In July, the land in southern Xinjiang is often soft and smells of humus. But on this day, the situation near Songmaoling in Laoshan Mountain is different. The earth was blown off and fell by the rain of shells fired by the People's Liberation Army, and when the shelling was over, only patches of half-concealed Vietnamese corpses were left on the ground, as well as pale cyan smoke that seemed to emerge from the depths of the ground.
In order to reoccupy Lao Son, the Vietnamese army mobilized three divisions of troops for this battle, and it was also a secret sneak attack, planning to annihilate all the PLA regiments stationed in the Lao Son position. But the Vietnamese army eventually retreated under the invisible wall of fire, leaving behind thousands of corpses that would soon decompose.
Since the Battle of Huaihai, I have never seen so many enemy corpses. This is the emotion expressed by the *** marshal in his later years after watching the video of the first battle of Songmaoling. At the same time, it also shows the extreme tragedy of this battle. This battle has been called the largest battle between China and Vietnam in the 80s, and there have been no large-scale clashes on the Sino-Vietnamese border since then.
So, how did the PLA, which is at an absolute disadvantage in numbers, win this battle?How much did we pay?To answer these questions, we must first look at the Vietnamese army and see why they decided to invade Lao Son.
After the 1979 counterattack against Vietnam, the PLA completed the established "punishment" purpose, and then the whole army withdrew to the border line. This was a sign of kindness, but it was perceived as weakness by Vietnam. To this day, many Vietnamese still believe that as long as the PLA dares to continue its attack on Hanoi, the main Vietnamese forces can be assembled to defeat the PLA. There are many different remarks, but the victory has been decided, and the PLA has withdrawn.
In order to redeem the defeat, or "not admit defeat", under Le Duan's insistence, the Vietnamese army launched a national war mobilization. A large number of Vietnamese military personnel followed the PLA's retreat and quietly occupied several mountain ranges located at the junction of the two countries, such as the line of Lao Mountain, Zheyin Mountain, and Phaka Mountain. Almost as soon as the PLA returned to the border, the Vietnamese army had already begun to build fortifications on the five heights of Zheyin Mountain, but due to the serious dispersion of the Vietnamese army's forces, our army did not give any drastic response at first.
Two years later, the Vietnamese army continued to harass China at the border. Four new headquarters have also been set up on the main peak of the old mountain to facilitate the shelling of China's border posts and villages. Modern people may ask, why is the PLA so tolerant?Haven't done it for two years?
First of all, it should be added that the Sino-Vietnamese border at that time was far from being as clear as it is now, and the mountains such as Lao Shan and Faka Mountain were just at the riding line of the border between the two sides. In addition, China has always "grasped the big and let go of the small" for the diplomatic problems caused by the border line in those years, so it has not responded to Vietnam's substantive strategy for a long time.
However, the frequent shelling of residential areas and checkpoints by the Vietnamese army still exceeded the bottom line of the PLA, and the PLA overwhelmed the Vietnamese with a reinforced division to retake Lao Son. Naturally, the Vietnamese side will not be convinced, and in order to counterattack again and fight for the Lao Son position, the Vietnamese have deliberately done a lot of work.
The main peak of the Lao Son Mountain Range, with an altitude of up to 1,400 meters and dense forests, is a perfect battlefield for the Vietnamese army to exert its full strength. But the Vietnamese army never imagined that the Chinese People's Liberation Army would be able to recapture Laoshan at such a fast speed. At that time, Vietnam's international reputation had fallen sharply due to the counterattack against Vietnam, and even the Soviet Union began to reduce its investment in Vietnam. In order to salvage his international image and secure more assistance, Le Duan ordered the preparation of a battle plan to retake Lao Son.
For this operation, Vietnam studied in detail the various tactics of the squadron in modern times, and with the participation of Soviet military advisers, formulated a "MB84" operation, and began to prepare among the troops. The preparation of this battle plan took three months, and the whole process was kept top secret.
In the battle plan, Vietnam occupied Lao Son with one division and one division occupied Yin Son respectively, forming a flanking attack, while the two divisions behind were responsible for blocking PLA reinforcements. In this way, the seemingly perfect plan staged a battle of life and death in Songmaoling, and it seemed that it was so logical, and the chance of victory was probably more than 60%, and it was finally lost to the PLA.
The Lao Shan Peak occupied by the Vietnamese army was mainly to strengthen the strength of the division, and the main force of the Vietnamese army was to fight the PLA to capture the Lao Mountain, and the Vietnamese army mainly dug five trenches on the mountain and laid a large number of mines, so the PLA was frustrated at the beginning of the capture, and the men of the two regiments went down the mountain. Thinking that they could win, the Vietnamese army reduced the number of troops pursuing the PLA somewhat, and the other three regiments were stationed at Songmaoling at the foot of Lao Mountain.
However, the People's Liberation Army (PLA) made a turnaround, because instead of rushing directly up the mountain to fight the Vietnamese army, the PLA successfully used the radio to interfere with the Vietnamese army's communications, making the Vietnamese army suspicious and misunderstanding each other. The People's Liberation Army (PLA) quickly launched an offensive when part of the four regiments of the Vietnamese army began to pursue. For a time, the fierce battle on the mountain shook the sky, and the People's Liberation Army of the deep Vietnamese battle line annihilated the Vietnamese army, and the remaining Vietnamese troops retreated in confusion. The main peak of the entire Laoshan mountain range was soon returned to Chinese hands under the attack of the People's Liberation Army.
As for the payment of this victory in Songmaoling, because the PLA adopted a relatively conservative style of play, coupled with the heavy price paid by the Vietnamese army in the offensive, the PLA was relatively small. In this battle, the main force of the Vietnamese army ** thousands of people were annihilated about 4,000 people, while the ** of the People's Liberation Army was relatively small, mainly when the Vietnamese army positions were broken through on the old peaks. This battle can be said to be a brilliant victory of the People's Liberation Army in the Sino-Vietnamese border war in the 80s, and it is also one of the last large-scale battles in the Sino-Vietnamese border war.