At the end of October 1949, less than a month after the founding of New China, more than 9,000 people in the three regiments of the 28th Army of the Tenth Corps of Sanye were almost completely destroyed in the battle to liberate Kinmen due to poor combat deployment, light enemy commanders, and lack of ships to cross Hayden Island. The Battle of Kinmen was one of the very few defeats in the history of the People's Liberation Army that was completely destroyed, which also caused great psychological obstacles to the officers and men of the Four Fields who later liberated Hainan Island.
Hainan Island is a large island located in the tropics, with tropical scenery and the cleanest marine resources in the Far East. Hainan Island not only has beautiful scenery, but also has an extremely important strategic position, Hainan is located at the northern end of the South China Sea, is an important energy transportation channel in China, at the same time, it is also the most threatened area of China's territory, Hainan Island is the most important strategic throat to stick to the South China Sea.
After the Battle of the Crossing River, the various armies of the People's Liberation Army marched to the southeastern provinces. In the Battle of Hengbao, the Fourth Field Army annihilated all four of the most elite divisions of the Gui clan, creating favorable conditions for the subsequent march into Guangxi to annihilate the main force of the Gui clan and the Second Field Army to march southwest through western Hunan Province. After that, Erye turned to the southwest, Sanye continued to sweep the southeastern provinces and related islands, and the main force of Siye continued to advance towards Liangguang, annihilating the remnants of the Gui clan.
After the Battle of Hengbao, Chiang Kai-shek knew that the Gui army led by Bai Chongxi could no longer block the army of Siye, and the Kuomintang army in the southwest and southeast could not block the attack of Erye and Sanye. At this time, Chiang Kai-shek began to withdraw the main forces of the Kuomintang army to Taiwan Island, Hainan Island, Zhoushan Islands and other islands, hoping to blockade the mainland, of which Hainan Island was the focus of defense at that time.
Chiang Kai-shek also knew the importance of Hainan Island, and he knew that as long as Hainan Island was occupied, he could first respond to the remnants of the Kuomintang on the mainland and serve as a springboard for his future return to the mainland; second, he could control the South China Sea and blockade the mainland from the sea; third, he could form a "horn" with Taiwan and Penghu at sea, echoing it from afar.
Under these circumstances, Chiang Kai-shek appointed Xue Yue as the commander of the hainan island defense, and after a series of supplementary and reorganized training, Xue Yue had a total of 19 divisions of the 62nd, 63rd, 64th, 32nd, and 4th Armies, as well as more than 50 ships of the Navy's 3rd Fleet, more than 20 aircraft of the 1 brigade of the Air Force, and about 100,000 local security forces. Xue Yue was still very confident in his so-called three-dimensional fortifications, he felt that he had a strong navy and air force, while the People's Liberation Army only had a few small wooden boats, and it was difficult to take down Hainan Island as if it were mountain climbing.
In December 1949, the Central Military Commission decided to form a cross-sea combat corps with Deng Hua, commander of the 15th Corps, Lai Chuanzhu, political commissar, and Han Xianchu, deputy commander of the 12th Corps and commander of the 40th Army, to command the 40th and 2 armies of the 43rd Army, as well as 1 cannon regiment, 1 anti-aircraft artillery regiment, and some engineers, signal troops, and anti-tank artillery, totaling 100,000 people, to enter the Leizhou Peninsula in late December to prepare for the battle.
On the issue of the time to attack Hainan Island, Deng Hua, commander of the 15th Corps, and Han Xianchu, deputy commander of the 15th Corps, almost collapsed their houses, and Deng Hua, commander of the 15th Corps, believed that there were no ships to cross Hayden Island to fight, and the number of aircraft sailing ships was too small to land in Taiwan with tens of thousands of wooden boats. What he said was actually the truth, the Kuomintang army blew up all the ships on the Leizhou Peninsula when they withdrew, and they kept sending planes to strafe the suspicious ships coming and going in the Qiongzhou Strait; there were indeed not enough ships to land on the island, and many officers and men in Siye could not even swim, and many people vomited as soon as they took the boat, so it was really difficult to fight a war. At that time, there was another factor, that is, the Battle of Kinmen had just been lost, which also made the generals of The Four Fields have to think carefully.
