<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="8" > China went to the Soviet Union to buy warships</h1>
Why did Deputy Commander Luo Shunchu sigh?
At the beginning of March 1953, in addition to the Korean battlefield being closely watched by our army, there was another place that also attracted the attention of many people, that is, Moscow, the capital of the Soviet Union. At this time, China and the Soviet Union were still allies, and our army was concerned about Moscow not because of the war, but because of a deal.
Korean
The weather in Moscow in March was still cold, and Luo Shunchu walked out of the door after finishing negotiations with Soviet personnel, looking at the Moscow sky and sighing, with some sadness in his heart. Luo Shunchu was the deputy commander of the Chinese People's Liberation Army Navy, why did he come to Moscow to negotiate with the Soviet side, and why did he sigh?
Just at the beginning of this year, the situation on the Korean battlefield changed, and the new US President Eisenhower came to power in the face of the stalemate on the Korean front and planned to implement a landing plan on the west coast of the Korean Peninsula to counter the volunteers.
In response to Eisenhower's plan, Chairman Mao intended to send the Chinese navy to fight in Korea, so he called the Soviet leader Stalin, hoping that they would assist China with a batch of naval equipment.
Considering the situation in Korea, Stalin quickly acceded to China's request and decided to sell four large destroyers to China, but just after China and the Soviet Union agreed on an aid plan, Stalin died of illness on March 5.
Eisenhower
On March 7, Premier Zhou came to Moscow to mourn Stalin, Luo Shunchu accompanied him, after the funeral, Luo Shunchu continued to negotiate with the Soviet side to assist the navy equipment plan, but the new Soviet tie man Malenkov said that he did not know about the matter.
China did talk to Stalin at the beginning, but Malenkov could not be ignorant, and after the new leader came to power, most of them would cultivate their own forces, establish their own prestige, and break the influence of the old leaders, and Malenkov's move is likely to be the reason.
After Luo Shunchu's unremitting efforts, Malenkov promised to continue to aid China, but there were still problems in the type, quantity and delivery time of equipment, so after the negotiation, Luo Shunchu sighed and called Xiao Jinguang, the commander of the navy in China, to report to him on the negotiation situation and asked him how to deal with it next.
After World War II, the Soviet Union and the United States became two superpowers in the world, one representing the socialist camp and the other representing the capitalist camp, fighting each other and forming a confrontational situation.
Luo Shunchu
Both the Soviet Union and the United States wanted to overpower each other, but at the same time avoided causing a third world war, so they began to compete in armaments, science and technology, and so on, and the Soviet Union's industrial and military strength was extremely advanced.
When the United States and the Soviet Union were fighting for hegemony, the United States once wanted to win China over, but China and the Soviet Union were both socialist countries, and the Soviet Union was also quite helpful to the establishment of China.
Behind the Korean War, there was also competition between the United States and the Soviet Union, when Japan chose to surrender in World War II, the United States and the Soviet Union accepted Japan's surrender on the north and south sides of the 38th Parallel on the Korean Peninsula, but when helping Korea establish a unified provisional government, the United States and the Soviet Union had serious differences, and finally supported the South Korean and North Korean governments respectively.
The Korean War broke out in order to unify the Korean Peninsula, and the United States and the Soviet Union intervened in order to safeguard their strategic interests in Asia, and After the "United Nations Army" led by the US military fought the 38th Parallel and burned the war to the Yalu River, China was also forced to get involved in the war.
Korean War
The military and economic level of the United States is far superior to China, in the face of the United States' advanced weapons and sufficient materials, the Chinese volunteer soldiers holding the guns of the "Ten Thousand Nations Brand", starving and starving in battle, and finally relying on their tenacious will to reverse the situation on the Korean battlefield and force the US military to retreat.
Eisenhower planned to make another landing on the west coast of the Korean Peninsula to restore the glory of the "Inchon Landing," and our army naturally could not ignore it, so Chairman Mao called Stalin at the first time to ask the Soviet Union to assist China in some naval equipment.
