After landing, the deputy division commander Geng Zhi searched and guarded the airborne field, and analyzed and judged the ground situation in front of him: the air mixed with the thick smell of gunpowder smoke wafted among the trees, indicating that our bombers had cleared the key military targets of the Indian army around the airborne field; During the parachute landing process, it was not attacked by enemy fire on the ground, indicating that the Indian army was not prepared for anti-airborne landing in this area; There is no sound of gunfire around the airborne landing site, indicating that the enemy has not laid an ambush in advance and will not have much armed force; From the aerial observation during the parachute landing and the current roaring sound of flowing water, it is indicated that it is no more than 200 meters from the Teesta Valley; From the constant sound of branches breaking from the woods, he could tell that his comrades were also falling around him

He took the whistle from the handle of the paratrooper and blew a few muster whistles. Soon more than a dozen fighters of the 5th Company approached from all sides.

Geng Zhi looked at these soldiers who were on high alert and were in a state of attack at any time, and jokingly said: "I am very happy to see that everyone is still all bearded and tailed, okay, everyone immediately separated, searched around, assembled troops, collected war materials and equipment, and rescued the wounded." If there is no fighting, assemble here in 20 minutes, and assemble in the direction of the battlefield. Act now! "Although Geng Zhi is the deputy division commander, he is different from Yang Guang, Yang Guang appears almost wherever there is a war, and he has experienced a hundred battles. It was the first time he had participated in a real battle. He couldn't help but pretend to be relaxed, which was important to his emotions and those of his comrades. He then patted Wang Xiaoping, a communications staff officer who graduated from the Communications College with excellent grades last year and was assigned to the headquarters of the 1st Airborne Division, on the shoulder and said: "Inform Regiment Commander Li Fuen and Deputy Regiment Commander Liu Feng of our location. Immediately contact the commander of the 5th and 6th companies to come here. ”

Then he took out the radio signal detection locator from his satchel, pulled out the antenna, pressed the "A" button and moved it to the left and right at the same time, and soon received radio waves from several containers with airborne equipment within 500 meters. At the same time as the voice sounded, the indicator light was flashing continuously, and he turned to Wang Xiaoping and said, "Staff Officer Wang, don't move here, I'll go collect the airdrop equipment." Come back in 20 minutes. With the loaded in his right hand, he opened the safe automatic rifle and walked towards the locked firing area with the radio signal detection locator in his left hand.

When he drove a wheeled paratrooper rifle with a 14,5-mm high-level dual-purpose machine gun and Red Arrow-54 anti-tank missile launchers on the turret, and six 76-mm smoke grenade launchers on the left and right sides of the turret. When he returned to the edge of the woods, he saw the guard post set up by the 5th Company, and he shouted loudly: "Brothers, there is another car 350 meters southeast of here, go and drive back!" "This wheeled paratrooper infantry fighting vehicle is an important mobile armored equipment of the airborne troops, it has both offense and defense, its armor protection ability is quite good, the front can prevent 12.7 mm bullet attack, and the other parts can prevent 7.62 mm gun bullets and artillery shell fragments, the seven wheeled paratrooper infantry combat vehicles that were airborne this time are the main mobile assault force of this force.

Geng Zhi saw the company commanders of the 5th and 6th companies coming up. He stopped the car and walked out. "It was reported that the 5th Company participated in the operation with a total of 198 people, and now 181 people have been assembled, of which 19 are wounded and 1 is killed. Another 17 have not yet been rebuilt. The weapons and equipment are in good condition, and we have now found 84% of the airdrop equipment. Please instruct when the report is complete. Li Fengshan, the commander of the 5th Company, was the first to report.

"You immediately take your company to occupy the Hilkar Highway Bridge as originally planned, eliminate the Indian troops guarding the bridge, and establish a bridgehead position." Geng Zhi commanded.

"Yes" Li Fengshan, the commander of the 5th company, agreed, turned around and left.

The commander of the 6th Company immediately reported the situation of the 6th Company, which was roughly the same as that of the 5th Company.

"Commander of the 6th Company, you leave a platoon to continue the search for missing persons and airdrop equipment, and it will be used as a reserve for the 5th Company. Build a defense in depth around the village of Durga. After listening to the report of the commander of the 6th company, Geng Zhi issued an order, and then walked beside the paratrooper infantry chariot and used the on-board radio to ask the commander of the LTTE, Li Fuen, about the situation in the town of Saktiga and the assembly of the 3rd and 4th companies.

