I am Wolf Jun, an engineering boy who accompanies you to read history
On April 20, 1949, the People's Liberation Army launched the Battle of Crossing the River, in which millions of male divisions of the People's Liberation Army's Erye, Sanye and Siye crossed the Yangtze River and swept away the remnants of the Kuomintang forces that were finally entrenched in southern China. Knowing that the general trend was over, Chiang Kai-shek of the Kuomintang led the remnants of his forces to shrink to the coastal islands of Taiwan, Hainan, and other coastal areas, preparing to fight the trapped beasts.
After crossing the river, Erye and Siye continued to advance to the southwest and the liangguang area, liberating the remaining vast southern region of China. But sanye stopped after liberating Shanghai and entering Fujian, and did not continue south, for the simple reason that their next target was the island of Taiwan, which was across the sea.
"Carrying the revolution through to the end and liberating all of China" and realizing the complete reunification of China have always been the unswerving strategic objectives of the Party Central Committee with Chairman Mao at the core. Therefore, the liberation of Taiwan, as an important battle component of the National Liberation War, was carefully planned and deployed for more than a year before and after the founding of the People's Republic of China, that is, between June 1949 and September 1950.
At that time, Chiang Kai-shek tried to rely on Hainan Island, Zhoushan Islands, Taiwan Island and other coastal islands of the mainland to form an island chain to impose an economic blockade on the mainland. Therefore, the liberation of coastal islands, especially the liberation of Taiwan Island, became the final battle to completely complete the war of liberation.
To liberate the island of Taiwan, the army was the main force in combat and occupation. At that time, the Third Field Army was the main strategic force responsible for liberating the southeast region and preventing armed intervention by the United States, relying on the Fujian region to face Taiwan directly, and naturally became the first choice for the forces attacking Taiwan, and Su Yu, as the main military leader in the direction of East China, naturally became the best candidate to command the operation against Taiwan.
On June 14, 1949, Chairman Mao's telegram to Su Yu for the first time clearly raised the issue of preparing for the liberation of Taiwan, which was also the beginning of Su Yu's preparation for the liberation of Taiwan. The original text of the telegram is as follows:
"Comrade Su Yu, Zhang Zhen, Zhou Junming, please begin to pay attention to the study of the question of seizing Taiwan and whether it is possible for Taiwan to be seized in a relatively short period of time. If we cannot resolve the Taiwan issue for a long time, Shanghai and the coastal ports will be greatly endangered..."
This telegram was the beginning of the entire plan to attack Taiwan, and it was also the beginning of Su Yu's appointment to preside over the plan to attack Taiwan. After receiving the order, Su Yu immediately began to make preliminary arrangements for the troops attacking Taiwan.
At that time, Sanye had just completed the campaign to liberate Ninghu-Hangzhou, and the troops urgently needed to rest, and Fujian, which was facing Taiwan, had not yet been liberated, requiring a large number of troops, and the newly liberated areas also needed to be divided into troops to suppress bandits. Considering the deployment of troops, Su Yu decided to take the Ninth Corps of the Song Dynasty As the main force in attacking Taiwan and first conduct seafaring landing training. In early August 1949, the entire Ninth Corps assembled on the outskirts of Shanghai for offensive and reorganization training.
Deploying to attack Taiwan in a situation where the whole country has not yet been liberated has instead established the most favorable stage in the entire period of deployment and attacking Taiwan. At that time, Chiang Kai-shek's army had lost all its power on the mainland, and there were about 300,000 troops it could control.
However, Chiang Kai-shek still did not recognize his own strength at this time, believing that the defeat on the mainland was only temporary, so he scattered the remaining more than 300,000 troops on Hainan Island, Taiwan Island, Zhoushan Island and many other coastal islands, and dreamed of blocking the mainland with island chains, causing the mainland's economy to collapse, and finally winning without a fight.
Chiang Kai-shek's division of troops has become the most favorable condition for our army to attack Taiwan, and at this time the United States has abandoned Chiang Kai-shek and has no intention of supporting him anymore. Therefore, whether it is the international situation or the internal situation of the enemy and ourselves, this is the most favorable time for us to liberate Taiwan.
Su Yu even suggested: "When necessary, we may consider not attacking Zhoushan, which is easy to attack, but first attack Taiwan, which is the most difficult to attack, and since Taiwan is down, the last difficult problem of unifying China will inevitably be broken and solved." ”
Su Yu has sufficient confidence in resolving the Taiwan issue in a short period of time. At that time, there were 7 armies in the Taiwan garrison, a total of 140,000 people, all of which were shocked and unable to fight again. Therefore, Su Yu decided to deploy 8 armies of about 200,000 people to attack Taiwan, landing in two echelons, with 4 corps of the Ninth Corps as the first echelon and the remaining 4 corps as the second echelon.
At the same time as the plan was submitted for approval, Su Yu had already begun to organize troops to carry out beach-grabbing landings along the Jiaodong coast, the Yangtze River Delta, and Tianmu Mountain, and simulated operations in the Taiwan area.
