Bright Sword: From Northwest Shanxi to Shangganling

Chapter 606 Digging Wild Vegetables

The artillery battalion of the 233rd Regiment began shelling at 4:30 p.m.

To avoid being detected by the US military, the 233rd Regiment shelled all the surrounding positions.

However, the majority of the shelling was still directed at the Southern Army positions in the southeast.

In the other directions, only two infantry guns were firing in circles.

Meanwhile, the Southern Army's positions to the southeast were subjected to continuous bombardment from 10 infantry guns.

The Type 92 infantry gun was already low-profile, and it became even lower after the gun shield was removed.

The American planes circled in the air for half an hour and found several heavy machine gun positions, but they couldn't find any scattered artillery positions.

On the position of the 8th Division of the South, Gao Dacheng, the division commander, was observing the situation at the front with binoculars.

Although it was already night, the continuous shelling by the 233rd Regiment had not stopped.

The chief of staff of the 8th Division of the South approached: "Sir, the enemy's artillery bombardment has continued since this afternoon. Do you think they are trying to break out?"

"No need to worry," Gao Dacheng waved his hand.

"The enemy's continuous shelling does indeed look like they are trying to break out."

"But they would never break through to our side; that would be suicide."

"The enemy is shelling our positions now, probably to cover the movements of our main force."

Gao Dacheng didn't pay much attention to the shelling from the 233rd Regiment.

"I judge that they are probably going to break out to the northwest, but the US military has already sealed off the north side of Linti."

"The enemy's attempt to break out is likely a suicide mission."

"Some small-caliber artillery pieces are still somewhat inadequate compared to the powerful firepower of the Allied forces."

In Gao Dacheng's view, the only way for the Chinese People's Volunteer Army to break through the encirclement was to head north.

With a powerful US military presence to the north, a complete victory is assured.

Just when Gao Dacheng thought the 233rd Regiment was doomed, the soldiers of the 1st Battalion of the 233rd Regiment had already secretly left the position.

As the vanguard, the First Battalion needed to break through the Southern Army's defenses as quickly as possible.

Then the second and third battalions would immediately follow up and tear a large opening to cover the withdrawal of the regiment's directly subordinate troops.

At this time, all the soldiers on the Southern Army's position were hiding in fortifications to avoid artillery fire, and the observation posts left behind did not notice anything unusual.

The booming sound of artillery fire masked the footsteps of the soldiers of the 233rd Regiment.

It wasn't until the shelling suddenly stopped and the bugle call sounded that the Southern Army realized something was wrong.

"The enemy is coming up!" the Southern Army observation post shouted as it sounded the alarm.

Upon hearing the piercing alarm, the faces of the Confederate officers at all levels changed drastically.

"Xiba!"

"All personnel, take your combat positions!"

"Hurry! Go faster!"

"Fire! Fire!"
However, the Southern army's response was clearly somewhat slow.

As the Southern soldiers rose and took their positions, the soldiers at the forefront had already jumped into the trenches with bayonets at their sides.

Compared with the Chinese People's Volunteer Army, the South Korean Army had a certain firepower advantage, but these advantages were mainly reflected in the quantity of ammunition and machine guns.

In terms of individual weapons, the Confederate army did not have much of an advantage.

As for close combat, that's even more true.

The battalion that charged into the enemy lines was like wolves among sheep, slaughtering the Southern army and causing them to scatter and flee.

This sudden turn of events caught Gao Dacheng completely off guard.

"Damn it, what's going on?" Gao Dacheng could hardly believe his eyes.

"What were the enemy thinking? Why did they try to break out from here?"

Even if they manage to break out from the southeast, the 233rd Regiment will end up in the heart of the UN forces' territory, where they will be surrounded by enemies on all sides.

Gao Dacheng racked his brains but still couldn't understand why the 233rd Regiment was courting death.

"Sir, now is not the time to think about these things. We must provide support immediately!"

Gao Dacheng immediately ordered, "Move the reserves up! We must hold off the enemy and prevent them from breaking through!"

However, by the time Gao Dacheng reacted, the 233rd Regiment had already swept past through the gap they had created.

Then he disappeared into the mountains.

Upon learning that all the Chinese People's Volunteer Army troops on the eastern front had withdrawn and that the encircled Volunteer Army blocking forces had disappeared into the mountains, Van Fleet wished he could cancel the designation of the 8th Division of the South as well.

However, the Southern Army only had so many troops, and he couldn't cancel all of them, so he could only suppress his anger.

"Immediately dispatch reconnaissance aircraft to search for enemy traces!"

"Order the 7th, 8th, and 11th Divisions of the South to advance southeast and encircle the enemy's 233rd Regiment!"

"Tell them that under no circumstances should the enemy be allowed to leave our territory!"

The Southern army, which was originally advancing north, immediately turned back south.

