Chapter 40: Battle of Tong Deng (10)

Chapter 40: Battle of Tong Deng (10)

"The mountain of Guitun Fort is called Pingding Mountain. This fort was built by the French decades ago in three years." The old militiaman He Guoan introduced to us while drawing sketches on the ground: "At that time, the French used it to fight small ***s. The small *** was shot for a full forty-five days but couldn't be shot down! The turret is 300 meters long, 100 meters wide, and the wall is 1.5-3 meters thick. They are all filled with steel bars and cement. The hard ones are not enough to be shot in..."

After pausing, He Guoan pointed to the sketch and said, "This fort is divided into three layers, with a three-meter-wide passage in the middle, and a room next to it, with two floors exposed on the ground. How high... Dalei is five or six meters long, with an entrance and exit on all four sides. The door is an iron door, which can prevent poison and set fire; there are ten breathable windows and a lookout on the top, and the mortar can face the outside; there are more than 300 perforations next to it, densely packed like honeycombs... There are also water, electricity and ventilation holes... There are also an auditorium, and it is not a problem to hold thousands of people in the entire fort..."

Listening to He Guoan's explanation, I couldn't help but be stunned. This is not a fortress! It's clearly a fortress! The soldiers also looked at each other. They always fought against Guitun fortresses like before, but they attacked camps and set up villages. They never thought that this thing was a big bunker that could accommodate thousands of people...

"Comrade He!" I pointed to the fort sketch drawn by He Guoan and said, "This fort... does it have a secret passage leading to another place!"

In fact, this is very obvious. The construction of such a fort that can accommodate thousands of people is certainly not used to protect the people. As a military facility, it has only one purpose, that is, to garrison troops.

If the turret is used to station troops, it will definitely not only be used to ensure the strength of the turret in a place. If it is just like this, the turret will become an isolated fire point, and it will be just a turtle shell.

Of course, the French are not fools, and they have great experience in building such solid fortifications. Didn’t they build a “Magino Line of Defense” during World War II? Although it became a joke in the end, we still have to admit that the line of defense is indeed unbreakable, just like the Guitun Fort they are building now.

"Yes!" He Guoan nodded and replied: "The reason why the fort built an auditorium that can accommodate more than 1,000 people is to transport troops to other places. Therefore, there are several secret passages underground that can lead to Tanmou, Tanlong, the railway station and its nameless highlands southwest!"

"Oh!" After hearing this, the soldiers suddenly realized and said in a lingering manner: "No wonder when we investigated a certain situation, we always felt that the Japanese were just a little bit, but we couldn't finish it no matter how hard we fought..."

"So there is still this trick. The 638th regiment is also very proud of this, so I can't beat Tanlong!"

"There are also that train station!"

...

In fact, this is reasonable. Thinking about it now, the reason why we were able to successfully capture Tan Mou was probably because when we captured Tan Mou, a large number of shells and tunnels were blown up when we captured Tan Mou, blocking the tunnels supported by Guitun Fortress.

Yes! That's right... the power of those cars of shells exploded in a chain of ways cannot be underestimated. Moreover, there are a large number of tunnel exits between the No. 16 and No. 17 positions. Such an explosion actually cut off Tan Mou's connection with Guitun Fort by coincidence. Otherwise, it would not be easy for us to take Tan Mou.

"Company Commander!" At this time, a correspondent soldier came to report and said, "Captain Zhang asked us why we haven't arrived at our destination yet..."

"Um! Let's go!" Only then did I remember that I was still on the way to reinforce the 637th Regiment. I patted my butt and stood up, shook hands with He Guoan, and said gratefully: "Comrade He Guoan, thank you very much for the information you provided to us. However... in order for us to better build the fort, I hope you can go on the road with us, I don't know you..."

"No problem!" Before I could finish speaking, He Guoan nodded and said, "I am here to help you build this fort. I don't want to drive me away!"

With a coaxing sound, the soldiers laughed, and at the same time welcomed the enthusiastic militia in their own way. Some soldiers enthusiastically welcomed him into the team, some soldiers carried equipment for him, and some soldiers even came forward to chat with him. He Guoan was also familiar with him. Although he was more than enough to be a father of the soldiers, he soon became a group of soldiers.

The Guitun Fort was not far from us, and it was only a few miles away. I led the soldiers along the way to follow Captain Wu's tank and turned around in the mountains. In just over twenty minutes, I arrived at the 637th Regiment's base.

The first thing that came into our sight was a large number of wounded soldiers. The screams and fishy smell filled the entire base, and the ground was filled with black blood clots and blood bandages. The scene was very chaotic. Several Jiefang car cars were immediately filled with a bunch of wounded soldiers as soon as they drove up. The wounded soldiers who could not get in the car had to retreat helplessly to wait for the next group. The military doctors in white coats were busy among the wounded soldiers and almost stopped for a moment.

