Chapter 4 Chapter 3 Leighton Stuart’s trip to Peking died prematurely, and Mao Zedong liberated Taiwan by crossing the sea

Leighton Stuart's trip to Peking died prematurely. Mao Zedong wanted to lean on one side and considered crossing the sea to fight to liberate Taiwan. (Peking, July 1949) For the Chinese nation, 1949 was a milestone historical turning point; for Mao Zedong or Chiang Kai-shek, it was also an extraordinary turning point in fate.Chiang Kai-shek, from the president of the Nanjing regime, became a "war criminal" and a "Chiang bandit" pursued by the People's Liberation Army, and he was driven to the island of Taiwan.Mao Zedong entered the Forbidden City in Beiping, where the Ming and Qing emperors lived, from what the Kuomintang called the "bandit chieftain" on the wilderness in the northwest.

Mao Zedong entered the city wearing patched cotton clothes. He was very sober and self-disciplined. He liked Guo Moruo's "Jiashen Three Hundred Years Ceremony", which talked about Li Zicheng's pride and failure after he invaded Beijing.He called on the whole party to read this book.At that time, Zhou Enlai and Ye Jianying invited him to live in Zhongnanhai or the Forbidden City.He didn't want to move in, he was jealous of the place where the feudal emperor lived.Later, the question was brought up for discussion by the Politburo, and he finally moved into the Juxiang Bookstore in Fengzeyuan, Zhongnanhai with the opinion of the minority obeying the majority.

July of this year can really be said to be the most critical month of the unforgettable 1949.It was this month that Mao Zedong moved from the Xiangshan Shuangqing Villa where he lived temporarily after entering Peiping to Zhongnanhai.Several major events affecting the fate of New China were finally decided during this period.The foreign policy of the early days of the founding of the People's Republic of China was finally defined as "leaning to one side" during this period. In the first ten days of February of this year, Mao Zedong, who was about to enter the capital, once described the foreign policy of new China in vivid language to Mikoyan sent by Stalin in the small village called Xibaipo in the North China Plain.Shi Zhe, who served as a translator at the time, made a true record——

Chairman Mao said: Our country, if we compare it to a family, its houses are too dirty, including firewood, garbage, dust, fleas, bedbugs, and lice.After liberation, we must carefully clean up our house, from the inside to the outside, from every corner to the cracks in the doors and windows, clean up all the dirty things, and put them in order.Wait until the house is cleaned, clean, orderly, and furnished before inviting guests in.Our real friends can come in early and help us with a little cleanup, but other guests will have to wait and not let them in just yet. I think it is also a kind of politeness to invite guests in after cleaning up and furnishing the room, isn't it? !

Our house is already dirty enough, because the iron hooves of the imperialists have trampled on it.And if some unwelcoming and impolite guests deliberately bring some dirty things in, it will be difficult to handle.Because they will say: "Your house is already dirty, why are you protesting?!" Then we have nothing to say.I think it's normal and needed for friends to walk through our door and build rapport.Wouldn't it be better if they were willing to reach out to help us again!With regard to this issue, we can only talk about it here. In Mao Zedong's conversation with Mikoyan, there were already two meanings of "cleaning the house before entertaining guests" and "starting a new stove", and the issue of "leaning to one side" has not yet been clarified.

One month later, when Mao Zedong delivered a report at the Second Plenary Session of the Seventh Central Committee of the Communist Party of China in Xibaipo, he further pointed out that there is no rush to solve the problem recognized by imperialism. Mao Zedong said that imperialism has always held a hostile attitude towards China, and they will never Change positions soon.As long as they are stubborn, they will not be given legal status for a day.Mao Zedong also said that the old China had been controlled by imperialism for a long time. We should eliminate the privileges, influence and influence of imperialism in China before establishing diplomatic relations with imperialism.

