The 37th Division of the 13th Army of the People's Liberation Army (PLA) is an old Red Army division, and the division headquarters and the backbone of the troops have been relatively intact in the reorganization over the years. During the Anti-Japanese War, it was reorganized into the famous 129th Brigade of the 386th Division, which made the Japanese army angry. During the self-defense counterattack against Vietnam in 79, the 13th Army was deployed in the direction of the Yunnan border on the western front, and the task was to force the crossing of the Red River from the mouth of the river to the Ba Sa area, and to attack Lao Cai and other places in Vietnam. With the coordination of the 14th Army, the 13th Army annihilated the 345th Division of the Vietnamese Army and the enemy on the front line of Gu Liu, Bao Sheng, and Gu Shan, and disabled the 316A Division, the ace of the Vietnamese Army, with artillery fire and brother troops. 
The 37th Division went out to fight for 20 days, penetrated 25 kilometers deep into Vietnam, and conquered more than 100 large and small mountains, with good results. After the war, the 3rd Company of the 110th Regiment was awarded the title of Heroic Company by the Military Commission, and Liu Jianjian, deputy company commander of the 5th Company of the 109th Regiment, and martyr Wu Yong, deputy squad leader of the 9th Company of the 111th Regiment, were awarded the title of "Combat Hero" by the Military Commission. The author read some fragments of the memories of veterans of the 37th Division on a forum, among which the personal experience of the elder Mu of the 4th Company of the 109th Regiment is impressive. According to Lao Mu's recollection, when the 37th Division broke through the Vietnamese defense line and hit the hill behind Lao Cai, the Vietnamese army began to retreat, and the army and the common people mixed together and fled along the road. The vehicles were crowded, and people who couldn't get into the car ran on the ground, and there were also many people who helped the old and the young, and there was chaos. 
The 4th Company Striker had already chased to the vicinity of the road, and Lao Mu said that the scene of the Vietnamese retreating was similar to that of the Kuomintang army in the movie. The crowd is dense, and if a round of artillery fire is covered, the results of the battle are amazing. Lao Mu was unwilling to let go of such a fighter, and immediately used the radio to call for artillery fire, but there was a problem with the radio, perhaps because his ears were deaf, in short, he couldn't call. Lao Mu was very anxious, and shouted to the communicator Xiao Liao, telling him to run back to report the situation and fire at the fleeing enemy as soon as possible. Xiao Liao ran back as soon as he slipped away. But after waiting for a long time, Lao Mu and they didn't see the artillery fire, Xiao Liao came back panting, and the reply he brought made Lao Mu feel puzzled. I don't know if it was an order from the division headquarters or the head of the regimental headquarters, just 4 words: "Let them go." ”
Lao Mu suspected that he had heard it wrong, this was a war, and the ready-made opportunity in front of him could destroy the enemy in large numbers, and it would not wait for the expiration date. He glared and asked Xiao Liao, "What?."Xiao Liao repeated the order loudly: "Let them go!.""Why?The old pastor asked, but he didn't believe that it was an order from his superiors. Xiao Liao explained: "As mentioned above, there are too many people to fight, let them go." Only then did Lao Mu suddenly wake up. Thinking of that scene many years later, he said that he really didn't understand the chief's order at that time, but after thinking about it, he really didn't want to see the bodies of innocent Vietnamese people lying on their backs, but he just felt that it was a pity to let go of the remnants of the Vietnamese army. 
Lao Mu said with emotion, this is our army, the most ferocious in the war, and it is also the most civilized army in the world. Because of this, our army is invincible. If he were a superior commander, he would probably not be able to give the order to open fire. According to the data, in the 79-year counterattack, the 37th Division destroyed more than 2,200 enemies (more than 2,100 were killed, more than 70 people were captured, and the actual results were greater, because the enemy destroyed by our artillery fire could not be completely counted), and the 37th Division itself had about 900 people (200 sacrificed and 700 wounded), and the 13th Army had the highest exchange ratio among the three divisions. In 1985, the whole army was reorganized, and the 37th Division was renamed the 37th Infantry Division of the 13th Army of the Army, and the 13th Group Army was under the jurisdiction of the 37th Division, the 38th Division and the 149th Division (Iron Fist Division). At the beginning of 1988, the 13th Group Army was ordered to send 1 division and 1 infantry regiment to participate in the Laoshan round battle. 
After repeated consideration, the army commander considered that the 149th Division was a brother unit (originally part of the 50th Army) that had been reorganized for a short time, and it was inconvenient for it to go to the front line to shed blood and die, so he could only choose one of the 37th and 38th Divisions. The 37th Division has old qualifications and brilliant historical records, and the army commander Chen Shijun came from this unit and knows the roots. In the end, it was decided that good steel should be used on the blade, and the 37th Division should be used!At the end of April 1988, the 37th Infantry Division and the 112th Regiment of the 38th Division, the Group Army Artillery Brigade and other units were 170,000 people rushed to the Laoshan front line to change defense with the 27th Group Army of the Army. At that time, Vietnam was trying to improve relations with China, and the Vietnamese army's artillery shelling and sneak attacks were significantly reduced, and there were only skirmishes on the front line. Under these circumstances, the main task of the 37th Division, in accordance with the instructions of the superiors, in the Laoshan Theater was to "maintain moderate military pressure on the enemy" and extend the time of rotational battles until the border battles were all over.