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At 8:40 pm on March 9, 1978, the destroyer USS Guangzhou exploded violently. The flames shot into the sky and lit up the night sky of the military port. Just two hours later, the huge destroyer USS Guangzhou sank to the bottom of the sea.
News of the destroyer Guangzhou
reached Beijing, and the Naval Command sent an investigation team overnight to investigate. The truth soon emerged. It turned out that a naval officer was dissatisfied after being dismissed, and blew up the warship in anger. The explosion of the Guangzhou ship killed 133 people and caused a national economic loss of 1.1 billion.
What is the name of this naval officer? Why did he do such a bad thing?
Battleship Guangzhou, settled in Zhanjiang
In early February 1977, the South China Sea Fleet headquarters stationed in Zhanjiang was in a state of excitement, because the fleet was about to welcome a big guy, the "Guangzhou Ship", which was the largest surface combatant ship developed by China at that time.
After waiting anxiously, everyone finally saw the true appearance of the Guangzhou ship at the Zhanjiang Military Port Pier on February 6.
The destroyer Guangzhou
The huge body, advanced radar, and shiny gun barrels made the naval officers on the scene extremely excited. How proud it would be to ride this warship to patrol the coastal defense line of the motherland in the future!
The South China Sea Fleet paid special attention to the Guangzhou ship and specially mobilized a group of elite soldiers to form a new combat group, including the culprit of the Guangzhou ship bombing Lai Sanyang.
Lai Sanyang’s hometown is in rural Sichuan, where there are mountains everywhere. When he was 18 years old, he signed up to join the army and came to Zhanjiang to become a glorious naval soldier. Lai Sanyang, who had never seen the sea, soon fell in love with naval life.
Thanks to the hard work of the mountain people, his results are among the best in every assessment.
Lai Sanyang gradually gained a good reputation in the army, and his four-year career as a conscript soon ended. When most of his comrades in the same year were demobilized and returned to their hometowns, Lai Sanyang had become a platoon-level cadre of the South China Sea Fleet.
Before boarding the Guangzhou ship, he was an experienced naval commander .
Many people may be unfamiliar with this term. In fact, water commander is a job title on a naval ship . This position is mainly responsible for organizing and implementing the combat preparation, management and maintenance of the underwater weapons department, and plays a very important role in naval ships.
Over the years in the South China Sea Fleet, especially after being promoted, Lai Sanyang's mentality gradually changed.
Zhanjiang is a coastal city, and local girls are more fashionable than mainland girls in terms of conversation and dress. Looking at the colorful world in front of him, he feels that the gap between his girlfriend in his hometown and him is getting bigger and bigger, and he has the idea of breaking up.
Speaking of which, Lai Sanyang's girlfriend just grew up in the countryside and is not as good at dressing up as city people.
The two of them were introduced by a matchmaker. At first, Lai Sanyang was very satisfied with the girl. He even brought her gifts when he went home to visit relatives, and the parents of both parties also met. During the holidays, Lai Sanyang was not at home, and the girl went to visit his parents. In the eyes of the villagers, it was only a matter of time before they got married.
My girlfriend who was far away in Sichuan heard that Lai Sanyang wanted to break up with her and she disagreed with it. She called and asked Lai Sanyang to explain clearly the reason for the breakup, otherwise she would come to the army to find the leader in person. This frightened Lai Sanyang and he quickly asked for leave to go back to his hometown in Sichuan.
Back home, when Lai Sanyang saw his girlfriend and expressed his inner thoughts, he was immediately criticized. In fact, this is not the woman's fault. A girl's youth is short-lived. After being in a relationship for several years, no one wants to accept the ending of suddenly breaking up.
Besides, we are all from the same village, and all the neighbors know each other. Now that the two people broke up suddenly, the rumors would soon spread throughout the country, making it even more difficult for a girl to get married. Seeing that she couldn't get a job, Lai Sanyang had no choice but to return to the army.
When his comrades saw him coming back from his hometown, he was in a bad mood and quickly asked why. Lai Sanyang only said that he was breaking up with his girlfriend. Everyone was busy training at the time and didn't pay much attention to it.
Commander Shui was dismissed, and he had a poisonous plan in his mind.
One morning, Lai Sanyang was inspecting weapons and equipment on the Guangzhou ship when he suddenly received a call from the security department of the base. He put down the phone and hurried to the office of the security department. In addition to the comrades from the security department, there were two policemen inside.
The moment he pushed the door open and came in, both policemen stood up. At this time, Lai Sanyang looked a little stunned and pretended to be calm and saluted a military salute.
