On March 16, 1979, the self-defense counterattack against Vietnam, which lasted less than a month, ended in a complete victory for the Chinese army.
After reaching the vicinity of the Vietnamese capital, our army quickly withdrew and crossed the border in line with the principle of humanitarianism and peace-loving.
However, the unrelenting Vietnamese continued to cause trouble on the Sino-Vietnamese border, and did not take China's mercy seriously at all.
As everyone knows, if the Central Military Commission had adopted the combat plan of General Xu Shiyou, the commander-in-chief of the Vietnam War, I am afraid that the history of Vietnam would have been rewritten!
The content of this article is based on authoritative historical data, and there are citations at the end of the article
Xu Shiyou's first piece of advice
In 1973, the eight military regions of the People's Liberation Army (PLA) carried out a reassignment of commanders.
As the founding general of the People's Republic of China, General Xu Shiyou was transferred from Nanjing to Guangzhou and became the commander of the Guangzhou Military Region.
Previously, General Xu Shiyou, who was in his old age, once said to Chairman Mao: "If there is still a war, I want to go to the battlefield again, and then I will retreat." ”
As everyone knows, after the transfer of the military region this time, Xu Shiyou and others really had a chance to go out again.
In December 1978, in view of the Vietnamese army's repeated provocations and provocations in the mainland border areas, the central government made the decision to start a war against Vietnam.
After discussions by the central authorities, the Yunnan and Canton Military Regions, which are closest to Vietnam, became the vanguard army that opened up Vietnam and started the war.
As the commander of the Guangzhou Military Region, Xu Shiyou became the largest front-line commander in the history of the Chinese People's Liberation Army, and at the age of 74, he personally went to the Sino-Vietnamese front line and led the battle against Vietnam in the western section of the front.
On December 9, 1978, Xu Shiyou had just returned to Guangzhou from a meeting in Beijing when he received an order from the Central Military Commission to prepare for war.
Xu Shiyou immediately got up and came to the office, observed the map of the Sino-Vietnamese border, and looked at it intently.
It wasn't until the evening of the 10th that Xu Shiyou walked out of the office, and he had already received the exact combat order from the central government.
He immediately instructed the headquarters that the written order of the Central Military Commission had arrived, and that the leaders of all units should be notified to arrive at the military headquarters at 8 o'clock tomorrow to attend the meeting.
At the meeting, Xu Shiyou conveyed his battle plan and encouraged the officers and men: "Comrades, we have not fought a war for decades, and now that the war has suddenly come, it is too fast to turn around at once, and this change is not simple!"
Xu Shiyou gave everyone a preventive shot early: "Once the war starts, there will be no day and night, the military situation is urgent, and we may not have time to eat and sleep." Therefore, we are required to change from peacetime to wartime, adapt our daily life to the needs of the war environment, and make good preparations for war. ”
He sternly admonished everyone: "If anyone fails to prepare for war, I will definitely investigate the responsibility, no matter who it is." My words have always counted, comrades, please remember. ”
In mid-December, the large units of the Guangzhou Military Region began to rush to the frontline battlefield and quickly arrived at the designated position in the western sector.
Xu Shiyou, who is over 70 years old, personally arrived in Nanning on a military plane and began to reconnoiter the front line, quietly waiting for the arrival of war.
At the same time, Xu Shiyou's battle plan for the Vietnam War was also transmitted to the Central Military Commission in Beijing.
Xu Shiyou, who had made a detailed investigation of the situation on the front line beforehand, put forward his first operational plan for the Vietnam War.
He believed that on the basis of the simultaneous advance of the Eastern and Western Fronts of the Central Military Commission, after breaking through the enemy's defensive line, the corps of the Western Front could be mobilized to quickly assault Vietnam and occupy its waist position.
Then unite with the army of the Eastern Front to launch an internal and external encirclement of the Vietnamese army.
Once this plan is implemented, the Vietnamese army will be cut off from the waist, and half of the troops and battle lines will fall into the encirclement of our army.
Therefore, Xu Shiyou's move cannot be described as ruthless.
The defeated Vietnamese army
As a revolutionary veteran who has gone all the way from the Jute Uprising and has experienced a hundred battles, Xu Shiyou's military vision can not be described as vicious!
This was a ruthless move, so as soon as the battle plan was submitted, it won the applause of many people within the Central Military Commission.
However, in the end, this plan was not adopted, for the simple reason that our army was fighting a war of self-defense and counterattack.
If it is a period of resistance against Japan, our army will not hesitate to adopt Xu Shiyou's advice and kill and injure the enemy as much as possible.
But now is a time of peace, even though the Vietnamese army is frantically provoking, but after all, the two sides have not completely torn their skins.
If we really want to let the main forces of the two major armies in the east and west bite the waist of the Vietnamese army, it will inevitably deal a devastating blow to the enemy's 300,000 main army, which is somewhat inconsistent with China's original intention of launching a war of self-defense against Vietnam.
As a result, this program function was put on hold.
And Xu Shiyou, whose proposal was rejected, did not complain, and immediately led his troops to prepare for war in accordance with the deployment of the Military Commission.
In the early morning of February 17, 1979, the front line in Guangxi was silent.
At this time, everyone in the headquarters of the Western Front Corps of the People's Liberation Army was holding their breath and waiting for the moment of battle.
Xu Shiyou sat in front of the map in a military coat, his eyes swept over the clock from time to time.
At a certain moment, Xu Shiyou suddenly let go of his voice and solemnly announced: "It's time!
In an instant, the deafening sound of cannon fire resounded in the sky, and the fiery red fireworks lit up the entire sky.
This was the beginning of our army's self-defense and counterattack against Vietnam.
