Campaign of the North China Plain Pocket
This article has multiple issues. Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page. (Learn how and when to remove these template messages)
|
Campaign of the North China Plain Pocket | |||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Part of Chinese Civil War | |||||||
| |||||||
Belligerents | |||||||
Commanders and leaders | |||||||
Liu Shi Cheng Qian |
Li Xiannian Wang Zhen | ||||||
Strength | |||||||
300,000 | 60,000 | ||||||
Casualties and losses | |||||||
10,000 | 10,000 |
The Campaign of the North China Plain Pocket, also called the Breakout on the Central Plains (Chinese:
The communist victory was largely attributed to their ability to surprise the nationalists with movements and avoid battle in locations with overwhelming Nationalist forces. In a sense, the Nationalists did not evenly distribute their forces, which created pocket holes in their encirclement. The Nationalists were also easily distracted by small Communist forces used to draw attention away from their main forces. The communist was able to locate the relatively weaker defended points of the Nationalist defense and break them. Communists also engaged in close-quarters combat in order to limit the power of the Nationalist artillery and air force, making them less effective than they could have been.
Prelude[edit]
The communist base in this region was established in the middle of World War II along the border area of the Hubei, Hunan, Henan, Jiangxi, and Anhui provinces after the communists had successfully driven Japanese forces from the countryside and remote mountainous regions. After the end of World War II, the returning nationalists were determined to eliminate the communists in the region. After more than 240 offensives with a mobilized force of 300,000, they had successfully blockaded the communist base and divided it into three isolated pieces. The nationalist headquarters at Zhengzhou was tasked with the job to eliminate the enemy in the region with the help of the nationalist Wuhan headquarters.
In mid-June 1946, Chiang Kai-shek issued a secret order to the Liu Zhi (刘峙), the nationalist Commander-in-chief of Zhengzhou headquarters and Cheng Qian (
Order of battle[edit]
The nationalists mobilized roughly 300,000 troops for the planned elimination of the communists and the subsequent occupation of their base. The communists planned to leave over half of their 60,000 strong force in the region to fight the guerrilla war after the other half had withdrawn.
Encirclement force: nationalist order of battle[edit]
- Commander-in-chief of Zhengzhou Headquarters: Liu Zhi 刘峙
- Commander-in-chief of Wuhan Headquarters: Cheng Qian
程 潜
Breakout force: communist order of battle[edit]
The communists called their base the Central Plains Military Region with a total force of 60,000, including two columns and three military districts totaling six division-strength brigades:
Central Plains Military Region prior to the breakout:
- Commander-in-chief: Li Xiannian
- Deputy commander-in-chief: Wang Zhen and Wan Shusheng (
王 树声) - Political commissar: Zheng Weisan (郑位
三 ) - Deputy political commissar: (
王 首 道 ) - Chief-of-staff: Wang Zhen
- Deputy Chief-of-staff: Zhu Zaoguan (
朱 早 观) - Chief of the Political Directorate: Wan Shoudao (
王 首 道 ) - Deputy Chief of the Political Directorate: Liu Xing (刘型)
- First Column:
- Commander-in-chief: Wang Shusheng (
王 树声) - Political commissar: Dai Jiying (戴季
英 )
- Commander-in-chief: Wang Shusheng (
- Second Column:
- Commander-in-chief: Wen Jianwu(
文 建 武 ) - Political Commissar: (
任 质斌)
- Commander-in-chief: Wen Jianwu(
- Jianghan (
江 汉) Military District:- Commander-in-chief: Luo Houfu (罗厚
福 ) - Political Commissar: Wen Minsheng (
文敏 生 )
- Commander-in-chief: Luo Houfu (罗厚
- Eastern Hubei Military District:
- Commander-in-chief: Zhang Tixue (张体
学 ) - Political Commissar: Nie Hongjun (聂鸿钧)
- Commander-in-chief: Zhang Tixue (张体
- Henan Military District:
- Commander-in-chief and Political Commissar: Huang Lin (
黄 霖)
- Commander-in-chief and Political Commissar: Huang Lin (
While the negotiation with the nationalists for the legal withdraw continued, preparation was also made for the inevitable, and the communist force was restructured into three groups for the breakout:
- Right Route Force: 15,000 troops under the command of Li Xiannian, consisted of:
- Left Route Force: 10,000 troops under the command of Wang Shusheng (
王 树声) and Liu Zijiu (刘子久 ), consisted of: - Eastern Route Force: 7,000 troops commanded by the commander Pi Dingjun (
皮 定 钧) and political commissar Xu Zirong (徐 子 荣).- The 1st Brigade of the 1st Column
- The remaining of units were tasked to cover the main force to break out and then remain in the region afterward to fight guerrilla wars against the enemy, and the majority of the forces of the Jianghan (
江 汉) Military District would withdraw to the west of the Xiang River (襄 河 ).
