Short busts of siren rang through the night sky over a snowfield in Inner
Mongolia at 19:00 on the evening of Jan. 8, 2006. Officers and men of a frontier
defense regiment of the Inner Mongolia Military Command, who had just wrapped up
a "battle" and were about to pitch camps, received the order unexpectedly to
"move to another place to camp". The starving officers and men quickly got their
combat gears ready, organized themselves into maneuver groups and disappeared in
the depth of the snow field in no time.
The northern border of China is now already ice-bound and snow-covered
sending the mercury down to -30℃. The subject set for the drill by the regiment
was "to fight in coordination with the main army group" while new tactical
developments would be decided and given according to the circumstances and
training courses which might be changed at random. For the sake of tempering the
troops and building up their stubborn and unyielding fighting spirit in terms of
withstanding coldness, fatigue and hunger as well as being capable in continuous
fighting, the regiment chose draughty places on purpose for encampment, and
organized the operation of setting up command post and motorized maneuver at
night for many times. For seven consecutive days, the troops were organized to
go through 20 plus training courses including anti-air attack, anti-airborne,
crossing contaminated areas and breaking through artillery barrage, etc., which
were carried out day and night and in quick succession.
The reporter
followed the regiment in the 20-kilometer rapid march drill and noticed that the
fully armed officers and men treaded through knee-deep snow to hurry to the
designated place. After reaching the designated place, officers and men threw
themselves into the operations such as disperse and taking cover with no time to
think about taking a rest. The fighting elements took the advantage of their
portable instruments and favorable terrains to carry out fast concealment.
Hundreds of people and dozens of light and heavy equipment quickly disappeared
in no time.
By Xu Fuzhong and Tan Zhaoping
(Jan.10, PLA
Daily)
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