On August 23, 1958, the People's Liberation Army launched a large-scale shelling of Kinmen with 459 artillery pieces. Within an hour, 600 tons of steel were smashed on the head of the Kinmen Nationalist army, thus shocking the world. The shelling caused the Nationalist army to suffer heavy casualties, and 3 deputy commanders were blown up. However, after chiang kai-shek saw the war report, he was overjoyed and applauded: "Good! Good! Having suffered such a great loss, Chiang Kai-shek even applauded, is he mad?
"War is a continuation of politics" is the basic Marxist view of the nature of war. In close connection with the practice of China's revolutionary war, Mao Zedong clearly put forward such incisive expositions as "war is politics" and "war is the politics of bloodshed", and scientifically revealed the essential connection between war and politics. The Battle of Kinmen in 1958 was a typical embodiment of this military ideology.
In June 1949, Chiang Kai-shek was defeated in Taiwan, and the remnants of the Kuomintang had become a bird of fright. From August 11 to October 17, the Tenth Corps of the People's Liberation Army launched the battles of Fuzhou, Zhangzhou, and Xiamen, and almost liberated the entire territory of Fujian at the cost of less than 5,000 casualties, leaving only kinmen and Matsu islands unlived.
On the night of October 24, our army launched the Battle of Kinmen. However, due to our army's lack of experience in landing warfare, the enemy was too light before the war, and there was no sea and air force as a cover, so the success was lost. Almost all of the 9,000 warriors who had first taken to the island were wiped out, and the first attack on Kinmen ended in failure. Later, due to changes in the situation, Kinmen and Matsu, small islands close to the mainland, were never liberated by New China and became the last link between Chiang Kai-shek's regime and the mainland.
< h1 class = "pgc-h-arrow-right" > first, the United States forced Chiang Kai-shek to withdraw from Kinmen and Matsu</h1>
Since 1950, the People's Liberation Army and the Nationalist Army have hoarded heavy troops across the sea in the Jinxia area. At that time, in order to concentrate its forces on the Korean War, the United States did not want Chiang Kai-shek to create trouble in the Taiwan Strait and cause New China to take large-scale military action against Taiwan, so it repeatedly restrained Chiang Kai-shek from harassing the mainland. Mao Zedong also considered that it was not appropriate to fight on multiple fronts to resist US aggression and aid Korea, so he temporarily shelved preparations for the liberation of Taiwan, and the situation in the strait was once calm.
However, when the Korean War ended, the United States, in order to deal with China from three fronts and piece together the so-called "collective security defense" system, seized the opportunity to negotiate the Mutual Defense Treaty with Chiang Kai-shek. To this end, the US side has been playing up such propositions as "Taiwan's status is undecided," "Taiwan's neutralization," and "handing Taiwan over to the United Nations or a neutral country in trusteeship," in an attempt to permanently isolate Taiwan and the mainland in a legal form and create "two Chinas."
To this end, the United States has done both soft and hard measures, hoping that Chiang Kai-shek will abandon Kinmen and Matsu and concentrate his main military forces on Taiwan, thus completely cutting off the ties between chiang kai-shek's regime and the mainland, and using a vast expanse of ties with the isolated mainland and Taiwan. Over time, relations between the parties gradually faded in order to achieve "Taiwan neutralization" and even the so-called "Taiwan independence."
However, although Chiang Kai-shek was reactionary, he was not willing to be at the mercy of the Americans, or even to be a sinner of history. Therefore, chiang kai-shek, instead of withdrawing his troops from Kinmen and Matsu, strengthened his military strength at the front. At the same time, Chiang Kai-shek also trumpeted a "counter-offensive against the mainland," which frustrated the US attempt to isolate Taiwan from the mainland.
When americans saw that Chiang Kai-shek was so "ignorant of lifting," they had the idea of "changing horses." As early as the liberation war, Americans saw the corruption and incompetence of the Chiang family regime. Therefore, in the later stages of the Liberation War, the United States once gave up its assistance to Chiang Kai-shek. If the Korean War had not broken out, Taiwan would have been liberated by New China long ago.
In order to overthrow Chiang Kai-shek, the United States successively instigated the "Sun Liren Incident." The US government has hinted that sun Liren will give him full support as long as he can undertake the task of "defending Taiwan." However, Sun Liren did not want to betray Chiang Kai-shek, so he rushed to the presidential palace overnight and reported the Americans and his secret agents truthfully. In 1955, Chiang Kai-shek put Sun Liren under house arrest for a long time in the name of launching a "mutiny." Whether this matter is a catch of the wind or a shadow, or it is true, it is still confusing and foggy.
