Natural Conditions of Hainan Island and Qiongzhou Strait Hainan Island, which is present-day Hainan Province.Also known as Qiongya, it was under the jurisdiction of Guangdong Province at that time and was the second largest island in my country after Taiwan.It is the barrier of my country's southern sea, the backing of Xisha Islands and Nansha Islands, and the gateway of Guangdong and Guangxi provinces. Its strategic position is extremely important. The total area of ​​Hainan Island is 33,900 square kilometers, and the population at that time was about 2.8 million (reportedly 3 million).There are many good natural harbors along the coast of the island, and most of the harbors can berth small and medium-sized ships (ships). Except for a few sections along the coast where many hidden reefs cannot land, most sailboats can dock.In the south-central part of Hainan Island is the famous Wuzhi Mountain, which stretches out to the vast southern part of Hainan Island like five palms, hence the name Wuzhi Mountain.

The central hinterland of the island is high in mountains and dense in forests.With Wuzhi Mountain as the highest peak: the coastal areas are mostly plains, but the forested areas are also relatively extensive.The main ports are Haikou, Yaxian, Yulin, and Sanye Port, among which Hanlin Port is a famous military port.The main rivers are Nandu River, Wanquan River and Changhua River.Located in the subtropical zone, with a mild climate and perennial spring, it is an important tropical crop base in my country. Wuzhi Mountain stretches across the south of the central part of Hainan Island.Manshan is covered by virgin forest.It is covered by clouds and fog all year round, but only when the weather is clear can you see the five peaks protruding from the clouds. They are arranged from southwest to northeast, sparse at first and then dense, like stretching out palms, hence the name.Among the five fingers, the second finger is the highest, with an altitude of 1879 meters; between the first finger and the second finger, there is a deep valley, facing each other from a distance;Wuzhi Mountain is also the birthplace of major rivers in Hainan Island.The mountains, rivers and rivers complement each other, making the mountains more magnificent, majestic and breathtaking.

The forests in the mountains are dense, and a large part of them belong to virgin forests.At that time, there were no official roads in the entire mountain range, only mountain paths, and the traffic was extremely inconvenient.Living with Miao, Yao and Han nationalities is very beneficial to the survival and activities of our party's guerrillas.The northern part of Hainan Island has a lot of undulating and jungle terrain, and there are country roads. The roads are only along the eastern coast and west of Haikou City in the north. The traffic is more convenient than that in the south, and most of the population lives in the northern part of Hainan Island.

The climate of Hainan Island is characterized by high temperature and humidity, and the four seasons are like spring.In winter, when the mountains in the northern country are covered by heavy snow, it is still sunny and sunny with beautiful mountains and clear waters.The ancients once wrote a poem "Miscellaneous Songs of Hainan", which praised the climate of Hainan.No one will meet the cold and summer, just look at the Taofu Ji Nianhua. Hainan Island and Leizhou Peninsula face each other across the sea, and the middle strait is called Qiongzhou Strait.The width of the strait ranges from 30 to 50 kilometers, and the natural conditions of the strait are relatively complicated.There are two high tides and low tides in the strait every morning and evening (high tide on the north coast of the strait, ebb tide on the south coast, ebb tide on the north coast, and high tide on the south coast).If the sea water north of the center line flows eastward, then the sea water south of the center line flows westward, and the reverse flow is affected by the tide.The wind direction over the strait also changes greatly.From December to early April of the next year, there are many northerly and northwesterly winds. Before and after the "grain rain" in April (around April 20), the wind direction changes greatly, but sometimes there are still northerly and northeasterly winds. It is beneficial for wooden sailboats to sail south. Wooden sailboats mainly rely on wind power, and the north wind and northeast wind are just tailwinds.The change of wind direction over the strait is unpredictable under the conditions at that time. Even during the voyage, the wind may stop or the wind direction and sea water flow direction may change. After the "grain rain" (April 20), that is, most of the wind is east or southeast, and the wind direction changes greatly. It is difficult for sailing ships to sail southward because they sail against the wind.It can be seen that the weather has a great influence on military operations.

