Chapter 7 Chapter 6: The wooden boat crossed the sea to attack Xiamen, and Chiang Kai-shek urgently transferred the chief general Hu Lian to guard Jinmen

The great victory of attacking Xiamen by wooden boat across the sea failed to teach the victor a lesson.Chiang Kai-shek urgently called the chief general Hu Lian to guard the Golden Gate. (Xiamen-Taipei, mid-October 1949) On October 14th, the five-star red flag was planted on the head of Guangzhou, an important town in southern China.The Li Zongren regime of the Kuomintang moved from Guangzhou to Chongqing.Of the more than ten coastal cities in China, only Xiamen is still occupied by the Kuomintang army. On October 15, the battle of the Sanye Yefei Corps crossing the sea to attack Xiamen kicked off from Gulangyu Island.This battle was the battle for the liberation of the last coastal city of the People's Liberation Army; in another specific new meaning, it was the battle between the Communist Party and the Kuomintang in the Taiwan Strait after the founding of New China and Chiang Kai-shek's assurance that Taiwan would be used as a base for counterattacking the mainland. made the first contest.People were not necessarily aware of the latter meaning at the time.

Gulangyu, gulanggulang, metaphorically resembles the waves rising from the sea.The entire island covers an area of ​​only nearly two square kilometers, which is a tiny piece of land.The strange rocks on the island are steep, stacked into caves, lush trees, evergreen in all seasons, and pavilions, terraces and pavilions are well-arranged. It is known as the "Sea Garden" at home and abroad.After the Opium War, foreigners flocked to this scenic spot to open foreign firms, demarcate concessions, build churches, and set up consulates, which became the "All Nations" concession.Gulangyu Island is only one kilometer away from the mainland.Tang Enbo focused on defending here with two regiments.

It was originally a clear and sunny day in autumn, but at 4:30 in the afternoon, when the attack was about to be launched as planned, the weather changed suddenly, from sunny to cloudy, and the northeast wind gradually picked up, blowing bigger and bigger, and the clouds rolled in. Suddenly gloomy.According to the original order, the artillery of the People's Liberation Army began to carry out destructive shooting 30 minutes earlier than the attack time. Dozens of artillery pieces on the mainland opened fire and bombarded the enemy positions on Xiamen Island and Gulangyu Island. backbone.A string of shells fell on the seaside and deep positions of the Kuomintang army.Ye Fei recalled that the artillery "hit rate is not high."Although the artillery fire of the People's Liberation Army could not completely suppress the firepower of the Kuomintang army on the island, it caused the Kuomintang defenders on the front line by the sea to panic from the very beginning.

Under the cover of artillery fire, at 6:00 pm, at dusk, when night fell, the attacking troops boarded and set off one after another. They filed out from Haicang Bay and Shatan Bay and headed for Gulangyu Island respectively.The attacking force consisted of four first-echelon battalion wooden boat fleets, which were from the two main attacking regiments of the 31st Army, the 271st Regiment of the 91st Division and the 277th Regiment of the 93rd Division.Among them, the 271st Regiment was named "Jinan Second Regiment" because of its bravery and outstanding military exploits in the Battle of Jinan.The attacking fleet did not expect to run into a headwind as soon as they got on board.After the fleet left the river mouth and entered the bay, the northeast wind blew harder and the waves were rough and rolling. Most of the fleet was flat-bottomed river boats, and the turbulence was even worse.Soldiers and boatmen worked together to fight against the waves, with crests and troughs for a while, the cables were broken, and the masts were discounted, all of which had never been encountered during military exercises.The soldiers still went through the wind and waves and moved forward bravely.

