Campaign to Suppress Bandits in Dabieshan was a counter-guerrilla / counterinsurgency campaign the

communists Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a s ...

fought against the

nationalist Nationalism is an idea and movement that holds that the nation should be congruent with the state. As a movement, nationalism tends to promote the interests of a particular nation (as in a group of people), Smith, Anthony. ''Nationalism: Th ...

guerrilla that was mostly consisted of bandits and nationalist regular troops left behind after the nationalist regime withdrew from mainland China. The campaign was fought during the

Chinese Civil War The Chinese Civil War was fought between the Kuomintang-led government of the Republic of China and forces of the Chinese Communist Party, continuing intermittently since 1 August 1927 until 7 December 1949 with a Communist victory on m ...

in the post-

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

era in the region of Dabieshan (大别山, literally meaning Great Departure Mountain) and resulted in communist victory. This campaign was part of Campaign to Suppress Bandits in Central and Southern China.

Order of battle

Nationalist (17,000 total): *People's Self-Defense Army of the

Hubei Hubei (; ; alternately Hupeh) is a landlocked province of the People's Republic of China, and is part of the Central China region. The name of the province means "north of the lake", referring to its position north of Dongting Lake. The ...

–

Henan Henan (; or ; ; alternatively Honan) is a landlocked province of China, in the central part of the country. Henan is often referred to as Zhongyuan or Zhongzhou (), which literally means "central plain" or "midland", although the name is al ...

–

Anhui Anhui , (; formerly romanized as Anhwei) is a landlocked province of the People's Republic of China, part of the East China region. Its provincial capital and largest city is Hefei. The province is located across the basins of the Yangtze River ...

Border Region Communist (30,000 total): *71st Division of the 24th Army *126th Division of the 42nd Army *Two garrison brigades of the Northern

Military District *Three regiments of the

Military District *Independent 3rd Division of

Military District *Units of

Huanggang Huanggang is a prefecture-level city in easternmost Hubei Province, China. It is situated to the north of the middle reaches of the Yangtze River and is bounded in the north by the Dabie Mountains and is named after Mount Huanggang. It border ...

Military Sub-District

Campaign

In order to eradicate the 17,000 strong People's Self-Defense Army of the

–

Border Region (the nationalist guerrilla consisted of mostly bandits) under the command of Wang Zongxian (汪宪及) Fan Xun (樊迅) in the Dabie Mountain, communists deployed over 30,000 troops including 71st Division of the 24th Army, the 126th Division of the 42nd Army, two garrison brigades of the Northern

Military District, three regiments of the

Military District, the Independent 3rd Division of

Military District, and units of

Military Sub-District. A new command was created as the

–

Border Region Bandit Eradication Command. The communist second commander-in-chief of

Military District of Central China Military Region, Wang Shusheng (王树声) was named as both the commander-in-chief and the political commissar of the newly formed command in August 1949, and he was later to be awarded with rank of Senior General in 1955. On August 10, 1949, the communists made up their strategy in attacking the enemy in three fronts: east, west and south. On September 5, 1949, communists launched their simultaneous attacks on the nationalist guerrilla mostly consisted of bandits and the nationalist stronghold Golden Camp, (Jinzhai, 金寨) county fell into the communist hands on the same day. The bandits attempted to fight a guerrilla war in smaller formations and communists countered by eliminating their adversary's guerilla bases in regions including Liangban (两畈) precinct of Golden Camp, (Jinzhai, 金寨), Green (青) precinct of Shangcheng (商城) county, Muzi Shop (木子店) of

Macheng Macheng () is a city in northeastern Hubei province, People's Republic of China, bordering the provinces of Henan to the north and Anhui to the northeast. It is a county-level city under the administration of Huanggang City and abuts the south sid ...