China's army was a strong force, performing well in both the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression and the War of Liberation, and its strength in the Korean battlefield should not be underestimated, but the naval cause of New China was almost blank.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="73" > Sino-Soviet transactions</h1>
China bought 4 old Soviet destroyers with 68 tons of gold?
At the end of the Qing government's rule, the Qing Dynasty, which was poor and weak due to its long-term isolation from the country, was bombarded by the Western powers with strong ships and cannons, and China was forced to degenerate into a semi-colonial and semi-feudal society, suffering countless humiliations. During the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, the Japanese army used the navy and air force to coordinate with the army to fight, causing heavy casualties to the soldiers of our army. During the Liberation War, Chiang Kai-shek fled to Taiwan after his defeat and held the island of Taiwan waiting for an opportunity to make a comeback.
Closed to the outside world
After the founding of New China, our Party decided to establish its own naval and air force, and successively set up a fleet and a leading organ of the navy.
When Luo Shunchu called Xiao Jinguang to tell him about the negotiation, Xiao Jinguang quickly replied: "There is always better than nothing, as long as it can still be used, try your best to fight!" Xiao Jinguang's implication is very clear, as long as the Soviet Union is willing to provide Chinese destroyers, even if it is obsolete, the Soviet Union does not look up to it, as long as it can still be used, buy it!
Not only that, Xiao Jinguang also used Japan as an example, many of the weapons used by Japan are also unsightly to the Americans, but with these weapons, Japan's military strength has been greatly enhanced. The Soviets certainly would not sell us their advanced secret weapons, but for us even old equipment is still useful.
Xiao Jinguang
Xiao Jinguang's words made Luo Shunchu firm in his determination to continue negotiations, and he also made a special trip back to China to ask Chairman Mao and Premier Zhou for instructions, and the reply was similar: Soviet old-style destroyers could also be bought, and the number could be halved than originally planned.
After that, after many negotiations with china, in June 1953, the two sides reached an agreement: the Soviet Union provided China with 32 finished ships of various types and 49 semi-finished ships within three years, as well as technical icon documents for mines, artillery and other weapons. China pays off the loan, which amounts to 610 million rubles and pays 2 percent annually, within 10 years.
In the deal, the four finished destroyers supplied to China by the Soviet Union cost up to 60 million rubles each, which translates into about 17 tons of gold, and the four combined are equivalent to 68 tons of gold spent by China. This was all calculated according to the price at that time, when China's finances were extremely tight, which could be said to be a huge amount of money, but it also reflected China's determination to develop its navy.
So are these 4 sky-high destroyers worth buying?
As Luo Shunchu said, the destroyers provided by the Soviet Union were not the most advanced at the moment, but were built in the early 1940s, and if you want to talk about the design idea, you have to push forward another 10 years.
These 4 destroyers have many defects, because the welding technology is immature, its hull uses relatively backward riveting technology, and the internal space of the destroyer is small, the ventilation is poor, the lighting is insufficient, and it is very uncomfortable for people to sit inside. By now, these destroyers had long been unsuitable for the Soviet Navy and were at a level that was about to be eliminated.
When these 4 destroyers cross the ocean and hand them over to China, they look like they are completely "broken copper and rotten iron", are such destroyers really useful to China?
From a money point of view, this is a loss-making transaction, but from a technical point of view, it still played a role in the Chinese Navy at that time, because the Chinese Navy at that time was too backward.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="75" > the Chinese Navy</h1>
The commander of the navy has no ship to sit on?
The Chinese Navy was established on April 23, 1949, on the basis of the Army, and like the new China at that time, it was poor and white. The Chinese navy is not without a single ship, but it is only a few old small and medium-sized ships, with backward design and worrying combat capabilities.
China has experienced many years of war and lost a lot of property in the war, and even if the war of liberation ended in the victory of the Communist Party, the Communist Party could not make China rich and strong overnight.
