Lesson 6: On the "dead" land

(Baonghean) -Going once is difficult, following the Quy Tap Group must go all the way, leaving Tham Phiu, Muang Kham, we headed back to Muang Pek district - Phonsavan town. Lieutenant Colonel Nguyen Van Dau personally drove the reporter back to the center of the Group... Xieng Khouang has 8 districts in total, Muang Pek - Phonsavan is where Vietnamese volunteer soldiers sacrificed the most, because this is where extremely fierce battles took place such as the Kou Kiet (Cu Kiet) battle that lasted for 6 months in the dry season in 1971 to liberate the Plain of Jars.

Arriving at the center of the Quy Tap Group just after 9am, to save time we asked the group commander for permission to visit one of the three Plain of Jars in Xieng Khouang province. Senior Lieutenant Nguyen Van Tuyen was assigned to lead us there... The Plain of Jars in Ang village is located on a sparsely tree-covered hill, about 10km from Phonsavan. This field currently has over 650 giant stone jars ranging in height from 1-3.5m and diameter of over or under 1m, some weighing up to over 14 tons, scattered everywhere, some standing, some leaning, some half-sunken. Dating back about 2,500 to 3,000 years, there are many hypotheses about the origin and function of these jars, but the most believable: the jars are the tombs of the ruling classes of that time.

According to Mr. Tuyen, the history is mysterious, but for the Plain of Jars to become a legend, it must be associated with the anti-American war of the Pathet Lao army and the Vietnamese volunteer army. The Plain of Jars plateau is relatively flat, about 4,500km2 wide, with an altitude of more than 1,500m above sea level. With that terrain, during the war, the Plain of Jars was considered the most important tactically - likened to "the head of an elephant", whoever rode on the head of an elephant would be the master of Laos, placing strong firepower on this plateau would control all of Indochina. Therefore, the Plain of Jars became a place of extremely fierce conflict, after our army liberated it, the enemy mobilized troops to retake it. The US considered the Plain of Jars "the key to Laos". From 1964 to 1973, the amount of American bombs dropped on this place was enough for each person here to suffer 350 tons of bombs. The longest battle that took place here was the Cu Kiet battle that lasted for 6 months in the dry season of 1971. Strangely enough, even the hills and mountains were leveled by bombs and bullets, but the stone jars were not damaged much.

Searching for martyrs' remains in Muang Pek

Today, the Plain of Jars has been built into a tourist area by the Lao People's Government. Mr. Tuyen led us around this old battlefield. On the hill, the grass and trees are lush and green, looking towards Phonsavan, houses have sprung up close together. But here, bomb craters and trenches are still preserved as before, a few signs warning of bombs and mines are still there. Visiting the cave with a cave leading to the sky, Mr. Tuyen said that this place used to be a shelter for Pathet Lao soldiers and Vietnamese volunteer soldiers. Now the cave is considered a bridge between the living and the dead. Right next to the cave, the Quy Tap Group once found 10 Vietnamese martyrs and on the Plain of Jars, the group found more than 1,000 martyrs (the total number of Vietnamese volunteer soldiers who died in Laos was about 12,000 people).

It was past noon when we returned to Phonsavan Town. Lieutenant Colonel Hoang Ngoc Lan - Deputy Head of the Recovering Team announced: "We have just received information from the people about the martyrs' graves. After initial survey, this is our soldiers' cemetery. We invite you to go now." The search and recovery location this time was in Len village, about 20 km southwest of Phonsavan. The three soldiers, the team leader and the reporter, all loaded with hoes, shovels, and machinery, climbed onto three motorbikes and excitedly drove to their temporary resting place. The dirt road was bumpy and rocky, and Lieutenant Colonel Hoang Ngoc Lan said: "Our martyrs in the Plain of Jars area have basically been gathered, especially in the two large cemeteries of Phu Kenh and the airport. Currently, according to the grave map handed over by Division 316, there is still a mass grave of 16 more martyrs, but sadly, this grave was buried near a stream, and now the stream has been straightened... Currently, the martyrs still lying on the land of Muang Pek district are basically located in deep mountainous areas."

Arriving at Len village at just past 1 pm, going another 2 km is the cemetery area. Here, 9 soldiers from Team 2 in Na village were reinforced and started digging and searching. Major Nguyen Minh Loi, Team 2, Quy Tap Group gently dug up the soil, smilingly said: "Hearing the commander of the group come to support the search for the uncles, the brothers were very excited. Confirming that there was a grave here, the brothers had an early lunch and rushed here"... The cemetery area had been identified, except for some high mounds of soil, the suspicious soil had also been found and marked, two soldiers at a time, one digging, the other shoveling rhythmically. The soil in this hilly area was very soft but the hoe did not dare to go deep... "We found the uncle"! - the cheers resounded as if simultaneously from 3 graves about 1 meter deep in the first row of the cemetery. It was 3 pm; "Then the soldiers in the second row found 3 more martyrs. It was 4:00 p.m....! As if suspecting something, Lieutenant Colonel Hoang Ngoc Lan asked the soldiers to carefully pick up the bodies, not to hold a soul-calling ceremony yet, tonight the soldiers would camp here to rest. On the way back, Mr. Lan was very pensive...!

