"If you continue to command so blindly and interfere in my strategic deployment, you will fight this battle yourself!" I will not accompany Chen Geng! Chen Geng frowned tightly and turned around and began to walk back.
Photo of General Chen Geng and Ho Chi Minh
Ho Chi Minh, who was the leader of Vietnam at the time, was a little dumbfounded to see that Chen Geng was angry, he quickly went back to chase Chen Geng back, Ho Chi Minh and Chen Geng were very familiar, when Ho Chi Minh was active in Guangzhou and Shanghai, he got to know Chen Geng, Ho Chi Minh knew that Chen Geng was a good tempered person, what made Chen Geng so angry?
Chen Geng entered Vietnam this time to help Ho Chi Minh resist the French army, along the way can be said to have experienced all kinds of difficulties, the Vietnamese border at that time was basically under the tight seal of the French army, Chen Geng and Wei Guoqing sat in a jeep covered with black paper, along the way to avoid french reconnaissance to Vietnam.
In 1950, Ho Chi Minh asked Chairman Mao for assistance, at that time Vietnam had not yet achieved reunification, most of the country had become a colony of the French, Chairman Mao readily agreed to Ho Chi Minh's request, sent Chen Geng and Wei Guoqing to help Ho Chi Minh command troops to fight the French army. So why did Chairman Mao choose Chen Geng and Wei Guoqing to go to Vietnam?
The first reason is that Chen Geng's military ability is outstanding, from the Red Army period to the Liberation War Chen Geng has made countless contributions and has rich command experience. The second reason was that Chen Geng and Wei Guoqing had just liberated the whole territory of Yunnan at that time, Chen Geng was the commander of the Yunnan Military Region, Wei Guoqing was the deputy commander, Yunnan and Vietnam bordered, and Chen Geng and Wei Guoqing were sent in time, and they could reach Vietnam as soon as possible.
Ho Chi Minh quickly caught up with Chen Geng and grabbed Chen Geng's arm and said, "General Chen! I don't quite understand what's going on right now! But I know you as a person, and I know you're not going to get angry for no reason, you must have done something to make you unhappy! You tell me that I will solve the problem in your heart in time! ”
Chen Geng stopped and said, "Commander Hu! I came to your country with the intention of fighting with everyone and taking out the French, but so far, I have held two consecutive military conferences and made two detailed strategic arrangements! The people under you are in violation of the yin and yang, disobeying the command, and a small Dongxi area can't take it down after fighting several times, and this is the fundamental reason! ”
Ho Chi Minh said sincerely: "I will investigate this matter and will definitely give you a satisfactory answer!" ”
Photo of General Chen Geng
Chen Geng was really angry this time, his days in Vietnam were not short, Chen Geng twice formulated exquisite battle plans, some Vietnamese generals ostensibly agreed, but in fact when they were executed, they did not follow Chen Geng's deployment, resulting in several attacks organized by Chen Geng ending in failure.
After Ho Chi Minh left, Chen Geng smiled bitterly and shook his head and said, "Everything was expected by Chairman Mao!" Chairman Mao is truly an uncertain prophet! ”
When Chen Geng entered Vietnam, Chairman Mao sent a telegram to Chen Geng saying: "The Vietnamese army does not have much experience in regular warfare, you should not be too hasty in going to Vietnam, you will certainly encounter many problems in command, I suggest that you first lead the Vietnamese army to fight some small victories, and then turn to the movement war and annihilation war!" ”
Chen Geng now thinks of his admiration for Chairman Mao, who is thousands of kilometers away in Beijing, and he has clearly seen the situation on the battlefield in Vietnam.
Soon after Chen Geng entered Vietnam, he proposed to Ho Chi Minh to convene a major military conference to discuss some matters related to the fight against the French army, and at the same time Chen Geng had already thought of a detailed battle plan in his mind at this time, and he wanted to explain it in detail to the Vietnamese generals.
On the day of the meeting, a senior Vietnamese general attended with displeasure, that is, Wu Yuanjia, who was later regarded as the "Red Napoleon" by the Vietnamese.
