Lang Son is an important province in northern Vietnam, bordering China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, the geographical location is extremely important, fifteen kilometers north is the "Friendship Pass" on the Border between China and Vietnam, and 150 kilometers south to reach the capital of Vietnam - Hanoi.
Lang Son
Such an important geographical location also determined the extremely important strategic position of Lang Shan in the counterattack against Vietnam, in this war, Xu Shiyou, commander of the Guangzhou Military Region who served as the commander-in-chief of the eastern front, shouted to the whole army before the launch of the Lang Shan Campaign: "Launch a general offensive in the early morning, I don't want to see a house in Lang Shan still exist!" ”
I believe that everyone will be confused when they hear that a military commander is so angry, so what is the reason that makes this general so angry? I believe that when everyone understands the specific reason, they will be even more angry than Xu Shiyou!
Vietnam turned its face and did not recognize anyone
Ho Chi Minh
Towards the end of World War II, Vietnam's founding father, Ho Chi Minh, declared Vietnam's independence and on September 2, 1945, officially proclaimed the establishment of the "Democratic Republic of Vietnam", with its capital in Hanoi.
At the same time, it is intended to expel the so-called "Emperor Bao the Great" of Vietnam and the French colonialists who exploited the Vietnamese people, in accordance with the revolutionary path of other countries in liberating the people.
At the end of April 1949, Bao The Great of the South, with the support of French colonists, established the State of Vietnam, commonly known internationally as South Vietnam, with its capital in Ho Chi Minh City.
French colonists in Vietnam
At that time, in order to solve the Vietnamese problem, the international community scheduled to hold universal suffrage in Vietnam in 1956, but because the election could not be held as desired, the situation of the division of the north and the south ended, both sides declared independence, and armed conflict broke out, which soon developed into the Vietnam War.
It was not until 1975, after vietnam's reunification, that there was a brief silence.
In the past few decades, China has never interrupted its assistance to Vietnam, mainly involving weapons and equipment, logistics supplies, transportation facilities and so on.
Data show that in the period from 1950 to 1975, China's assistance to Vietnam was converted into at least 20 billion US dollars in cash, but even if we treated our "revolutionary comrades" with sincerity and sincerity, we were betrayed by our "comrades-in-arms".
In the 1970s, Vietnam, which had just ended its war and unified reunification, frequently harassed China's borders, posing a serious threat to the safety of the lives and property of the people on our borders.
However, in early 1974, the Vietnamese army blatantly invaded the Vinh Lok Islands in the South China Sea in total disregard of the warnings of our Government. In the face of Vietnam's aggression, the Central Military Commission urgently ordered Xu Shiyou to launch a counterattack.
In the ensuing battle, in just a few hours, several of the invaded islands and reefs were reoccupied by the People's Navy, and this battle also severely cracked down on Vietnam's arrogance.
Battle of paracel
However, despite the severe blows, Vietnam is still a thief and still tries to dominate Southeast Asia.
At that time, in order to balance China, the Soviet Union continued to provide assistance to Vietnam, and with these assistance, Vietnam fell into a "self-aware" madness, completely disregarding China's help to him and constantly provoking China's bottom line.
Under the malicious guidance of the Vietnamese government, the opposition to China and Chinese in Vietnam reached its peak, and all pro-China personnel were branded as "Vietnamese traitors.".
In the years that followed, the conflict escalated, with arrogant Vietnam harassing our southwestern border more frequently. At first, my Government was very reticent and advocated the peaceful settlement of the dispute, but Vietnam gained inches.
Therefore, in order to safeguard the interests of the motherland and the people, china decided to carry out a self-defense counterattack against Vietnam in 1979.
However, before the war began, the Vietnamese general Wu Yuanjia heard that our side was led by General Xu Shiyou and arrogantly said "must win"! So, is this battle really like he said?
Battle of Lang Son
On February 17, 1979, our country officially attacked Vietnam. Before the start of the war, General Xu Shiyou personally went to the front line to conduct reconnaissance, and finally after consulting the central government, Xu Shiyou decided to take the outer highlands of Langshan Mountain and open a knife!
The terrain of Langshan is special, there is only one traffic road and dense forests on both sides, which is very suitable for ambush warfare, in order to pass through this road, it is necessary to take down the hills on both sides of the road to occupy the commanding heights.
Battle map of the counterattack against Vietnam
On the day of the war, Xu Shiyou took advantage of his rich combat experience to successfully take the enemy's commanding heights under unfavorable combat conditions by dividing surprise attacks, fighting with small units, and encircling and annihilating.
Subsequently, after a series of battles, a siege was formed against the enemy.
At this time, in the encirclement was the "Third Division", the ace unit of the Vietnam People's Army stationed at Lang Son. Speaking of this "Third Division", it was called "the Venus Unit of one star in the south" because of its outstanding performance in the Vietnam War.
After forming an encirclement against the enemy, the People's Liberation Army did not rush to march, but through survey, after the troops reached the designated position, they placed the initiative on the battlefield under the control of our army.
Subsequently, under the deployment of Hsu Shiyou, our army took the initiative to attack the "Hero Regiment", the ace unit of the enemy Third Division located on the Dong Deng Heights, and as the battle began, in the explosion of a series of shells, the sleeping enemy troops were blown up and dizzy, and the Vietnam People's Army fell into chaos for a while.
However, just when the Vietnamese army was on the verge of collapse, Wu Yuanjia dispatched a unit from a nearby garrison in an attempt to launch an artillery attack on our position.
But Wu Yuanjia wanwan did not expect that these reinforcements would be discovered by our army just after they reached the designated position, and then under the "hospitality" of our army's artillery rain, it did not take long to be completely paralyzed.