After the "Sun Liren Incident" occurred, the contradictions between the United States and Chiang Kai-shek gradually became public. In 1957, Kuomintang Major Liu Natural was shot and killed for no reason by U.S. military advisers. However, the US military tribunal acquitted the US adviser in the name of manslaughter, which aroused great indignation of the people of Taiwan. Chiang Ching-kuo took advantage of the people's grievances and connived at the people to rush into the US "embassy" and smash it, and took out many documents from the safe, some of which were documents of the US "abandonment of Chiang Kai-shek." This incident once reduced the relationship between the United States and Chiang Kai-shek to a freezing point.
<h1 class = "pgc-h-arrow-right" > second, Mao Zedong: is tolerable, which is intolerable</h1>
After the Liu Natural Incident, Mao Zedong was very concerned about this, and he once said to his secretary Link:
"The United States has no sympathy for its partners, you see, even his old friend Chiang Kai-shek has to rectify it!"
Therefore, Mao Zedong wasted no time in expressing goodwill to Chiang Kai-shek. Zhou En: "There have been two cooperations between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party, and we are ready to carry out the third cooperation." Later, when Zhou Enlai met with Cao Juren, a former reporter from the Central News Agency, he further proposed: "As long as the regime is unified, everything else can sit down and discuss arrangements together." Later, the central authorities entrusted Zhang Shizhao, who lived in Hong Kong, to send a letter to Chiang Kai-shek, in which he said:
"The tomb of Fenghua is still there, and the flowers and grasses of xikou are unharmed."
After Chiang Kai-shek hesitated for a long time, he sent Taiwan's "legislator" Song Yishan to the mainland for a series of consultations. Song Yishan stayed on the mainland for more than a month and had a good impression of the mainland's development, so when he returned to Hong Kong, he wrote a 10,000-word report, hoping to realize the cooperation between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party and the reunification of the motherland, and at the same time praised New China.
However, Chiang Kai-shek originally had no sincerity in cooperating, and all he wanted was to probe the mainland's unrealities. When he saw that Song Yishan praised the mainland, he couldn't help but be furious, and he demoted Song Yishan to a "redditary" and banned him from entering Taiwan.
Soon after, Chiang Kai-shek stepped up his harassment of the mainland, and even sent planes deep into the hinterland of Yunnan, Guizhou, Xikang, and other mainlands, scattering leaflets and parachuting spies everywhere. When Mao Zedong saw Chiang Kai-shek giving his face no face, he couldn't help but get angry:
"It's crazy, it's tolerable, it's intolerable!" Shoot some cannons and warn them. ”
Just as Mao zedong was preparing to launch an artillery attack on Kinmen, U.S. separatist activities against Taiwan were escalating. US Secretary of State Dulles flew to Taiwan and once again blackmailed Chiang Kai-shek into abandoning Kinmen and Matsu in order to avoid the United States from getting involved in a military conflict with China. The attitude of the United States made Chiang Kai-shek anxious.
Therefore, in Mao Zedong's view, the shelling of Kinmen had two strategic objectives. First, the purpose of shelling Kinmen was to warn Chiang Kai-shek not to make any more small moves; second, the purpose of shelling Kinmen was to show the United States that New China would never sit idly by while Taiwan was cut off from the mainland.
As for the second strategic goal, New China did not explicitly state it, and could only rely on Chiang Kai-shek's understanding.
<h1 class = "pgc-h-arrow-right" > three, 459 cannons blasted 600 tons of steel in one hour</h1>
On July 14, 1958, the situation in the Middle East changed dramatically, and a national struggle against colonialism broke out in Iraq. In order to interfere with the righteous Iraqi people and stifle the vigorous national liberation struggle, the US military sent the navy and army to land in Lebanon.
Mao Zedong believed that the shelling of Kinmen must be considered in the light of new changes in the context of the new international situation. At this time, Chiang Kai-shek's army, taking advantage of the US military's opportunity to play with fire in the Middle East, also increased its troops in Kinmen and Matsu in large numbers, and mobilized a large number of aircraft to hold various military exercises to simulate offensives. At the same time, they are also consulting with the US military to let the chief of staff of the US Navy let the wind blow, threatening that the US military is closely watching the situation in the Taiwan Strait and is ready to make an armed landing like the Middle East.
