On March 26, 2017, more than 70 veterans from the 8th Company of the 481 Regiment of the 161st Division of the 54th Army gathered in Nanshan Martyrs Cemetery in Pingxiang City, Guangxi province in the early morning. They stood in the cemetery of their fallen comrades with their hair full and wearing military uniforms, and wept one by one in front of the brothers separated by 38 years of Yin and Yang.
1
In February 1979, my high school classmate Wang Xincheng and I took part in the counter-attack on Vietnam along China’s southern border.
In a war, we have orders from our superiors to cross the enemy’s rear and seize the 650 heights, to blow up the Babel bridge and the underwater bridge on the Qilianjiang River, and to cut off the retreat of the enemy, in order to guarantee that our brothers will gather the enemy in Lang Son.
In the north of Vietnam, the hills and valleys are thick and dense. As an important gateway to lang Son, 650 Heights, 15 kilometers from the city of Lang Son, the Vietnamese army bases its main positions on the outskirts of highlands 607, Kunfeng, Guoman and Kunzi, which are respectively guarded by the first department of the elite 3rd Vietnamese Division and another regiment.
On March 1, with a light rain falling in the sky, Wang Xicheng’s company 8 crossed the unknown Plateau near Guo Man and was suddenly intercepted by enemy fire. Company commander Qin Xiangui quickly organized the whole company to launch a battle formation on the spot, with one platoon to the left, two in the middle and three on the right, to make a detour to the enemy.
Enemy commanding, light and dark fire crossfire, instantly suppress 8 company in the open area. The battalion artillery company, which was attached to the rear of the 8th company, attacked the exposed targets with mortars and heavy machine guns, and the officers and men charged forward.
Wang Xincheng and Qiao Changzhong were both light machine guns in the company. Seeing the opportunity, they raised the machine gun in their left hand and took the single soldier leap forward strategy. They rushed to the rice field in front and set up the machine gun to shoot at the enemy.
“That distance of less than 100 meters of Pingchuan no block, usually in the training ground, only ten seconds to complete the sprint, but now became his comrades’ line of life and death. Since then, Joe has recalled the experience countless times.
Joe changed the gap between the enemy shot, jumped up, rushed forward a few meters and quickly lay down. Lu Caiqing followed closely behind him, but failed to escape the enemy’s bullets, unfortunately died.
see the side of the charge of the comrades have fallen, Joe could not help but be angry, get up cat-waist to continue to sprint more than ten meters. Squad leader Liu Guoshun saw this and shouted to him: “Lie down! Get down quickly!”
Joe bent over a field and set up his machine gun. The enemy at the top of the hill immediately adjusted the firing line, and cross-fire poured madly on him. Machine gun bullets, mixed with tracer bullets, flew overhead, blinding him with flashes.
Soon the enemy was firing mortars at Joe – Chang-chung’s machine-gun positions. A shell roared down two metres behind him and exploded, mangling his right arm, hip and left leg, while shrapnel tore a large hole through a military canteen slung across his back, protecting him from a fatal blow.
platoon leader saw Joe change faithful lying on the ground blood, rushed up to rescue. Wounded Liu Guoshun shouted: “Leave us alone, today is to die, also to die on the battlefield!”
Liu Guoshun gnashed his teeth, his own class of 8 brothers, at this time has sacrificed 2 people, wounded 4 people, his heart is full of hatred.
In a fierce battle, from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., 8 companies fought side by side with their brothers and repeatedly fought for positions with the enemy. Finally, they captured the hilltop, but paid a heavy price.
2
After the war, Qiao Changzhong was rated as second-class b disabled, retired back to his hometown, arranged to work in the township grain administration where I am.
Recalling the past, he once said to me with emotion: “If it were not for those brothers, I would have died long ago.”
After a great war, the men were exhausted. The company did not dare to fight, rushed to clean up the battlefield, according to the scheduled task to continue behind the enemy. At this time, martyrs and wounded brothers, become a drag on the rapid march.
Comrade – in – arms did not have the heart to leave them, dragging the tired body to cut down trees, make a simple stretcher with leather belt, carrying the remains of martyrs and the seriously wounded, in the dark to transfer the position.
The sky was still drizzly, foggy and dark. Joe, who suffered five injuries, was bleeding profitlessly. He lay on a stretcher, being carried by fellow townsmen Wang Xincheng, Wang An, Fan Guo, Du Chengming and Dong Shezhou in turn. Muddy hillside was soaked by rain, the surface of the soil wet slippery, comrades on the feet to wear with steel barbed shoes, a few kilograms of weight, shoe shell basket filled with mud, the skin was blistering, start road to drill heartache. Along the way, people were slipping and bleeding from skin cuts, their hands clinging to the stretcher.
The most deadly of all is that the troops have lost logistical support and are already out of food and water. When the company set out, each man had brought only one day’s supply of food, and now he had carried it for three days. The few compressed biscuits were long gone after the overstrength march and fierce fighting. The young people in their early 20s were staggering with hunger and their feet were as heavy as lead water.
