On March 4, 1979, the Sino-Vietnamese self-defense counterattack battle of Lang Son was in full swing, and our army had advanced to the south of the Qiqi River. In ancient times, there was a saying that "under Lang Mountain, the king of Yue descended", the defense line of Lang Son was broken by our army, and Hanoi fell into a situation where there was no danger to defend, and the mechanized troops were like bamboos, and it only took 48 hours to reach the city of Hanoi.
Although our army had no intention of attacking Hanoi, the battle in Lang Son had shaken Hanoi, and the Le Duan clique urgently issued a national mobilization order, and foreign missions and important Vietnamese departments also withdrew from the capital.
The Vietnamese army's forward broadcast claimed that the 127th Division of our army had been raided, and the division commander Zhang Wannian had been captured alive. Hearing this news, even Chu Chuanyu, who had been through a hundred battles and was not shocked, could not hide his anxiety.
Because no matter how successful our self-defense counterattack is, the capture of a division commander alive will overshadow our achievements, not to mention that this is still the commander of the 127th Division.
General Zhang Wannian's 27th Division is the most precious treasure of our army. In 1924, when the Kuomintang and the Communist Party cooperated for the first time, Comrade ** was entrusted by Sun Yat-sen to reorganize the ironclad convoy of the Generalissimo's Mansion.
At that time, Sun Yat-sen's army mainly relied on local warlords, but among the few armed forces of its own, the ironclad convoy was the core force that Sun Yat-sen relied on the most. After the reorganization, the ironclad convoy became the first army under the leadership of our party.
In the following year, Comrade ** negotiated with the Guangdong warlord Li Jishen, obtained the establishment of a regiment, established an independent regiment led by our party, and the ironclad convoy was merged into the independent regiment, and Ye Ting, a member of our party, served as the head of the independent regiment.
This independent regiment rose to fame in the Northern Expedition and was hailed as:"Iron Army"。"
On the eve of the Nanchang Uprising, General Ye Ting's independent regiment had grown to three regiments, each with about 3,000 men, and the establishment was also changed to the 24th Division, with Ye Ting as the division commander and under the command of Zhang Fakui of the Second Front Army.
The "Iron Army" was not only the core force of the Nanchang Uprising, but they also formed the Second Front Army Guard Regiment and participated in the Autumn Harvest Uprising. The Iron Army in Shangjinggangshan became part of the Red Fourth Army, the earliest Red Army unit, and later the number was the Second Division of the Red First Army, and the first division commander was Liu Yalou.
The three commanders of the Red Second Division, Liu Yalou, Yang Dezhi, and Huang Yongsheng, as well as Xiao Hua, who served as the political commissar of the Red Second Division, were all awarded the rank of founding general. In the Long March, the 2nd Red Division played the role of a pioneer, and they attacked the Wujiang River, crossed the Jinsha River skillfully, captured the Luding Bridge, and captured Lazikou, all of which were the main forces.
In the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, the 2nd Red Division was reorganized into the 685th Regiment, which was subordinate to the 115th Division, and was the main force of the first battle of Pingxingguan.
In the victory of Pingxingguan, the soldiers of the Eighth Route Army returned victoriously with supplies. After the end of the war, this unit was incorporated into the northeast and was numbered the 6th Vertical and 16th Division. **One of the five tiger generals under his command is the six verticals.
There are seven divisions among the Five Tiger Generals, known as the "first-class main division in the Northeast", of which there are sixteen divisions. In the battle of 1946, the 16th Division, together with friendly forces, succeeded in annihilating for the first time part of the Kuomintang American-style mechanized army.
In the major battles in the Northeast, almost all of the 16th Division participated. In November 1948, the 6th Column was reorganized into the 43rd Army, and the 16th Division was renumbered the 127th Division.
This unit fought from the northeast to Hainan Island, and in the battle of attacking Bai Chongxi's department in Guangxi, the 127th Division and the 128th Division plunged straight into Bobaicheng like two sharp blades, and successfully captured Zhang Gan, commander of the Kuomintang Third Corps, alive.
For the 127th Division, Dongye once spoke highly of it: "In the history of our army, it has participated in the most battles, has rich experience, has a brave fighting style, and can both attack and defend ,......
