The Volunteers crossed the Yalu River to face the United States and South KoreaOn June 25, 1950, the Korean War broke out. The Korean People's Army (KPA) was able to defeat the South Korean Army for a time with excellent combat readiness and single-minded resistance from both the army and the people.
However, with the entry of the US-led "joint **" into the war, the situation on the Korean Peninsula has become extremely tense. The United States not only launched a large-scale military offensive against North Korea, but also sent the Seventh Fleet to prevent the PLA from liberating Taiwan.
In the face of this complicated situation, Chairman and Commander began to deploy in advance, decided to strengthen the national defense forces in the northeast region, and sent several armies to the northeast region for training and preparation for war in order to deal with possible crises.
On July 7 and 10, 1950, the premier presided over two successive meetings on the defense of national defense, and invited senior generals such as the commander-in-chief, the acting chief of the general staff of the Central Military Commission, and the director of the General Political Department.
At the meeting, the Prime Minister first introduced the situation on the Korean Peninsula and stressed the importance of strengthening national defense forces. He pointed out that because of the large gap between the strength of the North Korean army and the U.S. military, the war situation may pose a threat to our northeastern border, so we need to consider what kind of troops to send to strengthen the northeastern border defense.
The acting chief of the general staff suggested that the troops of the four fields be used, and the director of the General Political Department also agreed, believing that the troops of the four fields were familiar with the climate, terrain, customs, and customs of the northeast and were very suitable for undertaking this task.
Both the President and the President supported a decision that was formed at the meeting on 13 July entitled "Decision on the Defence of the North-East Frontier". On the same day, ** approved the decision and instructed that it should be implemented in accordance with the decision immediately.
The decision mobilized more than 260,000 people from the 13th Corps, the 42nd Army, the Artillery Headquarters, 1 Cavalry Regiment, the 6th Engineer Regiment and 3 Automobile Corps of the Fourth Field Army to form the Northeast Frontier Army.
These armies are the elite divisions of the People's Liberation Army, for example, the commander-in-chief once said: "The 38th Army and the 39th Army were developed by the old foundation of the Jinggangshan Red Army, and the 40th Army was the old army of Shandong during the Anti-Japanese War. ”
Six years later, when receiving the delegation of the CPSU, ** made a special mention of this incident, he said: "After the start of the war, we first transferred 3 armies, and later added 2 armies, a total of 5 corps, placed on the banks of the Yalu River.
Therefore, when the imperialists crossed the 38th parallel, it was possible for us to send troops. In October 1970, when he met with Kim Il Sung, he said with some regret: "It's a pity that there were only 5 armies at that time, and the firepower of those 5 armies was not strong, so it should be good to have 7 armies!" ”
As we all know, after the Volunteer Army entered the DPRK, the commander-in-chief of the army belonged to the Volunteer Army Command, and the commander was the core idea: the chairman and the commander agreed to the "Decision on Defending the Northeast Frontier", which mobilized the elite PLA troops to form the Northeast Frontier Army, and mentioned this matter a few years later.
On September 15, 1950, after the U.S. troops landed at Incheon, the Korean People's Army collapsed, and the remnants of the army withdrew to the north with only more than 30,000 troops.
In view of this, Kim Il Sung sent urgent letters asking for help to *** and Stalin respectively, hoping to receive direct military assistance. On the evening of October 1, ** received a letter for help from Kim Il Sung's special envoy.
In the letter, Kim Il Sung directly expressed the hope that China would send troops to fight side by side with the Korean People's Army. On the same day, Stalin telegraphed and proposed that China send troops, and the Soviet Union would provide ** equipment assistance and air force cover.
In the face of Kim Il Sung's urgent plea for help, he took a resolute attitude and believed that he could not sit idly by, otherwise US imperialism would become even more rampant, threatening the security of the northeastern region of our country and hindering the construction process of our country.
Although some people at the meeting believed that New China had just been founded, the conditions in all aspects were insufficient, and it was better to avoid war, but in the next few days, they held meetings in succession to discuss countermeasures with senior PLA generals.
At an important military meeting, despite the opposition of the majority to sending troops to North Korea, the chairman decided to seek the opinions of members of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China, deputy commander-in-chief of the People's Liberation Army, and first secretary of the Northwest Bureau.
The emergence of ** has brought a new turn for the meeting. Although *** had reservations about sending troops to North Korea, after careful consideration, he firmly supported the chairman's decision.
The President's words were full of sympathy for the North Korean people and dissatisfaction with the United States, and he was well aware of the importance of this decision, but he was also full of hesitation and entanglement. In the end, the arrival of ** brought new hope to the chairman's decision.
