In the spring of 1949, the three major battles ended, the vast area north of the Yangtze River was basically liberated, and only Qingdao, Jimo and the Changshan Archipelago in Shandong were still in the hands of the Kuomintang army. The liberation of Qingdao is imminent.
As a million lions of the People's Liberation Army crossed the river and liberated Nanjing in one fell swoop, on April 25, the Shandong Military Region sent a telegram to the Central Military Commission to ask for instructions to launch the "Qing (Island) i.e. (Mo) Campaign."
However, after the telegram was sent, it was like a stone sinking into the sea, and there was no echo. This is a phenomenon that has never been seen before in previous battles. The battlefield situation is changing rapidly, why did Mao Zedong and the Central Military Commission behave abnormally?
The Central Military Commission was hesitating, and Mao Zedong was thinking. Qingdao is too important! Caution must be exercised. Mao Zedong analyzed that there were three major problems in liberating Qingdao.
First, the United States garrisoned troops in Qingdao, the famous Seventh Fleet is in Qingdao, plus the US Marine Corps, naval aviation, the total strength of 20,000 or 30,000 people, more than 20 large warships. In addition, Qingdao also has consulates in more than a dozen countries and a large number of foreign nationals. How to avoid direct war with the US troops stationed in Qingdao and not harm foreign expatriates was the number one problem that Mao Zedong had to consider.
Second, there are a large number of industrial enterprises in Qingdao, and breweries, textile factories, printing and dyeing factories, shipyards, military ports, wharves, customs, and so on, are all targets that need to be protected by key points and must not be destroyed by artillery fire. How to retain these precious assets intact and serve the construction of new China was a key consideration for Mao Zedong.
Third, the strength of the Kuomintang garrison in Qingdao should not be underestimated. The army, navy, air force and local security forces under the jurisdiction of Liu Anqi's department in the Eleventh Appeasement District, with a total strength of more than 50,000 troops, laid three lines of defense in turn north of Qingdao, which can be described as easy to defend and difficult to attack.
After 3 days of repeated deliberation, Mao Zedong personally drafted a 4a-level telegram to the Shandong Branch Bureau, Su Yu and Zhang Zhen of the East China Bureau, and the cable content:
Agreed to hold a threatening attack on Qingdao. In the first step, twelve regiments were gathered to attack a number of strongholds on a trial basis, and after they were successful, they decided on the second step according to the situation. Its purpose is to force the enemy to retreat as soon as possible, and we will occupy Qingdao at an early date, but avoid fighting with the US army (this should be made clear to the cadres of the troops).
The telegram is simple and clear, that is, through a "threatening attack," the US troops and Kuomintang soldiers stationed in Qingdao should retreat in spite of difficulties and withdraw from the sea as soon as possible, so as to achieve the purpose of "surrendering soldiers without fighting" and avoiding too many casualties in our army, and at the same time protect Qingdao's industrial base and urban style to the greatest extent.
Mao Zedong drafted a telegram attacking Qingdao for the Shandong Bureau
Mao Zedong was sure to be like a god!
It turned out that as early as 1945, after Japan's unconditional surrender, on October 9 of that year, the U.S. Marine Corps Sixth Division landed in Qingdao, and by October 12, 27,000 American soldiers had landed from the Qingdao docks. On May 13, 1946, the U.S. Seventh Fleet entered Qingdao.
In November 1946, the U.S. government and the Kuomintang government signed the "Secret Agreement on Qingdao Naval Base", and Qingdao officially became the main naval base of the US military in the Far East. The United Press Agency even publicly reported that "in the event of war, the United States will jointly use the Qingdao Naval Base with China"!
What the Americans did not expect was that the Kuomintang army was too unbeaten. Since the civil war officially began in June 1946, Chiang Kai-shek's millions of troops were destroyed by the People's Liberation Army, and in less than three years they basically collapsed.
By September 1948, Jinan was liberated, the Jiaoji Line was cut off, and Qingdao became an isolated island. Will the U.S. troops stationed in Qingdao remain or withdraw? Will it help the Kuomintang to go to war with the PLA or stand up to the PLA head-on? The whole united states has opened the pot for this!
According to the U.S. government archives that were declassified in the 1970s and 1990s, the US military, security, and foreign affairs departments all repeatedly consulted and decided to make a move.
In the end, in the face of Mao Zedong's "threatening attack" strategy, the Americans instigated and painfully abandoned the Qingdao Naval Base, which had been operating for 4 years.
Since the People's Liberation Army launched the "Qingdao Campaign" on May 3, the US troops stationed in Qingdao immediately entered the withdrawal procedure, and American soldiers and their families all boarded ships and sailed into the Yellow Sea to watch the situation in Shanghai.
On May 25, two days before the liberation of Shanghai, the US military saw that the general trend had gone, and had to withdraw from the sea in all gray.
The U.S. Navy withdrew from the port of Qingdao
"If the U.S. troops hadn't withdrawn at that time, would you really have surrendered our weapons?"
"That's probably right. Not only will you be disarmed by our troops, but you yourself will have to be captured alive by our army. We have made full military preparations for this. ”
"Oh God, that's too dangerous!"
In January 1979, Deng Xiaoping visited the United States. Then-U.S. President Jimmy Carter had these conversations with him.
What they were talking about was what happened in May 1949, before the U.S. troops withdrew from Qingdao. Carter was a U.S. submarine officer stationed in Qingdao at the time.
In 1979, Deng Xiaoping visited the United States and was with then-US President Carter
The first difficulty of liberating Qingdao that Mao Zedong feared was solved! The second difficulty was also solved unexpectedly smoothly.
It turned out that Chiang Kai-shek and Mao Zedong had their eyes on Qingdao almost at the same time.