During the war years, the 127th Division of the Iron Army was famous in many wars, but the only war it did not participate in was to resist US aggression and aid Korea. The 43rd Army was the main force attacking Hainan Island, but soon after the liberation of Hainan Island, the Korean War broke out.
Because the 43rd Army was too far away from the northeast, and the southeast also needed to be guarded by a main force, the 43rd Army was not incorporated into the Northeast Frontier Army, but was left in the southeast as a strategic reserve force at the headquarters level.
The symbolism of such troops and servicemen is much more than a victory or defeat on the battlefield. Therefore, when the division commander of such a symbolic unit was captured and the face of our army was lost, Chu Chuanyu naturally couldn't bear it.
And he made the first contribution in the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea, and if there was a shocking heel fight in Vietnam, then he would not be able to accept it anyway.
Chu Chuanyu received the ** of Zhang Wannian, the commander of the 43rd Army, and he was very anxious, afraid that the other party would confirm the bad news on the Vietnamese radio about the destruction of the 127th Division and his capture.
However, when the person who picked up ** told him that it was Zhang Wannian, he still couldn't believe it, and he didn't convey the news to Zhang Wannian until he confirmed it repeatedly. Hearing this news, Zhang Wannian was immediately furious, and directly burst out a word to his superiors: "Nonsense!" ”
At this time, Chu Chuanyu was also very shocked, because Zhang Wannian was safe and sound, and the broadcast of the Vietnamese army was obviously made out of nothing, and fabricating rumors would only make him lose face.
So, where did this news come from on the Vietnamese broadcast?
No wind, no waves"The source of the rumors in Vietnam was about the incident in which the headquarters of the 127th Division was attacked by Vietnamese troops. A Vietnamese special forces infiltrated the division headquarters to carry out a decapitation operation, leaving sixteen bullet holes, and the heroic death of our military personnel in the car.
This incident was very dangerous, fortunately, Zhang Wannian happened to leave the command headquarters at that time and went to the river to smoke and think about the battle situation, otherwise the probability of appearing in the command vehicle position would not be low.
During the period of resistance to the French, Vietnam often used special warfare to attack the headquarters of the French army and important military installations. During the Vietnam War, North Vietnam's frogman team even managed to blow up a U.S. aircraft carrier.
Although the aircraft carrier is docked in the port and the defense on land and underwater is very tight, the success of the frogmen is enough to prove that they are masters of special warfare. During the Vietnam War, more than 1,000 U.S. ships were destroyed at the hands of frogmen.
In 1965, North Vietnam formed its first ** unit, the 305th ** Division, which opened the systematic era of special operations. In 1967, the first operations of all branches of the armed forces were included in the "** arms" and directly under the management of the "** force command" of the North Vietnamese General Staff.
Since 1964, North Vietnam has sent a group of special forces to the Soviet Union every year for training for five to seven years, so that the trainees have enough time to grow into specialists in special operations.
Although Vietnam claimed to be the third in the world in terms of its army after reunification, this was actually just a joke, because Vietnam attached great importance to special warfare and could be said to be the third in the world at the time.
The North Vietnamese are very strict in the selection of special forces, and they need to have five special qualities: special loyalty, special bravery, special determination to destroy the enemy, special discipline, and most importantly, their technical and tactical skills.
Using the skill of using the personal ** is the foundation, the Vietnamese special forces can destroy five targets at different distances with at least twelve bullets at night, and at the same time can throw three grenades to destroy three stationary objects.
On the Lao Son battlefield, the Vietnamese special forces used a bolt of lightning to aim at our army's observation and shooting hole, and only one point shot caused one death and one wound to our soldiers. North Vietnam established a school in 1967 and a new school for non-commissioned officers in 1978.
Vietnam's special forces are usually more harmful than ordinary troops in Sino-Vietnamese self-defense counterattacks. In later border clashes, these special forces often crossed the border to "commit crimes".
It was the cross-border attacks of the Vietnamese special forces on our country that allowed our country to begin to build up its own special operations arms. In 1984, a battle in Laoshan made Ye Shuai, who was accustomed to seeing big scenes, sigh: "I haven't seen so many corpses since the Huaihai Campaign. ”
In the Battle of Lao Son, the army led by Marshal ** faced the attack of the Vietnamese army, relying on the "Simberlin" gun position detection radar imported from the British, and using artillery technology, successfully smashed the Vietnamese army's "Beiguang Plan", in this battle, more than 3,000 Vietnamese corpses were scattered in the narrow Lao Son battlefield, among which many Vietnamese troops were directly blown into blood mist, and even the corpses were not left.
