Chapter 87 5. The red flag flutters on Hainan Island

Spring of 1950. Lin Biao was quite dissatisfied with the delay in smuggling of the 40th Army and the 43rd Army. He called Deng Hua and Lai Chuanzhu of the 15th Corps to the war room to ask about the matter. After going south, he seldom talked with the leaders of the corps alone, because there were too many things to do. When Deng Hua walked into this familiar war room, he found that Lin Biao was very haggard, sitting on the sofa with his head bowed and smoking.As soon as he saw Deng Hua, he asked, "Is it feasible to carry out smuggling in small batches?" "The main reason is that there are few ships."

"Then send a squad and a platoon to sneak across to find Feng Baiju's Qiongya column." "I'll pass on your instructions right away." Han Xianchu was indeed ready. He planned to smuggle a vanguard battalion to establish a beachhead in Hainan to welcome the main force ashore. Where should the troops land?He checked the map for a long time in the command post, and finally he fixed his eyes on Baimajing. It is very important to choose a landing point for cross-sea operations. If the enemy is weak, it will be easy to succeed. If the enemy is strong, it will cause great losses and it will be difficult to gain a firm foothold on the shore.

Han Xianchu and Feng Baiju thought of getting together. Feng Baiju also chose Baimajing when he was preparing to meet the smuggling troops. In fact, Baimajing is just a small village by the sea.It is said that a famous general in the Eastern Han Dynasty was exhausted when he was fighting here. He sent troops everywhere to look for water, but there was none. The whole body became a water column. Therefore, this place is called Baimajing. Feng Baiju sent someone to send information to the 40th Army. This small village has only two platoons of enemy troops, which is weak in comparison, and the terrain on the shore is more complicated, which is convenient for the smuggling troops to land.

All preparations are ready, and the commanders and fighters are finally looking forward to the day of departure. This day is March 5, 1950. Corps leaders Deng Hua, Lai Chuanzhu, and Hong Xuezhi stared at the clock in a large war room in Guangzhou City. At 19:35 in the evening, the smuggling operation of the two battalions began. The Pioneer Battalion of the 40th Army entered the water facing the waves. Since then, the curtain of the naval battle has officially opened. The boat rides on the wind. In the dark night of water and sky, soldiers waved various tools and rowed in the water, and wooden sailboats advanced in the Qiongzhou Strait.

After a night of fighting in the water, the landing site had not yet been reached at dawn. The supreme commander of this vanguard battalion is Gou Zaisong, a young man who is very good at fighting. Because the wind was not going well at night, the speed of the fleet was very slow. Although the soldiers used many tricks, the time was still delayed. Dozens of wooden boats are advancing on the sea, and the target is too large to be easily spotted by the enemy. What to do, Gou Zaisong looked at the vast sea, and said to his comrades: "There are still 70 miles, everyone, please work harder, Baimajing is coming soon, don't be afraid, don't be afraid, I will take care of anything..."

After driving forward for about a few kilometers, it was already daylight. Suddenly several enemy planes appeared over them. The enemy plane flew a few laps at ultra-low altitude, dropped a few reconnaissance bombs, and found that the troops on the sea did not respond, and flew away thinking that it was one of their own. The real danger was yet to come. When they turned a big bend, they found a dozen enemy wooden sailboats on the sea ahead. Gou Zaisong ordered: "Drive over and get ready to fight." Dozens of wooden boats approached the enemy ship.They have stipulated in advance that if they encounter an enemy suddenly at sea, if the enemy does not take the initiative to attack, we will not open fire.

The enemy was very cunning, they did not open fire, but followed closely behind the vanguard battalion. The ships of the enemy and us were mixed together, which made it difficult for the enemy's bombing.Although the plane flew very low, it was still impossible to tell. All the PLA soldiers on board took off their military caps and uniforms, and they looked like fishermen from a distance. The enemy ship followed them for a while and still recognized them, but their strength was limited and they did not dare to act rashly. Later, they notified the aircraft of the presence of Communist ships here.

Four fighter jets circled the sea, and it was impossible to distinguish which ship was the communist army and which ship was the national army.After flying back and forth a few times, I finally left. The enemy did not find out that these ships were indeed carrying the People's Liberation Army, they just suspected it, and later adopted the method of following and monitoring at sea. The Pioneer Battalion continued to advance for more than an hour and arrived at Baimajing. Only then did the enemy fully understand, but it was too late, the People's Liberation Army had all landed, and the Baimajing defenders began to fight our army.

