At the end of 1946, France launched a full-scale invasion of Vietnam, and its modernly equipped army successively occupied Vietnam's large and medium-sized cities and major lines of communication. The poorly equipped Vietnamese army had to retreat to the countryside and mountains to resist, and the fight was very difficult.
In early 1950, the Chinese Liberation Army liberated all of the Sino-Vietnamese border area, which gave Ho Chi Minh hope for the liberation of Vietnam. On January 16, 1950, Ho Chi Minh entered Guangxi, China, from Vietnam, and on January 30, Ho Chi Minh arrived in Beijing, then went to the Soviet Union and Stalin, as well as Mao Zedong and Zhou Enlai, who visited the Soviet Union, to discuss aid to Vietnam. In addition to weapons assistance, Ho Chi Minh also proposed that China send military advisers to help Vietnam, and also named Chen Geng, then deputy commander of the Southwest Military Region and commander and political commissar of the Fourth Corps of the People's Liberation Army, to come to Vietnam.
Ho Chi Minh wanted Trần Ton to come to Vietnam because they had forged a deep friendship as early as the Revolutionary. Ho Chi Minh joined the French Communist Party in 1920, becoming the first communist in Vietnam. While in France, Ho Chi Minh became acquainted with the future CCP leader Zhou Enlai and later became a colleague at the Whampoa Military Academy. In 1924, Chen Geng entered the Whampoa Military Academy, where Ho Chi Minh was then the secretary of Dr. Sun Yat-sen's Soviet adviser Borodin, and the two had a certain friendship.
In order to strengthen the strength of the advisory group for aiding Vietnam, the central authorities also transferred Wei Guoqing, political commissar of the Tenth Corps of the Third Field Army, as the head of the advisory group, and quickly selected and dispatched a number of military, division, regimental, and battalion-level advisers from several major military regions to form an advisory group, and set up a leading group responsible for the transportation of various materials for aiding Vietnam.
In addition to the formation of training regiments, China also helped Vietnam to train the army, in May 1950, the 308th Division of the Vietnamese Army and the 88th Regiment and the 102nd Regiment under its jurisdiction arrived in Da Shan County, Yunnan Province for rectification training, the Vietnamese Army came empty-handed, the Chinese army provided them with a full set of AMERICAN equipment, before the Vietnamese Army came, the 13th Army Supply Department sent cars from Kunming to Yanshan for 18 consecutive days to deliver 10,000 sets of clothing, 10,000 towels, 8,000 quilts, 3,500 rifles, 25 million rounds of bullets, and 200 boxes of medicines for the Vietnamese army.
Since April 1950, the Central And Southern Military Region and the Southwest Military Region have begun to transport weapons, ammunition and grain needed by the Vietnamese army as planned, and the Guangxi Military Region has dispatched a car regiment from Liuzhou to Vietnam through Nanning for uninterrupted transportation of materials. In July, Chen Geng and Wei Guoqing led the members of the combat advisory team led by Yunnan to enter Vietnam.
After Arriving in Vietnam, Chen Geng and Wei Guoqing learned that the Vietnamese army was preparing to launch a border campaign to break the French blockade and communicate with the northern Vietnamese base area. After listening to the battle plan formulated by Wu Yuanjia and others, Chen Geng revised the Vietnamese battle plan, and Ho Chi Minh quickly approved the battle plan. On September 16, 1950, the border battle began, and in the course of the battle, due to the limited combat effectiveness of the Vietnamese army, the organization was not tight enough, and the attack was blocked, Chen Geng and Wei Guoqing resolutely adjusted the deployment and enabled the battle to continue.
During the battle, Chen Geng and Wei Guoqing personally went to the front line to observe the situation, and all the members of the advisory group were sent to the various divisions of the Vietnamese army to optimize the operational command of the Vietnamese army. In the end, the Vietnamese army finally annihilated the five most elite mercenary battalions of the French army, annihilated and captured more than 8,000 French troops, opened the passage between China and Vietnam, and made the supply of Vietnamese aid continue to pour into Vietnam.
Although the border battle was won, Chen Geng also saw the weakness of the Vietnamese army, for example, in an operation on October 3, Chen Geng had made a comprehensive plan, but after the operation began, when the Vietnamese army was ready to leave, it suddenly rained heavily, and the Vietnamese army asked to wait for the rain to stop before moving.
Chen Geng felt unbelievable, because the heavy rain delayed the departure, and who was the missed fighter? This is completely impossible to happen in the People's Liberation Army, and it is likely that the previous deployment is likely to fall short, but Chen Geng is only an adviser after all, and Wu Yuanjia insists that he will not listen to him and there is no way, he can only sigh and give up. Unexpectedly, in the end, the news of the great victory came, and it turned out that the French army saw that it was raining and postponed the departure time, and finally the Vietnamese army rushed to the front and defeated the French army in one fell swoop.
During the battle, the Vietnamese army's long-term guerrilla warfare lack of experience in fighting battles was also exposed, and the lack of technical and tactical level and lack of strict organization made their attacks frequently ineffective. To this end, Chen Geng and Wei Guoqing made many temporary adjustments to their deployments, this time saving the war situation.
However, what made Chen Geng feel fortunate was that the French army was no stronger than the Vietnamese army, and Chen Geng's evaluation of the French army was also very low, he believed that the combat effectiveness of the French army was inferior to that of the Kuomintang army, the enemy was arrogant, the vigilance was low, and he always posed as if he was beaten. Later, Chen Geng wrote in the Japanese army: "The Vietnamese army and the French army are really a wonderful pair of opponents. ”
After the victory of the battle, the Vietnamese army headquarters held a grand celebration dinner, because the day to prevent enemy harassment, so the banquet was scheduled for the evening. The whole bamboo building was full of people, Ho Chi Minh, Chen Geng, Wei Guoqing and the members of the advisory group were sitting in the middle, and the small wooden table was placed with a lot of captured French canned food and foreign wine, as well as beef, chicken and other dishes, and everyone frequently raised a glass to celebrate this hard-won victory. At the celebration meeting, Ho Chi Minh raised a toast to the Chinese advisers around him, and he said frankly to Chen Geng: "You have really helped us in this battle, and I am very satisfied with your work." ”
Before returning to China, Chen Geng and Ho Chi Minh had a long exchange of views and put forward valuable suggestions for the future construction and operation of the Vietnamese army. Finally, at the invitation of Ho Chi Minh, Chen Geng made a four-day battle summary report for officers above the Vietnamese camp level, and at the same time put forward opinions on the performance of the Vietnamese army in the battle.
At that time, Chen Geng was very famous in the Vietnamese army, and many Vietnamese officers and soldiers asked the members of the Chinese military advisory group: "How many generals like Chen Geng are there in China?" Can you let him stay in Vietnam and continue to command us to fight? ”
However, at that time, Chen Geng could no longer stay in Vietnam, first, his mission in Vietnam had been completed, second, the advisory group was very capable enough to solve the problems faced by the Vietnamese army, and third, the Korean war was tense, and Chen Geng was needed to be a veteran of the battle for a long time. After Chen Geng left Vietnam, he hurried to the Korean battlefield to serve as deputy commander of the Chinese Volunteer Army.
Chen Geng left the Vietnamese command, and Wei Guoqing took charge of all the work of the military advisory group to aid Vietnam. In addition to military advisory groups, China has also successively sent political advisory groups to aid Vietnam to conduct all-round training in Vietnam's finance, grain, banking, foreign trade, enemy economy, public security, and intelligence.