However, Han Xianchu did not agree, and after the meeting in Guangzhou, Han Xianchu immediately made a request after returning to the headquarters of the 40th Army: "Regarding the time of the landing operation in June, do not convey it downwards, and emphasize to the troops that the time for crossing the sea can only be advanced and cannot be delayed, and all preparatory work must be completed before March!" ”
Shino's troops were all from the north, and most of them couldn't swim, let alone steer boats, and even got dizzy on boats. So Han Xianchu formulated a series of training plans and trained with the soldiers.
At that time, there was also a unit of the People's Liberation Army on Hainan Island, which was the Qiongya Column established in July 1927, and the main leaders were Feng Baiju and Baima Mountain. The fact that this force was able to survive on Hainan Island has to be said to be a great miracle. During the period of the Red Army, the war of resistance against Japan, and the period of the War of Liberation, this unit was in a state of isolation from the world, fighting alone with the enemy such as the Kuomintang army and the Japanese army. In July 1945, the Qiongya Column grew to more than 7,700 people in 5 detachments, with a population of more than 1 million and half of the island, and the Japanese army on the island had no way to do anything with them.
Before the liberation of Hainan Island, this force had grown to the size of 20,000 people, and after the Qiongya Column learned that the People's Liberation Army was preparing to liberate Hainan Island, Feng Baiju sent its deputy commander Baima Shan to return to Hainan Island and Zhanjiang several times to provide intelligence for Siye.
After analyzing the pros and cons of Hainan Island, Han Xianchu reported directly to Lin Biao, commander of The Four Fields, and obtained Lin Biao's support, after which Lin Biao reported Han Xianchu's situation to Chairman Mao, with the support of the Central Military Commission, and finally made up his mind to liberate Hainan in April 1950.
On March 5 and 10, 1950, the 40th and 43rd Armies each carried out the first batch of smuggling with a reinforced battalion of more than 1,800 people and 34 wooden sailing boats, taking advantage of the dark night, the favorable conditions of the north wind and the dispersion of the enemy's coastline troops. On 26 and 31 March, the 40th and 43rd Armies each continued to smuggle more than 6,600 men in a reinforced regiment, and after being discovered by the enemy, the unit broke through the siege and joined the Qiongya column.
Although both smuggling attempts were successful, there were also a series of accidents, with some troops forced to return due to lost routes on the way, and others being destroyed by Nationalist aircraft and naval vessels on the way.
It was also under these circumstances that the officers and men of the Shiye Dengdao unit still had a heavy burden in their hearts, and a cadre of the 40th Army, in order to escape from landing on the island, injured his leg with a pistol, falsely claiming that it was a Kuomintang agent. Before the main force landed on the island, Han Xianchu looked at the list of cadres who led the troops to the island, and found that there were more political work cadres than command cadres, and there were more deputy posts than full posts. "The deputy commander and commander of the corps have all gone up, and the other cadres are not embarrassed not to go."
At 19:30 on April 16, 1950, Han Xianchu personally led six regiments of the 40th Army and two regiments of the 43rd Army with a total of more than 20,000 troops on 230 wooden sailing ships and 32 machine sailing ships to attack Hainan Island, and after a night of naval battle, broke through the sea defense line of the Kuomintang army.
After Han Xianchu went to the island, the shells of the Kuomintang army fell on him like raindrops, and he also rushed upwards with his guns, frightening the officers and men of a company next to him to rush to protect him and press him to a large rock on the beach to prevent him from accidents. When he learned that Han Xianchu had gone to the island, Nie Rongzhen, the acting chief of the general staff of the People's Liberation Army, who had waited overnight in front of the phone, collapsed on his chair, knowing that Han Xianchu's going to the island meant victory.
After Han Xianchu led the Siye army to Hainan Island, the wind and clouds generally swept across Hainan Island, and Xue Yue could not resist it, so he had to withdraw the main force of the navy and air force and more than 70,000 Kuomintang troops to Taiwan. On May 1, 1950, the entire territory of Hainan Island was liberated. On June 25, 1950, the Korean War broke out. On June 27, 1950, the U.S. Navy's Seventh Fleet entered Kaohsiung, Taiwan, the port of Keelung, patrolling the Taiwan Strait, to prevent the People's Liberation Army from liberating Taiwan, if the campaign to liberate Hainan Island had been more than a month later, the pattern of the South China Sea would not have been the same as it is now! General Han Xianchu's persistence in those years changed history, laid the current pattern of the South China Sea, and swept away many major troubles for future generations.