In recent years, content about the self-defense counterattack against Vietnam has been continuously disclosed, and people have begun to have a deeper understanding of the war that occurred more than 40 years ago. However, there are more and more false rumors about this war, and it is rumored on the Internet that General Xu Shiyou ruled the army very strictly, but those who could not complete the task were dealt with by military law, so the famous "Ten Killing Orders" was formulated.
It is also said that the "Ten Killing Orders" of Xu Shiyou, commander-in-chief of the Eastern Front Corps, once frightened the Vietnamese soldiers into fear, and because the Eastern Front Corps strictly implemented the "Ten Killing Orders", it fought better than the Western Front Corps and captured the most enemies...
Through online search, the author found a large number of contents about the "Xu Shiyou Ten Killing Orders", although there are certain differences in the word count, writing style, and central content of each article, but the content of the "Ten Killing Orders" is similar.
The rumored "Ten Killing Orders" read:
Those who are afraid of war do not kill the former, those who flee from the front line kill, those who see death and do not save, those who are greedy and afraid of the dead are killed, those who delay the fighter plane are killed, those who surrender the enemy are killed, those who disobey orders are killed, those who leak secrets are killed, those who disturb the hearts of the military are killed, and those who lie about military information are killed. Some articles even specifically note that they are killed with a knife.
After reading these articles, I couldn't help but make people feel a cold sweat, and I felt that General Xu Shiyou was a person who did not smile, ruled the army very strictly, and had a very hot temper. So, did General Xu Shiyou really formulate the "Ten Killing Orders" in the counterattack against Vietnamese self-defense?
First, history brooks no joke
As the saying goes, the state has the national law, and the family has the family rules. Within any army, there must be corresponding management regulations, and those who violate the relevant regulations will be punished accordingly. However Chinese the People's Liberation Army is a civilized army with the mission of "serving the people" and emphasizing democracy, and since its formation, it has established relatively perfect rules and regulations internally, not the army of the old society.
Even if a soldier commits an unforgivable crime, the punishment will not be taken until it has been tried by a military tribunal in the jurisdiction.
Moreover, penal reform is one of the important contents of the revolution carried out by our Party and our army.
Since the period of the Great Revolution, our Party has begun to promote the principle that "those who break the law and commit crimes must be tried by the people's government before they can be punished." Before the 1990s, the only way to carry out the death penalty was by firing squad, and the inhumane methods of punishment such as beheading, waist beheading, lingchi, and hanging in the old society were all abolished. In this context, the so-called "killing with a knife" is simply untenable.
In addition, the first article in the People's Army's "Three Major Disciplines and Eight Notes", which was born in the era of the Red Army and has been used by the People's Liberation Army to this day, stipulates that all actions are subject to command. This means that whether it is a military cadre or an ordinary soldier, all actions must be under the command of the organization, and no one can be specialized.
Violations of military orders by military personnel are not directly handled by higher-level cadres or higher-level command bodies, but by special military tribunals. Within the People's Liberation Army, there is also a management mechanism similar to the separation of powers of "public, procuratorial, and legal." This is also what sets the PLA apart from other eras and other countries' armies.
Neither General Xu Shiyou nor the heads of other military regions had the right to formulate corresponding military orders according to personal preferences, let alone directly punish the generals under his command. All military orders formulated by the head of the unit need to be approved by the higher-level organization before they can be implemented.
Coming from the Northern Expedition, General Xu Shiyou, who had participated in the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression and the War of Liberation, was a soldier with extremely high consciousness and loyalty to the state and the party, and it was impossible to formulate the above-mentioned "Ten Killing Orders" with a distinct warlord style.
The above-mentioned "Ten Killing Orders", which kill people at every turn and do not give those who make mistakes a chance to reform themselves, are not in line with the PLA
"Officers and soldiers are equal, unite and help each other, share weal and woe, and practice democracy with leadership"
Not only will General Xu Shiyou not make such a low-level mistake, but the chiefs of other military regions at all levels will not make such a low-level mistake.
In 1979, the 127th Division led by General Zhang Wannian fought here, and General Xu Shiyou, commander-in-chief of the Eastern Front, personally inspected some forward positions in this county before the war, and there were many militiamen in the village who had been on the battlefield. The village veterans never said that General Xu Shiyou formulated the above-mentioned "Ten Killing Orders".
In addition, the author consulted authoritative historical materials such as "The Biography of Zhang Wannian", "The War of Punishment: The People's Liberation Army Launched a Counterattack operation in Self-Defense against Vietnam" and related academic papers, and found no source of the above "Ten Killing Orders". It can be seen that the above-mentioned so-called "Ten Killing Orders" from the hands of General Xu Shiyou are nothing.
According to many veterans of the town who joined the army in the 1980s, in the 1980s, there were indeed battlefield discipline provisions similar to the above-mentioned "Ten Killing Orders" within the People's Liberation Army, but those who violated battlefield discipline were only escorted to the military court of the military region for trial in accordance with relevant laws and regulations, and the military court was punished according to relevant laws and regulations, the sentence was sentenced, and the shooting was shot, rather than all those who violated the relevant regulations were shot.
The content of the battlefield discipline at that time was:
It is forbidden to disobey operational orders, delay warplanes, evade battle for reasons, fear battle, flee from battle, be greedy for life and fear death, voluntarily lay down weapons and surrender to the enemy, do not lie about military information, falsely pass on orders, create rumors to confuse the public, shake the hearts of the army, do not divulge party and state military secrets, do not deliberately abandon the wounded, are not allowed to plunder in areas of military operations, maim innocent residents, are not allowed to abuse, shoot and kill, release prisoners, do not allow privately concealing booty, and all seizures must be returned to the public.
