Nong Huai is a border town only four kilometers away from Dong Deng, a major military stronghold in Vietnam, and the villagers here were moved to the rear more than half a month ago because the Vietnamese army frequently caused incidents nearby. Quick read

Of course, it cannot be ruled out that our army had planned for a long time that a unit would leave here to fight, and the villagers were transferred in advance. This is done in order not to let the Vietnamese army agents know the starting point of our army, and even to deduce the offensive line of our army from this.

I know from Hu Shaowen that just as his mother is Vietnamese, there are not a few border villagers who intermarry with Vietnamese. Some of them are 'women' who have married them, and some of them are married to 'women' over there. Of course, there will be men who will also get into it. Therefore, on the Sino-Vietnamese border, the intricate kinship has blurred the national boundaries and thoughts of the people.

Many of them eat in China in the morning and visit relatives in Vietnam at noon. For them, it's normal to walk between the two countries through a few small roads that we don't even know about.

Therefore, if we let the border people know about the stationing troops in this place, it is difficult to guarantee that the news will not reach the ears of the Vietnamese army, after all, a considerable number of these border people are Vietnamese themselves. Once the situation of our army's garrison on the border is in the hands of the Vietnamese army, the consequences can be imagined. The Vietnamese army, who is familiar with the terrain, can completely deduce the offensive route of our army from the positions of our troops.

Therefore, it is undoubtedly the best choice to move the border people to other places before the war, and it is also out of consideration for the personal safety of the border people. After all, once the battle starts, bullets and shells don't know who civilians are.

At this time, we are lurking on the border not far from the southwest of 'Nong' Huai.

After drinking the expedition wine with the division commander in the barracks, we received the order to go back to the barracks to rest. Normally, at this time, it should be the time for the poet to do our ideological work to make us express our determination, but today nothing is scheduled for us to go back to the camp and rest so early...... So even Hu Shaowen knew that the war was imminent, and let us rest in order to recuperate our 'essence'.

Sure enough, at twelve o'clock that night, we were woken up by the low roar of the company commander. I don't think any of the soldiers except me fell asleep, one was because they didn't have the right time to rest, and they couldn't sleep when they were in bed too early. The other, of course, is because of the nervousness before going to war.

Therefore, although the company commander's cry was not loud, the soldiers all heard it, and they all got up from the 'bed' to sort out their equipment.

The march was carried out 'in the dark', and there were no cars and no flashlights, all for the sake of secrecy. It wasn't until more than an hour after we arrived at the 'lane' that I learned from the company commander that our first target was the 386 Heights, a kilometer away.

The 386 Heights are a high ground on the border to Vietnam, and this high ground controls a road and our 'Nong' Huai Pass, and our regiment must pass through the foot of this high ground if it wants to attack from 'Nong' Huai. This was undoubtedly a great obstacle to our regiment's attack, so our regiment ordered the three companies of the 2nd Battalion to attack from its northern, western, and southwestern flanks when the battle began, and to first pull out this nail to ensure the smooth advance of the large force.

The lurking place was full of half-human-high thatch, and the moon was dark and the wind was high, so a battalion of fighters lurked here without fear of being discovered by the enemy. What's more, at this time, we are still lurking on the side of the border close to China. Strictly speaking, we don't have any "fouls" yet, it's just that we all know that it won't be the same in a few hours.

I held up my binoculars and looked at our target, 386 Heights, and I couldn't see anything in the pitch black. Occasionally, a few glowing sparks flickered on and off. I knew it was a Vietnamese sentry smoking, and if I had a modern sniper rifle in my hand, I might have tried to target them......

Of course, this is just talk. Even if I had such a sniper rifle in my hand, I would not dare to reveal the intent of our troops in advance, unless I was impatient.

There are a lot of mosquitoes and ants, which makes me regret that I didn't listen to the people in my hometown and apply some mosquito repellent when I came up. The reason why I don't apply it is because I am more afraid of the smell than mosquitoes, such as mosquito coils and so on, and I always get dizzy the next day after using this thing. So many times I would rather let the mosquitoes have a full meal, at least this is also to carry forward the Buddha's dedication to cutting 'meat' to feed the eagles.

But what I didn't expect was ...... The mosquitoes here are not comparable to the mosquitoes I used to have in college. The big ones are as big as spiders, and the small 'flesh' can't be seen with the eyes, especially the kind with black and white 'flower' patterns all over the body, and the mouth is so powerful that it can be bitten through a thick military uniform.

But fortunately, I have been lurking in the Korean War in the past few years, so I can still bear this little suffering, and I will be numb when the mosquitoes bite.

More than two hours later, we slowly crawled towards the 386 heights in front of us under the orders of the company commander. I have to admit that some of the fighters made a loud noise, and their movements were so rapid that their water bottles and weapons collided with the stones on the ground, making a "clang" sound. Although the sound is still not loud, if the Vietnamese army listens carefully, they will definitely hear something.

