The self-defense counterattack war against Vietnam was the most recent war in which the People's Liberation Army (PLA) dispatched hundreds of thousands of troops one after another, and in less than a month, it cleared the northern part of Vietnam and dealt a heavy blow to the Vietnamese army. However, this battle did not end quickly, and the unconvinced Vietnamese army continued to transfer its main forces to the northern region and fought a ten-year war with our army on the border.
In order to temper the actual combat capability of the troops, to maintain peace and stability in the southern Xinjiang region, and to deal a heavy blow to the Vietnamese aggressors, our army has asked all major military regions to take turns to draw troops to Lao Shan and the Yin Shan area in turn in the past 10 years. From April 28 to May 1, 1948, the 14th Army of the People's Liberation Army drew out the 40th Division and the 122nd Regiment of the 41st Division to recover the Lao Son area, but the Vietnamese army was unwilling to defeat and constantly sent troops to counterattack, but they were all repelled by our army.
In the case of many inconclusive offences, Vietnam, with the cooperation of Soviet advisers, set up an artillery command post of the Second Military Region, and transferred more than 40,000 people from the 153rd Regiment, 149th Regiment, 150th Artillery Regiment, 82** Regiment, 1st and 3rd Battalions of the 168th Artillery Brigade, and two battalions of the 368th Artillery Brigade. Vu Li, commander of the Second Military Region of Vietnam, graduated from the Nanjing Military Academy and was very familiar with the strategy and tactics of our army. To this end, Wu Li collected 100,000 rounds of large-caliber artillery shells from all over the country and prepared for a decisive battle with our army.
In order to prevent a sneak attack by the Vietnamese army, our army has also made preparations for a long time, and the light ** ammunition has reached 3 bases, 82 mm mortar shells, 5 bases of 100 mm mortar shells, 85 plus, and 122 howitzers5 bases, 130 rockets 15 bases, divisional stocks of ammunition 05 cardinal bases; 5 days of dry food reserves, 2 to 7 days of canned food, 8 days of staple and sideline food, first-aid kits and liquid medicinal materials are stored at 3 times and 10 times the amount of combat readiness respectively; Kerosene stoves, barrels, pots, noodles, rice, soft bags, vegetables, etc., were distributed to ensure that the defense troops had two hot meals a day. In this way, the operational needs are well guaranteed.
On the evening of 11 July, through the information obtained by our intelligence department and the information obtained by the army's reconnaissance department, it became known that the Vietnamese army would carry out a sneak attack on our army's Songmaoling position on the Lao Son front line in the early morning of 12 July. In order to prepare for this campaign, the Vietnamese army mobilized nearly ten regiments of troops from the 316A Division, the 356th Division, the 1st Division, the 3rd Artillery Division, the 18th Artillery Brigade, the ** Regiment, the Tank Regiment, the Engineer Regiment and other units, with a strength of 20,000 troops. However, only the 14th Regiment of the 40th Division of the 119th Army was defending in the forward position, and the disparity in strength between the two sides was very great.
At about one o'clock in the morning of the 12th, our army's radio intercepted a telegram from the Vietnamese army, which was deciphered to mean that all units were ready. The commander of the 40th Division called ** to Zhang Youxia, the commander of the 119th Regiment, and asked him if he was the commander of the Vietnamese army, he would put the troops in **, and the commander of Zhang Youxia replied, within 500 meters of the front line of our army's position. After the first round of artillery strikes, the front of our army's position did not react, but after the second round of artillery fire, the Vietnamese troops who were ambushed at the front of our army's position could no longer bear it anymore and began to rush up like crazy, and our garrison immediately returned fire.
After the Vietnamese army began to operate, three small-caliber artillery battalions carried out artillery strikes on the three-kilometer section of the front of the army position, and then changed to large-caliber artillery fire, and the 122 plus howitzer group carried out fire strikes on the rear supply bases, artillery positions, follow-up units, and support units of the Vietnamese army. Due to the largest number of Vietnamese troops, in the end, our army pulled up all the tanks and carried out artillery strikes on the charging Vietnamese troops. By eleven o'clock in the afternoon, the supply of shells was a little out of stock.
Upon learning that the artillery shells on the front line were in an emergency, the Yunnan Military Region Headquarters immediately ordered all the more than 200 military trucks of the military region to be dispatched, and ordered the troops to stop the vehicles and pull the shells on several highways relatively close to the ammunition depots. In less than half a day, more than 800 civilian vehicles participated in the transportation of artillery shells, and the drivers and masters who passed by were also very excited, regardless of the danger, to transport the shells to the front line.
During this day, our artillery fired a total of more than 3,000 tons of artillery shells at the Vietnamese troops, killing more than 3,800 Vietnamese troops at the forefront of our positions. The Battle of Songmaoling on 12 July played a blow to the military might of our army and dealt a heavy blow to the arrogance of the Vietnamese invaders.