Strategies[edit]
The nationalist strategy[edit]
The nationalist commander-in-chief of the operation Liu Zhi 刘峙 made the following plans: The nationalist 41st Division guarding Xuchang, Queshan and Minggang was deployed to Xinyang and Luo Mountain (Luo Shan, 罗山) to take regions included Hill Mountain Gate (Gang Shan Meng, 岗山门), Dragon Town (Long Zhen, 龙镇), Light Mountain (Guang Shan,
The nationalist 72nd Division guarding Huang'an (
A portion of the nationalist 169th Brigade, the 3rd Division and the 75th Division were taken for support. Liu Zhi 刘峙, the nationalist commander-in-chief of the operation was confident that the first full scale confrontation between Chiang Kai-shek and his communist enemy of the Chinese Civil War in the post-World War II era would result in a decisive nationalist victory. The deployment of the nationalist force was concentrated in the eastern direction, which appeared to be the most obvious direction that the enemy would be likely to take.
Communist strategy[edit]
The communists were initially divided on the withdrawal strategy. On June 2, 1946, the political commissar, Zheng Weisan (郑位
In accordance with the instructions from Yan'an, the local communists made the decision to break out westward with the bulk of the existing force. There were two parts of the plan: the first was to push toward regions via Inner Township County (Nei Xiang,
To carry out the plan, the communist force was divided into three forces along different routes. The communist Right Route Force would attempt to break out in northwestern direction to reach the communist base in the border area of Hubei, Henan and Shaanxi provinces after crossing the Beijing–Hankou railroad between Xinyang and Guangshui. The communist Left Route Force would attempt to break out in a southwestern direction by crossing the same railroad between Garden (Huayua,
The initial stage[edit]
On June 26, 1946, the full scale Chinese Civil War had formally begun when the nationalists begun their attack on Xuanhua Hotel (Xuanhua Dian,
The Right Route[edit]
On June 26, 1946, the communist Right Route force departed from Xuanhua Hotel (Xuanhua Dian,
On July 3, 1946, the nationalist order the 3rd Brigade of the 3rd Division and the 41st Division to the regions of Li Mountain (Li Shan, 厉山), High City (Gao Cheng,
To distract the nationalists, the communists decided to split into two columns. The left column consisted of the 45th Regiment of the 15th Brigade and the 13th Brigade of the communist 2nd Column totaling 7,000 people, and would march toward the region of Nanhua Pound (Nan Hua Tang,
In the meantime, the nationalists made new plans for setting up a third trap for the communists by deploying the 3rd Division, 15th Division, 41st Division, and the 47th Division in regions south of Nanyang, Henan, Zhenping (镇平), Inner Township County (Nei Xiang,
The Right Column[edit]
The nationalist force consisted of the 124th Brigade of the 41st Division, the 125th Brigade of the 47th Division, and the Western Nanyang Security Regiment. It had managed to control all of the crossing points along the Dan River, including Xichuan (淅川), Stirrup Shop (Madeng Pu, 马蹬辅) and Official Li's Bridge (Li Guan Qiao,
On July 15, 1946, when the communist 359th Brigade had reached Jingzi Pass (Jingzi Guang, 荆紫关), the nationalists in pursuit caught up with the communists. It was obvious that the communists were unable to take the Jingzi Pass (Jingzi Guang, 荆紫关) which was guarded by an overwhelming nationalist force and the communist 359th Brigade was in danger of being wiped out. Wang Zhen, the communist commander decided to turn south and cross the Dan River (Dan Jiang,
As the nationalists scrambled their forces to follow Wang Zhen's communist force southwestward, Wang Zhen unexpectedly turned again toward Abalone Ridge (Baoyu Ling, 鲍鱼岭), south of Jingzi Pass (Jingzi Guang, 荆紫关). They defeated the nationalist 1st Brigade of the 1st Division that attempted to stop them in the region between Abalone Ridge (Baoyu Ling, 鲍鱼岭) and Nanhua Pound (Nan Hua Tang,
The Left Column[edit]
On July 17, 1946, the communist left column reached the Nanhua Pound (Nan Hua Tang,
The situation was apparent to both sides and Li Xiannian made plans to open the path to Shaanxi for the communists by defeating the nationalist 1st Division first. The 37th Regiment of the communist 13th Brigade was to attack the enemy while the 39th Regiment was to outflank the enemy from the left, while the 38th Regiment was to provide cover at the right flank of the 37th Regiment. After a fierce battle that lasted the entire night, the nationalist 1st Division was once again beaten by the enemy before the other two nationalist divisions could catch up and participate in the fight, and the communists successfully continued their westward march afterward.
