Bright Sword: From Northwest Shanxi to Shangganling

Chapter 640 Motionless

After daybreak, four artillery battalions of the 2nd Division of the South began their fire strikes on Hill 597.

The sacks, filled with soil and weighing several hundred pounds, flew away and scattered.

After bombarding the area for a full half hour, Li Dongxu, who was personally directing the operation on the front lines, issued the order to attack.

In this attack, Li Dongxu set his sights on the front-line position number 9.

Yesterday, the Chinese People's Volunteer Army demonstrated its powerful artillery fire capability. Although it is daytime now, he dares not launch an attack on multiple positions at the same time before he has a clear understanding of the situation.

At Li Dongxu's command, a company of Southern troops launched an attack.

At this time, on position number 9, Chen Feng only had one understaffed squad, totaling 9 people.

However, relying on the dense bombardment of grenades and the firepower provided by automatic weapons, the Southern army was quickly driven back.

Li Dongxu didn't care about this. The South Korean army had never taken a position from the Chinese People's Volunteer Army in one go, and he had never had such an expectation.

He simply switched to a different company and launched a new attack.

The continuous attacks put immense pressure on the soldiers on position number 9.

Seeing the enemy pressing forward again, Li Weigang, the 7th Company Commander, said, "Company Commander Chen, we must provide some support to the 9th position, otherwise they may not be able to hold out for long."

Chen Feng said, "The enemy is very cunning. They always avoid the machine gun firing range of positions 3 and 10. If they want to support position 9, they will probably have to use artillery."

Li Weigang affirmed, "Then let the artillery positions launch a fire attack. Six 82mm mortars and six 60mm mortars will be enough to give the Koreans a hard time."

Thanks to Chen Chengxing's full support, Chen Feng had ample ammunition reserves, making it perfectly capable of providing fire support.

However, Chen Feng shook his head: "No, our mortars cannot be used for the time being."

"I want to request permission from my superiors to directly use heavy mortars to bombard the area."

The 12 mortars on Hill 597 are artillery pieces directly under Chen Feng's control, with the fastest response time and ready to be deployed in battle at any time.

If we use these cannons now and they overheat, then requesting more cannons later could cause delays.

Li Weigang thought about it and agreed; those 12 small cannons probably wouldn't be enough to keep things under control.

The two jointly submitted a report to their superiors.

After discussion, the artillery command agreed to allow two heavy mortar battalions to provide them with 30 seconds of rapid fire.

Chen Feng was overjoyed by the 30 seconds of firepower; he didn't think it was too little at all.

With a 30-second rapid-fire capability, each cannon can fire at least 10 shells, so 24 cannons would fire 240 shells.

This was completely unplanned shell consumption.

Moreover, US reconnaissance planes are now lined up in the air above Wufangling.

They were all searching for the location of the Chinese People's Volunteer Army's artillery battalion, hoping to launch a counter-fire.

Making a move at this point would be tantamount to deliberately exposing oneself.

For safety reasons, 30 seconds is already the maximum allowed.

At this time, the South Korean army was unaware that the Chinese People's Volunteer Army had already pointed 24 mortars at them.

Just as another company of the Southern Army was charging toward Position 9, a sharp whistling sound suddenly rang out in the air.

Hearing the strange sound, the new recruits of the Southern Army didn't understand what it was and were still looking around, but the few veterans had already changed their expressions drastically.

"Mortar!"

"Lie down! Lie down!"

Although the veteran soldiers of the South Korean army shouted desperately, the shells had already landed before the new recruits could react.

"Boom!" "Boom!"
Although mortars have a relatively large accuracy margin, the sheer number of shells can completely compensate for this deficiency.

The entire Confederate company was engulfed in artillery fire.

Thirty seconds later, the shelling stopped. The South Korean army's entire company couldn't even muster half a platoon.

Looking at his nearly annihilated troops, Li Dongxu was momentarily at a loss.

"West 8. Why would the central army force the use of artillery at this time?"

Li Dongxu wouldn't be surprised if it were small cannons, but the use of heavy artillery meant the situation was definitely not that simple.

Although they had been on guard against this before, the Volunteer Army was not currently facing any difficulties, so according to Li Dongxu, it was completely unnecessary.

"Sir, we must be on guard," the chief of staff reminded him. "The enemy conducted a large-scale artillery battle during the day before."

Li Dongxu nodded thoughtfully: "You're right, it's better to believe it exists than not."

"Order the front lines to halt the offensive."