The defenders of Gulangyu Island lit up the flares, illuminating the shore and sea.The fleet sailed against the wind to about 200 meters from the shore, and the Kuomintang defenders began to block it with fierce firepower.Because of the strong wind and waves, most of the ships in the first echelon of the attacking force failed to reach the beach at the scheduled breakthrough.The fleet was blown away by the wind, and most of the ships drifted back; only a few ships landed on the beach sporadically, and were severely killed by the firepower of the Kuomintang defenders on the beach. At 11 o'clock that night, the 91st Division organized another three second-echelon battalions to set off. However, due to the strong wind and waves, most of the ships were drifted back, and only two platoons landed ashore.When crossing the sea to attack Xiamen, General Ye Fei adopted a strategy of attacking the east and attacking the west.Forty years later, when he recalled this battle in Beijing, his memory was still fresh——

I judge that the enemy's counterattack forces are concentrated in the waist of Xiamen Island.Crossing the sea and landing, pretending to attack Gulangyu Island, causing the enemy's illusion, mobilizing the enemy's deep mobile force to move south to rescue, this is the direction of the feint attack; the main attack direction is placed on Gaoqi in the north of Xiamen Island.First of all, cross the sea and land on Gulangyu Island, which is a very important move to mobilize the enemy.This is another time I used the tactic of using the Tenth Division to move eastward first to mobilize the enemy to the east when breaking out of Lunan, and then my main force suddenly broke out westward.Of course, this is risky, I have used it twice in my life.

Ye Fei's specific deployment was to organize the 91st and 93rd Divisions of the 31st Army to attack Gulangyu Island and attract the main force of the Kuomintang army.Then, the 92nd Division of the 31st Army and the 85th and 86th Divisions of the 29th Army carried out a sneak attack in Xiamen, and at the same time prepared for a strong attack. After landing, they developed in depth to occupy the entire island.During the attack on Xiamen, use the 28th Army to monitor the enemy on Kinmen Island. If it is found that they are reinforcing Xiamen or fleeing, they will immediately attack Kinmen.

The attack on Gulangyu Island was very serious at that time.After the attack fleet was blown away by the wind, the troops bravely carried out a single-ship assault, so only a small number of troops landed on the island and lost contact with the rear; Spirit, the subordinate commanders can still fight independently when they lose the command of their superiors.Wang Xingfang, head of the 271st Regiment, led the command ship to the beach under the rain of bullets, and was shot and died heroically.After Tian Jun, the deputy head of the regiment, led a platoon to land on the other side, he continuously blasted the deer village and the barbed wire fence, and broke into the beachhead bunker.When Zhao Shitang, the instructor of the Second Artillery Company of the 91st Division, arrived at the beach, the ship was sunk. He led more than a dozen soldiers to forcibly land in the water, broke into the forward position, and went straight to the commanding heights on the west side of Sunlight Rock. Keep fighting until he is the last man.

The bloody battle against Gulangyu ended in defeat.However, the tenacious fighting of the troops landing on the island really caused Tang Enbo to make a mistake in his judgment. He mistakenly believed that Gulangyu Island was the main attack direction of the Communist Army, and thought that after the Communist Army captured Gulangyu Island, it would directly attack the urban area of ​​Xiamen from Gulangyu Island.Tang Enbo immediately threw a division of the reserve team under his control into Gulangyu Island and surrounded the landing troops of the People's Liberation Army.The battle is more intense.Tang Enbo transferred the mobile troops controlled at the waist of Xiamen Island to Gulangyu Island.

At the cost of all the tenacious deaths of the troops who landed on Gulangyu Island, it affected the Kuomintang defenders and created important conditions for the successful sneak attack in the northern part of Xiamen Island that night. In the evening of the same day, the five main assault regiments drawn from the 31st Army and the 29th Army boarded the ship and set sail. Under the cover of the night, hundreds of wooden boats sailed quickly to the predetermined location with the wind and the current.By the time the Kuomintang defenders discovered the PLA fleet, large units of the 31st Army had already landed on beaches in many places in the northern part of Xiamen Island.The artillery on the shore of the mainland also opened fire violently at this time, destroying many forts and fortifications of the Kuomintang army on the seashore.The ships of an assault battalion of the 92nd Division docked in front of a thousand-meter-wide muddy beach. The troops waded through the mud with difficulty under enemy fire, causing heavy casualties, but they still bravely moved forward.After Chen Qin, a soldier of the 274th Regiment landed, his gun was blocked by mud and he couldn't fire, so he blocked the bunker entrance with his body and covered his companions from landing.Some troops lost their superior command when they landed, so they organized their own attacks to break into the forward positions of the defenders.Some soldiers were scattered by the enemy after grabbing the beach, but they all fought independently to the end.After hard work, the troops who landed from the northern part of Xiamen Island finally occupied the first-line position in the early morning of the next day.

