Chapter 52: The Siege Mission

Chapter 52: The Siege Mission

The air was filled with the choking smell of smoke as the jungle burned, and for two days, the whole of Tongdeng had become a world of smoke and fire. If you walk out of the anti-artillery 'hole' during the day and look into the distance, the originally lush jungle outside will either become black like an ugly crow, or it will be burning with fire and black smoke.

The troops were not busy moving on, and in fact we could not have advanced without eliminating the Vietnamese agents.

This may be the difference between a modernized unit and a weakly equipped unit, during the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea, where would we care about what logistical supply lines were threatened, and the men of several armies went on the road barefoot with a week's worth of dry rations and dozens of bullets. And most of them are 'inserted' into the enemy's rear.

But now, with the equipment becoming more and more advanced, such as tanks, artillery, cars, etc...... These things either need to use diesel and gasoline, or a large number of artillery shells to follow, as well as hundreds of thousands of ammunition and supplies, etc., which will become a weakness of the troops.

Therefore, it is true that everything has two sides of its nature. When the volunteer army was poorly equipped, it seemed to be a shortcoming, but in fact, it greatly enhanced the mobility and flexibility of our army. And now, when the equipment of our army has been raised to a new height, it is constantly under the constraint of supply, and the whole unit has become cumbersome.

Just like the U.S. military during the War to Resist U.S. Aggression and Aid Korea, they will never let their supply lines be exposed in front of the enemy, and we will not make this mistake today.

It is precisely because of this that we stopped the offensive and temporarily cleaned up the remnants of the Vietnamese army agents in Dong Dang and Cao Ping.

Compared with attacking the camp and pulling out the village, the task of clearing and suppressing is much better in terms of combat intensity and casualties. But we are not loose in carrying out this task. The main thing is that these dangers are unknown, and the Vietnamese army has laid a large number of mines and ambushes in the jungle.

There are two main types of mines, one is the pressure mine, which explodes as long as it is subjected to a certain pressure. Although there are mine detectors, the Vietnamese army has a large number of Soviet-style wooden shell mines, and after the lesson of squad leader Wu, no one dares to believe in mine detectors too much.

Another more powerful is tripping mines, which are made of copper and iron wires the thickness of a human hair, and hung them individually or in series on tree branches, in grass or on the sides of sidewalks. As soon as someone trips over the wire, it immediately causes a chain explosion. This kind of mine is generally small in size, the largest is like a steamed bun, generally like a walnut or a plum, and the color is grass green, which is exactly the same as the wild fruits in the mountains, and it is impossible to distinguish at all.

Let's not talk about having a mine detector to deal with tripping thunder, and you have to be careful to see it clearly even when picking a fruit or...... If there is a tripping thunder under the buttocks, it will "boom" as soon as the shit goes down......

So there were still casualties, and in two days, five soldiers were blown off their 'legs' by landmines while searching the mountains. Two fighters were killed on the spot by tripping thunderbolts hanging above their heads. There is also a soldier named Chen Daishun, whose sacrifice has left a particularly deep impression on all of us in the company.

It was during the search for a village between the No. 4 and No. 5 heights, and the hometown people approached the dozen or so bamboo houses with a platoon of people. Li Shui and I divided into two directions in the rear and used SVD sniper rifles to cover the advance of our hometowns.

"The first group, five meters in front of the corner with a commanding height, covered by machine gunner fire"

"The second group, the terrain ahead is open, it is easy to be attacked by the enemy, slow down"

While paying attention to the movement in the village, Li Shui 'Bo' and I reported the various favorable and unfavorable terrain of the village to the three platoons on the mission, and guided them forward. The soldiers of the third platoon also constantly adjusted the formation and firepower configuration according to our orders in real time.

This is synergy, and at the same time another function of the sniper's keen observation.

Under our guidance, the 30 or so soldiers of the third platoon approached the village as if they were alone.

"Wait" At this time, Li Shui' suddenly reported: "There are people in the bamboo building at eight o'clock"

"The troops stop advancing" I immediately ordered: "Prepare for battle, call those inside to come out and surrender"

"Yes," the fighters responded, and each found a favorable terrain and set up machine guns, submachine guns, and recoilless guns against the bamboo towers of the village......

This is the difference after getting the clearance document from the superiors. In the past, under the constraints of the "three major disciplines and eight points of attention" and under the principle and policy of "cherishing every grass and tree in Vietnam, and not beating or scolding the Vietnamese people more than our own people," would we dare to use guns and artillery whenever a suspicious target appeared? It would be strange that he was not sent to a military court and was not beaten as an anti-** who deliberately destroyed the image of our army

But now we have the confidence, what can this bamboo building be? Can you block bullets and shells?

Hu Shaowen raised the loudspeaker assigned to us by his superiors and shouted at the bamboo building in Vietnamese: "The comrades inside put down their weapons and come out, and if they don't come out, we will shoot."

"The comrades inside came out ......"

