At noon on August 15, 1945, Emperor Hirohito of Japan issued the Edict of the End of the War by radio, announcing Japan's unconditional surrender and the official end of World War II.
In accordance with the Cairo Declaration and the Potsdam Proclamation, the Allied High Command issued Order No. 1 on August 17, 1945, stipulating that "all Japanese forces in China except Manchuria, including the air force, navy, army and logistics forces, as well as all Japanese forces in Taiwan and East Asia north of the 16th parallel, shall be surrendered by Chiang Kai-shek, supreme commander of the Chinese theater." The area north of the 16th parallel here consists mainly of North Vietnam, most of Laos and northern Thailand, and at the Cairo Conference it was decided to hand over North Vietnam to China's trusteeship.
Several places in the Chinese theater accepted the surrender of the Japanese army
According to the orders of the Army Headquarters of the Nationalist Government, the First Front of the Chinese Army, which was temporarily formed with the Dian Army as the main body, led by the Dian Army General Lu Han, accepted the surrender of the Japanese army in Hanoi, Vietnam on September 28, 1945.
At the same time, France, which had "inexplicably" become one of the victorious powers, colluded with Britain, which had accepted the surrender of the Japanese army in southern Vietnam, in order to continue colonizing Vietnam, allowing France to return to South Vietnam and gain administrative power in South Vietnam.
However, France was not satisfied with this, and negotiated with the Chiang Kai-shek government with the support of Britain and the United States, demanding that the Nationalist government recognize France's colonial rule over Vietnam, abandon its trusteeship of northern Vietnam, and withdraw Chinese troops from Vietnam.
In exchange for the support of European and American countries in launching a civil war, chiang kai-shek's government signed the Sino-French Agreement with France in Chongqing in February 1946, recognizing France's colonial rule over all of Vietnam, ordering the Kuomintang troops occupying northern Vietnam to retreat back to China, and agreeing that on March 7, France could land in Haiphong, Vietnam to hand over defense.
France, which had already achieved its goal, was about to engage the Chinese army, but a battle broke out with the Chinese troops stationed in Vietnam's coastal defense. In this hours-long battle, several French warships were destroyed, nearly 2,000 people were captured, and suffered major defeats. Today, I will talk to you about the Sino-French battle of coastal defense more than 70 years ago.
On March 5, 1946, The French Consular Representative to Vietnam, Avson, came to the 130th Division of the Chinese 53rd Army stationed in Haiphong and demanded that the 130th Division allow the French army to land on March 6 in accordance with the Sino-French Agreement. Wang Lihuan, commander of the 130th Division, refused on the spot because he had not yet received a specific order from his superiors.
Wang Lihuan, commander of the 130th Division of the 53rd Army
In the early morning of March 6, the 12 warships of the French Far East Fleet, about 20,000 people, led by the commander of the fleet, Vice Admiral Abano, forcibly entered the port of Haiphong and tried to land. After the Chinese defenders fired flares warnings, the French continued to approach the coastal defense port and were the first to suddenly open fire on the Chinese forces. The divisional units of the 130th Division of the 53rd Army and the 1st Battalion of the 388th Regiment were forced to start a counterattack.
Shortly after the battle began, two mountain artillery battalions of the 184th Division and the Provisional 21st Division of the 60th Army of the Yunnan Army, which were assembling near Coastal Defense, arrived and took part in the battle.
The French warships moved closer to the docks as they fired, and after docking, a large number of French troops began to land. Taking advantage of the fact that the French army was unstable on the shore, the Chinese defenders mobilized a large number of bazookas, mortars, coastal defense guns and other light and heavy weapons to fire wildly at the first few French warships entering the port. In an instant, three French warships were blown on fire, one of which caused a series of explosions in its hull, and the other two were badly damaged. The remaining warships saw that the situation was not good, hurriedly hoisted the white flag, surrendered and conceded defeat. The battle lasted four or five hours, and the Chinese defenders suffered less than 100 casualties, destroyed three French ships, and captured more than 2,000 French troops.
Warship of the French Far East Fleet
Afterwards, the French governor sent a representative to Hanoi to personally negotiate and apologize to the Chinese defenders in Vietnam, and signed a sign to assume responsibility for the war! In the Battle of Coastal Defense, the Chinese army defeated the French army, which made the Chinese people raise their eyebrows and breathe!
