[394] Bayard Battle Group

After Ho Chi Minh left, General Tran immediately sent a telegram to the Central Committee regarding the current form of struggle, and the Central Committee's reply was also very clear.

“…… The enemy's intention to reoccupy Dongxi was inevitable, which gave us the opportunity for movement warfare. Your opinion is correct, the enemy must be reinforced. It would be very advantageous if we could annihilate the enemy in large numbers in a war with the enemy over the border. Food is not a problem and can be paid immediately with a loan from the Viet Minh............ We should attach importance to the issues raised by Comrade Cao Xiaoqiang before...... After the completion of the border war, the Central Committee will seriously discuss with Comrade Ho Chi Minh the details of the reorganization of the party and army on the Vietnamese side...... In order to strengthen assistance to Vietnamese comrades, the second batch of 374 members of the military advisory group to Vietnam has set off for the Thai Nguyen base area in Vietnam......"

After receiving the chairman's reply, the Vietminh side immediately settled down, Ho Chi Minh and Vo Nguyen Gia had nothing to say, and as for whether there was dissatisfaction in his heart, General Tran did not care so much.

At Ho Chi Minh's insistence, even though the rear base areas were swept away by the French army, the old nest was destroyed, and the local party organizations fled into the mountains, the Viet Minh troops still waited peacefully at the ambush point, waiting for the appearance of the French army in the difficult jungle.

In order to further mobilize the French army, General Chen ordered the artillery battalion of the 174th Regiment to carry out a feint to the south of Qixi and use small artillery groups to carry out scattered artillery bombardment to harass the defenders of Qixi.

The sparse and inaccurate shelling caused the French to ponder, and when they found that the Viet Minh's attack power was so decadent, the French could not sit still.

Colonel Le Ba, commander-in-chief of the Qixi garrison, analyzed that the Viet Minh armed forces were intending to contain the French army in Qixi, and their real offensive intention was to take Cao Ping, which had been besieged by regiments. He reported his analysis to Admiral Revos in Hanoi.

On the thirteenth day, Colonel Leba was ordered to take action, in order to relieve the two battalions of Colonel Sakdong who were besieged in Gaoping City, more than 1,600 people, Colonel Leba ordered the original Qixi defenders to continue to hold on to Qixi's lair, and used the first parachute battalion to take the lead, and personally led two Moroccan battalions supported from Liangshan as the main force, advancing to Dongxi, trying to recapture Dongxi again.

Admiral Revos gave Colonel Leba's attacking force a code name - "Bayard Battle Group", Bayard means brave knight, and it is clear that Admiral Revos had high hopes for Colonel Leba.

At the same time, Admiral Revos also demanded that the living materials and heavy weapons that could not be taken away by Colonel Sakdong, who was besieged in Gaoping, should break through to the south with all his might, and told Sakdong that when he broke through to Dongxi, he would be greeted by Colonel Leba, who had recaptured Dongxi.

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"Didi...... Didi...... Di Di ...... "In the Viet Minh command, the telegram has been ringing non-stop.

Ho Chi Minh looked happy, stood beside General Chen, looked at the map and said: "Old Chen, sure enough, you expected it, the French are still reluctant to Dongxi!" They just wanted to divert the tiger from the mountain for the sweep of the base area before, but this time they finally couldn't wait any longer, and they all went out! ”

General Chen smiled at Ho Chi Minh and nodded.

In the past few days, comrades from the Chinese advisory groups assigned to various units have been reporting to General Tran that all sorts of strange things have appeared in the Viet Minh troops.

Some people say that if the base area is gone, how will it continue to fight in the future?

Some simply said that the reason why the Chinese comrades did not retreat after blowing up Dongxi was that they hoped that the Vietnamese would retreat to the north in an all-round way, take refuge in the mountains behind the defense line of Highway No. 4 to fight guerrillas, and abandon the base areas that they had worked so hard to gain.

Others say that the Chinese Weishenme wants them to fight Gaoping and Dongxi in the northwest region, and not directly attack the Red River Delta? This was to eliminate the Kuomintang army-turned-bandits entrenched in the northwest and to consolidate China's borders. There is no point in capturing such a poor place as the northwest. It is only enjoyable to directly liberate the Red River Delta, and it can also cut off the connection between the French army in the north and the army in the south.

Some people even say that the comrades of the Chinese military advisory group only hope to turn the Vietminh armed forces into China's watchdogs in the south, and do not care about the national liberation of Vietnam.

General Chen remembered the information written in the information sent by Secretary Cao before entering Vietnam:

"In the Vietnamese army controlled by Wu Yuanjia, generally speaking, cadres are not promoted from soldiers who are brave in battle, they are basically promoted from students, and they are all those 'scholars' who are liked by 'Brother Wen'......"

General Chen was under pressure and angry during this time, and finally waited for the day when the French army entered the urn.

"Lao Hu, the command of the base area will be handed over to you, I will go to the front-line command headquarters and personally command the battle, just with Wu Yuanjia's mouth advocating a certain victory, and patting his chest to ensure success, I am not at ease at all."

Ho Chi Minh held General Chen's hand tightly and said affectionately: "Old Chen, I don't know much about military things, you can do it." Victory is here! ”

After that, the two of them clasped each other tightly, and everything was silent.

When the Bayard battle group led by Colonel Leba entered the 615 heights south of Dongxi, the battle began.

The Viet Minh 209 and 174 regiments began to move in the early hours of the morning in accordance with the operation jihua, and in the early hours of the morning they surrounded a paratrooper battalion of Colonel Le Bar and two Moroccan battalions totaling 2,000 French troops. From the beginning of the battle until dawn, the French troops of the Bayard battle group led by Colonel Loebal had suffered more than 400 casualties.

In the Bayard battle group, in terms of combat effectiveness, the 1st Parachute Battalion of the Foreign Legion is the strongest, this unit employs a large number of German veterans after World War II, and has rich combat experience, but the 1st Parachute Battalion of the Foreign Legion has a small number of people, only 500 people. In contrast, the 1st and 11th Moroccan Battalions, with a total strength of 1,600 troops, except for the officers who were white French, were all black North African recruits who had just been conscripted into the army, and were hastily pulled from Morocco by France.

After being surrounded by the Viet Minh army, it was naturally not the first parachute battalion to collapse, but the two Moroccan battalions behind, and the black recruits who had no combat experience were like cannon fodder, and were beaten by the Viet Minh's sudden attack and suffered heavy losses.

Using a piece of bread, Colonel Leba scooped zuihou out of the can and stuffed a spoonful of rotten beef into his mouth. When he had finished eating, his mind finally figured it out, so he stood up and ordered in the hastily dug trench:

"We can't go on like this, the Vietnamese want to slowly consume us after surrounding us. We are now hurrying to the south to break through and retreat to Shegu to reorganize our defenses! ”

Following the order of Colonel Leba, the 1st Parachute Battalion of the Bayard battle group, which acted as the vanguard, turned to the rearguard, while the two Moroccan battalions drew their forces and broke through and fled.

Seeing that the French troops were beginning to prepare for a breakthrough, the Chinese artillery instructors knew that the time had come to increase their firepower, and the mortars under their command continued to bloom on the French positions, and the explosions shook the branches of the trench where Colonel Deriba was located, and the branches were shaking and dusty.