Joe, on a stretcher, came out of his coma, tried to raise his left hand, endured the pain, pulled half a compressed biscuit out of his pocket and handed it trembling to his comrades who carried him. Comrades-in-arms three days did not eat a full meal, but now you look at me, I looked at you, shook their heads, who would not bite a biscuit.
After trekking all night, the comrades finally climbed over the mountain. The next morning, before the migrant workers catch up, the wounded and martyrs bodies. Wounded Liu Guoshun and Qiao Changzhong they were transferred to the field hospital, just to save a life.
3
During the battle against Lang Son, I have fallen from the mountain and my wound has not been given proper treatment. As a result, I am paralyzed and have been transferred to Nanning Hospital for emergency treatment. There, I met liu Guoshun, a wounded soldier who had also been transferred from the front.
Squad leader Liu joined the army two years earlier than me. He used to have a tall and strong body, but his heart rate was abnormal due to injury. His cheeks were dark due to continuous hypoxia, and even his lips were blue and purple in serious condition. As both of us were fellow villagers from Henan, Monitor Liu dragged his weak body to my ward almost every day and accompanied me through the most difficult half year of my life.
One morning the ward turned to a new-comer with a head wound, who for a time was blind and delirious, and rambled about the corridors, raving.
I heard that Xiaoding was a fellow villager in Xinyang, Henan province. He was also a soldier of the 7th Company of the 3rd Battalion, 481 Regiment. Squad Leader Liu helped Xiaoding to chat with me. Xiaoding’s memory has gradually recovered.
Xiaoding’s parents also rushed to the hospital from the dabie Mountains and brought me the local red-skin eggs. In this way, Xiao Ding and Monitor Liu, together with me, were transferred from 303 Hospital to 371 Hospital in Northern Henan for treatment, and became good friends sharing weal and woe.
Through the relationship of Xiaoding, I got to know Chen Xiaocheng, the commander of their 7 companies. Chen lianchang department after the door, the original is Liu Guoshun, Qiao Changzhong and Wang Xincheng where the 8 deputy instructor. That year on the battlefield, he died of brothers do not abandon the righteous deed, so far by his comrades as a story.
“If I take you out, I will bring you back!” “If I take you out, I will bring you back!”
Before the war, the division commander said to the officers and soldiers of the whole company: “I am your division commander, I may not know you, but you must know me. If I take you out, I will bring you back!”
the moment of the battle, Commander Chen secretly remembered the words of the division commander, in the whole company mobilization meeting vowed: “I want to bring you back alive merit!
Therefore, he refused to leave a suicide note, and he was sure that he would bring his brothers back.
On the afternoon of March 2, 1979, 7 companies crossed into the southeast of Kunzi and were confronted by an enemy reinforced company. The battle was extremely hard.
Before the departure, the superior issued to the 7 company’s combat mission was originally scheduled for one day, the company in order to lightly go into battle, each person took only one day’s dry food, a total of only 3 compressed biscuits. In the way of interweaving, encountered brother troops of the wounded and sick out of food, they also carry forward the style, temporary body only dry food donated a part. At the moment, his comrades fight with hunger in the rain, to the enemy on high ground such as the son of the attack.
9 squad leader in the body under the condition of 3 wounded, crawling forward, all-out efforts with grenades to blow up the enemy’s machine gun position, destroy 4 enemy.
8 squad leader led a group to replace class 9, on the way hit the enemy laid mines, all sacrifice.
In the valley opposite the Kunzi heights, there was a very secluded Hamlet, where the enemy command post was set up. The officers and men of the company just entered the open field, when they suddenly found two sentinels 20 meters away. The squad leader of the company took up his submachine gun and fired two shots at Yongwen, killing the two sentinels. Two enemy machine guns in the village immediately on the 7 even officers and men crazy strabbing, will suppress them in the ridge can not raise their heads. Company commander Chen ordered 7 class to block the enemy across the village, quickly with 8 class and 9 class crawl forward, and even the main rendezvous encircled kunzi mountain enemy.
More than 20 enemies rushed out of the village and rushed to the position held by the 7th squad. In a moment, some of them fell down. The rest of them took advantage of their shelters to resist after they retreated.
Class 7 monitor to yongwen was shot in the head, heroic sacrifice. The vice squad leader took command and was killed immediately. Finally replaced by the group leader, continue to beat back the enemy four crazy counter-attack, annihilate the enemy 21, this just for the main force of the company to annihilate the enemy at the top of the Kunzi mountain for time.
After more than three hours of fighting, 7 companies occupied the position, annihilated 123 enemies, sacrificed 9 of themselves and wounded 20 of them.
fighting interval, in the face of the past day and night along comrade in arms fell in a pool of blood can no longer stand up, because the company shoulder the urgent task, can not take the martyr’s body, Commander Chen is in a dilemma. With tears in his eyes, he ordered the martyr’s body carried into the crater, wrapped in a raincoat, covering it with a thin layer of soil, let the brothers rest for a while.