The two policemen in front of me are from Lai Sanyang's hometown. They came here to find out what happened between Lai Sanyang and his girlfriend?
It turns out that not long after Lai Sanyang left his hometown, the villagers found his girlfriend hanging from a tree. The local police received a report and went to the scene to see that the girl was fully dressed and had no external injuries. At first, everyone thought that the girl had hanged herself because of emotional problems.
However, experienced investigators discovered a strange problem. The girl was only wearing a pair of white socks, and her shoes were missing. It had just rained in the mountains at that time. If she had walked without shoes, her socks would have been stained with mud. However, the girl's socks were very clean and there was no trace of mud at all.
After careful analysis, the investigators focused their attention on Lai Sanyang, so they sent people to Zhanjiang to understand the situation. The leaders of the base took this case very seriously and assigned a special person to accompany him throughout the process. After repeated questioning, Lai Sanyang always denied that he was involved in his girlfriend's hanging, but he could not provide evidence of his alibi.
When such a situation occurs, the base leaders are also very worried. Although Lai Sanyang has always performed well in the army, after all, it is a matter of life and death. In any case, the bad influence has already been formed. If Lai Sanyang's incident comes to light, it will discredit the entire naval force.
Although it is not yet proven that Lai Sanyang is a criminal, considering all factors, he is no longer suitable to stay in the base. After the leaders held a meeting to study, they finally decided to remove Lai Sanyang from his post and let him demobilize and go home as a soldier.
Hearing the news, Lai Sanyang felt like he was struck by thunder. He never thought that after so many years of hard work, he would end up like this. If he goes home now, he will definitely be ridiculed by the villagers. What's more serious is that his girlfriend's family will definitely come to him to ask for an explanation.
After thinking about it, Lai Sanyang went to his leader and begged, hoping that the army would let him stay, even if he was just an ordinary soldier.
Military orders were like mountains, how could the decisions that had been made be easily changed? When Lai Sanyang learned that he had no chance of joining the army, he lowered his head like an eggplant beaten by frost.
Destroyer Guangzhou
Although the troops of the destroyer Guangzhou made the decision to demobilize him and return home, due to the busy coastal defense tasks, the officers and soldiers were busy training and debugging equipment, so they ignored Lai Sanyang's existence, which also paved the way for the subsequent tragedy.
Seeing that his former comrades were busy every day, leaving him with nothing to do all day long, Lai Sanyang felt uncomfortable. The more he thought about it, the angrier he became, and he had a vicious idea in his mind.
"Since I can't get anything, I might as well destroy the Guangzhou ship."
The angry Lai Sanyang was blinded by hatred and had long forgotten his identity as a naval soldier.
On the morning of March 8, while everyone was going to have dinner, he quietly slipped aboard the Guangzhou ship.
When Lai Sanyang was the water commander on the ship before, he knew the structure of the ship very well. He went down to the bottom of the cabin, turned left and right and soon arrived at the ammunition depot . He took out the key from his pocket and opened the door smoothly.
It stands to reason that when Lai Sanyang announced his dismissal, he had already handed over the key to the ammunition depot. The current key was secretly prepared by him before. At that time, he wanted to get a spare key to prevent the ammunition depot key from being lost. He didn't want it to come in handy now.
In order to implement this operation, Lai Sanyang did his homework.He knew that the strong seawater pressure would cause the bombs in the ammunition depot to explode, so he used the tools he carried with him to start digging holes in the bottom floor of the ammunition depot.
This is easier said than done. The steel plates on the Guangzhou ship are very thick. It took Lai Sanyang several hours to finally cut a small hole in the floor, and seawater slowly poured in through the hole.
Looking at everything in front of him, Lai Sanyang sat there and laughed. The crew on the ship had no idea what was happening at the bottom of the cabin. Everyone was busy preparing for going to sea.
On the afternoon of March 9, there was a busy scene in Zhanjiang Military Port. Tomorrow is the day when the fleet sets off. Some people are busy washing clothes, some are busy getting haircuts, and some people run outside to purchase daily necessities.
The captain and political commissar of the Guangzhou ship returned to Zhanjiang city to reunite with their families. The deputy captain Ma Yufei who was on duty on the Guangzhou ship suddenly received a report from the soldiers that Lai Sanyang was not in the dormitory.
Zhanjiang Port
Ma Yufei quickly asked: "Where has this kid gone? Have his things been packed up?"
The soldier replied: "The things in the dormitory have not been packed yet, so he probably hasn't left."
