Chapter 124: Response

"Chief of Staff!" Before dawn, I was just lying on the bed and resting for a while when I was awakened by Instructor Qin.

I knew that if Instructor Qin had nothing urgent, he wouldn't wake me up, so I turned over from the bed and sat up, asking, "What's the situation?"

"Chief of Staff!" Instructor Qin handed me a cup of water that had been prepared in advance, pointed to a volunteer soldier behind me and said, "Xiao Chen, the correspondent I sent to the regiment headquarters, is back!"

"Well, what did Captain Zhang say?" I asked hurriedly.

"Report to the Chief of Staff!" Xiao Chen saluted me and replied, "Captain Zhang asked me to tell you that our 135th Regiment is almost exhausted, and we have to station the main peak of Wusheng Mountain. We really cannot draw troops. However, Commander Zhang responded to our situation to the division headquarters and reported your suggestions to the division headquarters. The division commander meant that if our reinforcements directly attacked the enemy in Shangganling from the direction of Wusheng Mountain, they would be intercepted by enemy machine guns and cannons, and they would be afraid that there would be great casualties."

"Yeah!" I nodded and agreed with this statement.

The two high grounds of Shangganling are easy to defend but difficult to attack, and the only way to pass from Wusheng Mountain to the 597.9 high ground is only 1,500 meters wide. Even if there is no enemy defending on Shangganling, the fire blockade of artillery can cause heavy losses to the troops coming to reinforce, not to mention that when the enemy occupied the surface position and can be blocked with machine gun fire.

"So is there any solution for the division headquarters?" I continued to ask.

"The division commander means..." Xiao Chen replied: "He suggested that our army not launch a counterattack tomorrow night. He would send us seven companies of reinforcements. These reinforcements will enter the tunnel in batches and batches tomorrow night. After gathering strength, they will restore the surface position in one fell swoop at 8 o'clock the next day!"

"Okay!" I looked at the Qin Commander and nodded to each other, and both thought this plan was feasible.

"The division commander asked us to prepare for the reinforcements tomorrow night!" Xiao Chen continued to report: "When necessary, our army can also carry out feint attacks on the enemy's surface positions to cover the reinforcements to enter the tunnel smoothly!"

"The division commander is more thoughtful!" Instructor Qin nodded and said, "But it is very difficult for this reinforcement to come up!"

I understand what Instructor Qin said. Now we are unable to hold onto the surface positions due to ammunition. The US military will occupy the surface positions early the next morning. The US military is not a fool. Of course, we know that our army may have reinforcements, so when they build, they will definitely think of using machine gun positions to block our reinforcements, and they will also closely observe the tunnel entrance.

So even at night, if our reinforcements want to enter the tunnel, they have to pass through layers of blockades by the enemy's guns and bullets. It would be great if half of the seven companies sent by the division commander could reach the tunnel alive.

"So..." After thinking about it, I pointed to the tunnels on the map and said: "We must do our best to ensure that our tunnel entrance is not blocked by the enemy's firepower. Only in this way can we minimize the casualties of our reinforcements and create conditions for the successful restoration of surface positions!"

"Make sure the entrance of the tunnel is not blocked by the enemy's firepower?" Instructor Qin couldn't help but wonder: "Chief of Staff, as soon as the sky is dawn, we will retreat to the tunnel, right? We can't even get out of the tunnel, how can we ensure that the entrance of the tunnel is not blocked by the enemy's firepower?"

"Strengthen the defensive power at the tunnel entrance and organize the soldiers to fire cold guns in the tunnel!" I replied: "In short, within the range that can be observed at our tunnel entrance, the enemy must not be allowed to move!"

"This can be done!" Qin commander nodded and said, "Although our army lacks ammunition and the fierce battles for several consecutive days have made the soldiers very tired, fortunately, Battalion Commander Li's troops have just arrived, so he can complete this task!"

"Li Zhengyong?" Hearing this, I couldn't help but think of Battalion Commander Li who had just entered the tunnel. He frowned and asked, "How many soldiers do he have in his hands? Can he be competent for this task?"

"When you were asleep, his troops came up one after another!" Instructor Qin replied: "I just counted that there were 53 people in his troops and had combat effectiveness, good mental state, and they had sufficient ammunition. As for whether they could be competent... Although they had just entered the tunnel not long ago and had no experience! But this task was to fire cold guns at the entrance of the tunnel, and there would be no big mess!"

"Yeah!" I nodded.

"Besides..." Instructor Qin hesitated for a while and continued: "We have invested 1, 5, 7, 8, and 9 companies in the 597.9 high ground. After these battles, there are not many people left. The most is the 5th company, with only 30 people left, and the least is the 8th company, with less than ten people. With such a small number of people, it is difficult to complete this task under unified command!"

