The military self-government to which I belong has always been concerned about the issue of liberating Taiwan, and we have always insisted on adopting a two-pronged strategy in this regard. The primary option is peaceful reunification, while the use of force is the alternative. In short, we will choose a negotiated solution, but if negotiations do not work out, we will use force. We will never give up the use of force to resolve the Taiwan issue. However, many people believe that this attitude is too conservative, and they believe that military reunification should not be an option. In their opinion, military reunification should be an easy matter. After all, our country is currently very strong, with aircraft carriers, fifth-generation aircraft, and 10,000-ton drives, and it should be easy to confront Taiwan. It is no exaggeration to say that once we announce an attack, the Taiwan side will be quickly defeated. However, war is not child's play, and military unification is far from being as simple as they imagined.
It needs to be understood that conducting military operations in the Taiwan Strait is far from an ordinary war, and there are many factors to consider, even more intractable than the current Russia-Ukraine conflict. Not only the interference of various international forces, but also how to break through the natural barrier of the Taiwan Strait are very thorny issues. It is often said that arrogant soldiers will be defeated, and blind optimism and underestimation of the enemy will undoubtedly bring problems. We have experienced a similar painful lesson more than half a century ago. At the end of the Liberation War, after crossing the Yangtze River, our army had occupied almost all the land along the coast of Fujian, and only Kinmen and other islands still had stubborn resistance from the remnants of the Kuomintang. The Kuomintang attempted to make Kinmen a barrier to Taiwan in order to prevent our troops from advancing into Taiwan. They even plan to make a comeback one day, and Kinmen is the springboard for their "** continent". ** once said: "You should pursue the remaining enemies, not covet fame and fortune, and learn from the overlord."
Naturally, we could not give the Kuomintang the opportunity to continue the struggle that they wanted, so there was the Battle of Kinmen. Regrettably, however, we did not achieve our usual victory in the Battle of Kinmen, but suffered a crushing defeat. The Battle of Kinmen was a rare defeat for our army during the War of Liberation. In this battle, the 1st Podon Island troops were almost completely wiped out, and a total of more than 9,000 commanders and fighters were buried in Kinmen forever. At that time, when the situation in the whole country had been basically determined and our army had already occupied an absolute superiority, the fundamental reason for our failure was nothing more than to underestimate the enemy. The Battle of Kinmen took place in an atmosphere of pride and complacency.
Sanye's 10th Corps was responsible for attacking Kinmen, and they had been so strong since they crossed the river from Shanghai that this victory gave them some pride, mistakenly believing that the Kuomintang army had no power to resist, but did not expect that the gloom of the defeat in the Battle of Kinmen was quietly brewing. However, during the preparatory stage, the 10 Corps encountered a series of thorny problems, especially in finding the ships and boatmen needed to cross the sea. Due to the deliberate damage of the Kuomintang troops, great difficulties were created for the 10 Corps. On the eve of the offensive, the 10th Corps had only gathered more than 300 wooden boats, which could only transport the strength of three regiments at a time, totaling about 9,000 men. In addition, most of the shipwrights were not locals and did not know much about the waters around Kinmen. At the same time, the hostile situation on Kinmen Island has undergone significant changes.
The remnants of Li Liangrong's 22nd Corps, which was originally stationed in Kinmen, were about 20,000 people, and their combat effectiveness was limitedHowever, with the loss of Xiamen, the Kuomintang dispatched Hu Lian's 12 Corps to reinforce the garrison, increasing the number of defenders to more than 40,000 people, and the combat effectiveness was greatly improved. In addition, the Kuomintang still has an absolute advantage in naval and air forces, with more than 100,000 tons of ships and more than 200 aircraft. As a result, the air and sea supremacy in the Battle of Kinmen were controlled by the Kuomintang, and our army needed to face not only the defenders of Kinmen, but also the entire three-dimensional defense system of land, sea and air, and the difficulty of the attack was far from comparable to the land battles in the past. With their own preparations and the enemy's defenses strengthened, it is obvious that there will be great risks in launching the Battle of Kinmen. Perhaps, the 10th Corps was aware of this, but their mentality of underestimating the enemy based on the situation ended up costing them dearly.
The lessons of the Battle of Kinmen are worth pondering, especially when military reunification is needed. Modern warfare is very different from the Battle of Kinmen more than half a century ago, and the equipment and tactical theory have undergone earth-shaking changes. However, as a sea-crossing and landing operation, the Battle of Kinmen still contains valuable lessons. From a military point of view, there are at least three lessons to be learned, and these lessons are crucial for our future operations against Taiwan. First of all, it is necessary to ensure control of sea and air supremacy, because without this guarantee, there will be no way to talk about sea-crossing and landing operations.