Ma Yufei didn't pay much attention after hearing this, and ordered the soldiers to continue to search. He estimated that Lai Sanyang would return to the dormitory during dinner.
The Guangzhou ship exploded and sank
At 7:40 pm, Ma Yufei received the news from the soldiers, but Lai Sanyang still did not show up.
Intuitively, he felt that there must be something wrong here. While Ma Yufei sent people to search around, he also ordered people to conduct inspections on the Guangzhou ship.
When the newly appointed Shui Wu Commander came to the ammunition depot for inspection, he found that someone had locked the door inside, and the key could not be opened from the outside. Anxiously, he asked the soldiers around him: "Who has the key here, how could there be anyone inside?"
"Lai Sanyang had a key here before, and he always came to check the ammunition. Kudu opened the door with the key himself. "
Commander Shui immediately ordered someone to report to the deputy captain Ma Yufei. At the same time, he slammed the large iron door of the ammunition depot and shouted: "Lai Sanyang, come out quickly. If you have anything to say, don't do anything stupid."
No matter how loud he shouted, no one inside responded. It was already past 8 o'clock in the evening. When Ma Yufei heard the news, he knew that something bad was going on. The ammunition depot was full of artillery shells and missiles. If there was an explosion, the entire military port would be hit hard.
He hurried to the bridge and ordered the soldiers to weigh anchor and sail the ship immediately. At the same time, Ma Yufei asked all the officers and soldiers on the ship to gather on the deck. At that time, some soldiers had already entered the crew lounge to rest. The lounge was very close to the ammunition warehouse. If an explosion occurred, they would definitely be the first to be affected.
At 8:40 pm, not far from the Guangzhou ship leaving the dock, a huge explosion occurred. The huge waves set off by the explosion almost overturned the tugboat not far from it. The fire lit up the night sky of Zhanjiang Military Port, and the huge shock wave shattered the windows of many houses on the shore. The alarm sounded in the
base. Someone shouted that the Vietnamese were conducting a sneak attack. Many soldiers who did not know the truth ran to the dock and looked in the direction of the Guangzhou ship. Some ships left the dock and sailed towards the sea one after another.
The destroyer Guangzhou
The sound of explosions and calls for help were heard endlessly. At some point, the lights on the pier also went out. On the dark sea, the burning Guangzhou ship became the focus of everyone. Some ships wanted to help put out the fire, but the huge explosion made it difficult to get close.
Vice Captain Ma Yufei ordered everyone to leave the warship, but he stayed. No matter who persuaded him, it was useless. Seeing that Ma Yufei was about to sink to the bottom of the sea with the Guangzhou ship.
At the critical moment, a signal soldier behind him pushed him into the water, and then he tore off the ship's military flag and jumped into the water. At 22:50, the Guangzhou ship sank completely.
That night, news of the explosion and sinking of the Guangzhou ship reached the Navy Headquarters, and the deputy commander led the investigation team to Zhanjiang overnight.
After daybreak, he came to the pier and sighed as he looked at the tragic situation in front of him. The main gun on the Guangzhou ship was thrown to the pier by the shock wave of the explosion, and there were broken limbs and broken arms floating in the sea water.
An old engineer from Shanghai Shipyard shed tears as soon as he arrived at the port. He was involved in the entire assembly process of the Guangzhou ship. It can be said that he has a very deep affection for this ship.
Who knew that there would be unexpected wind and rain, but just over a year later, the Guangzhou ship ended up like this.
Martyrs Monument
After detailed investigation, it was found that the explosion of the Guangzhou ship was deliberately caused by Lai Sanyang out of dissatisfaction. Because the explosion was so powerful, the Guangzhou ship was completely scrapped. A total of 133 naval soldiers died, and the total losses to the advanced equipment on the ship and the Zhanjiang military port exceeded 1.1 billion yuan.
This explosion had a serious negative impact on the Chinese Navy. Originally, the Guangzhou ship was supposed to undertake the glorious mission of guarding China's coastline. However, the hope was in vain, giving the surrounding countries with ulterior motives another opportunity to take advantage of.
More than a hundred naval soldiers who originally had the ambition to serve the country will forever be buried under the sea because of Lai Sanyang's personal behavior. Although Lai Sanyang was also killed in the bombing, his behavior will always be cast aside.
The picture comes from the Internet
After the incident, the navy carried out vigorous rectification. Today's navy has strict discipline and strong combat effectiveness. It is because of their hard work that the coastline of the motherland can always remain safe.
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