And New China has shown no weakness. On the one hand, our army has continuously stockpiled heavy artillery and artillery shells on the coast; on the other hand, Air Force Commander Nie Fengzhi has dispatched the Air Force to engage the Taiwan Air Force to fight for air supremacy, shooting down and injuring more than 50 enemy planes, and basically seizing air supremacy in the Fujian region.
At 17:30 on August 23, 1958, 459 heavy artillery pieces of our army had been prepared, and an earth-shattering shelling attack was about to begin.
As a string of red signal flares lifted off, 459 cannons roared in unison, and in just 20 minutes, 600 tons of steel were poured on the positions of the Nationalist defenders in Kinmen, blowing up the flames and flying sand and stones. In order to avoid the shells, the officers and men of the Chiang Kai-shek Army rushed to the ground and scurried around with their heads in their hands, and they could not organize effective resistance for 20 minutes except desperately calling for help from the command headquarters. After that, Chiang Kai-shek barely fired a few shots, but was still suppressed by the more fierce artillery fire of the People's Liberation Army.
At this time, the Kinmen Defense Command was located in a place called Cuigu in Taiwu Mountain, where the mountains and rivers were beautiful, and offices, restaurants, and dormitories were built in the foothills of the mountains on both sides of the top of the valley. According to the calculations of artillery experts, this place belongs to the range of shooting dead ends, and no matter how strong the PLA artillery is, it is impossible to hit the defense headquarters unless a large-scale air raid is launched.
Therefore, the leaders of the Kinmen Kuomintang garrison stayed in the "safe" Cuigu, just like in the air raid shelter. However, what The general of Chiang Kai-shek's army did not expect was that long before the shelling of Kinmen, the artillery of our army conducted military exercises against the terrain of Cuigu. Specifically, he found a place similar to Cuigu and adjusted the shooting elements in advance according to the results of the shelling. Therefore, when the shelling of the Golden Gate was launched, the shells were like eyes, and they greeted The Green Valley like raindrops. In an instant, Cuigu turned into a sea of fire, the restaurant and dormitory were blown up into bricks and stones, and the entire Cuigu Was like a heavenly collapse, and Jiang Junzuo, who was too late to escape, was too late to escape, and was blown up all over the field.
In just one hour, our army fired 30,000 shells, killing and wounding more than 600 nationalist troops. Among them, some shells hit the Kinmen Defense Department, killing Zhao Jiajun, Zhang Jie, Ji Xingwen, and three other deputy commanders of the Kinmen Defense Department, and Yu Dawei, the "Defense Minister" who inspected kinmen on the same day, was also slightly injured.
It is worth mentioning that this shelling almost killed Hu Lian, commander of the Kinmen Defense Department and a famous general of the Nationalist Army. Hu Lian was the only surviving general of the former Kuomintang's "five main forces." In the Battle of Kinmen that year, it was Hu Lian's command that completely destroyed the two regiments of the People's Liberation Army that boarded kinmen. If he is killed in this battle, he can avenge the death of the Soldiers of kinmen, which is of extraordinary significance.
This time, however, Hu Lian once again miraculously escaped death. At that time, Hu Lian and the American advisers just walked out of the underground command post, and as a result, the shells hit them, so they hurried back and did not kill them. Ye Fei later lamented in his memoirs:
"Our artillery fire was so accurate that it destroyed many enemy positions at once. In particular, the concentrated fire bombarded the headquarters of Hu Lian in Kinmen, and the fight was very accurate, but unfortunately it was 5 minutes early. If he were 5 minutes late, he would surely die. ”
< h1 class = "pgc-h-arrow-right" > four, looking at the heavy casualty figures, Chiang Kai-shek applauded</h1>
The news of the heavy casualties of the Kinmen defenders soon reached Chiang Kai-shek's ears. After he heard this, not only did he not worry, but he was overjoyed and applauded:
"Good! Good! ”
When people around Chiang Kai-shek saw this, they all felt incredible: "With 600 casualties and 3 generals dead, why is the president so happy?" ”
The attendants did not understand Chiang Kai-shek's intentions, but they were anticipated by his old rival, Mao Zedong. One day after the Kinmen shelling began, Mao Zedong suddenly said to Link:
"The artillery firing at Kinmen is not aimed at liberating Taiwan, but Chiang Kai-shek wants us to fire artillery so that he has an excuse to resist US pressure."
