The "Purple Quartz" incident in 1949 was a sensation, and the People's Liberation Army let the Western powers know that Chinese soldiers were not easy to provoke, and the era when Western countries could make China submit as long as they set up a few cannons on China's eastern coast is gone.
I. Historical Origins between China and France
But before the Purple Quartz incident, there was also a battle between the Chinese army and the Western powers, but this battle was fought by the Kuomintang army, the opponent was not the British, but the French, and this battle was the Sino-French Battle of Coastal Defense in 1946.
After the end of the First Opium War, the French, seeing that the British had taken so many benefits from the Qing Dynasty, also began to become dishonest and began to invade China. In 1883, French troops attacked Vietnam, and Vietnam, like Korea, was a vassal state of the Qing government at that time, and Korea was a barrier to China's strategic security.
When Cixi learned of the French invasion of Vietnam, she ordered troops to be sent to Vietnam, and the Sino-French War officially began. However, the qing army and the French army had a huge gap in weapons and equipment, and the Qing army not only collapsed on the entire northern Vietnamese front, but also allowed the French army to hit the border area between Guangxi and Vietnam for a time.
Due to the Patrol of Guangxi
Pan Dingxin was timidly evaded and was dismissed from all posts by the Qing government, and the 70-year-old veteran General Feng Zicai began to take charge of the military affairs of Guangxi and lead the War of Resistance against France. Guangxi has been a fierce people since ancient times, and the combat effectiveness of Guangxi soldiers is also very strong, so the French army's battle losses in Guangxi are very large, not very smooth, Guangxi military and civilians after the French army retreated in front of the guan, inserted wooden stakes in front of the pass, wrote "We will rebuild our portal with the heads of the French!" As an answer to the French invading army.
On March 23, 1885, more than a thousand men of the French 2nd Brigade launched an attack on the Qing army led by Feng Zicai, and Feng Zicai led his troops to put up stubborn resistance. Feng Zicai not only led his troops to repel the French attack, but also launched a counterattack at one point, conquering Wenyuan and Langshan, killing nearly a thousand French troops, seriously injuring the French commander Nigri, and later driving the remnants of the French army to the south of Langjia.
At the same time as the Battle of Zhennanguan was carried out,
On March 1, more than a dozen French warships launched an attack on the customs of Zhejiang Town, and the Qing army made careful arrangements, stubbornly resisted the French invasion, and finally repelled the French army.
Although the Qing army repeatedly won victories in the face of French attacks, due to the corruption and incompetence of the Qing government, it signed a series of unequal treaties with France.
Before World War II, France had an army of 3 million, claiming to be the world's first army power, but in the face of German attacks, France resisted for less than a month before surrendering. After France surrendered, Japan, which had long been eyeing the tiger, immediately sent troops to occupy the French colony of Vietnam.
Second, the arrogant French
On August 15, 1945, the Emperor of Japan announced his unconditional surrender, ending World War II. After World War II, according to the Agreement of the Potsdam Proclamation, the Allied High Command stipulated that Taiwan and the area north of the 16th degree north latitude, northern Vietnam, and most of Laos would be surrendered by the Chinese army, and the Japanese troops in the above areas would surrender their weapons to the Chinese army; the area south of the 16th degree north latitude of Vietnam would be surrendered by the British army.
Under the orders of the Nationalist government, Lu Han, commander of the Chinese First Front, led the 60th Army, the 93rd Army, the 53rd Army and other units of the National Revolutionary Army into northern Vietnam to accept the surrender of the Japanese army.
At that time, the British did not have enough power in Southeast Asia, so they wanted the French to mix in. At this time, the French were also anxious to return to Vietnam and wanted to restore their colonial rule, so they immediately sent troops over, and the Nationalist government, in exchange for the political support and economic assistance of the Soviet Union, gave up the long-term plan of "hosting Vietnam and helping it gradually become independent from self-government", adopted the short-sighted approach of handing over North Indochina to France, and ordered the Chinese troops entering North Vietnam to withdraw one after another.