On July 20, 1946, when the communist left column reached the region of Zhao Family's River (Zhao Jia Chuan, 赵家
Left Route[edit]
On June 25, 1946, the communist Left Route force left the Pobo (泼陂) River and White Sparrow Garden (Baique Yuan,
The communists of the Left Route had not escaped danger yet, and they still had to cross the Xiang (
However, such setback turned out to be a blessing for the communists who were cut off on the eastern bank of Xiang (
The main communist force of the Left Route Force consisted of units that had successfully crossed the Xiang (
Eastern route[edit]
In accordance with the original plan, the communist 1st Brigade of the 1st Column faked itself as the communist main force at White Sparrow Garden (Baique Yuan,
By July 1, 1946, the communist 1st Brigade of the 1st Column had reached another chokepoint of the link in between the Hubei and Henan provinces in Merchant City (Shang Cheng,
The victory of the Green Wind Ridge enabled the communists to control the high ground directly opposite to the Mozi Deep Pool (Mozi Tan,
Outcome[edit]
Although the communist success appeared to be nothing short of a miracle, in reality, nothing could be further from the truth because the nationalist attempt to eliminate the communist in the North China Plain was doomed to fail from the very beginning due to various blunders Chiang Kai-shek had made, and one of the first was that the failure to realize the political fallout of the militarily sensible action. The nationalists had made a military sensible decision in attacking the enemy in the region when it was the weakest, and successfully broken up the enemy base into three isolated parts. However, the timing was extremely poor because the 240+ assaults on the enemy base came shortly after the truce agreement was reached between the nationalists and the communists, and the full-scale civil war had not broken out yet. In contrast, the enemy with absolutely technical and numerical disadvantage, dared not to provoke the nationalists, and instead, wisely chose to give up the communist base and requested to legally withdraw under the nationalist government's permission. The nationalist regime of course rejected the communist request, since it was on the verge of wiping out the enemy in the region, or at least so they thought, but in doing so, the nationalists had further alienated themselves from the general populace, which was already sympathetic toward the communists in the region due to the nationalist breach of the truce when they attacked the numerically and technically inferior local communists who wisely chose to avoid any provocation of its own. The sentiment was still widely held by the general civilian population, especially in the local regions when the full scale Chinese Civil War had broken out, and the military sensible alternative had put the nationalists in a dilemma because of the political fallout due to the nationalists military actions before the breakout of the full-scale civil war.
If the bad timing of the nationalist assaults on the much weaker enemy had alienated the civilian populace, especially in the regions where this campaign was fought, the location the nationalists chose certainly turned the alienations into resentment against the nationalist regime. This communist base in the North China Plain bordering the Henan-Anhui-Hubei-Hunan-Jiangxi provinces was established in the latter stages of World War II, after the communists had successfully driven the Japanese from the countryside. The local population had already blamed nationalists for losing the regions to the Japanese invaders, and supported the only Chinese force left in the region, the communists who had successfully establishing bases mostly in the rural regions where better life was provided to the general populace in comparison to that of Japanese occupied regions, and instead of attacking the enemy in regions where at least there were some forms of the nationalists presence during World War II so that there were some legitimacy and popular support, the nationalist assaults on this regions with absolutely no nationalist presence during the war not only caused them the popular support, but also turned the local popular opinion against the nationalists.
