Wooden boats crossed the river, and Chiang Kai-shek misestimated the military strength
1949 was an important year in the history of the Chinese revolution, this year, the balance of history was completely tilted in favor of *** before that, ** gradually changed from weak to strong, and after 1949, Chiang Kai-shek's position changed fundamentally, from strong to weak.
However, in the torrent of the times, the struggle between these two giants has not stopped. There is a cloud in the art of war: "Attack the heart first, attack the city first." In the next battle, Chiang Kai-shek once again misguessed ***'s intentions.
This defeat led to a series of retreats by Chiang Kai-shek, who resolutely abandoned the carefully planned Zhoushan Islands.
On October 31, 1949, the coincidence of history was staged again - on the first day of this month, the founding ceremony was held on the mainland, announcing the birth of New China; And on the last day of the month, Chiang Kai-shek celebrated his 63rd birthday on the island.
That morning, Chiang Kai-shek and his son Chiang Ching-kuo went to Yilan County on the east coast of Taiwan to enjoy the sea view, the scene was grand and beautiful, and it was not until 4 p.m. that he returned to Taipei by train.
Back in Yangmingshan, he hurried to the intelligence room to listen to the latest battle situation ahead. Since the "Golden Gate Victory", he has always believed that there will be big actions in the near future.
He sat alone in front of a large yellowed Chinese wall chart on a paper basis, sweet, sour, bitter and spicy welling up in his heart. **In just a few months after crossing the river in late April, half of the south of the Yangtze River has been scattered.
The remaining ** of Yunguichuan is struggling to support, and it is only a matter of time before it is lost. Whenever he thought about it, it made him shudder. The joy of the "Golden Gate Victory" also drifted away with the wind.
Looking at the long coastline of the mainland, only a small piece of land on the Leizhou Peninsula is still under the control. The maritime blockade chain that was originally conceived to be established from the Changshan Islands and Qingdao in the north, the Zhoushan Islands and Taiwan in the middle, and the Hainan Island in the south, was broken in half due to the forced withdrawal of the Changshan Islands and Qingdao, and now only the blockade line from the Zhoushan Islands in the north to Hainan Island in the south remains.
This is the key to whether or not we can achieve a naval blockade of the mainland and whether we can return to the mainland. Although Chiang Kai-shek's heart was full of worry and anxiety, he firmly believed that as long as he held on to this blockade line, there was hope of retaking the mainland.
He ordered the Navy to increase patrols and strengthen the naval blockade, while also looking for other ways. However, the wheels of history roll forward and cannot be stopped.
In the years that followed, the situation on the mainland changed dramatically, and Chiang Kai-shek spent the rest of his life in Taiwan.
Chiang Kai-shek's eyes were focused on the cities of Shanghai and Guangzhou. These two cities are all too familiar to him, and it is here that his success began. As the core of Chinese mainland's inland economy, Shanghai can cover 30% of China's area through land and water transportation.
The Hunan and Jiangxi regions around Guangzhou have produced many talents, and the two Guangxi regions are even more prosperous and prosperous. Chiang Kai-shek pondered, although these two cities are easy to defend, I still control the sea, as long as the Zhoushan Islands and Wanshan Islands are not lost, will the economic recovery and development of the Communist Party still be under my control?
Chiang Kai-shek stood in front of the map for a moment, then looked down at his watch, turned around and walked to his desk and dialed the ** of Chen Cheng, the military and political chief of the southeast. I am only concerned about the situation in Zhoushan now. ”
Chiang Kai-shek said in **. Chen Cheng had just returned from an inspection on Hainan Island, and he was a little surprised that the president did not ask about Hainan, but cared about Zhoushan. In fact, Chiang Kai-shek thought he had some certainty about the defense of Hainan Island.
Guarding Hainan is his protégé Xue Yue. Xue Yue, who claimed to be familiar with military books and had in-depth study of Western military defense theories, organized a tight main defense system around the island with more than 50 planes reinforced by Chiang Kai-shek and 100,000 defenders, and named it the "Boling Defense Line" after him, claiming that it was a "solid" defense.