"The 3rd and 4th companies were killed or wounded, 16% were missing, and the airborne equipment acceptance rate was 89 percent," Commander Li Fuen said on the radio: "There was slight resistance from some Indian armed police and local armed forces in the town of Saktiga, and now the 2 platoons of the 3rd company are clearing these Indian armed men, and the 4th company and another platoon of the 3rd company are advancing in the direction of the new Japeri railway bridge, and my side is not bad so far." The personnel and equipment on Liu Feng's side are similar to those on my side, but the fighting in the county town is very fierce. ”

"Okay, I'll leave it to you over there, I'll go to Liu Feng's side first."

He got into the car and drove with four fighters of the special operations detachment directly under the division headquarters towards Siliguri County, where the gunfire was most intense. The casualties and missing in this airborne landing were close to 16,%. He knew that some of the missing were either seriously injured or killed, and that some had left the airborne field but would soon gradually return to the company. Airborne in such terrain and weather conditions is theoretically quite good to be able to achieve such an effect. But when he really faced such a loss, he felt a burst of heartache. These are good brothers who depend on each other for life and death.

Almost all the windows around the county axe in Siliguri became a point of fire for Indian soldiers and local Indian forces, who climbed onto roofs and hid in ditches, and cats were behind the walls, constantly firing at our airborne troops. Some Indians put buses across the streets, took cover and shot non-stop, and there were even some Indian women in the midst of the resistance. The entire area around the county seat of Siliguri seems to have become a huge bunker. Bullets rained down from all directions. The 1st Company of the Airborne Forces became extremely difficult with each further step. The 1st Company's repeated assaults were always suppressed by dense fire behind the foot of the wall.

Geng Zhi ordered the infantry chariot to retreat to a relatively high slope more than 800 meters away from the county government axe building, and then asked the four soldiers on the vehicle, two guards, and two to take down the 107 mm single-barrel rocket launcher on the vehicle and bombard the four-story county axe in front. He used the 14,5 mm high-level dual-purpose machine gun on the car to sweep the buses in front of the county government axe street, and immediately beat these buses like honeycombs, and the Indian armed men in the cars were immediately beaten to the side

A 107-mm armor-piercing incendiary bomb hit the center of the second floor of the county government axe in Siliguri County, and in an instant, a huge cloud of gray-black smoke poured out of the building, and then the flames rose and ignited a raging fire, and then the two airborne troops fired four such armor-piercing incendiary bombs on the east and west sides of the second floor in turn, and bricks and tiles mixed with the enemy's mutilated limbs flew out of the crumbling building. The entire 2nd floor was bombed and connected to the 5 huge holes, constantly gushing out thick smoke and flames, in the flames, the 4-story building leaned forward, and the whole building collapsed with a "boom", and the entire building collapsed into ashes. The surrounding buildings were shrouded in a huge mass of ash, and the Indian militants in the surrounding houses were stunned, blown up, and stunned. With the help of the huge ash mass formed by the collapse of the building, the airborne troops of the 1st Company of the LTTE immediately launched an attack on the area, throwing handleless grenades through the window doors into the houses occupied by the Indians.

After more than 2 hours of fierce street fighting, the county seat of Siliguri County was finally taken, and the 1st and 2nd companies of the Tiger Regiment also paid 56 casualties, 21 of whom sacrificed their precious lives. In this street battle, more than 2,500 Indian soldiers and local armed men were killed in the 1st and 2nd companies, and the corpses were strewn all over the streets around the county axe. More than 400 Indian prisoners and captured guns and ammunition were handed over to the more than 300 Indian People's Liberation Army (BLA) operating in the area, and under the guidance of two Chinese advisers, the Indian People's Liberation Army (PLA) quickly took over Siliguri County and established the Siliguri County Provisional Political Axe.

Siliguri is the choke point that connects the two parts of India, and some have likened it to the 7 inches of a snake. India, of course, is not willing to let the Chinese choke its throat and pinch its own 7 inches.

Two hours after the Chinese airborne troops landed in Siliguri, Nehru immediately convened an emergency cabinet meeting and decided: No matter what the cost, the Chinese airborne forces must be eliminated and the east-west passage will be opened.