Comrade Ye Jianying inspected Hainan Island in February 1959.There is a poem "Butterfly Love", which vividly summarizes the past, present and beautiful scenery of Hainan Island.Standing as the South Tianzhu Five Fingers Peak Gaoren Sulu, who was separatist in the red area back then.It used to be the place where Dongpo left sentences.Coconut trees soar to the sky, sweeping away the fog in the sky.The ends of the world are different from the past, and Yangko drums are everywhere in the harvest. After the establishment of the Communist Party of China, Wu Ming, Lu Yi, Luo Han, Li Shi and other Communist Party members and advanced intellectuals came to Qiongya, and together with Qiongya's advanced elements Xu Chengzhang and Xu Tianbing, etc., carried out revolutionary activities. In 1922, it was established Qiongya Socialist Youth League Organization, students from Qiongya in Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou, Yang Shanji, Wang Wenming, Xu Xiafu, Chen Chuibin, Luo Wenyan, Mo Kongrong, Ke Jiayu and others.He also spread Marxism-Leninism to the people of Qiongya by creating various publications.

After the outbreak of the Anti-Japanese War, the Qiongya Special Committee of the Communist Party of China implemented the principles and policies of the party's anti-Japanese national united front, and negotiated with the Kuomintang authorities to reach an agreement to stop the civil war and unite in the war of resistance. On December 5, 1938, the Red Army guerrillas were reorganized into the 14th District Independent Team of the Guangdong People's Anti-Japanese Self-Defense Corps in Yunlong Market, Qiongshan County, and expanded into the Independent Corps in March 1939.With the support of people from all walks of life and patriotic overseas Chinese, the independent corps continued to grow and expand. In 1944, it was expanded into the Qiongya Anti-Japanese Independent Column: After 8 years of heroic fighting, it ushered in a great victory in the Anti-Japanese War.

After the victory of the Anti-Japanese War, Chiang Kai-shek provoked a national civil war. In October 1945, Chiang Kai-shek sent the 46th Army to Qiong in an attempt to extinguish our revolutionary forces in Qiongya. In January 1946, the special committee held another meeting in Baishaya to analyze the situation and made intensified measures Prepare to defend yourself against the decision of war. In February, the enemy 46 attacked us in the Baisha liberated area, and a full-scale civil war broke out in Qiongya. The soldiers and civilians in our liberated area launched a heroic counterattack against the enemy's attack.In October of the same year, the enemy's 46th Army was transferred from Qiongya, and was replaced by the security team of Cai Jinjun of the Kuomintang.

In 1947, the Qiongya Special Committee of the Communist Party of China was changed to the Qiongya District Party Committee of the Communist Party of China, and the Qiongya Independent Column was also changed to the Qiongya Column of the Chinese People's Liberation Army. From January 1948 to July 1949, the Qiong'an Column led by the Qiong'an District Party Committee launched three major offensives in autumn, spring and summer, which wiped out a large number of the enemy's vital forces, developed and strengthened the people's forces, and achieved major victories.By the eve of our field army crossing the sea, the Qiongya column had grown to nearly 20,000 people, and had established a large central base in Wuzhishan, liberating two-thirds of Quanqiong's land.More importantly, the Qiongya Revolution has a very broad mass base.This has prepared sufficient conditions for supporting and cooperating with the field army in crossing the sea and liberating Hainan completely.

At that time, Hainan Island had the Special Zone Party Committee and the Qiongya Column led by Comrade Feng Baiju.After the failure of the Great Revolution in 1927, they independently persisted in the armed struggle for 23 years (from 1927 to 1950) under the extremely difficult and difficult conditions almost isolated from the outside world. The special zone party committee headed by Comrade Feng Baiju relied on Wuzhishan to launch The masses of the people have established the people's armed forces, established the basic bases of the party leadership, and guerrilla units and guerrilla areas that have extended to the counties of Hainan Island.Before our army landed, the Qiongya column with Comrade Feng Baiju as the commander and political commissar had grown to 10 regiments, with a total of about 15,000 people. This revolutionary heroic force had liberated two-thirds of the island and one-third bis population.

I admire Comrade Feng Baiju very much. He was able to independently establish and develop the party organization in Hainan Island even when he lost contact with the party, and launched an armed struggle. He persisted for 23 years. Not only did he not collapse, but he continued to grow stronger The party and the armed forces and the establishment of base areas.His actions are completely in line with the party's policy and line, in line with Mao Zedong Thought, and in the interests of the people.Such a good leader and great hero for the party and the people, I heard that shortly after the victory in the liberation of Hainan Island, he was treated unfairly. I really don't understand.

