On March 5, 1979, after 16 days of "punitive warfare" against Vietnam, ** issued an order to withdraw troops, and our troops began to withdraw from Vietnam in an orderly manner.
On March 6, 1979, the day after the withdrawal order was issued, the 150th Division of the 50th Army of the Chinese People's Liberation Army and the 448th Regiment received an order to march towards Vietnam.
On March 19, 1979, more than 200 cadres and soldiers of the 448th Regiment, including Deputy Chief of Staff Fu Peide, were surrounded and forced to surrender when they ran out of ammunition and food.
Fu Peide also became the highest-ranking officer captured by our army in the self-defense counterattack against Vietnam.
At that time, the PLA had already announced the withdrawal of troops, why did the 448th Regiment re-march into Vietnam and return to the battlefield the day after the withdrawal was announced, when all the combat units were retreating in an orderly manner?
Fu Peide, deputy chief of staff of the 448th regiment, why did he surrender?
What did the 448th Regiment go through after it entered Vietnam?
What happened to Fu Peide after he was exchanged for a prisoner of war?
In this article, we will take this series of questions and re-enter the "punishment war" against the Vietnamese invaders 42 years ago, and explore those unknown historical moments.
In the face of the constant provocations of the Vietnamese aggressors and their actions, our army decided to fight against self-defense and counterattack.
In the early morning of February 17, 1979, more than 20 infantry divisions marched in unison, and the "punitive war" began.
In less than half a month, it will conquer important Vietnamese towns such as Lang Son, an important town in northern Vietnam, and the capture of Hanoi, the capital of Vietnam, is just around the corner.
At that time, Vietnam was very arrogant, claiming to be "the third military power in the world". In the early stages of the war, they confidently believed that they were fully capable of resisting an attack from our army.
Vietnam's self-confidence comes from?
First, they believe that they have the assistance and support of the Soviet Union and have received a large number of advanced equipment.
Second, they believe that China has not experienced a major war for decades since the Korean War, and many soldiers lack battlefield experience. Since the founding of the People's Republic of China, Vietnam has almost never stopped wars, from the War of Resistance against France, to the War of Resistance against the United States, and then to the war of aggression against neighboring countries.
However, what the Vietnamese invaders never expected was that things were not at all as they imagined, and the fierce attack of our army made Vietnam, which had just begun to resist, a little overwhelmed.
Our army went all the way to the south, and Vietnam also went all the way to the south.
The difference is that our army is attacking all the way, and Vietnam is retreating all the way.
On March 5, 1979, our troops, having achieved the goal of punishing the Vietnamese invaders, began to withdraw to the country in an orderly manner.
The troops who withdrew to the country were warmly welcomed by the masses, they were heroes who fought for the country!
In the process of our army's retreat, because there were a lot of stragglers and brave Vietnamese troops along the way, they attacked and harassed our retreating troops from time to time, so that the safety of our troops in the process of retreat was seriously affected.
In this case,On March 6, 1979, the front command of the Guangzhou Military Region ordered the 150th Division of the 50th Army to carry three regiments, including the 448th RegimentUnder the coordination of the command group of the 50th Army stationed in the 150th Division, it marched into Vietnam to carry out the tasks of covering the safety of the retreating troops and clearing the route.
The 150th Division was prepared as a reserve before the war, originally belonging to the Chengdu Military Region, and after the start of the war, it was transferred to the Guangxi front, ready to go out to fight at any time.
At that time, in order to prepare for combat, the 150th Division urgently replenished a large number of newly recruited soldiers. So many new recruits were replenished at once, but there was not enough cadre team to manage, so a group of young cadres who had no experience in the war were temporarily promoted. It was in such a situation that the 150 Division was transferred to the front.
The same was the case with the 448th Regiment of the 150th Division at that time, due to the expansion of new recruits, the 448th Regiment at that time had a total of three infantry battalions and five directly subordinate companies of nearly 2,500 people, but the whole regiment basically had no battlefield experience.
After leaving the country, the task of the 448th Regiment was to occupy both sides of the road, clear out the remnants of the Vietnamese army, cover the safe and orderly withdrawal of combat troops to the country, and collect the materials of the Vietnamese army and search for the lost soldiers of our army.