Mention Wu Yuanjia, it is still necessary to introduce this person in detail, as long as it comes to the modern history of Vietnam, it is absolutely inseparable from two characters, one is Ho Chi Minh, the other is Wu Yuanjia, this person has struggled for the national unification of Vietnam all his life, successively defeated the French army, completed the unification of Vietnam, in 1968 Wu Yuanjia and Wen Jinyong together repelled the American invasion of Vietnam, at this time Wu Yuanjia's reputation in Vietnam reached its peak.
Moreover, Wu Yuanjia's feelings for China are very deep, and he himself admires Chairman Mao very much, so after fighting the Americans in Vietnam, Sino-Vietnamese relations once reached their peak, but unfortunately, wu Yuanjia was later seized power by Li Sun, and Li Sun's diplomatic attitude towards China was very unfriendly.
At that time, although Wu Yuanjia was idle at home, he expressed strong opposition to Li Sun's practice and protected a large number of overseas Chinese during the war. It was not until after the death of Li Sun that Wu Yuanjia once again went out to make efforts for Sino-Vietnamese relations, and in the 1990 Asian Games was held in Guangzhou, Wu Yuanjia wore a military uniform to attend the opening ceremony, and since then Sino-Vietnamese relations have been normalized.
Although Wu Yuanjia was the commander-in-chief of the Vietnam People's Army in 1950, he did not reach the later level of military command at this time.
Chen Geng said at the first military meeting: "I carefully analyzed the previous battles between your army and the French army and found a very important problem, that is, your army in the contest with the French army all aimed at attacking the city, and cared very much about the gains and losses of the city, and neglected to annihilate the living forces of the French army!" ”
This valuable experience is what our army has learned after more than ten years of war, that is, the sixteen-character policy once put forward by Chairman Mao: "If the land exists, everyone loses the land!" Where there is land, everyone gains! ”
Chen Geng later continued: "I think that your army's future battles can be mainly based on annihilating the living forces of the French army, rather than attacking the areas occupied by the French army with all your strength all the time!" ”
Chen Geng's suggestion was very good, because at that time, the Vietnamese army was not as strong as the French army in terms of individual combat ability, weapons and equipment, or combat experience, and when the enemy was strong and we were weak, it was most appropriate to fight guerrilla warfare and mobile warfare. ”
However, Vietnamese generals such as Wu Yuanjia and Wen Jinyong could not understand the strategic significance of Chen Geng at that time, and they expressed their inability to understand Chen Geng's tactics, and this inability to understand was a kind of rejection in the heart.
Photo of Ho Chi Minh
However, Wu Yuanjia and the others ostensibly nodded in agreement with Chen Geng's tactics, and when the battle broke out, they implemented the original set of tactics of the Vietnamese army, and suffered heavy losses after several battles.
First look at the tactics that Chen Geng developed for the Vietnamese army at the beginning, and I will briefly summarize them as follows:
Attacking Dongxi from the front, given the small number of French troops here, we can quickly break through Dongxi and isolate the connection between the French troops in Qixi and Gaoping.
When attacking Dongxi, it is necessary to organize troops to ambush in the direction of Qixi and Gaoping, attract the French army to support Dongxi, and then try to eliminate the main force of the French army supporting Dongxi.
If the French army did not support Dongxi from Qixi and Gaoping, after our army conquered Dongxi, we could turn to attackIng Qixi, so that Gaoping, as the largest and strongest stronghold of the French army, was completely isolated.
This tactic is very classic, that is, one of the skills of our army to besiege the city, Dongxi, Qixi, Gaoping, these three areas were the three most important strongholds occupied by the French army at that time, Dongxi is located between Qixi and Gaoping, that is to say, if our army breaks through Dongxi, we can break the connection between the French troops in Qixi and Gaoping.
Even if they failed to break through Dongxi, they could use the encirclement of Dongxi to annihilate the Reinforcements sent by the French army at Qixi and Gaoping. However, this classic tactic had problems in its execution, and when the Vietnamese army first launched an attack on Dong Khe, the French army only carried out one artillery bombardment, and the Vietnamese army retreated directly in fear.