When our Fourth Field Army had not made a large-scale march to Guangdong and Guangxi (Guangdong, Guangxi), Hainan Island had not attracted the attention of Chiang Kai-shek of the Kuomintang.It was not until our army won the Hengbao Battle (Hengshan, Baoqing, Hunan Province) and liberated Guangzhou in October 1949 that the defense of Hainan Island attracted the attention of Chiang Kai-shek of the Kuomintang. On October 29, 1949, Chiang Kai-shek decided to reorganize the Kuomintang army stationed on Hainan Island.Chen Jitang's Hainan Special Zone Garrison Command was abolished, the Hainan Defense General Command was established, and Xue Yue was appointed as the commander-in-chief. Xue Yue, whose name is Boling, is a well-known general in the Kuomintang army. He fought several tough battles during the Northern Expedition, the Anti-Communist War, and the War of Resistance Against Japan, and his rank was promoted to a general. Only Chiang Kai-shek is a super general (five-star), and there are only a few first-level generals (four-star), and the other generals are three-star.Xue Yue is a direct general of Chiang Kai-shek's Central Army. At this time, Chiang Kai-shek wanted to use Xue Yue's former fame and reuse him in an attempt to use him to win over the Guangdong and Guangxi Kuomintang troops that retreated to Hainan Island and stick to Hainan Island. Sure enough, the remnants of the Yu Hanmou Group in Guangdong sent to Hainan Bai Chongxi also made preparations to flee to Hainan Island when our army was engaged in the Guangxi Campaign. After Xue Yue arrived in Hainan Island, he formed the Hainan Island Defense Command.He will reorganize the remnants of the Yu Hanmou Group, the remnants of the Bai Chongxi Group, and the Guangdong Chen Jitang Department that were originally on the island, with a total of 5 army designations (19 divisions), and redeploy their defenses.He organized five armies into the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th Route Army, divided them into 4 garrison areas, carried out round-the-island defense and divisional defense, and controlled 5 and a half divisions in his hands as fists, that is, campaign mobile units, to defend The focus is on the front and both sides of the Qiongzhou Strait in the northern part of Hainan Island. In this defensive area, the enemy has built field fortifications and support points in various key areas that the enemy believes are convenient for our army to land. water obstacles. The 3rd Fleet of the Kuomintang Army Navy, which fled to Hainan Island, has more than 20 combat ships of various types (and about 30 auxiliary ships). They are mainly deployed in the Qiongzhou Strait and patrol Hainan to prevent our army from crossing the sea and attacking.But this fleet has never fought, and it can be said that its combat effectiveness is very weak. The Kuomintang Army Air Force, which fled to Hainan Island, had 4 brigades with more than 40 aircraft of various types (fighters, bombers, and transport aircraft).It is mainly used for bombing and strafing fishing ports on the Leizhou Peninsula, in an attempt to destroy the assembly of our military ships and attack our military's training ships at sea, harassing our Zhanjiang-Xuwen road transportation line, and harassing and bombing our Guangzhou, Zhanjiang and other cities , In an attempt to sabotage our army's preparations for the campaign, reconnaissance, bombing, and strafing our landing troops across the sea. Xue Yue believes that he has an army of more than 100,000, has an absolute advantage in the sea and air force, and is separated by the geographical advantage of the Qiongzhou Strait. Relying on the so-called three-dimensional defense of the so-called land, sea, and air forces formed by him, he is still intoxicated in the old "Hundred Battles" In the praise of "Famous General", he thinks that he can completely defend Hainan Island.He boasted that the three-dimensional defense of Hainan Island is impenetrable, and proudly named it "Boling Line of Defense" after his name, dreaming of trying to rely on the natural danger of the Qiongzhou Strait to stick to Hainan Island for a long time.But he forgot that in the early days of the War of Liberation, when he was the director of the Xuzhou "Sui Department" of the Kuomintang Army for half a year, he was beaten by our army in a row and suffered a lot of criticism within the Kuomintang. It's a miserable situation, and he doesn't think about the Kuomintang army who fled to the island now. They are already defeated by our army.