Lang Son is one of the most important cities in northern Vietnam. Say it's important because it's the northern gate of Hanoi, the capital of Vietnam.
On February 27, 1979, the "Battle of Lang Son" in the Sino-Vietnamese War officially began.
For the Vietnamese, Lang Son was lost and Hanoi was in danger.
For the Chinese People's Liberation Army, the capture of Lang Son will achieve absolute strategic significance.
However, the battle for Lang Son was so fierce that on March 1, when a large-scale bombardment of Lang Son City was launched, General Xu Shiyou ordered: "After the dawn attack begins, not a single house can be left in Lang Son!"
What made the general so angry and angry, and how tragic was the Battle of Lang Son?
1. Lang Son Outer Battle
Sending troops to Vietnam was by no means a whim of the leaders, but a last resort in light of the international environment at the time and in the face of the extreme expansion of the Vietnamese.
Therefore, the big name of the "Sino-Vietnamese War" is the "Self-Defense and Counterattack War against Vietnam".
If a child is disobedient, he will be beaten!
In order to effectively beat the disobedient Vietnam, the PLA soldiers divided into two routes, one in the west and one in the east.
The western front was commanded by General Yang Dezhi, and the eastern front was commanded by the tiger general Xu Shiyou.
The war on the Western Front was relatively smooth, and after hard work, Lao Cai and Tangtang in the west of Vietnam were soon taken.
On the Eastern Front, the 41st Army and the 42nd Army were stubbornly blocked by the enemy when they attacked Gaoping, which was a tough battle within a tough battle and a large-scale demonstration of tank warfare and anti-tank warfare. Fortunately, it occupied Dong Xi, an important town where the Vietnamese army fled south. The 346th Division of the Vietnamese Army in Cao Bang was completely wiped out, and it was already March.
In short, the Battle of Gaoping was more difficult than expected, with huge casualties. According to relevant sources, the PLA casualties in this battle were about 12,000, while the number of PLA casualties disclosed by the Vietnamese side was even higher.
When the Gaoping War began, Tongdeng on the Eastern Front was also fighting, and the main force of the battle here was the 55th Army, as well as a division of the 54th Army. Faced was part of the army of the 3rd Division, the ace division of Vietnam.
Dong Dang is a district in Lang Son Province, Vietnam, known as the northern gate of Lang Son.
The combat method of Tongdeng is simply as follows: brutal and rude, heavy artillery bombardment, tank force, infantry following. The scale of the war was not as large as that of Gao Ping, but the intensity of the war was not weak at all.
In less than a week, Tongdeng was conquered.
Therefore, the next strategic goal of the Eastern Line is: Lang Son. (Lang Son is the name of a province, including Dong Deng, Lang Son City and other places, here and the Lang Son below, refers to the main Lang Son City)
Lang Son City, this place, the terrain is dangerous, easy to defend and difficult to attack, the surrounding area is mostly highland, the overall terrain is high in the north and low in the south, and it is not easy to attack.
The People's Liberation Army on the Eastern Front had to get to Lang Son, and there was only one road for tanks and vehicles to pass.
However, the east, west, and north sides of Lang Son City are all high mountains, and there are heavy troops in ambush on key high grounds, and if the PLA forces want to take the main road, the ambush troops on the high ground on both sides of the highway will shoot cross-fire and will not be able to pass at all.
At that time, Lang Son and its surroundings were claimed to have 100,000 Vietnamese troops, and of course, this Vietnamese army consisted of three parts: the regular army, local troops, militia, and public security forces. Among them, the regular army is the third division of the "Venus Division" in Vietnam.
This 3rd Division was very arrogant, and once shouted in January 1979: Hit Friendship Pass for breakfast, and fight to Nanning for the Spring Festival (the Spring Festival in 1979 is January 28). There were also inflated Vietnamese soldiers shouting to the outside world: one Vietnamese soldier can deal with 30 Chinese soldiers.
I was crazy before, but in Tongdeng, some soldiers of the Third Division were taught by the People's Liberation Army to "how to behave".
However, in order to realize the cowhide that they had boasted about, the main forces of the 3rd Division continued to go wild.
In their opinion, Lang Son's arrangement can be described as an impregnable wall, and if the PLA wants to conquer it, how easy is it to talk about it?
It's just that Vietnam, the ace division, overestimated itself and underestimated the PLA.
Well, how many PLA troops are arranging an offensive on the Eastern Front?
