In June 1953, China and the United States basically agreed on the details of the armistice agreement, and the Korean War, which lasted for nearly three years, finally came to an end.
But at this time, ***, who had just rushed to Pyongyang from Beijing to participate in the signing of the armistice agreement to be held a few days later, received a telegram from ***.
"The signing of the armistice must be postponed! ”
This urgent telegram from *** shocked ***, but when he recalled this incident many years later, he admired ***'s foresight.
Why was the armistice suddenly stopped? Why do you sigh at this decision?
To understand why the follow-up was abruptly halted on the eve of the signing of the armistice, it is necessary to understand the bumpy road of negotiations between China and the United States over the past two years.
Long before the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea, there was a debate in China about whether or not to directly confront US imperialism on the battlefield.
But in the end, based on the consideration of "protecting North Korea is to protect the Northeast, and protecting the Northeast is to protect New China", he put forward the decision to resist US aggression and aid Korea to resist the enemy outside the country.
Not only that, but he further pointed out that China has been repeatedly bullied by Western colonizers in modern times, all because they did not really learn a lesson.
Therefore, the company also put forward the strategic slogan of "fight with one punch, lest a hundred punches come".
At this critical moment, ** also stood up and clearly supported ***'s strategic decision-making, and took the initiative to ask Ying to lead the troops to fight in North Korea.
This played a huge role in the realization of the strategic concept at that time.
After entering the Korean War, the Volunteers successively pushed the battle line from the Yalu River to the vicinity of the 38th parallel through five battles, and forced the United States, which was unable to push forward the battle line, to negotiate with our army by building a solid positional defense.
Soon, ** returned to Beijing with the news that the Americans were willing to negotiate peace, hoping to get instructions on the next step.
Regarding the statement of the Americans, ** smiled and said to ***:
Lao Peng, I don't think the Americans really want to negotiate, but they are afraid of you and want to delay time through negotiations, but they are actually secretly accumulating strength to prepare for war. ”
** He also agreed with this, saying that the Americans took the initiative to propose armistice and peace talks, which was actually a delaying tactic, and after the completion of the accumulation of strength, they would inevitably launch another offensive against our army.
So *** made a decision at the moment, on the one hand, to send negotiators to Kaesong to negotiate with the US army, and on the other hand, instructed *** to immediately return to the front line to arrange a defensive front and prepare for the next wave of the US offensive.
In December 1951, China's negotiation team, led by Li Kenong, arrived in Kaesong.
Sure enough, from the very beginning of the negotiations, the Americans appeared to be insincere. At that time, there were huge differences between China and the United States over the repatriation of prisoners of war.
With regard to the repatriation of war criminals, our representative suggested that the principles of repatriation should be established in accordance with international treaties and that the repatriation should be completed as soon as possible.
However, the United States, which has always flaunted its own justice with international regulations, has playfully rejected this proposal, and instead proposed to exchange and confirm information on prisoners of war before discussing follow-up issues.
The mystery of the Americans' proposal is self-evident that it not only runs counter to international conventions, but also clearly intends to delay the negotiations.
After the situation of the front-line negotiations was transmitted back to the Volunteer Army Headquarters, ** sighed and said to the generals around him:
He had long expected that the Americans were not sincere in taking the initiative to negotiate peace, but in fact to buy time for the follow-up war preparations! ”
As a result, he immediately ordered the commanders of all departments to quickly repair and actively build fortifications to prepare for the next trend of the US army.
And the negotiations in Kaesong were never fruitful.
The Americans first submitted a list of prisoners of war in English with no rank markings, which cost my delegation a great deal of time to identify and confirm the list.
Subsequently, tens of thousands of North Korean fighters were left or retained, and they insisted on their refusal to comply with the convention, and rejected many of our concessions, which eventually brought the negotiations to an impasse.
China and the United States have been at an impasse for months over the repatriation of prisoners of war.
It wasn't until May 1952, when Lieutenant General Harrison became the chief negotiator, that the direction of the negotiations began to take a sharp turn.
At the first negotiation meeting after Harrison's new office took office, he unilaterally announced a three-day adjournment very strongly.
In the 10 days that followed, he adjourned the meeting for three more days three times in a row, bringing the already difficult negotiations to a halt.
Although we have been moving the negotiations into administrative negotiations since early July for the sake of the bigger picture, the United States has shown no appreciation for the goodwill shown by China and North Korea.
Not only that, the US military also dispatched more than 100 warplanes to bomb Pyongyang, Hwangju, and other areas starting on 11 July.
What is more, relying on the disadvantage of our army's lack of air supremacy, the US military has openly sent fighter planes to attack and harass China's border areas, and there is absolutely no sincerity in peace talks.
When the representative of our country strongly criticized the US military's sabotage of the talks, a senior US Department of Defense even openly clamored at a press conference to continue this air attack"Until the representatives of China and North Korea accept the final armistice agreement of the joint **! ”
With regard to a series of actions of the US side after Harrison took office, both the front negotiating team and the leaders of the rear side are very convinced that the negotiations proposed by the Americans are a suspicious plan to prepare for war with fake negotiations.
After making a judgment, he immediately called the front line*** to remind him that the US military may launch a new offensive soon, so that he could prepare early.
As expected, on October 8, 1952, only four days after the U.S. representative again rudely proposed an indefinite adjournment, the U.S. military amassed more than 60,000 heavy troops.
With the support of hundreds of fighters and thousands of artillery pieces, the "Jinhua Offensive" was launched against the front-line positions of our army.
