Chapter 96: 279 Highland

Chapter 96: 279 Highland

Perhaps, some people would think that Liu Shunyi and I had already discussed and planned it all night in the military headquarters, so we should have planned it in an orderly manner and notified all the troops to start fighting this battle after they were ready. But the fact is exactly the contrary, what we want is that the troops are not prepared.

The reason is very simple. The purpose of our battle is not Lang Son, but to attract a military force that Vietnam has stopped moving forward a dozen kilometers away. Just imagine, if we make all the troops ready and then intentionally allow the Vietnamese army to attack successfully as planned, then there is a very likely result that we don’t want to see - the mountain is lost, but the Vietnamese reinforcements are not deceived and entered the battlefield.

The Vietnamese army is not foolish either. Their commanders can easily see clues from a series of issues such as whether our army will be in chaos and nervous.

Do we want to hide it from the Vietnamese army in these aspects? It seems unlikely!

The reason is that the Vietnamese are almost no different from us in appearance. Before the war started, China and Vietnam had a long "comrades and brothers" relationship. There were even many Vietnamese who studied and studied directly in China, which made many Vietnamese speak fluent Chinese. In addition, most of our army was fighting and replenishing troops, which created excellent conditions for Vietnamese agents to get into our army. Almost it can be said that every unit of our army at this time had more or less a few Vietnamese agents who could speak Chinese, even our fifth company was no exception.

I have a deep understanding of this. Isn't it? We also fight and replenish soldiers like other troops. Most of the soldiers were just transferred from the country, some were new recruits and some were veterans who had never seen them, not to mention identity certificates, reporting certificates, etc., they all pulled up, "You, you... the first company; you, you... and you... the second company..." and they were all distributed.

After being assigned, they just need to go to the instructors of each company to register and make a book. Some of the supplementary soldiers who were not lucky enough to register their names were not too late to report them, so they directly participated in the battle and died. As a result, no one knew what the martyrs were named and who were...

This is not only unfair to those martyrs who died, but it is also difficult to ensure that no Vietnamese spies are mixed in and “replenish” the troops entering our army!

When I was in modern times, I heard from veterans that those Vietnamese spies were exactly the same as us Chinese, and no one could tell. Later, someone thought of a way, which was to take off their pants and check their pants... The Vietnamese Japanese could speak Chinese and wear the same military uniform as ours, but they did not have the long and wide homemade shorts that we Chinese... Not to mention, this trick really worked, and they really found a lot of Vietnamese spies from the army.

I wrote down all of this, and just waited for the battle to slow down, and then started to use this trick to clear the internal spies. Of course, I think the two little girls, Liu Yun and Yichen, would have asked me to check them in person... When I think of this, I couldn't wait to see what the two girls looked like when they knew they wanted to take off their pants in front of me...

It is precisely because of these situations that Liu Shunyi and I thought... If we really want to lead the army of the Vietnamese Japanese to Lang San, we have to do a real trick! Otherwise, it is very likely that the sheep will be lost and the wolf will not be trapped.

So the current situation was present. The soldiers even detained the mountain without any preparations from the regiment headquarters and let the Vietnamese army snatch it away...

Then after a while, the correspondent hurriedly handed the microphone to me and said, "Telephone number of the delegation!"

"Battlefield Commander Cui!" As soon as I took the microphone, I heard the Chief of Staff say anxiously inside: "Kudangshan is lost, and the Vietnamese reinforcements are likely to enter Lang Son. The situation is developing towards a situation that is unfavorable to our army. You are ready to march immediately. In half an hour, the troops of the 217th Division will take over Koumashan's defense. You are ready to attack Lang Son's North District!"

"What is our mission?" I asked.

Actually, I am acting. I have long known that our regiment's mission is to attack along the north bank of Qiqiu River along the 279 Highland, Da and Xiaoshishan, and then control the Qiqiu River Bridge to cut off the connection between the northern and southern areas of Langshan.

The reason why I ask this is that I don’t want the Chief of Staff to doubt it, and the other is that I don’t want the Vietnamese army to know about the information. After all, when the Americans withdrew from Vietnam a few years ago, the Vietnamese army received a large amount of American equipment from them, and now it has the support of the Soviet Union. I think there should be no difficulty for them to monitor our army’s phone number or telegram!

"I don't know yet!" The Chief of Staff replied: "You are ready to go down the mountain to attack Lang San. I will notify you later!"

This is also what I discussed with Liu Shunyi before. Each unit only knows its combat mission before the battle begins. This can prevent the Vietnamese army from preparing for the deployment of our army in advance, and secondly, it can also give the Vietnamese army an illusion that the Chinese team was in a hurry to fight, and they did not have to hurry to formulate a feasible plan.

"Yes!" I responded and hung up the phone, turned around and conveyed the order to the intercom.

In an instant, the entire army became busy, packing, testing guns, and checking ammunition... Although they had been rolling on the battlefield for a short time and only had more than ten days, their progress on the real battlefield was beyond the reach of any other place. This is actually easy to understand. Everyone's life is threatened on the battlefield, and the better the military quality, the greater the chance of saving their lives.