When Mao Zedong was in no hurry to ask the imperialists to recognize him, a rather interesting episode occurred in history.As a representative of the United States in China, Leighton Stuart, the U.S. ambassador to China, took the initiative to ask for contact with the CCP. At midnight on April 23, the People's Liberation Army captured the ancient city of Nanjing.After dawn on the 24th, Nanjing citizens took to the streets to welcome the PLA into the city.Among the convoy greeted by the citizens, there was a jeep sent by Leighton Stuart, waiting on Shanxi Road.When Shen Hongyi, the reconnaissance section chief of the 103rd Division of the 35th Army of the Eighth Corps of the Third Field Army, arrived, the driver took the initiative to drive the jeep forward to greet them.Shen Hongyi didn't know what was going on, and hurriedly boarded the jeep amidst the chatter.The American who was driving said to Shen in fluent Chinese: "I am a staff member of the American embassy. Our ambassador, Mr. Leighton Stuart, please come to the embassy to have a talk." Suddenly feel nervous.Since he had not received a mission to contact any foreigners, his professional sensitivity led him to give a diplomatic reply: "We don't know of any American embassy, ​​and we only recognize you as expatriates living in Nanjing." The American driver ran into a wall resentfully and failed to complete the task delivered by Stuart.Shen Hongyi designated a place to stop, then got out of the car and left.

At that time, there was an unexpected phenomenon in Nanjing, which puzzled the person in charge of the Nanjing Military Control Committee: the Soviet Union was a good friend of the Chinese Communist Party, but Luo Shen, the ambassador to China, followed the Kuomintang government and moved south to Guangzhou; The enemy's U.S. embassy in China remained in Nanjing in accordance with Ambassador Stuart's instructions.The embassies of Western countries such as Britain and France, seeing that the Americans did not move out, also stayed to observe the changes. Huang Hua, a graduate of Yanjing University who is proficient in English, was quickly transferred from Tianjin to Nanjing by Zhou Enlai to serve as the director of the Foreign Affairs Department of the Military Control Commission.Leighton Stuart served as the president of Yenching University for many years, and Huang Hua was his student.Zhou Enlai told Huang Hua that Leighton Stuart and envoys from many countries remained in Nanjing. You should go to work in the Nanjing Foreign Affairs Office. In addition to taking over the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Kuomintang government and handling related foreign affairs, you can have personal contact with Leighton Stuart.

According to records, during May and June of that year, Huang Hua had three contacts with Stuart.After the two met twice, on June 8th, Situ proposed to Huang Hua through his secretary Fu Jingbo that as usual, he, as the old principal, wanted to go to Peking to attend the graduation ceremony of Yenching University this year, and also wanted to meet Mr. Zhou Enlai once.Huang Hua reported Stuart's request to Peiping.Peking considered that it would be better to use unofficial contacts, so Lu Qiwei, the president of Yenching University, sent a letter to Nanjing to invite Leighton Stuart to visit Yenching University. (It is said that Leighton Stuart would go back to Yanda for his birthday on June 24 every year.) On June 28, Huang Hua met with Leighton Stuart for the third time and told him that he had received a phone call from Peking agreeing to go to Yanda.He hoped that a meeting with the Peking authorities would also be possible.Prior to this, Situ had received an English letter from Principal Lu Qiwei, saying that if Mr. Situ asked to come to Peiping, he was expected to obtain the approval of the authorities, and conveyed Zhou Enlai's greetings to thank Leighton Stuart.

Leighton Stuart's diary published afterwards revealed that he had made preparations for the trip to Peking.For example, he had already informed his friends in Peiping that he might be going there soon. Then, things changed.Stuart's trip to Peking failed to materialize.On August 2, he left Nanjing and flew back to the United States. This past event has aroused people's interest in recent years.Some scholars who study Sino-US relations have suggested that if Stuart could really make his trip, the history of contemporary Sino-US relations may be rewritten, and the hostilities between the two countries after 1949 may be avoided; , causing the United States to "lose an opportunity in China" to establish a relationship between the two. However, some scholars believe that in view of the confrontation between the two camps in the international environment in 1949 and the fact that both the United States and China were constrained by domestic politics However, even if Ambassador Situ could go to Beiping to meet with the leaders of the CCP, he would not achieve substantive results.