(麻城) county,. Communists in the eastern front attacked regions around Golden Camp, (Jinzhai, 金寨) county and Gushi (固始). On September 30, 1949, the nationalist guerrilla headquarter in Hat Top Mountain (Maodingshan 帽顶山) 30 km to the south of Golden Camp, (Jinzhai, 金寨) was discovered by a detachment of the communist 71st Division, who immediately attacked and annihilated the nationalist guerrilla consisted of mostly bandits. Soon after, another 1,700 bandits under the command of nationalist commanders Zhang Lianhe (张连合) and Wang Yaonan (汪耀南) were completely annihilated by the communists. The nationalist commander-in-chief Wang Zongxian (汪宪及) and the first deputy commander-in-chief Fan Xun (樊迅) of the local nationalist guerrilla command were both captured alive. In the meantime, communist force at the northern front concentrated attack in the region to the south of Shangcheng (商城) county, annihilated more than a thousand local bandits, including their commander, Feng Chunbo (冯春波). Communist force at the southern front concentrated on the regions including Golden Camp, (Jinzhai, 金寨), Hemp City (Macheng, 麻城) county, and Luotian (罗田), annihilated over 1,200 bandits under the command of Zhou Xiangbo (周香波) and Rao Guodong,(饶国栋). By the end of November 1949, over 12,000 nationalists had been killed or captured, and nationalist force with strength over 100 troops no longer existed in the region, and the large scale military operation had thus turned into mop up operations of much less scale, with much increased political and propaganda pressure, which lasted until the end of the campaign.

Conclusion

In March 1953, the Campaign to Suppress Bandits in Dabieshan ended with communist victory. In addition to completely annihilating over 15,400 nationalist guerrilla troops, the communists also succeeded in capturing 81 artillery pieces, 13,883 firearms, and large amount of supplies.

References

*Zhu, Zongzhen and Wang, Chaoguang, ''Liberation War History'', 1st Edition, Social Scientific Literary Publishing House in

Beijing } Beijing ( ; ; ), alternatively romanized as Peking ( ), is the capital of the People's Republic of China. It is the center of power and development of the country. Beijing is the world's most populous national capital city, with over 21 ...

, 2000, (set) *Zhang, Ping, ''History of the Liberation War'', 1st Edition, Chinese Youth Publishing House in

, 1987, (pbk.) *Jie, Lifu, ''Records of the Liberation War: The Decisive Battle of Two Kinds of Fates'', 1st Edition,

Hebei Hebei or , (; alternately Hopeh) is a northern province of China. Hebei is China's sixth most populous province, with over 75 million people. Shijiazhuang is the capital city. The province is 96% Han Chinese, 3% Manchu, 0.8% Hui, and 0 ...

People's Publishing House in Shijiazhuang, 1990, (set) *Literary and Historical Research Committee of the

Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, ''Liberation War'', 1st Edition,

People's Publishing House in Hefei, 1987, *Li, Zuomin, ''Heroic Division and Iron Horse: Records of the Liberation War'', 1st Edition,

Chinese Communist The Chinese Communist Party (CCP), officially the Communist Party of China (CPC), is the founding and sole ruling party of the People's Republic of China (PRC). Under the leadership of Mao Zedong, the CCP emerged victorious in the Chinese Civil ...

Party History Publishing House in

, 2004, *Wang, Xingsheng, and Zhang, Jingshan, ''Chinese Liberation War'', 1st Edition, People's Liberation Army Literature and Art Publishing House in

, 2001, (set) *Huang, Youlan, ''History of the Chinese People's Liberation War'', 1st Edition, Archives Publishing House in

, 1992, *Liu Wusheng, ''From

Yan'an Yan'an (; ), alternatively spelled as Yenan is a prefecture-level city in the Shaanbei region of Shaanxi province, China, bordering Shanxi to the east and Gansu to the west. It administers several counties, including Zhidan (formerly Bao'an) ...

: A Collection of Military Records and Research Publications of Important Campaigns in the Liberation War'', 1st Edition, Central Literary Publishing House in

, 1993, *Tang, Yilu and Bi, Jianzhong, ''History of Chinese People's Liberation Army in Chinese Liberation War'', 1st Edition, Military Scientific Publishing House in

, 1993 – 1997, (Volum 1), 7800219615 (Volum 2), 7800219631 (Volum 3), 7801370937 (Volum 4), and 7801370953 (Volum 5) {{DEFAULTSORT:Campaign To Suppress Bandits In Dabieshan Dabieshan Conflicts in 1949 Conflicts in 1950 1949 in China 1950 in China Campaigns to Suppress Bandits

Order of battle

Campaign

Conclusion

See also

References