The ruthless tongue of fire unscrupulously devoured the enemy's position, the "fire cloud" stained the sky red, and one shell after another rushed to the enemy's garrison against the background of the "fire cloud", and a magnificent feast began.
Less than three hours after this "bomb feast," our army broke through the enemy's defensive line with lightning speed. The enemy army was still stubborn under the artillery attack of our army, and Xu Shiyou sent people to listen to the intelligence many times, in exchange for always adopting a defensive state of the enemy army.
In this month-long counterattack, our army announced China's power to the whole world with outstanding performance, but after the victory in the war, our army suffered heavy casualties, especially in the battle of Gaoping.
Pre-war planning
Once upon a time, Our country and Vietnam were good brothers in common hardships and hardships, both sides had similar goals, Vietnamese leader Ho Chi Minh also participated in china's revolutionary movement, ho Chi Minh even wrote Chairman Mao into the party constitution of the Communist Party of Vietnam, which shows how much Ho Chi Minh admired Chairman Mao.
China's relations with Vietnam gradually drifted apart with the death of Ho Chi Minh, and Lê Duần, who succeeded Ho Chi Minh, was not as close to China as Ho Chi Minh, but very close to the Soviet Union.
The period when Lê Duần was close to the Soviet Union was also the peak of the deterioration of Relations between China and the Soviet Union, so in order to firmly grasp the big tree of the Soviet Union, Vietnam began his act of openly opposing China and encroaching on China's territory.
In order to protect the national interests and the interests of the people in our country, the CCP decided to wage a fierce battle with Vietnam, and on February 14, 1979, it officially issued a strategic instruction for the Vietnamese counterattack.
This Vietnamese counterattack is not only a battle to protect the glory of our country, but a war of annihilation of the enemy army with limited time, limited depth and limited scale.
In the face of such an important Vietnamese counterattack, China decided to send elite troops with excellent actual combat experience to strive for victory by absolute superiority. The central authorities divided their forces into two, the Kunming front led by Yang Dezhi on one side and the Guangxi front headed by Xu Shiyou on the other.
However, the gathering of many elite troops in one place is also prone to problems, especially the pre-war preparation plan, before the battle is about to erupt, Xu Shiyou deliberately held a pre-war preparation meeting. At the operational meeting, Xu Shiyou mentioned the most was "fighting steadily and steadily, unfolding the whole line, dividing and encircling, and gradually annihilating." ”
The strategy proposed by Xu Shiyou has caused many soldiers to be puzzled, they do not understand why they still have to adopt a strategy of steady progress when the war is overwhelmingly superior, and they think that it is too humiliating to play according to this style of play.
Battle of Gaoping
There is a reason why Xu Shiyou has adopted a steady offensive; in the Guangxi front commanded by Xu Shiyou, Gaoping has always been an important strategic goal in China's counterattack war, and it is not possible to act rashly.
Located in the middle of the mountain jungle, Gaoping is surrounded by lush trees, steep terrain and many winding stone caves and culverts, which is a place where defense is easy to attack.
Vietnam knew this and did not take Xu Shiyou's team in his eyes, and even provoked Xu Shiyou's team many times. But our army remains calm and is never misled by the enemy's influence.
In order to successfully capture Gaoping, which is less than 20 kilometers away from the Sino-Vietnamese border, our army sent seven infantry divisions and more than 100,000 soldiers. Although the number of our troops is higher than the number of Vietnamese defenders here. But this battle of Gaoping was not easy to win. When our army's superiority was very obvious, it still took our army nearly a month to successfully take Gaoping.
In this battle, our army was obviously unprepared for the terrain of the battlefield in the early stage, which led to the slow marching speed of our army and caused a large number of casualties. Therefore, in his later pre-war plans, Xu Shiyou put more emphasis on seeking victory in a stable manner and not being too aggressive.
This Battle of Gao Binh was the fiercest battle in China's Vietnamese counterattack war, and it ran through the entire Vietnamese counterattack war. At this time, Vietnam is no longer a small country that needs China's assistance, Vietnam has experienced decades of war, and has long trained its own sophisticated troops, so Xu Shiyou will take a safe and secure way of fighting.
Facts have proved that Xu Shiyou's choice is correct, if he hastily adopts a radical strategy against Vietnam, it will definitely immediately transfer the advantages of our army to a disadvantage, and the soldiers who once expressed doubts about Xu Shiyou's strategy have finally understood Xu Shiyou's good intentions.
Although our army achieved a stage victory in the battle of Gaoping, the operation against Gaoping was not yet completely completed, and the liquidation of the 346th Division stationed in the Gaoping area was the most important task.
The main force of the liquidation was empty
After our army successfully entered Gaoping, it was accidentally found that the village was deserted, and the Vietnamese 346th Division, which should have been stationed here, disappeared at this time.
Although our army did not meet the main Vietnamese army head-on, in the months of struggle with Vietnam, the "empty city plan" has always been a means used by the Vietnamese troops to confuse and mislead our army. Therefore, even in the face of deserted villages, our army still maintains a high degree of vigilance to prevent the enemy from attacking them.
Xu Shiyou ordered the troops to rest in place, and even held a brief meeting, in which Xu Shiyou discussed with several senior generals, who believed that the enemy army did not appear in the village at this time, so it must be in the mountainous area north of Gaoping, all gathered in the dense forest.
After reaching this conclusion, Xu Shiyou immediately said: "The enemy did not run, and Gao Ping will continue to fight." He believes that entering Gaoping is not a victory, and he also needs to carry out carpet encirclement and suppression of Gaoping.
Our army pursued it all the way and crossed the entire Vietnamese mountainous area, but it never saw the shadow of the main Vietnamese troops, and even the winding caves were searched by our army .
In the entire clearance and suppression operation of our army, we caught many "fish that slipped through the net" of the Vietnamese army, but only the figure of the commander of the 346th Division was found, so our army deduced that the commander of the 346th Division may have been annihilated.
Gao Ping was very important to the Vietnamese counterattack, Xu Shiyou led the troops to attack Gao Ping only took eight days, the remaining twenty days were used to clear the remaining remnants, which shows the difficulty of the clearance work, and can also see Xu Shiyou's foresight in strategic command.
brief summary:
Victor Hugo once said, "History is an echo of the past to the future." Without these warriors who are fighting the battlefield, how can they exchange for the peace and happiness they have today?
After Xu Shiyou successfully captured Gaoping, he still deeply reflected on his shortcomings in the war, which is why Xu Shiyou was able to lead the soldiers to victory after victory, so that the spirit of victory and not arrogance is worth learning and thinking about by everyone.