There was a magical wedding in the De Castries bunker.

TP - At 5:30 p.m. on May 7, 1954, the gunfire had just stopped, the Dien Bien Phu Campaign was completely victorious, Deputy Commander of the 308th Vanguard Army Division, Colonel Cao Van Khanh was ordered to stay and take over the Muong Thanh battlefield and return prisoners of war.

Cao Van Khanh was born in 1917 in Hue into an aristocratic intellectual family of the Nguyen Dynasty. He graduated with a Bachelor of Law from the University of Indochina, but he did not practice law but worked as a math teacher at a private school in Hue. After the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (DRV) was born, Cao Van Khanh participated in the founding and was Vice Chairman of the Hue Liberation Army, which later merged with the Viet Minh. When the French opened fire in the South (September 23, 1945), he was sent to follow the Southern army into Binh Dinh, and then became a member of the Binh Dinh Military Commission. After that, he was appointed as the Chief of Zone V. In mid-1946, he was the Commander of the 27th Division. In December 1947, he returned to be the Chief of Zone V. In August 1949, he was sent to the North to be the Deputy Commander of the 308th Division, the first main force Division of the General Command of the Vietnam People's Army. He and the regiment participated in many campaigns from the Border Campaign of 1950, to the Tran Hung Dao, Hoang Hoa Tham, Quang Trung Campaigns (1951), the Hoa Binh Campaign (1952), the Tay Bac Campaign (1952)... According to the stories of the Dien Bien veterans of the past, Cao Van Khanh had a lover, Nguyen Thi Ngoc Toan, a female medic at the Dien Bien Phu front. The two met when Ngoc Toan was a beautiful student at Dong Khanh School, Hue, the daughter of Minister of Justice Ton That Dan, a noble family. When the national resistance war broke out, both teacher Khanh and his student Ngoc Toan, hearing the sacred call of the Fatherland, went to join the fight. Teacher Khanh worked at the Liberation Army Command, while female student Ngoc Toan participated in the medic. Their love blossomed when Cao Van Khanh was assigned to the Viet Bac war zone, holding the position of Deputy Commander of the 308th Division. In the Viet Bac war zone, due to love or fate, Cao Van Khanh met again the former high school girl, who had now become a brave female medic. The love between the two was not as romantic as the love in modern movies. The love story between General Cao Van Khanh and Ngoc Toan began unexpectedly. The story goes that: After the Dien Bien Phu victory, the 308th Division held a parade to celebrate the victory. Attending the ceremony was the Director of the Propaganda Department, Le Quang Dao. In addition to public affairs, Mr. Dao also had a "secret" to help Deputy Commander Cao Van Khanh. General Dao showed Cao Van Khanh a photo of a girl with jet-black eyes, mischievous, life-loving, and a captivating smile that Cao Van Khanh suspected he had seen somewhere before? Yes! This was the daughter of the Minister of the Nguyen Dynasty, Ton That Dan (he had participated in the resistance war against the French from the very beginning). Through the matchmaking of Le Quang Dao and many other comrades, the relationship between Cao Van Khanh and Ngoc Toan gradually blossomed. At that time, love had to be arranged by a matchmaker. The regiment commander, Vuong Thua Vu, agreed to help his friend and went to discuss the matter with Ngoc Toan's family. When Mr. Vu met Ngoc Toan's mother, he cautiously said: "Sir, I have a good friend who is a good fighter. He is not married because he is busy fighting. Now he wants to be your son-in-law. Please allow him to write a letter to get to know Ms. Toan." The old woman calmly replied: "I am looking for a son-in-law, not someone who is a good fighter. My son is grown up, so as long as he is a good person and my son likes him, I will accept him." Mr. Vu left with praise: "I thought you were the wife of a mandarin, following feudal etiquette, but I never expected you to be so progressive!" Although they were in love, Ngoc Toan still felt uneasy in her heart. In her diary, she wrote: “...I saw him as the type of person I wanted, to be my companion, to go through the life that I had planned...But I also demanded: Love is to respect each other, not to hinder personal aspirations, gender equality. I was afraid that if I got married during my career, especially since he was older, he might be patriarchal. But as a humble and mature person in life, he understood and conquered me...”. It wasn’t until December 1953 that an event happened to Ngoc Toan when she was looking for a new unit. She got lost in the right place where Cao Van Khanh was stationed, just returning from Luang Prabang (Laos). In the mountains and forests of the Northwest, the two lovers suddenly met by chance. She thought it was fate that brought them together: “That chance meeting in the mountains and forests of Dien Bien made me realize even more clearly that I truly loved him”. When they parted, they promised to have a wedding at their family's house on the day of victory. The Dien Bien Phu campaign broke out, and more and more wounded soldiers were brought in for surgery. At night, holding a lamp to take care of each wounded soldier, Ngoc Toan's heart ached when he heard the wounded soldiers' breathing getting weaker and weaker. They were young men, only 18 or 20. In addition to their common worries, there was also their own worries for their lover - Cao Van Khanh - but what could they do!