** Very happy to say: "Lao Peng, do you think that leading troops to fight in Korea is a difficult task, who is the right person to send?" * asked with some surprise: "Chairman, I heard that ** has decided to send ** comrade." ”
** was silent for a while, and then said: "Lao Peng, the opinion of my comrades, or ask you Mr. Peng to pick up this burden, I don't know what you think?" ”
Without hesitation, he said: "Chairman, you understand me, and I obey the decision." In the afternoon of the same day, **presided over** the enlarged meeting of the Politburo, at which he made a speech: "The enemy has reached the doorstep, and it is absolutely impossible to compromise with them.
It was necessary to send troops to Korea, and if we failed, the war of liberation would be a few years late. If the US military is on the banks of the Yalu River and Taiwan, they can find an excuse to launch a war of aggression at any time, and we will be passive. ”
At this meeting, the CCP decided to send troops to North Korea and appointed him as the commander and political commissar of the Volunteer Army. On October 8, ** sent a telegram to the Chinese ambassadors to the DPRK, Ni Zhiliang and Kim Il Sung: 1. In light of the current situation, we have decided to send volunteers to the territory of the DPRK to help you fight against the aggressors; 2. Comrade ** is the commander and political commissar of the Chinese People's Volunteers; 3. Comrade Gao Gang, commander and political commissar of the Northeast Military Region, shall be responsible for the rear service work of the Chinese People's Volunteers and other work related to assistance to the DPRK in Manchuria; 4. I ask you to immediately send Comrade Park Il-woo to Shenyang to meet with the two comrades Gao Gang to discuss matters related to the entry of the Chinese People's Volunteers into the territory of the DPRK to fight.
Comrades Peng and Gao went from Beijing to Shenyang.
** A telegram about sending troops to North Korea has been sent out, and everything is ready on the Chinese side, but there is a discordant scene. After receiving the telegram, Kim Il Sung immediately sent North Korean Internal Minister Pak Il-woo to Shenyang, and at the same time, ** also rushed to Shenyang.
** It is believed that there is an urgent need to get in touch with the DPRK comrades to understand the situation of the Korean war and the cooperation between the two sides. However, Pak Il-woo did not mention the issue of the unified command of the two troops after the Chinese People's Volunteers entered the DPRK, but only introduced Kim Il-sung who was currently fighting guerrillas in the Tokugawa area, and hoped that China would send troops as soon as possible.
Chai Chengwen was the counselor of the Chinese Embassy in North Korea at that time, and he recalled that when Kim Il Sung asked China for help, he did not send 260,000 elite troops to China, but only asked China to send troops to help North Korea fight for a while when the enemy situation was urgent.
According to Kim Il Sung's request, Park Il-woo proposed to *** that he hoped that the Volunteer Army would set up its headquarters in Tokugawa, indicating that Kim Il Sung had begun to consider the issue of unified command of the Chinese and North Korean armies.
However, due to the urgency of the situation, it was not possible to further discuss with Park Il-woo the issue of the command of the Volunteer Army after entering the DPRK. On the evening of 19 October, the vanguard of the Chinese People's Volunteers took the lead in crossing the Yalu River, and in order to keep secrets, all troops crossed the river from dusk to 4 a.m. the next day.
**A group of 7 people entered the DPRK before the vanguard of the Volunteer Army, and he is really a big man!
** During the talks with Kim Il Sung in Daedong, military secretary Yang Fengan recalled: "At that time, Mr. Peng took me, two guards, a telegraph operator, and a translator, a total of seven people, in a Soviet Gas-69 jeep, followed by a large truck with radio equipment.
In this way, we entered North Korea ahead of the troops. "On October 21, **, accompanied by Park Hyun-yong, he went to Daedong, a village near Daeyu-dong, three kilometers from North Town, North Korea, to meet Kim Il Sung.
First of all, Kim Il Sung was introduced to the vanguard of the Volunteer Army that had entered the DPRK, with the first batch of 260,000 people, and then the CMC was ready to transfer two more corps and six armies as the second batch of troops to enter the DPRK.
After hearing this, Kim Il Sung expressed his gratitude to the Chinese Communists and gave a briefing on the current situation of the Korean People's Army and the enemy's offensive to the north. **After hearing this, he made a suggestion to Kim Il Sung, that is, he hoped that Kim Il Sung would set up the headquarters of the Korean People's Army and the headquarters of the Volunteer Army in one place, so that the two sides could cooperate in operations more tacitly.
