The winter of '50 came very early, especially on the Korean Peninsula, when the cold winds blowing from the Gaima Plateau turned the earth into a silvery white, and the temperature dropped sharply in December, and by the end of the month the temperature had dropped to more than minus 20 degrees.

It was more than 20 degrees below zero, the weather was cold, and the dripping water turned into ice, and people who went out for activities had to be cautious, for fear of accidentally falling on their heels in the ice and snow, but in such a temperature, a small room was steaming, and the atmosphere in the temporary conference room of a small detachment of a certain unit of the Volunteer Army was high.

"Brigade commander, our artillery squad resolutely asks to follow the troops, and we promise not to pull the comrades back."

Another voice also sounded at the same time: "Our machine gun squad is the same, resolutely following the troops. ”

The two people who spoke were the squad leaders of the heavy machine gun squad and the small artillery squad respectively.

Li Yong's squad encountered a problem at the pre-war preparation meeting, that is, whether the artillery squad and heavy machine gun squad acted with the troops.

Different from the previous operation, the next detachment to carry out a long distance interspersed mission, there are no roads, no cars, and no support from the local people, all the weapons and equipment have to be carried forward by the soldiers, as the saying goes, the road is far away without light loads, and it is not easy to resist heavy machine guns and small artillery marches.

Small cannons and heavy machine guns are the most important support firepower of the squad, and they are also the treasures of the current squad, but their weight is also an extremely headache.

The heavy machine gun equipped by the squad is all Makqin water-cooled, and this type of heavy machine gun has the advantage of fierce firepower and good continuity, but its dead weight is much heavier than that of other types of machine guns. The empty gun weighed more than fifty kilograms, not to mention the large amount of ammunition that needed to be carried.

The same is true of the small artillery squad. The gun plate, gun carriage and gun body had to be carried separately, and in the past, whether it was an independent brigade or a small detachment. There are a large number of cars for them to use, but this time it is different, not only are there no cars, there are not even decent roads, the detachments have to intersperse operations in the mountains and forests, all the weight has to be pressed on the shoulders of the soldiers, and whether the two heavy fire squads can keep up with the speed of the troops' advance is a big problem.

The squad leaders of the two firepower squads knew what Li Yong was worried about, and knew that the chiefs were afraid that they would not be able to resist on the interspersed road, so one of the squad leaders stood up and spoke: "Brigade commander. I am a veteran, and most of the soldiers in our squad are veterans of our old Northwest Field Army, we used to live a hard life, relying on marching with both feet to fight the world, there is nothing great about walking, I am here to make a statement, if our squad can't keep up with the march of the troops, the chief will shoot me. ”

It was the first time that the two squad leaders had a meeting with the brigade commander, and the attitude of the squad leader was resolute.

Morale can be boosted. Li Yong thought about it, he felt that he should have confidence in his soldiers, and the soldiers of the selected squad were all in the best physical condition, and they were all veterans who had fought guerrillas. Long-distance travel is not new, and physical training in the independent brigade is a daily subject, in order to prevent the troops from becoming dependent on cars. Trust them to get the job done.

At the meeting, it was decided that all members of the squad should be dispatched and wear all weapons and equipment. Also try to bring as many five-kilogram bags of explosives as you need in case you need them, of course. All the qiē had to be carried by the soldiers themselves.

Before leaving, Li Yong also asked the troops to bring some captured M1 large eight rifles to make up for the shortcomings of the team's lack of long-range firepower, several company commanders and platoon commanders had some doubts about Li Yong's decision, and the company commander Li Yuming quietly asked: "Brigade commander, the Americans' guns are good, but the ammunition cannot be replenished. ”

In order to deal with emergencies, under Li Yong's order, some soldiers replaced with American-style M1 rifles, for the problem of ammunition supply Li Yong is very open, the big battle is to the back, even if the volunteers hold their own weapons, they are still not in place, and there is a shortage of food and ammunition. It's good that the Yankee's M1 rifle is much stronger than the little devil's big three or eight big covers.

The detachment of more than 200 people all changed into the uniforms of the Republic of Korea army under the direct intervention of the head of the headquarters, and of course, Lee Yong himself was the head of the headquarters and the head of logistics, so it was very easy to get some captured enemy clothing.

According to Mr. Peng's deployment, Li Yong's small detachment should follow the troops of the 39th Army to break through the enemy's defense line, and the specific assault force was the 346th Regiment of the 116th Division of the 39th Army.