However, due to the early preparations of our army and the Soviet Union's assistance to our country, the long-planned offensive of the US army not only failed to push the front forward, but suffered heavy losses under the stubborn resistance of our army.
The famous "Battle of Shangganling" took place during this period.
The failure of the Jinhua offensive means that the US military will not be able to launch another large-scale offensive for a long time, and the defeat on the battlefield also forces the United States to return to the negotiating table.
In February 1953, more and more news showed that the Soviet Union had begun to build up heavy troops in Western Europe, and under the dual pressure of European allies and its own global strategic layout, the United States once again proposed armistice negotiations.
At the end of March of the same year, my delegation returned to Kaesong, and on 6 April, negotiations between the two sides began.
With the foreshadowing of the heavy defeat of the enemy's spirit on the battlefield, the negotiation process was very smooth, and by 11 April the two sides had signed an agreement on the repatriation of wounded, sick and prisoners.
On April 20, the first batch of released prisoners of war of our army arrived in the receiving area. They couldn't help but sing the military song of the volunteers in the car.
The repatriation of the sick and wounded directly contributed to the armistice negotiations.
On June 8 of that year, the two sides finally agreed on the details of the armistice agreement, which would end the war only after the armistice agreement was formally signed.
But just as most people were looking ahead to the aftermath of the war, the unexpected happened again, casting a shadow of uncertainty over the almost dusty armistice.
This sudden accident was none other than South Korean leader Syngman Rhee, who had always been reluctant to stop the war between China and the United States.
As early as the outbreak of the Korean War, Syngman Rhee always wanted to use the power of the Americans to help him eliminate the North Korean regime and realize his political ambition of reunifying the peninsula.
After the end of the five battles and the two sides entered into armistice talks, Syngman Rhee has been trying all kinds of ways to obstruct the peace talks between China and the United States.
When the Americans wanted to end the war, Syngman Rhee, who was unwilling to accept an armistice, staged a drama of "thieves shouting to catch thieves" on June 18, on the eve of the formal signing of the armistice agreement.
That night, he first pretended to be in accordance with the armistice agreement70,000 North Korean prisoners of war were released on the spot, and a large number of military and police officers were sent to detain and imprison the prisoners on the pretext of escaping without permission.
As soon as the news of Syngman Rhee's bad behavior broke, it immediately caused an international uproar.
The day after the incident, ** personally called Clark, the commander-in-chief of the "United **".
In the face of ***'s questioning, Clark did not reply positively, but only prevaricated that it was a misunderstanding and would communicate with Syngman Rhee immediately.
After the news from the front came back to Beijing, ***, who heard Clark's prevarication attitude, was keenly aware of:
The attitude of the Americans towards the armistice was still reluctant, and they still had illusions about the Korean war, while the Syngman Rhee regime had no idea of peace at all.
Thinking of this, he pointed out sharply at the subsequent leaders' meeting:
"In view of the current situation, we must have a significant indication of our actions before we can cooperate with the form, and we must first put sufficient pressure on the enemy before we can seize the initiative into our own hands! ”
** judgment was unanimously agreed by the other ** leaders.
On June 21, ** had just set off from Beijing to participate in the armistice signing ceremony"The signing of the armistice must be postponed! ”
In the message,** it was further stated that the postponement would depend on subsequent developments.
At the same time, in order to completely dispel the thoughts of the United States and completely break the arrogance of the Syngman Rhee regime, ** has begun to conceive of a victory in a counterattack war to promote peace with war!
"It is extremely necessary to annihilate more than 10,000 puppet soldiers! ”After seeing the emergency telegram, ** sighed to the generals around him with great emotion:
"It's better to see far! If we end the war in this way, there will be endless troubles! ”After comprehending the essence of the ideology, the first quickly began to deploy.
In the follow-up, he pointed out that the purpose of this campaign was to attack the Syngman Rhee regime, so in terms of military deployment, it was possible not to target the US military, but to concentrate the main force to severely beat the South Korean army.
On July 13, the Chinese and North Korean coalition forces used more than 1,100 large-caliber artillery pieces to concentrate superior forces to launch a fierce attack on the positions of the South Korean Army.
Within two weeks, several of the main divisions of the South Korean Army were heavily damaged by our troops and had to retreat in disarray.
In this endgame of the Korean War, our army annihilated the enemy army at a very small cost530,000 people, and recaptured 160 square kilometers of position, completely let Rhee, who was originally jumping up and down, have a good night.
After the Battle of Jincheng, not only did Syngman Rhee be suppressed, but also caused the U.S. military, which had illusions to completely give up the idea of continuing the war.
On July 27, 1953, representatives of China, North Korea and the United States formally signed an armistice agreement at Panmunjom, allowing the Chinese people, who had suffered so much in modern times, to finally win the battle for the founding of the country "from the Yalu River to the 38th parallel".
After the end of the Korean War, the first person who was worried about the subsequent changes did not let all the volunteers withdraw to the country at the first time, but left 200,000 volunteers to continue to be stationed at the 38th parallel.
First, it strengthened the front against the sudden turn of the American and South Korean armies, and second, it also helped the Korean military and civilians who had been devastated by the war to rebuild after the war.
It was not until 1957, when the situation was settled, that the order was given for the withdrawal of all volunteers.
For the far-sighted thinking in the entire War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea, especially the long-term consideration of stopping the signing on the eve of the armistice, ** sighed to the people around him many times after the war:
"It's still *** to see far! O great man of vision! ”The War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea played an irreplaceable role in China's peaceful development in the following decades, and also enhanced China's international prestige and created an immortal monument in the history of the Chinese nation!