As the second largest island in China, Hainan is strategically located, not only the only tropical island in all of China, but also a bridgehead facing the South China Sea.
If Hainan Island is lost, not only will the 2.1 million square kilometers of sea power in the South China Sea be ceded to Southeast Asia, but even Guangdong Province will now have a great decline in economic development due to the lack of geographical barriers.
The most frightening thing is that if General Han Xianchu had not liberated Hainan by force, then what he said above would have become a real situation.
Battle of Hainan
To liberate Hainan, the armies were embarrassed
In 1949, the Kuomintang's stubborn resistance in Chinese mainland was completely defeated, and the warlords of the family headed by Chiang Kai-shek turned around and ran to Taiwan.
It has to be said that even when the general trend has gone, Chiang Kai-shek and others still dream of counterattacking the mainland, wanting to gain a firm foothold by relying on Taiwan, Hainan, and other small islands, and waiting for the assistance of the United States to block the navy strength of the People's Liberation Army and return to the mainland in the future.
Among these islands, Chiang Kai-shek's most important ones are Taiwan and Hainan, two large islands. Not only is the geographical location and rich in resources, but it can also curb China's sea power in both directions and completely block China's route to the sea.
After the defeat of Taiwan, Chiang Kai-shek specially handed over the defense of Hainan Island to Xue Yue, one of the few generals in the Kuomintang who had real materials.
Xue Yue
As we all know, during the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, because our country's military strength was insufficient, confrontations on the frontal battlefield could only be won by means of the tactics of the sea of people and the strategy of attacking the east and the west.
But the Kuomintang's Xue Yue was different, he was good at relying on geographical advantages to arrange tactics, and during the Battle of Changsha, he relied on the natural and geographical advantages of Hunan to annihilate nearly 120,000 Japanese troops and pull the Japanese army into a stalemate.
At this time, holding Hainan, Xue Yue also made a fierce effort, asking for more than 100,000 elites from Chiang Kai-shek's side, relying on the Qiongzhou Strait to establish the "Boling Defense Line" known as the "Oriental Maginot" in Haikou and Lingao, in an attempt to keep the People's Liberation Army out of the island.
At the beginning of 1950, under the command of Chairman Mao, the corps headed by General Han Xianchu began to assemble on the Leizhou Peninsula, preparing to join forces with the 20,000 Qiongya columns that had established guerrilla struggles in the Wuzhishan base area on Hainan Island to liberate the southern treasure island back into the embrace of New China.
Han Xianchu (left)
However, although the superiors had confidence in the liberation of Hainan Island, the middle and lower-ranking officers and soldiers had other ideas. Because just before the Battle of Hainan, the Third Field Army, riding on the momentum of New China's great victory, had already made a landing operation on the island, preparing to attack the Golden Gate and open the door to Taiwan.
Unexpectedly, the danger of the naval battle exceeded the imagination of both sides of the war, and in the case of landfall, the People's Liberation Army actually had nearly 10,000 people killed or missing.
The occurrence of such a thing in the case of a comprehensive victory can be said to have poured cold water on the confidence of the PLA officers and men. Now they want to attack Hainan Island, which is in a more dangerous situation, which has suddenly made many people feel intimidated.
You must know that during the most difficult period of the War of Resistance, many generals were never afraid of fighting devils, and it was the norm to sacrifice their lives and forget their deaths. But playing Hainan is different, one is that at this time, a new China has been established, and everyone has worked hard all their lives to finally see the dawn of a stable life, and with hope, people will be afraid.
Hainan Island
The other is that the Golden Gate landing operation has learned from the previous lessons, and everyone is worried that their sacrifice will not be gained. And most of the troops are northerners, you can go down to the river, fall down when you go to the sea, get on the boat and get dizzy, and your combat effectiveness at sea is greatly reduced.
For various reasons, before the Battle of Hainan, the PLA officers and men actually had a rare fear of difficulties, and many soldiers who joined the revolution from the northeast also made up a sentence: "Changbai Mountain to Hainan Island, revolution to the bottom of the sea", which shows that the grass-roots public opinion at that time was very disapproving of the fight against Hainan Island.
Not to mention the grassroots level, even many regiment-level cadres and Ning Xianwen, the chief of staff who was born and died in Han Xianchu for many years, have evaded behavior.
Battle of the Golden Gate
In order not to go to the island, there are regiment-level cadres who specially pick up night patrols, and then jump down from a high place and injure themselves, and some people violate the yin and yang, and train troops to train troops, and prepare ships to prepare ships.
Sorry, no one can find it, for example, Li Zuopeng, commander of the Forty-third Army, also constantly postponed the time on the island, and also asked Han Xianchu to discuss whether to wait until the next year to go to the island.
