Bright Sword: From Northwest Shanxi to Shangganling

Time flew by and it was July 12th.

By this time, the Vietnamese army was fully prepared.

To achieve its plan, the Vietnamese army went to great lengths this time.

In addition to its elite force of over 30,000 men, the Vietnamese army also acquired a large amount of advanced equipment from the Soviet Union and received on-site guidance from Soviet experts and advisors.

For this Operation Guangbei, the Soviet Union provided 180 large-caliber heavy artillery pieces, as well as the latest artillery radar.

This led the Vietnamese army to believe they had a winning formula.

They still vividly remembered how they had been bullied by the Chinese artillery.

Now that we have our own radar, countering Chinese artillery is no longer a dream.

The Vietnamese army also stockpiled nearly 10 artillery shells for this battle, which accounted for almost half of the Vietnamese army's strategic reserves of large-caliber artillery shells.

The Chinese army was naturally well prepared for the Vietnamese attack.

In addition to the artillery and shells being ready, the 2nd Army Engineer Regiment also used rocket-propelled mine-laying vehicles to launch more than 300,000 landmines at the front line.

A minefield, 7 kilometers long from east to west and more than 500 meters deep and wide, lay in front of the Vietnamese army.

In order to carve out a path through this minefield, the Vietnamese army sent many people into it.

What frustrated the Vietnamese engineers was that their platooning was nowhere near as fast as the scattering.

However, the Vietnamese army had no time to worry about that. As night fell, the two special forces battalions cleared mines and secretly advanced in the dark, preparing to stage a major ambush in front of the enemy.

At midnight, looking at the darkness in front of the battle lines, Chen Yuanchao judged that the Vietnamese army should have basically arrived.

"Pass on my order: all artillery battalions, fire at the designated coordinates!"

With a command given, all possible hiding places in front of the 211th Regiment were subjected to indiscriminate fire.

The fierce artillery fire even turned the night sky red.

The moment the Second Army's artillery opened fire, the Vietnamese army's artillery radar also turned on, preparing to track the trajectory of the shells and conduct counter-battery operations.

The moment the Vietnamese artillery radar was turned on, the Chinese electronic reconnaissance station detected the radar waves instantly.

Once the data from several observation stations was compiled, the location of the Vietnamese army's radar was immediately calculated by computer.

Immediately afterwards, the long-range rocket artillery was launched.

An artillery regiment has 36 rocket vehicles, each with 4 300mm launch tubes, and a single salvo can fire 144 rockets.

The Vietnamese radar operator, who was engrossed in his calculations, suddenly noticed an anomaly on the radar.

"Is the radar broken?"

Hearing the soldier's question, the Soviet expert came over.

"The radar can't possibly break down."

The expert's eyes widened in disbelief. "How is that possible?!"

Although he did not calculate the specific data, according to radar data, a large number of rockets appeared 200 kilometers away, more than a hundred in total.

However, the range of mainstream rocket artillery in the world has not yet exceeded 50 kilometers.

Even the latest 300mm rocket artillery developed by the Soviet Union and Russia has a design range of only 90 kilometers.

After hearing the expert's rapid explanation, the Vietnamese officers were all dumbfounded.

"Could it be a missile?"

"Impossible." The expert shook his head repeatedly. "Missiles and rockets have different trajectories."

"What are they aiming for?" the Vietnamese officer asked.

Upon hearing the Vietnamese army's question, the Soviet experts immediately began calculations.

But the further he wrote, the slower the Soviet expert wrote, and he broke out in a cold sweat.

"The enemy's target is us!"

"Retreat! Retreat now!"
At a distance of 200 kilometers, the rocket only takes 3 minutes to fly. Before the Vietnamese troops could recover from their panic, the first rocket had already landed.

Immediately afterwards, the entire Vietnamese radar station was covered by the explosion.

The 300mm rocket launcher, with a single-shot explosive charge of 150 kg of TNT, fired 144 rockets, leveling the Vietnamese radar station and the surrounding area within several hundred meters.

The radar that the Vietnamese army had just acquired and hadn't even had a chance to use was immediately turned into spare parts.

In the direction of Laoshan, Chen Yuanchao had no idea what was happening at the Vietnamese radar station, but after shelling for more than ten minutes, Chen Yuanchao felt that something was wrong.

There was no movement in front of the 211th Regiment's position.

"Commander, is the intelligence wrong? The Vietnamese army hasn't come?"

After stroking his chin and pondering for a moment, Chen Yuanchao shook his head: "The intelligence has been verified by multiple parties and cannot be wrong."

"Keep bombing."

Another half hour of indiscriminate firepower coverage.

The two Vietnamese special forces battalions that had infiltrated to the front lines were indeed elite troops. After two rounds of fire coverage, they had lost more than half of their men, but no one made a sound.

However, this made the Vietnamese army realize that a surprise attack was no longer possible, so they began to call for reinforcements.

