After the Battle of the River Crossing in 1949, a million troops of Erye, Sanye, and Siye marched to the southern provinces, and wherever the People's Liberation Army went, the Kuomintang army collapsed at a touch, and the southeastern provinces were liberated. Among them, the Tenth Corps of the Third Field Army marched to Fujian under the leadership of commander Ye Fei and political commissar Wei Guoqing.
On July 2, 1949, Ye Fei and Wei Guoqing led more than 100,000 troops of the 10th Sanye Corps from Suzhou, Changshu, Jiaxing and other places, braving the scorching heat to march to Fujian. Fujian and Taiwan are separated by the Taiwan Strait, so Chiang Kai-shek attaches great importance to the defense of Taiwan, and Chiang Kai-shek appointed Zhu Shaoliang as chairman of Fujian Province and director of the Fuzhou Appeasement Office, commanding 13 divisions and 120,000 people in five armies to serve as the defense of Fujian's coastal areas and coastal areas.
Fujian Province is located in the southeast of the motherland, except for a few areas such as Fuzhou, Quanzhou, Zhangzhou and other areas with flat terrain, the rest are rolling mountainous areas, and the terrain is quite complex. Ye Fei, commander of the Tenth Corps, was a member of Huaye's strong generals, who participated in almost all the large-scale battles of Huaye during the Liberation War, and the Huaye Column he led was a well-deserved Huaye First Column, and its combat effectiveness was very strong.
After Ye Fei led the troops to Fujian, the action was very rapid, on August 16, Ye Fei commanded the troops to attack Fuzhou, on August 17, Fuzhou was liberated, more than 40,000 Kuomintang troops were annihilated, and then Ye Fei took advantage of the victory to pursue and liberate Putian, Hui'an, Quanzhou and other places. In September, Ye Fei also commanded his troops to carry out many operations to cross Hayden Island, liberating da lian island, Pingtan island, Nanri island, Meizhou island and other islands.
After the Battle of Xiamen, not far from Xiamen, there was another island, and this island was Kinmen Island. During the Kangxi Dynasty, Shi Lang used Kinmen as a base to recover Taiwan. At that time, there was a serious mentality of light enemy in the People's Liberation Army, underestimating the strength of the Kuomintang army in Xiamen. Political commissar Wei Guoqing had advised Ye Fei to be careful, but Ye Fei said: "The whole country has been liberated, and a small golden gate is nothing." ”
On the night of October 24, Ye Fei ordered more than 9,000 officers and men of the three regiments to launch an attack on Kinmen, but due to insufficient preparation, insufficient operational planning, and contempt for the enemy, the landing troops were counterattacked by more than 30,000 Kuomintang troops, and finally the entire army was destroyed. The performance of the nationalist general Hu Lian in this battle was recognized by Chiang Kai-shek and he was known as the King of Kinmen.
After the Battle of Kinmen, our army began to take a long period of rest in preparation for the complete liberation of Taiwan. In 1950, Su Yu prepared to retake Kinmen first, then attack Taiwan, and gathered 500,000 troops in the southeast coastal area, and the Third Field Army all participated in the battle. However, at this time, after the outbreak of the Korean War, the original main force for attacking Taiwan had to be mobilized to support the Korean battlefield, and the plan to liberate Taiwan was postponed.
After the outbreak of the Korean War, Chiang Kai-shek, who had shrunk in Taiwan, became excited again, and he felt that this was a good opportunity to use the strength of the Americans to fight back. On the one hand, Chiang Kai-shek ordered the agents lurking in the country to carry out extensive sabotage, and on the other hand, he counterattacked on the southeast coast, and also prepared to seize several counties in Fujian as a forward base for the counter-offensive.
As Chiang Kai-shek's beloved general, Hu Lian naturally knew Chiang Kai-shek's intentions, and he constantly led the Kinmen defenders to raid and harass the southeast coastal areas, looking for flaws in our army, and finally he set his sights on Nanri Island. Nanri Island is the third largest island in Fujian, the largest island in Putian, and the geographical location of Nanri Island is very important.
It is a window for expanding trade with Taiwan and foreign countries, and has always been a military powerhouse, and its south-Japan waterway is even more important for maritime transportation.
Before carrying out large-scale sneak attacks, Hu Lian had launched several small-scale tentative attacks on Nanri Island, but all of them ended in failure. After winning several battles, the defenders of Nanri Island appeared to be proud of the enemy, feeling that the Kuomintang army was no more than this, and Hu Lian's talent was the same, and he relaxed his vigilance against the enemy.
Before the large-scale sneak attack, Hu Lian sent agents to conduct on-the-spot reconnaissance of Nanri Island, such as sending some agents dressed as people to collect seafood, cut hair and do small business on the island to observe the military deployment, army numbers and weapon configuration of the People's Liberation Army. These agents also frequently sent electric signals to the nearby Nationalist-controlled island of Wuqiu at night, but the unusual signs on the island so frequently did not attract the attention of the island's defenders, who believed that the Nationalist army repeatedly failed to attack the island, and even if it came, it could be repelled.