In this way, with the collapse of the enemy reinforcements, our army successfully seized the position and finally directly annihilated all the so-called "hero regiments" of the Third Division of the VietnamEse People's Army.
Wu Yuanjia
After eating such a defeat, Wu Yuanjia, who had previously shouted "victory" and his proud soldiers and arrogant soldiers, seemed to have been poured cold water from top to bottom, so the remaining 10,000 or so people of the Third Division chose what they thought was the safest way to retreat and stick to Langshan.
In fact, Wu Yuanjia's move was to rely on the terrain of Langshan to intensively set up minefields for defense, build bunker bunkers and military trenches, and intend to keep Xu Shiyou's troops out of Langshan.
The People's Liberation Army crosses the Langshan Mountains
In the face of the adjustment of the enemy's deployment, General Xu Shiyou also chose the corresponding tactical tactics, allocating the Eastern Front Corps to the periphery and clearing the Vietnamese People's Army that was firmly holding Lang Son from the outside to the inside.
In the early morning of February 27, 1979, with the rumbling of artillery fire, the Battle of Langshan officially began, and the soldiers of our Fifty-fifth Army divided into three roads, launched a deep dive, and launched an attack on the outskirts of Langshan, including Kouma Mountain, Bawai Mountain, and 417 Heights.
Despite the bravery of the PLA fighters, there were still large casualties in the course of the battle.
First, due to the fog and poor vision on the day of the attack, many soldiers died under the cold guns of the Vietnamese army hiding in the shadows; second, our army was not familiar with the terrain of the highlands when it first arrived here, and often could not avoid the enemy fire points on the way of the attack, resulting in serious casualties;
Third, it is because the Vietnamese army is well versed in our army's tactics and has used tunnel warfare and anti-slope warfare quite skillfully.
In addition, most of the equipment of the Vietnamese People's Army is the weapons left over from the Soviet Union or collected by the US army, so its firepower is not weaker than that of our army.
The Soviet Union aided Vietnam
Since our firepower could not suppress the enemy, our army could only attack the enemy's bunker strongholds one by one through grenades, explosive packs, and explosive barrels, which undoubtedly brought huge losses and troubles to our side.
In this way, the fierce attack and defense of Lang Shan lasted for eight days, and it was not until early March that Xu Shiyou's order to eliminate the enemy troops from the periphery was carried out.
China assists Vietnam in grain
However, after occupying the enemy's positions, our troops found many grain, equipment, and other materials that our country had previously assisted Vietnam.
Seeing that the partner he once helped has now become his enemy and is still attacking himself with the weapons he assists, this "white-eyed wolf" behavior makes all the fighters angry.
What is even more infuriating is that Vietnam, as a victim of chemical weapons injuries in the war, became the perpetrator in this war.
Although they only use "cs" irritating poison gas, which is only non-fatal to the human body that stimulates vomiting and sneezing, its egregious behavior is still disgraceful.
The fighting continued, and on March 1, under the orders of Xu Shiyou, the Eastern Front troops gathered all the artillery units they could deploy around Langshan, and according to post-mortem statistics, 22 artillery battalions and more than 200 large-caliber artillery pieces were assembled in the area of about five kilometers around Langshan at that time.
Artillery positions
Before the shelling, the Eastern Front Corps received news from overseas Chinese fleeing.
They told the head of the corps the specific location of important military facilities, government offices, communications and public security facilities, traffic roads and other important facilities in Langshan City, and marked them on our military map.
In this situation, which did not require reconnaissance, our artillery units carried out an orderly bombardment and shelling of important facilities and buildings in the urban area of Lang Son through the coordinates on the map, which brought a devastating blow to the infrastructure of Lang Shan and the enemy defenders, and basically eliminated the effective forces of the enemy troops.
The self-defense counterattack against Vietnam is a self-defense war made by our country against Vietnam's bottomless provocation at the border and against the enemy's invasion.
However, Vietnam's subsequent statements fully reflected its arrogance and ignorance.
After the Battle of Lang Son, they believed that the Chinese army did not win because the Chinese army did not completely occupy Lang Shan, only the new urban area of Lang Shan, and the south of the Qiqi River was not occupied.
Poor Qi River
On March 4, 200 large-caliber artillery pieces once again aimed at the area south of the Phu Chi River in Vietnam, and in the deafening sound of artillery fire, the People's Liberation Army forcibly crossed the Phu Chi River, then set foot on the land south of the river bank, and then pushed the front to the south for several kilometers.
In this way, the Vietnamese army learned to be obedient, and they realized that it was too difficult to fight with China, so they issued a mobilization order and planned to make a comeback.
However, at this time Chinese the People's Liberation Army had completed the task of self-defense and counterattack, and was ordered to retreat calmly and unhurriedly.
After this war, the whole country has gone backwards for decades, but all this is the fault of the Vietnamese government, and it is not worthy of sympathy at all.
After this war, China has also made other countries that despise China and are hostile to China clearly see China's attitude in the face of aggression and provocation by other countries.
Generally speaking, the strategic objectives of our army in this war were achieved, among which our army, under the leadership of Xu Shiyou and the commander of the Western Theater, Yang Dezhi, completely annihilated the enemy's ace "Thirteenth Division" in the Battle of Langshan, and not only won the victory in the Battle of Langshan, but also annihilated the enemy's living forces, and also captured Langshan City, the capital of Langshan Province.
Xu Shiyou visited the combatants
epilogue
Now, decades have passed since the counterattack against Vietnam, and the heroes who fought bravely in this war have gradually left us. Although we in peacetime may not be able to personally feel the cruelty of war, the figures of heroes still appear in our minds from time to time when we read books.
Therefore, no matter what, we must remember history and do not forget the heroes, only in this way can we be worthy of those heroes who have dedicated their lives to defending the motherland, guarding their hometown and us.