Without firing a few shots, with the cooperation of the guerrillas of Qiongya Column, the Pioneer Battalion quickly captured Baimajing. There are not many written records about the situation of this landing. Some survivors who participated in the battle had sporadic memories. Comrade Wu Xianghua narrated—the cheers of victory on the beach.The commanders and fighters of the cross-sea pioneer battalion, waving bright red battle flags, rushed up the cliff, hugged and reveled with my Qiongya soldiers. Suddenly, gunfire came from the direction of the unnamed highland in Xindi Village.The enemy and the second battalion who fled from the beachhead to Wang Wu's direction caught fire.

I immediately led the third battalion to rush over to reinforce the second battalion.After more than ten minutes of fierce fighting, a platoon of the enemy was wiped out, 26 enemy people were captured, and 16 enemy American carbines were captured. Just as we were cleaning the battlefield, a detachment of more than 10 people wearing yellow uniforms rushed towards the unnamed high ground while shooting. We immediately entered the simple fortifications and fought back. There are not many people in this squad, but their combat effectiveness is very strong.They formed a "three-three system" battle formation and launched a fierce charge to the front of our unnamed highland. We concentrated all our firepower and carried out a counter-charge.After more than ten minutes of fierce competition, the two sides were unable to subdue each other.

In order to make this squad lay down their weapons, I ordered the few captives we had captured to go down the mountain and explain our army's captive policy to them.A few minutes later, a commander on the other side shouted: "Comrades in the Qiongya column, we misunderstood, we are the vanguard of the vanguard battalion." In order to dispel our doubts, they withdrew the bullets in their guns and walked towards the unnamed highland with their guns on their backs.After being introduced by the translator, I realized that this squad was a squad of the Pioneer Battalion Crossing the Sea. After landing on the beach, an instructor led them to chase down the enemy pursued by our army. I saw their amiable smiling faces, looked at their "August 1" cap badge, and tears of shame and joy welled up in my heart... The long-awaited comrades-in-arms joined forces. According to Wu Xianghua's recollection, the main reason for the misunderstanding between them and the vanguard was the color of their clothes. Their Qiongya column wore the clothes of the Red Army, but unexpectedly they were mistaken for the Kuomintang army. The Pioneer Battalion of the 40th Army succeeded in smuggling with very little loss, which is a miracle in the battle of crossing. Of course, this is inseparable from the support and cooperation of the Qiongya Column. We have to seek truth from facts when recalling this period of battle history. They circled and fired in the sky, but the soldiers who crossed the sea immediately cheered and swarmed up when they saw the brothers in the Qiongya column, and hugged the brothers in the Qiongya column tightly. Their broad torsos hugged the short soldiers, As if an older brother hugged his younger brother, the two sides could not understand the language, and the soldiers could only express their feelings with excited and happy tears, facial expressions and gestures, and shouting loudly. Some soldiers of the Qiongya column wiped off the hot sweat on the faces of the soldiers who crossed the sea with towels, and said emotionally: "You have worked hard to fight from the Songhua River to Hainan Island. You are our big brothers..." The soldiers who crossed the sea stretched out their warm hands and took the soldiers of the Qiongya column to sit on their backpacks, stuffed cigarettes and biscuits into the hands of the soldiers of the Qiongya column and said: "You have worked hard to fight on Hainan Island for more than 20 years!" The sound of singing and slogans came and went, resounding through the sky, while singing loudly: "Our team is here, crossing the ocean mightily..." The other side sang passionately: "Wherever the enemy flees, we will destroy it. We must liberate Qiongya..." The meeting of the two armies played a great role in the later response of large forces to cross the sea in an all-round way. This is something people cannot forget. At that time, the South China Branch issued a commendation order to Pioneer Camp saying: With your fearless, brave and resolute spirit, you have conquered the dangerous ocean and landed in front of the enemy, achieving the first successful meeting between the army and the Qiongya People's Armed Forces, and creating the first glorious example of our army crossing the sea and landing... At this time , Li Zuopeng, commander of the 43rd Army, couldn't sit still. The head of the corps was not satisfied with the several smuggling plans he had formulated. Li Zuopeng originally planned to send a regiment to smuggle in, but the head of the corps was worried that the risk would be too great for a regiment to land. Deng Hua sat on a bench in the war room, bowed his head and smoked. Hong Xuezhi looked at the smuggling plan of the 43rd Army again, looked at Lai Chuanzhu on the opposite side and said, "Li Zuopeng and the others are going to take risks with one regiment?" Lai Chuanzhu said: "They understand the situation on the front line, so they have a certain degree of certainty in making this plan." Hong Xuezhi said: "Now that the 40th Army has landed, the enemy