According to the usual practice, shout three times and wait for a few minutes, if no one comes out and no one speaks, then nothing is said, a bullet or shell will be smashed over

But when the second shout came, the two windows of the bamboo building slammed open, and two "people" holding AK47......s and shooting guns outward.

Two gunshots rang out "bang ......bang bang", and Li Shui 'wave' and I fired them almost at the same time, and the two people fell backwards and disappeared.

At this time, the soldiers of the third platoon were not polite, and with the order of the hometown, the weapons in the hands of the soldiers rang out. Rows of bullets poured out, hitting the bamboo building "crackling", and bamboo chips and fragments jumped everywhere like freshly exploded popcorn 'flowers'. Then there were a few more cannon shots, and the recoilless cannon completely blasted the bamboo buildings in front of them into powder.

In fact, those Vietnamese agents also knew very well that their resistance would not work at all, but in the end they chose this path.

"Group 1, go up and scout"

Under my order, the hometown people quickly went up with a group of people. At this time, most of the reconnaissance was to determine whether there were any living mouths, or whether there were other Vietnamese troops hiding.

The voice of the hometown soon came from the other end of the walkie-talkie: "There is no living mouth, there are eight people in total, five men and three 'women', who are angry because they are hungry in the mountains and go to the village to find something to eat."

After a while, I heard my hometown scolding on the walkie-talkie: "His mother drops these more devils eat our Chinese grain."

"It's not all made in China"

"And these weapons too"

"Eat our food, use our weapons to fight us, and he is raising a group of white-eyed wolves"

……

The scolding of the fighters came from the walkie-talkie, which soon caused a lot of scolding from the other fighters. I have also heard a little about this in modern times, and when the Vietnamese army was fighting against the Japanese, the French, and the Americans, we in China have always fully supported Vietnam. In the past few decades, China has never interrupted its support for Vietnam, and even many weapons have been used to support the Vietnamese army before our country has been equipped, and the people of the whole country have tightened their 'trousers' belts to send bags of rice and white flour to Vietnam. During this period, Vietnam also regarded China as a "comrade and brother" relationship, but in the blink of an eye, in order to hug the big 'legs' of the Soviet Union, it turned its face and did not recognize people......

The warriors were all indignant, but I didn't think there was any fuss. Because I think that there is no morality or how it should be between countries, and in the final analysis, it is all two words: "interests".

Therefore, there is no problem for Vietnam to do this out of interests, but the victory over the United States has carried them away, making them think that they are already the third military power in the world, while our country has just ended the "chaos" in ten years. Coupled with the support of the Soviet Union, Vietnam was almost certain that China would not dare to go to war on the north and south fronts, and therefore would certainly not take action against them......

It is precisely because they are convinced that China will not "make a move" that Vietnam dares to be so arrogant on the border, and it is precisely because of this that they dare to ignore the Sino-Vietnamese border and send hundreds of thousands of 'elite' troops to attack Cambodia...... Otherwise, why would he, a poor country that had fought for decades, have enough to eat and have nothing to do, and just ended the war, so why would he provoke a war with a big country around him?

But Vietnam was really wrong, they really didn't expect that China would dare to do something against them in the face of the Soviet Union's Chen Bing's northern front. If they knew that this battle would be fought for 10 years, not only dragging Vietnam's economy to death but also indirectly helping China's economy to take off and promoting the reform and growth of the Chinese army, then they would not have committed suicide by caesarean section.

Now that the matter has come to this, the Vietnamese leaders have no choice but to slap their swollen faces and become fat, and continue along this erroneous line of foreign 'diplomacy'. What kind of people are soldiers, what are protests to the United Nations...... It's all self-inflicted. It is said that this guy has just invaded Cambodia on the front foot, and before this soldier has withdrawn, he turned around and protested against China's aggression against Vietnam......

So I don't think there's anything to be angry about, but what can I think of as a blessing if I lose my horse, and what can I count as this little bit of food and weapons and equipment in front of me compared to the economy and army of the whole country?

The soldiers scolded in the bamboo building for a while, and finally in order to prevent these things from being used by Vietnamese agents, they let the fire fighters go up and burn them clean.

Just as they were walking back from their mission, an accident happened.

With a bang, one of the fighters blew off the mine and was thrown high, and when it fell back to the ground, his right foot was gone. If this were another warrior, I am afraid that it would be a loud scream. But he didn't, and he shouted at the warriors: "Don't come, don't come...... There's a mine under me."

I couldn't help but be stunned, and so could the soldiers.

There are two things that make us stunned, the first is that the soldiers can't imagine how this soldier can be so calm after being blown off a 'leg', he can not only keenly feel that there is a mine under him, but also stop other soldiers from approaching him in time

The second ...... There was a mine under him...... Let him press, then how to demine? When the few sappers assigned by the regiment came up, they were also helpless about it.

It was suggested that the soldier be bandaged first, but the sappers were quickly stopped on the grounds that he had a mine on his body that would explode at the slightest movement

Everyone is helpless about this situation, even me. In the end, I could only watch the soldier's blood flow from the broken leg to the fountain, watch the soldier's face become paler and paler, watch him get weaker and weaker, and finally roll his eyes in the sun, and never get up again.

