Because our regular troops had to fight in Cambodia. However, we had used 3rd and 316th divisions, in most important fronts (Lang Son and Lao Cai). After PLAs captured Lang Son, VPA's command planned to counter-attack and retake Lang Son on Mar 6th or Mar 7th. They had moved 304th and 325th of 2nd corps from Cambodia to Lang Son, some armor and MRL regiments were also appointed. But before we finished all preparations, PLAs had retreated.
Our leaders didn't want to let the war develope. Three days after PLA attacked, VPAF deployed hundreds of fighter-ground-attacks. But our leaders didn't accept them to join battles.
因为我们的正规军正在柬埔寨作战,然而我们还是将3师和316师使用在(北部边境)主要方向上[谅山和老街]。在解放军占领谅山市之后,越南人民军指挥部计划于3月6日或者7日发起反击,夺回谅山市。为此,将第2军的304师和325师从柬埔寨北调谅山,同时计划投入一些装甲部队和多管火箭炮部队参战。但是在我们完成反击准备之前,解放军就撤退了。
我们的领导人不想扩大战争,在战争爆发3天之后,越南人民空军准备展开大规模的空中反击,但是被领导人否决。
Of course, we've had many experience from the war. We had made many mistakes that we couldn't cause more casualties to the enemies or hold our land for more times. But both the regular and unregular troops had finished their duties with the best try. We Vietnamese don't complain anything about them.
当然,我们从战争中吸取了很多经验。我们也犯了不少错误,以至没能更多地消灭敌人和更长时间地坚守阵地。但是无论正规军还是非正规军,他们都尽最大的努力执行了自己的任务。越南人民对他们没有任何抱怨。
VPA' units in Lang Son :
- 3rd infantry division (consisted of 2rd, 12th, 141st infantry regiments and 68th artillery regiment).
- 337th infantry division (consisted of 4th and 52nd infantry regiments).
- 327th infantry division (only had 42nd infantry regiment).
- 12th border defense regiment (note that it's different from 12th regiment of 3rd division), organized as border police posts and independent companies.
- 1st batallion of 197th independent regiment.
- 3 local battalions of Lang Son provinces.
- 166th artillery regiment of 1st military region.
- 272nd air-defense regiment of 1st military region.
- A few of armor companies (6-10 vehicles each).
12th regiment suffered the most casualties with 2 battalions were almost annihilated, so I think it had about 1,000 casualties. 2nd and 141st regiments suffered the lower casualties. Just my estimation, maybe right or wrong.
About the organization of PAVN, each infantry battalion had 350-450 fighter men. Each infantry regiment had 1,800-2,500 men with about 1,200-1,500 fighters and each infantry division had 6,000-8,000 men with about 4,000-4,500 fighters (for example, PAVN 338th division had 3 infantry regiments, 1 artillery regiment and 6 support battalions and 1 company, total 6,600 men). So 3,000 casualties with a division was really high.