There are more than 80,000 people in 7 divisions, and the most frontal main force is the 55th Division of the 54th Army and the 162nd Army, as well as heavy artillery clusters. The main forces of the 43rd Army and the 50th Division of the 148th Army played a synergistic role from the east.
According to the characteristics of the terrain and the situation of the Vietnamese army, the command of the Eastern Front determined a strategy: to knock out the enemy's fire points on the periphery of Lang Son one by one by using interspersed cutting, and then the armored and motorized units attacked the city of Lang Son from the main road.
The firepower points on the periphery were not easy to destroy, and with the cooperation of tanks, artillery, and infantry, the distance was moved forward a little bit.
Everything shows that Vietnam's apprentice learned from the master, and in the face of the PLA's interspersed and divided tactics, they did not form a synergistic effect, and most of the time they waited for the rabbit and went their own way.
In this way, it is still difficult to resist the flexible and brave People's Liberation Army.
In the face of their "master" PLA, the Vietnamese 3rd Division could not go crazy, the local troops of Vietnam also wilted, and the militia lost hope of defeating the Chinese PLA.
However, giving up is not an option for the Vietnamese, because their will to fight is in the same vein as ours.
2, Xu Shiyou: After the attack starts, don't leave a house!
The Vietnamese on the periphery of Lang Son became weaker and weaker the more they fought, and inevitably went to defeat.
In desperation, the Vietnamese resorted to two shameless tricks.
First, chemical weapons were used, such an inhumane weapon, and the Vietnamese actually used them in a frenzy, which made many PLA soldiers fall into the way.
Second, they mobilized the local Vietnamese masses to help them attack the PLA.
As a result, a crazy scene appeared, it seemed that it was Vietnamese civilians, and the PLA relaxed its vigilance, but when it got closer, these civilians repeatedly launched sneak attacks, which made the PLA suffer a lot of losses.
The battle in Lang Son has not yet begun, and many soldiers have fallen.
Looking at the battle report, the veteran general Xu Shiyou frowned, he didn't expect the Vietnamese apprentice to be so tenacious, let alone that they would use chemical weapons, and the people would take advantage of the sympathy of the People's Liberation Army to repeatedly sneak attack.
It's too much!
Uncle can bear it, Xu Old Man can't bear it!
After two days of fighting on the outskirts of Lang Son, the PLA occupied Kuma Mountain, occupied Bawai Mountain, and also occupied the 417, 303, 536 and other heights.
The outskirts of Lang Son were finally controlled by the People's Liberation Army! The next step was to attack the city of Lang Son.
The common people in Lang Son City fled south one after another after the Battle of Dong Deng, and after the battle on the outside of Lang Son began, they saw that the situation was not right, and fled even more.
By the early hours of March 1, there were basically no people in the city, and all that remained was the Vietnamese army fighting a defensive battle.
As a result, Xu Shiyou, who had been building up a lot of anger for a long time, ordered: "After the dawn attack begins, not a single house in Langshan can be left!"
At 9:30 on March 1, the craziest scene of the Sino-Vietnamese War appeared, the 55th Army concentrated more than 300 artillery pieces, prepared a large number of shells, and after hearing the "attack" order, the artillery fired in unison!
For a while, one after another fiery snakes in the sky rushed by and rushed towards Lang Son City.
In just half an hour, tens of thousands of shells have already fallen on Lang Son. At that moment, Lang Son City became a sea of fire, and the Vietnamese army suffered countless casualties.
Next, the 55th Division of the 163rd Army took the main attack and went all the way to Lang Son City. And the 164th and 165th divisions launched coordinated attacks on both sides of the 163rd division.
If, at this time, it was the American army or the French army, it would have slipped away a long time ago. However, the Vietnamese Third Division was still resisting, and even let their artillery and the artillery units of our People's Liberation Army fight against each other.
But they understood that the general trend had gone, Langshan had been lost, and defeat was inevitable.
However, they do not want to lose the last dignity of the soldiers.
By this time, the PLA also felt the tenacity of the Vietnamese army, but the command had an order: to fight fiercely, to completely defeat, defeat, and defeat the Vietnamese army, and to completely smash their "ambitions and dreams".
Although the Vietnamese Third Division is tenacious enough, the PLA must take it, and the Vietnamese Third Division must be completely defeated.
The war sank from artillery fighting to street fighting, with the two sides fighting back and forth in the streets.
