After the end of the Korean War, U.S. Army Commander Van Vliet told reporters that the United States had sent an absolutely superior air force and navy to bomb China's ** line with all its might, but there was never a shortage of supplies for the squadron, which made him very annoyed.
This person who embarrassed the American general was Major General Liu Juying of our country.
There is an old Chinese saying that "before the soldiers and horses move, the grain and grass go first", especially when the gap in war reserves is so large, ensuring the delivery of materials is the lifeline of the volunteer soldiers.
In 1950, the GDP of the United States was more than $280 billion, while China had just reached $10 billion.
In terms of economic size, the gap between the two sides is close to 30 times, and the gap in per capita income is even more than 70 times.
In terms of industrial capacity, the gap between the two sides is even more terrifying, when China produced 600,000 tons of steel per year, while the United States reached 88 million tons, and many special steel raw materials China did not have, China's annual output of 200,000 tons, the United States annual output of 260 million tons, was the world's largest military producer at that time.
In the military aspect, China's air force and navy have just been established, and their number is less than 3% of that of the United States, and they are at least a generation and a half behind in technology, and there are not even a few pilots in the whole country, most of them are still being trained by the Soviet Union, and they have only been flying for a few hours, and they have no actual combat capability, and the number of sea boats is basically zero.
It is under such a huge disparity in military and economic power that China has chosen to face the difficulties, we only have a stream of blood and the support of the people, and the United States is not alone in this war, there are as many as a dozen US allies participating in the war, and China only has the Soviet Union behind us to help us.
Therefore, before the war, the U.S. military analyzed that the possibility of China sending troops was very small, and MacArthur vowed to sweep North Korea within a month and let the soldiers return to the United States for Christmas.
** It was decided to send troops to North Korea, and Liu Juying took the lead in firing the first shot.
At that time, the majority of people in China opposed the war, but *** believed that this war had to be fought.
From an economic point of view, at that time, it was a heavy burden for Taiwan to choose one of the two sides, North Korea, and China, and Taiwan was, after all, our family affair, and there was still a chance to take it back in the future.
However, the situation on the Korean Peninsula is already precarious, and once it is controlled by the United States, the entire island of Taiwan and our northeast will be opened, and whether the United States or the Soviet Union will become the world boss in the future, China's position will be very passive.
On October 19, 1950, China's first vanguard troops crossed the Yalu River and, under the cover of the Soviet Air Force, quietly entered the Korean battlefield, taking the United States by surprise.
But in the months that followed, the fighting became extremely difficult.
In order to enter the battlefield as soon as possible and change the situation of the war, when the volunteer soldiers entered Korea, most of them were still wearing single clothes, and they did not bring much military rations, many of which were made up by the people on the road, and the sea passage was completely blocked, and some of the materials transported from Southeast Asia could only be secretly transported from Hong Kong to Shanghai, and they were transshipment Dalian at great risk.
Therefore, the supply of materials still mainly depends on land transportation. Liu Juying put forward a detailed material support plan, and the Soviet Air Force increased its assistance.
Two months after the Volunteers entered North Korea, an all-army logistics work conference was held in Shenyang to discuss the supply issue, and the most discussed thing was the transportation line, and Liu Junying, who was the commander-in-chief of the railway troops of the Northeast Military Region at that time.
Liu Juying became the mayor of Changchun City at the age of 28, although he is not very old, but he has been working on the transportation front for more than ten years.
Due to years of war, he has not been able to return home once since he joined the army.
During the War of Liberation, he successively served as the number one leader in the East Manchurian Military Region Military Station and the Harbin Railway Transportation Bureau, providing strong logistical support for our liberation cause.
After the liberation of Shenyang, Liu Juying relied on his many years of work experience in the northeast and the active mediation of the Soviet Union to win many valuable strategic resources for the country, including two trains full of artillery shells.
Thanks to Liu Juying's timely transfer, it was avoided to be blown up by the Kuomintang.
After the Korean War began, Liu Juying was appointed as the commander of railway transportation in the Northeast Military Region.
It was at his suggestion that the Soviet Air Force increased its assistance to our army, from 300 aircraft in the early stage of the war to more than 1,100, and at Liu Juying's request, he was given three additional anti-aircraft artillery divisions, and Liu Juying was appointed as the political commissar of this unit.
