On August 23, 1958, ** made a decision in Beidaihe that shocked the worldShelling of Kinmen.
With the first order, more than 400 artillery pieces of the Fujian front-line troops of the People's Liberation Army were together, and the entire Kinmen Island was suddenly drowned in gunsmoke.
The scale of the shelling was unprecedented, and the press described it as ——"Ten thousand cannons bombarded Kinmen".
The shelling lasted more than two hours, firing nearly 30,000 shells, killing and wounding more than 600 Kuomintang officers below the rank of lieutenant general, including two US military advisers who were also killed in the shelling.
But that's just the beginning!
On 24 July, the artillery of the People's Liberation Army (PLA) and the torpedo boats and frigates jointly carried out a second large-scale artillery bombardment, sinking and damaging one large enemy transport ship.
After two large-scale heavy shelling by our army, Kinmen Island was basically blocked!
However, this shelling operation, which shocked the world, also greatly touched the nerves of the Americans!
After the Kinmen artillery battle began, the Americans panicked, and Eisenhower, who was the leading member of the United States at the time, could not sleep for several days.
Unable to figure out the true intention of launching this shelling operation, Eisenhower made a misjudgment.
He believes that the large-scale shelling of Kinmen planned by *** is by no means just to liberate Kinmen and Matsu, but to cross the sea on a large scale to liberate Taiwan.
Therefore, in order to protect Taiwan, an "aircraft carrier that will never sink," Eisenhower immediately ordered that half of the ships of the Sixth Fleet be dispatched to the Taiwan Strait to make peace with the Seventh Fleet, and that troops should be dispatched from Japan, the Philippines, and other places to strengthen the US military strength in the Taiwan Strait.
However, that's exactly what *** wants to see!
The shelling of Kinmen was not just a simple military operation, but also a political consideration in many aspects.
** By shelling Kinmen, the Americans' attention was successfully diverted to the Far East, which allowed tensions in the Middle East to be eased.
As General Ye Fei later said: "Eisenhower is not ***'s opponent, he was completely mobilized by ***!."”
By the end of August, Kinmen had been completely blocked, and the Kuomintang defenders stationed on Kinmen Island were barely surviving on reserves.
Under such a favorable situation, the liberation of Kinmen is just around the corner.
In fact, many analysts at home and abroad at that time agreed that:The next combat operation of the PLA will be to land in Kinmen.
However, on September 3, ** decisively ordered: "Stop shelling for three days from the 4th to observe the dynamics of all sides." ”
Actually, the decision to stop shelling was made quite correctly at this time!
This is because the fierce shelling of the past few days has dealt a heavy blow to the Kuomintang defenders and restrained the US military forces in the Middle East, and the goal has been achieved.
On September 4, ** issued a statement that shocked the world:
"The width of China's territorial waters is 12 nautical miles, and all foreign aircraft and military ships are not allowed to enter China's territorial waters and the airspace above them without China's permission. ”On the same day, then US Secretary of State Dulles also issued a statement, openly claiming that he would send troops to help the Taiwan authorities defend Kinmen and Matsu.
In addition, Dulles arrogantly declared:
"If you have to intervene, you're going to have to use some small atoms. This is an unpleasant prospect that we must face. ”But in fact, Dulles's arrogant remark is just to scare us and make us retreat.
However, he seriously underestimated the determination and will of the Chinese people to defend national sovereignty and unity, and he was not afraid of it on the Korean battlefield a few years ago, let alone a few years later.
On September 7, the U.S. military dispatched seven ** ships to escort Chiang's ships, in a vain attempt to help Chiang's army restore the sea supply line in Kinmen.
At that time, seven U.S. warships sandwiched Chiang's ship and the transport ship in the middle, and if our army opened fire flatly, it would definitely hit the U.S. ship, and the situation would have become complicated.
What to do?To fight or not to fight?As a front-line commander, Ye Fei felt that the matter was very important, and hurriedly dialed the chairman's ** request.
In the face of Ye Fei's request, ** replied without thinking:"It's right!”
Ye Fei asked again: "Did you fight with the US ships?"”
**Say:"Only fight Chiang's ships, not American ships. ”
Then, he further explained: It is necessary to wait for the US-Chiang joint formation to arrive at the port of Liaoluo Bay in Kinmen, and it is required to report the location, formation formation, and navigation conditions of the US-Chiang joint formation every hour, and when it arrives at Liuluo Bay in Kinmen, it must wait for Beijing's order to do so.
In order to accurately carry out the chairman's order of "not attacking US ships, only Chiang's ships", Ye Fei asked for instructions
"We don't fight the U.S. ships, but if the U.S. ships come to us, will we shoot back?”According to the chairman's character, if the other party makes the first move, then he must return the color, but this time, the chairman made it clear: "You can't fight back without an order." ”
Hearing this answer, Ye Fei immediately felt extremely nervous!