At that time, the PLA's strength on the island was only two companies, a reconnaissance platoon, and an artillery platoon, with a total strength of 400 people, distributed at the east and west ends of Nanri Island. There are four platoons stationed in the east and four platoons in the west, and at Jianshan, the highest point of Nanri Island, there is a squad of officers and men stationed. At that time, there were also some government cadres on Nanri Island, more than 200 people, and more than 200 militiamen.
After Hu Lian learned of the deployment of the people's liberation army, he decided to gather more than 6,000 people from the 224th regiment of the 75th division of the Kuomintang army, the 225th regiment and the South China Sea General Brigade to attack in two ways, one of which was composed of the South China Sea General Brigade, with a strength of 1,500 troops, equipped with new American equipment, equipped with two landing ships, a gunboat, and two transport ships, to attack from the east side of Nanri Island. The other line, consisting of two regiments of the 75th Division, led by division commander Wang Guangyao, landed from the west.
At six o'clock in the morning of October 11, 1952, two regiments of the Nationalist 75th Division and the South China Sea Corps arrived at the landing site. After landing in Gangnan Township on the east side of Nanri Island, the South China Sea Corps immediately organized firepower to attack the forward positions of the People's Liberation Army on Nanri Island and occupied the commanding heights of Jiulong Mountain and Xihu Mountain.
Although our army was small in number, it held on to the danger and repelled many charges of the South China Sea Corps; after more than nine hours of fighting, due to its outnumbered and heavy casualties, it had to retreat backwards and continue to organize firepower on the mountain to block the attack of the South China Sea Corps of the Kuomintang Army.
Two regiments of the 75th Division of the Kuomintang Army also landed from the west of Nanri Island, which had more numbers than the South China Sea General Brigade, combat experience and firepower were also very strong, and by 12 o'clock in the morning, the west side of Nanri Island was all occupied by the Kuomintang troops, and the troops defending the island were completely destroyed.
The sound of gunfire on Nanri Island alarmed the government agencies and ordinary people on the opposite shore, and after receiving the order, the troops stationed along the coast of Fuqing immediately sent a marine battalion, as well as a gun platoon and a machine gun platoon, to land from xisha mountain bend on Nanri Island to reinforce Nanri Island. After the PLA land battalion land camp landed on the island, it was attacked by the enemy, and the two sides immediately began a fierce battle. The battalion, too small in number, was soon surrounded by enemy forces, with most of its personnel scattered or captured.
The border troops stationed in Shicheng received orders to reinforce Nanri Island and immediately organized a battalion of reinforcements. At 2 p.m. on the 11th, the battalion took nine aircraft sailboats from The Rock City Pier to reinforce Nanri Island. However, due to the unknown situation, when preparing to land, they were hit by the artillery fire of the enemy 224 regiment, and many of the aircraft sailboats of the reinforcements were sunk, and a machine sailing ship full of arms exploded on the spot.
On the 12th, the People's Liberation Army in Shicheng sent two more platoons as advance teams, hoping to preemptively land and cover the reinforcements. The two platoons successfully landed on Nanri Island and occupied a commanding height to cover the ensuing reinforcements.
The fall of Nanri Island caused a very bad impact at that time, and the Tenth Corps immediately dispatched the main force of the 28th Army to assemble on the front line, and at the same time ordered the border troops stationed in Fuqing and Putian to bombard Nanri Island and the surrounding sea areas with long-range artillery, blocking the sea passage from Nanri Island to Kinmen Island. The Nationalists decided that a long-term occupation of Nanri Island was unlikely, so they began to withdraw to Kinmen Island, of which more than 800 were captured in Taiwan.
The defeat on Nanri Island was another defeat to Hu Lian after the Battle of Kinmen. In this battle, due to the light enemy, the wrong judgment of the situation, the improper command, and the successive reinforcements were broken, more than 1,300 officers and men were lost.
After the battle, Chairman Mao made a serious criticism of the defeat on Nanri Island and ordered the islands on the front line to strengthen their fortifications and stockpile a certain amount of food, fresh water, weapons and ammunition. Zhang Dingcheng was also made secretary of the Fujian Provincial Party Committee, while Ye Fei was single-mindedly focused on military struggle.
After this campaign, Ye Fei began to think bitterly, formulated a combat plan for the places where the enemy might land and attacked, and mobilized a large number of migrant workers to build roads and strengthen coastal defense construction. Ye Fei also set up joint defense stations in various parts of Fujian to strengthen training for the militia, organized patrols at sea, and conducted investigations on various islands to arrest agents of the Kuomintang army lurking on the islands.
On July 16, 1953, Hu Lian led more than 10,000 Kuomintang troops, with the cooperation of the navy and air force, successfully landed on Dongshan Island, but Ye Fei reacted quickly and commanded the troops to counterattack, annihilating more than 3,000 enemy troops, blowing up 2 tanks, sinking 3 landing ships, shooting down 2 planes, and the enemy fled in a hurry.