In 1952, the capital of Henan Province was still in Kaifeng. On October 30, Yang Shangkun, director of the General Office, Teng Daiyuan, Minister of Public Security, Minister of Railways, Minister Huang Jing, Minister Li Zhuchen and other leading comrades accompanied the Yellow River to inspect the Yellow River by special train to understand the phenomenon of "hanging river" in the Yellow River.
** He is very concerned about the protection of cultural relics, and Kaifeng is known as a cultural ancient city, so after inspecting the Yellow River, he proposed to go to other places in Kaifeng to see. They first came to the Kaifeng Iron Tower, and when they were shocked by the tallness and strength of the Iron Tower, they noticed that there was some damage to the north of the Iron Tower.
He felt very heartbroken, and the escort quickly explained that it was damaged by the Japanese invaders with artillery. ** Said firmly: "I can't beat it." ”
When Kaifeng was liberated that year, there was a fierce battle in the Dragon Pavilion, and the bronze statue was also damaged by some bullet marks and could not be repaired in time. Despite the baptism of war, the bronze statue of Sun Yat-sen still stands, symbolizing perseverance and indomitable spirit.
After learning the truth, ** said with deep feelings: "Even if it can't be defeated, the cultural relics still need to be properly protected, and since it can't be defeated, the Communist Party should restore it." ”
Immediately afterwards, ** hiked up to the Dragon Pavilion, stood at the top, overlooking the entire Kaifeng City. He then came to the east side and stopped in front of a stone gate. It turned out that the banner of the stone gate was engraved with a small poem written by Kang Youwei when he was in the Dragon Pavilion, and his inscriptions were on both sides.
** I can't help but read it aloud: "Looking at the alpine watering juice state in the distance, Fantai Tower and Yunfu." There are no trees and no palaces in ten thousand homes, but there is the Yellow River rolling. ”
**When visiting the Zhongtiantai view, overlooking the alpine land, I saw the day and the Yellow River rolling. Tokyo Menghua has become a thing of the past, and people can't help but sigh that although the city is there, the people are no longer there.
As a lover of poetry, he asked his secretary to copy this poem, and then visited the Dragon Pavilion Hall. It was getting late, and he slowly walked down the Dragon Pavilion to end the journey.
Sun Yat-sen Mausoleum, witness the first history, Mr. Sun Yat-sen, the first great leader, Mr. Feng Yuxiang deeply admires it. From September 1920, Feng Yuxiang began to contact Mr. Sun Yat-sen, and in 1918 Feng Yuxiang was arrested for opposing Duan Qirui's decision"Unification by force"The policy, announcing the separation from the Anhui system and not fighting the civil war, was praised by Mr. Sun Yat-sen"Enthusiasm **, work hard to save the country"of"A model of love"。
Feng Yuxiang ruled Henan twice, from May to October 1922 and from June 1927 to March 1929, Feng Yuxiang and the Northwest Army under his command had a far-reaching influence on the country.
Although Feng Yuxiang was a warlord, his ideas were changeable, and he adhered to the simple idea of people's livelihood, especially during his second reign in Henan, he invited professionals to design park construction, such as Kaifeng, Zhengzhou and other places.
Since the death of Dr. Sun Yat-sen in 1925, Zhongshan Park has sprung up all over the country and has become an important place to commemorate Dr. Sun Yat-sen. "
In Henan, Feng Yuxiang called himself a "loyal follower of Premier Sun" and renamed "Kaifeng Longting Park" to "Zhongshan Park" in 1927. Kaifeng Dragon Pavilion is a palace-style building built on a high platform, in the Qing Dynasty, there was a "longevity palace" here, and the folk called it "Dragon Pavilion".
Longting is located between Yang Lake and Pan Lake, with beautiful scenery and pleasant climate, Feng Yuxiang built "Zhongshan Park" here, expressing his deep admiration and nostalgia for Mr. Sun Yat-sen.
When *** and others entered the "Zhongshan Park", the bronze statue of Sun Yat-sen they saw was cast by Feng Yuxiang in honor of Mr. Sun Yat-sen.