I don't think these fighters were the ones I brought out of the boot camp, because they had already been trained by me to know how to stealthily and stealthily. For example, the kettle should be firmly tied behind the back, the gun should be tightly carried on the back, and the red 'colored' collar badge and the five-pointed star on the military hat should be blackened with mud in advance, and so on. So I can be sure that the ones who made these noises and made these movements must have been the veterans.

Thinking of this, I couldn't help but shake my head secretly, since I competed with He Pingbiao that day, Company Commander Li arranged those veterans separately into our three platoons, but I felt that it might be better without them.

When I was climbing across the border, I noticed a stone stele, which I couldn't see very clearly because it had an angle with it, and I could only vaguely see two big red characters "China" written on it through the thatch and the night 'color'. Then I understood that this is the boundary monument, which is used to mark the demarcation of the Sino-Vietnamese border.

This made me realize that one step further would be Vietnam and war, but I didn't hesitate to climb over. At this time, the war has long been beyond my decision, it is destined to start in the early hours of this morning

When we were still more than 400 meters away from the 386 heights, we stopped again. The latent distance should not be too close, otherwise the artillery preparation of our army is very likely to injure our own people by mistake. I used to want to take out my pocket watch to look at the time, but I soon realized that the pocket watch that Master Pang gave me had long since lost what time and space it was.

When I was idle and bored, I searched in my mind for information that I knew in modern times about the self-defense and counterattack war against Vietnam. After all, I have had the experience of the Korean battlefield, and I know that my greatest role at this time is not the combat effectiveness that I exert as a platoon commander, but the ability to be a "prophet" of a modern person.

In fact, I only know much about this battle. As a journalist, I have access to more or less information about this, but it's just incoherent. After seeing the map given by the people in my hometown, I vaguely remembered something.

In this operation against Vietnam, the whole country was divided into two fronts, the north and the south. The Northern Front was commanded by Li Desheng and was used to prevent a surprise attack by Soviet Russia; The Southern Front was commanded by General Xu Shiyou.

Since China has two provinces, Guangxi and Yunnan, and Vietnam 'crossing' borders, the Southern Front can be divided into two theaters, the eastern and western theaters. The western direction is the Eastern Theater of Operations, commanded by Xu Shiyou; The direction of Yunnan is the Western Theater, which is commanded by Yang Dezhi.

Obviously, the division I am in belongs to the Eastern Theater of Operations, that is, the troops that crossed the border from Guangxi. The main battles in this direction were Dong Deng, Cao Binh and later the Battle of Lang Son.

A very interesting thing also happened in the fight against Dong Deng and Gao Ping, our army first surrounded Dong Deng with superior forces, but surrounded but did not attack, so that the Vietnamese army thought that the main direction of our army's attack was Dong Deng, so Lang Son had reinforcements and did not dare to support Gao Ping. At this time, our army launched a full-scale onslaught on Gaoping. In this way, the Vietnamese army mistakenly thought that they had been tricked, and immediately sent reinforcements to support Cao Ping. When the attention of the battlefield was focused on Gaoping, our army launched a fierce attack on Tongdeng, although it paid a certain price, but it still successfully defeated Tongdeng, the important place of soldiers.

As you can see from the map given to me by my hometown, our division is actually a unit that has penetrated into the enemy's rear to surround Tongdeng.

"Pass the order down and get ready for battle"

"Pass the order down and get ready for battle"

……

At this moment, a command came in a whisper from the front, and I realized that it was almost time to start fighting. Looking at the sky, I have already slightly spit out the white of the fish's belly, and I don't know where a few roosters' crows came, which seem to tell us that a new day is about to begin.

In terms of the timing of the offensive, there is still a big difference between the counterattack against Vietnam and the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea.

During the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea, we basically fought at night, and most of the time we chose to start the war was in the evening or when it was dark, which was determined by the disparity in equipment between China and the United States at that time.

As for the counterattack against Vietnam, we prefer to fight it during the day. This is not to say that our weapons and equipment are better than those of the Vietnamese army, but on the contrary, Vietnam received a large amount of Chinese and Soviet aid in the confrontation with the United States, coupled with a large amount of equipment left behind when the United States withdrew its troops, so that the firepower of the Vietnamese army is obviously stronger than ours. Most of our army's infantry is still using Type 56 semi-automatic rifles, but the Vietnamese army has popularized Soviet-style AK47......

The more important reason why we chose to fight during the day was that the terrain in Vietnam was complex and our army was not familiar with the terrain. In this case, if you still choose to fight at night, it is tantamount to jumping into a trap with your soldiers.

"Sudden ......" three red 'colored' signal flares rose into the sky, and I hurriedly covered my ears at the first moment, and then the "boom ......" cannon sounded.

Pieces of artillery shells flew like locusts carrying fire from all directions towards the enemy's positions, and burst into patches of dirt 'waves' on the enemy's high ground. The shock 'waves' from the shells blew the thatch around us everywhere. The sky cracked, the earth shook, and the sky darkened again, and only the fire from the shells struck everywhere on the enemy's position like a long whip wielded by death. Barbed wire, fortifications and mines...... In an instant, it was wiped out in this firelight.

