Battle of Siping

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Battle of Siping

Date	March 15, 1946 - March 17, 1946
Location	Siping (city), Jilin, China
Result	Communist victory

Combatants

National Revolutionary Army

Chinese Red Army

Commanders

Liu Handong 刘瀚东

Wan Yi 万毅

Strength

3,000

6,000

Casualties

3,000

235

The Battle of Siping (四平战斗) is also frequently called the Battle to Liberate Siping (四平解放战) by the communists, and it was a battle fought between the communists and the nationalists in Jilin, China for the control of Siping (city) during the Chinese Civil War immediately after the Red Army withdraw from the city in March, 1946, and resulted in communist victory.

On January 8, 1946, Liu Handong 刘瀚东 the commander of the nationalist 107th Division with over a hundred associates reached Siping (city) to discuss the transfer to the Chinese administration of the city with the Red Army, which was still occupying the city at the time. On January 10, 1946, the nationalists formed the Liaobei (辽北) Province, and Liu Handong 刘瀚东 was named as the chairman of the province, and the nationalist provincial governmental member Li Chongguo (李充国) was named as the mayor of Siping (city). As for most of cases, the nationalist regime simply had neither the sufficient troops nor enough transportation assets to deploy his troops into the former Japanese-occupied regions of China, and a mere 100 or so nationalists certainly could not hold the city long enough until the arrival of the major nationalist force. Out of desperation, the first nationalist arrival recruited bandits in the region including bandits from Good Under the Heaven (Tian Xia Hao, 天下好) and Flying Over the Grass (草上飞) Gang as the nationalist local garrison by paying them off, and hoped that these newly organized troops would be enough to secure the region until the arrival of the nationalist main force. However, such move had greatly angered the local populace who had already blamed the nationalists for losing the region to the Japanese invaders, and the nationalists lost the popular support in the local region, especially when these bandits had fought nationalists both prior and during the war, plus they had cooperated with the Japanese invaders. Out of desperation, the nationalists had made an equally disastrous blunder of recruiting the former Japanese puppet regime force such as the Iron Stone Units (Tie Shi Bu Dui, 铁石部队) as local nationalist garrison, which only further deepened the hatred toward the nationalist regime from the local populace who suffered greatly under these Japanese puppet regime force and their former Japanese masters.

On January 25, 1946, the Lü Zhengcao (吕正操), the commander-in-chief of the communist Western Manchurian Military District and Li Fuchun (李富春), the political commissar of the communist Western Manchurian Military District redeployed the communist 10th Bridage and the 24th Brigade to the Pear Tree (Li Shu, 梨树), Changtu, and Gongzhuling regions surrounding Siping (city). In an attempt to eradicate the enemy and secure the city, the nationalists launched an offensive against the communist in the late February 1946. However, these former bandits turned nationalist forces proved to be absolutely no match for the combat hardened communist veterans of the Second Sino-Japanese War: When the nationalist force consisted of former bandits of Pressuring Nine Dragons (Ya Jiu Long, 压九龙) Gang attacked the communist Siping Group and inflicted more than a dozen fatalities and injured a communist squadron commander Cheng Bizhen (程秉贞), the enemy quickly counterattacked and completely annihilated the attacking nationalists. The failed nationalists attempt provided excellent excuse for the enemy to counterattack, and in a short period of several days, nationalist strongholds at Crouching Tiger Village (Wo Hu Tun, 卧虎屯), Maolin (茂林), Baokang (保康), and Twin Mountains (Shuang Shan, 双山) fell into the enemy hands. All of the nationalist garrisons guarding these strongholds were former bandits froma various gangs, including Old Second Brother (Lao Er Ge, 老二哥) Gang, Seven Stars (Qi Xing Zi, 七星子) Gang, Old Man Smile (Lao Tou Le, 老头乐) Gang, and Nine Provinces (Jiu Sheng, 九省) Gang, and they were completely annihilated. The nationalists were forced on the defensive after their failure in the rural regions and the fighting temporarily stopped.

The clashed resumed immediately after the complete Red Army withdraw from Siping (city) on March 13, 1946. On March 15, 1946, the airport in the western suburb of the city had fallen into the enemy hands, and by the next day, the 6,000-strong enemy force had completed their siege of the city. At 4:00 AM on March 17, 1946, the assault on the city begun. After ten hours of fierce battle, the city had fallen with its entire garrison annihilated. The nationalist commander Liu Handong 刘瀚东 and his deputies, the former bandit chieftains Wang Dahua (王大化) and Wang Yaodong (王耀东) were captured alive, but a few of the defenders including the nationalist chief of security Zhang Dongkai (张东凯) and deputy chief of security Wang Yongqing (王永清) were able to escape by disguising as themselves as beggars. The enemy had also captured 69 machine guns, 32 artillery pieces, over two thousand firearms, near two dozen automobiles, over 300 military horses and large amount of supplies from the nationalist defenders.

The recruitment of bandits as local garrison for the city proved to be a disastrous blunder for the nationalists. Not only the city was lost to the enemy, the nationalists had lost tremendous popular support from local populace as a result. Chiang Kai-shek was furious that the city had fallen, and immediately sent out a large force to retake the city. By March 21, 1946, the nationalists had taken Liaoyang, and by March 22, 1946, the nationalists took Fushun, and then took Tieling. On March 22, 1946, Chiang Kai-shek personally ordered Xiong Shihui (熊式辉), the chief nationalist administrator in Northeast China and Zheng Dongguo (郑洞国), the commander-in-chief of the nationalist force in Northeast China to launch an counteroffensive specifically targeting Siping (city) from Shenyang, and must take Siping (city) before April 2, 1946. The nationalist offensive was spearheaded by the New 1st Army and the 71st Army, and the nationalist deputy commander-in-chief Liang Huasheng (梁华盛) was named as the frontline commander to set up a frontline headquarter at Tieling. However, Chiang’s plan fell apart due to an unexpected enemy – Mother Nature: it was the time when snow melted and the roads turned into mud, bogging down the highly mechanized nationalist force, which could not reach Siping (city) even without any enemy resistance. Additionally, the nationalists would suffer another defeat in Jinjiatun Campaign soon after due to the harsh terrain that was hostile to the highly mechanized force.