After the First Opium War, China was reduced to a semi-colonial and semi-feudal society, and Britain and the United States and other countries opened navigation ports in China and dumped goods, making the life of the people of the entire land of China miserable, and the lives of the common people were unspeakably miserable. Even China's inland rivers, the Yangtze River, the Yellow River, Britain and the United States and other ** ships can sail freely and obtain their own interests.
In 1926, when the National Revolutionary Army was launching the Northern Expedition, the imperialists felt that their interests in China had been infringed upon, especially Britain, and that their own interests had been hit. In order to consolidate its interests in the Yangtze River Valley, Britain not only sent a large number of ** to China to demonstrate, but also created ** in the Yangtze River Valley, and its merchant ships sailed wantonly in the Yangtze River Basin, ramming and sinking Chinese wooden ships for fun, without taking the lives and safety of the Chinese people into the slightest. On August 29, 1926, the merchant ship "Wanliu" of the British Swire Group Company deliberately sailed on the Yunyang River in Sichuan, and sank three wooden ships carrying military salaries for Yang Sen's troops, drowning more than 50 people with a salary of 8 silver50,000 yuan and more than 50 guns sank to the bottom of the river.
Yang Sen had just served as the governor of Sichuan Province at that time, and he felt very humiliated by this, so he went to the ** sent to Sichuan by the National Revolutionary Army to discuss, **demanded that the boat that caused the accident be immediately detained and severely punished**. On August 30, the British Swire Pacific Company's "Wantong" and "Wanxian" arrived in Wanxian from Chongqing, and Yang Sen sent troops to detain them. However, the British side not only did not apologize for this, but also sent ** to bombard the county seat of Wanxian County, killing 604 civilians and injuring 398 people, which is the famous Wanxian County**.
After Wanxian**, Yang Sen compromised with Britain at the suggestion of Wu Peifu, and Britain became more unscrupulous after that. It was not until 1949, when the People's Liberation Army was about to launch the battle to cross the river, that the British began to re-examine the Chinese people and the country. In April 1949, after the Liaoshen Campaign, the Pingjin Campaign, and the Huaihai Campaign, the elite forces of the Kuomintang army on the mainland had all been wiped out, but Chiang Kai-shek still hoped to block the pace of the People's Liberation Army with the Yangtze River.
When the People's Liberation Army's million-strong army Chen soldiers in the Yangtze River Basin, the United States, France and other countries drove away the Yangtze River Basin with great interest to prevent accidental injury. But the arrogant British were unwilling to withdraw, and regarded the Yangtze River as their own inland river, and went as they wanted. On April 20, 1949, this was the deadline for the People's Liberation Army to order all ships to evacuate the Yangtze River Valley. The reason why the British dared to sail freely in the Yangtze River valley, where the two armies were opposed, was because they believed that the PLA would not dare to fire on them. But they were wrong this time, the PLA was neither the decaying Manchu army, nor the warlord troops and the Kuomintang army of the ** period.
On April 20, the peace between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party broke down, and the People's Liberation Army ordered the artillery regiments of the Special Forces Column of the Third Field Army to block the Yangtze River, and ordered: If a foreign ship is found, warn first, and if you do not listen to the warning and continue sailing, you can shoot. Because if these ** opened artillery together with the Kuomintang**, they would cause heavy losses to the troops crossing the river.
In the early morning of April 20, the Purple Quartz sailed from the lower reaches of the Yangtze River, and the artillery regiment of the Third Field Army, after consulting its superiors, fired a warning shot, allowing the British ** ship to quickly evacuate. However, the Purple Quartz not only did not withdraw, but also aimed its guns at the PLA artillery positions for artillery bombardment, and the PLA artillery immediately returned fire, and the Kuomintang artillery guarding the south bank of the Yangtze River saw the exchange of fire between the two sides, and also took advantage of the might of foreign warships to fire at the PLA positions to support the British ships with firepower. The Purple Quartz was hit by 30 shells, including the hull, deck, turret, command platform, engine room, etc. Seeing that the situation was wrong, the Purple Quartz raised the white flag and fled to the Kuomintang position, but ran aground on the way because it was unfamiliar with the waterway.
During the artillery battle, the Mate went to support the Purple Quartz, but was also hit by PLA artillery. On April 21, the British Far East Fleet sent the London to support, and when passing through the positions of the 6th Artillery Regiment of the 23rd Army, the two sides again engaged in a fierce artillery battle. At that time, the British ship mistakenly believed that the PLA artillery position was behind the river embankment, and all the shells hit behind the river embankment, and the infantry preparing to cross the river behind the river embankment suffered a major **, and Deng Ruobo, the commander of the 202nd Regiment of the 23rd Army, was killed.
In this incident, the People's Liberation Army mainly participated in the war because the artillery mainly participated in the Japanese 75mm and 105mm artillery, and the powerful American-made 105mm howitzers were only a few, and the rate of fire, range, and ammunition power could not be compared with the American-made 105mm howitzers, not to mention the British 203mm naval guns, and there was a lack of armor-piercing shells at that time, so they did not penetrate the British ** ship.
In this incident, the British army killed 45 people, 6 people were missing, and 93 people were wounded, while the PLA side **252 people. Although the PLA was higher than the British army in this incident, this incident rewrote the history of the defeat of the squadron in one fell swoop, and ended the history of the Western powers being able to enter China's inland rivers at will with a few ships.