At the beginning of 1952, as the commander-in-chief of the Chinese People's Volunteers, *** returned to Beijing to narrate. One day, **suddenly asked***
"Huaigui, which U.S. military do you think fought the best? ”
**After thinking for a moment, he said:"The 42nd Army, this unit can attack and defend on the Korean battlefield, and it is the most capable force. ”
** with ***
"The country now needs to transfer the 42nd Army back from North Korea. ”
"Transferred back? ”I couldn't help but widen my eyes - the Korean War was not over yet, why did the chairman transfer this most capable unit back from the front line? Could it be that the chairman thinks that this war does not need to be fought again, or that there is something else hidden in the country?
Seeing that *** didn't seem to understand much, the chairman patiently explained: "In recent days, the battle on the Korean battlefield has been fought very well. I reckon that the United States will not be resigned to defeat, and there is a possibility that they will do something to the south of us. ”
**This is true: after the outbreak of the Korean WarChiang Kai-shek, on the other side of the strait, took refuge in the US Seventh FleetProtection, has been ready to move.
And in the southwestern part of our country, the war of aggression of the Vietnamese people against the French continues. With the French retreating, it is likely that the U.S. military will step in and use Vietnam as a springboard for an attack on China from the south.
**After learning of the chairman's good intentions, he immediately followed the chairman's order and transferred the secretary of the 42nd Army of the Chinese People's Volunteers back to China, and patted his chest to assure the chairman:The 42nd Army can do a good job of guarding the southern gate of the motherland like it did during the Korean War!
The reason why I was able to guarantee the ticket to *** with such confidence is becauseThe 42nd Army of the Chinese People's Volunteers was indeed the best unit in the PLA in combat effectiveness at that time.
The Korean people sent the 42nd Army home).
The predecessor of the 42nd Army of the Chinese People's Volunteers was the Fifth Column of the Northeast Field Army established in March 1948. Speaking of the number of this unit, it was unique in the Liberation War at that time.
Friends who know the history of our army may find that in the 1946-1948 Liberation War, there were very few columns with the number "five". This is because the "Fifth Column" is another name for the reactionary Franco's spy column in the Spanish Civil WarThis column of spies was stained with the blood of many Communists on its hands. Therefore, "five" has always been the name of the unit that was shunned by the Soviet Red Army and the People's Liberation Army.
However, the commander of the Northeast Field Army did not believe in this evil and used the name "Fifth Column." At that time, the commander of the fifth column of the Northeast Field Army was calledDuring the War of Liberation, he led the fifth column to conquer Liaoyang, Anshan, and Yingkou, the three major towns in the northeast.
In November 1948, the Fifth Column of the Northeast Field Army was renamed the "42nd Army of the Chinese People's Liberation Army." During the Liaoshen Campaign, the 42nd Army swept through Liao Yaoxiang's corps, eating more than 17,000 Kuomintang troops in one bite. Later, the 42nd Army fought from the north to the south in one go, and successively participated in the battles of Pingjin, Western Hubei and Eastern Sichuan, and made great contributions to the liberation of the whole country.
After the outbreak of the Korean War in June 1950, the 42nd Army, which was originally in charge of suppressing bandits in the Central South Military Region, was transferred to Heilongjiang to reorganize its armament. In October 1950, after the establishment of the Chinese People's Volunteer Army, the 42nd Army of the Chinese People's Liberation Army was renumbered"The 42nd Army of the Chinese People's Volunteers", Wu Ruilin served as the commander of the 42nd Army.
As the saying goes"A flock of sheep led by a lion" is better than "a lion led by a sheep."More combative. On the eve of the outbreak of the Korean War, Wu Ruilin, who was in command of the 42nd Army, was by no means an idle person. Already during the War of Liberation, he was the deputy commander of the 42nd Army. During the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, he led the second detachment of the Shandong Column to attack the local puppet army, and was fearfully called "ancestor" by the puppet army. Wu Ruilin, who was not afraid of death in the battle, was fast and steady, and became the military soul of the 42nd Army.