After deciding to build a navy, China made a lot of efforts, but because it had been blank for too long, lacking both professional talents and key technologies, it was not easy to form a team, let alone build its own ships.
Chairman Mao pointed out a direction for Xiao Jinguang, the first naval commander of New China: actively enlist the assistance of the Soviet Union and learn from the Soviet Union how to build naval units.
After drawing up a plan for the construction of the Chinese navy, Xiao Jinguang, Luo Shun, and others rushed to the Soviet Union to visit and study while enlisting soviet assistance. But the Soviets had their own considerations, and they feared that providing Ships for China would be provoked by the United States to act unexpectedly, promising to provide some small ships and equipment by land transport.
China understood the Soviet Union's decision, but as the Korean War became more and more intense, China had to invest a lot of money and material resources in the Korean battlefield, and the central finances became more and more stretched.
For this reason, the Navy's funds were pressed down again and again, and Xiao Jinguang had to repeatedly revise the naval construction plan to reduce the number of ships purchased.
In those two years, the life of the naval fleet was very embarrassing, and once Xiao Jinguang went to inspect the naval troops on Liugong Island in Weihai, Shandong Province, Liugong Island was far from the shore, and he wanted to go where to take a boat. Xiao Jinguang actually couldn't find a ship that could be moved, so he had to rent a small fishing boat from the local fishermen, and only then did he arrive at Liugong Island.
The fisherman looked at Xiao Jinguang's naval uniform while driving the boat, and finally couldn't help asking, "Are you really the commander of the navy?" Why did the Commander of the Navy come to my ship? ”
In the face of the fishermen's doubts, Xiao Jinguang was too embarrassed to answer, he was an empty-handed naval commander, indeed he was not a taste, but the conditions at that time were so difficult, Xiao Jinguang had no way!
Not only Xiao Jinguang was difficult, but also the naval soldiers who fought in the war; after Chiang Kai-shek's defeat in Taiwan, he never gave up the counterattack on the mainland, continued to hook up with the United States, and also purchased many small ships from the United States, often running to the coastal areas to harass, which had a great impact on the security of the coastal areas.
Every time the enemy comes to attack, our army can only drive a small boat with a displacement of tens of tons to compete with the enemy, although the soldiers are brave and fearless, and have repelled the enemy many times, but the gap in equipment still makes them suffer very badly, Xiao Jinguang thought more than once, if our soldiers can also drive a large ship, it would be good.
The construction of China's navy was once stagnant because of the Korean War, but later because of the Korean War ushered in a turnaround, the United States tried to carry out landings in the rear of the Sino-DPRK coalition forces.
Under Chairman Mao's instructions, Xiao Jinguang and Luo Shunchu came to Moscow again to discuss naval equipment with the Soviet Union, during which they experienced many twists and turns, and finally reached an agreement between the two countries, and China successively purchased 137 ships from the Soviet Union, which greatly enhanced the combat strength of the naval forces.
Among them, the four destroyers exchanged for 68 tons of gold, dubbed the "Four King Kongs", have increased the morale of the Chinese Navy a lot, and have also helped a lot in the South China Sea issue, and they are the largest surface warships in the Chinese naval force for a long time.
It is true that China spent a lot of money to buy old warships from the Soviet Union, but China is paying more for technology, and it is in this situation that China's naval power has gradually developed.
Obtaining a full set of technical drawings and other equipment for 5 types of ships from the Soviet Union not only gave China's local shipyards the ability to manufacture and assemble ships, but also laid the foundation for China to develop its own ships in the future.
After this business, the Soviet Union made some other deals with China, and by 1955, China's naval forces had begun to take shape, and they were no longer the dilemma that even the commander of the navy had no ship to sit in.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="78" > conclusion</h1>
The fundamental reason why China spent a lot of money to buy old destroyers from the Soviet Union is that China does not have relevant core technologies, which shows that the value is technology rather than destroyers, and today, China can not only build destroyers, but even aircraft carriers can be built by themselves, and these achievements are inseparable from the silent payment of scientific researchers and pay tribute to them.
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