- Jing Shan–Zhongxiang Campaign
Infobox Military Conflict
conflict=Jing Shan –Zhongxiang Campaign
partof=Chinese Civil War
place=Hubei ,China
date=December 20 ,1947 - June, 1948
result=communist victory
combatant1=
combatant2=
commander1= ?
commander2= Zhang Caiqian 张才千
strength1= 1 Division
strength2= 1 IndependentBrigade
casualties1= > 1,000
casualties2= ?|Jing Shan –Zhongxiang Campaign (京钟战役) was half a year long struggle inHubei between the nationalists and thecommunist s for the control ofJing Shan andZhongxiang regions during theChinese Civil War and resulted incommunist victory.In the second half of 1947,
Liu Bocheng ,Deng Xiaoping andLi Xiannian decided to reestablish Jianghan (江汉) Military Region by combining thecommunist 5th Division from southernShaanxi and thecommunist force in westernHubei in theDabie Mountains , and Zhao Jimei (赵基梅) was named as the first commander. OnDecember 14 ,1947 , under the new commander Zhang Caiqian (张才千), thecommunist force crossed theBeijing –Hankou railroad to strengthen their positions, and onDecember 20 ,1947 , the 1stRegiment of thecommunist IndependentBrigade launched its assault onJing Shan . Faced with overwhelming enemy force, the securitybattalion guarding the city was forced to retreat without a fight, but in the haste of retreat, the nationalists failed to destroy abundant provisions stocked in the city, and thus provided the enemy with great resources, which proved to be fatal for the nationalists in the subsequent battles in the region.At 3:00 AM on
December 22 ,1947 , thecommunist s concentrated their forces by gathering threeregiment s to start their march towardZhongxiang . The nationalist force was scattered to defend other isolated positions and thus was not able to regroup and reinforce theZhongxiang which was defended by a singleregiment . After an hour of fierce battle, all of the nationalist positions in the outskirt of the city fell and being cutoff by the attack enemy, the surviving defenders of these positions were forced to retreat to other directions instead of back into the city.After witness the annihilation of the defenders outside the city wall, the defenders inside the city wall attempted to breakout via the south gate, but they were beaten back into the city. At 4:00 PM, the final assault on the city begun under the cover of shelling of the nationalist positions from several dozen artillery pieces and
machine gun fire from over 90machine gun s. The defenders were completely suppressed and the attacking enemy was able to breach the city wall at places of White Tiger Hall (Bai Hu Tang, 白虎堂) and Fuying Hall (Fu Yin Hall, 福音堂). The enemy assault team was able to subsequently breach the defense at the Great East Gate of the city wall, enabling the main force of the attacking enemy to enter the city via the gap. After several hours of brave and desperate but futile street fighting put up by the nationalists, the defenders were completely wiped out by the enemy before dusk. Thecommunist s gathered 367 cadavers of the nationalist defenders in the battle to takeZhongxiang .After the battle, the
communist s abandoned the city onDecember 25 ,1947 according to the plan, and retreated to countryside with abundant provisions captured. The nationalists returned to the empty city on{December 29 , 1947, but the city was looted clean by the enemy, thus severely limiting the nationalist capabilities for any future operations. In contrary, thecommunist s used the abundant supplies captured to boost their strength and solidify their gains in the rural regions surrounding the city, and it was only a matter of time before they retake the city. The nationalists forced on the defensive were incapable of stopping the enemy and in June, 1948,Zhongxiang fell for the second time, and this time for good, with the nationalists being permanently driven out.The
communist victory rooted in the correct strategy of controlling the rural regions surrounding the cities first, and then to take the cities with isolated enemy garrisons. The nationalists, in contrary, managed to avoid heavy loss in the initial stage by not engaging the overwhelmingly strong enemy, but in doing so, allowed the enemy to loot important provisions in great quantity when they failed to destroy any provisions in retreats. As a result, the numerically superior nationalist force was not able to sustain themselves for any prolonged operations outside the city walls due to insufficient supply, and was thus gradually reduced in numbers in many small but consecutive engagements as the well supplied enemy attacked.ee also
*List of battles of the Chinese Civil War
*National Revolutionary Army
*History of the People's Liberation Army
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