will strengthen the blockade of the sea. Our troops have no experience in naval warfare. The target of a regiment is too big. I think it should be changed to a battalion." Deng Hua stood up and said to them: "A regiment crossed the sea, and it was a smuggling. The target is too big, the easiest to expose, and it takes too long. Let's change it to a battalion." After receiving the order, Li Zuopeng immediately organized a vanguard battalion and started smuggling without any conditions. This battalion moved on the night of March 10. The frontline commander was Xu Fangchun, who stood on the bow and watched the sea.The boatman said to him: "Old Comrade Liu, the wind direction is very good now. It seems that there is no problem in arriving at the designated place before dawn." "Very well, I hope we have a smooth journey." They marched in the dark. After a night of fighting, they successfully landed in the area from Chishui Port to Tongguding. As a result, gunfire broke out everywhere, and the enemy and us exchanged fire again. Comrades from the Qiongya column soon appeared, and they used firepower to cover our army's landing.There was only about one company of enemies on this island, and the battle ended in less than half an hour. Most of the troops landed, and Xu Fangchun asked the signal soldiers to set up a radio station on the beach and sent a telegram to the military headquarters: "I have landed, details to be reported". Their landing this time had even smaller losses than the 40th Army Pioneer Battalion, with only a few dozen casualties. Li Zuopeng was very excited after receiving the telegram. He waved his hand and said, "They have landed so quickly, which proves that our army can adapt to naval warfare. Send them a congratulatory message..." The confidential staff quickly drew up the telegram, and he signed his name in a big stroke, saying, "Send it quickly!" The content of the congratulatory message is: It is known that you took the lead bravely, overcome all difficulties, resolutely carried out the orders of your superiors, carried out long-distance sailing surprise attacks, broke through four hundred miles of wind and waves in one fell swoop, broke all the resistance of the coastal defenders, successfully landed, and quickly joined forces with the Qiongya people's armed forces. When the good news came, the whole army was encouraged and excited! ...Since your landing victory is of great significance, special telegram congratulations!In addition to condolences to all participating units and comrades, the military party committee decided to award the honorary title of "Crossing the Sea Pioneer Battalion" and a pennant to the whole battalion... The successful smuggling of the two military vanguard battalions further strengthened our army's determination to liberate Hainan Island. A battalion can pass, and of course a regiment, a division, or even an army can also pass. This requires a lot of preparation. After fully considering various difficulties, the head of the 15th Corps began preparations for a large-scale sea crossing.At this time, the situation on Hainan Island became more and more tense, and the enemy mobilized the sea and air force to strengthen the sea defense in an attempt to prevent our army from crossing the sea. Deng Hua stationed in Leizhou Peninsula, the naval battle broke out, Xue Yue was in a mess, and Chiang Kai-shek slapped the table in Taiwan and scolded his mother. After the two battalions smuggled over, Deng Hua, commander of the 15th Corps, moved his front finger from Guangzhou to the Leizhou Peninsula, preparing to organize this eye-catching naval battle.At the critical moment, Deng Hua couldn't sleep on the front line. He had already issued a military order to the Central Military Commission, and planned to take Hainan in a short time. It's not that easy anymore. March 23. Command Post of the 15th Corps of Leizhou Peninsula. The relevant personnel of the Corps are meeting again. The main topic was the issue of naval warfare. Deng Hua said: "The second batch of smuggling should be organized as soon as possible. The task of liberating Hainan cannot be delayed any longer. Both of you commanders have come. Today we are sitting together to finalize the plan. What's the matter?" Ideas can come up first.” He shifted his gaze to Han Xianchu. Han Xianchu's identity is quite special.He is the deputy commander of the 12th Corps and the commander of the 40th Corps. Although he is not in the same Corps, he is all in the four fields. In the past, it was more enjoyable to cooperate with each other. agree. He looked at Deng Hua and said: "Let me say a few words first. Now you all propose to continue to organize troops to smuggle in. I think this is not advisable. The situation has changed. We should organize large troops to land by force as soon as possible." Deng Hua said: "The landing of large troops needs to be pushed back a little bit, the conditions are not fully mature." "On the surface, it is right to delay the landing of large troops, but there are also disadvantages. They can only use wooden sailboats. When will they get landing craft and mechanical boats? Practice has proved that wooden sailboats can cross the strait." Deng Hua said: "Lao Han's suggestion is correct, but at present the conditions for our army to attack Hainan on a large scale are not yet available. More than 10,000 people can cross the sea at one time. There is no way to solve the problem by means of transportation. We can only adopt the method of smuggling in small groups." Han Xianchu