After the Xi'an Incident, Chiang Kai-shek was pressured to agree to the idea of unanimously going out at gunpoint and jointly resisting Japan. The Chinese Workers' and Peasants' Red Army was also reorganized, the Red Army armed forces in northern Shaanxi were reorganized into the Eighth Route Army of the National Revolutionary Army, which was later renamed the Eighteenth Group Army of the National Revolutionary Army, and the Red Army guerrillas in the eight southern provinces were reorganized into the New Fourth Army.
When the Red Army was reorganized, many officers and men were reluctant to wear the uniforms of the Kuomintang army and did not want to shake hands with the Kuomintang troops who had fought for more than ten years, but under the ideological education of the chiefs at all levels, they still put on the uniforms of the Kuomintang army. During the Liberation War, the uniforms were even more varied, but there was one unit that had been wearing the uniform of the Red Army and had never changed, and this unit was the Qiongya Column.
When it comes to the Qiongya Column, it is necessary to mention Feng Baiju, the founder of this unit. A native of Qiongshan, Hainan Province, Feng Baiju participated in the May Fourth Movement in his early years, then graduated from Shanghai University and joined the Communist Party of China in 1926.
On April 22, 1927, Huang Zhenqiu, commander of the 33rd Regiment of the Kuomintang Army, and Ye Zhao, chief of staff, led the reactionary army to conduct a large-scale search for revolutionary organs and schools, and arrested more than 2,000 people. In this case, Feng Baiju quickly led the Qiongya Prefectural Committee to go underground. According to Zhou Enlai's instructions, Feng Baiju established grass-roots organizations in various parts of Hainan, created the Qiongshan County Revolutionary Army, and launched an armed struggle.
Under the leadership of Feng Baiju and Feng Pingren, the revolutionary army once grew to 3,000 people, but Chiang Kai-shek also quickly sent troops from the inland to suppress the revolutionary armed forces in the Qiongya Su district, and the Red Army suffered heavy losses, and Feng Ping, commander-in-chief of the Qiongya Workers' and Peasants' Red Army and commander-in-chief of the Red Army on the West Road, died in the struggle against the Kuomintang army.
After Feng Ping's sacrifice, Feng Baiju continued to hold high the banner of armed struggle, overcome all difficulties and dangers, and persist in the revolutionary struggle on Hainan Island. Hainan Island is no better than the inland, this is just a small island, many places are still very miasma-heavy primeval forests, there are many poisonous snakes and mosquitoes, Feng Baiju led the Qiongya column several times to fight dozens of people, or even more than a dozen people, but Feng Baiju with his organizational ability, and slowly grew the team.
After the outbreak of the All-out War of Resistance, the Qiongya Column received orders from its superiors to negotiate with the Kuomintang army to jointly resist the enemy. However, the Kuomintang army was insincere, and also detained Feng Baiju in the middle of the way, in an attempt to eliminate the Qiongya column, and finally had to release Feng Baiju under the condemnation of the anti-Japanese waves.
In 1939, two infantry companies and an artillery company of the Japanese army invaded Hainan Island under the cover of the navy and air force, and the Kuomintang army could not resist and collapsed. Haikou, Sanya, Yulin, Wenchang and other cities fell one after another, and the Nationalist army guarding Hainan Island had to retreat to the mountains in the middle.
Although the Japanese army set up a large number of military strongholds on Hainan Island, the people's hearts were toward the Qiongya column led by Feng Baiju. In 1939 alone, Feng Baiju led the Qiongya Column to fight the Japanese army more than 70 times, killing more than 800 Japanese troops and capturing a large number of military supplies. In January 1943, summing up the characteristics of the enemy's large-scale and long-term sweeping, the Qiongya Special Committee and the Independent Corps made the decision to "stick to the inner line and advance into the outer line" and began to counterattack the Japanese army.
By August 1945, before the victory of the War of Resistance, the Qiongya Column had liberated two-thirds of the island, more than 100 towns, and more than 1 million people. The size of the Qiongya column also grew to more than 7,700 people, making a significant contribution to the victory of the War of Resistance.
After the victory of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, the Kuomintang army sent the 46th Army of the Gui clan to encircle and suppress the Qiongya Column, but the commander of the 46th Army, Han Liancheng, was an underground party member, and he not only did not destroy the Qiongya Column, but made the Qiongya Column grow even stronger. Before the Battle of Hainan Island, the Qiongya Column had grown to 20,000 people.
In December 1949, Chiang Kai-shek ordered Xue Yue to be the commander-in-chief of the Hainan Defense, with a total of 130,000 troops in the five armies and 18 divisions of the army and the fourth column of the armored brigade, 25 warships in the navy, 25 fighters, bombers, and transport aircraft. While ordering the troops to strengthen their defenses, Xue Yue sent heavy troops to encircle and suppress the Qiongya column, dividing the Qiongya column into several remote areas, and the situation of the Qiongya column was very critical.