** This proposal was fully in line with Stalin's suggestion, and Stalin clearly stated in his telegram suggesting that "[the Volunteer Army] is, of course, under the command of the Chinese commanders." ”
Since entering the DPRK, he has seen a large number of remnants of the Korean People's Army withdrawn from the south, and there are many boy soldiers among them, which makes him feel very worried.
Kim Il Sung and others sent a telegram to the Military Commission in front of the bomb shelter, expressing their serious doubts about the military capabilities of the DPRK commanders and fighters. ** Says the military command of the North Korean army was unusually naïve, resulting in the unsuccessful evacuation of 30,000 people during the defensive operation in Pyongyang.
In addition, ** also pointed out that the problem of conscription in the DPRK army is very serious, and people between the ages of 16 and 45 are conscripted into the army, and their relatives have no one to take care of them, and they cannot even guarantee their basic living needs, which is clearly a desperate adventurism.
Despite this, near the end of the first meeting, Kim Il Sung only agreed to send Pak Il-woo as the Minister of Internal Affairs to the headquarters of the Volunteer Army, and the CCP also appointed him as deputy commander of the Volunteer Army, deputy political commissar, and deputy secretary of the party committee.
However, during the first campaign, ** found that the current situation of the Korean People's Army was even worse than he expected, and the coordination problems between China and North Korea were becoming more and more serious. There were even incredible incidents in which the Korean People's Army mistakenly attacked the Volunteers, such as on November 4, when Bocheon was besieging the 24th Division of the US Army, it was suddenly attacked by the Korean People's Army advancing towards Suncheon, resulting in the enemy's escape.
The Volunteer Army itself was faced with huge logistical difficulties in transporting materials, and in addition the two armies did not cooperate, there was a lot of chaos. Therefore, ** realized that if the Chinese and North Korean coalition forces do not unify their command, this battle will simply not be able to continue, and there will definitely be big problems.
Therefore, ** requested the personnel of the Chinese embassy in the DPRK to raise the issue of the unified command of the Chinese and North Korean armies to Kim Il Sung, and hoped that the headquarters of the other side would be close to the headquarters of the Volunteer Army.
** It was proposed that Kim Il Sung and Soviet Ambassador to the DPRK Shtkov be stationed at the front, and that a three-member operational command group be established to command military affairs in a unified manner. **Agree and paraphrase ***'s suggestion to Stalin and ask him to intervene and coordinate.
What is important is that the leaders of the DPRK, the Soviet Union, and China are united and agree on various policies, and that the Korean People's Army and the Chinese People's Volunteers can cooperate well in order to ensure victory.
Stalin replied to the telegram on November 17 with full support for the unified command of the Chinese comrades. The telegram was sent to Kim Il Sung and Shtkov, and the Soviet General Adviser to China, Zakharov, agreed to be under the unified command of China.
Despite this, Kim Il Sung still hopes to negotiate with *** in person in Beijing. So on December 3, Kim Il Sung arrived in Beijing and met with ***.
Directly said, ** comrades have called many times to ask about the command, and now it is just the right time to talk to them face to face. ** and Gao Gang were also present, and both of them expressed their opinions.
Gao Gang mentioned that they now have a common enemy and are still on the same battlefield. When he went to North Korea before, Mr. Peng reported to him many times that the command of the two sides was not unified, and even the enemy fled due to accidental attacks.
After listening to our side's point of view, Kim Il Sung said that Stalin had instructed that the Chinese and North Korean armies should be under unified command, with the Chinese comrades taking the main posts and the DPRK comrades taking the deputy posts, and that the meeting of the Political Bureau of the Workers' Party of Korea had also agreed.
After discussions with *** and ***, it was decided to establish a joint command between China and North Korea, with *** recommending *** as commander and political commissar, Kim Il Sung recommending Kim Woong as deputy commander and Pak Ilwoo as deputy political commissar.
The two sides officially decided that the joint order would be signed by Peng, Kim, and Park, while the separate orders of the Volunteers would remain unchanged as before.
** The Chairman and Kim Il Sung reached an agreement to resolve the issue of unified command of the Chinese and North Korean coalition forces. Kim Il Sung's dream of commanding the Volunteer Army was shattered. Although Kim Il Sung was reluctant to hand over the command of his own armed forces from the perspective of national sentiments, Chairman *** considered that it was more important to hand over the command of the Chinese and North Korean armies to the Chinese and North Korean armies from the perspective of national interests and the interests of the Far East.
Therefore, after more than two years of bloody fighting, the Sino-Korean coalition finally won a great victory to resist US aggression and aid Korea.