In accordance with the instructions of the Cabinet meeting, the Indian Ministry of Defense dispatched troops from all parts of the country and ordered: The Eastern Military Region immediately organized a force of more than one division to move south with the 9th Division of the Southern Military Region and the 3rd Regiment of the 1st Heavy Armored Division of the Central Military Region to advance from north to south to carry out the strategic task of opening up the Siliguri Corridor and destroying China's airborne troops. The Eastern Military Region immediately organized a force of more than one division to move south with the 9th Division of the Southern Military Region and the 3rd Regiment of the 1st Heavy Armored Division of the Central Military Region to advance from north to south to carry out the strategic task of opening up the Siliguri Corridor and destroying China's airborne troops.

On 18 April, the Chinese Air Force launched a "point-point" operation against the targets of India's Ministry of Defense and other important Indian military command organs, causing almost all high-ranking figures of the Indian military to die in the flames. Since the commander of the Indian Eastern Theater, Lieutenant General Lapson, also died in the bombing, the post of commander of the Eastern Theater was temporarily transferred to the commander of the Indian 33rd Army, Umrao Leeson, who was stationed in the east. Lieutenant General Singh concurrently. Faced with such an erosive situation, Umlao. Singh really didn't want to take over the post at this time, to be this official, but there was no way that the letter of appointment signed by Nehru had already been reached.

Now the situation in northeastern India is precarious, and the strength is even more stretched; there are more than 60,000 men in five divisions in the east; more than 6,000 people in the 7th Brigade of the 4th Division of the Indian Army have all been annihilated in the Battle of Kejielang; in the north facing the pressure of the Chinese army; in the south, more than 3,000 marines and 20 "destroyer" tanks of the Chinese People's Liberation Army landed in the 50,000 Indian People's Liberation Army landing from Chittagong. With the support of 20 "Assault" wheeled armored vehicles and 30 122-mm "Tempest" 40-barrel rocket launchers, a comprehensive and large-scale offensive was launched in northeastern India. In the Guwahati area, more than 40 military strongholds of the Indian army blockade of the liberated area of Meghhala were cleared, more than 3,000 Indian troops were completely annihilated here, and at the same time, a fierce attack was launched against Dimapur and Nagaland.

The purpose of the counterattack operation of the Chinese and Indian Liberation Army, which attacked from the south, was to eliminate more than 5,000 people of the 2nd Division stationed in Tezpur and the area where the headquarters of the 4th Army was located, to join forces with the 1st Airborne Division and the troops of the Tibetan Provincial Military Region to counterattack on the eastern front, to completely annihilate the enemy defending the eastern part of the Indian Army, to liberate the entire northeast of India, and then to move westward and join the counterattack troops of the 6th Army of the Chinese People's Liberation Army on the Central and Western Fronts in the Gangetic Plain of India.

Umrao. Lieutenant General Singh saw that the Chinese and Indian People's Liberation Army had reached his Nagalan nest. He knew in his heart that the East Indies were more than auspicious this time, and in the face of such a powerful offensive, no one would have the strength to return to heaven, and he was just doing his part of the responsibility of a soldier. So it was decided to shrink the front and ordered the commander of the 4th Division of the 4th Army. Major General Prashad abandoned Tawang and returned to Tespur; Order the 2nd Division stationed in the Warong area of the eastern section of the Sino-Indian border to withdraw to the Tespur and Dibrugarh areas, in short, to withdraw from the areas disputed with China, so as not to provoke the Chinese and provoke a larger Chinese attack on the Indian mainland.

Commander of the 4th Indian Division. Major General Prashad. In a hurry, he flew from the 4th Army's Tesspur military headquarters to Nagaland in a two-seater Bell helicopter to join the meeting of the Provisional Acting Commander of the Eastern Military District, Umrao. Singh chaired a military meeting of the Eastern Military District. The meeting was attended by the commander of the 33rd Army, Umrao. Lieutenant General Singh, Commander of the Air Force of the Eastern Military District, Lieutenant General Ma. Jing Nils, as well as most of the leaders of the units above the division level in the eastern part of the Indian Army.

First of all, the commander of the Eastern Military District, the commander of the 33rd Army, Umraou. Singh conveyed the orders of the Ministry of Defense and the operational plans of the Indian General Staff.

The Indian 4th Division was ordered to attack the Siliguri area, advance with the 9th Division of the Southern Military Region and the 3rd Regiment of the 1st Heavy Armored Division of the Central Military Region, and advance north and south to open up the Siliguri corridor.

After hearing this order, the commander of the 4th Division, Prashad, stood up and asked loudly: "Why does this operation have to be completed by our division?" ”

(To be continued)