On October 16, 1950, Wu Ruilin commanded the 42nd Army of the Chinese People's Volunteers to enter the DPRK to fight, three days before the main force of the VolunteersThis made the 42nd Army the first unit of the Chinese People's Volunteer Army to enter the DPRK.
Facts have proved that the 42nd Army deserves to become the vanguard of the Chinese People's Volunteer Army. During the First Campaign to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea, the Chinese People's Volunteers adopted the strategic principle of "attacking from the west and defending from the east."Among them, the three corps of the Volunteer Army attacked the 8th Army of the US Army, while the 42nd Army faced the 10th Army of the US Army alone, in the 10th Army of the US Army,There is a well-known ace unit of the U.S. Army: the 1st Marine Division.
In November 1950, the 42nd Army and the 10th Army of the United States met on the narrow road of Huangcaoling near Changjin Lake, and the US Army did not hesitate to use a large number of aircraft, artillery and other heavy firepower to launch a fierce attack on the position of the 42nd Army in order to quickly penetrate the defensive position of our army on the eastern front and form an encirclement of our army. Under the command of Wu Ruilin,The 42nd Army adopted the tactic of "defending during the day and attacking at night", pulling back and forth with the US troops at the Huangcaoling position, blocking the US troops for 13 days。When the news of the victory on the Western Front came, the 42nd Army took the initiative to withdraw from Huangcaoling.
The battle of Huangcaoling not only completely failed the US military's plan for a quick victory, but also made the US-South Korean coalition pay the price of more than 3,000 people. In this battle against the ace units of the US army,The 42nd Army was not superior in numbers and equipment, but miraculously held the Huangcaoling position. How can such a volunteer army, which is the trump card of the US army, not be called the "most capable of fighting" troops?
In the next four large-scale battles, the performance of the 42nd Army was also particularly outstanding: In the second battle, the 42nd Army made a detour to Ningyuan and defeated the 8th Division of the ROK Army in one fell swoop; In the third battle, the 42nd Army annihilated most of the 6 regiments of the South Korean army; In the fourth battle, the 42nd Army participated in the Hoengseong counterattack, annihilating more than 12,000 U.S. and South Korean allied forces; In the fifth campaign, the 42nd Army defended the command post and ensured the personal safety of the senior commanders of the Volunteer Army.
Therefore, **"Able to attack and defend".The four characters are the best summary of the combat effectiveness of the 42nd Army of the Volunteer Army.
The only regret was because of the needs of the domestic defense situation at that timeThe 42nd Army was secretly transferred back to China in October 1952, and did not participate in the three-year War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea.
After returning home, the 42nd Army was warmly welcomed like a hero. The commander of the 42nd Army, Wu Ruilin, received a reception before leaving North KoreaThe warm hospitality of North Korean leader Kim Il Sung。When he returned to China via Beijing,He was also received by **, praising him for "fighting well" against the US army on the Korean battlefield.
However, Wu Ruilin is not proud of this:He knew that there were more important duties and missions waiting for him in the country.
However, when the new letter of appointment was handed over to Wu Ruilin, he couldn't help but drop his jaw in shock: it turned out,The Military Commissar gave him the task of putting him in charge of the Navy. However, Wu Ruilin was born in a peasant family and hardly went to school for a few days. Now he has to do this kind of work that even the intellectuals at that time were afraid that they can't figure out, which is difficult for Wu Ruilin for a while.
However, Wu Ruilin knows very well that this is the glorious mission entrusted to him by the state, and it is also his unshirkable responsibility as a soldier. Therefore, he gritted his teeth and patiently pondered and studied the navy. If he didn't understand what was going on with the ship, Wu Ruilin would never get off the ship. Wu Ruilin, who eventually completed his studies in the Navy, was appointed commander of the Hainan Military Region and commander of the South China Sea Fleet of the Chinese People's Liberation Army, becoming a veritable "dragon of the sea".
The development of the war situation turned out as expected: at the beginning of 1953, the Korean battlefield was losing and retreating, and the United States and Britain began to be unable to hold back. The British Navy in Hong Kong dispatched HDML high-speed gunboats to provoke in the waters of the Pearl River Estuary in our country. The angry Chinese People's Liberation Army Navy fought back, and finally forced back the British gunboat with heavy artillery fire, and also killed 6 members of the Royal Navy, so that the British army no longer dared to covet our coast.
