Looking at the territory around the map of China, which territory do you think is the most regrettable that was not included in the scope of the land by the ancestors?
Personally, I believe that it is neither the Korean Peninsula stretching to Japan, nor the lost Outer Northeast, the cold and vast resource-rich Siberia and Central Asia, or even the ancient Tianzhu region, which is denser than the Chinese, but the Indochina Peninsula, which is located at the southern tip of China and directly adjacent to China's Yunnan and Guangxi provinces.
However, it is extremely regrettable that there are no ifs in this world.
Due to many reasons such as climate, environment, distance, topography, and culture, this God-given land, which directly borders China, has fertile land, rich resources, and a large population, has not been included in the scope of ancient China's rule, and finally formed the situation occupied by many countries today.
Today's Indochina Peninsula is Vietnam, which was once part of China and eventually became independent from China during the Northern and Southern Dynasties.
Laos, which has abundant mineral and agricultural resources and has just opened the China-Laos Railway with the help of China, Cambodia, which has vast fertile arable land, Thailand, which has more than 9 million Chinese, Myanmar, which has always been in a de facto warlord situation, and Malaysia, which occupies nearly one-quarter of the territory by Chinese.
If you include Singapore, which is separated by a strait, there are as many as seven countries in the Indochina Peninsula.
Due to many reasons, the Indochina Peninsula has not been included in the scope of ancient China's rule, so in modern times, has any country wanted to unify the Indochina Peninsula?
There really is, this country is once China's "comrades and brothers", China's spare no effort to help, but in the end the sword and the sword against Vietnam.
Vietnam's modern history is believed to be very familiar to countless people. Because of the decay and decline of the Qing Dynasty, Vietnam, which was once a vassal state of China, eventually fell into the hands of France.
During World War II, France was destroyed by Germany, and Vietnam, which was a French colony, became a Japanese colony. After the victory in World War II in 1945, Vietnam declared independence and established the Democratic Republic of Vietnam, but soon after, the former colonizer France and the world's largest power, the United States, invaded Vietnam successively, and Vietnam began the War of Resistance against France and the United States.
After the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949, with China's unsparing assistance, China contributed people, guns and money to help Vietnam, and finally allowed Vietnam to win the War of Resistance against France and the War of Resistance against the United States.
During Vietnam's more than 20-year-long war against France and the United States, China not only sent hundreds of thousands of air defense troops, engineering troops and other aid personnel to help Vietnam, but also did its best to provide Vietnam with a large number of weapons, ammunition, engineering equipment and facilities.
China's assistance to Vietnam is so great that it is beyond China's reach. China's total aid amount, converted into US dollars, is about $20 billion. You know, this dollar is not the dollar that has been frantically flooded today, but the dollar that was called the dollar in the sixties and seventies.
Therefore, we can say unceremoniously that without China's assistance, it is unknown whether Vietnam would have been able to maintain its independence, let alone win the War of Resistance against France and the United States.
However, after 30 years of war, Vietnam finally achieved independence and reunification, and did not build its own land that had been ruined by the war, nor did it have the slightest gratitude to China, which had spared no effort to help them.
On the contrary, Vietnam began to frantically oppose China, not only expelling more than 1.5 million overseas Vietnamese and plundering all the wealth of overseas Vietnamese Chinese, but even frantically trying to occupy Chinese territory.
At that time, Vietnam not only invaded Chinese territory and shot Chinese border residents, but also attacked from all sides, including Vietnam's neighboring countries of Laos and Cambodia into their so-called Indochinese Federation, and even had a military conflict with Thailand, which was also located in the Indochina Peninsula.
What exactly did Vietnam want? Could Vietnam, which had just won the War of Resistance Against US Aggression, be completely carried away by the victory?
Although there were reasons for the fever in the brain, Vietnam at that time was indeed so confident that it considered itself to be the "third military power in the world". So, at that time, Vietnam tried to cobble together the so-called Indochinese Federation, and even included Indochina Peninsula under their rule.
For example, on December 2, 1975, Vietnam's People's Daily published such a map, "The Complete Map of the Reunification of Greater Vietnam".
On this map, we can see that Vietnam's so-called Greater Vietnam reunification map includes not only all the territory of Vietnam, but also all of Laos, Cambodia, most of Thailand, and the most bizarre thing is that there is even a large territory of China.
In other words, this so-called "Great Vietnam Unification Map" almost included most of the Indochina Peninsula into Vietnam's territory.