We can put the perspective on one of the scenes.
Platoon Commander Wang of a certain platoon led the whole platoon of soldiers to leap forward alternately, and at first glance it was a well-trained and excellent team.
Seeing the approach of Platoon Commander Wang and others, the Vietnamese troops defending in the bunker were a little panicked and hurriedly shot.
In the midst of the burst of gunfire, several PLA fighters fell.
Looking at the fallen comrades-in-arms, Platoon Commander Wang and the others didn't have time to cry, they didn't have time to feel uncomfortable, they continued to move forward, they had only one belief: to defeat the Vietnamese army and avenge their comrades-in-arms!
In front is a garage of the Vietnamese army, in which the Vietnamese army is engaged in defensive warfare, and if it can be taken, it will occupy the high point of the area, and it will control the area.
Platoon Commander Wang and his comrades-in-arms threw grenades one by one, and while the enemy was stunned, the PLA seized the opportunity to attack the enemy a few times.
The sound of gunfire, cannons, and shouts are intertwined, so that the ears are completely busy.
Suddenly, one of the fighters over there shouted: Platoon commander, there is a grenade behind you!
Wang Muzhou looked back, isn't it, I don't know when a grenade thrown by the Vietnamese army was smoking one meter away from him, what should I do?
It was too late to pick it up and throw it away, in order to protect his comrades-in-arms, Wang Muzhou rushed over and pressed the grenade under his stomach.
I only heard an explosion, and Platoon Commander Wang fell in a pool of blood....
"Platoon Commander .." "Platoon Commander...."
Before he died, Platoon Commander Wang said: "There are still Vietnamese troops in front, quickly, quickly destroy them..."
The soldiers' eyes breathed fire one by one, hoping to tear the Vietnamese alive.
Then, a roar of vengeance resounded through the sky,
"Avenge the platoon commander!"
"Defeat Lang Son and destroy the Vietnamese army!"
"Down with the Vietnamese invaders!" (before the Vietnamese invasion of Cambodia)
The Vietnamese panicked, and the Chinese People's Liberation Army was going to fight hard.
Yes, it is indeed desperate, after a stormy attack, the Vietnamese positions were broken one by one, and one by one the Vietnamese soldiers fell.....
One battle report after another was transmitted to the PLA headquarters.
When the five-star red flag was planted on the government building in Lang Son North District, there was a cheer!
The northern district of Lang Son City was fully captured by the People's Liberation Army.
3. The final lesson for Vietnam
When the northern district of Lang Son City fell, Le Duan was still bragging that "the Lang Son defense line is impregnable, and under the stubborn resistance of our army, the Chinese army has not been able to advance to Lang Son one step ....."
Li Duan was not ashamed to put gold on his face.
At this time, the latest instructions given by the Central Military Commission to Xu Shiyou came: cross the Qiqiao River and take over the southern district of Lang Son City, Vietnam!
As a result, starting on the morning of March 4, the People's Liberation Army (PLA) began a fierce artillery bombardment of Lang Son South District, south of the Chi Poor River.
At 11 o'clock in the afternoon, all three highlands in Lang Son South District were seized by Chinese troops. The 3rd Division of the Vietnamese Army is still fighting hard.
It's useless to fight hard. At 7 o'clock in the evening, the seven units of the People's Liberation Army (PLA) plunged into all important areas and high ground in the southern region like seven sharp blades, and the 3rd Division of the Vietnamese Army suffered a devastating blow.
As the saying goes: the sky is crazy and there is rain, and people are crazy and woe. The 3rd Vietnamese Division is finally coming to an end!
Lang Son is completely lost, and Hanoi, which is 130 kilometers away from Lang Son, what to do?
Le Duan reluctantly informed the Vietnamese of the result of "Lang Son lost" and issued a "national mobilization order" to all Vietnamese, and also asked some troops fighting in the south to return to participate in the "Battle of Hanoi."
All of a sudden, chaos erupted in Hanoi, Vietnam's capital.
However, at this very moment, Beijing announced: withdraw its troops!
As a result, the final withdrawal of troops began in the self-defense counterattack against Vietnam, and by March 16, all the eastern and western fronts had been withdrawn to the border.
It's just that about 8,100 warriors died in a foreign land, and they closed their young eyes.
To paraphrase a sentence: Where there is a quiet time, it is a group of people who are supporting the dignity of the motherland with blood and the happiness and joy of future generations!
Salute!