With the assistance of US reconnaissance aircraft, the three divisions began to encircle and intercept the 233rd Regiment.

However, the guerrilla tactics and superior combat capabilities of the 233rd Regiment far exceeded the expectations of the Southern Army.

Van Fleet soon discovered a critical problem.

If the Confederate army surrounds them with a large force, the 233rd Regiment will escape through the gaps.

However, if the main force is split into smaller units for encirclement, the smaller units will be directly wiped out by the 233rd Regiment.

This situation was giving VanVleet a major headache.

Given the current situation, if we want to encircle and annihilate the 233rd Regiment, we will have to call up the main force from the front line.

However, the main force at the front still needs to be used to fight against the main force of the Chinese People's Volunteer Army, and there is no way to transfer them back now.

For a moment, Van Fleet couldn't think of a way to deal with the 233rd Regiment that had penetrated deep into UN territory.

However, VanVleet was unaware that this was already the 233rd Regiment holding back.

The vanguard of the 233rd Regiment did not engage in combat for most of the time.

Wearing captured Southern Army uniforms, they walked openly alongside the puppet army search team.

If any puppet soldiers ask questions, there will be a dedicated North Korean translator to handle them.

Only when they encountered clever Southern soldiers would the 233rd Regiment have no other choice but to eliminate them.

Then the 233rd Regiment would strip them of their clothes to increase the number of vanguard troops.

A few days later, under Van Fleet's helplessness, the 233rd Regiment broke through the blockade and rushed all the way to the east coast.

Compared to when they broke out, the 233rd Regiment not only had no one missing, but also had more than two hundred more Southern Army prisoners.

However, the 233rd Regiment was not safe at this time; on the contrary, they faced even greater challenges.

Previously, in order to break through the encirclement, the 233rd Regiment ran southeast, but if they wanted to rejoin their unit, they had to turn north.

Inside the temporary regimental headquarters, Lu Peng convened another meeting.

"We have now left the enemy behind, it's time to break out to the north."

"However, breaking through to the north will not be easy, as the enemy's main force will definitely block all the passes."

Looking at the map, the chief of staff thought for a moment and then said, "Commander, since the enemy's main force has occupied the mainland, let's bypass them."

Lu Peng said, "Tell me your thoughts."

“It’s simple. Since we can’t take the main road, we’ll take the side road. That way we can avoid the enemy’s main force.”

Looking at the map, everyone nodded in agreement that it was feasible.

Mountain trails are certainly much more difficult to traverse than main roads, but this was no problem for the Chinese People's Volunteer Army.

Lu Peng also said casually, "Back when we were climbing snow-capped mountains and crossing grasslands, there wasn't even a road. Now that we have a path to walk on, it's already very good."

“The regimental commander is right,” the political commissar said. “The Long March was much harder than it is now.”

"I refuse to believe that the enemy's encirclement will be tighter than before!" After confirming the action plan, the 233rd Regiment turned around and plunged into the deep mountains.

VanVleet was completely exasperated after receiving the report.

It's no longer a question of whether he should call back his main force to encircle and annihilate them.

Even if the main force is brought back now, the US military won't be able to chase them into the mountains.

Leaving aside whether the American soldiers could catch up with the Chinese People's Volunteer Army after leaving the trucks, even if they could, they would probably just be delivering food.

After all, with the support of heavy firepower, the US military could only fight the Chinese People's Volunteer Army to a standstill.

Without the firepower advantage, VanVleet dared not imagine what the outcome would be if the two sides met.

After thinking for a long time, VanVleet decided to give up the pursuit, but what he said was not actually giving up.

"Tell all troops to stay away from the enemy's marching route to prevent the enemy from obtaining supplies."

"I want to see how they solve their supply problems deep in the mountains!"

"Without food, they can starve to death!"

According to Van Fleet's estimate, the 233rd Regiment should have run out of food by this time.

Even without ammunition, hunger would cause heavy casualties in the 233rd Regiment.

"Running out of food? Aren't there plenty of food along the way?"

"Come with me, and I will teach you everything I learned back then."

Lu Peng personally led the soldiers to dig for wild vegetables and pull up grass roots.

During his break, Lu Peng drank some wild vegetable soup and chewed on some grass roots, nodding with satisfaction.

“Back then, the Long March was much harder than it is now.”

"Back then, the commander-in-chief led us to cover the rear, and we didn't even have a blade of grass to eat."

Upon hearing Lu Peng's words, all the young soldiers nearby gathered around.

"Commander, Commander, tell us about the Long March!"

"I heard from people in the C Army that when their commanders climbed the snow-capped mountains, they ate dried yak meat and drank barley wine?"

"Didn't they say there was no food during the Long March?"

"Don't listen to Li Junzhang's nonsense." Lu Peng waved his hand.

