those ace snipers of the US military use the best sniper rifles, have received professional sniper training, and have rich combat experience.

Platoon Leader Zou had not received any special training, but had accumulated experience entirely on the battlefield.

Of course, the superiors also sent people to provide relevant training to the sharpshooters of each unit, but they still mainly relied on their own summary and accumulation of experience.

And he was using just an ordinary Mosin-Nagant rifle.

Not only him, but also the famous sniper of Shangganling, who participated in the battle for 31 days and killed 214 enemies, also used an ordinary Mosin-Nagant rifle.

However, the Sniper God of Shangganling was not in Shangganling at this moment. A few months after the Battle of Shangganling ended, the Sniper God of Shangganling was stationed in Shangganling with the troops. He only stayed at the front line of Shangganling for 31 days and killed 214 enemies.

So Sniper Ridge got another name, 'Sad Ridge'.

Of course, these are just things of the past.

After learning about the situation at Hill 537.7, Li Guotao ran to Hill 597.9 in the west to familiarize himself with the terrain in advance.

597.9高地由东北和西北两条山梁组成共分为十二个阵地，东北山梁上依次是2号、8号和1号阵地，2号阵地的左前方有个小山梁，上面就是整个高地的最前沿11号阵地；西北山梁上依次是6号、5号、4号和0号阵地；高地主峰则是3号阵地，主峰前面的突出部是9号阵地，9号阵地的右后方是10号阵地，左后方是7号阵地。其中9号阵地是主峰的门户，位置非常重要，日后将成为双方殊死争夺的目标。

Li Guotao's task force stayed near Shangganling for a period of time and thoroughly understood the surrounding terrain.

Moreover, Li Guotao also led a task force to infiltrate the enemy's rear to gather intelligence.

After returning, Li Guotao reported the situation to the 45th Division Headquarters in the name of the task force. He found that the enemy had signs of massively increasing troops and dispatching supplies to the Wusheng Mountain front, and judged that the enemy might launch a large-scale attack on Wusheng Mountain.

Wusheng Mountain is the name of the mountain to the north of Shangganling. Shangganling is located on the southern foot of Wusheng Mountain.

However, this situation did not receive attention from superiors.

At this time, Li Guotao missed Li Moyin a little. If Li Moyin were there, perhaps his words would be taken seriously by the top leaders of the 15th Army.

Unfortunately, Li Moyin had just returned to China to report on his work, and Li Guotao couldn't contact him at all now.

Moreover, a few days before the battle broke out, a captain of the puppet army staff crossed the defense line and surrendered to the 45th Division.

He also leaked intelligence that the US military would launch a large-scale offensive in the direction of the Five Sacred Mountains.

However, after research, the heads of the military, corps headquarters and even the Zhisi finally concluded that Wusheng Mountain might indeed become the enemy's attack direction.

However, the terrain in the Wusheng Mountain area is complex, which is not conducive to the deployment of the enemy's mechanized forces. If the enemy launches an attack, it is more likely to launch an attack from the direction of the Pingkang Valley.

The Pingkang Valley has a flat terrain, so the enemy's mechanized forces can fully play their role and it is more suitable for the enemy's mechanized corps to fight.

Therefore, the top leaders finally believed that the bottom of Pingkang Valley was more likely to become the enemy's main attack direction.

Even with the information provided by the surrendered puppet army captain, it still did not attract the attention of the top leaders.

I'm afraid most of those leaders thought that this surrendered puppet army captain might have been deliberately sent by the enemy to pretend to surrender and deliberately provide false information to the volunteer army!
The US military has done this kind of thing before.

Unless Van Fleet was crazy, he would not abandon the Pingkang Valley and attack the direction of the Five Sacred Mountains.

But no one expected that VanVleet was really crazy this time.

Therefore, the two ace armies, the 15th Army and the 38th Army, respectively sent out their elite 44th Division and 114th Division to jointly defend the bottom of the Pingkang Valley, where they built a steel defense line to resist the enemy's fierce attack.

Just a few days before the battle broke out, Lieutenant General Van Fleet went to the front line to observe the terrain.

Accompanied by Major General Jenkins, Lieutenant General Van Fleet climbed Jixiong Mountain opposite Wusheng Mountain.

Lieutenant General Van Fleet held up a telescope to observe the terrain, pointed to the distance and said: "See? Triangle Mountain and Sniper Ridge are like two nails wedged into our defense line, becoming the biggest obstacle for our army to move north."

"If we succeed in removing these two nails, we can take over the entire Five Sacred Mountains."

"This time, we must pull out these two nails no matter what."

Major General Jenkins nodded and said, "Well! It's time to show our cards and have a good fight with the Volunteer Army."

"very good!"

Van Fleet smiled and said, "The code name for this attack is Operation Showdown!"

"How long will it take you to capture these two hills?"

Major General Jenkins pondered for a moment and said, "I estimate that it will take about four or five days to take the two small hills opposite."

Van Fleet nodded slightly, then asked, "What about the casualties?"

Major General Jenkins pondered for a moment and said, "Commander, you should know that this kind of assault will result in heavy casualties."

"I expect casualties ranging from one company to one battalion."

"It depends on the strength of the enemy's resistance."

"I predict that there will most likely be around two hundred casualties, which will completely end this battle."

Van Vleet smiled and nodded and said, "Very good, then I will wait for the good news of your victory."

At this moment, even Van Vleet did not expect that they would pay a hundred times the price for these two hills, but the problem was that they had not taken them down in the end.

Major General Jenkins said with a relaxed look: "I think this will be a very easy battle." (End of this chapter)