The Vietnamese artillery also began to return fire, which can be seen from the fireworks-like lights that burst out of the sky, that is, the shells fired by the Chinese and Vietnamese sides collided in the air. But it is clear that the artillery fire of the Vietnamese army is much weaker than ours.

In fact, this is also something that the Vietnamese army, which is known as the third military power, did not expect at all, and at this time, the artillery firepower of our army has surpassed that of the Soviet Union, which has always attached importance to artillery. Since it has surpassed the Soviet Union, it is naturally many times stronger than the Vietnamese army. This made them exclaim after the war that China's artillery fire was already stronger than that of US bombers. At the same time, it also made them see clearly that they were still far from the third military power in the world

Thirty minutes later, three red 'colored' incendiary shells rose again in the sky, the artillery fire began to extend, and the infantry began to attack. The fighters shouted "kill" and jumped up from the grass and rushed towards the enemy's 386 heights.

Rushing ahead were the company commanders and veterans, and those who were lying on the ground motionless were the recruits who had just joined the company. The veterans still charged the enemy position in a dense formation in their own way, while the recruits who had never seen this scene were so frightened that they couldn't get up at all, including the little ghost Hu Shaowen who had always wanted to fight.

Only the three platoons I brought out of the boot camp covered each other and walked forward, and the soldiers were on guard and 'crossing' each other in twos and threes to 'press' the enemy's position. Company Commander Li seemed to be annoyed by our "cowardly" style of play, and turned around and shouted at us with a pistol, but no one paid any attention to him

After taking a few steps forward, I held a rifle to guard the front, and at the same time 'took time' to push Hu Shaowen, who was lying on the ground and didn't dare to get up. At this time, he was like a frightened rabbit, and his whole body was shaking violently.

"Platoon, platoon commander......" Hu Shaowen turned his head to see that it was me, and said with his teeth fighting: "I don't want to die, let me go home, okay......"

"It's okay," I pulled Hu Shaowen up and said, "You just need to remember one thing, just follow me, can you do it?" ”

"Hmm" Hu Shaowen hesitated for a while before he mustered up the courage to nod.

"Grab your gun and keep up," I said, raising my rifle and leading the soldiers towards the heights. A little ghost like Hu Shaowen shouldn't be a soldier at all, but now that he is here and has become one of my soldiers, then I will not give up on him.

"Kill"

There was a loud shout of killing from the left and right flanks, the 4th and 6th companies that had attacked the high ground with us. Our movements slowed down, and they naturally rushed forward.

I was a little overwhelmed and wanted to make them stop, but I knew it wouldn't work at all. All I can do now is to take my company well and let them play their due combat effectiveness on the battlefield as soon as possible. Only in this way can as many lives of the fighters be saved as possible.

Then I was stunned by the fact that some of the cowardly soldiers in the charging ranks deliberately ran behind the line, and that was nothing, at least he still had the courage to follow. But the mistake was that in order to be bold, they raised their guns and 'indiscriminately' shot at the front, and many soldiers who rushed to the front fell under their guns in this way.

They fell not at the guns of the enemy, but at the guns of their comrades......

"What are you doing?" Perhaps seeing us backward, Company Commander Li angrily brandished his pistol and shouted at us: "Don't you see that the comrades are charging? How can anyone fight like you? Cui Wei, who is a coward, immediately order your troops to charge, or I will kill you......"

Before the words fell, the machine guns on the 386 heights rang out, and the soldiers who rushed ahead fell in front of us in pieces, followed by the explosion of grenades, and we watched as the fighters were thrown from the hilltop position by the shock 'wave'. The two companies that were still charging just now were overwhelmed by the enemy's fire, and the air was filled with the smell of blood and death in an instant

Seeing this, I couldn't help but curse secretly, and they waited until our army was only 20 or 30 meters away from the hilltop position before they started, undoubtedly trying to put our army in a dilemma.

Anyone can see that the fourth and sixth companies are very dangerous at this time.

Keep the charge? The machine guns and AK47s in the hands of the Vietnamese army were enough to withstand any crowd. The Soviet-style AK47's penetrating power is no joke, as it can easily 'shoot' through 6 mm thick steel plates, 15 cm thick brick walls, 30 cm thick soil layers or 40 cm thick wooden planks at a distance of 100 meters. Under this kind of weapon, if you blindly hit and rush, you will get nothing but death.

Is it lying on your stomach like this? The soldiers are now in the range of the Vietnamese grenades, and it is only a matter of time before the whole army is wiped out.

Now, in fact, only our fifth company is able to move and have combat effectiveness

"Mortar," I shouted without looking back.

"Yes," the fighters responded, and immediately set up mortars and bombarded the Vietnamese positions.

"Boom ......" more than a dozen shells hit a wall of fire at the hilltop position of the 386 Heights one after another, which gave those soldiers some respite.

I continued to walk a few steps forward with my gun in hand, and when I passed by Company Commander Li, I threw him a sentence: "Fighting a war is not about pretending to be a family, and it is not just about relying on high consciousness."

I don't know how Company Commander Li would react after hearing these words, but I think his face will definitely not look good