On February 28, 1946, the Nationalist government signed the Sino-French Agreement with France in Chongqing: France returned the concession of Guangzhou Bay in advance, undertook the military expenses of the Chinese army to enter Vietnam, guaranteed China's status and treatment of overseas Chinese in Vietnam, and China recovered the Yunnan section of the Yunnan-Vietnam Railway without compensation; and China transferred the military administration in northern Indochina to France.
On March 4, 1946, major general Sarang, commander of the French Army in northern Vietnam, came to the headquarters of the First Front of China and submitted an official letter indicating that the French army would land in Haiphong, Vietnam, on March 5 and 6.
At that time, the 60th Army was assembling in Coastal Phong and it was impossible to withdraw before the 6th, so it did not agree to the French demand. The two sides held a long negotiation, but there was no result, and Wang Lihuan, commander of the 130th Division of the 53rd Army stationed in Haiphong, feared that the French army would forcibly land in Haiphong and ordered Chief of Staff Wang Guanying to deploy troops and prepare for battle.
At six o'clock in the afternoon of March 5, Major General Sarang came to the headquarters of the First Front and met with ma Zhao, chief of staff of the First Front, saying that the French army landed in Haiphong on March 6, and Ma Wei said that the agreement between the two sides had not been reached, and the French army could not forcibly land in Haiphong.
3. The Sino-French Battle of Coastal Defense
At two o'clock in the morning of March 6, Zhang Yuncheng, commander of the first battalion of the 338th Regiment of the 130th Division of the 53rd Army, reported: "The French fleet is coming to the port, and we have fired dozens of signal bombs to warn them, but the other side ignored them. ”
At three o'clock in the morning, the French fleet sailed into the harbor, and the Chinese troops fired warning shots at the air, but the French not only did not stop advancing, but also opened fire and hit the ammunition depot of the dock, causing the dock to burst into flames, and the explosion shattered the surrounding houses. The French warships tried to land forcibly on two occasions, but were repelled by our army.
The French army finally attacked the port in three echelons, the Nationalist army mobilized more than 30 guns, and the two mountain artillery battalions of the 184th Division and the provisional 21st Division of the 60th Army also came to reinforcements, shelling the French warships with intensive artillery fire, and the three warships in the front of the French army were hit by ammunition depots, one warship sank, and two warships were seriously damaged.
The other French warships saw that the situation was not good, and even the marines and wounded warships who had forcibly landed ignored them, and fled in a hurry. The Nationalists concentrated light and heavy machine guns and artillery fire on the landing French troops, and the French suffered heavy casualties, and a large number of French corpses floated on the sea near the port.
The commander of the French fleet, Lieutenant General Abanoo, saw that the losses were so heavy that he had to raise the white flag and demand a ceasefire, so that the Chinese army stopped attacking and began to rescue the surviving French officers and men.
The battle lasted only more than five hours, with more than 30 casualties of the Nationalist army, while the French army was killed, wounded and captured by more than 3,000 people, which cannot but be said to be a big victory.
The French army was unable to land and suffered heavy losses, so they asked the US Military Liaison Group in Coastal Defense to mediate. At that time, the French side demanded that the Chinese flag and the white flag be handed over to the shore for negotiations; our liaison officer replied that the Chinese flag has never been hung with the white flag, and if the French flag is hung with the white flag, it is possible. As a result, french dinghies flew French flags and white flags ashore.
Lieutenant General Abano, the commander of the French fleet, entered the headquarters of the 130th Division accompanied by the American liaison officer, and at first he was arrogant, but the commander of the 130th Division, Wang Lihuan, took a tougher attitude and questioned him: "Why did the Chinese army send signals many times, and the French army did not stop advancing, and first fired artillery to hit the ammunition depot." Wang Lihuan demanded that the French army compensate for the losses caused by this battle, and the commander of the French fleet, Lieutenant General Abano, knew that he had lost money, so he had to take the initiative to admit it and apologize to the Chinese army for compensation.