There is an old saying, "The battalion of iron is the soldier of flowing water", the original meaning is that the replacement of the old and the new troops is like flowing water. When the veteran is discharged from the army, this sentence seems sentimental. In terms of combat effectiveness, veterans who have fought in battles have rich experience and are the backbone of the troops, but veterans always have to retire and need to be replenished by a steady stream of new recruits. There are no recruits, where are the veterans. In the winter of 1978, Li Helin, who lived in a county in central Henan, signed up for the army and was not yet 19 years old. After three months of emergency training, he participated in the self-defense counterattack against Vietnam. 
According to Li Helin's recollections, there were many people who wanted to become soldiers at that time, including many enthusiastic young people who were determined to serve the country, some people who did not eat well at home, and many educated youths who were eager to return to the city. At first, Li Helin trained in Hubei and belonged to the 11th Tank Division. Before the Spring Festival, the field troops were dignitaries, and their recruit company was transferred to Yuanyang before the training was completed, and they were incorporated into the 54th Army, known as the "Central Plains Iron Army". In the 54th Army, the recruit companies were dispersed to various infantry and artillery units for first-level combat readiness training. Li Helin was assigned to the 82 (mm) artillery company, and there were more than 30 people in his regiment from the same county as him, and one of them went to the battlefield. Here is a brief mention of the famous 82 gun in the counterattack, a shoulder-fired recoilless gun that imitates the Soviet Union, which can fire grenades and armor-piercing shells. At that time in 79, our army should still be using the Type 65 82mm gun. 
According to the data, the failure rate of the Type 65 82 gun is not low (mainly due to the problem of shells). For example, in "Garland Under the Mountain" (the movie of the same name was very popular that year), when Xiao Beijing fired a recoilless gun, he was sacrificed due to a "stinky bomb"**, and he used a Type 65 82 gun. Since 81, our army has begun to be equipped with Type 78 82 guns, and its performance has been much more stable. On the fourth day of the Lunar New Year in 79, on the day when the combat units of the 54th Army left for southern Xinjiang, Li Helin met his father at the station early in the morning. His father didn't know who he heard about going to war, so he went to Xinxiang overnight, and arrived at the Yuanyang army before dawn, and the company commander said that there was no place to live, so he had to wait outside until dawn, and finally saw his son. Li Helin and his company organized a movie that night, and when the movie was halfway through, they notified an emergency assembly, and then set off on the expedition. When the troops went south, the train they took was a "stuffy tank car" with only four doors and four small windows. At that time, there were a large number of recruits in various units, and Li Helin heard that in other units, some recruits were afraid to go to the battlefield, and some even injured themselves. Li Helin and his regiment did not have this situation. 
According to Li Helin's recollections, after the start of the war, the 82nd Artillery Company was ordered to support the front troops in the operation, and went deep into Cao Binh, an important military town in northern Vietnam. At that time, Gao Ping had been defeated by the main attacking forces such as the 41st Army and the 42nd Army, but there were still sporadic battles along the way, and the Vietnamese army hid and fired cold guns. The driver of a car in which Li Helin and the others were sitting was shot and killed not far from the country. When it was almost time to reach Gaoping, the 82nd Artillery Company and the 7th Infantry Company were climbing over a small hill when they were ambushed by the Vietnamese army and fought. Li Helin and his unnamed comrade-in-arms Zhang hurriedly seized the advantageous terrain, Zhang had a big head and carried a cannon, and Li Helin held a scope. As a result, Zhang fell headlong and was hit by a bullet. Li Helin hurriedly dragged him to a shell crater, hid behind the stones, and the bullets crackled on the stones, and it was the enemy machine gunners who were aiming at them. There were not many enemies in ambush, the two sides exchanged fire for a while, the infantry company outflanked it, killed three or four enemy soldiers, captured two prisoners, and the battle ended. 
However, Zhang's injuries were not light, and he was sent to the rear hospital, where 4 bullets were taken out of his body, and he lost sensation in his lower body, and he could only use a wheelchair for the rest of his life. After being discharged from the hospital, his father saw his son like that, and he was in pain and almost went insane. Because there is only one boy out of five children. His fiancée stayed in the army for one night and left him the next day. After Li Helin retired, he saw Zhang in the army sanatorium, and said that such a sturdy guy was so thin that he lost his human shape, and he cried when he saw his comrades. Li Helin had no education, only went to primary school for one year, and did not write a blood book before joining the war, but he said arrogantly, "As long as I go abroad to fight, I don't care, if I Li Helin does not make meritorious service, I will commit suicide by jumping off the mountain and will not return to China!" "Not to mention, he really made a contribution in the next battle. 