In the early days of the invasion of Vietnam, although the 448th Regiment had no combat experience, all the soldiers performed heroically in the implementation of clearance and defense work, and captured a number of high grounds.
On March 10, the 150th Division, which had basically completed the task of clearing and covering the situation, decided to withdraw north to China according to the order of the higher authorities.
On March 11, there was a serious disagreement between the commander of the 150th Division and the command group of the 50th Army stationed in the 150th Division on the retreat route.
Let's talk about why the 150th Division at that time had such a "Emperor" organization as the division headquarters? Who is the composition of the garrison command? What is the purpose of its composition?
Since the founding of the People's Republic of China, the PLA has basically not experienced any major wars, except for the large-scale War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea and the small-scale self-defense and counterattack war against India. Most of the officers basically trained and prepared for war in a peaceful environment.
When it came time for the self-defense counterattack against Vietnam, most of the cadres at the division level and below basically had no actual combat experience, except for cadres with military status who also had combat experience.
At that time, China's external environment was not optimistic, and the national economy could only develop steadily and steadily under the strong support of the army, and in addition, the conditions of the army were much better than those in the localities, so many people were reluctant to leave the army and hoped to stay in the army for a long time.
At that time, the total strength of the PLA exceeded 4 million, which was very bloated. In addition to one political officer and one military officer, the other deputy positions are basically more than 5 people, and the most can reach more than a dozen people, and there are not a few.
In particular, during the self-defense and counterattack operations against Vietnam, various problems began to come to the fore due to the bloated command structure. When operational meetings are held, there is a lot of gossip and talk about troops in the command structure, and sometimes an issue that can be resolved quickly is discussed for several hours or even more than 10 hours, which seriously affects the progress of the troops.
Therefore, under these circumstances, the Central Military Commission and the front-line command decided to delegate most of the deputy posts to the troops to participate in commanding operations, except for retaining a few posts. There are several benefits to this:
First, these deputy-level cadres who have been sitting in organs for a long time should be trained in war and play a role in streamlining the command organs.
2. Playing a supervisory role in the troops.
Third, play the role of the old and the new.
At that time, this policy decision basically played a very good leading role, and it also trained a group of cadres.
In this case, the 150th Division also formed a garrison command group composed of deputy army commanders, deputy military commissars and other leaders.
On the return route, the 150th Division advocated bringing it back by the same route, and as long as it arrived safely in China, the 150th Division would successfully complete the mission.
However, the garrison command group did not agree with the 150th Division's retreat route, they thought that this route was too simple, the 150th Division was too conservative, and the garrison command group believed that the 150th Division could achieve a greater victory.
So he chose a route that, in the opinion of the head of the division headquarters, could not only train the team, but also clear a large amount of Vietnamese supplies on the way back:Banying - Naga - Langzhuang - Tianfeng Mountain.
However, the 150th Division did not agree to this route, because as far as they knew, this retreat route had complicated terrain, and the 121st Division of our army had suffered great losses on this route.
When the two sides were seriously disagreeing with each other, they had no choice but to consult the front-line command of the Guangzhou Military Region. The front command quickly called back, agreeing with the 150th Division's retreat route and quickly retreating to avoid encountering contingencies and causing losses to the troops.
But when the telegram reached the 150th Division, it was destroyed as waste paper by the careless confidential officers.
The 150th Division did not reply to the front-line command for a long time, and under the pressure of the garrison command group, it could only retreat according to the retreat route given by the command group.
At that time, the task of the division command group was to make recommendations to the unit and to supervise the unit. However, these commanders of the 150th Division were above the division headquarters, completely commanding the subordinates from their superiors, and the subordinates had to obey the attitude of their superiors, forcibly denied the correct retreat route of the 150th Division, and let the 150th Division forcibly carry out the 150th Division according to their own intentions when they did not know the enemy's situation, the terrain, and the specific situation of the 150th Division.
Finally, under the command of the garrison command group, the units of the 150th Division began to retreat. Among them, the 150th Regiment of the 448th Division was ordered to retreat from the Banying area to the north.