Therefore, the theory of "missing opportunities in China" is groundless speculation. Why did Leighton Stuart's trip to Peking not take place at that time.According to later declassified U.S. files, two days after Huang Hua’s June 28 notification, Situ reported to the U.S. State Department about his planned trip to Peking and analyzed the pros and cons of the trip.On the positive side, you can get the most authoritative information about the CCP’s intentions by meeting with the leaders of the CCP, and it may influence the CCP not to lean towards the Soviet Union.The detrimental consequences pointed out by Situ are that the State Department will be in an embarrassing position for domestic criticism, and the Western allies of the United States are dissatisfied with the practice of taking the lead in destroying the anti-communist united front; prestige.To counteract these consequences, Stuart made a similar trip to Guangzhou; however, he worried that this dual effort might look like interference in China's internal affairs and would anger the CCP.Situ asked the US State Department to give instructions as soon as possible.Situ's report caused conflicts among officials in charge of Far Eastern affairs in the US State Department. Some agreed with it, while others opposed it, so they had to hand over their contradictions.According to Secretary of State Acheson, the issue was brought to the "highest authority", and the highest authority decided not to allow Situ Chengxing, mainly because of fear of incurring adverse domestic reactions.On July 1, the State Council immediately telegraphed this decision to Ambassador Situ. In his report to the State Department, Leighton Stuart stated that his upcoming trip to Peking "will be innovative, boldly show the United States' unbiased attitude towards China's changing political trends, and may have a beneficial effect on future Sino-American relations." He wanted to exert influence on the new China that was about to be born, to urge China to break up with the Soviet Union, at least to be as neutral as Yugoslavia between the Soviet Union and the United States.In Huang Hua's words, this is "wishful thinking". Just before Huang Hua informed him that he could go to Peking on June 20th, historical data showed that Mao Zedong's "one-sided" foreign policy towards New China had already taken shape.On March 25th of this year, all the leading organs of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China were moved to Peiping and stationed in Xiangshan. A few days later, Kovalev, the deputy minister of the Soviet Ministry of Railways and the head of the Soviet side of the China-Changsha Railway, was ordered by Stalin , came to Peiping from the northeast, and also moved to live in Xiangshan.At that time, Kovalev was the highest-ranking government official among the Soviets in Peiping.The Soviet ambassador to China, Luo Shen, had moved to Guangzhou with the Kuomintang government, leaving only the consul Qi Hewen in Beiping.At that time, there was also a Soviet intelligence team in Peiping.Kovalev reported the situation to Stalin using the radio of the Soviet intelligence group.During his stay in Xiangshan, the leaders of the Communist Party of China Mao Zedong, Liu Shaoqi, Zhou Enlai and Zhu De met Kovalev many times.Mao Zedong had the most conversations with Kovalev.With the rapid development of the situation after the People's Liberation Army crossed the river, in May, Mao Zedong decided to send Liu Shaoqi to lead a delegation to secretly visit the Soviet Union to meet Stalin.Mao Zedong himself considered going to Moscow to meet Stalin in person as early as April and May a year ago.At that time, I made serious preparations, made new clothes, and chose a route: from Fuping to Suiyuan, and then took a plane to Moscow.Because the decisive battle with Chiang Kai-shek was about to begin, and the journey to the Soviet Union was long and difficult; Stalin once sent a telegram to Mao Zedong saying: You are the commander-in-chief, and it is inconvenient to leave. I can send people from the Politburo.As a result, Mao Zedong finally failed to make the trip. The main purpose of sending Liu Shaoqi to visit the Soviet Union was to obtain the Soviet Union’s understanding of the Chinese Communist Party and the upcoming New China, as well as the urgently needed support and assistance in all aspects, which were still maintaining diplomatic relations with the Kuomintang government.Mao Zedong believed that although Stalin would be the last to abandon Chiang Kai-shek, he would be the first leader to recognize the new China.Mao Zedong understood the pain of this pioneer from Sun Yat-sen's will: Sun Yat-sen had revolutionized for forty years in his life, and he had appealed to capitalist Western countries for help countless times, but only the Soviet Union extended his hand.Just the day before Liu Shaoqi's secret visit to the Soviet Union on July 1, Mao Zedong published "On the People's Democratic Dictatorship" on June 30, clearly declaring a "one-sided" policy. At this time, even if Leighton Stuart was able to come to Peiping and meet with Zhou Enlai and even Mao Zedong, he could not change the policy of "leaning to one side" towards the Soviet Union at that time. It is not surprising that the historical background at that time restricted reality in this way.Besides, Mao Zedong had dealt with the Americans and had lessons learned. In the later period of the Anti-Japanese War, when he was still in the caves