In ancient and modern China and abroad, most people who understand or study military science believe that changing fronts will be a taboo for soldiers. However, in the eyes of wise big people, the change of battle is not necessarily a bad thing, but has a huge impact on achieving the entire decision-making goal.
Fast forward to January 1, 1979, on the eve of China's counterattack against Vietnam, the two military regions of Guangzhou and Kunming were dispatching troops. On this day, the Central Military Commission issued a major order:
Wang Bicheng, former commander of the Kunming Military Region, was transferred to the commander of the Wuhan Military Region; Yang Dezhi, former commander of the Wuhan Military Region, was transferred to the commander of the Kunming Military Region.
Such a tune not only made people who witnessed that era feel confused, but even later people could not understand the reason. Because General Wang Bicheng began to serve as deputy commander of the Kunming Military Region in 1969, and was promoted to commander of the Kunming Military Region in 1971, until the beginning of 1979, he had been sitting in the southwest frontier for 10 years, and his understanding of all aspects of the front line would certainly be more advantageous than that of General Yang Dezhi, who had just arrived.
Most people believe that before the war, the original combat deployment, tactics and other details will inevitably change accordingly, which will eventually affect the overall combat results. Then, did the leading predecessors who were at that time, with the great man Deng Xiaoping as the core, not know these basic common senses?
Non also! Looking back with the eyes of modern people, in fact, the reason why Deng Xiaoping changed generals on the verge of battle was because the great people of the older generation had wisdom and vision that were different from ordinary people.
All in all, before the war, General Yang Dezhi succeeded General Wang Bicheng in command of the Troops of the Kunming Military Region, mainly for the following considerations:
First, the unexpected attack is unprepared
In terms of battle merit and seniority, General Wang Bicheng and General Yang Dezhi are comparable, and in terms of age, the difference between the two is only one year. At the same time, Even in the process of the transfer of the commanders of the eight major military regions in 1973, General Wang Bicheng was not on the list of the transfer, which shows the importance that the state attaches to him.
It is precisely for this reason that when the Central Military Commission decided to conduct a self-defense counterattack against Vietnam, General Wang Bicheng's shortcomings came out; on November 1, 1978, shortly after the Vietnamese side created the "TingMu Shan Bloodshed Incident", China decided to fight back in self-defense against Vietnam when it could not bear it.
Although the Vietnamese side was the instigator of this war, the division was unknown and was in a situation where it did not know when it would be beaten, and in order to avoid suffering a big loss, it was bound to make corresponding defensive arrangements according to the deployment of Chinese troops in The border areas of Guangxi and Yunnan. The Vietnamese side provoked this war for a long time. The Second Military Region of Vietnam, corresponding to Yunnan, China, is indispensable to conduct a thorough investigation of the command style and tactical characteristics of Wang Bicheng, commander of the Kunming Military Region.
General Wang Bicheng has worked in the Kunming Military Region for 10 years, and I am afraid that the Vietnamese army has long been familiar with the laws of its personal life, work characteristics, and thinking characteristics, so that the Kunming Military Region of China and the Second Military Region of Vietnam understand each other, and this battle will not be easy to fight.
After the Second Military Region of Vietnam made corresponding defensive arrangements according to its own understanding, China suddenly asked General Yang Dezhi to take over general Wang Bicheng to command the troops of the Kunming Military Region in battle, then there would be tremendous changes in the tactical characteristics of the troops, the style of combat, and so on.
Second, a soldier who surrenders without fighting
Killing chickens with a cattle knife can have the effect of subjugating soldiers without fighting.
In the era of the founding generals, General Yang Dezhi's international popularity was far higher than that of General Wang Bicheng. Because General Yang Dezhi served as the commander of the Red Army's advance regiment, the first division and one regiment of the Red Army, during the Long March of the Red Army, he opened up a way for the Central Red Army to live and was a veteran with outstanding military achievements.
Second, in the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea, General Yang Dezhi served as the commander-in-chief of the Volunteer Army, commanded a million troops, and let the world powers armed to the teeth take advantage of it.
