In July 1984, more than 30,000 officers and soldiers of the 1st Army of the Nanjing Military Region and its subordinate units were ordered to enter the defense zone in southern Yunnan, and began to enter the position on 16 November.
1. Four large-scale counterattacks
On 8 December 1984, the 1st Army of the Nanjing Military Region, under the organization and command of army commander Fu Quanyou, political commissar Shi Yuxiao, and other army leaders, took over the defense work of the 11th Army of the Kunming Military Region in Laoshan in an all-round way, and organized self-defense and defensive operations against Vietnam on more than 40 positions about 3 kilometers in front of the main peak of Laoshan.
As everyone knows, since the Vietnamese army launched a division-level counteroffensive in the "12 July Campaign," the situation of our army in the Lao Son area has been seriously threatened, and in order to completely dispel Vietnam's ambition of the "small tyrant" to counterattack, military pressure has been exerted against Vietnam. Under the arrangement of the superior leaders, the 3rd Regiment of the 1st Division of the 1st Army of the Army continuously wiped out nearly 100 counterattacks by the Vietnamese army during the period of garrisoning the position, including four relatively large battles, which directly caused heavy losses to the Vietnamese army.
On January 15, 1985, Vu Li, commander of the Second Military Region of the Vietnamese Army, after a long period of meticulous preparations, decided to get rid of the Soviet advisory group's forward-looking command and combat style, and issued a "military order" to Le Duan, the supreme leader of Vietnam, saying:
"If I don't defeat the Chinese army, I, the commander, will quit."
As a result, the Second Military Region of the Vietnamese Army dispatched five battalions and one special agent company to begin to attack our positions in turn by means of multi-directional, multi-echelon, and point-by-point means under the cover of artillery fire.
At that time, the 3rd Regiment of the 1st Army and the 1st Division stationed on the 968 Heights faced the successive invasions of the Vietnamese army, and did not change their faces and fiercely fought back.
Among them, the troops of the 7th Infantry Company, with the support of the artillery of the regiment and battalion, began to continuously break down the obstacles and open up a 580-meter-long passage to the 968 heights.
Due to the persistence of our army, we directly repelled seven counterattacks at the platoon level of the Vietnamese army, and finally after the battle, a total of 88 enemies were killed, while our army was wounded 22 and 3 were sacrificed.
It can be said that in this battle, the 3rd Regiment won a big victory at a very small cost, and was also praised by the Central Military Commission and the Kunming Military Region after the war.
The failure of the Vietnamese army's counterattack on January 15 not only led to heavy casualties in the Vietnamese attack, but also lost several positions, however, the mentality of wanting to win the victory made the Vietnamese army gather forces again to launch a counterattack after the 3rd.
On January 18, 1985, the Vietnamese army mobilized heavy troops to reinforce friendly troops in an attempt to capture the No. 3 heights of Lao Son Unnamed. However, in the more than 10 minutes after the battle began, our troops successfully repelled three counterattacks by the Vietnamese army, killing a total of 36 enemies.
In the face of the long preparation time of the Vietnamese army's counterattack operation and the large number of troops invested, it has to be said that they were beyond the reach of the two major battles in 84. This time, as the former commander of the Vietnamese army, Le Wei Mich was even more because of a command error, which led to heavy losses in the troops, and was finally removed from his post and returned to China for interrogation.
On February 11, 1985, our army decided to take the initiative to attack and improve the defensive posture of our forward positions, and the 3rd Regiment was ordered to pull out the "140 position" held by the enemy. As far as our army is concerned, this position not only controls the area around our "Li Haixin Heights" from the east, but also enables us to take advantage of our geographical advantage to carry out a frontal counterattack on our 116 position. In this regard, according to the deployment of the higher authorities, it was decided to launch an offensive on February 11 against the enemy's 140 positions.
At 5:40 a.m., the troops of the 4th Company of the 3rd Regiment and its reinforced company were divided into three routes and moved closer to the enemy's position. However, at 6:10, the 3rd Route of our army was ambushed by the enemy and was forced to turn to a strong attack.
Until 7:13, less than an hour passed, and all the 140 positions held by the Vietnamese army were captured by our army. Seeing that the position was occupied, the Vietnamese army launched 10 counterattacks in a row, including 4 squads, 5 platoons, and 1 company, and finally was forced to retreat under the suppression of our artillery fire.
In this battle, our army killed 196 Vietnamese soldiers.
However, the battle with the fewest casualties during the operation of the 1st Army was the offensive operation on 8 March 1985. In order to be able to successfully uproot the six Vietnamese invasion strongholds that posed the greatest threat to our army, the 3rd Regiment was ordered to capture Nam Ga; at the beginning of the war, the front command of our military region decided to adopt the method of sneak attack and take advantage of the enemy's inattention to capture the target position in one fell swoop.
Because the 3rd Regiment chose an unexpected attack route for the enemy, after the battle began, the enemy was caught off guard and had no defense, and soon our army successfully captured Nam Ga, this sneak attack, a total of 13 Vietnamese soldiers were killed, and our army did not have a single casualty.
Nguyen Huu An, deputy commander of the Second Military Region of the Vietnamese Army and the new former commander of the Second Military Region, also had to sigh when he reported to Vu Li on the situation at the front:
"This unit is fierce, and their fighting style is completely different from what they used to be."
2. In the fierce battle, the enemy suffered casualties for 167 days
The 1st Army of the Army fought against Vietnam for more than five months, and our regiment withstood more than 30,000 shells, smashed 31 enemy counterattacks and sneak attacks, captured 6 Vietnamese invasion strongholds, opened up 7 new positions, and destroyed 61 enemy fortifications.
During the 167 days of fierce fighting with the Vietnamese army, the 1st Division and the 3rd Regiment annihilated more than 2,600 Vietnamese troops, captured 1 person, and captured a batch of weapons, ammunition, and military supplies.
It is worth noting that the 1st Army of the Army was the first batch of troops to enter Yunnan, and it was also the first batch of rotational combat troops in the Laoshan battlefield, from the beginning of December 84 to the beginning of June 85, not a single position was lost, no one was captured, and no one violated military discipline.
During the first half year of the operation, the 1st Army repelled more than 100 counterattacks by the Vietnamese army, destroyed 5,200 enemy personnel, damaged 127 enemy artillery pieces, 65 military vehicles, and captured 112 guns. 404 people were killed and 1,278 were wounded.
I have to say that if it weren't for these brave soldiers who were not afraid of life and death, stuck to their positions in Lao Son, and defended our southern territory, I am afraid that today's Vietnam would still be making waves in the Lao Son area. It is precisely because of these lovely warriors who threw their heads again and again, spilled their blood, and firmly grasped the land in our own hands, that there is the tranquility of today's Laoshan.
As the first army of the army guarding the main peak of the old mountain, although they only guarded it for half a year, they brilliantly completed the combat tasks assigned by their superiors, maintained the dignity of the country, and defended the country's territory.