in Yan'an, Mao Zedong actively expressed his willingness to make friends with the United States of America on the other side of the ocean.According to American historical data, Mao Zedong once sent a telegram from Yan'an to Washington, expressing his willingness to visit the United States.Mao Zedong also warmly received Mr. Hurley, the representative of President Roosevelt, and based on his sincere desire to peacefully resolve the issue between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party, he basically agreed to the "Five-point Draft Agreement" proposed by Mr. Hurley.However, after Hurley flew back to Chongqing, following Chiang Kai-shek's will to eat up the CCP, he turned the rudder, changed his mind, and betrayed what he said in Yan'an. In July of this year, when Mao Zedong announced that he would fall to the Soviet Union and send Liu Shaoqi to Moscow, he had already set his sights on the island of Taiwan on the other side of the strait.From the Battle of Jinan, which marked the victory of the People's Liberation Army from now on, to the three major battles of Liaoshen, Pingjin, and Huaihai, which achieved decisive victories, these devastating victories are military victories for the Army. One day in July, when he had just moved into Juxiang Bookstore, Mao Zedong suddenly asked a staff member beside him: "How many kilometers is the shortest distance from Taiwan to the mainland?" The comrade failed to answer immediately on the spot and blushed. After searching for accurate information that night, he told Mao Zedong: "The nearest sea surface from Fujian Province to Taiwan is a full 130 kilometers." After the battle of crossing the river, in view of the fact that Chiang Kai-shek's headquarters had moved to Taiwan, Mao Zedong had already begun to think and study the issue of liberating Taiwan in the next step of crossing the sea.To accomplish this task, two problems need to be solved first: one is to quickly establish an air force that can be used in the near future; Considering the needs of the river and coastal operations in the southeast water town, since the army just crossed the Yangtze River in May 1949, the Central Military Commission of the Communist Party of China decided that the Third Field Army troops would operate the southeast region alone.On the eve of the Battle of Crossing the River, Chen Yi, the commander of the Three Fields, proposed to the central government: The Second Field Forces have suffered a lot since they entered the Dabie Mountains. After crossing the river, the Second Field Forces will occupy and manage the affluent Jiangsu, Zhejiang and the entire southeast region. After the Battle of Jiangxi, he took on the task of marching into the Southwest.Not only did Mao Zedong not agree, but he also asked Chen Yi for his opinion: You still want to be the mayor of Shanghai, how about it? At that time, considering that most of the predecessors of the Third Field Army were the New Fourth Army reorganized from the Jiangnan guerrillas of the former Red Army, they were familiar with fighting in the southern water towns.The predecessor of the Second Field Army was the 129th Division of the Eighth Route Army reorganized from the original Red Fourth Front Army. In the past, it had long been active in Sichuan-Shanxi, Shanxi-Hebei-Shandong-Henan and the Central Plains. It is more advantageous for the Sanye to operate the southeast.Among the four field armies of the People's Liberation Army at that time, Sanye was indeed the unit with the most experience in conducting river operations.However, the ensuing battle across the sea was very different from the battle across the river, and the difficulties encountered far exceeded the expectations of the head of the Military Commission. In July, Mao Zedong proposed to the Central Military Commission of the Communist Party of China that special emphasis should be placed on the construction of an air force by surprise, based on new considerations for future sea-crossing operations.On July 10, Mao Zedong wrote to Zhou Enlai specifically for this matter, proposing the idea of ​​crossing the sea to attack Taiwan and establishing an air force: We must prepare the conditions for attacking Taiwan. In addition to the army, we mainly rely on internal support and the air force. If we have one of the two, we can succeed, and if we have both, we will be more confident.It is impossible for our air force to overwhelm the enemy's air force in the short term (for example, one year), but we may consider sending three or four hundred people to study in distant places for six to eight months, and at the same time purchase about 100 aircraft, together with the existing air force, forming an attacking force... At that time, the Central Military Commission of the Communist Party of China already had an aviation bureau in Beiping, which was established on March 30th, the fifth day after the leadership of the Communist Party of China moved into Beiping. Committee member, working in No. 7, Tongfu Jiadao, Dengshikou. On July 10, Mao Zedong wrote a love letter to Zhou Enlai, who was then vice chairman of the Military Commission, and raised the issue of establishing an air force. Commander of the Fourteenth Corps of the Field Army.The Military Commission conveyed to Liu Yalou Mao Zedong's instructions on the rapid establishment of the Air Force, stated the idea of ​​​​establishing the Air Force, and instructed Liu Yalou to propose a list of candidates for the main leading