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Once the enemy started the attack, the front called for fire support. I was worry about hitting our own men. HQ reminded me to shield off the front line by firing at the second wave. The first wave of attack was usually only a coy strength. Where as the rear could be a whole Regt supporting it. Our MRL fire 13 salvos nonstop. In addition to 85mm howitzer, 100mm mortar, 152mm howitzer had also joined the fire support.

We fire 200 meter ahead of the front at six points. From left to right and back to the left again. Our artillery fires created a firewall around our front. We killed many enemies and some of our tubes were growing bright red. That day, our Regt fired over 10,000 rounds.

By noon, all our rounds have been expended. When this info reached Chang Yo-Hop, he was not happy. Without our arty firewall, there was no way to stop another attack by those six VN regiments. I already ordered ammo replenishment since the early morning when the first shot were fired.

When 470 truckloads of ammo arrive at 1300, VN forces already took over the 164 high ground. One of their Btn was down to only 6 people left and they were still keep going. A counter attack was conducted right away by our infantry. The heavy artillery bombardment just prior to our counter attack took 2 cm off the top soil on that hill. The hill was back in our hands in 15 minutes. VN force refuses to gave up. Waves and waves of the enemy infantry were sent back up the hill. After it was over, we counted around 3700 enemy dead bodies were left on the battlefield. Our divison commander, who was a veteran of the civil war, he said he never saw that many dead bodies since that war. We took the weapons and the belt off each VN body and gave them to each one in our Regt. That night, 7 of us in the Regt command with Chang Yo-Hop smoked 4 packs. We could not eat. We just keep drinking until 4 cases of "Spirits" were gone.

July 14, we gave signal to let the VN to recover their dead. We ask them to carry a red cross flag, under 50 people and no weapons. 60 to 70 VN troops showed up and without any flag. Once we notice they were breaking the agreement by carrying an AA gun, we open fired. We did not care. None of the 60 survived. No more recovery detail was conducted afterward. It was summer, hot and rainy. No one can stand the dead bodies anymore. We had to send our anti-chemical units out to burn all those bodies with flame throwers.

"I don't know if any of you know this, but the account of the battle of Lao Shan in 2nd Sin-Vietnamese war that Xinhui was good enough to translate is actually exerpts from the second chapter of a book called "Secret Records of Sino-Vietnamese War".

The entire book deals with border clashs with Vietnam from '84 - '88. It's is filled with interviews with combat vet from that conflict. In it you will find harrowing accounts of combat, with all of the horror and blood. There very little glorification of soldiers one find common in gov't publications concerning war. There are accounts of artillery duels, squad level sneak probes, multiple regimental assualts, mine warfare, etc. There are detailed descriptions life in fortifications on the frontline, where the outposts of the two sides are interwined and often within yards of each other. Terrible living conditions in the Mao'Er Dongs (Cats Ear Holes that served as fortifications), where your only companions are holemates, and pythons, cobras, and cat sized rats. Half canteens of water shared by a squad for three days. I found the accounts genuine, not embellished products of the Propaganda Department.

Unfortunates, you must be able to read simplified Chinese, and have GB decoding program. No quick and dirty Alta Vista translations please. Those are terrible. The programs simply can't handle the difference in grammer between Chinese and English, and bad with names (Deng Xiaoping to Deng Small Peace)....."