Chapter 56: The Only Son

So Jin Qiulian finally realized her wish and joined the Cold Gun Army. She was as good as her and could cooperate so well with the 7th Company, so I had no reason to refuse.

But what I don’t understand is that she seemed to have been tired of war when I knew her back then. Of course, this also contained fear of war, which was also the reason why I used my relationship to transfer her to the medical and nursing forces in the rear. But now I see her, but she is not tired of war or fear at all, and she seems to be a little yearning. Could it be that... this is because she has grown up? She has matured?

If this is true, I don’t think it’s a good thing. People who have adapted to the killing on the battlefield or matured on the battlefield often find it difficult to adapt to the peace after the war. Now, peace is only one step away from us.

The regiment headquarters is not far from the training ground of the 7th Company, only a dozen minutes away, and the 7th Company is also a unit trained by me. If I want to see Lin Xue or Jin Qiulian, there is no need for any excuses. It can even be said that I should have gone to see the 7th Company training more. Because once the battle starts, the 7th Company is directly affiliated with me and can play a special role on the battlefield.

As their commander, what I should do is to see them train more or follow them. But I didn't do that. One is that I have too many things to prepare for. The war is imminent, and it is very likely that it will be the last battle of the Korean War. So I must consider as much as possible any situations that may occur on the battlefield, otherwise I will be irresponsible for the lives of the soldiers. The other is that Lin Xue and Jin Qiulian are both in the cold gun army, which makes me feel a little strange. Every time I take the time to go to the 7th Company to watch them train, I always feel nervous.

So I told myself that I must let go of this feeling, otherwise, this battlefield will be the end of my life. What's more, I may have caused many innocent volunteer soldiers to be affected by my death. After all, I am the leader of a regiment, and my sacrifice will more or less affect the morale of the soldiers and the command on the battlefield.

The last batch of supplementary soldiers arrived before dawn, but unlike before, all of the supplementary soldiers of more than 300 people were recruits. From Liu Shunyi, they had learned that they had been training in Anton for a full six months, and then they only joined our regiment due to the need for a big battle.

I think this should be because all experienced veterans have been supplemented! But this is good. After six months of training, the basic combat knowledge is almost ready. All they lack is the courage and experience to fight, and it is impossible to drag the entire army down. It is better than the new recruits who practiced on the train for a few hours and taught how to shoot and throw them into the team!

The addition of three batches of supplementary troops has brought the total number of our regiment to more than 3,000. A company has more than 200 people, plus logistics, guards and command personnel, each battalion has a great reputation of about 1,000 people.

The reason why these numbers are not sure is that the personnel have changed a lot in the past few days, and from time to time, veterans have been transferred to the rear for various reasons. For example, those who are only children, those whose combat effectiveness has been greatly reduced after being injured, and those who are both brothers and sisters have died on the battlefield... From this point of view, the volunteer army actually has its humane side.

Later I realized that the reason I did this was entirely because a mother wrote a letter to her son's army leader. The general idea of ​​the letter was to ask the army leader to let her son go home because she had only such a son and was waiting for him to support the family. The army leader was furious after reading it, thinking that this was a manifestation of the mother's backward thinking. Such behavior would shake the morale of the army, and he would punish the mother who wrote the letter and the son who was in the army at the same time.

This incident reached General Peng's ears. General Peng's first reaction was to scold the leader of the army: "Your son is a son, but other people's son is not a son? What's the point of doing..."

So, not only was the only son transferred back, but many soldiers in the army with the same situation were also transferred back. Of course, we didn't know these reasons at that time. In the feelings of most soldiers, many people regarded this battle as a battle of death, so they transferred those only sons and others to the rear.

From this point of view, I think the saying "It's better to have only one child" is undoubtedly very correct!

If this happens in another army, if such a thing happens, it will more or less affect the morale of the army. It is not the same army? Why can't others go back but they can't go back? And when they go back, the soldiers will know in their hearts that this battle will definitely be a disaster!

But there was no such impact in the Volunteer Army, which instead made the morale of the troops even higher.

Some soldiers said, "Look, Chairman Mao cares more about us! He thinks more about our military service! He is reluctant to let his only son go to the battlefield!"

Some soldiers also said: "Chen Ergou from our village was transferred back. He is a three-generation single-handed family member, and he is waiting for him to go back and renew the incense!"

Some soldiers said, "It's better to be the best. If the sun hits the west, the sun will not transfer us back!"

Of course, I think I can say this, I must have been in the *** army before, so I feel this way!