cadres of the Air Force and suggestions on the composition of the Air Force's leading organs.Liu Yalou proposed that the air force leadership should be composed of the 14th Corps of the Four Fields and the personnel under the jurisdiction of the former Aviation Bureau, which was quickly approved by the central government. In early July, when Liu Shaoqi, who secretly visited the Soviet Union, met with Stalin, he also reported that Taiwan, Hainan Island, Xinjiang and Tibet must be occupied next year. Liu Shaoqi stayed in the Soviet Union until late August of that year before returning home.Liu Shaoqi met with Stalin six times in Moscow.During this period, according to Mao Zedong's request, on July 26, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China called Liu Shaoqi in Moscow, asking him to raise the issue of China's air force construction with Stalin. Buy about 200 combat aircraft and invite pilots to be trained.Stalin fully agreed, but said that the aviation school does not have to be located in the Soviet Union, and the Soviet Union can send people to China to help start it.Stalin also said that it was too late for China to establish an air force, and if it had been a year earlier, the air force could have participated in the battle to liberate southern China.In fact, as early as after Japan surrendered, the CCP was preparing to build an air force in Northeast China and set up an aviation school in Tonghua.Because the conditions in the liberated areas were extremely difficult at that time, the Soviet Union did not provide aviation technology and material assistance, and even the instructors were not from the Soviet Union, but Japanese and puppet personnel retained by the Kwantung Army, and there were also KMT insurgents.However, Stalin's statement, after all, gave the PLA Air Force a basic material guarantee. When the news came that Stalin agreed to help China build an air force, the Central Military Commission in Peiping immediately asked Liu Yalou, who was scheduled to be the commander of the air force, to quickly organize personnel to study the scale of air force construction.The Aviation Bureau of the Military Commission held the first aviation work conference in Beiping from June 31 to August 8.Before the meeting, after research, a larger construction plan than Mao Zedong's original idea was proposed. He planned to purchase combat aircraft from the Soviet Union and train pilots in a surprise attack to form a fleet with 300-350 combat aircraft (including fighters and bombers) within a year. The air force with a ratio of 2:1) has a slight advantage over the Kuomintang air force, so that it can seize air supremacy when fighting across the sea.This bolder plan was immediately approved by Mao Zedong on July 31, and he agreed that Liu Yalou and his entourage should rush to the Soviet Union in early August to discuss with the Soviet side the specific matters of air force construction. While accelerating the construction of the air force, the Chinese Communist Party also paid attention to the construction of the navy.On April 23, 1949, the day when the People's Liberation Army planted the red flag on the gate tower of the Kuomintang government's presidential palace in Nanjing, the first navy of the CCP, the Navy of the East China Military Region, was established. Zhang Aiping, the former deputy commander of the Central China Military Region, He served as the commander and political commissar, and started to organize the work on the basis of receiving the Kuomintang uprising and surrendering ships.The construction cycle of the navy is longer than that of the air force, and it is more difficult in comparison.The construction of the Air Force had already started in 1946 when the Tonghua Northeast Old Aviation Academy was opened, while the construction of the Navy was completely blank before 1949.Since the spring of 1949, when Chiang Kai-shek moved his headquarters to Taiwan, what he feared most was that the CCP's army would have the capability to fight at sea.Therefore, once Chiang Kai-shek's warships revolted and surrendered, Chiang Kai-shek ordered the air force to bomb them.The cruiser "Chongqing" with a tonnage of 5,270 tons is the largest ship of the Kuomintang Navy; the "Chongqing" revolted in February 1949, and was immediately tracked and bombed by the Kuomintang Air Force. Forced to sink at the Huludao Wharf to preserve the hull.In the future, many ships of the Kuomintang Navy revolted, and most of them were bombed or sunk.Without air supremacy, it is difficult to carry out naval construction, and the surviving stables cannot go to sea to fight.The construction of the air force has indeed become the primary problem that needs to be solved in the battle of crossing the sea and attacking Taiwan. Without the cooperation of its own air force and navy, the Third Field Army, which successfully crossed the Yangtze River, has started operating the southeastern provinces in advance according to the requirements of the Central Military Commission. The battle to liberate Shanghai has not yet ended. According to the instructions of "Fujian", they marched into Fujian, cleared the outer barriers of Taiwan for the cross-sea attack on Taiwan, and occupied the starting position for crossing the sea.Sanye's army troops used civilian ships and infantry weapons to carry out sea-crossing and landing operations, and had to pay a heavy price, which became an extremely tragic and tragic page in the history of PLA warfare.