After walking a while, I saw several soldiers sitting or lying. At first I was wondering, all of them were not injured, why could they stay here without moving? But from their empty eyes, I seemed to understand something. They seemed to be exhausted, or they had lost confidence in this war...

Later I realized that it was not just a few of them. The entire 637 regiment seemed to be trapped in this negative mood. There are two reasons: one is that the casualties were too severe, which had a great blow to their morale. The other is that the Guitun Fort was too strong, and many soldiers thought it was an invincible fortress. As the Vietnamese army boasted, they also believed that the Guitun Fortress was a "indestructible fortress"!

No one came to greet us, only a burst of cannons and machine guns were heard in front of us. I think this is normal. Under such a heavy blow, everyone was worried that they would be in a hurry. How could they even think of arranging people to receive reinforcements from other troops...

I found a place on the second line as the temporary garrison for the troops, so I took Battalion Commander Ding, Battalion Commander Wu, He Guoan and others to walk towards the 637th Regiment's regiment headquarters. I asked several soldiers along the way, and finally found the regiment headquarters in a cave.

After the guard went in to report, he soon met two people, one tall and one short, from inside.

"Oh! We were still talking about reinforcements just now! I didn't expect you to arrive so soon!" The tall man held my hand enthusiastically and said, "Welcome! Comrade! I am Zhao Chuangqiang, the leader of the 637th Regiment. This is the political commissar Wang Hui!"

"Hello comrade! Hello comrade! Welcome..." Political Commissar Wang shook hands with us one by one with great politeness.

"Report to the regiment commander!" I replied: "I am Cui Wei, the company commander of the 5th Company of the 2nd Battalion of the 639th Regiment, and I am ordered to come and reinforce!"

"Are you... company commander?" Commander Zhao was stunned when he heard this.

"Yes!" I nodded.

"Then how many troops are you here to reinforce? "

"Two infantry companies!" I replied: "Another tank battalion, but... there are only twenty Type 63 tanks!"

Captain Zhao's face clearly showed a hint of disappointment.

Political Commissar Wang obviously felt this awkward atmosphere and hurriedly walked up to smooth things over and said, "Come on... Comrades, come in and sit down and talk about it!"

As soon as I walked into the regiment headquarters, I felt a depressing atmosphere. Although the telegraph soldiers were still very busy, I listened carefully to the call and said, "What? What did you do before you hit it?"

"How could the casualties be so big?"

"No matter how much the price you pay, you must take down the nameless highland for me."

...

There were also several cadres, one of whom had a bandage on his head, and he thought it was a deputy commander or chief of staff. They were all sitting in front of the map, holding their heads and not talking, just smoking. The cave had already had a strong tobacco smell, and even a person who could smoke, I still wanted to escape.

"This is the first battalion commander, the second battalion commander, Chief Li..." Commander Zhao pointed to the cadres and introduced him casually. The cadres also nodded at me. One of them was quite polite and handed me a cigarette, and then stopped talking.

"This is the situation!" Commander Zhao pointed to the map on the table and said, "The main ones in front of us are the three strongholds, namely the nameless highland, the railway station and the Guitun Fort. These three strongholds form a triangle, and the firepower can support each other. If we want to attack the forward incline of the Guitun Fort, we must pass through the railway station. The railway station is low and it is not difficult to fight, but it has the firepower support of the Guitun Fort in the nameless highland. If we attack the reverse incline of the Guitun Fort, we will not only face the firepower of the fort, but also be side-fired by the Vietnamese army's nameless highland..."

After hearing Captain Zhao's introduction, I quickly understood that there was a triangular defensive position in Guitun Fort.

"Company Commander Cui!" After saying a lot, Commander Zhao said to me: "We attacked twice, and seven or eight hundred casualties were killed. You only have two companies and one tank battalion for reinforcements this time... It's still a Type 63 tank, I think this is a drop in the bucket!"

"I know you have insufficient troops!" Political Commissar Wang said: "Your 639th Regiment has successfully captured Tan, and sending two companies to reinforce us. This can be said to be the limit. But... I also think that if you want to capture Guitun Fort, this amount of troops is still far from enough!"

"What does the regiment commander and political commissar mean..." I asked, "Are you going to wait for more reinforcements to launch a third attack?"

"I think this is the safe way to play!" Captain Zhao nodded and said, "We need more artillery support, more firepower cover, more troops... and after detailed and meticulous planning, we can launch a third attack! Otherwise... I think it is all irresponsible to the soldiers!"

I have to admit that Captain Zhao’s idea is correct. If he fails to find a suitable offensive method, it can only increase unnecessary casualties and is also a manifestation of irresponsible for the lives of the warriors.

but……

I circled Guitun Fort, nameless highland and railway station on the map, and said: "This triangular defense covers only a few square miles. In such a small area, I don't think that more troops will be of much help to us! Instead, it will increase casualties!"