said: "The enemy is besieging the Qiongya column and our landing troops. I think it is appropriate for the two armies to send a regiment to smuggle in. The scale should not be too large or too small." Li Zuopeng said in a speech: "Our army's preparations are very limited. We sent a group of smugglers and almost drove out all the boats we collected. What should we do in the future? I suggest that we send a battalion of smugglers." After repeated demonstrations, they set the strength of the second smuggling as a reinforced regiment for each army. The landing site was set on the east and west sides of Qiongbei, which is weakly defended by the enemy. At 7:35 pm on March 26, the reinforced regiment of the 40th Army set off. The main conductors of this crossing are Liu Zhenhua and Ma Baishan.To be honest, a regiment appeared on the sea, and they were all in wooden sailboats, so the danger was naturally great. Five hours later, a company encountered the enemy, and the fighting was extremely fierce.Our soldiers created a miracle in the history of world wars, using wooden sailboats to confront enemy warships. It was dark at night, and the 81 ships of the whole regiment were scattered on the sea surface of more than 40 kilometers. It was difficult for the command ship to play a role, and the semaphore and signal did not work at all. The sound of guns echoed on the sea. Because of the thick fog, the fleet had deviated from its original course. On the sea where the wind was blustery, the flames were raging, and the guns were constantly ringing, Liu Zhenhua made a decisive decision and ordered the fleet to attack in the direction of Hainan Island. It is difficult for a regiment of more than 3,000 people to keep pace, and the fleet is scattered, making it difficult to form a strong combat offensive. It is difficult to say whether the landing will be successful.But returning to the voyage was impossible. Liu Zhenhua asked Ma Baishan: "We can't land at the original place, what should we do?" Ma Baishan said: "The current situation is very unfavorable to us. The whole regiment cannot be organized together. I suggest that all fleets land nearby." "The Qiongya column's support troops are not here, what should we do after landing?" "That's the only way. I'm familiar with this area. Let's deal with the enemy scattered." Therefore, Liu Zhenhua could only send a signal to the fleets to land nearby.Fighting in all directions is still going on, and the fighting after going up the cliff is even more intense. How was the battle going?A few years later, Comrade Liu Zhenhua described the smuggling in more detail in his recollection article. According to him, the whole regiment landed in three harbors one after another. Under the firepower, there was no retreat, and they could only forcefully land. The soldiers fought and entered the water, and the enemy plane came to bomb again. The operator sacrificed, the radio was broken, and the headquarters could only light a fire on the edge of the cliff, instructing the landing personnel to move closer to them.In the direction of Hongbai Port, the fifth company was the first to land. They were blocked by the enemy's firepower. They fought fiercely for 2 hours and repelled several enemy attacks before they landed.On the front line of Linshigang, due to the support of Haiya troops, the landing was relatively smooth, and the enemy's fortifications on the shore were basically wiped out within more than an hour. This is just a part of the battle situation that Comrade Liu Zhenhua mentioned. According to the records of relevant war history, in this landing battle, the most intense and cruel battle was Leigong Island.The island is located on a protruding part of the coast, and there is a reinforced battalion of enemy defenses, equipped with more than 20 artillery pieces of various types, which poses a considerable threat to our army.At that time, the Second Battalion of the Pioneer Regiment rushed to Leigong Island and started a bloody battle with the enemy. One batch fell down, another batch rushed over from the water, and fell down again... But the price our army paid was quite high. In the end, only one battalion was left The next squad has a little more troops, and the battle injury rate is as high as 90%, which is rare in the history of our military. A reinforced regiment of the 43rd Army with a total of more than 3,700 people, divided into 88 wooden sailboats, set off from Boxu Port on the southeast side of the Leizhou Peninsula at 22:00 on March 31. The voyage was 22 nautical miles and broke through the Kuomintang army's maritime blockade. At 5 o'clock, it successfully landed in Beichuang Port and joined forces with the Qiongya Column. Two batches and four times of smuggling were successful. The landing force of our army has reached more than 8,000 people, which has greatly enhanced the response force and created extremely favorable conditions for the main force to carry out large-scale cross-sea landing operations. On April 10, with the approval of the Central Military Commission, the 15th Corps of the Four Fields issued an order to cross the sea to the entire army: Six regiments of the 40th Army and two regiments of the 43rd Army will form the first echelon of the third batch of crossing the sea. The assembly will be completed before April 13. When the wind direction and tide are favorable for our crossing, we will set off without losing the opportunity (the specific time will be issued temporarily. ).The demarcation line between the departure and crossing of the two