Judging from the content, The "Ten Killing Orders" of Xu Shiyou and the internal battlefield discipline of the People's Liberation Army circulating on the Internet are subdivided into ten entries, but the 8th, 9th and 10th articles of the latter are mainly formulated to protect the effective personnel and property of the combat zone and maintain the positive image of the PLA, which is obviously different from the former.
Let's take a well-known example. For example, in 1984
"Attack on the Positioning Radar Position of laoshan artillery reconnaissance school"
。
On July 6, 1984, a platoon of the 9th Company of the 122nd Regiment of the 41st Division, which was responsible for defending the positioning radar of the artillery reconnaissance school in the Laoshan area, after completing the task of standing guard that day, because he did not strictly follow the handover process to hand over the next shift of soldiers, he only shouted at the other side, and the soldiers who were shouted slept in their sleep, resulting in a vacancy in the post.
After infiltrating a platoon of the 7th Company of the 406th Battalion of the 821st Special Service Regiment of the Vietnamese Army who had been infiltrating our position for a long time, after discovering that there was a vacancy in the sentry position in the radar position, they suddenly attacked, resulting in the death of 10 people in the 9th company of the 122nd Regiment of the 41st Division of the People's Liberation Army, the wounding of 49 people, and the vicious incident in which only 1 person was killed and 10 people were wounded.
This was a vicious incident in which soldiers disobeyed combat orders, delayed fighters, and caused the troops to suffer heavy casualties, which directly shocked the Central Military Commission and led to the anger of Deng Xiaoping. After investigation, it was found that the Vietnamese agents who infiltrated our army's position at 0:30 a.m. on the 6th to carry out a sneak attack did not come to the radar position, but only because the sentries on duty of the 9th Company of the 122nd Regiment did not strictly enforce battlefield discipline.
After the discovery of the Vietnamese attack of the 7th Company of the 406th Battalion of the 821st Special Task Force Regiment, the soldiers of the 9th Company of the 122nd Regiment were able to organize a counterattack in time, although they paid a certain amount of casualties, but the core components of the artillery reconnaissance school's positioning radar had not been destroyed, and did not have a huge impact on the entire war situation. In the end, the military court of the jurisdiction dismissed the 9 company commanders in accordance with the relevant laws and decrees; the platoon leader was sentenced to 2 years in prison; and the duty squad leader was sentenced to 7 years in prison.
Judging from the results of the treatment, the "Ten Killing Orders" are untenable, not all soldiers who violate battlefield discipline and cause heavy losses to the troops will be shot or sentenced to death, but different punishment methods are applied according to the seriousness of the circumstances.
Second, did the People's Liberation Army frighten the Vietnamese soldiers from fighting?
After the second stage of the self-defense counterattack against Vietnam, the Vietnamese soldiers were indeed beaten by the People's Liberation Army on the guangxi and Yunnan fronts (in local battles, many Vietnamese troops were not afraid of death). For example, after conquering the main positions in the city of Tangtang in Vietnam, the 37th, 38th, and 39th Divisions of the 13th Army of the People's Liberation Army claimed that Ma Yonglan, commander of the 345th Division of the Vietnamese Army, who was clamoring for a bloody battle to the end, was frightened to leave the remnants of his troops because of the heavy losses of his troops, and fled to Hanoi with several guards.
After the main force of the 55th Army of the Guangzhou Military Region of China conquered Lang Son, Vietnam, the Vietnamese military and people in Hanoi were also in a chaotic mess, and the Vietnamese authorities even directly sent the missions of various countries in Hanoi out of Hanoi, making psychological preparations for abandoning Hanoi.
Judging from the summary materials, media reports, and other relevant contents of our army after the war, the reason why the PLA was able to scare the Vietnamese soldiers from fighting in the 10-year-long Sino-Vietnamese border war was not because of the strict "ten killing orders," but by superb tactics, clever strategic planning, and a lenient policy against the enemy.
On the other hand, within the Vietnamese army, the combat regulations are very harsh, if the Vietnamese soldiers surrender, after being released, they will be treated roughly, light sentences to prison, heavy shots, family sitting, resulting in soldiers psychological pressure, many soldiers are trying to avoid being punished, in the battle there are many random shooting, afraid of retreating after death.
For example, on March 29, 1982, a Vietnamese agent who was captured alive by He Jianmin, a militia member of Donglingtun in Kejia Village, Wude Township, Longzhou County, Guangxi Province, confessed that his group leader and others were afraid to enter China for fear of death, so they took his family as hostages and forced him to infiltrate Donglingtun disguised as ordinary people to test intelligence, and as a result, he was arrested.
In short, the PLA officers, militiamen and migrant workers who participated in the self-defense counterattack against Vietnam and the border rotation war have all made indelible contributions to China's prosperity today, and cannot be desecrated! Fabricating such a rumor as "Xu Shiyou's Ten Killing Orders" is a great disrespect to the heroic predecessors of our army.
Resources:
[1] Zhang Wannian Biography Writing Group: Zhang Wannian Biography [M] People's Liberation Army Publishing House, 2011
[2] Yu Jinliang: Chronicle of Longzhou County[M], Guangxi People's Publishing House, 1993
[3] Yang Zhiyuan: The Innovative Development and Enlightenment of our Army's Compilation and Revision of Operational Regulations[J] Chinese Military Science 2009(06):112-118