Chen Geng was stunned by the scene in front of him, and Chen Geng only muttered in his heart: "Is the combat effectiveness of the Vietnamese army so poor?" Chen Geng ordered not to retreat, continue to attack Dongxi, otherwise shoot the retreating people, the Vietnamese army had to rush up again, the French army carried out several rounds of shelling, the Vietnamese army was completely defeated, Chen Geng could not stop the pace of the Vietnamese retreat.
The key problem is more than this, Wu Yuanjia modified Chen Geng's tactics on the battlefield, he directly led a team of men and horses to attack Gaoping, Gaoping has always been a pain in Wu Yuanjia's heart, before Chen Geng arrived, Wu Yuanjia organized troops to attack Gaoping many times, and each time he was defeated and returned.
In a strategic sense, Gaoping was indeed the most important strategic place at that time, if gaoping could be taken directly, the French army might soon collapse, the problem was that the Vietnamese army could not take Gaoping at that time, otherwise Wu Yuanjia would not have returned to Gaoping City many times!
There are indeed things in the world that are once and for all, but the premise is that you must have the strength once and for all, and it is impossible for everyone to take shortcuts in military command, nor can everyone be a genius commander like Su Yu and Chen Geng.
After the first battle failed to succeed, the good-tempered Chen Geng did not get angry, but patiently explained the importance of implementing tactics to Ho Chi Minh and Wu Yuanjia and others, and also detailed the problems of the first battle.
Wu Yuanjia listened very carefully on the surface, and when Chen Geng organized his troops to enter Dongxi for the second time, Wu Yuanjia's old mistake was committed again, and this time he even pulled Chen Geng's prepared artillery regiment to Gaoping City, and the Battle of Dongxi was lost again.
Because of these two events, Chen Geng could not stand it any longer, he was angry directly at Ho Chi Minh on the front line, Ho Chi Minh returned and began to investigate the whole thing, and when he understood the causes and consequences, Ho Chi Minh called Wu Yuanjia to the front.
Ho Chi Minh said to Wu Yuanjia without looking up: "I am ready to step down as the leader of Vietnam, and I am ready to nominate you Wu Yuanjia to replace me. ”
Wu Yuanjia was frightened by Ho Chi Minh's words, he was a little confused, so he immediately said: "Something happened!" How can you do that? ”
At this time, Ho Chi Minh slammed the table and stood up and said, "I can't command you Wu Yuanjia anymore!" What am I doing with this leader! Just let you Wu Yuanjia do it! ”
Wu Yuanjia understood why Ho Chi Minh was so angry at this time, and he said, "I just think that General Chen's tactics are not suitable for us, and our old method is more effective!" ”
Ho Chi Minh said angrily, "The old way works? If the old way works, we'll have been able to beat the French off! I know that your boy is not convinced that Chen Geng is directing you! If you're not convinced, don't do it! ”
Wu Yuanjia bowed his head and did not speak, and Ho Chi Minh continued: "If I give you a troop of more than 500,000 people, can you lead it?" You can't do it! Chen Geng defeated the Japanese, and later led a large army to fight, you go to see his record, what are you not convinced! ”
Wu Yuanjia finally assured Ho Chi Minh under Ho Chi Minh's reprimand: "The future command of the action will definitely listen to Chen Geng!" ”
After Wu Yuanjia left, Ho Chi Minh went to talk to Chen Geng again, and Ho Chi Minh smiled and gave Chen Geng a guarantee that the future operations of the Vietnamese army would definitely obey Chen Geng's command.
With this assurance, Chen Geng promised to continue to lead the Vietnamese army in battle, and soon after under the command of Chen Geng, the Vietnamese army attacked Dongxi for the third time, and Wu Yuanjia also came to Chen Geng's headquarters to assist in command, and the French reinforcements in Qixi and Gaoping were dispatched soon after, and Chen Geng had already set up an ambush on the road.
Photo of Wu Yuanjia
In the end, as Chen Geng predicted, the Vietnamese army successfully attacked the French reinforcements, annihilated more than 8,000 French troops in the First World War, and successfully captured Dongxi.
The French army was seriously injured in this battle, which laid a good foundation for the Vietnamese army to fight and run away from the French army later.
From this point on, Wu Yuanjia was completely convinced of Chen Geng, and in the later days of Chen Geng in Vietnam, Wu Yuanjia obeyed Chen Geng.