At first, Link didn't understand what the great man meant. But later, he finally understood Mao Zedong's painstaking intentions, and the chairman really proceeded from the general righteousness of safeguarding the territorial integrity of the motherland and wanted to pull Jiang along.
At that time, Dulles was pressing against Chiang Kai-shek step by step, and Chiang was struggling to find a way to reject him, and the pressure was getting heavier and heavier, almost becoming his heart disease. However, the shelling of the People's Liberation Army gave him an excuse to borrow a donkey. Therefore, Chiang Kai-shek immediately instructed the "Ministry of Foreign Affairs," claiming that Taiwan would stick to Kinmen and Matsu and oppose Taiwan's neutralization.
Although Chiang Kai-shek and Mao Zedong had a tacit understanding and consensus on safeguarding the reunification of the motherland. However, the cunning Chiang Kai-shek also thought of using the Kinmen Artillery Battle to "oppose the First Army" and completely pull the United States into the water. To this end, Chiang Kai-shek personally attended the Chinese and foreign press conference and issued a speech saying:
"The CHINESE Communists shelled Kinmen as a prelude to the attack on Taiwan. Kim and Matsu are the barriers to Taiwan, and voluntarily abandoning these islands is tantamount to opening the door. Therefore, Jinma must hold firm, and even if the Kuomintang fights independently, it will never retreat. ”
After this, Chiang Kai-shek and Soong Mei-ling personally visited the Kinmen trenches to comfort the defenders, so as to signal to the United States that they would die guarding Jinmen and Horses. What we are looking at now is the attitude of the United States.
At this time, the United States was in a state of anxiety, they sent the main force of the army to the Middle East, once the People's Liberation Army really launched a campaign to liberate Taiwan, the US troops stationed in Taiwan were not enough to help Chiang Kai-shek's defense. It is said that US President Dwight Eisenhower did not sleep for three days and three nights because of this incident, and he kept an eye on the situation in the Taiwan Strait.
In desperation, the United States had no choice but to draw the general strength of the Sixth Fleet, which was cruising in the Mediterranean, and send it to the Taiwan Strait to meet with the Seventh Fleet. At the same time, the United States also sent 3,800 Marines to land in southern Taiwan.
The U.S. army used to suppress the people of the Middle East was transferred to the Far East by Mao Zedong. Therefore, all countries in the Middle East are very grateful to China, and the prestige of New China has since been greatly enhanced.
After August 23, artillery battles between the People's Liberation Army and the Nationalists were still ongoing. Our artillery fire gradually focused on Taiwan's supply line to Kinmen. After sinking several transport ships, Kinmen became an isolated island, and food and ammunition began to rush.
Chiang Kai-shek took this opportunity to make an escort request to the US military to supply Kinmen. If the PLA does not shell the US troops, it can establish a safe supply line; if the PLA shells the US ships, it is bound to drag the US troops into the civil war.
Although the United States is extremely reluctant to intervene in military confrontation, according to the relevant provisions of the "Taiwan Resolution," it still has to agree to escort it.
The addition of the US warship has made the situation in Taiwan more complicated. On September 7, five Nationalist warships sandwiched between two U.S. cruisers and five destroyers headed toward Kinmen. The U.S. ship and chiang kai-shek were only 2 nautical miles apart. Ye Fei was not sure about the situation, so he immediately called Mao Zedong and asked how to deal with it.
The complex situation, on the contrary, inspired Mao Zedong, and it was an opportunity to test the bottom line of the United States. Without hesitation, he ordered Ye Fei: "Do not make a mistake." But Mao Zedong added: "Only hit Chiang Kai-shek' ships, not US ships." Even if Chiang Kai-shek opened fire, he was not allowed to return fire without orders. ”
At 12:00 noon, the combined fleet of the United States and Chiang Kai-shek arrived in the waters of Yuluo Bay, and the artillery of the Fujian front immediately opened fire. Soon the shells passed over the US warship and smashed intensively on The Battleship of chiang Kai-shek's army, and soon the two medium-sized landing ships of "Meile" and "Meizhen" were sunk.
Just as the artillery fire was incessant, 7 US warships collectively made a 180- turn, left Chiang Kai-shek's warships and ran, and fled in the direction of 12 nautical miles from the mainland coastline. Previously, the United States had been clamoring, only acknowledging that China had only 3 nautical miles of exclusive coastline, but 12 nautical miles claimed by China. But in the face of strong force, the Americans were still quite "honest", obediently retreating to 12 nautical miles away, showing their fierce nature.