After 30 minutes of artillery bombardment, our engineering units began to rush towards the enemy's minefields, rows of tanks roared and advanced in a straight line, and the infantry rushed towards the enemy group with a murderous sound.
After Xu Shiyou issued the combat order, he kept his hands behind his back in the war room, waiting for news from the front line.
In just three hours, the front-line battle reports flew like snowflakes to the war room.
The Northern Front Group broke through the defensive line and eliminated the enemy in the Moron area; the Southern Front Group broke through the enemy's layout and crushed the enemy's main force; and the Eastern Front Group broke through the Tongdeng defense line and engaged in a fierce battle with the enemy.
Xu Shiyou was extremely excited when he heard the good news one after another, and immediately issued an order to boost his morale: "The comrades have completed their tasks very well! They have fought beautifully! Send a telegram to congratulate all departments, so that the comrades will continue to move forward with indomitable determination!"
Under the attack of our army on all fronts, the weak Vietnamese troops could only retreat on all fronts.
When the time came to March 1, the troops of the western section of our army were advancing step by step, and Lang Son, an important Vietnamese town in front, came to the front in a blink of an eye.
Lang Son is a provincial capital city in Vietnam, with a large number of towering strongholds on the periphery and surrounded by bunkers.
But even so, Lang Son City could not withstand the surging offensive of our army, and the Vietnamese army was beaten to the ground.
According to the plan formulated by our army before the war, after Xu Shiyou's troops hit the northern district of Lang Son, the army would retreat.
However, the Le Duan government, which wanted to save face, insisted on claiming that the Chinese army had suffered huge losses at Lang Son and that Lang Son's defenses were impregnable.
Xu Shiyou was furious when he heard this, and directly smashed the radio in his hand.
He believes that the propaganda of the Le Duan government is an insult to our army's achievements and a disrespect to countless bloody soldiers.
Seeing that the other party wanted to save face and refused to admit defeat, Xu Shiyou immediately issued an order to ask the troops to take Langshan in one go.
"Pass the order down, fight across the Qiqiao River, until Li Duan admits defeat!"
At the same time, the Central Military Commission also issued a new order, requiring Xu Shiyou to continue the offensive and strive for the greatest victory.
The second set of plans
Therefore, from March 4, our army immediately launched a fierce attack on Lang Son.
The artillery fire engulfed the entire southern area of Lang Son, and on the north bank, the tank clusters handed over to our army advanced steadily, and the infantry team was in the rear, closely following the tank charge. Under such a powerful offensive, the Vietnamese army had no choice at all.
The Le Duan government was immediately deflated, fearing that our army would attack Huanglong all the way to the capital of Vietnam, and hurriedly ordered the front-line command post to retreat and transfer all the embassies and government dignitaries of various countries in the city.
The Le Duan government, which had been clamoring incessantly, was completely in a panic, and the whole of Hanoi was terrified...
Xu Shiyou then ordered his troops to continue to move forward, ordering his troops to advance in the direction of Hanoi, creating a situation that threatened the Vietnamese capital and forced it to surrender.
However, at the critical moment when Xu Shiyou's troops were preparing to make a move, the Central Military Commission still issued an order to withdraw troops out of humanitarian considerations, considering that the goal of the self-defense war against Vietnam had been achieved.
Beginning on March 5, Xinhua News Agency issued a retreat statement to the front.
From the next day, Xu Shiyou looked at the Vietnamese capital that was close at hand, but he still obeyed the order without hesitation and commanded the troops to withdraw to the country.
Beginning on 7 February, the self-defense counterattack against Vietnam lasted less than a month.
Xu Shiyou's troops successively captured important military towns such as Cao Binh, Dong Deng, and Lang Son, and the army went straight to Hanoi, the capital of Vietnam, with remarkable results.
However, after the war, the Vietnamese who did not give up their provocations against China still did not give up their provocations against China, and continued to provoke on the border without taking their own strength.
As a result, the 10-year-long tug-of-war on the Sino-Vietnamese border began.
As a witness to this war, Xu Shiyou immediately put forward his second set of plans in view of the front-line situation.
At that time, Vietnam not only picked quarrels and provoked trouble on the Sino-Vietnamese border, but also extended its hand of aggression to other countries, especially Cambodia, which was relatively backward and weak.
Therefore, Xu Shiyou's second suggestion is to send troops to attack Cambodia and take down the elite garrison of the Vietnamese army in Cambodia in one fell swoop.
This can not only rescue friendly neighbors, but also greatly weaken the strength of the Vietnamese army, forcing it to put away the aggressive minions.
Unfortunately, this plan was also not adopted, and the reason was also related to the original intention of our army to launch a self-defense counterattack.
After all, we are a peace-loving country, and this war has already taught Vietnam a certain lesson, and the large-scale destruction of the enemy's vital forces is somewhat inhumane.
Moreover, there are too many factors involved behind entering other countries to fight, and once Cambodia is really dispatched, will it cause turmoil in the entire Indochina Peninsula?
This must also be carefully considered.
To sum up, Xu Shiyou's plan was still aborted.
epilogue
General Xu Da, who has been fighting all his life, saw the enemy's weak ring with a vicious eye at the beginning of the self-defense counterattack against Vietnam.
After the war, Xu Shiyou hit the nail on the head again and found the key to forcing the enemy to retreat completely.
If both of these plans are put into practice, Vietnam's history could be rewritten.
It's a pity that due to various reasons, General Xu's plan did not come true, which may be the greatest luck of the Vietnamese.
Resources
[1] Hu Jucheng.Xu Shiyou's last battle[J].Party History Overview,2004(02):28-32.
Unforgettable 1979: The Complete Documentary of the Self-Defense Counterattack War against Vietnam.中国军网.2014-08-12