On April 20, 1949, on the thousand-mile front on the bank of the Yangtze River, the Million Heroic Division of the People's Liberation Army divided into three roads, east, middle and west, and forcibly crossed the Yangtze River Graben. On the 23rd, Nanjing, Jiangsu Province, was liberated, announcing the overthrow of the reactionary rule of the Kuomintang government.
In this decisive battle, many heroes, both famous and unsung, emerged. In the square of the Victory Memorial Hall of crossing the river (located in Nanjing, Jiangsu Province), there stands "one of them", which is the legendary small steamer - "Jingdian". Although after 72 years of ups and downs, the three words "Jingdian" on the bow of the small steamship are still clearly visible, and the brown long table, black tin roof, mottled surface and so on on the ship tell the history of that period.
The "Jingdian" small steamship, formerly known as the "Yuntai Ship", was a steamship built by the Shanghai Shipyard in 1925. During the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, it also fell into the hands of the Japanese, and after the victory of the War of Resistance, it was acquired by the Kuomintang Capital Power Plant and renamed "Jingdian" to undertake the task of transporting coal.
So, how did the "Jingdian" small steamer go from a coal carrier of a power plant to the first ship to transport the People's Liberation Army across the river?
By the evening of April 21, 1949, the People's Liberation Army had completely occupied Jiangpu, Pukou, and Puzhen (now part of Nanjing, Jiangsu Province). At that time, in order to prevent the People's Liberation Army from crossing the river, the Kuomintang army exercised strict military control over both sides of the Yangtze River, and either burned or sank the ships on the north bank of the Yangtze River, and all the ships that were too late to destroy were also towed away. When tens of thousands of PLA troops and horses gathered in Jiangbei, there were no boats along the coast that could support the PLA in crossing the river. The warriors searched around and found a small wooden boat that could only carry 5 people. Therefore, the 35th Army immediately sent 5 scouts and small soldiers to take small wooden boats and quietly went to the river to find ships.
The arduous task of finding ships on the opposite bank of the enemy's blockade that can provide large troops to cross the river for combat determines whether the PLA's plan to cross the river can be smoothly implemented.
On the afternoon of the 22nd, 5 scouts braved enemy artillery fire to reach the south bank and successfully contacted the workers of the capital power plant. Time was pressing, and lu Lianyun, a worker, proposed to immediately go to the factory director to find a way. After the factory director Han Deju knew that the PEOPLE's Liberation Army was in urgent need of ships, he was in a hurry and remembered the coal steam ship "Jingdian" docked at the Shimonoseki wharf. The "Jingdian" can carry more than a hundred people on a trip, and the scout soldiers can't help but smile when they see such a large ship. But on second thought, few people could fly a steamship. The boatmen smelled and looked at each other, and Lu Lianyun said with a fervent glint in his eyes: "Little comrade, let's come!" The boatmen present rushed to echo and joined the team supporting the People's Liberation Army across the river.
In order to continue to evade the enemy's strict search, the scouts and shipwrights quietly lurked into the night, took advantage of the night to board the "Jingdian", and more than a dozen people drove the ship from under the eyes of the enemy to the location of the People's Liberation Army on the north bank. Lu Lianyun recalled: "At that time, I was both excited and nervous, and my heart was about to jump out of my throat. ”
At about 00:00 on the 23rd, the "Jingdian" carried 120 PLA commanders and fighters and took the lead in setting out and sounded the cross-river charge. The "Jingdian" fought for 11 hours, ten shipwrights handed over shifts to each other, and transported more than 1,400 PLA commanders and fighters back and forth across the river. At first, Chen Yi, the commander of the General Front Committee of the Battle of Crossing the River and commander of the Third Field Army, refused to take the "Jingdian" and insisted on crossing the river in a small wooden boat like the soldiers. After listening to the report on the deeds of the "Jingdian" fire ferry crossing the river, Deng Xiaoping, who was standing nearby, praised him in succession: "It is unbelievable, it is unbelievable, the first one to reach the opposite shore, the first boat to cross the river!" I'm going to cross the river in this boat too. Therefore, Chen Deng and Deng crossed the river together on the "Jingdian". Since then, the "Jingdian" has had the reputation of "the first boat to cross the river".
After the founding of New China, the "Jingdian" continued to work. Initially, the Jingdian continued to serve at the Capital Power Plant in Nanjing to transport coal until 1978, when the Jingdian left Nanjing, which had been in service for more than 30 years, and was transferred to the Huaiyin Power Plant in Jiangsu Province. In 1982, it was transferred to Jiangsu Lianyungang Guannan Hongyuan Transportation Co., Ltd. to engage in cargo transportation. Until 2009, the "Jingdian" returned to Nanjing as an important evidence of the victory in the Battle of the River Crossing and the liberation of Nanjing.
The "Jingdian" small steamer is not only a precious industrial heritage reflecting China's shipbuilding and shipping industry in the twentieth century, but also a precious cultural relic of the liberation of Nanjing by the people's liberation army across the Yangtze River Chinese. As a witness and witness to the major historical events of the victory of the Battle of the River Crossing and the liberation of Nanjing, today, the "Jingdian" still tells the glorious years of the river crossing for the broad audience.
Source: Learning to power the country
Edit: Wei Lan