For the past couple of days, Vietnamese soldiers had been engaging in surprise attacks in the Laoshan region. However, the "mountain pass" region had been unusually quiet. The weather at noon on May 30 was fine. The enemy fired twenty or thirty shells each at several points in the "mountain pass" region — their artillerymen were firing for adjustment!
At 8pm on May 30, our troops received information that the enemy's frontline soldiers would rise at 4am and breakfast at 5am … This probably was the time that they would start the attack.
The political commissars and deputy departmental chiefs all hurried to their command posts in the night and quickly prepared to engage …
As expected, at 4am on May 31, the enemy implemented their full attack plan. They deployed a regiment in the "mountain pass" region, which was where the main thrust of their attacks were located. Seizing "Highland A" was their objective and the frontline became a sea of fire.
If the second session of the meeting in Beijing had not been moved forward, this would have been during the handover of command from one regiment to another. The enemy was working with our reorganization!
Fortunately, Zhang Zhijian and his comrades had received the command forty hours earlier than expected. Although our troops didn't 'stand firm', they did at least 'stand'. The cannons had just been positioned and had not yet undergone trial firing, so errors had to be corrected in real combat. Our soldiers had just received the post and hadn't familiarized themselves with the lay of the land, the roads and the enemies' situation, and weren't adjusted to combat. Yet, now they were confronted with war. They mainly relied on determination, bravery and the resolution to fight until the last man took their the last breath.
Only three sentinel posts in Highland A were defended by squads of soldiers. These so called sentinel posts were really just three foxholes. No. 1 and No. 2, which were the posts nearest the frontline, could only shield five people in total. They were only seven or eight meters away from the enemy, separated by a single mountain pass.
Under the cover of crossfire, the enemy took turns to attack our soldiers. The link between the command post of the company and the No. 3 sentinel post, which was the main Highland position, was cut off by gunfire; and the only passageway between No.3 post and the No. 1 and 2 posts was tightly sealed by the enemy's fire power. After repelling several assaults, four of the five soldiers at the front line lost their lives and the remaining soldier fainted due to heavy wounds.
Our troops had hastily engaged the enemy without a firm foothold however despite these unfortunate circumstances they repelled the regimental-scale enemy attack after a whole day's fierce fighting. According to the enemy's own estimates, they lost 700 men. When Commander Zhang Zhixiu arrived at the front he praised his soldiers, saying: "They engaged the enemy as soon as they took over the position and caused them a proportionally large number of casualties. They basically destroyed the enemy's attack plan and so we could call this engagement the first victory of the war."
But the officers and soldiers who took part in the war were not satisfied. This was a spirited troop that treasured glory. They were upset that their haste had led to passivity in battle; they wanted to gain the biggest victory with the smallest cost.
Zhang Zhijian seemed to be gaunter after the day's fighting. He felt an intangible pressure.
He was once a smart commander who was skilled at military strategy. During the period of the War to Resist U.S. Aggression and Aid Korea, although he was originally only a teacher of culture and he had not really directed a battle until he became a chief of the troop, he was diligent, intelligent and contributed greatly to training reforms. One favorite tale was that in 1984, despite his advanced age and high position, he took part in the junior college classes held by the company alongside his own staff and company officers. He had grown up in the army but his leadership style was more that of a scholar than of a veteran. Faced with this war, he recognized his lack of experience and ability to adapt, but he believed he would do better with a little more time. What irritated him was that the battle was over before he could put his military strategy to use.
He was much more eager than anyone else to fight again and take revenge. But his rational side told him that he had to be calmer than the others so he bit the bullet. By taking one step back and two steps forward, he could regain the initiative. He fought against the inappropriate desire to race towards quick results and started making attempts to postpone the enemy's new attack.
