After the outbreak of the Liberation War, Xue Yue won the trust of Lao Jiang by virtue of his brilliant performance during the War of Resistance Against Japan, and served as the director of the Kuomintang Xuzhou Appeasement Office, commanding hundreds of thousands of troops to fight in Shandong and Huaye. However, Xue Yue, who had high hopes for lao Jiang, was not Su Yu's opponent at all, and within half a year of taking office, he buried two reorganized divisions, and old Jiang dismissed Xue Yue in anger. After the Battle of Crossing the River, Old Jiang saw that the high-ranking generals he relied on were all useless, so he had no choice but to reactivate Xue Yue and appoint him as the commander-in-chief of the defense of Hainan Island.
After re-emerging from the mountain, Xue Yue desperately wanted to prove himself, and after he came to Hainan Island, he first used a lot of manpower and material resources to build three three-dimensional defense lines, and various pillboxes were scattered. Coupled with the fact that he had 100,000 heavy troops in his hands, as well as the air force and navy to help him, Xue Yue was full of confidence and boasted that the People's Liberation Army would not be able to seize Hainan Island from his hands even if it inserted wings. But the facts soon proved that Xue Yue's cowhide had been inflated. Under the leadership of Han Xianchu, our army created the miracle of wooden sailing ships defeating warships, successfully liberated Hainan Island, and Xue Yue fled to Taiwan in a hurry.
Why didn't his 100,000-strong army defend Hainan Island? After the war, Xue Yue reflected, and finally he pushed the responsibility to Yu Hanmou, bluntly saying: Blame you for this stupid thing you did 13 years ago! Hainan Island was liberated in 1950, and if you push forward 13 years, it is 1937. So what did Yu Hanmou do in 1937 to make Xue Yue put the responsibility for the loss of Hainan Island on him? At that time, the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression had already broken out in full swing, the Kuomintang and the Communists began to cooperate in the anti-Japanese resistance, and the guerrillas in the eight southern provinces were ordered to be reorganized into the New Fourth Army.
At that time, Hainan Island was still under the jurisdiction of Guangdong, so the Qiongya Red Army guerrilla group led by Feng Baiju was ordered to merge with the Fujian-Guangdong border guerrillas operating in Youshan into a battalion and incorporated into the first detachment of the New Fourth Army. In order to resolve some important issues in the negotiations, in September 1937, Feng Baiju came to Tashi Township to guide the guerrilla representatives in negotiations with the Kuomintang. At that time, Yu Hanmou had already replaced Chen Jitang as the highest military and political governor in Guangdong, and when he learned of Feng Baiju's descent from the mountain, he hurriedly ordered Kuomintang agents to arrest Feng Baiju illegally.
Prior to this, Yu Hanmou had repeatedly sent troops to encircle and suppress the Qiongya Red Army, but each time he did not return. After the capture of Feng Baiju, Yu Hanmou used this as a condition and demanded that the Qiongya Red Army go to Haikou to accept the point of formation, in a vain attempt to annex this unit that could recruit good warriors. This unreasonable request of Yu Hanmou was categorically rejected by Feng Baiju. In order to force Feng Baiju to sign the transfer order, Yu Hanmou was soft and hard, but Feng Baiju remained unmoved.
Feng Baiju's arrest for no reason aroused great indignation among the people of Hainan, and Zhou Enlai personally protested to Old Jiang and demanded that Feng Baiju be released immediately and unconditionally. Under the pressure of public opinion, Yu Hanmou finally released Feng Baiju in December 1937 and agreed to continue negotiations with the Red Army guerrillas in Qiongya. After that, Yu Hanmou deliberately set up obstacles, resulting in particularly difficult negotiations. In October 1938, the Japanese army landed in Daya Bay, and Guangzhou was in danger. In order to defend Guangzhou, Yu Hanmou transferred the 152nd Division stationed on Hainan Island.
As a result, there was no regular Kuomintang army on Hainan Island, and some of the remaining security regiments had very limited combat effectiveness. Yu Hanmou was forced by the situation to agree to the independent reorganization of the Qiongya Red Army guerrillas. At the end of October 1938, the Qiongya Red Army guerrilla unit was reorganized into the 14th District Independent Brigade of the Guangdong People's Anti-Japanese Self-Defense Regiment, and swore an oath to resist the Japanese at Yunlongwei in Qiongshan. Soon after, the Japanese landed on Hainan Island, and the Nationalist troops on the island fled without a fight. Feng Baiju commanded the troops and fought a bloody battle with the Japanese at Tankou, firing the first shot of the Anti-Japanese Resistance in Hainan.
Under the command of Feng Baiju, the Qiongya Red Army continued to grow and develop, and by the end of the Liberation War, Qiongzhuo had grown to nearly 20,000 people and established a solid base area in Wuzhishan. After Xue Yue became the commander-in-chief of the defense of Hainan Island, he regarded Qiong Zhong as a serious problem in his heart, and repeatedly sent troops to encircle and suppress, but they were all repelled by Feng Baiju's troops. When Siye liberated Hainan Island, Feng Baiju first sent people across the sea to send the Hainan Island National Army defense map, and then mobilized the people of the island to send more than a hundred ships to Siye, and received the Siye smuggling troops to the Five Finger Mountain.
After the Battle of Hainan Island began, Feng Baiju led Qiong Zhong to take the initiative to attack, making Xue Yue difficult to care about and tired of coping. It is no exaggeration to say that the reason why the Battle of Hainan Island was won was that Feng Baiju and the Qiongya Column led by him were indispensable. If Yu Hanmou had not deliberately embarrassed the Qiongya Red Army, but had let Feng Baiju lead the troops to join the New Fourth Army, the Battle of Hainan Island would have been much more difficult to fight. This is also the reason why after the fall of Hainan Island, Xue Yue complained about Yu Hanmou and said that he had done a big stupid thing.