Chapter 33 5. Mao Zedong and Peng Dehuai decided to punish Syngman Rhee

When the Korean armistice was imminent, the Syngman Rhee group tried its best to sabotage and obstruct it, repeatedly clamoring that "the armistice agreement, which is like a death sentence for South Korea, cannot be accepted" and "will continue to fight alone until the goal is achieved."Blatantly undermining the agreement on the repatriation of prisoners of war that the negotiating parties had just reached on June 8, after a conspiracy, from the middle of the night of June 17 to the 19th, the prisoner-of-war camps in Daegu, Gwangju, Nonsan, Masan, and Bongsan were transferred from South to South. More than 27,000 prisoners of the Korean People's Army and dozens of prisoners of the Volunteer Army guarded by the North Korean Army were forcibly detained under the pretext of "releasing them on the spot."The dawn of peace in North Korea just seen has been cast in a shadow.

The destructive behavior of the Syngman Rhee Group has aroused strong international repercussions. Not only the governments and peoples of democratic countries have condemned this behavior, but even government officials from Britain, France, Canada, Australia and other countries have also strongly condemned this behavior. President Eisenhower and John Foster Dulles, who succeeded Acheson as Secretary of State, also felt embarrassed and very annoyed.Public opinion in many countries, including the United States, has demanded that Syngman Rhee be replaced. On June 18, Eisenhower sent an urgent telegram to Syngman Rhee, accusing him of "disobeying the command of the 'United Nations Army' Command" and threatening that "if you stick to the current policy, the 'United Nations Army' Command will not be able to continue." Acting in concert with you, unless you are prepared to immediately and unequivocally accept the command of UNC to address and end the present hostilities, otherwise arrangements will be made."As an American reporter said: "In the whole world, Syngman Rhee's reputation has plummeted to the lowest point, and the voices of condemnation are everywhere in the world."

Of course, the DPRK and China cannot tolerate Syngman Rhee's sabotage. On June 19, Mao Zedong called Li Kenong and told Kim Il-sung and the chief of the Volunteer Army, pointing out: "The U.S. military headquarters knowingly condoned Syngman Rhee's breach of the POW agreement, which has attracted serious attention and condemnation from all over the world. The quarrels and differences within the imperialist camp are on the rise. Expansion. In view of this situation, we must make a major statement in action in order to cooperate with the situation, put sufficient pressure on the enemy, so that such incidents will not dare to happen again, and facilitate our side to take the initiative. Therefore, we decided to use the North Korean people Write a stern letter to Clark in the name of the Supreme Commander of the Army and the Commander of the Chinese People’s Volunteers.”

On the same day, Kim Il Sung, the Supreme Commander of the Korean People's Army, and Peng Dehuai, the Commander of the Chinese People's Volunteers, sent a letter to Clark, pointing out that the United States "must shoulder the serious responsibility for this incident" and that "the release of Syngman Rhee is now happening." ' and the coercion of prisoners of war prove that the forced detention we oppose has further become an indisputable fact", and "the so-called 'preventing the forced repatriation of prisoners of war' that you have always propagated is completely fabricated", "Your side The erroneous stance and conniving attitude shown above cannot but directly affect the outbreak of this incident and the implementation of the armistice agreement to be signed." "In view of the extremely serious consequences of this incident, we cannot but question you: Can the United Nations Command control the government and army of South Korea? If not, does the Korean Armistice include the Syngman Rhee Group? If not, how does the implementation of the Armistice Agreement affect South Korea? Guarantee? If it is included, then you must be responsible for immediately recovering all ... prisoners of war who are 'at large' this time, that is, are 'released' and detained under duress and are about to be incorporated into the South Korean army. , and guarantee that similar incidents will never happen again in the future.”