In the middle section of Xiamen Island, the 85th Division of the 29th Army simultaneously tore open holes from Gaoqi and Shenshan.Takasaki is a coastal defense fort built by the Japanese to prevent the landing of the US military when they occupied Xiamen.After a night of fierce fighting, the People's Liberation Army finally captured the fortress.After dawn, Gaoqi Airport was occupied again.The Kuomintang defenders abandoned a transport plane and several tanks and fled south. In the eastern section of Xiamen Island, the 86th Division landed at Zhongzhai and Xiama.Under the cover of night, the assault troops climbed over the artificially cut steep walls, unexpectedly rushed to the Kuomintang army positions, and were mistaken for their own by them.After the Kuomintang army came to its senses, it launched a counterattack led by tanks and armored vehicles.The People's Liberation Army's assault troops suffered heavy casualties. They stood firm on the beach and fought hard. The People's Liberation Army assault troops successfully landed in many places.Although the Kuomintang defenders tried their best to fight back, they fell into a panic and passive situation because their frontal defense line was broken through by the People's Liberation Army.After the People's Liberation Army established a solid beachhead, the returning fleet braved the bombing of Kuomintang planes and transported follow-up troops to Xiamen Island.During the daytime on October 16, it was too late when Tang Enbo judged that the main attack direction of the People's Liberation Army was not on Gulangyu Island but in the northern part of Xiamen Main Island; Fight back.On the one hand, the People's Liberation Army cast a smoke screen to make the plane lose its target, on the other hand, it penetrated deeply to seize the position, attacked the Kuomintang counterattack forces in close combat, and wiped out the Maosen Special Service Battalion at Songbai Mountain Pass.At dusk, the remnants of the Kuomintang counterattack forces had to flee to the south of the island.At this time, Tang Enbo had completely lost confidence in defending the island, and fled to the sea first.The troops lost their command and fled separately. On the beach, Tang Enbo directly used the radio to call the warships at sea to release small boats to respond.At dusk, the tide was low, and it was difficult for the boat to dock. He was so anxious that he walked around the beach and stayed for more than an hour.He kept calling for rescue from the warship.The headquarters of the Tenth Corps of the People's Liberation Army clearly heard his call on the monitored radio.Ye Fei was very excited when he heard this, took the radio and ordered the pursuit troops to quickly pursue to Xiamen Port and capture Tang Enbo alive.However, the leading chasing troops only pursued and fought fiercely, and did not communicate with the rear headquarters by phone.The telephone call cannot be reached.When the People's Liberation Army's pursuit troops entered Xiamen Port, Tang Enbo and several of his followers had already waited for the high tide, fled into the sea in a small boat and went straight to Jinmen. The pursuit troops did not carry artillery, so they had to watch them flee.More than 3,000 officers and soldiers left by Tang Enbo were taken as prisoners near the port. The Kuomintang army defending Xiamen Island also has another unit, which is Liu Ruming's 55th Army.At that time, the Department was the only remaining unit of the original Feng Yuxiang Northwest Army.At the beginning of the Huaihai Campaign, the 59th Army and the 76th Army, the other two main forces of the former Northwest Army, had risen under the leadership of He Jifeng and Zhang Kexia and were reorganized into the People's Liberation Army. Only the 55th Army under Liu Ruming remained loyal to the Chiang Kai-shek.At that time, Li Dequan, Feng Yuxiang's wife, repeatedly called on Liu Ruming to abandon Chiang on the battlefield and revolt.Liu did not respond. It is said that his family was fought and his land was confiscated during the CCP’s land reform. However, Chiang Kai-shek and Tang Enbo regarded Liu Ruming’s troops as miscellaneous after all, and their combat deployments were put in front to resist the PLA’s edge. direct descendant.Liu Ruming also has a way to deal with it. He always preserves his strength when fighting, and retreats on his own as soon as the defense line is breached.When the People's Liberation Army crossed the river, Liu led his troops to flee thousands of miles to southern Fujian