"Well!" Captain Zhao nodded, and had to admit this fact.

Actually, I think it’s not that he doesn’t know this, but because their regiment suffered too much casualties, or that he lost confidence in attacking the Guitun Fort, hoping that another unit could replace them.

Thinking of this, I couldn't help but glance at Captain Zhao. Captain Zhao seemed to feel that I had seen through it, and a hint of shame appeared on his face.

But I think this is normal. It is said that most of the cadres at the division level at this time were upgraded from the battalion and platoon level. They had no command experience or combat experience, and they encountered the hard nail of Guitun Fort as soon as they came up. It would be strange if they would not have any negative emotions!

"Captain, political commissar!" In order to enhance their confidence in this battle, I pulled over the old militiaman He Guoan behind me and said, "Let me introduce this comrade is He Guoan. He built a fort for the French when he was a child, so he knew the internal structure of the Guitun fort!"

"Oh!" After hearing what I said, the originally listless cadres couldn't help but lit up their eyes, and they all looked at He Guoan. Several people even stood up and asked, "Do you really know the internal structure of Guitun Fort?"

It’s useless to just talk. The last time He Guoan drew on the ground with branches, this time he drew on paper with pencils, and while drawing, he also recalled and explained.

"It's here...the second floor! I remember there was another fellow villager who fell down here and never got up again!"

"And here, a big stone fell from above and pressed two people down. The bloody ones... no one could recognize their original appearance!"

...

Of course, we did not have the intention to listen to his stories, but watched the Guitun Fort appear in front of us stroke by stroke.

Finally, when the internal structure of Guitun Fort appeared in front of us, Captain Zhao couldn't help but shook his head and sighed: "I didn't expect that there were so many names in this fort. No wonder we had suffered such great casualties but failed to capture it. Now it seems that this is still far from it!"

"Yes!" Political Commissar Huang also nodded: "We still think that there are only a few people in the fort, and we still want to use up them slowly. Now it seems that it is a fool, and they are not even hurting their fur!"

"But..." the cadre with a bandage on his head stood up and asked, "What can you do if you know the internal structure of this turret? If we shoot a mortar at that turret, we can only shoot a white dot!"

There was another silence in the cave. Everyone knew that this cadre was right. Our army had not even touched the Guitun Fort during the two attacks, so it seemed that its internal structure would not work.

But it is not actually the case.

"Comrade!" I pointed to the structural diagram and asked He Guoan: "Do you still remember... in which direction does the secret passage leading to the fort drive other places drive?"

"It seems..." He Guoan thought for a while, pointed to two locations on the map and said: "It seems that there is one here, and here, which direction is it... I don't remember it very clearly!"

"Think about it again, think about it carefully!"

"Well! There is another one in this position!" He Guoan pointed to another position and said, "It is from the south! There is another one in the southwest!"

"Yeah!" I nodded, turned around and asked Captain Zhao, "Can Captain Zhao arrange several artillery observers?"

"Architecture Observer?" Commander Zhao looked at each other with other cadres, then nodded and said, "No problem, but why do you want artillery observers?"

"That's it!" the battalion commander with a bandage on his head continued, saying, "If you want to blow up the cannon with artillery, then I advise you not to try it, that thing can't be blown up even if the plane is going to blow up!"

"I don't want to blow up the turret!" I shook my head and said, "I don't want to blow up the secret dou!"

"Blast the secret path?" Everyone cast doubtful eyes at me one after another.

"That's right!" I nodded, pointed to the map and said, "Comrade He Guoan had already said just now that there is a military garrison hall at the Guitun Fort, where there are thousands of Yue troops. It is also these thousands of Yue troops who sent reinforcements through the secret passages under the Guitun Fortress, the train station, the tent, and the ridge to send reinforcements. It is also true that our army cannot clean up the Vietnamese troops at these locations. But... what if we can blow these secret passages down?"

"Yes!" Captain Zhao couldn't help but punched the map hard and said, "We were all thinking about how to knock down Guitun, but we didn't expect to block their way out first. Once the secret passage was blown by us, then the Vietnamese troops in the ridge, railway station, and nameless highlands were fighting less and less. After a few rounds of artillery fire, they were all over. The remaining Guitun was not allowed to play with us..."

"But...how do we know where the enemy's secret passage is?" Another question was raised.

"Article observer!" Captain Zhao said excitedly: "As long as we know the location of the secret passage inside the fort... I don't know how to do it, let the artillery observer go to trouble! Let them aim at the corresponding direction of the fort with that mirror... Daqing can see the direction of the secret passage, right?"

"Captain Zhao said it well!" I nodded and added: "But it may not be necessary. We also need to observe the firepower points in other places, such as where the Vietnamese army at the railway station replenished its troops. In this way, we can know the location of the entrance and exit of the secret passage, so where the secret passage is, it will be inseparable!"
Chapter completed!