In this extraordinary period, Liu Juying, as a young cadre, wears many hats, and in a short period of time, he has to do a good job in the three important tasks of transportation, organizing emergency repairs, and antiaircraft artillery operations at the same time.
From February 1951, the U.S. military suffered setbacks on the main battlefield and began to intensify the bombing of our army's supply routes, ** North Korea's fighter planes increased from 1,000 to 2,156, and continued to increase its strength in the later period.
Among them, more than 1,360 combat planes were used to carry out strangulation tactics against our army's transport troops, resulting in serious damage to our army's railways and highway bridges, and the situation became more and more serious.
During that period, our army's railway units were bombed by the US military every day, and they were able to attack, repair, and communicate with each other.
In order to transport supplies to North Korea in a timely manner, they also developed various fantastic ideas such as temporary Fuji Bridges and underwater bridges made of various war stones.
**After inspecting our army's railway station line, I couldn't help but sigh: "If there is no Liu Juying, the result of resisting US aggression and aiding Korea is likely to be rewritten." According to Liu Juying's guards, he often did not rest for three to four days to work, and Liu Juying suffered from hypoglycemia and often fainted on the side of the railway.
On the way to Beijing several times for rescue, Liu Juying forcibly asked the vehicle to turn around. He said: "I would rather die on the front line than lie in a hospital bed." ”
The initial person in charge of this strangulation tactic was the commander of the US army, Van Vleet, because the progress did not go well, his 8th Army was later sent to the main battlefield, and also experienced the most tragic battle of Shangganling, which caused heavy losses to the US army.
After this fight, Van Vleet even wanted to retire.
After returning to Seoul on June 21, 1952, he told a reporter in the United States: "They used all the methods, but the squadron had a steel transportation line that cut through.
According to statistics, the U.S. military dropped a total of 690,000 tons of artillery shells on this transportation route, and they bombed 98 Japanese cities for 10 months in World War II, consuming less than 200,000 tons of artillery shells.
One of China's most dangerous railways, 90 kilometers long, has to withstand an average of one shell every 7 meters a day, 33 damaged in one day, and repaired 33 in one day.
A British war correspondent who entered the battlefield at that time also made a documentary called "Why China's Railways Keep Chopping" for this purpose.
It was 110,000 railway soldiers who completed this miracle that year, and the outstanding representative of them was Emperor Yang Liandi.
He recalled those eventful years, saying that at that time, the soldiers often had to climb the bridge piers more than 40 meters high with their bare hands to build roads, and in order to avoid enemy planes, they chose to move at night most of the time, because the frequency and density of bombing during the day were too high.
Data show that in July 1951, the number of bombings of railway transportation lines by the US military increased by four times compared with half a year earlier. But the result was surprising, the volume of transportation of the Volunteer Army increased by 3 times.
In May 1952, the U.S. military increased the number of bombings again, 12 times more than in July 1951.
And the volume of volunteer transport is still growing. The more American bombing, the faster and more frequent the trains of the Volunteer Army became.
And all this is because more than 100,000 railway soldiers did not hesitate their lives, and the logistics command was properly commanded, and they were always able to overcome all kinds of difficulties in order to transport supplies to the front line again and again.
Mr. Peng said with emotion: "Without these materials, no matter how brave the volunteers are, they will not be able to win the battle." "At that time, this railway was like a blood vessel in the human body, under the bombing of the US military, this blood vessel has become a capillary, and it is often blocked.
However, under the leadership of Liu Juying, the railroad soldiers created a miracle.
After the victory of the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea, Liu Juying was sent to Harbin to serve as the vice president of the Harbin Military Engineering College.
Liu Juying is a nostalgic person, at his request, in 1978, at the age of 61, he was transferred back to the railway corps again as deputy commander.
More than 20 years later, he has returned to this familiar job and continues to make outstanding contributions to the country.
In the following ten years, China's railways to Xinjiang increased by more than 7,000 kilometers, achieving the goal of covering the north and south of Xinjiang and the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau.
It was not until 1987 that Liu Juying retired from his job.
His whole life was dedicated to the revolutionary cause, to the railway cause and to the broad masses of the people, and he was the most admirable iron and steel hero in the history of New China.