despite Tang Enbo's orders.This time on Xiamen Island, after the People's Liberation Army captured Xiamen Island, Liu Ruming hurriedly ordered his troops to retreat to Taiwan.Most of Liu's troops failed to escape Xiamen due to the rapid pursuit by PLA assault troops.Liu Ruming only took more than 4,000 people on board, and the rest were all captured. The People's Liberation Army's cross-sea Xiamen campaign ended in victory after only two days and nights.According to the "Military History Data" of the People's Liberation Army, 27,000 Kuomintang troops were wiped out, of which 25,000 were captured. In the early morning of October 17, the People's Liberation Army entered downtown Xiamen, and the five-star red flag was planted on top of buildings in the city center.Since the Tenth Corps crossed the Yangtze River on April 22, it has participated in the attack on Shanghai, entered Fujian in the summer heat, outflanked and fought continuously for half a year. It finally captured Xiamen and declared the liberation of Fujian Province. There was an air of victory.The attention of the main generals of the Tenth Corps, including Ye Fei, has turned to the new task of taking over the city. Many people think that according to the original plan, it is no longer a problem for the 28th Army to mop up and prepare to capture Kinmen Island in one fell swoop. .Even the leaders of the East China Field Army once judged that after the successful attack on Xiamen, the Kinmen defenders might escape. The great victory of the Ye Fei Corps' wooden boats crossing the sea to attack Xiamen covered up the failure of the Gulangyu battle, but failed to soberly draw a severe lesson, which led to the defeat of this always invincible army when it crossed the sea to attack Kinmen Island. . Chiang Kai-shek's official location is now No. 149, Hudi Road, Yangmingshan, Taiwan. The house number cannot be found from the outside, but it is not difficult to find and identify.From a small grocery store in front of the main entrance of Yangmingshan Park, walk along a downhill alleyway, until you reach a fork in the road, and then turn to a quiet path lined with trees on the right, you can see this brick. The wooden houses are not luxurious and conspicuous, but give people a sense of old and gray.It's just that the Gothic arch made of stone bricks in front of the house is its best identification mark, and it also adds a layer of mysterious and noble atmosphere to it. This old Guanxie covers an area of ​​more than 300 square meters, and it is said that it belongs to the Street Light Management Office of the Taipei City Government on property registration.It is about ten kilometers away from the northern suburbs of Taipei City. In the spring and summer of 1949, when Chiang Kai-shek arrived in Taiwan, his whereabouts were kept secret, and even information was blocked from the acting president Li Zongren in Guangzhou.When Chiang Kai-shek arrived in Taiwan, he first lived in Dagu Mountain, a scenic spot in Kaohsiung City, also known as Shoushan Mountain. He quickly moved to this hotel in Caoshan, the northern suburb of Taipei City, as his official residence.The grassy mountains, green peaks and emerald valleys are lush with trees, and the natural landscape is very beautiful and pleasant. There are sulfur mineral resources in the mountains.During the Japanese occupation of Taiwan, rich Japanese businessmen who liked to take hot spring baths built private hot spring villas one after another in Caoshan.After World War II, Taiwan returned to China, and most of the industries of these Japanese companies were taken over by representatives of "Taiwan Sugar Corporation" and "Taiwan Industrial and Mining Corporation".Chiang Kai-shek liked the quiet environment here, which was still cool and pleasant in summer, so he "leased" the hotel from the owner of the hotel, Taiwan Sugar Company, to live there until his death in 1975.Other senior officials of the Kuomintang followed suit and moved into these hot spring villas. Caoshan Caoshan, for Chiang Kai-shek, who had just retreated from the mainland, had the taboo of "falling grass and becoming a bandit". He changed its name to Yangmingshan to show that he followed the example of Mr. Wang Yangming in the Ming Dynasty. One morning in mid-October, he came out of the mansion and went for a walk in Yangmingshan Park, stepping on a few fallen leaves on the path, he looked up suddenly, his eyes followed the faint red on the maple tree, He remembered Zeng Wenzheng's sentence: The situation is chaotic, but