The soldiers who were transferred back were all moved to tears, and some were filled with mixed feelings and reluctant to leave. It was not until I gave the order that they reluctantly bid farewell to their comrades and embarked on the road to go home...

Military vehicles were transporting ammunition and supplies, and then they carried trucks of only sons back. The soldiers left behind were all deeply concerned about the Party and the motherland, and the warmth shining with Chairman Mao’s glory. Therefore, they were determined to fight a beautiful battle to report to the Party, the people of the motherland, and to Chairman Mao…

Although I don’t have such thoughts, it is true that all the soldiers around me think this way. As long as I walk around the tunnel, I can hear the soldiers talking everywhere: "Hello Chairman Mao!", "Good!", "Our troops are our people's troops, and we always think about our people..."

This was the time when Li Pinghe, the political commissar, played his role. Taking advantage of this opportunity, if he convened a short meeting of political cadres, he quickly used the company or tunnel as units (the reason for not focusing on the company and tunnel as units was for safety reasons to avoid soldiers being bombed by the enemy), and asked the instructors to launch a symposium called "Revolutionary Soldiers Under the Glory of the Party" in the tunnel!

After passing this symposium, Li Pinghe and others once again strengthened the soldiers' trust in the party and fully explored their patriotism.

So I have reason to believe that when I go to the battlefield, these soldiers, including the more than 300 new recruits in the supplementary soldiers, will all show their super combat power. Such a result is certainly a good thing, but I feel a little unbearable.

I couldn't help but sigh that the contrast is too big. If this happened in modern times, even if the superiors made the same decision with the same intention, the soldiers' reactions would definitely be different. If modern people encounter this, they will definitely think: those soldiers transferred must be related parties, or have used some relationships behind their backs, or have spent a lot of money on them...

But the current volunteer soldiers have very simple ideas because they believe in the party and the government, so they are sure to do this for their own good!

Of course, all this was done in the darkness of the night, with the purpose of not wanting the puppet troops to be prepared for our big moves. Even the night before the war started, more than a dozen T34 tanks and three Stalin 2 tanks were driven.

In order to protect the roar of these tanks, the 540th Regiment, which was responsible for the first attack mission, was ordered to fire cold artillery intermittently at the puppet army's positions for a while.

The night gradually enveloped the sky above Wendengli, without stars or moon. The hazy drizzle seemed to tell us that North Korea had entered the rainy season. The rain fell sparsely on the bushes around the position, making a "click" sound similar to a book-turning sound. The sky was so dark. Whether it was the 540th Regiment lurking in the front line or the 539th Regiment and 538th Regiment who were preparing to follow up on the second line, they felt a little awe-inspiring, as if something strange was going to happen to the whole world.

Yes! This world is indeed changing, because tonight is the day when we launch the Battle of Jincheng.

Last night, the three regiments of the 180th Division handed over all positions to the 179th Division and the 181st Division, and then lurked into a bush in front of the 902.8 Highlands overnight.

Opposite to the lurking position are two insignificant high grounds, 237.5 and 334. The reason why these two high grounds are said to be insignificant is that after we seized a series of high grounds such as 902.8, the puppet army highland closest to us has lost its defensive significance. Volunteer soldiers only need to set up a few mortars on the 902.8 high ground to easily cover all the high grounds within their range.

These days, our mortar gunners have also tossed the puppet troops on the high ground. According to the gunners, anyway, the new recruits have to consume shells. The target of surviving is better than the target of killing, and it can also strengthen the will of the new recruits. Therefore, the new recruits mortar gunners used the puppet troops as targets on the top of the mountain almost every day, which scared the puppet troops all huddled in the tunnel and did not dare to come out.

But the willpower of the puppet army cannot be compared with the volunteer army. From time to time, some puppet army will not be able to stand running out of the tunnel, just so that the mortars will not be lonely.

However, the puppet army was still unwilling to give up these high grounds easily. No matter what, it is now close to signing the negotiations. Being able to hold on for one more day means the greater the possibility of occupying this land for a long time. After all, the signing was based on the actual military control line between the two sides.

Another reason is that these high grounds can be used as outposts for the puppet army's Northern Han River position, so that the puppet army's main position will have more time to prepare.

Therefore, what the 540th Regiment focused on dealing with was the puppet army position south of the North Han River, where machine gun positions were everywhere, crisscrossing trenches, barbed wire and bunkers made of reinforced concrete. The slightly shorter ones in the front were obviously for machine guns, and the tall behind them and there were vaguely black holes and gun barrels extended, which were for cannons.

