Chapter 399 5. Zhuge Kongming borrowed the east wind, and the People's Liberation Army borrowed the northeast wind

During the Three Kingdoms period, there was a famous battle called "Battle of Chibi". Cao Cao claims to have an army of one million, dominates the north, and wants to annex the south.Soochow and Western Shu united together to fight against the Northern Wei Dynasty.Zhou Yu, the commander-in-chief of Eastern Wu, and Zhuge Liang, the military adviser of Western Shu, studied together the plan to attack Cao Cao.They decided to take advantage of Cao Cao's arrogance and underestimation of the enemy and adopt the fire attack plan.Zhou Yu used countermeasures and asked Cao Cao to kill Cai Mao and Zhang Yun, generals in Cao's army who were familiar with water warfare and could resist them.Zhou Yu also asked Pang Tong to pretend to offer a plan to trick Cao Jun into linking the warships together.

Zhou Yu beat Huang Gai again, asking the veteran to use "bitter tricks" to feign surrender to Cao Cao.In fact, Huang Gai filled the boat with flammable items, preparing to rush to Cao Ying in a false surrender and launch a fire attack. Everything was arranged, but one very important condition was missing - to set fire to Cao Jun on the north bank, it must be done by relying on the southeast wind.It was midwinter at that time, and the northwest wind blew every day.Zhou Yu became ill from anxiety and was bedridden.Only military strategist Zhuge Liang knew it well.He claimed to have a secret recipe that could cure Zhou Yu's illness.Zhuge Liang visited Zhou Yu and wrote out the prescription: If you want to break Cao Gong, you should use fire to attack. Everything is ready, only the east wind is owed.The four rhymes broke Zhou Yu's mind.

Zhou Yu eagerly asked Zhuge Liang if he could borrow the east wind.Zhuge Liang knew astronomy at the top and geography at the bottom.Through meteorological observation, he had a solution in his mind.He told Zhou Yu that he could call the wind and call the rain, and borrowed the southeast wind for three days and three nights to help Zhou Yu set fire.Zhou Yu immediately ordered people to build an earthen platform called "Seven Star Altar".Zhuge Liang prayed for the southeast wind on the "Seven Star Altar". When the scheduled date came, sure enough, the southeast wind was strong, and Zhou Yu successfully carried out his fire attack plan.The east wind blew wildly, the flames soared into the sky, and Cao Cao was defeated in the battle of Chibi, which established the situation of "three points with three legs".

At the beginning of March 1950, more than 700 years later, Han Xianchu, the commander of the 40th Army of the Chinese People's Liberation Army who was preparing to launch the Hainan Island campaign, was eagerly looking forward to the northeast wind. On March 5, the northeasterly wind finally blew in the Qiongzhou Strait. Han Xianchu immediately called Deng Yue, the commander of the 118th Division: "Finally, the northeasterly wind is coming. How is your reinforcement battalion preparations? Smuggling?" "Commander, 'everything is ready, the only thing we need is the east wind', since the east wind is coming, what else is there to prepare for? Just give the order!"

"Okay!" Han Xianchu said decisively, "Set sail this afternoon and carry out the first batch of smuggling!" At 3 pm, the division chief of staff Gou Zaisong led a reinforced battalion of 799 people to gather in the beach forest.Han Xianchu personally handed over a red flag embroidered with "landing combat vanguard" to battalion commander Chen Yongkang.Han Xianchu is a well-known tiger general in the four fields. When the 40th Army was in the Northeast, it was called the "Whirlwind Column".His mobilization speech was concise and clear. "Comrades! The wind is blowing so well now. This opportunity is too late to miss. Take the time to get ready to go. I have only one word: I wish you all the best, and the red flag will be planted on Hainan Island successfully!"

The last meal before the war was noodles and pancakes, which the warriors gobbled up, doubling their usual amount of food. The "Siberian Tiger" has arrived in the south of the Yangtze River and eats rice all day long, but it has been a long time since he has pasta. The afterglow of the setting sun reflected the bloody sea, and eight hundred warriors sailed to the sea in 13 wooden sailing boats and sailed to the southwest with the wind. Han Xianchu watched the fleet voyage barefoot on the beach, and the waves crashed onto the beach from time to time, passing over his knees.The fleet slowly disappeared on the vast sea. At this time, the twilight was falling, and he frowned with thick eyebrows, and left the sea with a heavy heart.On the way back to the military headquarters, he asked the driver to stop several times and took out his handkerchief to test whether the wind direction had changed.