General Wang Bicheng's highest position in the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea was the commander of the 9th Corps of the Volunteer Army. In this comparison, General Yang Dezhi is the commander of the theater, and General Wang Bicheng is the commander of the theater group army, and the former is more internationally famous.
Before the war of self-defense against Vietnam, general Yang Dezhi, who is more well-known in the world, to succeed General Wang Bicheng can make the people of the world understand the determination of Chinese the people to defend their homeland and teach a harsh lesson to the enemy who has come to attack; it is even more able to kill the viet nami in momentum, because as soon as China strikes, it will use world-class famous generals who even the armies of Britain, the United States and other powers do not dare to underestimate.
Taking the "Battle of Changping" in the Warring States period as an example, Zhao Guo did not know what reason, let the famous general Zhao Kuo, the son of Zhao Hao, succeed the veteran general Lian Pozhen to guard the Changping area, at this time, Zhao Xiaocheng King was indeed guilty of the taboo of changing generals on the front. However, when the State of Qin learned that the commander of the Zhao Army had been replaced, the State of Qin also came to a temporary change of generals, allowing the famous generals to go out of their horses to deal with Zhao Kuo.
As a result, the Zhao army's grain road was lost, there was no one to rescue, Zhao Kuo, as the commander, was unable to return to heaven, and finally the soldiers died, 400,000 Zhao troops were killed, and Zhao Guoyuan was seriously injured, laying the groundwork for the "Annihilation of the Six Kingdoms of Qin". In this war, Zhao Guo changed generals in the front, which was a big taboo for soldiers, but the change of generals in the Qin state was not a taboo for soldiers, but a strategy to adapt to changes.
It can be seen that the Central Military Commission's change of generals in the front is the result of careful consideration, still less is it a major taboo for soldiers.
Third, pool wisdom and efforts to seek development
Readers who have watched the classic anti-war TV series "Bright Sword" should remember the bridge section in which the protagonist Ding Wei talked about the topic of "key national land defense" in the defense of the thesis; there is also the bridge section in which the protagonist Li Yunlong proposed a combat plan for the PLA's liberation of an island and was adopted.
Although "Bright Sword" is a work of art that has been artistically processed, many of the classic bridges in the play are story fragments based on historical facts. Such a bridge section can show that the PLA attaches importance to pooling wisdom and emphasizing the role of collective wisdom and collective efforts in the success or failure of various decisions, which is based on facts.
When Chairman Mao, President Zhu, and other great men led the troops, they attached great importance to the role of pooling the wisdom of the masses and pooling wisdom and efforts in the success or failure of various policy decisions.
For example, in the early days of the Korean War, among the Chinese People's Liberation Army, a famous general predicted that the navies of the United States, Britain, and other countries would inevitably launch landing operations in the Inchon area to cut off the back road of the Korean People's Army. As a result, the facts coincide with the expected results.
Sun Tzu's Art of War and Planning places special emphasis on the importance of pre-war forecasting. As an elite division that makes good use of the art of war, the People's Liberation Army (PLA) cannot be in a situation where the forecasting and planning work is not in place before the war in the face of the upcoming self-defense counterattack against Vietnam.
It can be seen that the fact that the Great War was imminent, and the Central Military Commission suddenly asked General Yang Dezhi to succeed General Wang Bicheng in command of the troops of the Kunming Military Region in combat, which was due to the personnel changes caused by the results of the pre-war analysis of these two generals.
According to the working practice of the People's Liberation Army, in the face of repeated provocations by the Vietnamese army, everyone first considered the question of whether to fight a war. After weighing the pros and cons, when everyone agrees that it is more advantageous to fight a war, the next step is to consider how to fight a more reasonable question.
At this time, the commanders of the major military regions all worked out corresponding combat plans and plans based on their personal opinions, just like Li Yunlong in the classic anti-war TV series "Bright Sword", to give advice to the army.
After everyone's battle plan and plan are uniformly submitted to the Central Military Commission, they will then be discussed by the founding military experts who have experienced hundreds of battles, and through certain methods of calculation, whoever makes the proposal more feasible and more reasonable will be responsible for implementing it.