Li Dongxu decided to wait and see if the US reconnaissance planes could locate the artillery positions of the Chinese People's Volunteer Army.

If the artillery of the Chinese People's Volunteer Army could be destroyed or driven away, it would be much easier for the South Korean army to launch another attack.

The Southern army ceased its offensive, and the soldiers on the front lines were happy to have some free time. Apart from the sharpshooters continuing to fire sniper shots, the rest of the soldiers either reinforced their positions or replenished their supplies.

However, while the Chinese People's Volunteer Army could remain calm, the US military could not.

Van Fleet was furious when he learned that the Confederate army had only fought for a little over an hour in the morning before stopping.

"Fuck! I gave them the position, not so they could watch! What use are they if they're not attacking?!"

"Immediately send an order to the 2nd Division of the South: the attack must not be stopped!"

"Of course, they can request artillery and air force support when necessary!"

Receiving Van Fleet's orders, Li Dongxu had no choice but to regroup.

At noon, after lunch, the 2nd Division of the South launched another tentative attack.

Half an hour after the artillery bombardment, three companies simultaneously began constructing fortifications on Hill 597.

Looking at the attacking troops, Li Dongxu looked somewhat nervous, fearing that the Volunteer Army might suddenly unleash a barrage of artillery fire.

Faced with the massive offensive of the Southern Army, Chen Feng's firepower was forced to disperse.

With only 5 men left, the No. 9 position faced a fierce attack from a company of Southern troops, and the machine guns fired like iron brooms.

When the machine gun barrel turned red-hot, they poured water on it; when the firing pin was damaged, the gunner, regardless of how hot the bolt was, disassembled and reassembled it by hand, and continued firing after it was repaired.

With only half a platoon of soldiers, they managed to suppress the counterattack of a whole company of the Southern Army.

The South Korean army couldn't even take the weakest positions on the front line, let alone the positions on the flanks where they could form flanking fire.

After a half-hour assault, the Southern army was unable to make any progress and was eventually forced to retreat in disarray.

Li Dongxu had no choice but to order the artillery to be used again to strike the position.

At 3 p.m., Li Dongxu arrived at the front line, preparing to personally mobilize the Southern Army soldiers for the war. Coincidentally, Li Dongxu's impassioned voice was overheard by the three-person reconnaissance team sent out by Chen Feng.

Although they couldn't understand what he was saying, since it was a reprimand, it must have been an official, and there must have been many people around him, otherwise he wouldn't have been speaking so loudly.

“You all have simple maps. The three of us will split up and each draw a line on the map based on the direction of the sound. This way we can determine the approximate location of the enemy, and then call in artillery fire to bombard those bastards.”

The two soldiers next to him nodded and bent over to feel their way to either side.

For safety, Li Dongxu hid in a trench, with a bunker less than 3 meters away.

Beside him, besides the commander of the 23rd Regiment, were a large number of other young officers.

Following Li Dongxu's orders, officers will form a suicide squad to lead the 2nd Company of the 23rd Regiment in a desperate attack, and will not stop until the position is captured.

However, Li Dongxu was unaware that the reconnaissance team was already using flag signals to send signals to the observation posts behind them.

The observers compiled the information they received and immediately reported it to Chen Feng.

“Enemy commander, enemy troops gathered, coordinates D3, 51-24.”

Upon hearing the report from the observation post, Chen Feng immediately ordered the artillery to fire.

But the moment he was about to speak, he suddenly changed his mind: "Send the intelligence to the artillery command in the rear and request heavy artillery strikes."

Enemies gathered together are high-value targets.

At this point, if you use your own small cannon to attack, you can only kill a small portion of them; the rest will definitely run away.

But if heavy artillery is used, the situation will be very different.

Upon receiving Chen Feng's request, Wang Chengzhu did not hesitate and immediately dispatched a battalion of 152mm howitzers.

A moment later, while Li Dongxu was still talking animatedly, the 12 152mm howitzers had already removed their cover and raised their muzzles.

"Fire in unison! Three rapid-fire rounds!"

"put!"

"Boom!" "Boom!"
Just as Li Dongxu had brought the troops' morale to its peak, before he could even utter the word "attack," a barrage of artillery shells suddenly rained down.

The Southern army, which had been roaring just moments before, was instantly torn apart.

Including Li Dongxu, they had nowhere to run, and their only option was to lie on the ground and pray to God for protection.

The 152mm shells were incredibly powerful; if hit, they could flatten any trench or bunker.

