During the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea, there was no place that the Chinese would never forget more than "Shangganling", because no battle could better interpret the national spirit of the Chinese than the "Shangganling Campaign". In this tragic battle, the Chinese people completely subdued the United States-led coalition and greatly established China's national and military prestige.
In the Battle of Shangganling, the 15th Army led by Qin Jiwei became famous in World War I, and was later reorganized into an airborne army. But in this war, the performance of the 12th Army is also very good, allowing us to see the demeanor of a Chinese ace army, and in the 12th Army, many outstanding figures have also emerged, Cai Xinghai is one of them.
On November 1, 1952, the 9th Division of the South Korean Army, which had succeeded the 7th Division of the US Army, entered the battle, and as soon as this unit arrived in the Sangganryeong area, it gathered four battalions to attack 5979 heights, and fired **200,000 shells to the heights. The two sides carried out a tragic war of attrition around these two heights, the battle was extremely cruel, the 15th Army had been fighting for 20 days, and the guard company of Qin Jiwei, the commander of the 15th Army, was sent up, and it was very heavy.
At this critical time, the various units of the 12th Army fought one after another. On the evening of November 1, the 91st Regiment of the 31st Division of the 12th Army, as the third echelon, accepted Shangganling 597The defense of the 9th Heights took over the three tunnels of No. 3, No. 9 and No. 10, the 86th Regiment guarded the No. 1, No. 8, and No. 7 tunnels, the 134th Regiment guarded the No. 2 and No. 11 tunnels, and the 135th Regiment guarded the No. 0, No. 4, No. 5, and No. 6 tunnels.
The 31st Division is the trump card of the People's Liberation Army, formerly known as the Jute Uprising Red Regiment, the 769th Regiment of the 129th Division of the Eighth Route Army, the combat effectiveness is very strong, the 91st Regiment of the 31st Division is the number one main force of the 31st Division, the deputy commander of the 31st Division Li Changlin joined the Red Army in 1933, during the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, during the War of Liberation, during the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea, Li Changlin can be said to have made many meritorious contributions. During the Battle of Shangganling, due to the absence of the division commander, Li Changlin led the 31st Division into Shangganling to fight.
The first to enter the Shangganling position was the 3rd Battalion of the 91st Regiment of the 31st Division of the 12th Army, and on the night of 1 November, the 8th Company of the 3rd Battalion moved to the position. Before the 15th Army withdrew, let them introduce their combat experience, set up a sand table, talk about operational deployment, talk about infantry and artillery combination, and the company commander, platoon commander, and squad leader of the 8th Company took notes carefully, and then took them back for study.
After the Eighth Company went up, it summed up a set of tactics, that is, the "small group tactics," that is, relying on the tunnels to replenish the consumed troops one by one, measure the enemy's troops, and give full play to our advantages in artillery fire and infantry night battles. The 8th Company took up this position on positions No. 9 and No. 10, preparing all its guns, artillery, ammunition. The specific way to play is, at the beginning of the fight, put the enemy closer, wait for the enemy to enter the range of the grenade attack before fighting, because the enemy is attacking from the bottom up, after throwing the grenade, they will retract, it is easy to pile up, and the soldiers then use machine guns, submachine guns to strafe.
After the machine gun and submachine gun are fired, the enemy in front is killed, and the back comes up again, and it is more concentrated, and then throws out grenades, grenades, and blasters to kill and injure the enemy. If the enemy retreats, the front-line battle groups call in artillery support and destroy the enemy with artillery.
On the day of November 2, the 91st and 86th regiments that held the tunnel used this tactic to let most of the people enter the tunnel, and a small number stayed in the position, replenishing while fighting to maintain combat effectiveness, and also kept calling for artillery support, annihilating more than 1,500 enemies.
On November 2, the 9th Division of the South Korean Army attacked fiercely, and even hit the No. 9 position for a time. At this time, there was only one squad of troops in the No. 9 position, and the soldiers guarding the position were a little panicked, because the squad leader's eye was injured by a shell, and the deputy platoon commander had no experience in combat command, and once fell into a state of leaderlessness.