After a night's rest, at 6am we went to Len village with Mr. Lan. Arriving at 7am, holding a tombstone map (Lieutenant Colonel Lan studied this map all night), he asked the soldiers to dig according to the locations he pointed out. At 8am, the soldier in the first position reported that he had reached the original soil layer, there was none! At the second position, there was none! At 8:30am, 8 soldiers in 4 other positions all found the martyrs. At 10am, the first 4 soldiers could not find them, now digging in 2 other positions they found the soldiers. Amidst the joyful laughter of the group, quietly lighting a large bundle of incense, Lieutenant Colonel Hoang Ngoc Lan choked up: "We all know the names, guys!" - This is the cemetery of the 316th Division that was previously handed over to the group, but due to changes in the terrain, we could not find them yet. They all died in February 1970..., at 6pm that afternoon, all 20 martyrs were found. "Uncle Canh, Uncle Phuong, Uncle Thanh, Uncle Luong, Uncle Tam... oh - Your souls are here! We would like to take you back...!" In the middle of the windy sunset, the soil next to the grave rolled and fell to the bottom. Bringing the uncles from Len village to the center of the delegation, with a respectful and solemn heart, for some reason, smiles appeared on everyone's lips. From here, the motherland is very close, not far away...!

Early in the morning, Lieutenant Colonel Nguyen Ba Duong, Deputy Team 2, leader of Lat Khoi team, stopped by the center of the group. He was delivering vegetables, beans, and fish from the team to supply two groups searching in Lat Son and Lat Buoc villages. Hearing that a reporter from Nghe An Newspaper was coming, he invited me to visit the soldiers. The motorbike that Mr. Duong was driving me on was very rickety. The rims were warped, the shock absorbers were no longer effective, the engine sound was not crisp, it was just a rattling and groaning sound. Mr. Duong explained: "The motorbike runs on all mountain and forest roads and will soon break down. This KOLAO has been repaired dozens of times. The group has 9 motorbikes, all of them are like this"... The first place we went to was the cemetery in Lat Son village, Muang Pek district, about 25 km south of Phonsavan town. From the asphalt road, turn north about 1km, the car just passed a military control gate, each person passing through must have a permit and clearly register their name at the gate. Turning into the forest road, Mr. Duong said: The area we are going through is in the strategic ammunition reserve area of ​​the Lao Ministry of Defense, there are no people living there.

Mr. Duong discovered this cemetery in 2009, when the Lat Son village chief told him that he had seen a Vietnamese soldier's grave in this area. When he came to talk to him, the village chief said there were 5 graves. He quickly reported to his superiors to ask for permission from the ammunition depot chief to survey and verify. He saw 21 graves buried in a straight line, with drainage ditches, facing east, all the characteristics of a Vietnamese volunteer soldier's cemetery. After receiving permission, in 2010, soldiers from Team 2 searched and collected the remains, thereby bringing 21 martyrs back to the country... After learning more about this area, we learned that: This is the Hang Tham Eo cemetery area - where our soldiers set up a hospital. Normally, soldiers who were injured in Noong Pec were brought here for treatment. This place was previously bombed and the entire area was destroyed. This year the search area was expanded... Arriving at the old cemetery at exactly 11am, it was also the time when the soldiers were preparing for their lunch break. Lieutenant Le Van Huan reported: "This morning, around the bomb crater, we found 2 more martyrs, bringing the total number of martyrs found in the past 5 days here to 18...". Taking a lunch break in the middle of a dense forest with many guavas, wild persimmons, and Mac Chong trees in the fruiting season, Huan said: "No one lives there, the forest grows fast and thickly, we searched the whole area and discovered many more places suspected to be martyrs' graves, brother. We will definitely find all of you. You are very sacred, on March 8, 2010 we found another one!"

From Lat Son village, go another 12km to reach Lat Buoc village. The road runs through the mountains and hills that more than 35 years ago seemed like a desert, where no grass could grow amidst the rain of bombs and bullets, but now have green leaves. I saw eucalyptus forests planted in straight rows. The dead land of the past is now gradually reviving. Our car just passed the road to Bouam Long basin airport - a place likened to Dien Bien Phu in Laos. Bouam Long borders the three districts of Phou Kout, Muang Kham and Muang Pek and to the northeast borders Hua Phun province, and had to liberate Bouam Long. When attacking here, many of our soldiers sacrificed. Many soldiers were buried by the enemy in deep ravines and closed tunnels, so the Quy Tap Group could not find them despite their efforts. The difficulty in searching for martyrs in Bouam Long today is the large number of mines planted by the US and Thailand. This is a Zip mine weighing 5kg, with a plastic shell and very thin. Over the years, the shell has shrunk and exploded when subjected to strong impacts such as with a pickaxe or shovel. Today, dozens of Laotians are still killed or injured by these types of bombs every year.

Arriving at Lat Buoc, the 4 soldiers gathered and prepared to continue their mission. They had been in the village for 6 days, staying in the village, looking for the martyrs through information provided by the people. Late in the afternoon, everyone wanted to search and dig, but their hoes were already exhausted and tired. On the hill of bright yellow wild sunflowers and immortelle flowers, the prayer of the soldiers gathered in Team 2 was like a cry of grief: "Brothers! The country has quieted the sound of gunfire, the foreign land is very cold, wherever you are, let us know, so we can take you home...".

Thanh Chung