Turning over China's modern history, various war scenes are undoubtedly the highlight. Based on the implementation of the Long-term "Closed Country Policy" of the Qing Empire, China's military strength lagged far behind that of the Western powers in the late Qing Dynasty.
Later, although the Qing court also actively implemented reform measures such as the "Foreign Affairs Movement" and the "formation and training of the new army", due to the previous "too many debts", it led to the situation that the Qing government could only be passively beaten.
In this situation, the Western powers signed a series of unequal treaties with the corrupt Qing government, in addition to the well-known "land-cutting indemnities", in fact, the Western powers also proposed a very important content, that is, "the warships of the great powers can travel in china's inland rivers."
At that time, the Qing government was cowardly and unable to resist the unequal treaties of the great powers, so after the Opium War, the warships of the Western powers began to sail unscrupulously in the Yangtze River Basin. Although many people are very disgusted by this kind of behavior, the cowardly and incompetent Qing government is unable to support the people of the country, and everyone dares to be angry and dare not speak out. This also laid the groundwork for the "Purple Quartz Incident" that broke out in the future. What is the case with this world event that shocked China and foreign countries?
In April 1949, after three years of brutal fighting, the Chinese People's Liberation Army basically swept away the Kuomintang reactionaries north of the Yangtze River. The tide of history is rolling forward, and the land of China has once again been greatly unified to become the people's desire.
From ancient times to the present, in the wars of various eras, the Yangtze River natural danger is often used as a military barrier. In the later stages of the Liberation War, the Kuomintang reactionary army, which was at the end of the crossbow, also took the Yangtze River as a starting point.
At that time, although the morale of the People's Liberation Army was high and its determination was full, after all, our army's experience in water warfare was not rich enough, and it was also a shortcoming, so it did not dare to take it lightly. At that time, the surviving Kuomintang reactionary army also put the hope of a final desperate fight on the Yangtze River defense line. The tense atmosphere of the Kuomintang-Communist civil war reached its peak before the Battle of the Crossing River began. At the same time, in order to increase the chips for guarding the Yangtze River defense line, the Kuomintang reactionaries also contacted Britain, the United States and other great powers, hoping that these countries would send warships into the Yangtze River route to help the Kuomintang troops guard the Yangtze River.
At that time, Chairman Mao and other leaders of the Central Military Commission of the Party also noticed this move of the Kuomintang, facing the dying reactionary army and the warships of the Western powers trying to interfere in China's internal affairs. The party Central Committee and the top brass of the Central Military Commission attach great importance to it, and special meetings have been held to study and pre-war arrangements have been made. At that time, Chairman Mao said: No major power fleet can stop the PLA from crossing the river, and the reunification of the motherland is imperative. Subsequently, the central leaders and generals attending the meeting have always reached a resolution: in the face of foreign warships on the Yangtze River, they can be warned to leave first, and if they do not heed the warning, they can be destroyed on the spot.
On April 20, 1949, when the PLA officers were actively preparing for the Battle of crossing the River, on the Yangtze River Fortress route, a warship flying a rice flag was openly parked on the river, and the gun port was still facing the PLA stationed on the north bank of the Yangtze River. When the sentry received this information, he immediately reported it to his superiors. At that time, through careful observation, the army learned that the British warship was the corvette "Purple Quartz".
At a time when the Platon's Battle of Crossing the River was about to break out, the British warships pointed their guns at our army, which was highly provocative, and the intention of interfering in China's internal affairs was also clearly revealed. The Battle of Crossing the River was imperative, when our army decisively issued a warning to the warship "Purple Quartz". But after our warning, the British warship, instead of leaving, returned our warning with shells. In this situation, the army commander decisively decided to open fire on the Purple Quartz.
Subsequently, the PLA artillery unit on the north bank began to "comfort" the British warships on the river with shells. Perhaps it was the warships of the Western powers that had been running amok on the Yangtze River for more than a hundred years, arrogant and habitual, and had just begun to face the shelling of our army, and the British warships did not have the slightest intention of backing down, but also began to fire back at the People's Liberation Army on the north bank.
