——The Sixteenth Chronicle of the Battlefield of Laoshan
Text/Desert Single Ride
In the 1980s, the Laoshan Operation lasted for nearly six years, and our army participated in the round battle of hundreds of thousands of troops. During this period, the mainland's reform and opening up spread everywhere, and old and new concepts and systems violently collided; our army carried out millions of major disarmaments in three years, and the troops were dismantled and merged into drastic changes. In such an era of change and turmoil, tens of thousands of commanders and fighters on the Laoshan front of our army did not fail in their mission, fought with blood, firmly guarded the southern gate of the motherland, dealt a fierce blow to the arrogance of the Yuekou, and supported a peaceful and tranquil environment for the motherland and the people. From 1984 to 1985, our Jinan Army School probationary substitute cadet team was assigned to the 1st Army and 1st Division on the Laoshan Front, and experienced the most severe test on the battlefield of blood and fire. As the saying goes: man is iron rice is steel. Wartime supply support is an important part of the army's combat effectiveness, and today, let's talk about what the commanders and fighters of our army eat on the front line of Laoshan Andi. Can military cans be eaten open?
Lao Shan battle hero Wang Gaoyin chewed on the compressed dry food and said to the Vietnamese troops on the opposite side: "When I finish eating, I will destroy you all!" In the fierce battle, he killed 15 enemies alone.
In the 1970s, when I was a soldier, the standard of a first-class stove for the majority of the troops' food expenses was still 0.45 yuan per person per day (Shandong, a six-class wage area), which increased to 0.52 yuan in 1979, and by 1984-1985 on the Laoshan front, the food cost had increased to 0.68 yuan (a type of wage area in Yunnan), and the limited increase was both to improve and improve, but also to digest the growth of prices. At this time, the food level of the troops was basically between food and clothing and moderate prosperity, which was determined by the mainland's consumption level and limited military expenditure. During the operation of our troops in Laoshan, there was no special subsidy for food expenses, but the supply of military canned food and compressed dry food was not included in the standard of food expenses.
There are 64 substitute cadets in our school, and they are assigned to nearly 20 detachments in the 2 regiments and 3 regiments of the 1st Division. As a leading cadre, I was in the 2nd Battalion Headquarters of the 2nd Regiment, which had a cooking squad; the 15 cadets I brought were scattered in 3 infantry companies, 1 artillery company, and 1 machine gun company under the jurisdiction of the 2nd Battalion, all of which had cooking squads. The companies of the 2nd Battalion have carried out multiple tasks such as military transportation, reserves, counter-impact reinforcements, position defense, and pulling points on the Front Line of Laoshan Mountain, and have successively been stationed in manwen, bow, Xinzhai, and Nala direction forward positions.
Judging from the situation in our battalion, the way the first-line detachment and the second-line detachment ate was completely different: the first-line detachment mainly relied on the soldiers on the position to solve the problem of eating; the second-line detachment could basically eat hot rice and hot dishes cooked by the cooking class. The first-line detachments stuck to the forefront of the defense and directly confronted the Vietnamese troops, such as Positions No. 142, No. 145, and No. 116, which were only a few tens of meters away from the Vietnamese positions. Most of the support point positions in our army's front are held in squads or reinforcement squads, and in some of the guard posts there are only two or three people, and an infantry company will be scattered in cat's ear holes, natural caves, and bunker fortifications on several positions. Because these positions are too forward, some are even embedded in the Vietnamese defense line, surrounded by the enemy on three sides, and the small roads connecting with our rear and the small roads between the various positions are mostly under the direct fire of the Vietnamese army, and these lines of communication are also called "life and death lines". In such a treacherous environment, if the company cooking bantonton to deliver food to the forward positions, it will inevitably produce relatively large casualties, which is obviously unrealistic. The second- and third-line detachments usually include core defensive positions, artillery positions, logistics support distribution centers, headquarters, reserve units, military industries, support detachments, and other garrisons, such as the main peak of Laoshan Mountain, the bow of the ship, Nanlang, Mangun, and other places.
Tin empty can boxes have another use in the front, one is to put the alarm in the location where the Vietnamese sneak attack may go; the other is to use it as a toilet in the cat ear hole during the Vietnamese shelling.
So how did the front-line detachments of our army eat? One is to rely on the military industry to transport and store military cans and compressed dry food in the positions; the other is to use an earthen stove or a small kerosene stove to make simple meals by yourself.
