introduction
General Xu Shiyou was a member of our army, and his whole life was involved in dealing with war, commanding the jute uprising at the age of 22, serving as the commander of the Red Army cavalry at the age of 28, commanding the Long March of the Red Army, and then going to the anti-Japanese base areas to command the Eighth Route Army to fight, and during the Liberation War, he made a miracle and liberated Jinan.
In 1979, at the age of 74, General Xu Shiyou was supposed to retire peacefully, but at this time Vietnam, in southwest China, attacked, pushed the boundary between the two countries, shelled Chinese residents living in the border area, and even sent troops to China.
As the situation intensified, the organization decided to send troops to carry out a counterattack in self-defense against Vietnam.
The veteran is out of the horse
General Xu Shiyou in the era of peace is always concerned about the national defense cause of the motherland and is very concerned about any disturbance in the border areas of the motherland. At the end of 1978, the Intelligence Department of the Guangzhou Military Region repeatedly received information on the appearance of Vietnamese troops in the Sino-Vietnamese border area for a month, which made Xu Shiyou smell a hint of crisis.
With years of war experience, Xu Shiyou deduced that "Vietnam is going to move." In order to prove his inference and ensure the security of China's border, Xu Shiyou immediately reported to the Central Military Commission and obtained some information from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on the attacks on Overseas Vietnamese in Vietnam.
After analyzing the intelligence of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Xu Shiyou said: "This group of ungrateful things, we helped them build and train the army at such a difficult time, and now it is better, and in turn bullying us." Xu Shiyou, who had been sleepless all night, asked the Central Military Commission for instructions the next day, wanting to lead troops to attack Vietnam.
China in 1978 had just ended its 10-year catastrophe, and the international situation was still in the context of the Cold War, so if China wanted to fight this battle, it still needed to be cautious. At the end of January 1979, Deng Xiaoping returned from a visit to the United States, and after carefully analyzing the global situation, the Central Military Commission made a final decision, "preparing to start a counterattack war against Vietnam." Xu Shiyou was put in charge of all the troops of the Guangxi Border Defense Force. ”
In this way, the 74-year-old veteran Xu Shiyou was put on the battlefield.
On the eve of the Great War
The first thing Xu Shiyou did when he came to Guangxi was to ask if there were still communication lines and trading stations at the junction of Guangxi and Vietnam. "These lines of communication and trade stations must be closed and evacuated as soon as possible, otherwise it will be a major hidden danger for our army." He told the local government of Guangxi. With the full cooperation of the Guangxi government, within 2 weeks, all trade stations on the Sino-Vietnamese border were closed, and the Sino-Vietnamese railway line and road traffic line were closed.
After the work of eliminating hidden dangers before the war was completed, Xu Shiyou began to think about the battle plan. In Xu Shiyou's memoirs, it is recorded that "when Xu Shiyou counterattacked against Vietnam, he planned to let the Chinese tank troops exert their strength in this battle, and the whole army launched a general offensive around the movement of the tank troops." ”
In the "Art of War of Sun Tzu", it is said that "not to fight is to be a soldier who submits to others, and it is the best policy." Several times greater than the enemy, and jointly attacking it is the best strategy. At that time, China was stronger than Vietnam in terms of national strength and military strength, so General Xu Shiyou's decision was very correct.
Once the battle plan has been decided, it is time for operational mobilization. Since the struggle for hegemony between the United States and the Soviet Union entered a white-hot stage at that time, the international situation changed rapidly. It is a godsend that our country can fight this battle in Vietnam. Therefore, we can only win this war in one battle, and we must not fall into the quagmire of the Vietnam War like the United States.
Xu Shiyou understands this very well. So he said to all the commanders and fighters, "Our army will inevitably win this battle, but you must still take it seriously and not take the enemy lightly." In order to ensure that the war could be won, Xu Shiyou gave a military order to the whole army at the mobilization meeting: "No, kill!" Flee on the line, kill! Delay fighters, kill! Surrender to the traitors, kill! This military order is General Xu Shiyou's famous "Ten Killing Orders."
Fight back against punishment
On February 17, 1979, fighting began. At the beginning of the battle, our army gained the advantage of suppressing firepower on the Sino-Vietnamese border, tens of thousands of cannons, bombarded the border line of 100 kilometers for more than a week, and the enemy was forced to turn into the jungle to fight guerrillas.
Seeing that the enemy army had no movement on the border line, the troops of our army on the eastern and western fronts charged en masse and shifted the battlefield to Vietnam. At this time, Xu Shiyou saw that the vanguard of the large army had entered Vietnamese territory, so he ordered the tank troops to prepare to march all of them into Vietnam, and the infantry unit annihilated the Vietnamese guerrilla army in the jungle.
On February 27, in only ten days, our troops reached the area around Lang Son and formed a siege against the enemy troops in the Lang Son area, and once lang son was captured, the Vietnamese capital could be taken in one fell swoop.
After besieging Langshan, Xu Shiyou ordered his troops to shell Langshan. Two days later, Lang Shan was captured by our army, annihilating 13,000 enemy troops, and then the army crossed the Qi qian river and approached Hanoi.
"The purpose of our army in this battle is to punish Vietnam, not to occupy Vietnam," this was the order issued by the Central Military Commission, Xu Shiyou recalled. However, at that time, our army's tanks were in Vietnam, advancing at a speed of nearly 100 kilometers a day, and it was possible to overthrow the Vietnamese Government of Le Son, but the military orders were difficult. Xu Shiyou had no choice but to order the withdrawal of troops.
On the way to withdraw, xu Shiyou thought more and more angrily. According to the general's recollection, "During the withdrawal, we found our facilities and a large amount of supplies to assist Vietnam. Therefore, he ordered the troops to destroy the equipment to aid Vietnam immediately, and the materials were immediately removed, and those who could not be moved were also destroyed immediately! ”
In order to prevent the comeback of Vietnam, General Xu Shiyou ordered that all the power poles in the Hanoi area of the capital be dismantled, and all factories and mines should be blown up. to punish Vietnam.
After this battle, Vietnam was left behind for nearly 20 years because 90% of its basic industrial facilities were destroyed and there was no international support.
The victory in the counterattack against Vietnamese self-defense reminded the editor of a lyric that reads, "Friends come with good wine, jackals come with shotguns." Although our motherland does not seek hegemony, it will never tolerate being bullied.