The two sides began shelling each other. This British corvette had a limited range of gunfire and weak lethality, and basically did not cause casualties to our army, but our army's five-law shell hit the Purple Quartz. In the face of the People's Liberation Army's unyielding move, the Purple Quartz began to panic, and then this British warship, with a civilian merchant ship to cover, began to fight and retreat, and asked for help from the outside world.
On the morning of the 21st, after receiving the distress signal from the Purple Quartz, the British army sent the heavy cruiser "London" and the frigate "Black Swan" into the Yangtze River. In the face of the appearance of enemy reinforcement ships, when the People's Liberation Army began to bombard the river with intensive artillery fire, London and Black Swan could not get close to the Purple Quartz, and later the British army in order to avoid greater losses, London and Black Swan, can only give up the rescue and flee.
Later, the purple quartz that was beaten and about to sink could only hang up a white flag to surrender to our army and pray for a way to live. In this battle, a total of 45 people on the Purple Quartz were eliminated by our army, including the captain of the Purple Quartz, Skinner, and 93 wounded. Our army also suffered a small number of casualties.
The fact that the Purple Quartz was shelled by our army on the Yangtze River has aroused the close attention of the Western media. This was the biggest blow the Chinese army dealt to the Western navy since the Sino-Japanese War. At that time, Britain was engaged in public opinion propaganda in the West: saying that British warships had the right to sail freely in China, and condemning the shelling of British warships by our army. And there was also a clamor to send several warships to fight in China. In the face of the unreasonable accusations of the British, Chairman Mao and Premier Zhou successively spoke out to fight back.
At that time, Chairman Mao personally wrote an editorial entitled "Protest against the Atrocities of the British Ships" and published it at Xinhua News Agency in order to counter Western public opinion. In this editorial, it counts the trampling of Our land by British warships for more than a hundred years, and strongly condemns the collusion of British warships in the Kuomintang reactionaries to interfere in China's civil war. After that, Premier Zhou also clarified the beginning and end of the Purple Quartz incident in the world through various diplomatic channels, and truly restored the fact that British warships interfered in China's civil war for no reason.
With the passage of time, although britain used Western public opinion to make a big fuss, our country did not show weakness, and subsequently issued a "Statement on Atrocities on British Warships" in the name of the People's Liberation Army. In this statement, our government and military forcefully told the outside world that the Yangtze River Basin has been part of China's territory since ancient times and is sacred and inviolable. In the past, because of the weakness of the Qing government, many unequal treaties were signed, but the People's Liberation Army under the leadership of the Communist Party had the ability to defend national sovereignty and would never allow the great powers to trample on it. He also stated that from now on, China's territory, inland rivers, territorial waters and other areas will not tolerate the rampage of foreign forces, and strongly urges foreign warships to leave the Yangtze River as soon as possible, otherwise they will bear the consequences.
Under the tough stance of our country, britain has also begun to admit it. Subsequently, the British government offered to peacefully resolve the Purple Quartz incident with our country. The People's Liberation Army saw that the British government was no longer tough, and began to negotiate the Purple Quartz incident with the British through peaceful diplomacy. At that time, our army demanded that Britain issue a statement of apology for the erroneous behavior of the Purple Quartz entering the Yangtze River Theater without permission, but the cunning British government was slow to take a stand and tried to save face in public opinion.
During this period, in the spirit of humanitarianism, our army provided drinking water and food to the officers and men of the crew of the Purple Quartz trapped on the Yangtze River, and did not treat them as prisoners. Instead, it adopts a loose policy. So the British seized on the lax supervision of our army, and on July 30, riding on the rising tide of the typhoon, in the darkness of the night, they secretly escaped from the Yangtze River with full horsepower, and then returned to Britain.
Later, the British government defined the Purple Quartz incident as an accident and rarely mentioned it again. After the British warship escaped, China also took the initiative to interrupt diplomatic negotiations with the British government on the Purple Quartz incident.
Since the late Qing Dynasty, the Western powers have been sailing unscrupulously in China's territorial waters and the Yangtze River Basin with strong ships and cannons, trampling on the dignity of the Chinese nation. The Purple Quartz incident changed that and brought an end to more than a hundred years of humiliation. The Purple Quartz incident, although it was only a small-scale battle at the military level, was of epoch-making significance to China.