Canned meat, canned vegetables and canned fruit three categories, none of which have a self-heating function, and some canned fruits are also directly purchased in the market and are bottled in glass. Due to some misinformation, many people believe that the canned food on the front line of laoshan is open to eat, which is not in line with the facts, but in fact, it is a targeted quantitative supply, which is not all-owned, and the standard is still very low. I have specifically learned that the canned food supplied by the front-line detachment is based on the standard of 1 or 2 canned meat, 2 canned vegetables and 3 canned fruits per person per day. Due to the lack of water in the forward position, canned fruit is the most popular, especially canned oranges and pears, but a soldier needs more than 3 days to get a canned fruit of 500 grams, which is simply not enough to eat. Our battalion headquarters has a cooking class to accompany the guarantee, does not give individual canned food, only a small amount of compressed dry food, for temporary outings to eat. The two pieces of compressed dry food I put in my military satchel were nibbled by rats at night, so I ate them, and the satchel also gave a big hole.
At that time, the design of the can was not humane enough, and it needed tools to open. A dagger can be used to quickly open the tin can and cut a cross on the lid; the can of the glass bottle can be opened with the magazine of the Type 56 submachine gun, which can be opened as soon as the lid is pried. Magazines are everywhere, but this dagger infantry, artillery and other detachments are not equipped, so in the markets in southern Yunnan, there are homemade daggers sold, 5-10 yuan a piece, has become a local gray industry. I also bought one at the time, but the quality of the steel was so poor.
Compared with the quantitative canned food, the 761 type compressed dry food is basically supplied according to actual needs, because this compressed dry food is ok to eat occasionally, often eat especially dry food is difficult to swallow, the consumption is not too large. In my experience, the best way to eat compressed dry food is to brew it into a paste with boiling water, similar to oil tea, but how can there be boiling water at any time in the front cat ear hole?
In fact, the detachments that supplied more canned and compressed dry food on the Laoshan front were precisely the most arduous and dangerous detachments, such as the reconnaissance brigades directly under the Yunnan Front Of the Kunming Military Region in addition to the front-line defense detachments. When we were on the front line, the 1st to 5th reconnaissance brigades from various military regions were carrying out special operations on the hundreds of kilometers of border line in southern Yunnan, and they often carried out secret operations such as prisoner-of-prisoner raids behind enemy lines and anti-infiltration ambushes for several consecutive days. Fu Pingshan, the reconnaissance hero of the 38th Army, alone with a few pieces of compressed dry food, circled with hundreds of Vietnamese troops behind enemy lines for 6 days, killing 5 enemy people, and finally died under the dense bombing of the Vietnamese army.
The soldiers of the first-line detachment cooked their own meals on the front positions, basically in the units of cat ear piercings or shelters, each with their own magic. At first, it was a clay stove, with steel helmets as a pot, and later a small kerosene stove and a steel pot were distributed, which could just solve the meal of two or three people. In 1984, we had not yet seen instant noodles, ham sausages, zi hi pot and other fast food, in the position is mainly to make some simple staple food, such as noodles or stewed rice, and then with canned meat and vegetables is a meal. The lack of crude fiber in the diet makes people prone to constipation, and eating canned meat with more oil and drinking cold water is easy to diarrhea, which is really difficult for the stomach of the warriors. Because it is difficult to eat fresh vegetables in the front position, the benefits of canned vegetables are shown in the second place, when canned vegetables such as sour and spicy cabbage, snow red, and beans are more popular, and the taste of eating with rice and noodles is not bad. Since the soldiers are not full-time cooks, vigilance and combat are the first, and when encountering continuous offensive and defensive battles, they often cannot open fire for several days to cook, and can only eat canned and compressed dry food.
In the old mountain position, water is the most precious, taking and sending water may have to pay the price of life, sometimes each person has only 1 kilogram of water a day, but it is good to receive rainwater on rainy days.
