Chapter 24 23. The War Memories of Zhenbao Island

The 1969 border war made Zhenbao Island one of the most popular landmarks on China's long border.In terms of administrative division, it is under the jurisdiction of Hulin County, Heilongjiang Province. It is a small island with a length of 2000m from north to south and a width of 500m from east to west.It is 200m away from the west bank and 300m away from the Russian bank (east bank), with an area of ​​about 0.74 square kilometers.Starting from Raohe Town in Heilongjiang Province, it takes two hours by boat to reach Zhenbao Island.Since the deterioration of Sino-Soviet relations in 1960, the disputes surrounding the border including Zhenbao Island have not stopped.From 1967 to 1969, the two sides clashed continuously on the border, the climax of which was the Zhenbao Island self-defense counterattack in 1969.Since then, Chinese troops have been permanently stationed on Zhenbao Island, with barracks, and preliminary planning and construction have been carried out.

Sun Yuguo suddenly became a hero in the spring of 1969. Although it has entered March, Zhenbao Island is already cold.He and his comrades still need to wear heavy winter clothes and locomotive caps common to Northeast soldiers for border patrols.A later report said that in the early morning of March 2, the temperature on Zhenbao Island was close to minus 30 degrees Celsius. "Sun Yuguo and his comrades held hands tightly for a long time. Every patrol was like a farewell. Today Even more unusual."The unusualness may be Sun Yuguo's premonition at the time, and more likely the author's self-speculation in the future. Subsequently, more than 40 Soviet soldiers armed with submachine guns began to confront Sun Yuguo's patrol team on Zhenbao Island.In all the descriptions of the Chinese reports, it was the Soviet army who opened fire first, killing several People's Liberation Army soldiers.Under such circumstances, Sun Yuguo ordered to open fire, and then, "in less than 5 minutes, dozens of Soviet soldiers were shot dead on China's Zhenbao Island."

"Director Stillelinikov protested and asked the Chinese soldiers to leave the Soviet territory. A Chinese officer shouted loudly, and then shots were fired twice. The first line of Chinese soldiers moved aside, and the second The horizontal team suddenly opened fire with a submachine gun. The commander and the soldiers around him all sacrificed heroically." According to the records of the Soviet side, the Chinese officer who shouted loudly should be Sun Yuguo. Before this confrontation, the relationship between China and the Soviet Union had entered a relatively delicate period.When the warmth of the socialist family gradually faded away, the two big countries with long borders began to consider more practical border issues.The Chinese records show that the People's Republic of China has always demanded to negotiate with the big brother of the Soviet Union on the border issue, but it was not until 1963 that the Soviet Union, which had rejected such requests for border negotiations many times, agreed to negotiate with the People's Republic of China.However, the Soviet Union still insisted that when negotiating the border issue between the two parties, "we must take into account the historically formed borders between countries"-and in the Chinese concept, it is well known that since the late Qing Dynasty, the government was weak, Humiliated by the great powers, they signed a series of unequal treaties and paid more than compensation for land cession. Among them, Tsarist Russia acquired a large area of ​​Chinese territory through unequal treaties. It is almost impossible for the new government to admit this humiliation; moreover, the Soviet Union believed that because the Soviet Union Both China and China are socialist countries, so "the border issue will gradually lose its meaning"-this is also unacceptable to the Chinese Communist Party, which may rely more on nationalism than on socialist ideology to seize power. On August 15, 1964, at the last meeting of the Sino-Soviet border negotiations, Zeng Yongquan, head of the Chinese delegation, said that if the Soviet side insisted on not making concessions, then "China may consider other ways to solve the problem." This gesture Considered a military threat by the Soviet Union.A month later, Khrushchev gave a speech saying that the Soviet Union would use all means, including "the latest weapons of annihilation," to defend against its threat.This sentence was interpreted by the Chinese side as the possibility of the Soviet Union launching a nuclear attack on China.

