Forty-three years on February 17, we have not forgotten those sacrifices.
01
On the twenty-first day of the first lunar month (February 17, 1979) 43 years ago, the battle began.
The old soldier Daqing still remembers that early morning, countless tracer shells lit up the sky, and tens of thousands of cannons roaring at the same time stunned him and his comrades.
The village's fire buffalo was running around, and he and 4 comrades parked the tank car in the paddy field near Dongxi Town, and then dug a bunker under the car and spent a sleepless night...
In the afternoon, two of his comrades fell on the winding road on the side of Songshan Mountain.
In the recollection of Gao Xiaoping, a veteran of the former 54th Army, his combat training team suffered 15 casualties in one week in order to seize the height of no. 639.
02
It was February 17, 1979, when the People's Liberation Army launched a self-defense counterattack operation from Guangxi and Yunnan to launch a self-defense counterattack operation, repelled the invading Vietnamese army in 16 days of combat, and conquered more than 20 border fortresses such as Lang Son, Gao Binh, Lao Cai and so on...
This border war, which lasted less than a month, and the two-mountain round war that lasted for eight years later, together constituted the last large-scale ground operation since the founding of New China.
On that day, the Xinhua News Agency had only one sentence on the war: "The battle is unfolding in the Longzhou, Jingxi, Yunnan Hekou and Jinping areas of Guangxi. "There is no mention of the number of people involved in the battle, the direction of the main attack, the progress of the campaign, and the casualties.
People have no way of knowing how these young men shaved their heads one by one, took pictures, left their last words to their relatives, swore an oath under the military flag, and drank the chief's honor of the zhuangxing wine...
Then he looked back in the direction of the northern motherland with infinite nostalgia, shouted "Goodbye Mother" in his heart, and braved the crazy artillery fire of the Vietnamese army and embarked on a journey full of mines, bamboo tip traps and alien hatred.
In the eastern battlefield, more than 100,000 people from 4 armies of the People's Liberation Army entered Vietnam in 14 routes under the command of Xu Shiyou, and 3 hours later, the Northern Group broke through Molong and advanced towards Tongnong County, the 122nd Division of the former 41st Army attacked Shuojiang from the direction of Pingmeng in Guangxi, and the 368th Regiment of the 123rd Division of the former 41st Army attacked Chaling.
On the same day, about 100,000 men of the three armies on the western front, under the command of Zhang Haoxiu, attacked the enemy army from the Border of Yunnan.
03
This is a showdown between two of the world's best at guerrilla warfare.
The Chinese military is facing the Vietnamese army, which has been truly "armed to the teeth" after decades of war against France and the United States.
Vietnam's defense minister, Vu YuanJia, famously said: "Thousands of people die every minute around the world." The death of a hundred, a thousand, ten thousand, thousands, for the sake of revolution and the unity of the country, even if they are our compatriots, is nothing. ”
Vietnamese soldiers who experienced the Vietnam War were generally equipped with Soviet-made AK submachine guns, while our soldiers were still using Type 56 semi-automatic rifles.
For the first time, the People's Liberation Army also experienced the cruelty of all soldiers, and any woman or child on the street could shoot at our soldiers, which was an experience that had never been experienced before in the domestic battlefield and the Korean battlefield.
04
Young soldiers have nothing to rely on, but to fight bravely and sacrifice.
Neither Side wanted the war to escalate and did not use its air force, so the Army's fight was even bloodier. On the battlefield of self-defense and counterattack, young Chinese soldiers can only fight bravely and sacrifice.
During the 16-day operation, the People's Liberation Army repelled the invading Vietnamese army and captured more than 20 border fortresses such as Lang Son, Gao Binh and Lao Cai.
The Chinese soldiers made great sacrifices for the victory. According to the "Summary of The Work of Self-Defense and Counterattack Operations Against Vietnam" compiled by the Logistics Department of the former Kunming Military Region, from February 17 to March 16, 1979, the Platon Liberation Army and the former militia of Guangxi and Yunnan who participated in the war lost a total of 6,954 people and injured more than 14,800 people.
05
The war was not over, and the long round of battles between the two mountains (Lao Shan and Zhi Yin Shan) followed.
In the early morning of April 28, 1984, the People's Liberation Army simultaneously attacked the main peak of Laoshan Mountain in more than 20 positions, and the soldiers shouted the slogan of "bloody battle on the old mountaintop, territory is returned in one day, defend the country as a hero, blood stained the battle flag red", and rushed to the enemy army. In the early morning of the next day, the main peak of Laoshan Mountain was retaken by the People's Liberation Army.
In the next 5 years, the Vietnamese army successively drew a large number of ace troops from the south, even from the Cambodian occupation army and the Lao garrison to attack the Lao Shan area, but the Chinese soldiers on lao Shan did not retreat half a step.
In order to recover and defend Laoshan, Chinese soldiers paid more than 3,000 casualties.
At the foot of Laoshan Mountain, in the "Malipo Martyrs Cemetery", there are more than 900 martyrs, the youngest of whom is a soldier named Li Tao in Shandong, who died on April 29, 1984, at the age of 16 years and 6 months.
It was this "self-defense counterattack war" that these soldiers used their youth and lives to lay the first solid foundation for the majestic edifice of "the best period in China's history."
06
Guarding our country and remembering their spirit is the best memorial.
Whether there is war, earthquake, flood or virus ahead, Chinese soldiers will always fight for the motherland.