At this time, the military and political situation on the battlefield were very favorable to China and North Korea.In order to protest against Syngman Rhee's sabotage, on June 20, the North Korean and Chinese delegations requested that the negotiations be adjourned until the US side made an assurance. At the same time, in order to deepen the enemy's internal conflicts and put more pressure on the United States, Peng Dehuai, who had already set off from Beijing to go to Kaesong to handle the signing of the Korean Armistice Agreement, arrived at the Chinese Embassy in Pyongyang at 21:00 on the 20th, and communicated with Li Kenong and Deng Hua respectively. After making the phone call, he called Mao Zedong at 22:00 and suggested: "According to the current situation, it seems more beneficial to postpone the signing of the armistice until the end of the month. In order to deepen the internal contradictions of the enemy, we plan to deal another blow to Syngman Rhee's puppet army and eliminate another 15,000 puppet troops. Thousands of people (according to Deng Hua in the first half of June, 15,000 puppet troops were wiped out), this intention has been informed to Deng Hua to make proper arrangements, and plans to meet with Prime Minister Kim on the 21st of tomorrow, and go to Zhisi to negotiate a truce on the 22nd Afterwards, we will arrange the various arrangements. We look forward to your instructions." The next day, Mao Zedong responded by telegram agreeing with Peng Dehuai's suggestion, pointing out: "The signing of the armistice must be postponed, and when it is appropriate to postpone it. A decision can only be made depending on the development of the situation. The rest are extremely necessary." On the same day, Peng Dehuai also obtained Kim Il Sung's consent.

Deng Hua, Yang Dezhi, and Li Da, who rotated Xie Fang as the Chief of Staff of the Volunteer Army, issued instructions to the various ministries at 23:30 on the evening of the 20th, according to Peng Dehuai's telephone instructions on the evening of the 20th, and informed the People's Army's frontline headquarters and the Kaesong delegation. Point out: "The Syngman Rhee gang broke the agreement on the repatriation of prisoners of war and released a large number of North Korean prisoners of war. This unreasonable action will definitely delay the signing of the armistice agreement, which has caused great shock in the world public opinion. In order to put more pressure on the enemy, cooperate with the Negotiations in Panmunjom, with President Peng's consent, decided to continue to deal severe blows to Li's puppet army militarily. For this reason, all armies should immediately follow the original pre-selected targets, and if they are ready, they should resolutely attack and annihilate them. When selecting a target, one should hurry up and make preparations, and resolutely hold on to the newly occupied positions with tunnels, so as to kill and injure the enemy in large numbers during the counterattack. The U.S. military and foreign accomplices are still not actively attacked, but any attack on us All invading enemies must be resolutely attacked." On the 25th, he again instructed the front-line ministries that all armies that are ready can fight against the South Korean army without hesitation, and those that are not yet ready to step up their preparations. Severely hit the South Korean army.

Accordingly, the 1st, 46th, 23rd, 16th, 24th, 60th, and 67th armies on the front line, as well as the 3rd and 7th armies of the People's Army, began on June 24 to prepare The target of the attack preparation launched the attack.At the same time, Yang Yong, the commander of the 20th Corps, and Wang Ping, the political commissar, and Zheng Weishan, who was rotated to return to China, believed that several divisions of the South Korean Army on the Jincheng front of the Corps had been hit by the first and second phases of the summer campaign. The various ministries commanded by the Corps also had experience in fortified battles. They had a better understanding of the military fortifications in South Korea, and the frontal position of Jincheng was protruding to our side. Therefore, the Battle of Jincheng was planned. Deputy Commander Zhang Mingyuan and others participated in the research.It was decided to cut off the salient part of the South Korean Army on the front of Jincheng to level the front.Approved by Deng Hua and Yang Dezhi, the 21st, 60th, 67th, 68th, and 54th armies were used to form three combat groups in the east, middle, and west. On the evening of the same day, an attack was launched at the same time on the 25-kilometer frontal position defended by the four divisions of the South Korean Army, that is, the Battle of Jincheng.