First of all, the US warships and the Chiang warships are only 2 nautical miles apart, and our army is bombarded by multiple artillery groups and several hundred artillery pieces at the same time.
Second, if the US ships open fire on our troops, and our troops are unable to return fire, they are bound to suffer heavy losses.
Although this order is difficult to execute, as a soldier, the commander's order should be fulfilled to the letter.
For this reason, Ye Fei personally issued an order to all artillery groups: wait for the joint formation of the United States and Chiang Kai-shek to arrive at the port of Liaoluowan in Kinmen, and Beijing will not open fire until the order is givenThe artillery groups only hit Chiang's ships, and were not allowed to hit American shipsIf the US ship does not give an order to our army, our army will not return fire.
After receiving the order, all the artillery groups were extremely surprised, and they all asked why ** would give such an order.
But Ye Fei didn't explain too much about this, but repeated the order again, and then asked the artillery groups: Did you hear clearly?
The artillery groups have heard the answer clearly, and they must strictly implement the orders of ***!
On the morning of 8 September, ** received a report: The US-Chiang joint formation sailed to the waters of Kinmen again, and two transport ships of the Chiang army entered the port of Liaoluowan Wharf to unload military supplies, and the US ships stopped in the nearby sea to help.
In fact, the US ship was dispatched again to escort Chiang's ship, which was already expected, but one thing is not very clearThat is - how determined are the Americans to help Chiang someone?What is the purpose?
If the Americans were genuinely helping Chiang, then the situation could be complicated, but if not, then everything would be much easier.
But the question is, how can we find out the determination of the Americans to help Chiang?
It's very simple, and you can see it at a glance!
** Immediately ordered: The front-line troops opened fire according to the predetermined combat plan, and only hit Chiang's ships, not American ships.
At noon that day, hundreds of our artillery pieces roared at the same time, and shells rained down on Chiang's ships.
This was the third large-scale artillery bombardment launched by our army on Kinmen, and the whole process lasted for five hours, firing more than 21,700 shells, bombarding important military targets in Kinmen and ships anchored in Kinmen's Liaoluo Bay.
The fierce bombardment of our troops sank Chiang's ship "Meile", and the "Meizhen" was seriously injured and fled.
It is worth mentioning that after the artillery bombardment of our troops began, the US ships immediately abandoned Chiang's ship, turned around and fled straight in the direction of Taiwan.
The behavior of the US ship truly explains what it means to be "husband and wife are birds of the same forest, and they fly separately when disaster strikes."
Of course, the United States and Jiang are not "husband and wife", at most they are just a wolf and an embarrassment.
As soon as the US ships left, Chiang's ship and all the transport ships were completely exposed to our artillery fire, and the blows they suffered were self-evident.
Artillery fire and gunsmoke filled the sky on Kinmen Island, and Chiang's army appealed to Taiwan one after another.
However, the Taiwan side was also stunned and asked, "What about American friends?"What about the U.S. ** ship?”
Jiang Jun, who was stationed in Kinmen, scolded after hearing this:
"What friends are not friends?The U.S. ** ship has already turned around and fled!American bastards ......”The Chiang troops stationed on Kinmen Island were really panicked, and they directly used the walkie-talkie to talk, and they didn't even use the password, and our army's reconnaissance plane could hear it clearly.
According to statistics: in this shelling, Chiang's ships were sunk by our troops 3 ships and several ships were damaged.
Faced with such a fiasco, the Taiwan side could only order all Chiang ships to return to their ships so as not to suffer greater losses.
In this artillery operation, our army once again won a great victory!
On 11 September, our Fujian front-line troops carried out another artillery bombardment operation against Chiang's warship, which was escorted by US ships.
The shelling lasted more than three hours in total, 2 shells were firedMore than 50,000 rounds were fired, more than 10 military installations on the island were destroyed, and one transport plane was damaged.
It is worth mentioning that the scene of this shelling was the same as the previous one, as soon as our troops opened fire, the US ** ship hurriedly retreated to the open sea.
In the middle of that month, the ground artillery of the Fujian front increased to 14 regiments, 7 battalions, and 14 companies, and the coastal artillery increased to 8 companies.
After that, the scale of our army's artillery bombardment of Kinmen was relatively reduced, and it became a small and medium-scale artillery bombardment and zero artillery fire.
Through these two large-scale shellings, the Americans finally figured out their strategic cardsOn the premise of ensuring its vested interests, it takes a defensive position.
In addition, on the issue of the Taiwan Strait, the Americans also see very clearly, and they want to get out of Kinmen and Matsu in time and focus on protecting Taiwan.
I have to admit that ** is indeed a great military strategist and strategist, and his vision is breathtaking.
Decades later, Admiral Ye Fei still remembered the battle vividly, saying: At that time, I did not understand the intention of the chairman's order to "only fight Chiang's ships, not US ships." Only later did I understand that the chairman wanted to find out the Americans' "hole cards" with this.