No one wants to die, so everyone is trying their best to learn, improve, learn, improve again...

This proves the saying: "Survival of the fittest!"

The battlefield is actually the most cruel furnace. If the winner survives in the competition, the loser will be ruthlessly eliminated.

So after just over ten days, the soldiers have made a qualitative leap in terms of individual soldiers' quality and overall coordination, and now they are a bit like veterans.

The first one came was a group of militia, and they transported the ammunition we needed to replenish. In addition to some of them who wanted to send the wounded and sick back to the foot of the mountain, the other part was responsible for transporting ammunition for us with the army. What made the soldiers in the shooting team overjoyed was that this group of militia also brought the svd sniper rifle specially sent to us by the Chief of Staff...

I counted and found eight of them in total, and even the matching bayonets and Tokarev pistols were sent together. Including the eight from the previous shooting team, my battalion already had sixteen sniper rifles. Each of the shooting teams had one and two left...

The other soldiers were very happy now. They would not fight if the sniper rifle was not enough, but now there are two left... So the soldiers started to make a fuss when they heard the news, surrounded me and shouted in front of me:

"Battery Commander! Give me that rifle! I will definitely use it to kill the Vietnamese Japanese on the battlefield!"

"Battery Commander! Give me a handful. On the battlefield, I won't beat ten enemies, I will return it to you!"

...

The soldiers were rushing to ask for this treasure. Indeed, in this era, the range of individual weapons was generally within 400 meters. Suddenly, there was a weapon with a range of 1,000 meters and very powerful. How could these soldiers not be moved?

But there are too many monks and too little porridges, where can only two rifles meet the requirements of all soldiers?

After thinking about it, I raised my rifle and shouted to the soldiers: "Comrades... I think it's better not to allocate these two rifles now. After all, you are used to using the weapons in your hands. If you suddenly change into this rifle and take it on the battlefield before you get familiar with it, it will be difficult to play its role! In this way, we will set a rule. In the next task, whoever makes the best will fight more Japanese soldiers, we will assign this gun to whom. What do you think?"

"Okay!" When the soldiers heard my plan, they all felt that it was fair and reasonable, so they had no objection.

After we had some food and prepared for a while, the troops of the 217th Division came up. It was a strengthening battalion with more than 600 people in total and brought a lot of ammunition. In addition, we had built fortifications and two machine gun companies, so it was not a big problem to defend Koumashan.

After the defense, I immediately pretended to behave and called the Chief of Staff to request instructions. The reply I received was: "Order the troops to march quickly and arrive at the 279th Highland in 20 minutes to wait for instructions!"

The confidentiality work of the regiment headquarters is still done well, and the tasks are not assigned at this time. Later I learned that this is not that the confidentiality work of the regiment headquarters is done well, but that Liu Shunyi did not tell the mission at all. The Chief of Staff and the others were confused at this time and did not know what their superiors were going to do...

The 279 highland is the first highland facing Lang Sang at the foot of Kouma Mountain. It is right between Chuma Mountain and Qiqiong River. It is the first tiger blocking our offensive route.

But I think this tiger would not have any temper. Kumashan is already in our hands. The 279 high ground is actually covered by our army's mortars and heavy machine guns. It is much easier to fight. We are in charge of whether the Vietnamese military uses the reverse slope tactics. Kumashan is more than 800 meters high to shoot down. Not to mention the mortars, even machine guns can hit the 279 high ground. So I have never taken the 279 high ground seriously.

But then I found out that I was wrong...

The troops marched in the jungle. Since the main peak of Koma Mountain was occupied by our army, our army has been clearing out Koma Mountain back and forth several times, so the journey went smoothly. It took only sixteen minutes to complete the mission in advance and reach the 279th Highland, and hide the troops in the thatch and jungle in front of the highland.

I raised my telescope and looked at the 279 Highland. The craters were everywhere on the 279 Highlands, and there were no shadows of the Vietnamese army, nor trenches and bunkers. The only barbed wire mesh was also blown upside down here and there. If our scouts hadn't confirmed that there was a Vietnamese army garrison here, I would have doubted whether this place would be a barren land.

However, all this is understandable. Just as our army was unable to build fortifications on the front incline in the battlefield of resisting U.S. aggression and aiding Korea, facing the superior equipment of the US military, the Vietnamese army now realizes that all fortifications on the front incline are invalid because the artillery is not of the same level as our army. All the forces and fortifications they put on the front incline are just a waste of some artillery shells and some time...

"Battery Commander!" After I looked at the terrain for a while, the correspondent in disguise all over climbed up and handed the microphone in front of me, and whispered: "It's the telephone number of the regiment headquarters!"

"I am Cui Wei!" I put away my telescope and carefully hid in a valley, lowered my voice and said to the microphone.

Although no enemies were found nearby, I still dare not care too much. If an enemy artillery observer hides from somewhere and sees me talking on the phone with a walkie-talkie... those few shells came over, I became a martyr in a daze.