4
Two days later, we seize The Hills of Lang Son, and seven companies are given victory.
can be in the moment of troop withdrawal, company commander Chen Xiaocheng full of thoughts, are the imminent departure of the commitment to his comrades: “I want to bring you back alive meritou!
Hesitated for a long time, Chen company commander find instructor gnash teeth vowed: “Death also want to sacrifice comrades bring home!” And to the league commissar once again asked the war: “we want to carry back the martyrs!”
The Communist Party Committee of the Communist Party of China temporarily decided that, on the basis of the seventh company, one platoon would be transferred from the eighth company to form a strengthened company, and 150 migrant workers and stretchers would be transferred, led by the camp instructor and Commander Chen. “We must not leave a martyr in Vietnamese territory.”
At this time, the brothers in the war to the north out of the battle, Chen company commander they ran all the way to the south, deep alone, return to the battle of kun son battlefield.
The subtropical climate is unusual, with 30-degree heat during the day, drizzling rain at night and cool air.
Although the main force of the enemy was wiped out, the Vietnamese agents and guerrillas, who were also soldiers and civilians, broke up and hid in the mountains and forests like ghosts, looking for an opportunity to attack the small units of our army. Just the day before, the civilian workers in front of the logistics branch of our Ministry were ambushed by the enemy on the high ground south of Guo Man, causing as many as 99 casualties.
In the valley of the dead silence lurked the threat of death.
20 kilometers mountain road, Chen company commander they trekked for 6 hours, the afternoon arrived at the kun son, in front of a piece of scorched earth — the martyr’s body has been excavated by the enemy, the face was seriously disfigured, difficult to identify. Coupled with the sun exposure, the body has begun to swell, swarms of flies around the meantime, the scene was terrible.
According to the division of labor, 8 migrant workers take turns to carry a martyr’s body, quickly evacuated, according to the original way back.
At that moment, however, the enemy artillery-men spotted the unit, and whistled in the face, exploding suddenly from side to side, in front of it. The civilian workers without training were in great disorder, and one after another they were shot down.
Because the intensified company is carrying small arms, it is difficult to suppress the enemy’s gunfire, Commander Chen hurriedly organized the evacuation, personally led a platoon of troops after the break, rushed out of the enemy’s artillery cover area. Count the number, found that 2 deputy and two migrant workers sacrifice, 5 injured.
As night fell, the muddy slopes were slippery and sometimes narrow enough for only one person to pass. Encountered a steep slope, the front of the person with a small spade, forced to dig out a foot hole, standing firm, and then stretch out his hand to pull behind the people can barely pass. The stretcher can not be carried, the comrades had to be the martyr’s hands and feet fixed, with two bamboo pole to carry the mountain, each take a small step, all need to pay very strength. Add already bloated and deformed martyr’s body, and the peculiar smell that send out, make the procession more laborious.
In a corner of a col, four migrant workers will the martyr’s body thrown aside, lying on the ground, crying to The commander Chen: “chief, can not lift, really can not lift.”
Chen company commander in the heart of the fire, a moment of impatience, drew a pistol on the migrant workers shouted: “Lift up, go! If you leave the martyr, I’ll shoot you!”
But when he had said this, he regretted it. These former migrant workers are also risking sacrifice at any time, to rush to transport martyrs, with the troops trudging over mountains and rivers for a whole day, everyone’s physical strength has been exhausted to the limit.
Commander Chen quickly took out half a pack of cigarettes from his pocket and handed them to the workers. Then he turned to the soldiers and said: “Go and change two of them and go with them. Take it down for you.”
A mist rose up from the deep, damp gully, and a melancholy mountain wind blew, and a drizzle began to fall from the dusky sky, making the march still more difficult.
A turbulent river ran at the head of the march, blocking the return journey. Chen felt dry mouth, bent down to drink a burst of water, and finally tasted a rotten smell. He then turned on a flashlight covered with red cloth and found two bodies lying on a stone not far upstream. One of them was still partially submerged in the water.
In this way, Commander Chen and his team had been on the run all day and all night, and it was not until ten o ‘clock the next morning that they caught up with the troops. In the dead martyrs transfer station, Company commander Chen looked at a trench in the body of the comrades fighting together was carried on the truck, for a long time refused to leave.
Afterword.
The squad leader Liu Guoshun, who was injured and hospitalized with me, was rated as second-class class a disability after treatment, retired to his hometown Lushan County, retired when the station master retired.
He said his greatest wish in this life, is to go to the southern Xinjiang martyrs cemetery to see those who sleep underground brothers.
Thirty-eight years later, on March 26, 2017, Squad leader Liu Guoshun finally stood in front of the cemetery of the deceased brothers.
Wang Xincheng knew that I had been thinking of my hometown far away, so he opened the video and asked me to be with you. In the face of the old comrades who had shared life and death, I shouted excitedly like a child: “Monitor Liu, please give a piece of incense to my alumni Zhou Lianzhuang and the brothers who died, and pray that they will return to their hometown.”
Facing the other side of the video, I lost control again and couldn’t help crying.
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