The resignation of Khrushchev in October 1964 made Chinese political leaders even more vigilant.Because the top political leader of a socialist country can also become a victim of politics, even though he embodies the brilliance of ideology, it seems destined to be infinitely glorious and great.It is said that on November 7 of this year, the former Soviet Defense Minister Malinovsky actually told the Chinese Marshal He Long who was visiting the Soviet Union that we have already got rid of Khrushchev, and China should imitate us and put Mao Zedong got it done, so that the relationship between China and the Soviet Union can be more harmonious.We can imagine He Long's inner turmoil after hearing this sentence.Malinowski later explained that it was only because he was drunk and made a joke of it to his Chinese comrades.But he should know that Mao Zedong's position in China is as unshakable as a god; and this god is facing some difficulties, such as the failure of the Great Leap Forward, such as his gradual doubts about being some of the party's heroes. Anyone who says this sentence may be involved in a new large-scale purge.

Mao Zedong began to remind his comrades that they should not only pay attention to the possible attack of imperialism, but also be wary of "revisionism", or even "imperialism and revisionism" jointly suppressing China.Subsequently, Marshal Liu Bocheng took his colleagues to inspect the Heilongjiang area on the Sino-Soviet border, and carefully studied the route and combat situation of the Soviet Union's march into the Northeast at the end of the War of Resistance Against Japan. After the Yalta Conference agreed on the conditions for the Soviet army to participate in the war against Japan, the Soviet army entered northeast of China.

Since then, the Soviet Union has gradually increased its troops on the border: "The number of troops deployed by the Soviet Union to the border areas adjacent to China and Mongolia has increased from nearly 200,000 in 10 divisions to nearly one million in 54 divisions. In January 1967, the Soviet Union established the Transbaikal Military Region. Aiming at China’s missile bases, strategic missiles accounting for nearly one-third of the total number of the Soviet Union were directed at China. In January 1968, Soviet troops equipped with missiles and tanks entered Mongolia. In the Far East, they were also equipped with long-range bombers capable of conducting strategic nuclear attacks50 There are more than 400 medium-range and medium-range bombers. The Soviet Union is also stepping up its expansion into the Indian Ocean in an attempt to pinch China militarily.” According to a book on China’s military preparations, “Three-front Construction: Western Development in the War Preparation Period”.

What happened next will only make China more vigilant. On August 21, 1968, the Soviet army invaded Czechoslovakia.Overnight, the squares in Prague were filled with Soviet tanks. "Three Soviet armored vehicles drove to the central building of the Party in Prague. The few victims stood against the wall for a long time, and then were pushed into the armored vehicles and sent directly to (Prague) Luzin Airport."Several victims included Dubcek, First Secretary of the Czech Communist Party, Prime Minister Chernik and National Assembly President Smurkowski.They were taken on a giant Antonov transport plane and flown to Moscow.Prague shocked the whole world.It also allowed many socialist countries, including China, to finally understand the struggle for national interests under the veil of the socialist family.When Mao Zedong met with Kim Il Sung, he said: This Czech incident is a great lesson!Since the Soviet Union was able to invade and occupy the Czech Republic, couldn't it invade other countries?

As a result, half a year later, Zhenbao Island became the place where China and the Soviet Union fought each other.This small island with a length of about 1,500 meters and a width of about 500 meters is shaped like a palm. There is also a saying that it looks like a Chinese ingot.Zhenbao Island was called "Big Mansky Island" by the Soviets. A second battle broke out urgently on March 15.According to the Soviet side, the two sides fought to strengthen their forces around Zhenbao Island (the Soviet side called it "Daman Island").At around 9am this morning, the loudspeakers of both sides rang and shouted at each other.The Chinese army called on the Soviet army to leave Chinese territory and oppose revisionism; the Soviet army shouted in Chinese: Chinese soldiers, change your mind, we are all sons of anti-Japanese heroes here!