In the summer of 1948, the War of Liberation entered the final strategic offensive phase. Although our army had entered the strategic stage at the beginning of the year, on the battlefield in the Central Plains, the Kuomintang army still tried to rely on its superiority in strength and equipment to force the PLA to hold a decisive battle in the western region of southwest Shandong.
However, the PLA has the advantage of fighting a war of movement, and in order to change the situation in the Central Plains battlefield and change from passive to active, we need to concentrate our superior forces and fight several large-scale wars of annihilation in order to destroy the enemy's vital forces and turn the tide of the war.
On May 23, Chairman ** put forward the strategic slogan of "chasing the Central Plains", which played a positive role in boosting the morale of the People's Liberation Army and boosting the national spirit.
In the response of **, we received the trust of "in case of emergency, we can handle it independently, without asking for instructions". However, as the political, military, economic, and cultural center of the Central Plains and the hub of the Kuomintang in the Central Plains, Kaifeng was a city that had been fortified by the enemy for a long time.
The city wall of Kaifeng City is tall, the trenches are deep, the military fortifications are numerous, the ammunition reserves are sufficient, and it is easy to defend and difficult to attack. Moreover, Kaifeng City also has a commanding height-Dragon Pavilion. The Kuomintang built an underground command post and a warehouse for storing grain and ammunition around Longting, which was connected by fortifications and bunkers.
After the Ministry of National Defense inspected the fortifications of Kaifeng City, it was written that "Kaifeng City has been built into a permanent defensive fortress, which can hold out for three months if it is attacked."
This coincides with Chiang Kai-shek's statement that "Kaifeng City is impregnable and secure". June 17th, after everything was ready,
June 18 was an unusual day for the soldiers of the Suyu Corps of the Chinese People's Liberation Army. The columns were ready, and at 11 o'clock in the evening, Su Yu sounded the battle horn and gave the order for a general attack.
After a day and a night of fierce fighting, they quickly cleared the enemy's perimeter and began to launch a fierce attack on the various city gates. Kaifeng, one of the four ancient capitals in medieval history, with its 20-kilometer-long ancient Great Wall and deep moat, made it difficult for the siege troops to find a breakthrough for a while.
At 12 o'clock in the middle of the night over Kaifeng City, the signal of victory broke out, and the battle of Kaifeng officially began. After seven hours of bloody fighting, the People's Liberation Army successfully occupied the Drum Tower and the Kuomintang Henan Province**, which surprised Chiang Kai-shek.
He hurriedly took a special plane to Kaifeng and mobilized troops to rush to help day and night, trying to save the defeat. However, the Chinese People's Liberation Army did not show weakness. Su Yu, the god of war, personally went to the front-line command post to deploy and command, and studied the final battle plan of Kaifeng with Chen Shiyu and Tang Liang.
Su Yu summed up the operational deployment: "In accordance with the instructions of the *** and ** Military Commission, our main goal of this raid on Kaifeng is to besiege the city and send reinforcements. Now that Kaifeng's goal is about to be achieved, and the enemy has begun to mobilize reinforcements, we must fight quickly.
Our strategic goal has been achieved, and now the key is to quickly capture Longting, and then wave our army to eastern Henan to completely annihilate and aid the enemy. ”
At 18 o'clock on June 21, an attack on Longting was launched on time. "Chen Shiyu made a firm determination to Su Yu. Chiang Kai-shek, seeing the momentum of the People's Liberation Army, overlooked Kaifeng from the plane, and issued an order: "Bomb Kaifeng at all costs." ”
Enemy fighters circled over Kaifeng City, and everywhere they went were reduced to rubble. On June 20, the enemy dropped a total of 20 tons of bombs, which turned the city of Kaifeng into a sea of fire.
Despite such a fierce fire, the PLA still cared about the people, and Chen Shiyu first ordered the city gate to be opened and the people in the city evacuated. After four days and nights of heroic fighting, the PLA finally squeezed the enemy forces to the area of the North Gate and Longting.