armies is Liyu Port in the southwest of Xuwen, and the landing demarcation line is Lingaojiao Port on Hainan Island. The west belongs to the 40th Army and the east belongs to the 43rd Army.After landing, all troops should quickly occupy and consolidate the beachhead, annihilate counterattacks and enemies who come to help, and ensure that follow-up troops cross the sea and land.With the main force of the 43rd Army as the second echelon crossing the sea, after the first echelon broke through, it landed quickly, and cooperated with the first echelon to gather and wipe out the enemies guarding the island. At the same time, in order to meet the large forces crossing the sea, Siye also issued the following order to Feng Baiju's Qiongya Column: Two batches of smuggling troops, the 1st Corps of Qiongya Column and the 40th Army, went to the north of Lingao to meet the landing of the West Route Army; the 3rd Corps cooperated with the 127th Division of the 43rd Army, and another regiment and an independent regiment entered the southeast of Haikou to contain To confuse the enemy; the 5th Corps moved to the Haitou area to clamp down on the northern aid of Jonesy's enemy. The inside and outside cooperated, and the army drove straight in. The battle to completely liberate Hainan has officially begun. On April 16, 1950, eight regiments of the 40th Army and 43rd Army of the first echelon launched an attack on Hainan Island on 350 wooden sailboats. Chiang Kai-shek summoned Xue Yue, the commander-in-chief of the island guard, to Taiwan to give a face-to-face instruction, but it was too late. Xue Yue deeply felt that they were not the opponents of the People's Liberation Army in this naval battle, so he asked Chiang Kai-shek to send warships and aircraft to participate in the battle. Chiang Kai-shek is very cunning, Hainan is in a hurry, Kinmen and Taiwan are also facing great threats, he can't fully satisfy Xue Yue's request, and bring out all his family assets to fight the People's Liberation Army in Hainan. On the surface, he agreed to Xue Yue's request, but in fact he did not send Reinforcements go to war. Afternoon of April 17. The cross-sea troops of the two armies landed smoothly and launched a full-scale attack on the enemy. On the morning of the 22nd, the enemy had basically lost the ability to resist. Xue Yue turned pale and gave the defenders an order to retreat. When the Kuomintang army was withdrawing and gathering according to Xue Yue's deployment, the general who had clamored to live and die with Hainan had secretly fled to Taipei in a special plane. On the plane, Xue Yue held the intercom and cried, "President, please punish me. The communist army has landed in a big way, and our army can't hold it!" "What's the situation there now?" "The 15th Corps of the Communist Army has all come here, and our army has suffered heavy losses." "Is there any hope for the remaining troops to withdraw?" "As long as you send a plane, it's fine." "The main force in Hainan must try to withdraw to Taiwan. You can go to the Ministry of National Defense to implement it." Our sea-crossing army has begun to pursue enemies from all walks of life. On April 25, Feng Baiju and Hainan party and government officials entered Haikou to join the 15th Corps headquarters led by Deng Hua. On May 1, the Battle of Hainan came to an end. More than 30,000 enemies were wiped out and more than 20,000 were captured. On May 5, Xinhua News Agency published a congratulatory message from the Chinese People's Revolutionary Military Commission in bold characters on the front page of the "People's Daily", celebrating the liberation of Hainan Island.The congratulatory message said: Comrades Lin Biao, Luo Ronghuan, Deng Zihui, Tan Zheng, Ye Jianying, Fang Fang, Deng Hua, Lai Chuanzhu, Feng Baiju of the Central South Military Region of the Chinese People's Liberation Army and Guangdong Frontline, and all comrades of the army and civilians who participated in the liberation of Hainan Island: The People's Liberation Army on the front line in Guangdong overcame the resistance of the enemy's land, sea and air force. With the assistance of our Qiongya column and the people of Hainan Island, they heroically landed on Hainan Island and quickly wiped out the enemies, completing the liberation of the entire island.The Chinese People's Revolutionary Military Commission would like to extend warm congratulations to all the commanders and combatants who participated in the battle to liberate Hainan Island, as well as to the soldiers and civilians in Guangdong who supported the battle, and to the soldiers and civilians in Qiongya who have struggled for a long time.The Chinese People's Liberation Army should use the experience of the Hainan Island campaign to actively prepare and fight for the liberation of Taiwan and Tibet and the complete elimination of all bandits. For the first time in the history of warfare, our army created the miracle of crossing the sea with wooden sailboats. Later, our army captured the Zhoushan Islands one after another. Chiang Kai-shek had no choice but to retreat all the frontier defense forces to the Taiwan Strait and manage this isolated island in a miserable manner. Mao Zedong and his comrades laughed in Zhongnanhai, when China was completely liberated except Taiwan and Tibet. The Communist Party won, the Kuomintang lost. This is the inevitability of historical development, and it is also a glorious record written by the People's Liberation Army under the leadership of the Communist Party of China with blood and lives.