In 1949, Churchill openly bombarded China, saying that he would use aircraft carrier battle groups to retaliate against China. Chairman Mao was very disdainful of this, and said five words contemptuously to make Britain die.
So why did Churchill make a big fuss? What five words did Chairman Mao reply to make him retreat in the face of difficulties?
After Churchill publicly announced that he wanted to retaliate against China, Chairman Mao immediately responded domineeringly, "What are you retaliating against?" ”
It was these five simple words that directly gave Britain a blow.
Yes, what exactly is Britain going to retaliate against? They were just not convinced, and the Purple Quartz suffered defeat in China.
You know, in the hands of the British Empire, it has more than 4,800 warships, and its naval strength ranks second in the world. But no one expected that China, a country that did not even have a large ship, was unable to fight back, which was simply a shame for Britain, which was the fundamental reason for angering Churchill.
But when he released this, he only exposed the ugly face of Britain, a capitalist country. Well, how was the Purple Quartz repulsed by our army? Why did the British side not eat it?
April 20, 1949, was the day before the PLA prepared to launch the battle to cross the river. Before the start of the war, the People's Liberation Army issued a bulletin to prevent accidental damage to warships in various countries during the war. However, the British warship Purple Quartz was still staggering on the Yangtze River the day before the war began, which made the PLA more vigilant.
The first to discover the Purple Quartz was the Special Forces Column of the 10th Army of the People's Liberation Army. After discovering the Purple Quartz, he immediately reported the news to his superiors and kept an eye on the movements of the Purple Quartz.
Seeing that the British warships were still leisurely cruising in the battlefield area, the PLA immediately realized that this matter was not simple. Therefore, the PLA first used cannons to warn the other side.
Unexpectedly, the British warships not only did not take the PLA's warning seriously, but launched their own British flag provocation and aimed the turret on the warship in the direction of our army. After that, he did not slow down at all, continued to move forward, and drove until he reached the river near Sanjiangying in Zhenjiang.
This is the main area where our army went to war, and the British army is obviously challenging the bottom line of our army by doing so. Faced with such a situation, the outbreak of war is on the front line.
But who fired the first shell is still debated to this day.
There is a theory that the PLA artillery regiment could not help but fire first, and another is that the British themselves made a documentary documentary, which was recorded by the Purple Quartz ignoring the PLA's warning and taking the lead in firing the gun.
Either way, the end result is a fight.
At that time, the Ziquartz was very luxurious, with six 102mm guns, while the artillery regiment at that time had only three Japanese 105mm howitzers and three 75mm field guns. In terms of firepower, the Purple Quartz is much better than the PLA's, and its combat effectiveness is stronger.
But the PLA is still fearless, after all, this is our home turf, and the PLA has decided to take advantage of this advantage to deal with the British ships.
Then our troops immediately opened fire, this gun directly hit the British helmsman, and the British ship instantly lost control.
According to Chinese statistics, the Purple Quartz then received direct fire from more than thirty shells, the captain and deputy captain of the warship were seriously wounded, the front main gun was defeated, and a hole with a diameter of three feet was shot out of the hull.
After suffering heavy damage, the warship fled south at full speed and eventually ran aground on the beach west of Rose Island.
The British side would never have thought that the PLA would dare to fire artillery directly, completely ignoring Britain.
Encountering such a blow, the British army instantly lost its arrogance and raised the white flag, but they still kept a glimmer of hope in their luck, and once lowered the white flag and replaced it with the British flag, but it ushered in a more violent attack by the PLA, and the final defeat was decided, so they had to fix the white flag.
It is said that three white flags were raised at that time, for fear that the PLA would not see it. After suffering heavy damage, the British army immediately sent reinforcements to the warship Mate and sailed into the area of Sanjiang Camp, hoping to free the Purple Quartz.
Unexpectedly, the PLA focused on the downstream area, creating loopholes. The Mate seized this loophole and attacked the PLA with four 114-mm guns, resulting in the destruction of two of the three Japanese-style field guns of the 7th Company of the 3rd Artillery Regiment, the heroic sacrifice of six soldiers, and the instant decline in the combat effectiveness of the PLA.
The Mate approached again, and the Purple Quartz saw that rescue was coming, and it was immediately overjoyed. However, they were quickly beaten back, and although one company of the People's Liberation Army was affected, the others resisted.
At that time, the first company and the infantry team also participated in the battle, even if the firepower was not able to confront the British ships, but still able to inflict a lot of deterrence on the British ships.
The three main guns of the Mate were destroyed by our troops, the conning tower was hit, and the captain was seriously wounded, which not only could not save the Purple Quartz, but even whether he could escape became a problem.