Chiang Kai-shek was very satisfied with this, and naturally felt relieved.
Xue Yue called and said that ** large-scale collection of ships along the coast of Zhejiang may launch an attack on Dinghai. What does the president think about this? "I think there will definitely be fighting in the Zhoushan area in the near future, and I want to transfer the 52nd Army up, what do you think?" ”
I think it's doable. The island is short in depth, there is no way back, only in accordance with the president's decision, a desperate battle, in order to solve the danger of Zhoushan! Just when Chiang Kai-shek was at ease with the defense of Hainan, **, with the unique vision of a strategist, seized the best opportunity to liberate Hainan Island.
In order to quickly restore the economic development of Shanghai, Guangzhou, and other large coastal cities, it is necessary to try to open up the sea passage between Zhoushan and Hainan as soon as possible. However, the defeats on Kinmen Island and Dengbu Island undoubtedly made our army more cautious in naval operations.
From the defensive posture of the Kuomintang army, ** saw a glimmer of hope for a complete break of Chiang Kai-shek's naval blockade.
**According to the strategic layout and the actual situation, the strategic policy of "first south and then north" has been determined, and it is believed that it is more advantageous to fight Hainan than Zhoushan. There are three reasons: First, the Zhoushan direction and the Taiwan direction are already in a state of stalemate, and our army's artillery fire can give full play to its power and ensure that our fleet can cross the sea and fight, and the mobility is relatively large; However, the situation in the direction of Hainan is complicated, and the Qiongzhou Strait is about 11-22 nautical miles wide, and it is quite difficult to cross the sea and land on the island.
Secondly, Hainan has our internal response to the Qiongya column, and it is easier to succeed in internal and external cooperation. Finally, Hainan is the second largest island in China, and its strategic value is even more important. **After careful consideration, it was finally decided to "first the south and then the north", while repairing the plank road in Zhoushan, and secretly crossing Chencang in Hainan, successfully deploying the liberation of Hainan Island.
In March 1950, just as Chiang Kai-shek was reinstated to take charge of affairs, a military decision by ** changed the situation. This decision did not point the finger at the Zhoushan Islands, which he had been guarding day and night, but at Hainan Island, which he believed was not yet ripe.
Chiang Kai-shek was almost overwhelmed by this decision, and the campaign to liberate Hainan Island was carried out by a total of 100,000 people from the 40th and 43rd armies, the main forces of the four fields.
At 19:30 on 16 April, the liberation of Hainan Island was a foregone conclusion with the main force of 50,000 people of our sea-crossing combat corps in two formations, east and west.
On the evening of the 24th, Xue Yue, the commander of the defending army who boasted in front of Chiang Kai-shek that Hainan's defense was impregnable and vowed to live and die with the island, hurriedly climbed into a special plane that fled to Taiwan and gave the order to retreat to Hainan Island.
Our army did not have the cover of the aircraft and used wooden ships to repel the modernization of steel, and used sailboats with a load of several tons to transport 100,000 troops across the strait, creating a miracle of naval warfare in the 20th century.
Congratulatory telegram from the Siye Command: "The successful landing on Hainan Island shows that our People's Liberation Army is invincible not only on the mainland, but also on the ocean. ”
On May 29, ** in Deng Hua's combat report on sailing ships against enemy ships, when he saw the 3 small sailing ships and 45 commanders and fighters of the 43rd Army bravely fighting against the enemy's steel ** and winning the victory, he seemed to see the fearless figures of the soldiers crossing the Qiongzhou Strait, and also sighed: "This is the Army Navy, this should be our People's Navy!" ”
** Picking up the pen, he wrote with great appreciation: "This is the first heroic achievement of the People's Navy, and it should be studied and praised." ”
As the Zhoushan Islands with Taiwan, Kinmen and Hainan as the horns of each other, it is located at the confluence of the Qiantang River and the Yangtze River estuary in the northeast of Zhejiang, and is a strategic place that both Chiang Kai-shek attaches great importance to.