On September 11, four US warships acted as "bodyguards" for Chiang Kai-shek's warships, while our army still greeted the Chiang brothers with fierce artillery fire. As last time, the U.S. ship also withdrew from the war zone at the beginning of the shelling, and did not fire a single shot.
The two shellings enabled Mao Zedong to find out the strategic cards of the Americans, understand how effective the US-Chiang Kai-shek mutual defense treaty was, and the extent to which the US military was involved in the Taiwan Strait. Although the United States seems to be powerful and overbearing all over the world, it is actually a paper tiger. "No one in the United States wants to fight for Gold and Horses"
From this, the situation in the Taiwan Strait is very clear. Chiang Kai-shek tried in every possible way to drag the United States into the water, while our army tried to avoid direct conflict with the United States, and the United States also tried its best to avoid direct conflict with our army.
<h1 class = "pgc-h-arrow-right" > 5. Mao Zedong said: Maybe not take Taiwan for 40 years</h1>
After the Kinmen Artillery Battle began, many of the commanders and fighters who participated in the artillery battle did not understand the strategic concept of the supreme commander, and they were still rubbing their fists, thinking that the immediate shelling would be a cross-sea operation, and after liberating Jin and Ma, the next one would be Taiwan.
However, the topic of discussion between Mao Zedong and those around him was already:
"We don't take Taiwan now, maybe for 10, 20, 40 years. Firing cannons at Kinmen is not liberating Kinmen. ”
Kinmen, Matsu and Fujian are within easy reach, and it is not difficult to liberate these two small islands. However, in Mao Zedong's view, if Jin and Matsu were to be liberated in a hurry, it would lead to alienation between land and Taiwan, which would lead to the situation of "two Chinas." Therefore, on the issue of liberating Kim and Matsu, Mao Zedong changed his previous line of thinking of "liberating Kim and Matsu first, and then liberating Taiwan", but instead changed to "solving the problem of Jin, Ma and Taiwan in a package." ”
From October 6 to 7, the artillery of our army stopped the flag and observed for two days, and asked Chiang Kai-shek to deliver supplies to Kinmen. At the same time, the Central Military Commission also formulated the policy decision of "fighting without boarding, sealing but not dying," allowing the Jin and Ma defenders to defend and not withdraw, and dragging the United States to no way out.
In the early hours of October 13, Peng Dehuai issued a Mao Zedong order announcing a two-week halt to shelling. At the same time, in the Golden Gate sea, the Americans are not allowed to escort, and if they escort, they will immediately open fire. For a moment, the cannons in the Jinxia Strait fell silent.
When the Americans saw that the Kinmen Artillery Battle had ceased, they immediately sent Dulles to Taiwan to continue to peddle the so-called plan for evacuating Kinmen and Matsu. However, Chiang Kai-shek gritted his teeth and refused. In the end, the United States had no choice but to agree to increase aid to Taiwan, while no longer requiring the Kuomintang to retreat from Kinmen and Matsu.
Since then, the Battle of Kinmen has continued. The Central Military Commission has decided that in the future, all shelling will be "double-day and single-day combat." "Fighting is a reason for Chiang Kai-shek to refuse the United States to withdraw from Jin and Ma; not fighting is to allow Chiang Kai-shek's army to transport supplies, and the shelling only hits the beaches, not the houses and fortifications."
In this way, the Kinmen Artillery Battle lasted until the end of the 1970s, and the shells of the People's Liberation Army and Chiang Kai-shek's army hit each other's beaches, with no casualties and no practical military significance. In fact, the Battle of kinmen has completely become a political war, a special dialogue between the Kuomintang and the Communists.
The Kinmen artillery battle achieved the effect of killing three birds with one stone: First, it knocked Chiang Kai-shek so that he did not dare to wantonly harass the mainland; second, it eliminated foreign interference and thwarted the US attempt to "two Chinas"; third, it helped the people of the Middle East and won a good reputation for New China.
As the general director of the shell, Mao Zedong showed extraordinary wisdom and courage, personally guiding every link and detail of the shelling, showing outstanding talent and strategy. Only those who are at ease on both the political and military stages can be called the highest-grade military experts. Mao Zedong was such a military man.