After receiving the order, the commander of the 448th Regiment quickly gathered his troops and decided to act in unison with the whole regiment, but at this time, the garrison command group asked the 448th Regiment to disperse and retreat.
This was completely contrary to the regimental commander's idea of retreating, but under pressure, the 448th regiment could only carry it out.
The 448 regiment was forced to retreat in two groups:
1. Li Shaowen, commander of the 448th Regiment, Fu Peide, deputy chief of staff, and other major leaders of the regiment led the first and third battalions of the 48th Regiment to take the main road.
2. The deputy regiment commander and deputy political commissar will lead the second battalion, as well as the regiment's special service company and reconnaissance company, to take a small road.
In this way, without being at all familiar with the environment and the enemy's deployment, the 448th Regiment was launched.
Something unfortunate finally happened.
On the morning of March 12, the second battalion and other units led by the deputy regiment commander began to retreat, and the road was calm, and at noon, when the troops were about to arrive at Naga village, they were suddenly ambushed by the Vietnamese army.
At this time, the first battalion and the third battalion led by the regiment commander immediately sent a telegram to the division headquarters after receiving the telegram that the second battalion had been attacked, requesting that the troops be united and retreat.
In this quarrel and argument between agreeing and disagreeing, time was slowly wasted, and the second battalion and other units on standby, anxiously waiting for the opinion of the regimental headquarters, this wait was an afternoon, plus the regimental leaders who led the second battalion at that time had never had actual combat experience, and they panicked at the beginning of the battle, and could not give any favorable instructions to the troops.
This waited until about 10 o'clock in the evening, and there was no telegram from the regiment headquarters, and the regimental leaders who commanded the second battalion and other units had to decide to grope their way forward and march north alone.
Such a long wait gave the Vietnamese army enough time to deploy troops.
In this way, the second battalion and other units quietly walked into the encirclement of the Vietnamese army.
In the early morning of March 12, the second battalion and other units that were resting were suddenly attacked by the Vietnamese army, because there was no preparation in advance, the second battalion and other units were miserable, the deputy regiment commander was killed, the deputy political commissar was missing, the second battalion commander was scattered, and the troops were scattered and hid in the face of the fierce artillery fire of the Vietnamese army in the face of the loss of command.
When the battle of the second battalion began, the leaders of the second battalion asked the regiment commander for instructions, and the regiment commander then asked the division headquarters to urgently let the whole regiment rescue the besieged second battalion and other units, but in the end the division command group refused.
In the case of being forced to be helpless, the regiment commander avoided the division headquarters and the division command group and decided separatelyFu Peide, deputy chief of staff of the regiment, led the 1st and 8th companies directly under the regiment to quickly rescue the 2nd Battalion and other units that had been dispersed, and re-establish the command and lead the troops to break through.
However, at this time, the Vietnamese troops besieging the second battalion and other units had already become large-scale in numbers, and mentally they had just won the battle, and their combat effectiveness was very strong.
When the 1st and 8th Companies of the regiment directly under the regiment led by Deputy Chief of Staff Fu Peide arrived at the Naga area besieged by the 2nd Battalion and other units, they were quickly surrounded by a surprise attack by the Vietnamese army, and the team was quickly dispersed.
In this way, in the absence of any reinforcements, most of the remaining officers and soldiers of the second battalion and other units were killed under the search and siege of the Vietnamese army, a few were missing, and the rest were captured.
After being besieged by the Vietnamese army, the first company and the second platoon of the eighth company were broken up together, and the deputy company commander of the eighth company with a platoon was nowhere to be found, completely losing contact with Fu Peide.
Fu Peide and the commander of the 8th Company led the few remaining soldiers of the 8th Company, and under the strict siege of the enemy, they decided to climb to the top of the mountain, control the commanding heights, contain the enemy, and wait for reinforcements.
On the evening of March 12, taking advantage of the night, under the leadership of Fu Peide, all the personnel began to climb the mountain, but at this time, the morale of the troops was scattered, and when they climbed halfway up the mountain, many people had already fallen behind and did not want to climb.
