In September 1945, when Ho Chi Minh read the Declaration of Independence at Ba Dinh Square, where more than 100,000 people gathered in Hanoi, proclaiming the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (North Vietnam) to the world, he had only about 5,000 guerrillas under his command. A year later, when negotiations between the North Vietnamese and the French broke down, their armed forces had expanded to more than 30,000 men, operating in several districts, each with its own organization and under unified command, but such an armed force was clearly no match for the French regular army. At the beginning of the Indochina War, the French army quickly repelled the North Vietnamese forces, occupied the cities and major transportation facilities in northern Vietnam, and strangled the North Vietnamese regime and its armed forces. This was followed by a dark period that brought shame to the camp of the Western allies. The Soviet army inflicted heavy losses on the Allied forces in the Eastern European battlefield, annihilating and capturing a large number of American, British, French, and Polish soldiers, forcing the Allied forces to fully turn to the defensive. By the end of the war, the French government had no time to care for its Southeast Asian colonies in order to protect itself, and the North Vietnamese forces not only used this time to recuperate and expand their army, but also to obtain valuable assistance from the "enemy of the enemy". A large number of obsolete hand-held rifles on the European battlefield made an important step forward in the regularization of the North Vietnamese armed forces, and Soviet instructors who had participated in the Great Patriotic War came to North Vietnam to help train soldiers, bringing Soviet-style combat thinking to the North Vietnamese army. By 1950, North Vietnam had built up an armed force of nearly 100,000 men, the core of which was four Soviet infantry divisions and a number of light artillery battalions, and a large number of local militias were equipped with a variety of Soviet trophies, such as Mauser, 38, Garand, and Lee Enfield, and were ready to meet the French army again.

Returning to the battlefield on the north bank of the Song River, the French army held the initiative in Vietnam, but the battle was not as easy as the French commander had imagined. Taking advantage of the situation, the French infantry in pursuit was ambushed by North Vietnamese forces in a night battle. As soon as the Song River Stone Bridge was blown up, their rear roads were threatened, and the French commander, fearing that they would be outflanked, immediately gave the order to retreat, which quickly proved to be a terrible decision. The retreat route of the infantry was accompanied by the guard and cover positions of friendly troops. However, the paratroopers could not stop the surprise attack of the North Vietnamese forces, and the retreating infantry was easily confused when attacked by the enemy, which led to many unnecessary casualties in the battle, and after the tank column covered the large group of infantry to retreat to the Shiqiao area, the commander ordered the tank armored vehicles to support the infantry who had not had time to withdraw. Legliss and his fellow paratroopers watched as the tanks, armored vehicles, and infantry in jeeps and light trucks that had left earlier appeared in front of them. At this time, the French infantry behind the hall was retreating along the road in groups, and the gunfire and explosions of the battle were approaching. And there were still almost three hours before dawn.

"Prepare to evacuate! Prepare to evacuate! ”

The herald finally brought the order that the paratroopers had been waiting for in the middle of the night, only to witness the attack on their infantry as they retreated, and most of them preferred to stay in their positions until dawn - the untimely judgment of the superior commander made the paratroopers complain, and Legliss was no exception. This time, when he heard the officers of the platoon next to him discussing and protesting, instead of feeling surprised and angry, he wanted to support them. It wasn't long before the infantry, who had arrived in trucks from the direction of the stone bridge, arrived at the guard position, and saw that they were ready to take over the defense. The resentment of the paratroopers suddenly vanished. Since there were people who had to stay in this terrible position, and there were tanks, armored vehicles, and mobile units on the road to the stone bridge that could provide some cover, there was nothing wrong with retreating. …,

With Lieutenant Colonel Jérôme ordered to evacuate. The paratroopers climbed out of the trenches with their combat weapons and equipment, and just as they ran to the road with their heads bowed and their cats bent on their waists, the odious enemy appeared. Light artillery and mortar shells flew from across the woods and rice paddies and whizzed down on positions and roads, and the loud roar and violent concussions forced everyone in fear to take cover, and only the brave or confused soldiers braved the fire.