When sailing to the sea 30 nautical miles away from Hainan Island in the northwest of Guangcun, the wind stopped at dawn, and the warship could only advance by paddling and scull.At this time, dozens of sailboats of the Kuomintang army were sailing in the same direction on the sea, and the patrol planes of the Kuomintang army also began to dispatch.The commander immediately ordered the fleet to approach the sailboat of the Kuomintang army, and raised the flag to communicate with the aircraft of the Kuomintang army according to its contact method, so that the patrol aircraft could not be identified. At 13:00 on the 6th, when the fleet approached the landing point in Chaotou City (20 miles south of Baimajing), it was attacked by 4 planes and 2 warships of the Kuomintang army, followed by tail fire, and shelled. The Kuomintang army on the shore also opened fire to intercept .The troops speeded up their sails under artillery fire, forcibly landed on the shore, and under the support of the 8th and 9th regiments led by Chen Qingshan, the deputy director of the Political Department of the Qiongya Column, and Chen Qiuguang, the captain of the 1st Corps, defeated a battalion of the Kuomintang Army. successfully entered the base.

At 13:00 on March 10, the 1st Battalion of the 383rd Regiment of the 128th Division of the 43rd Army, with a total of more than 1,000 people attached to the 92nd Infantry Artillery Company, led by Xu Fangchun, the head of the regiment, took 21 wooden sailboats from Naozhou Island in the southeast of Zhanjiang. Starting from the ferry, take advantage of the cloudy clouds and poor visibility, and drive to Chishui Port in Northeast Qiongdong. At 20:00, there was a sudden storm on the sea.The sailboats were tossed in the strong wind and waves, some had their masts broken, some were leaked, and all the ships lost contact.But the commanders and fighters of each ship were not afraid of hardships and dangers, and they worked hard to advance. From 9:00 to 24:00 on the 11th, troops landed one after another on the line from Chishui Port to Tongguling.With the support of the local people and the Qiongya Column Independent Regiment, the reinforced battalion arrived in Wenchang on the 12th, broke through the siege of the 6 regiments of the Kuomintang Army on the 13th, and then transferred to the Qiongdong base area.

On the evening of March 26, a strong northeasterly wind blew again in the Qiongzhou Strait. At 19:00, the 118th Division of the 40th Army consisted of 2,991 reinforcements from the 2nd and 3rd Battalions of the 352nd Regiment and the 2nd Battalion of the 353rd Regiment. , under the leadership of Liu Zhenhua, Director of the Political Department of the 118th Division, and Ma Baishan, Deputy Commander of the Qiongya Column, 81 wooden sailboats and motor sailboats set off from Dengloujiao and headed for Lingaojiao in the northwest of Qiongxi.More than 30 minutes after the fleet sailed, the northeast wind stopped, and the troops advanced by rowing and sculls.Due to the eastward tide and heavy fog in the second half of the night, it was difficult to maintain the formation, and the ships drifted eastward with the current, causing the landing point to be more than a hundred miles east of the scheduled plan. From 5:00 to 8:00 on the 27th, the reinforced regiment landed scatteredly on the line from Yubao Port (the main force) to Hongpai Port.Although the 1st Corps of Qiongya Column and the Advance Smuggling Battalion of the 40th Army, which were responsible for the corresponding tasks, did not receive the reinforced regiment, they fought fiercely with the Kuomintang Army in the Lingao area, attracted 2 divisions of the Kuomintang Army, and effectively supported the reinforced regiment to seize the beachhead. .After the strengthening regiment went ashore, it successively broke through the blockade of more than 10 battalions of the 62nd and 64th armies of the Kuomintang army, and then entered the Qiongya base area.

At 22:30 on March 31, the 127th Division of the 43rd Army formed a reinforced regiment of 3,733 people from the 379th Regiment and the 1st Battalion of the 381st Regiment. It starts from Boxu Port at the southeastern tip of Leizhou Peninsula and sails towards Puqian Port in the east of Haikou City.The fleet traveled to the middle of the Qiongzhou Strait, the northeast wind stopped and then encountered three warships of the Kuomintang Army, and the formation was disrupted.The gunboats of the 5th, 8th, and 9th companies of the 379th Regiment quickly rushed forward, started close combat with them, and damaged a warship.The 3 gunboats of the 9th company chased after them and drove the Kuomintang warships to the sea north of Haikou City. A total of 45 people on three gunboats, although only one survived, ensured the landing of the main force.Afterwards, Mao Zedong praised the 9th company's three gunboats for creating "the first heroic achievement of the People's Navy" ("Mao Zedong's Manuscripts Since the Founding of the People's Republic of China", Volume 1, Central Literature Publishing House, p. 361). At 4 o'clock on April 1, the reinforced regiment landed at the predetermined location, and then joined forces with the independent regiment of the Qiongya Column.After the 8th and 9th companies of the 379th regiment completed the task of covering the advance of the main force, they sailed in the wrong direction and landed on Baishamen Island north of Haikou City by mistake. Because they were outnumbered, they fought bloody all day and night, and most of them died heroically.

After two batches of smuggled immigrants from the People's Liberation Army landed, Xue Yue judged that the People's Liberation Army would make a large-scale landing, so he concentrated his efforts to strengthen the coastal defense and stopped the siege of the Qiongya column.