After arriving in Gaoping, Li Helin's battalion did not enter the urban area, but was stationed on the mountain, and there was a river next to it, and their task was to guard a bridge over the river to ensure the logistics and transportation of our army, and they held it for more than 20 days until the troops triumphed. They dug a lot of holes in the ground that looked like rural vegetable cellars, and covered them with branches and leaves. At night, they work in pairs, holding grenades, and curl up in the hole for the night before going out during the day. Without an order, he was not even allowed to come out. The vigilance at night is mainly based on passwords. But Vietnam is very powerful, and it is familiar with the terrain, and it will feel the sentry and sneak attack at night, and often even know our password. Within a few days, someone from the troops guarding the bridge went missing, probably captured by the Vietnamese. So the troops changed their passwords every day, such as the sentry shouted the password "north" and the other party said "Beijing", and they were right. Otherwise, shoot directly. 
One night, the Vietnamese ** carried out another sneak attack, which was exposed, and the regiment commander personally came to direct the battle. The enemy was scattered in two places, and a platoon commander of the anti-aircraft machine gun company of Li Helin's battalion was seriously wounded and was reportedly sent to the hospital but was not saved. But Vietnam didn't take advantage of it this time, several. Among them, 3 Vietnamese ** were very cunning and hid in a hole dug by our army not far away. What's going on? It turned out that the hole that our army dug at the beginning was relatively large, and it was possible to hide a squad, but it felt unsafe, in case the enemy sneaked up and threw grenades into it, and a squad would be gone, so it gave up the big hole and dug a small hole, and could only hide two people. Vietnam** secretly ambushed in the big hole. Li Helin said that after the battle began, the Vietnamese hiding in the cave fired indiscriminately with machine guns, and the 82nd Artillery Company and the 73rd Detachment (mortar company) fired several shells there, but they did not know who hit the target, and the enemy's machine guns were dumb. After dawn, there were three corpses of Vietnamese soldiers. A few days later, the 7th Infantry Company fought the attacking Vietnamese troops on the hill north of Cao Ping. The 82 artillery battery went over for reinforcements. When Li Helin went up with the cannon on his back, he saw that the commander of the 7th Company of Huang Company was fighting with wounds, he was shot seven or eight times, and his intestines came out, so he stuffed the intestines in, tied up the wounds and continued to fight. 
After the battle, the commander of the Huang company was taken back by a ***, fortunately it was not a fatal injury, and after recovering from the injury, he was awarded the title of "combat hero" and directly promoted to the battalion commander. Company Commander Huang was a native of the south, and later the troops made a special trip to take his parents to Yuanyang, where the officers and men lined up to welcome him. Speaking of Li Helin, after the battle to support the 7th Company, he was so exhausted that he fell asleep at the foot of the mountain. If his comrades-in-arms hadn't found out that he had fallen behind and immediately returned to wake him up, he would probably have been captured by Vietnam. So Li Helin also felt afraid. He said that two comrades-in-arms from Hubei in the 82nd Artillery Company died in Vietnam. After returning to China after the war, the troops rested in Guangxi for more than a month. His comrades-in-arms said that Li Helin was brave on the battlefield and completed the task well, so he was rated as a third-class meritorious service. This was the only third-class merit of their 82nd Artillery Company in the counterattack. 
After returning to Yuanyang from Guangxi, the troops should promote a number of meritorious personnel. But Li Helin is uneducated and can't read, and the instructor said helplessly, it's a pity that you didn't go to school and didn't have a chance. Later, the comrades-in-arms in the participating troops who received regimental and even high-level commendations were promoted, but Li Helin could not be transferred to the volunteer army for a long time. In 1982, Li Helin didn't want to wait any longer and proposed to retire from the army. The people from the veterans office said that you have made meritorious service on the battlefield, you can be assigned a job, go back and wait. However, Li Helin waited for three years, and the resettlement problem was not resolved. The reason is that he is uneducated and difficult to arrange. In the end, Li Helin had a relative who worked in the county and communicated with the veterans office, saying that Li Helin had made meritorious contributions in the army, so he had to find a job for him. Subsequently, the county people's hospital said that Li Helin could be allowed to come to work in the hospital. There was a small printing shop in the hospital, and Li Helin became a printer. Now that Li Helin is over the age of six, looking back, in addition to the smoke of the battlefield, what he will never forget is the scene of returning to his hometown to visit his relatives after the war. After the troops returned to their garrisons, the officers and men participating in the battle were allowed to take a week's vacation in batches and go back to see what they were doing. 
The commune in Li Helin's hometown had long known that he had made meritorious contributions, and he hit the company and asked him when he would come back, and the Armed Forces Department of the commune also urged him. Li Helin took a leave of absence and took the train back. The next morning, Li Helin was stunned as soon as he got off the train, and he was greeted by students from the fifth grade to high school in the commune, militia units, captains of various brigades, and production captains. His satchel was snatched from him, he was helped to carry it, the welcoming procession beat gongs and drums, set off firecrackers, and surrounded him to the commune to make a report at the congress. The minister of armed forces also said that Li Helin is the only person in our commune who has made meritorious contributions on the battlefield, and it is the glory of our commune. At the end of the briefing, the welcoming team beat gongs and drums to send him home. Li Helin recalled how simple the people were at that time!