In this battle, the heroic performance of the Chinese People's Liberation Army Navy at the mouth of the Pearl RiverAs the commander of the South China Sea Fleet, Wu Ruilin has made great contributions.
British HDML high-speed gunboats)
In 1964, Wu Ruilin, who had been in Nandaemun for many years, received a new task:That is to resist US aggression and aid Vietnam.
In July 1953, shortly after the end of the Korean War, the U.S. military began to make "small moves" in Vietnam, which is adjacent to southern China, as expected. In 1955, after the French withdrew from Vietnam, the U.S. military took the role of the French colonizers, supported the Ngo Dinh Diem regime in Vietnam, and waged a brutal war against the North Vietnamese people。On August 2, 1964, the U.S. military concocted the "Gulf of Tonkin Incident" as a pretext for full-scale intervention in the Vietnam War.
In the face of the French invaders and the South Vietnamese puppet army, the North Vietnamese soldiers and civilians were very brave and tenacious. However, in the face of the powerful firepower of the US Air Force, the North Vietnamese army, which lacked air defense experience, still seemed a little powerless. Therefore,It was decided that Wu Ruilin would command the South China Sea Fleet and naval aviation stationed in the Guangzhou Military Region to secretly support the North Vietnamese people and guard against the US military and the Kuomintang from taking advantage of the situation.
This time, Wu Ruilin also did not disappoint ***, facing many provocations by the Kuomintang fleet in the South China SeaWu Ruilin successively commanded the South China Sea Fleet to sink the Kuomintang's "Jianmen" and "Zhangjiang". And in the face of the US military's violation of China's airspace in the South China SeaWu Ruilin ordered the naval aviation to fight back, and shot down as many as five US fighters, including themPhilip Smith, the ace pilot of the US military.
Maybe it's because the United States really learned the lessons of the Korean War, or because of the outstanding performance of the ** squadron to resist US aggression and aid Vietnam. In the 60s and 70s of the 20th century, the US military never dared to step into the 17th parallel cordon. In 1969, after Nixon took office in the United StatesIn the face of the increasingly unfavorable situation in Vietnam, the idea of withdrawing from the Vietnam War and resuming normal diplomacy with China gradually emerged.
In 1971, Kissinger, then US Secretary of State, made a secret visit to China on Nixon's orders, expressed to *** and others the willingness of the United States to withdraw from the Vietnam War and restore diplomatic relations with the Chinese. **This is taken very seriously. However, there was a special condition for Kissinger's trip:That is to let China release the downed American pilot - Philip Smith as soon as possible.
Kissinger's visit to China).
This US military pilot was in Wu Ruilin's hands at the time. After Kissinger met with Wu Ruilin, he said to Wu Ruilin:
"General Wu Ruilin is very famous in the US military, and our non-commissioned officers all know General Wu Ruilin's nickname. ”
So, what is Wu Ruilin's nickname? Answer:"Wu Cripple", during the Anti-Japanese War, Wu Ruilin was injured in one leg. At that time, there was such a saying in the PLA: The combat effectiveness of the Chinese People's Liberation Army iswas brought up by three "disabled people", and the three disabled people were "Liu Blind", ** Chen Cripple" Chen Geng and "Wu Cripple" Wu Ruilin.
After hearing this, everyone couldn't help laughing. In the end, Wu Ruilin released the captured American pilot back to China. In 1972, Nixon's visit to China marked the formal normalization of Sino-US relations.
In 1995, Wu Ruilin, who had been in his life, died of illness at the age of 80. However, the 42nd Army, which he brought up single-handedly, was permanently preserved。In 1985, the 42nd Army of the Chinese People's Liberation Army was renamed the "42nd Group Army of the Chinese People's Liberation Army". After the reform of the army in 2016, the 42nd Army was renamed the 74th Army and was subordinate to the Southern Theater of Operations.
To this day, this people's soldier unit led by the people's heroes is still firmly guarding the south of the motherland, defending the land and people that its founders loved all their lives.