Campaign to Suppress Bandits in Western Hunan

Infobox Military Conflict
conflict= Campaign to Suppress Bandits in Western Hunan
partof=the Chinese Civil War
place=Western Hunan, China
date=October 15, 1950 - December, 1953
result=Communist victory
combatant1=

combatant2=

commander1=

Jiang Xieqin 蒋燮琴
commander2=

Cao Lihuai 曹里怀
Liu Xianquan 刘贤权
strength1= 23,000+
strength2= 40,000
casualties1= 23,000+
casualties2= Minor|

Campaign to Suppress Bandits in Western Hunan (湘西剿匪) was a counter-guerrilla / counterinsurgency campaign the communists fought against the Kuomintang guerrilla left behind after the nationalist regime withdrew from mainland China. The campaign was fought during the Chinese Civil War in the post-World War II era in western Hunan Province, and resulted in communist victory. This campaign was part of Campaign to Suppress Bandits in Central and Southern China.

Prelude

After most part of Hunan had fallen into communist hands, the surviving nationalist troops joined bandits in the period from June, 1950 – September, 1950 in western Hunan to continue their anticommunist struggles and reorganized into the Anticommunist National Salvation Army totaling more than 23,000 troops, controlling regions with more than a million population.

After communists secured central Hunan, they turned their attention to western Hunan and begun to plan the complete eradication of bandits in the region. A total of more than 40,000 troops were mobilized, mostly from the Hunan Military District of the communist Central and Southern China Military Region. Troops of the communist 47th Army, 136th Division, and other communist detachments in the adjacent provinces including that of Sichuan, Hubei and Guizhou were assigned to two commands, the northern command and the southern command, respectively commanded by the communist Western Hunan Military District commander-in-chief Cao Lihuai (曹里怀) and deputy commander-in-chief Liu Xianquan (刘贤权).

Campaign

The campaign was fought in two stages, with the first stage lasted from October 15, 1950 – November 15, 1950. The communists amassed a total of ten regiments to first attack bandits in northern region of western Hunan based in the Dragon (Long, 龙) Mountains. After ten days of continuous attacks, the local bandits were completely annihilated. A half a month long mop up operation continued finally resulted in annihilation over four thousand bandits. In the south, on October 20, 1950, communists took the town of Suining (绥宁) and Jing (靖) County occupied by the bandits and surrounded over six thousands bandits by cutting off their escape route to the north. After fierce battles which ended on November 15, 1950, over fifty-five hundreds bandits were annihilated, and Jiang Xieqin (蒋燮琴), the local nationalist commander-in-chief of the Third Front Army of the Southern China Anticommunist National Salvation Army was captured alive.

The second stage of the campaign begun in mid-November, 1950. Communists deployed a total of eleven regiments, seven of which were assigned to conduct local mopping up operations. Another four communist regiments attacked and took regions including Nine Dragons Mountain (Jiulongshan, 九龙山), Phoenix (凤凰), Mayang, (麻阳), Huang (晃) County, and Passage (Tongdao, 通道), and by the end of December, 1950, the local bandits were completely annihilated. The campaign concluded with communist victory and the complete elimination of the problem of bandits that plagued western Hunan for several centuries.

ee also

*List of Battles of Chinese Civil War
*National Revolutionary Army
*History of the People's Liberation Army
*Chinese Civil War

References

*Zhu, Zongzhen and Wang, Chaoguang, "Liberation War History", 1st Edition, Social Scientific Literary Publishing House in Beijing, 2000, ISBN 7801492072 (set)
*Zhang, Ping, "History of the Liberation War", 1st Edition, Chinese Youth Publishing House in Beijing, 1987, ISBN 750060081X (pbk.)
*Jie, Lifu, "Records of the Libration War: The Decisive Battle of Two Kinds of Fates", 1st Edition, Hebei People's Publishing House in Shijiazhuang, 1990, ISBN 7202007339 (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 7212000078
*Li, Zuomin, "Heroic Division and Iron Horse: Records of the Liberation War", 1st Edition, Chinese Communist Party History Publishing House in Beijing, 2004, ISBN 7801990293
*Wang, Xingsheng, and Zhang, Jingshan, "Chinese Liberation War", 1st Edition, People's Liberation Army Literature and Art Publishing House in Beijing, 2001, ISBN 750331351X (set)
*Huang, Youlan, "History of the Chinese People's Liberation War", 1st Edition, Archives Publishing House in Beijing, 1992, ISBN 7800193381
*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 7507300749
*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 7800217191 (Volum 1), 7800219615 (Volum 2), 7800219631 (Volum 3), 7801370937 (Volum 4), and 7801370953 (Volum 5)