This archipelago of 771 large and small islands, the Buddhist culture represented by Putuo Mountain, the rich sea salt resources and one of the three famous fishing grounds in the Far East all give it a special status.
However, for this important choke point, Chiang Kai-shek continued to increase the number of troops to focus on defense, and also built Dinghai Airport and equipped a large number of aircraft. This highly defensive measure has made this strategic important place a difficult problem for our army to liberate East China.
Therefore, after the liberation of Shanghai, Commander Sanye resolutely decided that this "thorn in the side" must be removed. On July 10, 1949, ** approved the plan of attacking islands and fighting across islands drawn up by the 7th Corps of Sanye, and was determined to fight to the end and liberate the Zhoushan Islands.
In the battle to liberate the Zhoushan Islands in 1950, the units of the **7 Corps launched an offensive and achieved successive victories, eliminating a large number of enemy troops. However, the 21st Division of the 61st Army was forced to retreat due to the harsh weather and enemy reinforcements during the attack on Dengbu Island.
He stressed that the troops need to sum up lessons and learn from the experience of the Siye Hainan Island operation to prepare for another battle.
According to the instructions of the East China Military Region, on April 24 of the following year, ** communicated with Zhang Aiping, commander and political commissar of the East China Military Region Navy, and decided to hold a joint operation meeting of the army, navy, and air force at the headquarters of the East China Military Region the next day.
The meeting lasted all day, and finally, in the spacious conference room, Zhang Aiping pointed out the target of the operation - the Zhoushan Islands. He sat at a table in front of the operational map, and next to him sat Yuan Yelie, deputy commander of the East China Military Region Navy, and others.
Note: The above content is in Chinese and does not need to be translated. ）
At the meeting, Deputy Commander Yuan announced the operational formations for the Zhoushan Campaign, including the 6th and 7th Fleets as escort fleets, which were responsible for supporting the security of the landing force.
The 1st Landing Fleet consisted of ships such as Jinggangshan and Taihangshan, and was responsible for transporting the 1st echelon. The 2nd Landing Fleet, consisting of newly received large landing ships and medium land ships, was responsible for transporting the 1st echelon.
Commander Zhang Aiping stressed the great significance of liberating the Zhoushan Islands and asked everyone to make serious preparations in accordance with the division of labor in combat tasks.
Holding on to it will surely wipe out the whole army, and it is more advantageous to retreat. ”
Chiang Kai-shek's brows furrowed, the Zhoushan Islands were one of his five keys to blockade the mainland, and he had personally inspected the defense before, and asked the officers and soldiers on the island to strictly guard it. To give up now, he felt very reluctant.
He looked at everyone and said: "I know the situation in Zhoushan very well, and the action against Zhoushan is in my expectation." It's too early to give up on Zhoushan, let's wait. ”
With that, he got up to see off the guests. However, only three days later, on May 11, Guo Jiqiao, deputy chief of staff of the Kuomintang, Wang Shuming, deputy commander of the Air Force, Ma Jizhuang, deputy commander-in-chief of the Navy, and other people rushed to Zhoushan by C-47 plane and delivered a "handwritten message."
Shi Jue respectfully took the fire-painted document bag from Guo Jiqiao's hand. When I opened it, there was only a line of large characters written by Chiang Kai-shek on a piece of letterhead: "Your unit immediately retreats secretly according to the following plan." ”
On the 12th, 44 large transport ships arrived in Zhoushan from Taiwan to carry out the withdrawal plan. Despite his reluctance, he eventually carried out the order of **.
In 1950, 120,000 defenders secretly boarded the ship, accompanied by more than 20,000 young men and women. They were transferred to Taiwan and left their homes, and many of them died in their homeland, leaving behind endless regrets.
On November 16, 1950, our army successfully landed on the Zhoushan Islands, ending the 10-month Zhoushan Campaign, and finally Chiang Kai-shek had to give up the Zhoushan hold.
Subsequently, Hainan Island and Zhoushan Islands were lost one after another, completely shattering the illusion that the Kuomintang relied on coastal islands to blockade the mainland.