Speaking of the Liberation War, we will think of a series of battles led by the three major battles, and the Battle of Crossing the River, which ended the War of Liberation, is also a existence that will not be forgotten, and the Battle of crossing the River began on April 20, 19749 and ended on June 2, 1949.
Nanjing, as the key point of the Kuomintang government at that time, also experienced a psychological struggle with the advancement of the campaign, and finally fled in a hurry.
It is precisely because of this that on April 23, 1949, the People's Liberation Army invaded Nanjing, and the 3rd Battalion of the 312th Regiment of the 104th Division of the 35th Army of the People's Liberation Army was the first to occupy the "Presidential Palace" in Nanjing.
Guan Yuquan
Guan Yuquan was a native of Xintai, Shandong, born in 1921, and when he was 16 years old, the Lugou Bridge Incident, which shocked China and foreign countries, launched a full-scale war of aggression against China, the war burned all over the land of China, and Shandong also fell into the hands of the enemy.
In October 1937, the Japanese army entered Shandong through the North China Railway and occupied Shandong within a few months.
At that time, Guan Yuquan was a teenager who was enthusiastic, he witnessed the cruelty of the Japanese to his hometown, and made up his mind to resist Japan, just in time, because of the same patriotic enthusiasm, dozens of anti-Japanese armed forces formed the Shandong Column of the Eighth Route Army at the end of 1938.
Subsequently, the Shandong Anti-Japanese Base Area was born, which developed rapidly, and was one of the largest enemy rear base areas in the country at that time, and the column began to participate in the battle against the Japanese invaders.
In 1939, guan Yuquan, who had reached the age of 18, joined the newly established Shandong Column, and with a youthful spirit and full of enthusiasm, Guan Yuquan always rushed to the forefront in battle and established battle achievements many times.
In the Battle of Taohuayue, Guan Yuquan killed five enemies, and later in the Battle of Yangjiakong, he was praised as a hero for destroying multiple enemies with his bayonet.
Rush into the presidential palace
It was 1949, the fact that our army would win the three major battles was very clear, serious differences broke out within the Kuomintang, and finally ended with Chiang Kai-shek stepping down and Li Zongren becoming acting president.
Negotiations began on April 1 and lasted for two days, but ended in failure because representatives of the Nationalist government in Nanking refused to sign the Internal Peace Agreement, and eventually had to fight.
From the beginning of March to early April 1949, the Central Military Commission ordered the Second and Third Field Armies of the People's Liberation Army and the troops of the Central Plains and East China Military Regions, totaling about 1 million people, to be unified under the command of Liu Bocheng, commander of the Second Field Army, and prepare to launch a river crossing operation, cross the Yangtze River, and liberate Nanjing, the political center of the Kuomintang government at that time, and other parts of the south.
On the night of April 20, 1949, the People's Liberation Army, in accordance with the orders of the Central Military Commission of the Communist Party of China, launched a river crossing operation overnight, and the Yangtze River defense line under Tang Enbobu was like a paper tiger in front of the enterprising PLA, and it lasted less than three days.
The 35th Army was subordinate to the Third Field Army, and under the command of Chen Yi, the team that finally took the lead in attacking Nanjing, initially received orders not to enter Nanjing, but to destroy the enemies around "Miura", and then not to act rashly, but to wait and see the changes and wait for follow-up orders.
However, in the actual implementation process, there were still changes, and the enemy in the Pukou area had actually withdrawn long ago, abandoning the task of defending Nanjing, leaving only some soldiers.
The Pukou area was easily taken by the 35th Army, so Nanjing was now in a state of open doors, which was a good time, and after consultation and discussion, the leaders decided to change the plan, and the 35th Army took advantage of the victory to pursue and take over Nanjing. Indeed, geographically, the 35th Army was the closest to Nanjing, and it would have been better for them to liberate Nanjing.
On April 22, 1949, Guan Yuquan's 35th Army received orders to attack Nanjing, the seat of the Kuomintang government, and in order to cross the river, they also borrowed a lot of tools from the local people, and the people were very willing to help.
On April 23, when the sky was about to dawn, Guan Yuquan led three battalions as assault battalions to cross the Yangtze River, because the enemy army had fled, and the whole crossing of the river was relatively smooth.
After entering Nanjing, Guan Yuquan immediately began to attack the Kuomintang Presidential Palace, and the three battalions were divided into four roads, and the 9 companies were under the jurisdiction of Guan Yuquan, who was tasked with liberating the Presidential Palace.
Although a large number of Kuomintang troops had withdrawn at that time, some soldiers were still left behind, and these remnants lurked in Nanjing, creating no small trouble for the advance, and in an encounter with the enemy on the way, staff officer Wang Youcai was hit by the enemy's cold gun and finally died heroically.
Comrades fell, but the battle still had to continue, Guan Yuquan suppressed his heartache, and led the 3rd Battalion to continue to the Presidential Palace southwest of Xuanwu Lake, and the remnants of the Presidential Palace did not launch a resistance.
Guan Yuquan saw the blue sky and white sun flag in front of the presidential palace, remembered the sacrifice of his comrades-in-arms, and with great sorrow ripped it off and replaced it with the red flag used by the three battalions for charging.
The flying red flag symbolizes our takeover of the "Presidential Palace", a precious historical moment that has been preserved in the form of photographs taken by the military journalist Zou Jiandong, who later became known as Occupy the Presidential Palace.
Follow-up development
Guan Yuquan was awarded the Order of Independence and Freedom of the Third Class, the Liberation Medal of the Third Class, the Commemorative Medal of the Huaihai and Crossing rivers, and was awarded the rank of lieutenant colonel in September 1955, promoted to the rank of colonel in 1962, and promoted to the rank of colonel in October 1960.
In September 1973, Guan Yuquan was transferred to the first deputy commander of the Fujian Ningde Military Sub-district, and in 1981, he left as the deputy commander of the Ningde Military Sub-district, and has been enjoying his old age in the Fifth Dry Rest Center in Fujian Province ever since.
This great Han from Shandong spent his old age in the south of the motherland and devoted most of his life to the revolutionary cause.
brief summary:
Whoever wins the hearts and minds of the people wins the world. From the very beginning, the Communist Party of China was not optimistic, and finally liberated all of China and let the seeds of revolution scatter in the north and south of the river, relying on the will of the people.
At the same time, the Kuomintang acted perversely, exploiting the people and arousing the resentment of the common people. The people are like water, seemingly powerless, in fact, contain the purest and most powerful force, but also with the support and help of the people, we fought all the way to the south of the Yangtze River after three major battles.