Defense Across the Board—the Volunteer Army Launches the Fourth Battle

On January 25, 1951, the new commander of the U. S. Eighth Army, Li Qiwei, after studying the combat patterns of the Volunteer Army, ordered the U. S. First and Ninth Armies to carry out a multi-pronged attack in the direction of Seoul on a 68-kilometer stretch from Yemuli to Yeoju. The 50th and 38th officers and soldiers of the Volunteer Army who were defending in the area overcame difficulties such as cold weather and lack of engineering equipment to build two defensive positions and repeatedly competed with the US military for each position. The battle was extremely fierce. It was not until February 16th and 18th that the Hengcheng counterattack ended, and the volunteer defense forces were ordered to move to the north bank of the Han River. In this battle, the 50th and 38th armies contained the US 1st and 9th armies on the western front, killing and wounding more than 20,000 enemies and capturing more than 20,000 enemies, effectively guaranteeing the main force of the Volunteer Army's counterattack on the eastern front.