General Ye Fei recalled:
“……After this contest, we have found out all the bottom of US imperialism. Although US imperialism seems to be vicious and powerful, and it is tyrannical and unstoppable all over the world, it is in fact a paper tiger. The so-called US-Chiang Defense Treaty also has certain limits. As long as it involves the interests of US imperialism itself, it will not do anything at the risk of a direct conflict with our army. ”So much so that the "shelling of Kinmen" was called by some experts and scholarsA "unique" battle in the history of world warfare. So, how unique is the "shelling of Kinmen"?
Judging from the overall form of the campaign, the "shelling of Kinmen" can only be regarded as a "monotonous" military operation.
After all, the whole process of the campaign did not involve landing, charging, etc., but only bombarding the opponent with artillery across the sea.
However, it was such a monotonous military operation that could no longer be monotonous, but it well demonstrated superb military command art and strategic vision.
Since then, the history of the Kuomintang and the Communist Party on both sides of the Taiwan Strait has lasted for 20 years in a single day, and this very peculiar mode of warfare has shocked the whole world.
Even Eisenhower, the American ** at that time, couldn't help but doubt:"I wonder if we're in a comical operatic war. ”
Of course, whether it is strategic vision or military command ability, although Eisenhower has its own characteristics, it is far from being as good as ***
Therefore, he naturally could not understand the real reason for the decision to command the "Kinmen Artillery Battle".
In fact, this form of shelling is already a politically symbolic war, and has become a "special form" for the KMT and the CPC to maintain contact.
On the other hand, looking at the whole campaign, it is not difficult for us to find: **Although he commanded the artillery bombardment of Kinmen, he never landed, and even the blockade was not really sealed, that is, the so-called "fighting but not boarding, sealing but not dying".
In addition, the shelling of Kinmen was not a continuous bombardment, but a stop-and-go shelling, and apart from the relatively large scale of the previous shellings, the later shelling was basically only symbolic.
The reason for this is also relatively easy to understand, and that is:In order to oppose the US "cease-fire" conspiracy and Chiang Kai-shek's intransigence in refusing to negotiate.
On October 21, U.S. Secretary of State Dulles visited Taiwan, continued to play the "** conspiracy," and signed the so-called joint communiqué with Chiang Kai-shek.
In response to this action by the US side, our Fujian front-line troops followed the instructions of the United States and carried it out on 31 October"Double-day does not play single-day".
Of course, this instruction was also intended to allow the Kuomintang authorities to continue to hold on to Kinmen, so as to drag the United States and Chiang on the two "nooses" of Kinmen and Matsu, so that they could not get out.
At the same time, he expressed to the Taiwan authorities and the broad masses of the military and people our party's sincerity in resolving the issue peacefully.
So you see, this is a typical example of the art of superb military command, which is really admirable.
For this artillery battle full of special significance, General Ye Fei praised the superb military command art many times, he said:
"The United States and Chiang were completely led by the nose by the clever decision-making, and it has also become a special dialogue between the three parties of the United States and Chiang Kai-shek, a kind of negotiation that does not take place at the negotiating table. This is truly a spectacle in the history of Chinese and foreign wars in ancient and modern times. ”Facts have proved that such a unique artillery battle is also unique in the entire history of human warfare. As the commander-in-chief of this classic artillery battle, he skillfully combined and integrated military struggle, political struggle, and diplomatic struggle into one, making it the most effective "** not only severely punished Chiang's army, but also thwarted the US conspiracy to interfere in China's internal affairs, thus effectively defending national sovereignty and dignity."
On January 3, 1959, after suffering several rounds of bombardment by our army, the artillery of the Kuomintang Army in Kinmen suddenly carried out wanton and indiscriminate bombardment on Dadeng Island.
The bombardment, which killed 31 children and injured 17 others, is outrageous.
For this reason, our Fujian front-line artillery decided to carry out the seventh large-scale artillery bombardment on 7 July, destroying 12 artillery positions and 15 observation posts.
Up to now, our army has carried out a total of seven large-scale artillery bombardments, dozens of small-scale artillery bombardments, and nearly 1,000 zero-artillery shots on Kinmen.
In addition, our army also engaged in 13 air battles and 3 naval battles with the Kuomintang army, killing and wounding more than 7,000 Kuomintang troops, shooting down and damaging 36 planes, and sinking and damaging 27 warships, giving the Kuomintang troops a powerful punishment.
On January 1, 1979, after the formal establishment of diplomatic relations between China and the United States, the so-called "Mutual Defense Treaty" between the United States and the Kuomintang authorities in Taiwan was terminated.
Since then, our Fujian frontline troops have stopped shelling Kinmen.
Although decades have passed since this battle, whenever we look back, we can always be deeply shocked by it.
The "Kinmen Artillery Battle" was not only large-scale and fruitful, but more importantly, it allowed us to see the great strategic thinking and military command art.
Such a seemingly "dramatic" war process actually embodies the amazing art of command and decision-making.
In this article, I would like to commemorate our great leader***