Chiang Kai-shek and his supporters were well aware of these two political fallouts but nonetheless took the risk by launching their offensives as planned. The nationalist sympathizers argued that despite the dilemma, Chiang had to proceed due to the immediate military feasibilities, because if the actions were delayed any longer, the situation might turn for the worse (and this was quite possible in reality) for the nationalists and thus making it much for difficult to eradicate the enemy had the nationalists waited, a chance Chiang simply could not afford to take at the time, and this valid argument was even agreed by the enemy they were fighting. Unfortunately for Chiang Kai-shek (and thus fortunately for his communist enemy), the nationalist gamble did not pay off.
The biggest blunder committed by the nationalists, however, was the deployment of troops due to Chiang Kai-shek's attempt to simultaneously solve the warlord problem that had plagued China for so long and the problem of the extermination of communism together, which proved to be a fatal mistake. In accordance with Chiang's attempt, a significant portion of the nationalist troops deployed in this campaign were those belonged to warlords from Guangxi and Hunan. This created two serious consequences that caused the nationalist the possible victory, and the first had to do with the earlier history of the warlord era in China.
During the warlord era before World War II, the region was ravaged by the continuous fighting among the warlords of various provinces, and warlords from Guangxi and Hunan caused most damages, and was thus mostly hated by the local populace. Of course, none of the warlords had ever specifically targeted the local regions for destruction, but due to the strategic location of the area, it was destined to become the battlefield whenever the warlords were embroiled in fights for more turfs. Instead of deploying his own troops which would certainly rally more support for the nationalists, Chiang Kai-shek deployed the troops belonged to the most hated warlord cliques by the local population, Guangxi and Hunan, and allowed these warlords to dominate the region after the campaign. As a result, when the two previous nationalist blunders on the time of the offensive and the location of the offensive had turned the local populace from alienation to resentment, this third blunder had certainly turned the local population against the nationalists by driven their support firmly to the enemy side, and not only this contributed to the nationalist failure of this campaign, but it also paved the way for another nationalist defeat in the Campaign of Marching into the Dabie Mountains when enemy returned to the region a year later.
The deployment of the warlords' troops also serious hindered the nationalist attempt to eradicate the enemy in that the warlords' objectives were completely different from that of Chiang Kai-shek. In contrast to Chiang Kai-shek's objective of exterminating the enemy within the region, the warlords' objective was purely eradication instead of extermination. Due to the worry (with justification) of Chiang Kai-shek's attempt to simultaneously solve the warlord problem that had plagued China for so long and the problem of the extermination of communism together, the warlords were well aware that their own forces will be significantly reduced if they were really to fight the enemy and once the enemy were exterminated as Chiang Kai-shek had hoped, their forces would be sent elsewhere in China to fight the communists. Consequently, their power and turfs would significantly reduced or even lost completely as the military strength was diminished. On the other hand, if the enemy were allowed to escape unharmed, they would create problem for Chiang Kai-shek in other part of the China and thus Chiang would not have the resource to confront the warlords. Furthermore, as the enemy was allowed to escape unscratched in the region, Chiang Kai-shek's own troops would be forced to bear the brunt of the fighting while the warlords would consolide the power in the newly gained territories. As a result, just like in the Long March, the warlords' had never put any real effort to fight the enemy and the majority of the nationalist casualties in this campaign were among Chiang Kai-shek's own troops.
Again, Chiang Kai-shek and his followers were well aware the drawbacks of deploying warlords' troops but went on with the plan anyway, but Chiang Kai-shek did it for a reason, and in fact, a rather very good reason. As Chiang's sympathizers had accurately pointed out (and again agreed by Chiang's communist adversaries), it was already extremely difficult to convince the warlords to deploy their troops outside their own turfs into this region, and any further attempts to deploy their forces further away to exchange for Chiang's own troops being sent to this region would be impossible. As demonstrated later during the Chinese Civil War, the warlords would often simply refuse to take the commands or send their own troops during the campaigns and battles just to keep their own strength.