It can be seen from this that before the war, General Yang Dezhi succeeded General Wang Bicheng in command of the war against Vietnam, which was the result of the PLA giving full play to the principle of collective wisdom and collective efforts to seek development.
Fourth, the need to achieve the PLA's modernization goals
In 1979, the Platon Was a force that had not fought a major battle for 26 years; if the PLA's combat effectiveness was to be maintained, it was necessary to modernize the troops.
So, what is the goal of the modernization of the armed forces? Of course, to achieve a modern division of labor, no matter which post is replaced, the overall combat effectiveness cannot be left behind; between each post and between each combat unit, tacit coordination can be achieved, and the smooth realization of the overall goal can be guaranteed.
General Wang Bicheng sat in the Kunming Military Region for 10 years, and he had enough ability to lead his troops to fight the battle of self-defense against Vietnam. However, the international situation at that time was very unfavorable to China, so the responsibility of ensuring the safety of one side was heavy, and we could not rely too much on the ability of a certain general or a certain combat unit.
Having General Yang Dezhi succeed General Wang Bicheng in commanding the troops of the Kunming Military Region to participate in the counterattack against Vietnam in self-defense can verify the effectiveness of the PLA's modernization work from the side, and on the other hand, can verify that General Yang Dezhi "is still able to eat?" Second, we can verify the combat effectiveness of other officers of the Kunming Military Region.
Taking 10,000 steps back, it is assumed that in the early stage of the operation, the generals of the Kunming Military Region were ineffective in combat, then at that time, China still had troops from the Chengdu and Lanzhou military regions; in terms of generals, general Wang Bicheng could also be transferred back, or famous generals such as Qin Jiwei could be used.
The results of the modernization of the troops are evaluated by war, and the final result is the most convincing. As a result, whether it was General Yang Dezhi or other officers and men of the Kunming Military Region, everyone lived up to the expectations of the people, especially during the period when General Yang Dezhi was ill and hospitalized, Zhang Haoxiu, deputy commander of the Kunming Military Region, took over the heavy responsibility of commanding operations on the Western Front, formulated corresponding operational plans and relevant operational guidelines, and played an important role in winning this war for the troops on the Western Front.
It is precisely because the Platon Army has achieved the initial goal of "modernizing the division of labor, no matter which post is replaced, the overall combat effectiveness cannot be left behind", so after the vietnamese self-defense counterattack, in the face of the vietnamese army that did not change, China had a 10-year-long border rotation war, and the cadets of major military regions and military academies had the opportunity to participate in actual combat, which played a key role in today's strong army.
This shows that the change of generals on the eve of the counterattack against Vietnam by the leaders with Deng Xiaoping as the core was a policy decision made to achieve the goal of the PLA's modernization drive.
Conclusion
Time has passed, and in the blink of an eye, many heroic predecessors have left us. However, those of us who come after us must remember that it was the heroic predecessors who gave us the happy life we have today. Even when others cannot understand and even when they are questioned by the world, they still insist on protecting the country and the people.
On the surface, there seems to be many irrationalities in the PLA's "change of generals on the front"; but if we analyze this incident from a historical perspective, it is not difficult to find that this was actually a wise decision made by the Chinese leader with Deng Xiaoping as the core for the motherland and the people.
After the end of the self-defense war against Vietnam, China ushered in the "golden decade" of economic development; after the end of the 10-year-long "border war", China once again ushered in the "golden decade" of economic development, laying the foundation for the rise of china today.
Resources:
[1] Song Guotao: Ten Commanders Xu Shiyou Li Desheng Yang Dezhi Yang Chengwu Qin Jiwei Yang Yong Pi Dingjun He Bingyan Chen Xilian Ye Fei [M] Central Compilation Publishing House, 2009
[2] Le Shi Ming: Tiger General Xiongfeng: Remembering General Wang Bicheng [M] Chinese Affairs Publishing House, 1993
[3] Xiao Bing: Deeply remembering General Zhang Haoxiu [C]//Tieliu (32) 2016