Fu Peide began to do ideological work for all the personnel, but it basically didn't work, so Fu Peide had to continue climbing the mountain with the eighth company commander and other 4 people.
But at this time, the Vietnamese troops under the mountain discovered the situation on the mountain, and the Vietnamese army quickly surrounded our personnel on the mountain.
At this time, Fu Peide decided to stop climbing the mountain and went down the mountain to meet the warriors who did not follow halfway up the mountain. At that time, he wanted to be unable to leave, and he also wanted to drag the enemy down and create more favorable conditions for the large army.
On the evening of March 14, Fu Peide, who was trapped in the middle of the mountain, led the remaining team to decide to break through.
However, since the departure of the army on March 6, to the dispersal of the troops by the Vietnamese army, and then to the topHiding in the mountains for several days in a row, without water or food, the fighters were very tired, and some of them even developed severe dehydrationThere is simply no strength to fight.
In this case, Fu Peide combined the remaining backbones to listen to everyone's opinions, and everyone talked about three opinions:
1. Persist in guerrilla warfare and wait for rescue.
2. Being trapped alive.
3. Break through.
In the end, everyone's opinions were unified on the third opinion:Breakthrough! It is one to be able to live one.
They decided to send a few men to feel the enemy's situation first. But when these people went down, they never came back.
At this time, Fu Peide and the remaining soldiers were ready to fight to the death.
It was not until the morning of 19 March that the Vietnamese army, which had run out of patience, began to use heavy artillery to carry out a devastating bombardment of Fu Pei Duc and others on the mountain, in an attempt to kill all the people on the mountain.
Under the strong attack of the enemy, some of the fighters could not hold on, and in order to save them, they rushed down the mountain and shouted: Don't fight, let's come down.
But Fu Peide insisted on not surrendering, but when he searched for the hidden warriors and decided to continue fighting the enemy, he found that these warriors had already descended the mountain and surrendered at some point, and there were not many people on the mountain anymore.
Not long after, under the pressure of the commander of the eighth company, Fu Peide was forced to surrender to the Vietnamese army.
In this way, at 4:00 p.m. on March 19, Fu Peide, who was extremely tired after being cut off from water and food, surrendered to the Vietnamese army after seven days and nights of wrestling with the enemy.
After descending the mountain, all the captives were taken to a stadium by car. On the way,Fu Peide wanted to run several times, but due to his extreme weakness, he did not succeed in the end.
In the concentration camp where prisoners of war were held, Fu Peide was imprisoned in a cell that did not see the light of dayAfter being tortured and devastated, the enemy coerced and tempted Fu Peide to pry open his mouth, but Fu Peide gritted his teeth and never revealed a word of our army's secrets to the enemy.
On May 21, 1979, China and Vietnam reached an agreement to exchange prisoners of war.
Before the friendship pass, witnessed by many foreign countries, under the auspices of the United NationsOne for one, peer-to-peer exchange.
Fu Peide finally returned to China, he didn't expect that he would come back alive.
After returning to China, no matter what the objective reason, Fu Peide was still sentenced because of the defeat on the battlefield.
After being released from prison, Fu Peide never had a chance with the military again in his life, according to the memories of a veteransaid that in his later years, Fu Peide worked as a handyman in a schoolrarely speaks, maybe at this time, he prefers to live his life quietly and quietly, and does not want anyone to disturb him.
Forty-two years of gunpowder dissipated, and the Iron Horse Glacier was gone.
In the past, the war was raging, and now the courtyard is swept alone.
In the past 42 years, the smoke has dissipated, and it is not human or wrong to change the stars and move things, we are not people of that era, and it is difficult to understand the pain and joy of that era.
Heroes and captives are terms that can only be used in war, and no one wants to be captured during the war years, and no one wants to be a hero.
It is disgraceful to be captured, but as long as you keep your bottom line and the dignity in your heart, you will be tolerated and cared for by the people.
Prisoners and traitors must not be equated, and the difference between a captive and a traitor is only one morality.
Once morality is degraded, not only will it be spurned by the people, but it will also lose the qualification to be a human being.
To keep the moral bottom line, there is always a light ahead.
Because history is written by the people.