At this time, there was a deputy squad leader who was a combat hero, named Cai Xinghai, who took the initiative to stand up and said to all the officers and soldiers on the ground: "Start listening to me now." Due to his seniority, he quickly stabilized the fighters of this class. During the battle, he studied while fighting, discovered the enemy's artillery fire patterns in time, and found out countermeasures.
Cai Xinghai found that the enemy would stay for a while after the artillery attack, lure us into rushing out of the fortifications, and then carry out artillery bombardment, causing us casualties. In view of this characteristic of the enemy, Cai Xinghai and the soldiers immediately discussed countermeasures, that is, after the enemy's artillery attack, they should not build fortifications for the time being, and then go out of the fortifications when the enemy attacked, and if the enemy came all the way, they would concentrate their shots, and if the enemy launched an attack from multiple directions, they would block them separately. When blocking the enemy, give priority to striking at the enemy commander, as long as the enemy's commander is ***, then the enemy will turn around and run.
Cai Xinghai led the soldiers to ponder while fighting, and often called for artillery support, and quickly repelled the enemy. On the No. 9 position, Cai Xinghai created the method of using grenades to "shoot air explosions" to kill and injure a large number of enemy living forces. "Hit the air blast, that is, let the grenade on the top of the enemy's head**. This sounds easy, but the actual operation is not simple at all, which requires the fighters to have a very strong psychological quality, must grasp the timing, first open the grenade fuse, hold it in their hands for a few seconds, and then throw it, if the slightest hesitation or nervousness, the grenade will explode on themselves.
In the course of the battle, Cai Xinghai and Zhang Jifa of the observation post saw more than 400 enemies gathering at the foot of the mountain, and he and his comrades immediately asked for a few artillery pieces from the nearby positions, and bombarded the enemy's assembly area, killing more than 400 enemies and wounding them. After taking advantage, Cai Xinghai knew that the enemy was going to bombard, so he immediately led all the soldiers to hide in the tunnel, and the embarrassed and angry enemy carried out a fierce bombardment of their position, but Cai Xinghai had already led his troops to retreat into the tunnel.
On the day of the battle on November 2, only three members of the combat group led by Cai Xinghai were slightly wounded, and none of them were killed, while there were more than 400 enemy corpses lying on the front of their positions, not counting the wounded soldiers who were snatched back by the enemy. Because of this battle, Cai Xinghai was also commended by his superiors.
On June 1, 1953, the Third Corps of the Volunteer Army issued the "Order to Record Merit", which read: "The first-class merit of the soldiers of the 9th Company of the 87th Regiment of the 29th Division of the 15th Army Qiu Shaoyun changed the record of special merit once and posthumously awarded the title of first-class hero, and Cai Xinghai, the deputy squad leader of the 4th squad of the 8th Company of the 91st Regiment of the 31st Division of the 12th Army, was awarded the title of second-class hero. The issuers of this "Order to Record Merit" are: Commander Xu Shiyou, Deputy Commander Zeng Shaoshan, Deputy Political Commissar Du Yide, and Political Director Liu Youguang.
This is the only time Cai Xinghai was awarded a special meritorious service, but it was not the only meritorious service, in 1950 in the eastern Sichuan bandits, he was awarded a first-class meritorious service, in 1962, during the work of **, he was awarded a third-class meritorious service; He has been received by party and state leaders on five occasions.
In 1982, Cai Xinghai transferred from the army to work in Xianyang City, and successively served as Secretary of the General Party Branch of Xianyang Timber Company, Secretary of the Party Branch and General Manager of Xianyang Mechanical and Electrical Equipment Company. After changing jobs, Cai Xinghai still maintained the style of the army, was honest and honest, and never took ill-gotten gains. After transferring to a local government, because he had a lot of power in his hands, his friends and old subordinates asked him to open the back door many times, but he refused.
When someone asked him why he did this, Cai Xinghai said: "The treatment I enjoy now and the honors I have won are all bought by my comrades-in-arms with blood. If I stain the light of the country and do things that harm the interests of the people, then I have forgotten the oath I made under the party flag, betrayed my sacrificed comrades-in-arms, and betrayed my original intention and mission. ”