Later, I learned that his name was Chen Daishun and he was a city soldier from Shenyang. This changed some of my thoughts about the city soldiers.

After three days of purging, we combed back and forth like a comb in these five highlands several times, and finally cleared the Vietnamese army agents in this area. Of course, we can't guarantee that there is not a single Vietnamese agent, and even rats can run to our dry area from other areas, right?

One thing is certain, however, that there is no 'hole' in the area we are responsible for that can be hidden, and there will not be a single grain of unburned rice.

Because our company completed the task earlier than the other units, this allowed our company to be much more idle in the days that followed, and when there was nothing to do, we would put a platoon and walk back and forth on the high ground a few times. Of course, because I was worried that there would be mines, I still went up with mine detectors.

In the evening of that day, the choking smell of smoke finally weakened a little, and the slanting sun shone through the layers of black smoke in the sky of Tongtian to the anti-artillery "hole" where we were, leaving a faint red "color" at the mouth of the "hole".

The fighters, as usual, walked around the high ground with mine detectors, and after platoon a few mines, they returned to the station. The instructor habitually took out his notebook and wrote something on his lap with his back to the sun; Li Shui'bo squatted on the side of the 'hole' and wiped his beloved sniper rifle with a clean handkerchief, and from time to time put on a 'shooting' posture and aimed it for a few minutes; the deputy company commander took out a pack of Hongmei brand cigarettes and 'smoked' it with Yang Songjian; while Alziri and Shunzi occasionally used their binoculars to look at a nearby small river......

Ever since we found a group of Vietnamese 'women' bathing in the river, these two guys have fallen for this 'problem', and as soon as they have time, they borrowed binoculars from me, saying that they wanted to observe the enemy situation and stand guard for us, but everyone knew what they were looking for

But to their regret, in the past few days, our troops have been ruthlessly cleaned up, not to mention the Vietnamese army agents, and even those real ordinary people have also shied away from us. So in the river near where we are stationed, not to mention the Vietnamese 'women' bathing, there is not even a cow.

The "company commander" couldn't find anything on the surface of the river, so Junko came up a little bored and said, "Which unit do you say is responsible for clearing this river?" Why don't we go and talk to the regiment leader, anyway, now that we've completed the task, let's search with them."

"I said Shunzi" The deputy company commander laughed so hard when he heard this, he choked on the smoke and coughed violently, and it took a long time before he quipped: "According to me, you don't want to help clean up, but you still want to think about the bare-bottomed Vietnamese 'woman'."

There was a coax, and the soldiers all laughed.

Shunzi blushed, leaned against the wall of the 'cave', and muttered in her mouth: "Just think about it, don't you want to?" I'm afraid I'm more panicked than I thought."

Junko's words caused another burst of laughter from the warriors.

"How?" I smiled and asked, "Haven't you had enough of the lesson last time?" Want to do it again? ”

"That's not every Vietnamese 'woman' is an agent, is it?" Junko replied.

"I see," the deputy company commander continued: "Junzi is called the peony 'flower' to die, what is that?" ”

The deputy company commander has only remembered half of the idiom for this 'fault'.

"The peony 'flower' dies, and the ghost is also romantic" Instructor Xie took the second half of the sentence without raising his head.

"Yes, yes, that's it" The deputy company commander laughed: "I think our Shunzi is just waiting for this day"

"Go, go, go...... Who wants to die? Junko replied dissatisfiedly: "I'm still waiting to go home and hug my daughter-in-law."

I can't help but feel funny when I see the fighters making jokes so unscrupulously. If anyone dared to tell such a yellow 'color' joke in the era of resisting US aggression and aiding Korea, it would go without saying that it would soon be attributed to a "style problem." But the current soldiers can laugh and laugh easily, and even the instructor is still sitting on the sidelines and ignores them. And I believe that if I were a different instructor, I would probably be involved in this joke.

I don't know how to define the soldiers of these two eras, but there is no doubt that they both have a cute side. The former soldiers were simple and positive. And now the soldiers are more real and dare to express their inner thoughts.

At this time, a communications soldier ran up to me, saluted, and said, "Company Commander Cui, the regiment commander asked you to go to the regiment headquarters."

"Hmm" I couldn't help but be stunned when I heard this, there is a task again? But it will be dark in more than half an hour, what other tasks can there be? The devils won't search at night, will they?

With suspicion, I came to the regiment headquarters with the deputy company commander, and the regiment commander Zhao nervously pulled me to the map, drew a circle on a small river with a pencil and said: "Immediately take your troops and surround this place."

"Surround this creek? Enemies? "Hearing this, I couldn't help but ask in doubt.

"Don't ask anything more, you just have to complete the task," Political Commissar Huang replied: "You must pay attention to the fact that your task is only to encircle and no one can enter this encirclement, including yourself."

"Yes" The deputy company commander and I answered and glanced at each other, but I didn't expect Junko to really get his wish.