An hour later, the battle broke out, and the two sides clashed for several rounds, each with casualties.The Chinese spoils from this battle were a Soviet T-62 tank.A Soviet colonel recalled: "Colonel Leonov was killed when he reached the tank. When he tried to get out of the lower hatch, he was shot in the heart by a sniper. The Chinese did not move him, but took the top of the tank. The instrument was dragged out by the Chinese at the end of April, and it is now on display in their museum."What is not mentioned is that the Soviet army tried to recapture or blow up the tank several times in the middle. In the end, the tank was blown into the ice and then dragged out by the Chinese military.

Subsequently, Soviet Premier Kosygin began to seek contacts with high-level Chinese political leaders.One of the ironic things happened. On March 21, 1969, when Kosygin called the Chinese leader, the Chinese operator did not answer the call requested by Kosygin as required by his job. Instead, he rejected him and berated Kosygin on the phone. Xijin and Soviet revisionism.The atmosphere of the Cultural Revolution has become so strong that it affects people's normal thinking.Mao Zedong's response to this was to criticize the operator, saying: "The two countries are fighting each other, and the envoys are in between" and "It is impolite for us not to talk to Kosygin on the phone."

The war made the Soviet Union's threat to China all the more conspicuous.The Minister of Defense of the Soviet Union Grechko tried his best to advocate the policy of atomic bomb attack on China, which would "eliminate the threat of China once and for all"; in addition, some people suggested that limited "nuclear surgery" would be carried out on China to destroy China's nuclear facilities; but the national defense Nikolai Ogarkov, Deputy Minister of the Ministry of Defense and Chief of General Staff of the Soviet Army, opposed any form of nuclear strike, because China was too big, and nuclear strikes could not eliminate China's resistance, but would instead plunge the two great powers into an endless war . "The political situation was deadlocked over the issue of bombing China. They could not decide on this issue for several months. Grechko's belligerent position was based on the assumption that at that time the United States was openly hostile to China, would not actively oppose punitive action by the USSR but Ambassador Dobrynin's report gave an assessment of the situation: such an attack on China would not allow the US to stand idly by and Moscow abandoned the plan. Several political factors prevented the Politburo from agreeing to the offensive China, the most important factor of which is that it has been warned that the United States will vigorously deter. This is one of the earliest signs that the United States may intend to improve relations with China. Knowing this calmed the excitement of the Politburo. And strengthened Brezhnev's centrist stance, that is, not to attack China, but to show China's strength by stationing a large number of troops equipped with nuclear weapons along the border. At the same time, it will also try to resolve territorial and other disputes with Beijing through diplomatic negotiations , said Shevchenko, the deputy secretary-general of the Soviet Union and the United Nations who later broke with Moscow, in his memoirs. The Soviet Union was unwilling to risk falling into war with a major country; the United States was unwilling to disrupt the balance of power, so it would not sit back and watch the Soviet Union attack China; and China itself was undergoing a Cultural Revolution.This made the two countries finally choose to resolve the border territory dispute through diplomatic means.In Zhou Enlai's letter to Kosygin, he said, "It is recommended that the two sides undertake the obligation not to use armed forces, including nuclear forces, to attack each other."On October 20, when the Sino-Soviet Vice-Ministerial Border Negotiations resumed in Beijing, the situation finally calmed down.Both countries agreed to demarcate the Sino-Soviet border. After demarcation in 1991, Zhenbao Island belonged to the People's Republic of China. Among them, what interests more people is the ups and downs of Sun Yuguo himself.This combat hero participated in the Ninth National Congress of the Communist Party of China and told the story of Zhenbao Island's self-defense counterattack, which made Mao Zedong applaud twice. In 1973, Sun Yuguo was promoted to the deputy commander of the Heilongjiang Provincial Military Region; Commander.In the same year, he participated in the third reading class of the Central Committee hosted by Wang Hongwen. This reading class is called "Tiger Class", and the participants have a bright future.In 1976, Sun Yuguo was the candidate for the Minister of Defense on the list of conspiracy to form a cabinet circulated in 1976.Subsequently, he was dismissed and became the deputy director of an arsenal under the jurisdiction of the logistics department of the Shenyang Military Region after changing jobs.It is said that Sun Yuguo no longer recalled the battle of Zhenbao Island.