The puppet army obviously spent some effort on the positions on the south bank of the North Han River. These machine guns, cannons, and landmines buried on the south bank will play their role when our army crosses the river. According to the information sent by Commander Pang, Rhee gave a death order to the third puppet division stationed on the south bank of the North Han River. In any case, the Zhong*** team could not be allowed to cross the North Han River, no matter how much the cost, the casualties...

But commands are commands, and whether they can be done will be another matter.

However, I think that the third puppet division defending on the other side of the Beihan River may not be worried that our army would force cross the Beihan River. A very important reason is that the melting ice and snow and the arrival of the rainy season have caused the river to rise by more than one meter high. In addition, the rain will become more and more abundant in the future. The puppet army, familiar with North Korea's geography and climate, is very clear that the river water will rise higher and higher in the next one and two months. For the Zhongzhang team, which has extremely simple crossing equipment (in the fifth battle, our army still waders by steep steps, swimming or relying on steel wires to cross the river), it is almost impossible to cross such a deep river and break through their defense line.

But what they didn’t know was that today we are no longer the volunteer army!

In order to cooperate with this attack, the 179th Division, 180th Division and the 181st Division's artillery regiments had more than 100 howitzers and cannons, all of which were ready for preparation. In addition, there was a rocket artillery battalion transferred by the military headquarters. What's more amazing is that due to the condescending reasons, the mortars arranged by our army on the top positions on the 902.8, 973 and 883.7 high ground can all hit the other side of the North Han River.

At this point, the comrades of the 179th Division and the 181st Division also fully supported our army to cross the river, concentrating nearly four-fifths of the division's mortars on the three high grounds of 902.8, 973 and 883.7 to assist us. That was more than 200 mortars, and the mortars were launched for a short interval. Although the firepower was small and the destructive power was relatively poor, it was definitely a nightmare for landmines and enemies hiding in the trenches!

But all this is actually not what I need to worry about. Forcing the crossing of the Beihan River is the mission of the 540th Regiment. As the troops following up, all we need to do is actually wait... Wait for the comrades of the 540th Regiment to defeat the enemy on the other side of the river, wait for the engineers to build a floating bridge on the Beihan River, and let's cross the river with our equipment!

The rain kept falling! The denser and heavier the more you fell.

The soldiers took out their raincoats and put them on, and then wrapped them tightly with rain cloth. We didn't want to destroy half of the weapons before the battle started. However, the soldiers of the 540th Regiment lurking at the front of the position seemed not so lucky.

Unlike previous battles, the battle was very thoughtful, from food and ammunition to raincoats and raincloths. The engineers who were mainly responsible for transporting ammunition wrapped boxes of ammunition tightly with tarps before entering the position. They even boasted in front of us that even if the ammunition fell into the water, we could still beat them up again!

Whether it can be fought hard depends on the test on the battlefield. I hope this is the case, otherwise our 538th Regiment will die miserably!

Think about the battles I have participated in when I came to the Korean battlefield. From the unexpected encounter of the first battle, I fired the first shot in a panic. Our volunteer army seemed to always struggle on the poverty line of ammunition and food. Even if we sometimes took the initiative to start the battle, we had to fight due to the situation.

Only this time is when we are fully prepared and ready to go! It should be said that this feeling is really good. If the previous battles were initiated in this state, then I think the current situation will be another matter.

The fundamental reason is that our army does not have the advanced modern equipment as advanced as the Americans, and has completely lost air and sea control! This often enables the United Nations to turn passive into initiative, and eventually becomes a stalemate in the current situation.

"TuTuTuTuTu..." Just as I was thinking, three red signal flares suddenly rose on the sky on a rainy night.

Then before I could catch my ears in a hurry, loud noises quickly rang around me. There were also loud noises, front, back, left, right, and even above my head. The huge roar was hugging me like a demon, making me feel like I was in a stormy ocean, involuntarily drifting with the flow. Among them, there was a faint sound of "chic..." of the air tearing sound!

I had thought that this would happen. After all, I was not a recruit anymore. I knew what it would be like to bomb the enemy even above my head. But I really didn't expect it to be so serious. If I were not prepared, I would probably be deafened by the sound of my artillery bombing.

Later I learned that some people were deaf in the sound of these cannons because there were too many engineers among us who had not undergone military training, and they didn't know what it would be like to stay in the sound of the cannon for half an hour.

I could only try my best to cover my ears with a raincoat. I didn’t even prepare the cotton ball before regretting it, because I felt that as a veteran and a regiment commander, if I had to prepare the cotton ball, it would make people laugh. Facts prove that sometimes I can’t save face on the battlefield!
Chapter completed!