Leglis, who fell into the wet mud, originally thought that the shelling of the North Vietnamese army would only last for a short time, after all, they did not have a complete arms industry, and the French military blockade made it possible to transport some supplies through the northern jungle at this stage, but this time the enemy's artillery fire was much more fierce and protracted than expected, during which several shells fell more than ten meters away. Fortunately, it was only a small-caliber infantry artillery, and if it was a howitzer of the upper rank, such a distance was enough to end the war journey of Leglis. As the artillery fire subsided, the paratrooper ensign struggled to look up to see a number of blown up vehicles on both sides of the road, and some tanks parked on the side of the road. Carrying out a counterattack with the muzzle held high, some tanks were lying motionless on the road, not that there was a malfunction or the crew was stunned, and the position where they had stayed before was full of smoke and craters, it was obviously a target of the enemy's artillery fire, and the mortars with arcs of the traditional trench fortifications were most frightened, and in the case of continuous fire, there would be a lot of shells falling into the trenches to kill and injure the insiders.

In the chaos, Leglis heard someone shouting "retreat south along the road", but then someone shouted "all paratrooper companies return to the guard position", and the two orders with diametrically opposite contents made him confused and entangled, but the subordinates who stayed around were still waiting for their decision. Legliss tried to calm down and make a judgment, but the situation on the battlefield didn't allow him much to think about, and his mental defenses had collapsed as the dense sound of machine guns and rifles rang out and countless bullets flew past the area.

"Retreat! Retreat south! ”

With this shout, not only did the comrades of the paratrooper platoon get up and run along, but even the faces of the surrounding platoons belonging to other companies and platoons and even completely unfamiliar ones joined in, and a group of people retreated along the road towards the stone bridge without their lives, and at this time no one stood up to cover their companions. The bullets fired in the distance were like raindrops that had just begun to rain, and they would not cover every inch of space, but no one knew if any raindrops would fall on them in the next second. The paratroopers who were fleeing and retreating were constantly shot, the killers fell silently, and the wounded could not help but let out a miserable and desperate wail. Legliss heard the roar of the engine, heard the sound of the tracks rubbing against the steel wheels, and he turned his head without stopping to glance at the fact that most of his tanks and armored vehicles were reversing along the road, and countless North Vietnamese soldiers rushed out of the woods in the northwest, and the same thin and agile figures appeared in the rice fields to the east, and the rattling of machine guns sounded from the guard positions held by the infantry, but it sounded so weak, almost like the groans of a dying man!

"Hey! Hey! Guys, calm down! Retreat in an orderly manner! Cover for the till! ”

From a certain point of view, running away is a highly contagious mental epidemic, and those who are not strong enough are especially lacking in resistance. Leglis did not want to admit that he was fleeing, but when an oncoming officer shouted angrily, he slowed down as if he had woken up from a dream, and there were soldiers around him who were as relieved as he was, but many more still ran forward desperately, and the soul of the Buddha's control consciousness had been shaken away by the enemy's just fire—many of these people had participated in the Allied war against the Soviet Union, experienced Soviet artillery fire ten times more ferocious than this, and experienced the same embarrassing retreat, they seemed to have long been accustomed to all this, For them, courage is nothing more than the spiritual support to step on the battlefield. …,

After a short and painful psychological struggle, Legliss did not stop, and out of weakness - or rather guilt, he covered his ears and shouted "The paratroopers of Leglis's platoon are coming closer to me", a move that seemed to save some of the soldiers in the platoon from being scattered, but in such a disorderly retreat, the self-assembly of a group of soldiers alone did not help at all. Behind them, the few French infantry relied on the ring position to resist and contain the North Vietnamese army's attack, and the tanks and armored vehicles present were also trying to stop them, but in the absence of infantry response, the tanks were constantly destroyed by the North Vietnamese soldiers' Molotov cocktails and explosives packs, and most of the tank crews who were forced to abandon their vehicles could not escape the fate......

Leglis had thought that they would run to the stone bridge in one go, meet up with the troops stationed there, and fight against fate to avoid being annihilated or captured, but where the sound of the river could not be heard, they were accepted and sheltered by their companions, and the paratroopers who had been transferred from before had formed a defensive position on the cross-road with the infantry stationed there, which connected the defenders of the makeshift airfield at one end and extended to the highest mound in the vicinity at the other. The temporary airport and the stone bridge that has been standing for 100 years have never been guarded. Legris and his paratroopers never dropped their guns, as if they had the blood of Gallic warriors in their veins, but as the pre-dawn darkness faded, they left hundreds of their companions on the battlefield of the night, along with a part of their pride and dignity. They had already developed a mindset that the French soldiers could be one-three during the day, and that at night it was better for them to stay in a solid position than to engage North Vietnamese soldiers who were more likely to stealth at night. (To be continued.) If you like this work, you are welcome to (.) to vote for recommendation, monthly pass, your support is my biggest motivation. )