Chiang Kai-shek soon realized the inadequacy of the defensive forces on the island of Taiwan, and went so far as to recruit more than 20,000 Japanese mercenaries through Okamura Ningji. Most of these mercenaries are Japanese World War II veterans, with tenacity, fierceness, unity and superb tactics.
Su Yu, who had fought against the Japanese army for many years, knew the Japanese soldiers very well, and he believed that if the Japanese soldiers were converted into Jiang Bandits, they could not be simply replaced with 1:1. Because these Japanese soldiers who experienced World War II were not only strong in combat effectiveness, but also had no possibility of uprising and surrendering to the Chiang Kai-shek bandits, who had no fighting spirit. Therefore, the number of these Japanese soldiers and Chiang Kai-shek's soldiers should be replaced by at least a ratio of 1:3.
According to this ratio, that is to say, the Japanese mercenaries are about 60,000 Chiang Bandits, then the strength of Chiang Kai-shek's army in Taiwan at this time will be regarded as 200,000.
In the face of such changes in the situation, in March 1950, Su Yu first made a major revision of the troops attacking Taiwan, increasing the planned strength to 12 corps at a time, a total of more than 500,000 people, and the troops of the first echelon of the attack on Taiwan were added to the 24th Army on the basis of the Ninth Corps.
Shortly after this plan was submitted for approval, the situation between the enemy and ourselves once again underwent major changes.
Before attacking Taiwan, in order to weaken Taiwan's defensive forces, the central authorities decided to first capture the two major islands of Hainan and Zhoushan, and finally settle Taiwan.
At that time, Jiang Bandit Army had 4 armies and 12 divisions of the garrison on Hainan Island, and a total of about 100,000 people were cooperated with the navy and air force. Siye had planned to annihilate this enemy on Hainan Island, but as a result, Chiang Kai-shek's army once again showed its talent for escape, from the time our army crossed the sea on April 16, to the 22nd, when the enemy issued an order for a general retreat.
Because our army did not have the advantage of navy and air force at that time, it was unable to blockade the Chiang Kai-shek bandit army at sea and in the air, which eventually led to the successful retreat to Taiwan led by Xue Yue and more than 60,000 people.
In April 1950, while the Battle of Hainan Island was in progress, the enemy of the Sanye Siege of Zhoushan Islands was also in intensive preparations. At this time, Chiang Kai-shek was holding firm in the Zhoushan Islands, and the strength of the enemy defenders in the Zhoushan Islands had increased to 6 armies, totaling more than 120,000 people, and the strength of the troops was even more than that of Hainan Island.
The liberation of the Zhoushan Islands also became a large-scale military training exercise before Su Yu commanded Sanye to attack Taiwan, and compared with the Battle of Hainan Island, the Sanye of the Liberated Zhoushan Islands was also equipped with naval and air force units. Among them, the Air Force is the Fourth Mixed Brigade, with more than fifty new fighters and bombers just purchased from the Soviet Union; the Navy is the newly formed Fourth Fleet, with 10 large tank landing ships and 9 medium landing ships.
Just when Sanye was full of morale and preparing to encircle the enemy in the Zhoushan Islands and completely crush the Jiang bandit army. Chiang Kai-shek, who was far away in Taiwan, became a bird of fright because of the defeat in Hainan, so he made the only correct strategic decision he might have made in the Liberation War, that is, to urgently order the Zhoushan defenders to retreat secretly.
From 13 to 16, 1950, 120,000 people of Chiang Kai-shek's bandit army strengthened the capture of more than 20,000 young men and women in Zhoushan, and a total of more than 150,000 people boarded ships in three batches and retreated to Taiwan. At that time, the confidentiality of the action plan was very strict, and even the commanders at the army and division levels did not know the content of the task until after the ship was launched.
On the 16th, when Su Yu learned that the enemy had fled, he immediately ordered the 21st, 22nd, and 23rd Armies to launch a sea crossing attack in advance and pursue and annihilate the fleeing enemy. However, it was too late, and although the Battle liberated the Zhoushan Islands, only 8,000 old, weak and disabled soldiers abandoned by The Chiang Bandit Army were annihilated, and the main force of the Chiang Bandit Army of more than 120,000 people was all withdrawn to Taiwan.
At this point, the situation between the enemy and ourselves has undergone major changes again, and the only land occupied by Chiang Kai-shek's bandit army is Taiwan, Penghu, Kinmen, and Matsu, but the number of enemy troops defending Taiwan has doubled sharply, reaching more than 400,000 people. Moreover, Chiang Kai-shek, who was more and more aware of the situation, began to step up the expansion of the army, and Su Yu estimated that when our army was fully prepared to attack Taiwan, the total strength of the enemy would reach more than 500,000.
In the face of the sudden change in the situation between the enemy and ourselves, Su Yu once again made adjustments to the troops attacking Taiwan, adding the troops of the first echelon to the 7th Corps, with the 7th Corps and the 9th Corps jointly taking on the task of attacking the first echelon, and the 10th Corps and the newly entered 4th Army of Fujian as the second echelon attacking Taiwan, and it was better for Siye to allocate 4 corps as reserves.