The last blunder the nationalists made was their infatuation with holding on to as much land as possible, which resulted in insufficient force to complete the planned mission. Although more than 300,000 nationalist troops were mobilized in this campaign, around two-thirds of them were deployed to guard the newly conquered land. As the enemy left more than half of its original strength in the region to fight the guerrilla warfare, these troops were tied down, because it was difficult to exterminate the elusive enemy and safeguard the territory at the same time when a static defense posture was adopted in order to hold on to the land. In the meantime, the remaining mobile strike force was insufficient to exterminate the main force of the enemy attempting to breakout, thus neither the extermination of the enemy nor the long-term safeguard of the newly conquered territory could be effectively achieved. Although the nationalists failed to eliminate the enemy, they did succeed in eradicating the enemy and temporarily taking the enemy base in the region, though this success was negated by the political fallouts such as failing to achieve its original objective of exterminating the enemy within the region in this first campaign of the full scale Chinese Civil War after World War II.
The communists, in contrast, did not have the dilemmas of the nationalists and benefited greatly from the nationalist blunders, and thus successfully escaped the nationalist encirclement. In carrying out their plans for the breakout, the communists successfully escaped in the directions where the nationalists totally unexpected and thus achieving surprise, and once the nationalists had realized what was happening, it was too late to redeploy their troops to make up for their misjudgements. Proportionally, the communist had suffered much greater loss because although the number of casualties are the same of both sides, the nationalists had five times more troops than the communists. However, this setback for the communists was minor in comparison to the strategic success of the breakout, and along with the Dingtao Campaign and the Central Jiangsu Campaign, this campaign was one of these three critical ones that helped to stabilize the southern front for the communists in the initial stage of the Chinese Civil War.
See also[edit]
- Outline of the Chinese Civil War
- National Revolutionary Army
- History of the People's Liberation Army
References[edit]
- Zhu, Zongzhen and Wang, Chaoguang, Liberation War History, 1st Edition, Social Scientific Literary Publishing House in Beijing, 2000, ISBN 7-80149-207-2 (set)
- Zhang, Ping, History of the Liberation War, 1st Edition, Chinese Youth Publishing House in Beijing, 1987, ISBN 7-5006-0081-X (pbk.)
- Jie, Lifu, Records of the Liberation War: The Decisive Battle of Two Kinds of Fates, 1st Edition, Hebei People's Publishing House in Shijiazhuang, 1990, ISBN 7-202-00733-9 (set)
- Literary and Historical Research Committee of the Anhui Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, Liberation War, 1st Edition, Anhui People's Publishing House in Hefei, 1987, ISBN 7-212-00007-8
- Li, Zuomin, Heroic Division and Iron Horse: Records of the Liberation War, 1st Edition, Chinese Communist Party History Publishing House in Beijing, 2004, ISBN 7-80199-029-3
- Wang, Xingsheng, and Zhang, Jingshan, Chinese Liberation War, 1st Edition, People's Liberation Army Literature and Art Publishing House in Beijing, 2001, ISBN 7-5033-1351-X (set)
- Huang, Youlan, History of the Chinese People's Liberation War, 1st Edition, Archives Publishing House in Beijing, 1992, ISBN 7-80019-338-1
- Liu Wusheng, From Yan'an to Beijing: A Collection of Military Records and Research Publications of Important Campaigns in the Liberation War, 1st Edition, Central Literary Publishing House in Beijing, 1993, ISBN 7-5073-0074-9
- Tang, Yilu and Bi, Jianzhong, History of Chinese People's Liberation Army in Chinese Liberation War, 1st Edition, Military Scientific Publishing House in Beijing, 1993 – 1997, ISBN 7-80021-719-1 (Volum 1), 7800219615 (Volum 2), 7800219631 (Volum 3), 7801370937 (Volum 4), and 7801370953 (Volum 5)