The battle was called "712 "Artillery Battle. Although the number of casualties in this border war cannot be compared with the Huaihai Campaign, the intensity of this battle and the victory of our army are still shocking.
In "712 "On the eve of the artillery battle, one of our country's" Simberlin "radar was almost destroyed by the Vietnamese special forces, this radar was considered black technology at that time, and our country purchased several units with a hundred thousand dollars in the case of a shortage of foreign exchange, each of which is precious and cannot be lost.
Under the infiltration of a platoon, the Vietnamese special forces assembled in a cave in the early morning of the next day and divided into five groups, one group met at the assembly area, and the two groups respectively rushed to attack a mortar position and a certain infantry platoon of our army, and the remaining two groups acted together to attack a certain artillery reconnaissance unit of our army.
The attack on the artillery reconnaissance unit should be the main purpose of the operation, which was undoubtedly an integral part of the "Northern Light Plan". This radar, which was almost destroyed, is an important piece of equipment to ensure the detection of our army's artillery units, and its safety has a bearing on the success or failure of the entire campaign.
Therefore, we must go all out to protect every radar and ensure the combat strength of our army.
Vietnam sent people, and we will send people too. As a result, the reconnaissance brigades of various units of our army began to fight in turns, and the prototype of our army's modern special forces began to appear.
The Vietnamese army's special forces are good at spreading out their operations and cooperating with each other to find the best time to attack. The "famous" units of our army, such as the 163rd Division of the 55th Army, may be focused on by the Vietnamese army, and they themselves will shout the slogans of our army.
The 163rd Division participated in many important battles, including the battle that killed the Japanese army's "flower of famous generals" Abu Xiu. Before the start of the self-defense counterattack, the Vietnamese army threatened to defeat the 163rd Division and capture alive their division commander Bian Guixiang, who had been disabled by injuries in the war.
When the 163rd Division of the old unit was assembled in Pingxiang, a cadre of the supply and marketing cooperative, who used to be a subordinate of Bian Guixiang, excitedly told in public about the unit's achievements and the characteristics of Bian Guixiang.
Vietnamese intelligence officers sent this information back to Vietnam, and offered a reward of $30,000 for Bian Guixiang's head on the radio, while Vietnam** also infiltrated Binh Xiang in an attempt to assassinate him.
According to internal regulations, if you capture Bian Guixiang, you can get 30,000 US dollars and promotion**, and if you kill Bian Guixiang, you can get 20,000 US dollars and two promotions. Considering the difficulty of the task, the top prize is increased to $50,000.
Vietnam** used poisoning of vegetables and fruits to stab them, causing Captain Bien to often miss meal times due to food testing.
In the self-defense counterattack, the 163rd Division lived up to the expectations of the Vietnamese army and was completely annihilated'Regiment of Heroes', and took on the task of attacking Lang Son to annihilate the main force of the 3rd Division. They killed more than 5,200 Vietnamese troops, wounded more than 500 Vietnamese soldiers, captured 38 Vietnamese soldiers, and none of them were captured or missing.
Among all the army divisions that participated in the battle, the 163rd Division performed the most and won the most heroic model titles. And the 127th Division, which is the landmark unit of our army, also attracted the attention of the Vietnamese army, and they put it forward'Eliminate 127 and capture Zhang Wannian alive'slogan.
Zhang Wannian, the commander of the 127th Division at that time, was the third generation of outstanding commanders of our army. He joined the Eighth Route Army at the end of the Anti-Japanese War, and later gradually grew into a grassroots commander and communications chief in the northeast battlefield of the Liberation War. "
General Zhang Wannian, who accompanied the Northeast Field Army all the way south, accumulated rich military experience. He has made many meritorious contributions in his positions as chief of the training unit and operational staff officer.
In 1958, he entered the Nanjing Military Academy for further study, systematically improving his military literacy. After that, he successively served as regiment commander and senior position in the Operations Department of the Guangzhou Military Region, and in 1968 he was selected to Vietnam to inspect the Battle of Khe Son.
The Vietnamese army has a certain degree of fear against these commanders of our army. In the self-defense and counterattack wars, many commanders of our army at and above the division level have gone to Vietnam for military assistance or inspection, and have an in-depth understanding of Vietnam's topographical characteristics and the Vietnamese army's tactics.