The most outrageous thing is still Ning Xianwen, who actually took a stone and smashed a leg to escape from the island.
Seeing these situations, Han Xianchu's heart was not a taste, but he could indeed understand everyone's dissatisfaction, but he also had his own ideas, if he did not quickly take Hainan, then time would not be on their side.
Strive to stand out from the crowd and lead the way
The reason why Han Xianchu has always had confidence in the early liberation of Hainan stems from his rigorous analysis of the Hainan campaign.
The first is the time of day.
In order to study the timing of landing on the island, he specially visited many fishermen in Guangzhou and Hainan, and learned that the climate of Hainan Island was exactly the northeast wind blowing from Guangzhou to Hainan before May every year, and for the People's Liberation Army, which has no warships and can only rely on sailing ships or even fishing boats, it only takes half a day or even a few hours to reach the island downwind.
But if the wind direction changes in the second half of the year, the PLA, which is going against the wind, will be vulnerable to attack by the warships patrolled by the Kuomintang, and when the battle is exposed, it will only make the next landing more difficult.
The second is location. Compared with the failed Kinmen landing operation, Hainan's advantage lies in its large size. Although Kinmen is close to the mainland, but the beach area is small, the army can not go up at one time, if it goes up in batches, it will become an oil-adding tactic and be broken by the Kuomintang separately, and if you want to bypass Kinmen, you will not have enough sea power.
Second, it is easy to be caught between people back and forth. But Hainan is different, although Xue Yue has established a defensive line in the north, but hainan coastline is extremely long and there are many natural shelters, the defensive line can encircle the north side can not cover the four sides, they only need to simplify the complex from a number of different landing points to the shore, they can bypass the defense line and directly insert the Kuomintang defense.
The third is people. On Hainan Island, in addition to the 100,000 Kuomintang troops, there were also nearly 20,000 Qiongya columns, although the columns could not clash head-on with the enemy who were five times the difference, but the Kuomintang troops could not eliminate the columns that were good at guerrilla warfare.
However, the column had long been aware of the terrain of Hainan Island in the perennial guerrilla warfare, and even on the eve of the operation, it specially drew a detailed map and sent people to sneak out of the island and hand it over to the large army on the Leizhou Peninsula.
Landing army
Second, the long-term guerrilla attack has allowed the Communist Party to establish a mass base on Hainan Island, and the broad masses of the people are eager for them to go to the island to drive out the Kuomintang, and they can provide assistance to the landing soldiers at any time and anywhere.
Although the Kuomintang army numbered as many as 100,000 people, a considerable part of it was Bai Chongxi's defeated army, which was originally held in the Guangdong area, and these people were afraid of the Communists like tigers with low war intentions, and incidentally also affected Xue Yue's ranks.
And in order to consolidate the power of Hainan Island, many troops are scattered throughout the island, if only a little point is attacked, the battle will be over long ago when others come and go to defend.
Considering the above reasons, Han Xianchu believes that if he does not wait at this time, it will only become more and more difficult to liberate Hainan Island. On the one hand, he ordered the strict training of his troops for landing simulation operations, and on the other hand, he argued on the basis of reason and opposed the delay in crossing the sea.
Bai Chongxi
At the meeting of the Central Military Commission in Guangzhou, he expressed his observations and ideas, believing that the postponement of the time would only make the troops' fear of difficulties more and more serious, and that they should use the role of the climate to cross the sea at night before March and April, using fishing boats and sailing boats to cross the sea at night.
Doing a good job in his own unit, he began to do the work of his colleagues. After two tentative small-scale successful sea crossings, he felt that the time was ripe for sea crossing operations at this time, and with experience and internal assistance, he should seize the time to quickly land on the island.
In order to persuade Deng Hua, the commander of the corps, Han Xianchu ran to people's rooms every day to sit down, and always quarreled with Deng Hua, who was conservative and prudent, and wanted to wait until the ships were complete and fully prepared before landing on the island.
Feeling that he would miss the opportunity to go on like this, he began to play the idea of his superiors, and within a few days sent more than a dozen telegrams to various superiors, taking the initiative to demand the liberation of Hainan.
He also said that he was willing to personally lead the first batch of troops to cross the sea, and if he did not take it down, he would not have to punish it, and he would die directly at sea!
Han Xianchu (right)
Several consecutive days of cross-level telegrams showed his determination to conquer Hainan, and also attracted Lin Biao's attention.
Han Xianchu immediately seized the opportunity and explained to Lin Biao day and night the necessity of conducting the Hainan Island Campaign and his rigorous strategic analysis.