In addition, Xue Yue also ordered the navy and air force to tightly seal the Qiongzhou Strait, and from time to time sent aircraft to bomb PLA ships near Zhanjiang. At that time, something had just happened in the People's Liberation Army, that is, Sanye was defeated in the Battle of Kinmen, and more than 9,000 troops were completely destroyed, which caused a lot of pressure on Siye's troops.
On February 1, 1950, Ye Jianying presided over the first operational meeting on the liberation of Hainan Island in Guangzhou, which was attended by Deng Hua, commander of the 15th Corps, Lai Chuanzhu, political commissar, Han Xianchu, deputy commander of the 12th Corps and commander of the 40th Army, Yuan Shengping, political commissar, Li Zuopeng, commander of the 43rd Army, Zhang Chiming, political commissar, Ma Baishan, deputy commander of the Qiongya Column, and Fu Zhenzhong, chief of staff.
At the meeting, except for Han Xianchu and the representatives of the Qiongya Column, almost everyone advocated postponing the liberation of Hainan Island, everyone thought that it was a bit unrealistic to rely on small wooden boats to fight large warships, and some people suggested going to Hong Kong to buy landing craft, and then launching the campaign to liberate Hainan Island when everything was ready.
Ye Jianying looked at Han Xianchu and asked him to express his opinion, And Han Xianchu said: "Some people advocate postponing the delay of five or six months before hitting Hainan Island, let's calculate what season it is, it is the hot summer, it is the time when the strong typhoon is raging, the wind and waves on the sea are so big, at that time, the landing, the difficulty is not greater." Besides, in such a short period of time, where do we go to buy so many landing craft, and take a step back, even if we do, how long will it take the Navy to train. I suggest that you first carry out a small-scale smuggling, smuggle seven or eight times, go up to 10,000 or 20,000 people, and finally make a large-scale landing, coupled with the cooperation of the Qiongya column, it is completely fine. ”
Ma Baishan, deputy commander of the Qiongya Column, continued With Han Xianchu's words: "I support the proposition of Commander Han, we once successfully smuggled a company from the Leizhou Peninsula to Hainan Island. The enemy did not find out at all that I and the chief of staff had come to Guangzhou from Hainan Island for a meeting this time, and we had also smuggled them across by boat. Therefore, under normal circumstances, as long as the timing is good, the landing point is selected, and we are there to pick up, we will definitely succeed. ”
The meeting was not ideal, but Han Xianchu did not give up, and while he crossed the level to report to Lin Zong and the Central Military Commission, he commanded the troops to conduct training in crossing Haiden Island, and discussed the time and place of the landing with Ma Baishan, deputy commander of the Qiongya Column, and Fu Zhenzhong, chief of staff. Lin Biao first agreed to Han Xianchu's proposal, and finally Chairman Mao also agreed, deciding that Han Xianchu would command two armies to cross Hayden Island in this campaign.
The most difficult part of the battle was the lack of ships, Han Xianchu tried his best to build boats, one day, he heard the fishermen say that there seemed to be boats on Weizhou Island not far away, so he immediately sent a regiment of the 40th Army to engage in a ship-grabbing battle, captured Weizhou Island in one fell swoop, and captured more than 400 wooden sailing ships. In more than two months, Han Xianchu collected more than 70 machine sailboats and more than 2,600 wooden sailing ships.
On March 5, 1950, Han Xianchu sent 799 people from a reinforcement battalion of the 352nd Regiment of the 118th Division of the 40th Army to smuggle 799 people to the island, and then successively smuggled more than 10,000 officers and men to the island, which not only effectively supported the qiongya column's anti-"encirclement and suppression" struggle, captured a number of ships, and also found out the false reality of the defenders' coastal defense. Most of the troops smuggled in were greeted by the Qiongya Column and successfully rendezvoused with the Qiongya Column, but some of the troops still showed a phenomenon of trek, and some ships were sunk by the Kuomintang army.
In order to boost morale, Han Xianchu decided to personally lead his troops to the island, and at 19:30 on April 16, 1950, more than 25,000 people from 8 regiments of the 40th Army and the 43rd Army of the People's Liberation Army set sail from the southern tip of the Leizhou Peninsula in 380 sailing ships and 32 aircraft sailing ships, and finally landed on Hainan Island in the early morning of the next day after a night of naval battles with the Kuomintang army.
When Han Xianchu led the officers and men of Siye to Hainan Island, they found that more than 20,000 officers and men of the Qiongya Column, under the leadership of Feng Baiju, were still wearing the uniforms of the Red Army period, and they could not help but feel shocked, this unit had gone through the red army period, the war of resistance against Japan, and the period of the liberation war. In the long 23 years, this unit has been in a desperate situation many times, and Feng Baiju himself has escaped many times, but he can still keep the red flag from falling, and it has to be said that it is a miracle, without super will and faith, it is absolutely impossible to persist for such a long time.