preface
During the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, whether in the face of the Japanese invaders or the old Chiang Kai-shek, whether in the Korean battlefield or during the agrarian revolution, Chairman Mao fully demonstrated the long-term strategic vision and consistent democratic thinking of the great man, and fought for the stability and freedom of the Chinese people all his life.
In mid-January 1974, Chairman Mao's guards received an urgent telegram from Premier Zhou and Marshal Ye Jianying late at night.
Premier Zhou and Ye Shuai's late-night emergency call must have been an important matter, but Chairman Mao's physical condition was also worrying, and the guards were afraid of delaying the emergency and disturbing the chairman's rest.
At this moment, Chairman Mao's door opened, and Chairman Mao asked softly, "Is there something wrong?" The guards informed Chairman Mao about Zhou and Ye's call.
Chairman Mao immediately said when he heard this: "Take it and let me see, in the future, this kind of urgent call will not have to pay attention to those red tape, if I do not sleep lightly and hear footsteps outside, I am afraid that I will delay things." ”
The guard immediately handed the urgent telegram in his hand to the chairman, then gave a standard military salute and left.
At this time, Chairman Mao's body was already shaky, and even so, Chairman Mao, after receiving a telegram from Premier Zhou that "war could break out at any time in the South China Sea", still commanded the people's army from his hospital bed and won the last battle for China - the Battle of the Xisha Sea.
The victory in this battle caused an international uproar, and Chairman Mao also used it to stabilize the stability of China's Xisha Sea for nearly half a century.
Every cannon sound reminds the "militants" of various countries that China is no longer the Great Qing Dynasty, and today's Chinese navy is not the Beiyang Navy of decades ago.
In what context was China organizing a counterattack?
How big is the gap in strength between the two sides?
Vietnam is "ready to move"
On March 29, 1973, with the withdrawal of U.S. troops from southern Vietnam, the twelve-year "Support for South Vietnam" invasion of Vietnam ended, but before leaving, the U.S. military left South Vietnam with advanced heavy weapons.
As a result, South Vietnam's military strength skyrocketed, but the southern part of Vietnam did not have the presence of US troops, making Vietnam's internal contradictions more and more intense, and the north of Vietnam launched a fierce pursuit and fierce attack on the southern region, and the southern region was miserable.
In 1973, Nguyen Van Thieu in southern Vietnam turned his attention to China, which had just withdrawn from Korea, in order to divert internal contradictions while slowing down the retreat of American troops.
Wanting to use external wars to stabilize the domestic situation and at the same time drag down the United States, he then began to invade the South China Sea on a large scale, arresting and driving fishermen from the mainland for no reason on the charge of "illegally crossing the border".
At a time when China was in a situation of internal and external troubles, it had to guard against the former "big brother" of the Soviet Union and keep an eye on the domestic situation.
Therefore, China chose peaceful diplomacy at the beginning, thinking of resolving the territorial issue through friendly talks and negotiations, but Vietnam was determined to take China as a step down with the "steel behemoths of the sea" left by the US military.
In September 1973, Vietnam unilaterally declared ownership of more than a dozen islands in the South China Sea, and swaggered its cruiser around the mainland in search of new islands.
Although the mainland's defense forces in the South China Sea at that time were relatively weak, they were not soft persimmons to be manipulated, and the mainland Foreign Ministry immediately condemned Vietnam's encroachment and re-swore ownership of the South China Sea and many islands.
China began to fight back
Vietnam pretended to be deaf and dumb about China's voice, and after a period of silence, found that China had no other actions, and became more and more arrogant, thinking that China was just bluffing.
On January 15, 1974, South Vietnam sent four ships to break into the Paracel Sea, the center of the mainland South China Sea, and turned their guns to two mainland commercial ships that were traveling in the sea, in an attempt to force the mainland's fishing boats out of the mainland waters.
However, the mainland fishing boats did not turn around and leave, but silently accelerated their speed and rushed towards the hulls of South Vietnamese, and the South Vietnamese ships became angry in panic, and recklessly fired at the mainland fishing boats, and the citizens of the mainland were killed and injured.
After the first shot was fired by South Vietnam, the tank was also broken, and the supreme leader of the South Vietnamese authorities, Nguyen Van Thieu, simply ordered: If the Chinese counterattack, immediately destroy it with fire.
However, he did not expect that this telegram was intercepted in the Guangzhou Military Region on the mainland and immediately sent to Premier Zhou, who immediately contacted Ye Shuai, then Minister of National Defense, after receiving the telegram, and the two took this very seriously, and jointly sent a telegram to Chairman Mao, and Chairman Mao made the final decision.
After Chairman Mao read the telegram, he gave instructions: Resolutely defend the mainland territory, tell them that the naval forces of New China are not the Beiyang naval division of the old society, but remember not to be the first to release guns, let them bear the charge of starting a war, and once attacked, immediately organize a counterattack.
Although Chairman Mao was a late hero and seriously ill, his long-term strategic vision remained sharp, and he explained China's attitude and China's bottom line of war in two words.
"Small to big"
After receiving Chairman Mao's instructions, the Party Central Committee also took a reassurance pill and began to organize a counterattack with one mind, with Ye Shuai and Deng Xiaoping as the commanders in chief of the battle.
At that time, both sides dispatched four ships, the Chinese "No. 396, 389, No. 271, No. 274," and the four ships facing the four large-tonnage ships of South Vietnam, "Tran Binh Chong," "Nu Tao," "Li Changjie," and "Tran Qingyu."
At that time, the largest tonnage of Chinese ships was far less large than the smallest Vietnamese ship, and in the face of the enemy's powerful firepower, our army did not cowardice at all, but fully played its advantages of small size and high flexibility.
Closely attached to the back of the South Vietnamese ships, and although the South Vietnamese ships were large in size and strong in firepower, they could not do anything for a while in the face of the Chinese "sticky tooth tactics", and the Chinese small ships approached the enemy ships.
began to stand on the deck and fire at the enemy ships, throwing grenades, and the enemy ship "Chen Qingyu" was destroyed under the fierce offensive of our troops, and a raging fire was ignited on board and was successfully repulsed.
What's more interesting is that when our army was besieging the "Li Changjie", the "Chen Pingzhong" on the side saw that his teammates were stuck and wanted to fire artillery to help his teammates out of trouble.
However, even when the ship was equipped with a fire control radar, it was still missed, and a large hole was dug in the hull of the "Lee Chang Kit", and the South Vietnamese troops gradually retreated.
Without the intention of fighting, the signal was sent to retreat, and during the retreat, the South Vietnamese "Nu Tao" was chased by our fleet with victory and successfully sunk because of its old power and slow speed.
Results
This battle also fully verified the saying that has been circulating in the party for a long time: the army installed by Mao Zedong Thought is invincible.
In the face of a strong enemy, our army was not afraid of danger, gave full play to its advantages, overcame the enemy's weaknesses with its own strengths, and finally won the victory in this war, regained the invaded islands, and ushered in a stable situation for 40 years in the South China Sea region.