The battle in Haiphong, Vietnam, left many people unable to understand that the Nationalist government had promised to withdraw its troops and recognize French colonial rule over Vietnam. Logically, this battle should not have happened. What was the reason why the French did not want to wait one more day to attack Coastal Defense? What was the reason why the Chinese defenders knew that they wanted to withdraw their troops but still strongly refused to land the French army in advance?
First of all, the reason why the French army wanted to land early despite the opposition of the Chinese defenders should have been for two reasons:
First, the French wanted to capture Hanoi before March 9, so they needed to land in Haiphong in advance
On March 9, 1945, the French army was driven out of Vietnam by the Japanese army in Vietnam, which can be described as a loss of armor and embarrassment. The French, who had always paid attention to the sense of ceremony, intended to follow Hitler's special train car and sign the instrument of surrender with France, and signed the Franco-Vietnamese Pact with the Vietnamese Independence League led by Ho Chi Minh in Hanoi, Vietnam, on March 9, in order to save face on the one hand, and to put pressure on the Vietnamese Independence League on the other hand.
Second, the French were overconfident and simply looked down on the Chinese defenders
The French Far East Fleet, with less than 20,000 troops, dared to provoke the Chinese garrison of nearly 200,000 men, which is typical of arrogance. I think that China is still the decadent era when western powers can arbitrarily trample on a few cannons on the coast.
The Chinese army stationed in Vietnam is mainly the Dian Army
Secondly, the main reason why the Chinese defenders knew that they wanted to withdraw their defenses, but still dared to refuse the early landing of the French army, on the surface, did not get the order of the superiors to give the specific time of defense, but in fact it should not be so simple.
If you simply do not get a specific order, you can contact your superiors to confirm it after the French side has negotiated. Judging from the fact that the Nationalist government could not wait to sign the Sino-French agreement with the French side at that time, the Nationalist government would certainly not offend France a day earlier for the time of defense. Moreover, Chiang Kai-shek's government, busy preparing for civil war, had withdrawn its troops stationed in Vietnam a day earlier, which was not a bad thing for him. Therefore, the failure to get a specific order should be just an excuse. There should be two internal reasons for not agreeing to an early French landing:
First, the Chinese troops stationed in North Vietnam were dissatisfied with the signing of the Sino-French Agreement between chiang kai-shek's government and France
Whether it was the first front of the army dominated by the original Dian Army or the 53rd Army, which was dominated by the Northeast Army, both units respected and supported the vietnamese people's will to become independent and oppose French colonial rule.
The Chiang Kai-shek government's betrayal of the fruits of the Vietnamese surrender and the interests of the Vietnamese people in exchange for international support for the launching of a civil war made the Chinese troops stationed in Vietnam dissatisfied.
During the period of garrisoning Vietnam, the Chinese army got along well with the VietnamEse Independence League led by Ho Chi Minh: the Chinese defenders helped the Viet Minh coordinate relations with all parties, and also used the weapons collected by the former Japanese army to arm the Viet Minh against the French army; the Vietnamese Independence League gave most-favored-nation treatment to overseas Chinese in Vietnam. Because of this, the Chinese army, which was already dissatisfied with the withdrawal of Vietnam, naturally did not easily agree to the early landing of the French army.
Second, it is deliberate to do so, to express dissatisfaction with the "house arrest" of Chiang Kai-shek's government and its attempts to start a civil war.
After the "Kunming Incident", Chiang Kai-shek on the one hand asked Long Yun to hand over the military and political power in Yunnan and fly to Chongqing to serve as the president of the Military Senate; on the other hand, he wanted to transfer the Dian army to the northeast to participate in the civil war. This practice made the Chinese troops stationed in Vietnam very angry, and some even suggested directly returning to Yunnan.
Chiang Kai-shek and the "King of Yunnan" Long Yun
In essence, neither the Dian Army nor the 53rd Army, which was later defended by the Northeast Army, was unwilling to fight a civil war, such as Zeng Zesheng, acting commander of the 60th Army in Haiphong at that time, and Wang Lihuan, commander of the 130th Division. By taking a tough stance on the French army, they showed their dissatisfaction with the Nationalist government's "house arrest" of Long Yun and the launching of a civil war.
To sum up, the main reason for the outbreak of the Sino-French Battle of Coastal Defense should be that the French army did not measure up to its own strength, despised the Chinese defenders, and deliberately provoked trouble; while the Chinese defenders sympathized with friendly countries, the key was to hold their stomachs and have nowhere to scatter, and they needed to find an air barrel. By chance, the French Far East Fleet, which had no one in sight, was beaten up by the Chinese defenders who were already in a bad mood.
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