One of a kind wedding

On the afternoon of May 7, 1954, the battlefield stopped firing, and female medic Ngoc Toan was ordered to go to Muong Thanh to receive a new mission. She left the deep forest of Tuan Giao, shouldered her bag, and at 5 pm walked across deep streams and abysses, and the towering Pha Din Pass all night, arriving at her destination at 2 am the next morning. Because she was fluent in French, she was assigned to meet and talk with the only female French prisoner, who was a flight attendant on a French military plane. At the request of the Central Committee of the Vietnam Women's Union, Uncle Ho ordered the release of this female prisoner. Female medic Ngoc Toan explained to the female prisoner about our Government's leniency policy and advised her to write a letter of thanks to Uncle Ho. That was on May 18, one day before Uncle Ho's birthday. Arriving at Muong Thanh to carry out her mission, but perhaps due to fate, the female medic coincidentally met her lover - Deputy Commander Cao Van Khanh. Strangely enough, while the smoke and fire were still hot and the smell of bombs and bullets was still strong, the two people accidentally met each other - choked up and speechless, they could only say "Brother"! "Sister"! Then suddenly tears flowed. They wanted to say many things to each other, but before they could say anything, Deputy Commander Cao Van Khanh was ordered to take over the Muong Thanh battlefield and return the prisoners.

The bride and groom's wedding attire was the old military uniform like all the officers and soldiers of Dien Bien, but the "auditorium" was filled with smiles as bright as blooming flowers and blessings in the joy of victory that was still ecstatic.

At that moment, Deputy Director of the General Department of Politics Tran Luong "read" the thoughts of the two people: "We know that you two have loved each other for a long time, but because of the continuous war, we have not had the opportunity to plan a hundred-year relationship. It is rare for you two to meet like this, or to have a wedding here. We will be the officiant for your wedding." Right in the middle of the battlefield still littered with bombs and bullets, without asking your mother's permission, without family and friends present, and without buying clothes... Even in the battlefield, a girl's marriage is a major event in her life! Why is it so hasty?

Cao Van Khanh and Ngoc Toan in the jeep

Now hearing about the wedding, many people joined in to give their opinions. All of Cao Van Khanh and Ngoc Toan's comrades joined in. When meeting General Le Trong Tan, Khanh introduced: "...Miss Toan, a doctor". - I have heard the name, but only met her today. And I also know that in just a few days, this gentle, graceful Hue girl will become Ms. Khanh right here on this historic land of Dien Bien. I congratulate you on your happiness" - General Tan said. After a day and a half of deep thought, on the afternoon of May 21, she agreed to marry. Later, she wrote: "The death and life, the life and happiness of Uncle Ho's soldiers, thinking about life at that time was so natural and simple. When you love each other, why bother with formalities? So, when the day of "getting married" was decided, the brothers assigned each other a task to decorate the De Castrie bunker into a wedding room. The wedding did not have flowers, but the soldiers decorated the bunker with colorful French parachutes. There were enough seats for more than 40 representatives of the "two families". The bride's family were medical officers, the groom's family were officers of the 308th Division. On May 22, 1954, the wedding ceremony was held in the command bunker of defeated General De Castrie, under the light of kerosene lamps. Emotions surged when the couple walked hand in hand into the bunker, amidst the excitement and loud applause of all the guests of the "two families", who were comrades who had survived the battlefield and returned. Many years later, Cao Van Khanh recalled this touching moment: "Do you still remember when you and I lovingly walked into the command bunker of the De Castrie headquarters to hold the ceremony? Mr. Tran Luong officiated the wedding and Mr. Cam, Political Commissar of the Front of the Military Medical Department, represented the bride's unit to speak. The wedding was photographed and filmed.

The wedding was an event and a common joy for the officers and soldiers of Dien Bien Phu. Many years later, veterans of the “old age” still recall the romantic and poetic beauty of that happy day. The love that blossomed on the front helped the commander of the main force and the beautiful female medic at the front line with the wedding held right at the enemy general’s command post and the battlefield became a wedding hall, when the smoke of bombs and bullets had not yet cleared.

The wedding had no flowers, but there were nougat, Philip tobacco, and Napoleon wine, which were spoils of war and brought by the guests to join in the fun. The wedding had homegrown performances. The groom sang “The Soldiers Return to the Village” and the bride sang “The Muong La Baby”.

Cao Van Khanh and his wife

The wedding did not take place on a "flower car" but on a tank - standing next to the tank turret looking out at the devastated Muong Thanh battlefield, Ngoc Toan softly exclaimed: "How many comrades have sacrificed so that I can still live". She recalled that hundreds of young men had sacrificed in her arms at the field hospital, people who had certainly never been loved! The bride and groom took a photo on a tank that fought in Dien Bien Phu, Cao Van Khanh said: "That is a lifelong memory for us, the happiest days of you and me after the historic victory, in a historic setting, right?" The joy of victory, mixed with the love of a couple. The joy of a new relationship when the mission was completed. Simple but extremely intimate. A rare wedding, a love that will last a lifetime.

Tran Manh Thuong - Tienphong.vn

Source: https://tienphong.vn/co-mot-hon-truong-dieu-ky-trong-ham-do-cat-post1631477.tpo