"They were around the same time as us, and none of us had any food to eat."

"However, when they were starving, Li Junzhang directly ordered his troops to seize grain."

"Huh? Stealing grain? How many people would we need to steal to feed a whole regiment?"

“They were all rich people they beat up, and all the landlords they robbed, and they all paid for it,” Lu Peng explained.

"You don't know, those landlords have plenty of grain. Any one of their households has enough grain to feed an entire regiment for a month."

"But they're in cahoots with the white dogs, and they're deliberately refusing to sell us grain."

"Li Jun was furious, so he set up a light machine gun and then forcibly bought some grain."

"But precisely because of this, the captain and we also benefited from it."

"When we asked to buy grain, those local tyrants were probably scared and didn't make things difficult for us."

Lu Peng put it somewhat euphemistically.

During the Long March, Chen Chengxing was still the same Chen Chengxing, and he really had a fiery temper.

While the political commissar was negotiating with the landlord, he stood by and brandished his sword.

Those landlords didn't want to provoke them either, because if something really happened, the Kuomintang wouldn't just ignore it, they might even wipe out their entire fortunes.

Listening to Lu Peng's account, the soldiers were filled with indignation: "These landlords are indeed all bad apples!"

"Alright, let's not talk about that anymore." Lu Peng waved his hand.

"The new China is a country where the people are the masters, and those bastards have been swept into the dustbin of history."

Lu Peng drank the wild vegetable soup in his bowl in one gulp, then stood up.

"Everyone, finish eating and rest quickly. We'll set off in two hours!"

By foraging for wild vegetables along the way, the 233rd Regiment crossed one mountain after another.

Three days later, after crossing a mountain, the soldiers' eyes lit up.

At the foot of Wuzhang Mountain, they saw the Northern Army troops.

This relieved Lu Peng.

The rendezvous with the Union army meant they were safe.

However, the 233rd Regiment did not linger for long.

After replenishing the necessary supplies, Lu Peng handed the prisoners over to the Northern Army, and then headed straight for Tiehua along the retreat route of the 3rd Army Corps.

According to previous arrangements, the Second General Association will stop and rest in the Tiehua area.

After Sun Xun led the 23rd Detachment to successfully withdraw to Tiehua, he kept thinking about the 233rd Regiment.

He has already dispatched a large number of reconnaissance troops.

At the same time, he also sent a telegram to the headquarters, requesting Chen Chengxing to transfer the special operations brigade to conduct reconnaissance deep behind enemy lines.

That day, just as Sun Xun was looking at the map and thinking about the possible location of the 233rd Regiment, the chief of staff rushed in from outside.

The chief of staff rushed in and excitedly shouted, "Brigade Commander! The 233rd Regiment is back!"

Sun Xun jumped to his feet: "You're back? Where are you? What are the casualties?!"

The chief of staff pointed outside the door: "They've arrived in Tiehua. Go see for yourself."

Upon hearing that the 233rd Regiment had arrived, Sun Xun immediately ran out.

As soon as he left the command post, Sun Xun saw Lu Peng and a large group of soldiers who were also ragged and exhausted.

At this moment, Lu Peng also saw Sun Xun and immediately jogged over.

"Reporting to the detachment commander! All soldiers of the 233rd Regiment have returned to their unit safely! Please give your instructions!"

"Okay! Okay!" Sun Xun hugged Lu Peng's shoulders, tears instantly streaming down her face.

When Sun Xun was ordered to break out on its own for the safety of the 23rd Detachment, his heart was breaking.

Seeing the soldiers return safely, Sun Xun was extremely excited.

"Just come back! Just come back!"

After regaining his composure, Sun Xun looked at the soldiers of the 233rd Regiment.

"The entire 233rd Regiment has it!"

"I command! Rest!"

On the other side, the 21st Detachment, as the rearguard of the Second General Headquarters, fought its way forward.

Just as the 233rd Regiment successfully returned to Tiehua, the 21st Detachment also arrived in northern Yuanchuan.

If they continue walking for another day, the 21st Detachment will be able to reach the vicinity of Tiehua and complete their withdrawal mission.

However, just as they were passing by the vicinity of Yuanchuan, a series of intense artillery shelling sounds rang out near the 21st Detachment.

"The troops must halt their advance immediately!"

Although the shells did not hit the 21st Detachment, Li Chishui sensed that something was wrong.

According to the headquarters' plan, there should be L Army troops fighting a blocking action in southern Sichuan.

It's impossible for the US military to use a dense concentration of cannon fodder at such close range.

The sound of American artillery fire was so close that there was only one possibility: the American forces had occupied Harakawa.

Realizing what was happening, Li Chishui shouted, "Troops, immediately enter combat readiness! Send reconnaissance troops towards Yuanchuan!"

"Send a telegram to the headquarters immediately!"

(End of this chapter)