"Dragon Pavilion" is the Jinluan Palace, up to 13 meters, surrounded by lakes on three sides, the front is sandwiched between the two lakes of Pan and Yang as long as 0The 5-kilometer straight road is easy to defend and difficult to attack, which increases the difficulty of the PLA siege.
Guo Jisheng and the first company accepted the task of capturing Longting, and the two companies joined forces to attack the city. At 18:40 on June 21, the People's Liberation Army concentrated its superior forces, concentrated a total of more than 600 artillery shells, and carried out intensive artillery bombardment to the commanding heights of Longting, which was unstoppable, and 11 of the enemy's reinforced concrete fortifications were quickly destroyed.
Sun Yutang, deputy company commander of the hero team Guo Jisheng's company, led the People's Liberation Army to insert the southeast corner from the east palace of Longting, and finally crossed the wall, punched and rushed, and stepped into the base of Longting and rushed upward.
In front of the Dragon Pavilion, the People's Liberation Army marched bravely, crossed the avenue between the two lakes, and captured the gate of the Dragon Pavilion like a tiger descending the mountain. Guo Jishenglian's second squad leader led the class to rush to the commanding heights of Longting in only 8 minutes.
The capture of the Longting Jinluan Hall marked the final victory of the Kaifeng Campaign, and it was also the first victory of the People's Liberation Army in the liberation of the provincial capital city in Guannai. In the Kaifeng Campaign, a total of about 40,000 enemies were annihilated, including a division headquarters, three brigade headquarters, 12 infantry regiments, and three special regiments, killing Li Zhongxin, commander of the 66th Division of the Kuomintang Army, and capturing alive You Lingyun, chief of staff of the 66th Division, and Zhang Jie, commander of the 13th Brigade, and achieved a brilliant victory.
After the founding of the People's Republic of China, Su Yu spoke highly of the Kaifeng Campaign in his memoirs: "This battle was the largest and long-lasting large-scale corps operation, and it was also the most complex, fierce, and arduous battle. ”
Because of these experiences, Su Yu sprinkled part of his ashes in the ancient city of Kaifeng with his last words, and rested with the PLA soldiers who died in the Battle of Kaifeng.
The iron tower and the dragon pavilion, these historical imprints, carry the memories that we cannot forget. However, the protection and repair of cultural relics is a matter of respect for and protection of history. After the personal inspection of the dragon, the dragon pavilion began a comprehensive restoration work in the second year, and the platform, stone majesty, railing, and pillars that were once dilapidated because of the war were restored one by one, especially the bullet marks on the bronze statue of Mr. Sun Yat-sen, which was of special concern to the people.
Since then, the Dragon Pavilion has been fully protected by the state as a historical and cultural heritage and a place of interest, and finally washed away the dust of more than 600 years, regained its heroic appearance, and opened a new page in history.
Four years after his death, the repair work of the tower finally began to be planned, and the construction officially began in June 1957. The state attaches great importance to the protection of cultural relics, and after a year of meticulous carving by craftsmen, the repair work of the tower has also been completed.
After renovation, the tower has been rejuvenated and more upright and majestic, and now it has become a park open to people from all over the world. In 1961, the tower was listed as the first batch of key cultural relics protection units in the country, and in June 1963, the Henan Provincial People's Committee also listed Longting as a key cultural relics protection unit in the province.
In that year, the footprints of the Iron Tower and Longting when inspecting the Yellow River were also deeply imprinted in the long river of history. The founding of New China enabled the Chinese people to straighten their backs and become masters of their own affairs and embark on the road of independence and happiness.
However, all this could not have done without the soldiers of the Red Army who fought heroically for our happy life. We should remember this period of history and always cherish the memory of the revolutionary martyrs.
At the same time, we must not forget the aggressive acts of imperialist and domestic reactionary elements such as Japan. Cultural relics such as the Iron Tower, the Dragon Pavilion and other cultural relics with the imprint of the Red Revolution stand there, without too many words, it is the witness of that period of history, witnessing the heroic progress of the revolutionary martyrs of the Red Army, witnessing the difficulties of the red road, and witnessing the hard-won happiness of life.