In the Battle of Kinmen, the Kuomintang relied on the absolute superiority of naval and air forces to complete the blockade of the sea in a timely manner, resulting in the fact that after the first batch of our army's landing troops arrived at the islands of Kinmen, the follow-up landing troops and ammunition supplies could not keep up in time, so that our army on the islands fell into the predicament of isolation and helplessness, and finally the whole army was annihilated. The current situation is different from the past, China's naval and air forces have ushered in tremendous development in the past two decades, and they already have advanced equipment such as fifth-generation aircraft, aircraft carriers, and shield ships, and their strength is far beyond that of the other side. However, we still need to maintain a high degree of vigilance, because there are many restless forces around the Taiwan Strait, and no one can guarantee that they will not intervene and interfere. In particular, our old adversary, the United States, has the most powerful naval and air forces in the world today. If they choose to intervene, it will be very difficult to secure absolute sea and air supremacy, even on our doorstep.
Our naval and air forces are not enough to occupy absolute superiority, so we need more aircraft carriers, fighters and various types of **. Secondly, it is necessary to fully consider possible enemy reinforcements in case of encirclement. In the Battle of Kinmen, due to the influence of the idea of underestimating the enemy, the 10 Corps chose to "turn a blind eye" to the 12 Corps that reinforced Kinmen, and as a result, knowing that the enemy's defensive strength was strengthened, it did not make corresponding arrangements, but sent troops as originally planned, resulting in a great increase in the offensive pressure of our landing force and making it difficult to complete the combat mission of clearing the enemy forces on the island. Perhaps many will think that the other side is just a lone army, and as long as the island guards are solved, the overall situation can be controlled, and there is no need to think about reinforcements. In reality, however, there are a large number of forces around the Taiwan Strait that move frequently.
The military situation in the Taiwan Strait is complicated, and not only the United States, an old power, but also Japan, South Korea, and the Philippines in Northeast Asia, the Philippines in the South China Sea, and even southwestern countries such as India may take advantage of the opportunity to create incidents. They may not directly send additional troops to the other side of the Taiwan Strait, but only need to create confusion and interference in their respective fields, which can affect military operations in the Taiwan Strait, and even lead to failure because of distraction. Looking back at the beginning of the 50s of the last century, our army was ready to attack Taiwan and Peng. At that time, we had gathered hundreds of thousands of troops on the southeast coast, and we were also actively mobilizing and training naval and air forces in preparation for a decisive battle. However, at the critical moment, a conflict broke out on the Korean Peninsula, and US bombers even flew over the Yalu River, provoking arrogance. How can you not fight back when you are bullied to the doorstep?As a result, the morale of the volunteers was high and they crossed the Yalu River, and the attack on Taiwan could only be temporarily suspended.
Therefore, for opponents who may reinforce or intervene in operations in the Taiwan Strait, it is necessary to formulate adequate plans to prevent them from exerting influence at critical moments. For example, creating trouble in the South China Sea in advance, or getting neighboring North Korea to contribute, can be effective. Finally, the landing force must have an absolute superiority in troops. In the Battle of Kinmen, due to the lack of ships, despite the superiority of our army's total strength, it was not possible to send a sufficient number of landing troops at one time. The first batch of troops landing on the island was only more than 9,000 people, and they were obviously at a disadvantage in the face of more than 40,000 Kuomintang defenders. As a result, although our troops seized the beachhead, they were unable to break through the enemy's defenses and give the enemy a chance to breathe. In the follow-up operation, the enemy concentrated superior forces to launch a ** against our army, and due to the blockade, we could not get reinforcements and supplies, and our army fell into the dilemma of fighting alone, and finally the whole army was annihilated.
As the saying goes, "The lion fights the rabbit with all his strength". As far as the Taiwan Strait is concerned, it is either rock solid and unshakable, or it goes all out and cannot give the opponent a chance to breathe. The best practice for military operations is to achieve a comprehensive and coordinated operation of the land, sea and air triad. First of all, it uses precision strike missiles to clear targets, and then launches land and sea landing operations and airborne landing in the enemy's rear, so as to complete the effective projection of troops at one time, so as to quickly seize the initiative on the battlefield. Even in the face of external support from our opponents, or even to prevent follow-up attacks, we can still rely on the lone army on the island to clear out the remnants of the enemy. To sum up, in view of a possible war in the Taiwan Strait, we must adopt a strict attitude toward the enemy and absolutely must not take it lightly. We must abandon the mentality of underestimating the enemy, prepare for the worst, and go all out to meet this most crucial battle.
Even if some people will laugh at killing chickens with knives later, it is still much better than capsizing halfway.