Two generals, Zhang Wannian and Bian Guixiang, joined the military advisory group of our army twice to provide assistance to the North Vietnamese army. Soon after the Battle of Xishan, Zhang Wannian was appointed commander of the 127th Division, a position he held for more than ten years.
It's not a neglect of him, it's a yes"Iron Army"of attention. Let an outstanding commander work for a long time"Iron Army"to help keep it up"Iron Army"traditional and combat effectiveness.
In the self-defense counterattack, the 127th Division broke through Zhima and eliminated more than 800 Vietnamese troops, which played an important supporting role in the Battle of Dong Deng. Then, the 127th Division captured Luping in one day, quickly cut off Highway No. 4, eliminated more than 380 Vietnamese troops, and prevented the reinforcement of the 338th Division of the Vietnamese Army to Lang Son, so that our army's operational plan for capturing Lang Son was effectively guaranteed.
Continuing to maintain an offensive posture will mislead the Vietnamese army into believing that a large-scale river crossing has begun, and they will be too busy defending to concentrate their forces on attacking the 127th Division troops that have already crossed the river.
1.In the self-defense counterattack against Vietnam, Chief Zhang Wannian's emergency disposal plan was highly praised by the Eastern Front Command and the head of the 43rd Army. However, Zhou Shizhong, deputy commander of the Wuhan Military Region, reminded Zhang Wannian that he should use the heavy artillery fire to create a false impression and make the Vietnamese army restless all night, and that the plan could only be successfully completed if the troops crossing the river persisted until dawn.
2.That night, the Vietnamese troops on the opposite bank were forced by our artillery fire to run around, unable to make wise decisions, let alone mobilize heavy troops to besiege the two battalions of the 127th Division crossing the river.
Chief Zhang Wannian stayed awake all night, paying attention to the changes in the battle situation throughout the whole process, and even smoked seven packs of cigarettes. 3.However, just as Chief Zhang Wannian was about to think about a different environment just 100 meters away from the command post, several Vietnamese special forces suddenly attacked his command vehicle.
You know, why did the Vietnamese special forces easily approach the division command post of our army in battle? On the one hand, it was because the Vietnamese army was cornered and did not hesitate to send special forces to take risks, and on the other hand, Zhang Wannian's command post was too far ahead.
During the self-defense counterattack against Vietnam, Chu Chuanyu asked Zhang Wannian about the location of the command post and the distance from the front line when verifying the Vietnamese army's broadcast. Zhang Wannian replied that it was 100 meters away from the front line, and Chu Chuanyu thought that the command post was too close to the front line, because the Vietnamese special forces could not penetrate deep into our army's defense area.
Although our army has corresponding regulations, Zhang Wannian still insisted that the command post should be at the front. Based on his experience in Vietnam, he believed that in the mountainous and jungle operations in the first belt, the troops must be more closely pressed, otherwise it is easy to be interspersed by enemy troops and it will be difficult to distinguish between friend and foe.
In mountainous areas, there are also good conditions for defense in front of the command post. Therefore, in the self-defense counterattack, he ordered the command posts of the division, regiment and battalion of the 127th Division to be no more than two kilometers, one kilometer and five hundred meters from the front line during the day, and further retract them at night depending on the situation.
The 127th Division, under the command of General Zhang Wannian, attacked the south bank of the Qianqi River at night, and the situation was urgent. Although the divisional command post was only a hundred meters away from the front line, it was still picked up by the Vietnamese special forces.
They crossed the Qu Chi River, occupied the entire Lang Son, completely annihilated the 3rd Division of the Vietnamese Army, and smashed the propaganda broadcast by the Vietnamese Army. On the way back to China, the 127th Division also killed the horse pistol many times, inflicting heavy losses on the Vietnamese army's follow-up troops, and achieved outstanding results.
Our army's reconnaissance units have also shown great strength, they can go deep behind enemy lines, and within one minute, use silent guns to destroy the personnel of the Vietnamese army's command post, destroy communications equipment, and search for military materials, so as to completely suppress the Vietnamese army's special warfare.
At the end of the 80s, the Vietnamese army called on both sides to stop the special war through border radio, and since then the glory of Asia's first special operation has become history.