The companion could only flee in the direction of Jiangyin, and was chased and beaten by our army along the way, which simply scared to pee its pants.
When Britain heard the news, the Far East Fleet could not sit still, and sent two more warships to rescue the Purple Quartz, and this time they also sent Maiden, deputy commander of the British Far East Fleet, this time Britain can be said to be inevitable.
On the other hand, the Purple Quartz has been repaired and has been out of the stranded state, and Maiden leads the cruisers London and the frigates Black Swan to the rescue.
On April 21, two warships entered the combat area of the Sanye 23rd Army, and the matter gradually became serious. Sanno immediately reported the situation to Chairman Mao and awaited instructions.
But the transmission of information took time, and the front-line battle could not wait, so before the instructions were given, the two armies were already engaged.
In the face of repeated provocations by the British side, our army did not give in the slightest, and frequently hit British warships in battle, and the British attack also led to heavy casualties in our two infantry regiments, a total of 252 casualties.
After that, our army stopped the offensive, and this also gave the British the illusion that the PLA was ready to abandon the attack.
So the two ships continued to move forward into the first battalion combat lot. But what they didn't expect was that Li Lun, the commander of the first battalion, had been waiting here for a long time, and he immediately ordered artillery shells to attack the British ships.
The London was hit, bruised, Maiden was affected by the aftermath of the shells, even the commander's warehouse was blown up, although it still survived to fire at the PLA, but the other two ships could no longer withstand the destruction of artillery fire, and even if they could be saved, they could only be a pile of scrap copper and rotten iron.
Therefore, the British ship had the idea of abandoning the rescue and led the fleet back. But on the way back, they were attacked not only by artillery fire from the PLA, but also by the artillery of the Kuomintang bridgehead, which Maiden regretted.
After this battle, the Purple Quartz was not only not rescued, but also caused nearly 100 British casualties.
However, in order to save face, the British claimed that the navies were only missing during the battle. In just two days, the humiliation suffered by Britain made Churchill so angry that he patted the table to retaliate against the mainland.
But as soon as his words came out, Chairman Mao immediately responded, what are you retaliating against? Let the world see who cares.
So why did the British army provoke China?
First of all, Britain just wants to show itself. Because before the start of the war, the PLA has already told countries not to send warships to the battlefield. Moreover, China and Britain signed the "Sino-British New Treaty" in 1943, and the right of British ships to navigate inland rivers on the mainland has long been abolished.
However, without China's consent, it is already a challenge to China's sovereignty to continue driving on the Yangtze River in its own way. The British army, with its own powerful naval power, believes that China does not dare to fight easily, in fact, it wants to show off its might.
In addition, Britain and the Kuomintang still have some friendship, and long ago, in order to obtain intelligence, Britain proposed to moor a frigate in Nanjing, and also proposed to have the right to sail the section from the Yangtze River to Nanjing.
The Kuomintang was running out of strength at this time, so some people still wavered in currying favor with the British, and the relationship between the two sides was special, so the British army dared to go to the Yangtze River Valley recklessly, in fact, it was also to support the Kuomintang.
It's a pity that the British army never imagined that the PLA would decisively choose to fight back. Under such circumstances, the powerful British warships have been repeatedly defeated, and even the Purple Quartz is controlled by our army, and the British can only return their warships through other diplomatic means in addition to public and cruel words.
In 1949, China and Britain had not yet established diplomatic relations, and the two countries were fighting each other over warships.
However, the PLA did not treat the British troops on the warships badly, but gave them good food and drink, and wanted a peaceful solution
The British side also found China for negotiations, and the two sides discussed 11 times, and the Chinese side asked them to apologize publicly, but the British side could not erase face, and never wanted to apologize, only wanted to return to the Purple Quartz. As a result, there has been no progress in the outcome of the negotiations.
The Purple Quartz waited for a long time and did not wait for the notice of being returned. Three months later, the Purple Quartz could no longer wait, and he took advantage of the PLA's omission to run back on his own.
Due to the suddenness of the incident, he was not blocked by our troops along the way, and returned to Britain very smoothly, ending his humiliating history of being trapped for more than 100 days.
When Premier Zhou learned of this, he severely criticized Sanye's negligence, but the British army's approach was not honorable, although the generals on the ship were praised for returning to China, but internationally, it was a very humiliating thing.
A British empire that relies on the negligence of the People's Liberation Army to escape, is a huge joke to tell.
At that time, although China was not strong enough, it already had a certain ability to protect itself, and the so-called weak country had no diplomacy, and everyone wanted to sow wild on China's head.
Only when you are strong can you have a real voice. We should all remember these histories, and only by not forgetting these experiences can we be stronger.