At this time, Su Yu made it clear that the strength of Taiwan's Chiang Kai-shek bandit army had reached 500,000, and it was impossible for our landing forces to gain superiority in troop strength under the conditions of crossing the sea. However, considering the huge disparity in combat effectiveness and will to fight between the enemy and ourselves, as long as our army can successfully land and open up the situation, follow-up troops will land on time, and there is also a possibility of ensuring the liberation of Taiwan.
At this time, the strength of the troops in Su Yu's operational plan has been clear, or the strength of the army has been clarified, that is, to maintain the number of the two groups of troops attacking Taiwan is not less than 500,000, of which the combat troops are not less than 300,000, and the rest is the naval and air force that covers the attack on Taiwan.
When the People's Liberation Army attacked Hainan Island and the Zhoushan Islands, because the distance between crossing the sea was only 5 to 15 nautical miles, it was also possible to use a small sailing boat to make a hidden cross-sea landing at night. However, Taiwan Island is about 100 nautical miles away from the mainland, and if it takes a day and a night for a small sailing ship to cross the sea, then it will certainly be exposed to the naval and air firepower of Chiang Kai-shek's army during the day, so without large-tonnage transport ships and powerful navy and air force cover, it is impossible to cross the sea and land in Taiwan.
Therefore, at that time, in addition to the army's taiwan-attacking units prepared by Su Yu, the PLA's naval and air force units were also stepping up construction.
In early 1950, during the visit of Chairman Mao and Zhou Enlai to the Soviet Union, they signed a $150 million contract with the Soviet Union for the purchase of naval equipment. At the same time, through the Hong Kong Procurement Office, the United Kingdom was contacted to purchase 2-4 7,000-ton cruisers, 5-10 escort destroyers, 4-6 minesweepers, and a number of other auxiliary ships and transport ships (this purchase was cancelled due to the outbreak of the Korean War).
In July 1949, shortly after the proposed liberation of Taiwan, the construction of the People's Air Force was also put on the agenda. At the beginning of the establishment of the Air Force, based on the captured American and Japanese military aircraft, it began to establish aviation schools to train pilots, and sought to purchase advanced fighters from the Soviet Union.
In order to attack Taiwan and to prevent Taiwan's harassment, on June 19, 1950, the 4th Mixed Brigade of the Air Force, the first aviation unit of the People's Air Force, was formally established in Nanjing, equipped with 30 MiG-15 fighters, 30 La-11 fighters, 30 Il-10 strikers, and 20 Tu-2 bombers.
In addition to the navy and air force, in the attack on Taiwan, Su Yu also boldly took into account airborne operations, and established an airborne unit, the 1st Brigade of the Air Force, with a total of more than 5,000 people.
By the beginning of June 1950, the plan to attack Taiwan had basically taken shape, and it was planned to use 500,000 people from 16 armies of the army to adopt the operational policy of attacking from east to west, sea and air at the same time, and planning to train 25,000 airborne troops to participate in the battle, it would ensure that the victory of the battle was foolproof and that the battle could be ended within 15 days.
However, due to insufficient naval capacity and air cover, the plan to liberate Taiwan was delayed until 1951. In early June 1950, Su Yu submitted the specific battle plan to Chairman Mao and the Central Committee, and finally finalized it, only to wait for the navy and air force to be fully prepared. In fact, the main solution was the problem of naval transportation capacity, and the cover force had been initially solved at that time.
But just as the deployment to liberate Taiwan was tense, the Korean War suddenly broke out. On June 25, 1950, the Korean People's Army crossed the 38th Parallel to launch an attack on South Korea, and two days later, on June 27, the U.S. Military announced its involvement in the situation in Taiwan and sent the Seventh Fleet to prevent our army from liberating Taiwan.
The US military entered the Taiwan Strait and then tangled with the "United Nations Army" to force its approach to the Yalu River on China's northeastern border, bringing about major changes in the military situation facing New China. Therefore, the central authorities made the decision to postpone the launching of the campaign to liberate Taiwan, send troops to Korea, and resist the United States and aid Korea.
In July, Su Yu issued a central directive to the troops preparing to liberate Taiwan: "In order to support Korea and resist US imperialism, it has been decided to postpone the task of liberating Taiwan in accordance with the direct invasion of the Taiwan Strait by US imperialism." ”
Immediately, Su Yu was appointed commander of the Northeast Border Defense Army, and the troops preparing to attack Taiwan began to move north to prepare for the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea. Among them, the Ninth Corps was the first to enter the Korean War and participated in the famous Battle of Chosin Lake, which shocked the world.
With the launch of the "Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea, Defend the Homeland and Defend the Country" movement, a large number of troops attacking Taiwan were transferred to the DPRK, and the offensive operation was postponed indefinitely. And General Su Yu, who paid a lot of effort for this, eventually died because he did not complete the war for the reunification of the motherland.
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