Yu Cun is open-minded. In the past two days, even Guangzhou has been lost!He remained calm on the outside, but inside he was extremely anxious, how could he be open-minded?Although he made a special trip to the front line of Jinmen to make arrangements for Tang Enbo, he was still worried.At the end of last month, when he traveled from Kunming to Guangzhou, Li Zongren came to Meihua Village to meet him, and even scolded him face to face.He listened with restraint and remained silent.He is magnanimous enough!Li Zongren had a problem with his appointment of Tang Enbo as the chairman of Fujian Province, and said a lot of bad things about Tang Enbo: "Because Tang was once under my command, I know it very well. Any commander of Tang's division is too much in terms of quality and talent. How can he command the army in front? Tang is a man with a violent temperament, pretentious and pretentious, and his troops are in disarray. During the Anti-Japanese War, there was a saying in Henan folk saying, "I would rather the enemy army come to burn and kill" than Tang army to come to station." Li Zongren also gave an example.During the Anti-Japanese War, Tang was sailing eastward on a small ship from the Luohe River. When anchoring, he bumped into a barge and was shaken;Speaking of Tang in this way, it is not surprising that such willful killings are commonplace.Li Zongren rebuked Chiang Kai-shek: "People like Tang Enbo, you also rely on him as a confidant, so nothing bad will happen!" Chiang Kai-shek knew that Tang Enbo also had his strengths, but he just let Li scold him without refuting it.On the contrary, these days he thought repeatedly, Tang Enbo retreated steadily, and it seemed that he was not the best general to guard the coastal islands of the mainland.He couldn't help thinking of a general. He thought of Hu Lian. Hu Lian, a fourth-term student of the Whampoa Military Academy, started at the grassroots level after graduation. After many battles, he was recently promoted from army commander to commander of the 12th Corps. He was in his early forties at that time.In May 1943, the Japanese army launched an offensive in the west of Hubei, went up the river, entered Bashu, and tried to seize the stone fortress at the gate of Sichuan; The Japanese army fought alone and fought bloody against several times the number of Japanese troops, and finally held on to the stone tablet and defeated the Japanese army.Hu Lian became famous from then on.In the past two years, Hu Lian has been quite famous for his skill in dealing with the Communist army. In December 1948, the Twelfth Corps was lured into the pocket by the People's Liberation Army in order to save Du Yuming's troops who were besieged on the Xuzhou battlefield, and surrounded Shuangduiji in Mengcheng, Anhui.Hu Lian, who had been away on leave due to his father's illness, was ordered by Chiang Kai-shek to land in a small plane and return to the formation to command the battle with Huang Wei.Under the pressure of the People's Liberation Army, Huang Wei and Hu Lian had no choice but to lead their troops to break through.Huang Wei and Hu Lianyu carried a large amount of sleeping pills with them, planning to commit suicide if they failed to break through.Huang Wei did not stand out, nor did he commit suicide. Hu Lian led several people to break out of the encirclement in a chariot during the battle.Hu was shot in many places in the back.Hu's position at this time was the deputy commander of the 12th Corps, and Huang Wei was the commander.Hu Lian was rescued from the battlefield by the responding cavalry, and was admitted to Shanghai Hongkou Catholic Church Hospital for treatment. Thirty-two pieces of shrapnel were taken out from his back.Bai Chongxi appreciated Hu Liansu very much.When Bai heard that Hu Lian was hospitalized, he specially wrote a letter to Hu from Wuhan, where the Central China Suppression Command was stationed.The letter stated that General Bai suggested to the Central Committee to appoint Hu as the commander of the corps, responsible for allocating equipment to the three armies, stationed in Puqi and Xianning, Hubei; for this purpose, Hu himself was asked for his opinion.It is said that when Bai was in Wuhan, he once said to his subordinates that there are two people who have the talents of generals, and he particularly values ​​​​two people, one is the general of the Guangxi family Zhang Gan, and the other is Hu Lian.Hu always followed Chiang Kai-shek, and after reading Bai's letter, he said to others: "The wind knows the strength