"Captain Cui!" The Chief of Staff's order came from the microphone: "What the superiors mean is that your battalion will successively build 279 highlands along the north bank of Qiqiong River, big and small stone mountains, and then occupy the bridgehead of Qiqiong River Bridge with a thunder and without rushing to cut off the connection between the north and south areas of Liangshan! Is there any problem?"

"No problem!" I replied.

"Okay!" said the Chief of Staff: "The First Battalion cooperates with your troops to attack the left wing of the 279th Highland, and the Third Battalion is behind you as a reserve. Prepare for artillery fire at 9:30 and attack after half an hour. The superior's instructions are... Be sure to guard the Qiqiong River Bridge. If you find that the enemy has an attempt to bomb the bridge, you will firmly call for artillery fire to annihilate it!"

"Yes!" I responded and hung up the microphone.

It is actually my idea to guard the Qiqiong River Bridge. There are two bridges in Lang Son, one is the Lang Son Bridge and the other is the Qiqiong River Bridge we want to capture. For the Vietnamese, these two bridges are not only the only way for the remnants of the north bank to retreat south, but also the reinforcements and ammunition on the south bank, and the passage to the north bank. If the Vietnamese still want to recover the lost land, these two bridges are also the only way.

So Liu Shunyi and I believe that the Vietnamese army would not blow up the bridge at the beginning of the battle, because the explosion of the bridge undoubtedly cut off the reinforcements and rear routes of the Vietnamese army in the northern part of Langshan. However, in the late stage of the battle, once the Vietnamese army discovered that the loss of Vietnam was a foregone conclusion, in order to prevent our army from moving south and then posed a threat to their capital, it was very likely to blow up the bridge. Therefore, this order was given, first occupying and controlling the bridge to cut off the connection between the northern and southern parts of Langshan. Later, if the Vietnamese army was found to have attempted to blow up the bridge, they would cooperate with the artillery to stop it.

After looking at the watch, the pointer had already pointed to nine:20, so he led the guards and the correspondents to run back to the jungle in two strokes, and used the intercom to prepare for combat and shelling.

"Woo..." After a while, the sharp roar of shells sounded in the sky. The artillery group arranged by our army in the Tongdeng area began to open bloody mouths to the Vietnamese army and poured shells onto various military targets in Lang Son.

Since our army is concerned about foreign journalists in Lang Son City and the public opinion of the international community, the artillery preparations are all aimed at Lang Son's military facilities, such as train stations, power plants, post office buildings, *** halls, barracks, posts, oil depots, ammunition depots, etc. The private houses of ordinary people are outside the bombing range of our army...

But soon after, we soon discovered that this decision was wrong! If we care too much about public opinion in the war, we will often be used by the enemy. It was precisely because of this that the Vietnamese army used this to hide most of the troops in the private houses, and after our army's artillery fire broke out and entered the position in groups.

War has no place to stand for kindness, and kindness to the enemy means cruelty to oneself.

The cannon sounded for half an hour, and then there was no extension of the artillery fire. Later I realized that the reason why the cannon sound suddenly stopped was that behind the 279 Highland was a residential area. Such artillery was not enough to attack the Vietnamese army in depth. So when we launched an attack on the frontier positions of the Vietnamese army as planned, we felt something was wrong...

"Kill!" The soldiers shouted and picked up their weapons to launch an alternating charge at the 279 Highland. The machine cannon company had already prepared a round of shells and bullets shot into the top position of the 279 Highland filled with gun smoke, and they also cooperated with the mortars and heavy machine guns from Kaoma Mountain. Although they could not see anything because of the fog and smoke, with the guidance of several signal flares, the shells and bullets were still hit on the back slope of the 279 Highland in pieces.

I led the shooting team to walk forward for a distance. When it was six or seven hundred meters away from the 279th high ground, I signaled the soldiers to stop, and then spread out to find favorable terrain and aimed the muzzle at the 278th high ground.

As our vanguard troops approached the top position of the 279th Highland, the mortars and heavy machine guns that were responsible for cover stopped because they were worried about accidental injury. At this time, the sound of gunfires of the Vietnamese army suddenly rang out. At first, the mortar shells hit the incline of the 279th Highland. Looking at the bullet points, they obviously calculated the numbers in advance. Then there were the crossfire power of several machine guns on the top position, and the ak47-like bullets...

"Bang bang..." The sniper rifle in my hand rang out. Although I accurately hit two Vietnamese troops who dropped bombs on our army, I quickly lost my target due to the heavy smoke.

Seeing this, I couldn't help frowning. The firepower of the Vietnamese army was very fierce and there was no sign of being hit by our artillery fire. So I quickly understood that restricted artillery attacks like the ones just now had no effect on the Vietnamese army. The Vietnamese army obviously hid the mortar position in the residential area behind it!

"What's the artillery?" I heard the people in my hometown cursing in anger: "It's the same as if this artillery is fired or not! Why not extend it?"

In fact, this is no wonder the artillery. This was decided by politics at that time. I discussed this issue yesterday when discussing with Liu Shunyi. He was also helpless. We cannot directly bombard residential areas with artillery fire under the eyes of the world...
Chapter completed!