"Okay! Then let Battalion Commander Li perform this mission!" After thinking about it, I agreed: "But I have to tell Battalion Commander Li that before the No. 6 tunnel was dug with other tunnels, it was a relatively isolated tunnel, and its geographical location was very important, so there must be no mistakes!"

"Yes!" Director Qin responded, thought for a while, and pointed to several places on the map and said: "Chief of Staff, it is easy to fire cold guns in the tunnel, but based on the experience of the surface positions being taken away by the enemy, the enemy will build machine gun forts in these locations. These places are places that cannot be observed in our tunnel entrances, but the enemy can control several tunnel entrances here... Here, here, and this..."

"When will the reinforcements come tomorrow night?" I stared at Instructor Qin and pointed at the places and asked.

"I asked just now!" Instructor Qin replied: "There are three companies in these seven companies that reinforce the 537.7 Highlands and four companies in the 597.9 Highlands. As soon as the sky turns dark, the first company sets off. We want to blow up these firepower points in advance, but time is not allowed!"

I walked a few steps beside the map, and I couldn't help but feel anxious.

The reinforcements must go through the blockade of US cannons along the way, the US machine gun fortress blockade of the direction of Wusheng Mountain, and finally find the tunnel in the dark and break through the enemy's fire blockade of the tunnel entrance before entering the tunnel. So although there are more than a thousand people in the seven companies of the reinforcements, perhaps like Li Zhengyong's troops tonight, only a few dozen people can successfully enter the tunnel.

There is nothing we can do about the US military's artillery blockade and the firepower control in the direction of the Wusheng Mountains. That is beyond our ability, but blocking the machine gun forts at the entrance of our tunnel... These machine gun forts are almost built on top of our heads, but we can't do anything to them...

Do you bury explosives in these locations in advance? This obviously doesn't work. The enemy's shelling before the attack will overturn the scorched earth on the position several times. When the enemy rushed up, even if the explosive bag and lead wire were not blown up, they didn't know where they flew.

Wait! Just above our heads?

I suddenly took the map and carefully observed the locations pointed out by Instructor Qin.

That’s right! The smoke of gunpowder is filled with long-term shelling on Shangganling, and even the visibility is low during the day, not to mention at night. Therefore, in order to achieve the purpose of surveillance of the tunnel, the US military often builds firepower points on top of our heads. In this way, we can monitor the tunnel entrance and shoot down the enemy who breaks out from the tunnel entrance!

On top of our heads, that is, the vertical distance is not very large...

"There is a way!" Thinking of this, I immediately pointed to the map and said to Instructor Qin: "Because it is not dawn and the enemy has not yet attacked, immediately organize soldiers with surveying and mapping experience to measure the coordinates of these positions!"

"Measure the coordinates and orientation?" Instructor Qin couldn't help but feel confused when he heard this.

"That's right!" I nodded and asked, "Many of our soldiers should have worked in artillery. Find them immediately. No matter what method is used, let them calculate the coordinates of these positions before dawn! As for the accuracy... it depends on the ability of our army to dig the passage!"

"Digging the passage..." Hearing that Director Qin seemed to understand something, he grabbed the phone without saying a word and answered the company commanders of each company without saying a word, and then quickly conveyed the order.

"Chief of Staff!" In a short while, Instructor Qin put down the phone and walked to me and reported: "Chief of Staff, the task has been assigned! What do you mean..."

"When it's dawn, you go and organize a team of soldiers to dig the passage!" I said to Instructor Qin: "Just dig according to the coordinates of the surveyed and mapped. The location where the enemy built the firepower point is very close to our tunnel, right? The maximum is only more than ten meters, and it will be almost done if you dig it for a day!"

"What's more,..." Instructor Qin answered with knowledge: "What's more, these passages should not be too big, as long as they can be stuffed into the explosive pack!"

Commander Qin and I looked at each other and laughed out loud.

It soon became bright, and the US military carried out a half-hour shelling on our positions as usual. Although they knew that these shellings would not cause much casualties to the enemy, they were always used to doing so.

Maybe they hope to gain some confidence and courage from the sound of cannons and the scorched earth on Shangganling! Maybe only in this way can they convince themselves to fight to the death for this war that has nothing to do with them.

But this time, they got what they wanted.

Because they occupied all the surface positions without any resistance. On this day, many US troops will definitely regard it as a lucky day, because I heard the huge cheers of the US troops outside the tunnel, and their excitement was even far greater than the first time they occupied Shangganling.

Next, the war was no different from the previous few days. The US military soon began to build fortifications on superficial positions and sent a small number of troops to approach our tunnels cautiously, hoping to destroy our tunnels with explosives, grenades and other things. Sometimes they would throw a few tear gas bombs and other things into our tunnels, but our army had already been prepared for this. What we wanted to help was nothing more than blocking the tunnels with sandbags. So the US military had no choice but to do anything to us for the moment.