After just one volley of fire, the Southern army's position was reduced to nothing but smoke.

The once passionate and impassioned voices were gone, replaced only by occasional low wails.

Looking at the emergency report in his hand, Van Fleet almost fainted.

Leaning on the table, Van Fleet said incredulously, "Fuck! Is Lee Dong-wook an idiot?"

"What was he doing running off to the front lines as a division commander?! Now we can't even find his body!"

"The media all over the world are laughing at us!"

The U.S. military launched the Battle of Wufangling to demonstrate its strength, and therefore invited mainstream media from around the world to broadcast it live.

This is one of the reasons why the US military is caught in a dilemma and continues to escalate its efforts.

As a result, Lee Dong-wook took a big dump right in front of the whole world.

The chief of staff standing to the side said with a hint of helplessness, "No one knows what he's thinking, but I'm afraid the 2nd Division in the South can no longer fight."

"Throughout the day, not a single charge was successful. Not only did we fail to capture any positions, but we also lost our commander's life."

"Their morale is probably in serious trouble."

Van Fleet shook his head helplessly: "Forget it, let's not let the 2nd Southern Division waste time there."

After thinking for a moment, Van Fleet said, "Let's bring in the 1st Division from the South. Hopefully, Bai Shangye can change the current situation."

The 1st Confederate Division was recognized by the UN forces as the strongest fighting force in the South, and Van Fleet believed that their fighting ability was no worse than that of a typical US division.

After thinking it over, in order to prevent Bai Shangye from shirking his duties, Van Fleet decided to give Bai Shangye another carrot.

“Tell the 1st Division of the South that if they can take the hilltop position, Bai Shangye will be promoted to deputy commander of the 9th Army immediately.”

This order made Bai Shangye's eyes light up.

From the moment the UN forces were formed, no officer from any other country, except the Americans, had ever held a rank of deputy corps commander or higher in the UN forces. I will become the first person second only to the US military!
In order to get the 1st Division of the South to arrive as quickly as possible, Van Fleet specially allocated more than a thousand trucks to transport the 1st Division, along with its personnel and equipment, to the front line of Tiehua.

Standing in Tiehua, Bai Shangye could see Wufangling without needing a telescope.

At this time, it had already started snowing in North Korea. Amidst the vast expanse of white snow, that scorched land must be the Five Ridges.

At dawn on the 2nd, the 1st Division of the South officially took over the battlefield.

Unlike Li Dongxu, Bai Shangye had a very clear understanding of his own situation and that of the Chinese People's Volunteer Army.

Although Bai Shangye was confident that the South 1st Division was an absolute elite force, they were still a bit inferior to the Second General Corps of the Chinese People's Volunteer Army on the other side.

Although Bai Shangye felt that the difference wasn't significant, it was still a difference nonetheless.

Moreover, facing the Volunteer Army, which already possessed a large number of artillery pieces, charging headlong into them would be suicidal.

Therefore, the moment Bai Shangye received the order, he made a request to Van Fleet: he needed more firepower.

In order to regain the ground and save face worldwide, Van Fleet mobilized more than two hundred artillery pieces of various types to fight the war.

This was the first time the Confederate army had received firepower from the U.S. military.

In addition, heavy bombers also risked being shot down by anti-aircraft guns and reappeared over Hill 597.

As one of the few elite units in the South Korean army, the 1st Division of the South Korean Army had not suffered any major losses in previous battles against the Chinese People's Volunteer Army, so their morale was very high.

In just one morning, the South 1st Division launched 15 attacks on Hill 597 in succession.

In order to suppress the main enemy's offensive, Chen Feng had to order his troops to launch several counter-attacks, resulting in heavy casualties on both sides.

Seeing that direct combat was proving somewhat ineffective, Bai Shangye decisively called a halt to the attack.

Inside the command post, Bai Shangye's gaze fell upon the only two positions on Hill 597 that he held.

However, Bai Shangye quickly abandoned position number 7, which was isolated and of no use to the current situation.

Position 11 is different. It is located to the east of Position 2. If you go through the valley to the north, you can avoid being attacked from Position 8 on the northeast ridge of Hill 597.

"This is it!" Bai Shangye slammed his fist on the map: "Move troops to position 11. The main focus will be on attacking position 2, with other directions as secondary objectives."

"As long as we can take position number 2, we can advance all the way to the main peak position along the northeastern mountain ridge."

"yes!".
(End of this chapter)