At 5:30 a.m., the Vietnamese army deployed four regiments, preparing to launch a strong attack in eight columns in coordination with two special forces battalions. As dawn broke, Chen Yuanchao was able to see the Vietnamese army's situation clearly.

Seeing that the enemy was disregarding casualties and that their numbers were increasing, Chen Yuanchao decisively adjusted his plan.

"Order the 2nd Platoon of the 7th Company to abandon positions 150 and 169 and retreat to the core position 149 to let the Vietnamese troops in."

"Send orders to the artillery positions to provide fire coverage to all Vietnamese troops, and then extend them behind enemy lines to maintain barrage coverage and block all Vietnamese reinforcement routes."

The Second Army not only completely suppressed the Vietnamese troops at the front with large-caliber artillery and rocket artillery, but also concentrated a large number of long-range cannons to bombard Qingshuikou, Vietnam, which was more than ten kilometers away from the front line.

This is the only route the main force of the Vietnamese army must take to replenish supplies to the front lines.

The multi-layered firepower deployment meant that the Vietnamese army had to pay a bloody price for every step forward.

Even so, the Vietnamese high command still chose to launch a full-scale attack.

Wave after wave of Vietnamese troops charged forward under artillery fire, trying to rendezvous with the special forces battalion and capture Laoshan.

However, not a single Vietnamese soldier broke through the artillery blockade until the entire special forces battalion was wiped out.

The firepower intensity of the central army once again surprised the Vietnamese army.

The sea of ​​people was engulfed by the flames.

Later on, the barrels of the Chinese army's howitzers turned red-hot, and the water sprayed to cool them down caused the entire position to be shrouded in mist.

The limestone mountain on the southern slope of Laoshan was cut down by two meters, the topsoil turned into dust, and the entire area was exposed as a pale gray stone.

Within a 500-meter radius of the 211th Regiment's position, the bodies of Vietnamese soldiers lay scattered, so densely packed that the ground was almost invisible.

In just one hour, from 5:30 to 6:30, the Vietnamese army suffered more than 3,000 casualties, and was completely demoralized.

Chen Yuanchao threw out all the shells he had planned to use up over three days.

Each Vietnamese soldier received a ton of grain, with some left over.

With their morale shattered, the Vietnamese troops dared not continue their attack and began to retreat.

The Vietnamese army's MB84 plan was completely thwarted.

Even during the retreat, the Vietnamese army's trenches were filled with corpses, and soldiers had to step on the bodies to move forward.

The routed Vietnamese troops didn't even have the courage to collect the bodies.

In the end, Chen Yuanchao had no choice but to fire leaflets with mortars to notify the Vietnamese army to come and collect the bodies.

If thousands of corpses are piled up directly hundreds of meters in front of the position without being dealt with, a plague will soon break out.

The Vietnamese army was busy collecting such a large number of corpses from morning till night, but they still couldn't finish.

In order to complete the task as quickly as possible, Chen Yuanchao even took the initiative to fire up flares so that the Vietnamese army could move the goods overnight.

Such brutal casualties silenced Vietnam as a whole, forcing the Vietnamese leadership to reassess its strategy toward China.

Vietnam was willing to cease hostilities and focus its efforts on developing Cambodia and Laos, but Soviet Russia simply would not allow it.

The number of Vietnamese casualties was not within the scope of Soviet Russia's considerations; their only goal was to cripple China.

It has to be said that the two sides had an incredibly high level of understanding.

China also refused to allow a ceasefire and wanted to use it to cripple Soviet Russia.

The Vietnamese army was forced to stay on the battlefield and couldn't even leave if they wanted to; they were forced to accept rotational fighting.

The standoff that lasted for several years dragged Vietnam, an agricultural country, to the brink of collapse.

The military expenditure of a million-strong standing army is like a heavy shackle, suffocating the economy.

The reason the Vietnamese army was able to hold on was entirely due to the annual financial support from the Soviet Union.

However, as Soviet Russia fell into its own crisis and aid was sharply reduced, Vietnam's economy also began to struggle to survive.

As the economy continued to collapse, supplies for Vietnamese soldiers also began to decline sharply.

The combat troops' rations contained 2 kilograms of stones for every 17 kilograms, and the Vietnamese army could only eat two meals a day with such food.

As for vegetables and other side dishes, the situation was even more appalling.

Oral ulcers, anemia, and other diseases began to spread.

The anemia rate in Vietnamese troops ranged from as low as 20% to as high as 77%.

By 1989, the Soviet Union had completely stopped providing aid, and Vietnam's economy collapsed.

The Vietnamese army was forced to withdraw from Laos and Cambodia, abandoning its path of expansion.

Sino-Vietnamese relations began to ease, and China's troop rotation forces began to decrease.

After the last battle between the two sides in 1990, the border was largely peaceful.

In November 1991, the two countries formally signed a joint communiqué, and the fighting ceased completely.

In December, Soviet Russia collapsed.

China's strategic objectives have been fully achieved.

(End of book) (End of chapter)