If there is any difference, it is that the US military is digging on the ground to build fortifications, and our volunteers are also digging in the tunnel. It is just one digging down and the other digging up.

Volunteer soldiers were very experienced in digging tunnels, and they had all kinds of tools to dig tunnels, so they dug up to a distance of only one meter from the designated location in just half a day.

"Chief of Staff..." Gao Yongxiang's face was tightly pressed against the top of the passage, listened carefully for a while, then turned his head and whispered to me: "The location is right, you can hear the sound of the Americans digging on the ground!"

"Well! Then don't dig again! Come back quickly!" I quickly ordered.

I don't want to dig the passage now and then surprise the Americans who are working on it to find that there is a hole below.

"Hurry, use something to top it!" With Gao Yongxiang's order, two volunteer soldiers soon supported the top of the passage with wooden boards and sticks that had been prepared to prevent the passage from collapsing due to the vibration of shells outside.

Looking at the skillful movements of the soldiers, I nodded with satisfaction. The volunteer army has always been known for its good at civil engineering, and many of them are carpenters, miners and other backgrounds, which reflect their benefits at this time.

I originally thought that this passage would be just a simple digging of a hole upward, but it would cause many problems when it was implemented. The biggest problem is that if we dig directly from our tunnel, it is very likely that we will also blow up our own tunnel while blowing up the enemy firepower fort.

But this problem was easily solved by the soldiers. The solution was to dig a passage on the side wall of the tunnel and then detour below the enemy's firepower point. In this way, the soil layer directly above the tunnel would not be damaged, and the soldiers also used a large amount of logs to support the top of the tunnel to ensure that there would be no problems with the tunnel.

This reminds me of a commonly used siege method used in ancient times when cold weapons were fighting. At that time, the soldiers who had been unable to capture the city wall for a long time would secretly dig a long tunnel under the ground, which would lead to the city wall directly below, and then load a large amount of explosives under the city wall.

Then it was relaxed. Just ignite the fuse. With a bang, thousands of troops who had already prepared would surge in from the gap in the city wall...

The method we used this time is very similar to the ancient siege method. If our opponents were Koreans, maybe I would still have to worry whether they knew this method. After all, Goryeo must have suffered a lot in ancient times. But now we are facing the US military, and they must have never imagined that the culture of our Chinese nation is so long and profound!

"Chief of Staff, all are ready!" After that, Gao Yongxiang crawled out of the passage and patted the dust on his body and reported to me: "On the 597.9 high ground, there are 21 US military firepower points in total. Except for two of them, the other nineteen are ready!"

"Are the explosive pack ready?" I asked again.

"It's ready!" Gao Yongxiang replied excitedly: "Chief of Staff Don't worry, when it gets dark, we just need to dig a small hole on it, then stuff the explosives under the enemy's butt, and let them take the plane! They're so proud..."

With a "boom!", all the soldiers around were amused by Gao Yongxiang's words.

After making these preparations, the soldiers ordered them to go back and rest for a while. The dark night of this day came with the expectation of the soldiers.

Looking at the dim sky outside the tunnel and the searchlights that the US military lit up one after another, I stuffed a few handfuls of fried noodles into my mouth and gradually waited at the corner of the tunnel entrance.

I am waiting for the reinforcements sent by the division headquarters to us. We cannot do it too late, nor can we do it too early!

We do not have ammunition, which determines that we cannot compete with the enemy in the tunnel. This is not to be negative or timid, but an indisputable fact. On the battlefield, it is indeed necessary to try our best to exert the subjective initiative of the soldiers, but at the same time we must respect objective facts.

The inability to compete with the enemy means that it will not take long for us to lift the US military's firepower control outside the tunnel. Although the explosives placed under the enemy's firepower points can be used to blow up all the firepower points that the enemy controls our tunnel entrance in one fell swoop. However, the US military will soon launch a counterattack and then reoccupy these firepower points to control our tunnel.

So these "secret weapons" can only work at critical moments and can only be used once!

So I was thinking that there were four companies in total tonight who came to reinforce the 597.9 Highlands, and they would be divided into four batches into the tunnel. So which batch should I use this "secret weapon"? This is really a headache.

I was thinking, when gunfire suddenly sounded loudly at the foot of the mountain and the cannons became even more dense. The US military's flares were striking in pieces, and the light from the searchlights shone down in unison, illuminating half of the sky below. I quickly raised my telescope and looked at the foot of the mountain.

In the light of the US military flare, balls of smoke appeared in the aperture of the telescope. The smoke was so thick that the dazzling searchlights of the US military could not penetrate. Occasionally, there would be several figures running forward in it, but before I could see clearly, the figures had already disappeared.

Not long after, the gunshots slowly faded, with only one shell and flare, still falling from afar to the land.
Chapter completed!