After the fall of Jinan in September 1948, Chiang Kai-shek saw Qingdao as an isolated island, and it was only a matter of time before it was lost. He has been to Qingdao many times and is well aware of Qingdao's military strategic position and industrial base. Therefore, the defenders of Qingdao were ordered to be prepared to retreat from the sea.
At the same time, he secretly ordered that before the troops retreated, first, they should seize a large number of young and middle-aged "zhuangding" to board the ship to supplement the shortage of soldiers and prepare for the future "counterattack on the mainland"; second, they should relocate a number of important factories, schools, and materials to the south.
According to Mao Zedong's instructions, the Qingdao underground party organization has already organized Qingdao industrial workers and teachers and students of National Shandong University to carry out actions to protect factories and schools.
Workers in the oil and rubber factories organized to monitor the actions of the factory director, and the driver refused to load the truck and transport it to the dock.
China Textile Qingdao Branch set up a general headquarters of the factory protection regiment, and the 13 factories under its jurisdiction have set up a factory protection regiment composed of 100 to 300 people to closely protect the factory day and night.
National Mountain masters and students set up a student self-government association, posted anti-south migration slogans, and organized more than a thousand people to participate in the "Unity Parade". Due to the meticulous organization and the unity of the people, a major victory against the southward migration was achieved.
When the campaign to liberate Qingdao began, in order to prevent the Kuomintang army from destroying waterworks and power plants, the Qingdao underground party organization mobilized staff and workers to protect water sources and power facilities to greet the liberation of Qingdao in good condition.
Qingdao Third Textile Factory Guard Factory Tuantuan Banner
And as Mao Zedong expected, the third difficulty in liberating Qingdao, the Kuomintang defenders really could not be underestimated.
Although Qingdao is not like Jinan, there are high mountains to defend in the south, the Yellow River barrier in the north, and Qingdao is surrounded by the sea on three sides, and the north is mostly hilly, and there is no danger to base, but the balance of strength between the two armies of the Kuomintang and the Communist Party is still very different.
The Kuomintang defenders, army, navy, air force plus local armed forces, the total strength of more than 50,000 people, and all of them are American equipment, backed by a strong US army.
The People's Liberation Army that attacked Qingdao only had more than 30,000 people in the newly established Thirty-second Army, and most of them were recruits who had just joined the army. Poor equipment, few personnel, and insufficient combat experience.
However, the most important thing in the PLA is morale!
On May 3, 1949, the People's Liberation Army soldiers, with the Thirty-second Army as the main force, divided into three routes and launched an attack on the outskirts of Qingdao City, and the Qingjiao Campaign was officially launched.
Schematic diagram of the three lines of defense of the Kuomintang army in the Battle of Qingyi
Lingshan and Shangyan were strategically important and were two important strongholds of the Kuomintang army on the periphery. The first to march were the eastern front troops, who were fast and fast, and fought the first battle at Lingshan.
The Battle of Shangxuan was extremely fierce. The enemy and us launched a fierce battle for positions, and the 284th Regiment surrounded the enemy with a combination of offensive and harassing tactics. On May 19, the Nationalist defenders could not hold out and fled in a hurry. The capture of Shangxuan marked the collapse of the enemy's perimeter defenses.
After several rounds, the enemy stationed at Mashan was also annihilated on the way to escape under the strong attack of our army.
Masan Geopark
The left-wing unit of the People's Liberation Army adopted the tactic of "catching the thief before capturing the king", directly inserted into the command position in the center of the enemy's first line of defense, and outwitted the village of Woluozi.
At 12 o'clock on the 26th, Jimo City was liberated, and the People's Liberation Army destroyed the enemy's first line of defense.
With a single blow, the besieging People's Liberation Army immediately pounced on the second line of defense.
On the night of May 27, the middle road troops reached the foot of taming the tiger mountain, and after a fierce battle, destroyed the enemy's stronghold.
The People's Liberation Army occupies The Iron Horse Mountain
The attack on Iron Riding Mountain was the fiercest battle in qingdao. During the retreat of the Battle of Iron Horse Mountain, the young warrior Hatsuzuki Jun was surrounded by enemies. After firing the last bullet at the enemy, he shouted: "Down with the Kuomintang reactionaries and liberate all of China!" "Jump off a cliff and sacrifice heroically."
After the Battle of Danshan, the Three Roads Army of the People's Liberation Army directly approached the enemy's last line of defense, the line from Cangkou to Licun.
In the early morning of June 2, the remnants of the Kuomintang enemy saw that the general trend had gone, and began to flee from Cangkou and Licun on all fronts, running to the city and the seashore of Shazikou.
At this point, the "three lines of defense" deployed by the Kuomintang troops stationed in Qingdao were all destroyed. The People's Liberation Army pursued the city in several directions.
Cai Jinkang, the commander of the Kuomintang Sixth Regiment stationed in the city, decided to revolt under the strong political work of the People's Liberation Army.
The enemy's morale was suddenly greatly reduced, and the remaining enemies fled from the sea in a hurry by boat. Xuejia Island was liberated.
The People's Liberation Army crossed the Liuting Bridge into downtown Qingdao
At about 12:00 noon on June 2, the three-way army of the People's Liberation Army met with the municipal government, and Qingdao was liberated.
At 8:30 p.m. that night, Qingdao People's Radio began broadcasting, and Yang Jie, the first announcer of Qingdao People's Radio, broadcast the news of Qingdao's liberation to the people of the city.
Yang Jie was broadcasting the news of the liberation of Qingdao
This Yang Jie later became the first generation of television directors of CCTV and the general director of the 1984 version of the TV series "Journey to the West".
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