After studying the work, the chairman immediately issued operational orders, and the Hainan Campaign began.
On the night of April 19, as soon as the sun set, Han Xianchu could not wait to get on the ship and follow the first combat troops to forcibly cross the Qiongzhou Strait.
Cross Hayden Island
Taking advantage of the night wind, nearly 400 wooden ships galloped on the sea, constantly approaching the Nationalist warships with their flexible advantages, some wooden ships and warships engaged head-on, and some scattered straight to the landing point to seize the beach.
The Kuomintang could never have dreamed that there were really people in this world who could use wooden boats against iron ships, but the People's Liberation Army really did it, firing cannons on wooden ships in the distance, relying on grenades to throw at close range, and Lieutenant General Wang Enhua, commander of the Kuomintang fleet, was even directly killed.
This war also created the famous "small wooden ship victory over large warships" in world military history.
And Han Xianchu was also a pioneer in the battle, the ship ran aground and took the lead in jumping into the sea at night to charge, under the response of the Qiongya column, the People's Liberation Army landed on the island in three hours, and Xue Yue's proud "Oriental Maginot Defense Line" was suddenly interspersed into a sieve and collapsed.
In just three days, Xue Yue, a famous general known as the "Tiger of Changsha" by the Japanese army, was driven out of Hainan. The rest of the enemy either surrendered or fled with their superiors to Taiwan, and on May 1, Hainan Island was officially liberated.
Xue Yue (middle)
Commemorative photos, grassroots first
After the liberation of the whole island, the soldiers who made great contributions laughed and laughed, and some people proposed that everyone take a group photo to commemorate this great moment. Things are good, but there were some unpleasant vignettes during the filming.
In the Battle of Hainan, han Xianchu's corps and soldiers of the Qiongya column paid a bloody price, but many people were timid and fiercely opposed to landing on the island early or passively not going to the island before the war.
However, when the battle was successful, some cadres not only did not feel ashamed, but also rushed to the front when taking pictures and happily participated in the group photo. This made many people feel disgusted, and even before taking pictures, there was a conflict.
Faced with this embarrassing situation, Han Xianchu immediately came out to break the siege. The difference is that he did not blame the cadres who were passive and avoided the battle, but instead reached out with a smile and said: "It's okay, everyone squeezes in the middle, everyone takes a picture together."
group photo
As soon as this sentence came out, everyone lost their temper, after all, the biggest heroes said so, they were not embarrassed to lose their temper, and those cadres who had avoided the war also got down the steps, and quickly borrowed the slope to retreat to the back of the donkey.
Of course, Han Xianchu did not mean to be a peacemaker, he just understood the thoughts of his subordinates and knew that this was not an unforgivable thing. You must know that the central plan was originally to prepare sufficiently before launching an attack, and these cadres only did what the central authorities wanted.
Although he felt that he could land on the island in advance, but this was a gamble, the plan did not change quickly, if there was really any unexpected situation, he would not only take his own life, but also tens of thousands of soldiers and countless families, he would really be a sinner for eternity.
Group photo Right second Han Xianchu
Therefore, this battle originally had an element of a game, and it was very reasonable for the grassroots to not understand the overall situation and harbor the emotions and psychology of fear of difficulties; Han Xianchu also avoided talking about these situations in his subsequent reports to the central authorities; if it were not for the testimony of his colleagues, I am afraid that these things would have disappeared into the long sea breeze now.
But the important thing is that now the battle is won. Holding on to the small details of the cadres before will only affect the harmony in the team.
That's why he let everyone take a group photo together in this scene to give each other a step down, so that no one will mention this matter again after that, and it will not affect the army.
Han Xianchu was such a bright and upright general, and it is no wonder that Admiral Xu Shiyou once said: "The general I admire the most is Han Xianchu!" ”。
General Xu Shiyou
brief summary
Shortly thereafter, the international situation changed drastically, the Korean War broke out immediately, and in less than 2 months the US Seventh Fleet sailed into the Taiwan Strait, cutting off the opportunity for the Plama Tokmen and Taiwan to invade.
And this change has also made many people break out in a cold sweat, just imagine if they really attack Hainan as planned, I am afraid that the US military will just cut off the Qiongzhou Strait, then Hainan will be suspended overseas like today's Taiwan, becoming a second Taiwan, losing sea power in the South China Sea.
All this, General Han Xianchu should be indispensable.
Friends who like this article can pay attention to my WeChat public account "Ancient Stories", which has more articles to share with everyone!
"Disclaimer: This article is reproduced from the Internet. The copyright of the graphic belongs to the original author, if there is any infringement, please contact to delete』