of the grass, and the toughness knows the loyal ministers. The children of Huangpu, how can they go to Qin Muchu!" Add to that. When Chiang Kai-shek learned about it, he appreciated Hu Lian even more.In the first ten days of January 1949, on the eve of his decision to retire, he heard that Hu Lian's injury was recovering, so he summoned Hu Lian to meet him in Nanjing, expressed his condolences, and asked Hu Lian for his opinion on the situation of the war.Hu Lian stated to Jiang in person: "After the war has evolved to the Yangtze River Basin, the mountains and rivers will restrict the activities of the large corps. It is impossible for Liu Bocheng and Chen Yi to use the two communist armies in a unified manner. If you give me the strength of the three armies, I am convinced We will surely cooperate with the friendly forces to defeat the communist army." Seeing that Hu Lian had high fighting spirit and no timidity, Chiang Kai-shek praised him very much, and ordered Hu Lian to "reorganize the old department so that it can continue to be used by the state".Jiang immediately ordered the Ministry of National Defense: "Hu Lian will be assigned to the three armies in the name, and the equipment of the three armies will be allocated to the newly arrived American aid weapons." The Ministry of National Defense appointed Hu Lian in accordance with Jiang's order As the commander of the Second Training Command, under the jurisdiction of the Tenth, Eighteenth, and Sixty-seventh Armies.Order Hu to collect the old troops, step up training, and designate Zhejiang, Fujian, and Jiangxi provinces to recruit recruits.When Chiang Kai-shek returned to Xikou after leaving the field, he kept getting news from Hu Lian.After learning that Hu moved his training headquarters to Jiangxi, the conscription progressed smoothly.At that time, when instigated by the CCP, there was a wave of anti-conscription and anti-grain requisition in various provinces and places. Troops in various places often encountered difficulties in handling conscription, delays and delays, and insufficient soldiers. Only Hu Lian recruited all three armies at the end of April as scheduled. Nine divisions, this has to make Chiang Kai-shek pay more attention to Hu Lian when the overall situation is reversed.After Hu Lian's corps was trained, Bai Chongxi reached out, and the Ministry of National Defense notified Hu Lian's corps to return to Bai Chongxi's command.Bai wanted to transfer the Hulian Corps to stop the People's Liberation Army from going south.Chiang Kai-shek had his own plan, and secretly ordered Hu Lian to lead his troops to retreat from Jiangxi to the Chaoshan area of ​​Guangdong in order to preserve his strength.This made the Acting President Li Zongren of Guangzhou very angry.At the end of September, when the Ye Fei Corps of the People's Liberation Army approached Xiamen, Chiang Kai-shek was very concerned about the defense of Jinxia. In early October, he asked Hu Lian's 12th Corps to send two regiments of the 18th Army from Shantou to rescue Jinxia by boat.Tang Enbo once borrowed a regiment to parade in the streets of Xiamen City to demonstrate military power.After the fall of Guangzhou on October 14, Chiang Kai-shek shrunk the line of defense and ordered the entire 12th Corps to be under the command of the Southeast Chief's Department, and immediately shipped to Zhoushan. Just as the fleet of the Twelfth Corps was sailing northward in the sea, news of the fall of Xiamen came on October 17.He felt that Xiamen was lost too quickly, and Jinmen was at stake.On the 18th, Hu Lian called him at sea, asking whether the Twelfth Corps should be allowed to withdraw to Taiwan after the fall of Xiamen? Golden Gate can no longer be lost.He made up his mind and sent two telegrams: one telegram ordered Hu Lian to come to Taipei from the sea, and Hu Lian should be asked to preside over the defense of Jinmen, and to serve as the chairman of Fujian Province in the name of commander of the 12th Corps, replacing Tang Enbo; It was the 19th Army, which was ordered to sail from Shantou to Zhoushan, to divert to Kinmen to meet the defense. Chiang Kai-shek's two telegrams were issued at the right time. The Kuomintang troops guarding Jinmen and changing defenses had not yet left, and the 19th Army that was ordered to come to Jinmen had just disembarked when the battle of the People's Liberation Army landing in Jinmen took place.Afterwards, some good talkers said that Jiang received "divine help" this time; objectively speaking, he was "fooled".