The 346th Regiment is the main regiment of the 39th Army, and each infantry battalion under it has more than 800 personnel, including the directly subordinate units, the total strength of the regiment is more than 4,000 people, and it is one of the field infantry regiments with extremely strong combat effectiveness in the Northeast Field Army, and it is also the old bone unit of the People's Liberation Army.

Early this morning, regiment commander Wu Baoguang came to the command post he had set up at the forefront, a front-line command post that was only a few hundred meters away from the shore, and when the weather was good, he could clearly see the opponent's situation without a telescope.

In order to conceal the enemy, to shorten the attack distance, and, of course, to be able to provide the most effective air defense, the 116th Division has built several hundred concealment posts and dozens of command posts at the battalion and regimental level in the area where the attack started, using hills, mountain packs, small river ditches, bushes, and natural rain fissure ditches.

The amount of work is really a bit large, but fortunately, the PLA troops have the old experience of digging holes and trenches, and after several days of non-stop efforts, all the progress went smoothly, and the other side of the river was separated by the slightest movement of the volunteers.

In the past few days, the life of the head of the regiment Wu Baoguang has not been very good, and all kinds of things have hit the back of his head with the busy foot of the regiment leader.

Seeing that he was about to enter the attack position, but the food of the troops was not fully replenished, and the soldiers' bags of dry food were still deflated, including himself, and the guards only prepared a few packets of enemy biscuits captured in the last battle.

What can a few packs of biscuits do, it can be chewed up in less than two days, for this reason, Wu Baoguang scolded the guard Xiao Chen to death, in fact, he himself knows that the guards can't be blamed for this matter, the supplies in the rear can't be sent, you can let Xiao Chen come up with any way, if it's fighting in the country, it's good to just find the local villagers and the government to solve the problem, but now our troops are in North Korea, or near the 38th parallel, this area is the junction of South Korea and North Korea, the forces of the eight directions are complicated, North Koreans, South Koreans, Americans, Chinese, as well as Soviets and people from some other countries, the military clothing and speaking accents are varied, and the local people are dazzled and do not recognize anyone, so Xiao Chen must not be allowed to rob it.

Wu Baoguang's head hurts because of the food, how can this be good, you know, once the battle starts, it will be dozens of hundreds of kilometers of continuous combat, and there is not even some food in the stomach, so how can the troops go to war, damn food.

Just when Regiment Commander Wu was at a loss, there was good news, saying that there was a new head in charge of logistics at the headquarters, and this head in charge of logistics had thought of many ways to get a batch of fried noodles before the start of the campaign, and they were still being transported to the front.

What is Chow Mein! It is composed of 70 percent wheat flour plus 30 percent sorghum or soybean flour and 0.5 percent salt, which is the first generation of field rations invented by the Chinese People's Liberation Army during the war.

People who have not eaten it may never understand, those who have eaten it think that fried noodles are okay when they eat them in the first few days, but if they become moldy once they are damp, it will be over, and the fighters who are good at saying strange things think that if they hang the moldy fried noodles on a tree, the American planes will not blow them up when they see them, of course, this is all a joke, and it would be good to have fried noodles to eat in the advancing army.

The logistics department quietly sent a large amount of grain at night, which was mainly fried noodles, and unexpectedly there was a part of cooked beef in addition to fried noodles, which was boiled in chili soup, and the logistics department brought over the soup and water including beef, saying that it was for the soldiers to drink chili soup while eating beef, and also said that this was the opinion of the head of the headquarters, which could make the troops protect against the cold.

Beef? This is really a good thing, after going abroad for so long, there is no oil in the stomachs of the soldiers, and being able to eat beef before the war is simply not sure what to say, it is even better than the New Year.

Commander Wu Baoguang was moved and almost cried, the low temperature of dozens of degrees below zero, in order to prevent the enemy from discovering the traces of the troops, it is absolutely forbidden to make fires, the soldiers nested in the fortifications, gnawed on the cold dry food, and when they were thirsty, they stuffed the snow in their mouths or knocked down the ice edges on the side of the fortifications to add an addition, and the battle had not yet started There were already sick attrition, this is the troops of Siye, most of the soldiers are from the Northeast, and their physique is very cold-resistant, and the commander of Wu did not dare to think that anything would happen when he was replaced by the troops in the south.

If you can let the troops eat a meal of chili beef soup every day, and there is hot beef and chili pepper in the stomach, Lao Tzu can rush over and smash the enemy in one breath. (To be continued......)