This attack was the largest attack since the Volunteers turned to positional warfare, and it was also the last attack in the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea, and it was the only positional attack in the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea.Since the second half of 1952, although the ground artillery of the Volunteer Army still cannot be compared with the "United Nations Army" in quality, it has surpassed the "United Nations Army" in quantity.In this battle, the Volunteer Army concentrated more than 1,480 various artillery pieces. The ground artillery ratio was 1.7:1, and the troop ratio was 3:1.The Volunteers fired a total of more than 19,000 tons of artillery shells, which is equivalent to 2.2 times the total amount of artillery shells fired in the first to fifth battles during the mobile warfare period.Among them, on the night of the attack, more than 1,000 artillery pieces were fired at once, and more than 1,900 tons of artillery shells were fired, destroying the main fortifications of the South Korean army positions.On the 25-kilometer front, the Volunteers all broke through their positions within an hour.By the evening of the 14th, the front line had been leveled, and the furthest advance was 9.5 kilometers to the south.Then it developed in depth to the South Korean Army, and the furthest advanced another 8 kilometers. On the 16th, Clark and Maxwell Taylor, who succeeded Van Fleet as the commander of the U.S. Eighth Army, organized a total of eight divisions of the U.S. Army and the South Korean Army to launch a counterattack with the support of aircraft, tanks and artillery firepower.The Volunteer Army then turned to defense, and until the 27th, it repelled more than 1,000 counterattacks from one company to two regiments of the enemy.In the Battle of Jincheng, more than 53,000 enemies were wiped out, 4 divisions of the South Korean Army were disabled, and more than 160 square kilometers of positions were recovered.When talking about this battle, Mao Zedong once said: "If you continue to fight like this, if you fight it two, three, or four times, the enemy's entire front will be broken."

From June 25 to July 27, the Volunteer Army and the People's Army wiped out more than 78,000 enemies and recovered 192.6 square kilometers of land.This battle severely punished the Syngman Rhee Group, deepened the internal contradictions of the United States, and effectively guaranteed the stability of the Korean situation after the armistice. Clark later recalled: "There is no doubt in my mind that the main, if not the only, reason for this Communist offensive was to deal a head-on blow to the Republic of Korea Army and to show them and the world that the 'Northern Advance' was Easier said than done." Eisenhower also said: "Many believe that the policy of the Chinese Communists is to divide the Allies by attacking only the troops of the Republic of Korea and not the United States. One possible useful consequence is to remind Lee President, if he loses the support of the 'United Nations Army', his troops are vulnerable." Syngman Rhee even complained: "The CCP's offensive was successful because the 8th Army stayed on the defensive for so long that the CCP established their strength."

From the end of April 1953 to the realization of the Korean armistice on July 27, this period of combat guidance to promote talks was the most exciting scene of combat guidance in the later period of the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea.Talk with each other closely, fight for the sake of talking, fight to obey the talk, fight to promote the talk.At the same time, the tasks and requirements for the fight, the selection of key targets for the fight, the determination of the timing of the fight and the size of the fight are all determined according to the needs of the negotiation.The main opponent of the Volunteer Army in operations and negotiations is the US military. Whether the negotiations can make progress depends on the attitude of the United States.Therefore, the Volunteers decided to fight to promote talks, and first decided to focus on the U.S. military as the target of attack; when the attitude of the U.S. side in the negotiations improved, and the Syngman Rhee Group in South Korea was unwilling to cease the war, they changed the key target of attack to South Korea. The North Korean army expanded the scale of strikes, and did not take the initiative to attack the troops of Britain, France and other countries that had long advocated a truce, and only chose to attack the targets defended by the U.S. troops; When the group violated the agreement, it changed the target of the operation to attack the South Korean army, and expanded the scale of the attack, but did not take the initiative to attack the U.S. and British troops until the Rhee group had to agree to a truce.The entire battle appears to be rational, powerful, and restrained, and it can be regarded as a model of promoting talks through fighting.