Our battalion headquarters was first stationed in Manvin, about 2 kilometers from the front, and there were mountain peaks that could not be seen directly by the Vietnamese army, and the danger was mainly due to the shelling of the Vietnamese army and the attack of special agents. The battalion cooking team set up a tent at a water source in the south valley of the village, and the tent set up a stove for the marching pot, and pulled up the canvas on all sides of the tent when cooking, so that cooking would not be delayed on rainy days. The local people did not have the habit of digging wells, but looked for spring water in the mountains, and set up water pipelines by splitting long bamboo in half, and channeling the mountain spring water into the village for hundreds of meters. Whenever it was time for the cooking class to eat, dozens of people in the battalion headquarters each took dishes and chopsticks to the cooking class to eat, and then squatted on the ground around the tent to eat. Sometimes while eating and eating, the Vietnamese suddenly shelled, and we quickly ran to the nearby artillery hole to take shelter. There is a rocket artillery position of our army in the east of Man Mun, and Nan Lang south of Man Van is the logistics support and distribution center of our army, and it is common for the Vietnamese army to shell this area.
During the war, most of the villagers around Laoshan evacuated to avoid artillery fire, production stagnated, the fields were deserted, and the front-line troops were unable to buy sideline food in the local area. The theater road was within range of Vietnamese long-range artillery fire and was still dangerous to drive. On December 21, 1984, a vehicle in the Logistics Department of the 1st Regiment of the 1st Division went to the rear to buy food, and was hit by Vietnamese artillery fire on the road, and three of the chief secretaries and "sergeants" on the vehicle were killed on the spot, and many people were injured. When the flesh and blood of the martyrs were transported back to Nanlang, I was delivering ammunition with 2 operators, and I saw this tragic and shocking scene, which was so cruel on the front line.
I often went to various companies and positions to visit the substitute cadets of our school, wherever I went to eat, experienced all kinds of food and different ways of eating, and if I was served canned fruit in the front position, I was quite treated with the highest treatment. Compared with the soldiers at the forefront, they were still very content to eat hot dishes and hot meals in the battalion headquarters. Remember that eating not many greens, often eat the dish is the local prolific konjac, from the north, I came for the first time to see and eat such a large "taro", can be cut like potatoes stewed to eat, the taste is not bad, but also convenient for a large number of procurement and storage.
The food level of our army on the Lao Shan front, if compared with the combat opponents, can shake off the Vietnamese army ten streets. At this time, the Vietnamese national economy was on the verge of collapse, the proportion of military expenditure and inflation remained high, prices soared, material shortages, the Logistics Support of the Vietnamese Army was stretched, the soldiers ate very poorly, they ate cassava almost every day, and if they could eat white rice, they would improve their lives. When Vietnamese soldiers fought, the dry food they carried with them was often rice balls. On January 15, 1985, a large-scale offensive and defensive operation broke out on the Laoshan front, which was called the "1.15 Great Victory" in the history of our army. Under the large-scale strong attack of the Vietnamese army, several forward positions in the direction of our army in the direction of Nala and the direction of the 662.6 highland were once lost, and all the lost land was finally recovered by our army's continuous counterattack. The soldiers of our army who returned to their positions found that all the canned food, compressed dry food, and other things that could be eaten in the cat's ear hole had been swept away by the Vietnamese army. In this fierce battle that lasted for several days, the Vietnamese army killed and wounded more than 1,300 people, and how many of them lost their chances of escape because of the scramble for food? If it weren't for the lack of oil and water in the stomach usually, it wouldn't be so deadly. Our army's continued operation at Lao San eventually forced Vietnam to withdraw its troops from Cambodia in an all-round way, because Vietnam could no longer afford the huge attrition of long-term combat.
In the Laoshan Operation, the units participating in the battle of our army are mainly defensive positions, and the problem of eating for soldiers must be solved well in order to complete the task of long-term adherence.
Although the fighting on the Laoshan front was fierce and cruel, the mainland has entered a new era of reform and opening up, and the commanders and fighters of our army have the support of a strong motherland and hundreds of millions of people behind them, and they are several times stronger than in terms of food support than in the war years. Recalling the glory days of the past, the Red Army ate grass roots and chewed belts for a long march, the Eighth Route Army, the New Fourth Army, and the People's Liberation Army relied on millet and rifles to defeat powerful enemies, and the volunteer army hit the US army with a handful of fried noodles and a handful of snow... In an extremely difficult and difficult living environment, the commanders and fighters of our army have always stood in an invincible position by relying on firm faith, tenacious perseverance, and courageous work style; if the support in our army's operations is effective, the commanders and fighters will be able to eat and wear warm, and there is no doubt that they will be like tigers adding wings and sailing in the wind, and they will be even more indestructible and invincible. In order to ensure that the commanders and fighters of our army on the Laoshan front can eat, all sides have made tremendous efforts and costs, especially the military industry that transports supplies to the forward positions, and the casualties are also countless.
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