Not only that, in January 1978, when Vietnamese Foreign Minister Nguyen Van Thanh led a delegation to visit Thailand, a member of the Vietnamese delegation made the following remarks:
Vietnam wants to create a large bloc that stretches from Sri Lanka to Hanoi, including Myanmar, Thailand, Indonesia, the Philippines, Singapore and Malaysia.
Obviously, from Vietnam's various acts, Vietnam at that time not only had the intention of bringing Cambodia and Laos under its rule and establishing the so-called Indochinese Federation, but also had the luxury of unifying the Indochina Peninsula and becoming the hegemon of Southeast Asia.
Although this idea can only be described as delusional, objectively speaking, the Indochina Peninsula can indeed be called the foundation of hegemony to a certain extent. Although Vietnam does not have the strength to unify the Indochina Peninsula, its vision is quite good.
How rich is Indochina?
Located at the southern tip of China, the Indochina Peninsula has a total area of about 2.07 million square kilometers, which is equivalent to more than one-fifth of China's territory. It is also worth mentioning that this huge peninsula is full of rivers and fertile land, which not only has a lot of cultivated land, but also generally crops twice or even three times a year.
Therefore, the Indochina Peninsula is a typical land rich in resources and fertile land, which is much more advantageous than China's vast but harsh northwest region.
The Indochina Peninsula is roughly equivalent to the total area of all provinces south of the Yangtze River in China. At the same time, the Indochina Peninsula also has 11,700 kilometers of coastline, with a large number of deltas and natural excellent ports within the vast coastline.
On top of that, Indochina also has fertile arable land that China desperately lacks. Due to the extension of the Hengduan Mountains, the Indochina Peninsula did not form such extensive plains as the North China Plain and the Northeast Plain.
However, due to the rivers in the territory, four extremely fertile delta regions have been formed: the Red River Delta, the Mekong River Delta, the Chao Phraya River Three Plains and the Irrawaddy River Delta.
Most of these deltas can be grown with rice and are extremely yielding. Therefore, although the total population of the Indochina Peninsula is as high as more than 300 million, the countries of the Indochina Peninsula are generally grain exporters.
In addition to its abundant agricultural resources, the Indochina Peninsula is also home to a variety of mineral resources that China covets. The Indochina Peninsula contains some of the best deposits of lead, zinc, silver, antimony, copper, tin, tungsten, coal, oil, and natural gas.
It can be said that this area with a suitable climate, a large population, rich resources and a vast area is a veritable foundation of hegemony. No matter which country occupies or completes reunification, it will be enough to leap into a veritable power in Asia and even in the world.
If the Indochina Peninsula is truly reunified, this country with extremely rich agricultural and industrial resources will become the third most populous country in the world, ranking 13th in the world in terms of land area.
Therefore, with such a broad prospect, especially when considering the fear and jealousy of the behemoth of the north, how can Vietnam not imagine the day when it will turn over and become its master and have the status of a great power?
What's more, Vietnam has another example before it - becoming the world's first yellow power, and even almost completed the snake swallowing whale Japan.
Moreover, Vietnam at that time was not without advantages.
After decades of military struggle, and finally winning the victory of reunification, Vietnam has indeed formed an army with extremely rich combat experience and quite strong combat effectiveness.
In 1978, Vietnam had 1.2 million regular troops and 2 million local and militia units with extensive combat experience.
Moreover, this unit not only has extremely rich combat experience, but also has extremely complete and advanced weapons and equipment because of the assistance of China and the Soviet Union and the large number of American troops captured by the United States.
This is precisely the most fundamental reason for Vietnam, which claims to be the third military power in the world and has the courage to provoke China, establish the so-called Indochinese Federation, and even dominate the Indochina Peninsula.
Of course, the facts have given Vietnam the loudest slap in the face, bursting with confidence, and obviously cannot close the gap between China and Vietnam. Although China had just reformed and opened up at that time, although China's economy and industry were far from developed at that time, it was several levels higher than Vietnam.
Therefore, in 1979, after China launched a self-defense counterattack against Vietnam, Vietnam's dream of becoming a third military power was completely shattered, and the 10-year war brought Vietnam's economy to the brink of collapse.
After choosing to confront China, Vietnam not only failed to complete the so-called Indochinese Federation and dominate the Indochina Peninsula, but even the country's economy was almost completely destroyed, becoming another example of self-indulgence.