The Second Encirclement Campaign against the Honghu Soviet was a series of battles launched by the Chinese Nationalist Government that was intended to destroy communistHonghuSoviet and its Chinese Red Army in the local region. It was responded by the Communists' Second Counter-Encirclement Campaign at Honghu Soviet (Chinese:洪湖苏区第二次反围剿), also called by the communists as the Second Counter-Encirclement Campaign at Honghu Revolutionary Base (Chinese:洪湖革命根据地第二次反围剿), in which the local Chinese Red Army successfully defended their soviet republic in the Honghu region against the Nationalist attacks from 1 March 1931, to early June, 1931.
The Communist Party of China (CPC), also referred to as the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), is the founding and ruling political party of the People's Republic of China. The Communist Party is the sole governing party within mainland China, permitting only eight other, subordinated parties to co-exist, those making up the United Front. It was founded in 1921, chiefly by Chen Duxiu and Li Dazhao. The party grew quickly, and by 1949 it had driven the nationalist Kuomintang (KMT) government from mainland China after the Chinese Civil War, leading to the establishment of the People's Republic of China. It also controls the world's largest armed forces, the People's Liberation Army.
Honghu is a county-level city in the municipal region of Jingzhou, in the south of Hubei province. The city lies on the northwest (left) bank of the Yangtze River, across from Hunan Province and Xianning, Hubei. It is named after the adjacent Hong Lake, which since ancient times has periodically flooded.
Soviets were political organizations and governmental bodies, primarily associated with the Russian Revolutions and the history of the Soviet Union, and which gave the name to the latter state.
After their defeat in the First Encirclement Campaign against Honghu Soviet in early February 1931 and the subsequent forced withdraw to regroup, nationalist forces launched the second encirclement campaign against the communist base in Honghu on 1 March 1931. The nationalists believed that their poorly supplied communist enemy would not have sufficient time to recover from previous battles in the last encirclement campaign, and they must not wait too long to provide more times for their communist enemy. The nationalist commander-in-chief was the same one in the First Encirclement Campaign against Honghu Soviet, the 10th Army commander Xu Yuanquan (徐源泉), whose 10th Army was not deployed directly in the campaign, but instead, deployed some distance away from the battlefield as strategic reserve. The brunt of the fighting was to be carried out mostly by troops of regional warlords who were nominally under the command of Chiang Kai-shek.
The Kuomintang of China is a major political party in the Republic of China on Taiwan, based in Taipei and is currently an opposition political party in the Legislative Yuan.
Encirclement Campaigns were the campaigns launched by forces of the Chinese Nationalist Government against forces of the Communist Party of China during the early stage of the Chinese Civil War.
Chiang Kai-shek, also known as Generalissimo Chiang or Chiang Chungcheng and romanized as Chiang Chieh-shih or Jiang Jieshi, was a politician and military leader who served as the leader of the Republic of China between 1928 and 1975, first in mainland China until 1949 and then in Taiwan until his death. He was recognized by much of the world as the head of the legitimate government of China until 1971, during which the United Nations passed Resolution 2758.
The communists were not jubilant after their victory achieved in First Encirclement Campaign against Honghu Soviet, because they were fully aware the nationalist withdraw was only temporary and it was only matter of time before the nationalists resume their assault on Honghu Soviet. To better prepare the defense of their homebase against the new wave of the imminent nationalist attacks which had already begun, communists restructured their organization in Honghu Soviet. In the early March 1931, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CCoCPC) sent Xià Xī (夏曦) to Honghu Soviet for restructuring. To better coordinate administrative activities, CPC Hunan – Western Hubei Bureau was formed, and to better coordinate political activities, CPC provisional Hunan – Western Hubei provincial committee was formed. To better coordinate military affairs, Revolutionary military committee was formed, and Xià Xī was named as the CPC party secretary of the Hunan – Western Hubei Bureau, and the chairman of the revolutionary military committee. Cui Mei (崔玫) was named as the party secretary of the CPC provisional Hunan – Western Hubei provincial committee, and he was later succeed by Yang Guanghua (杨光华). This restructure of communist party apparatus was proven to be catastrophic later on, when Xià Xī carried out huge purges on local communist ranks, resulting in causing more damage than the military actions taken by their nationalist enemy.
The Central Committee of the Communist Party of China is a political body that comprises the top leaders of the Communist Party of China (CPC). It is currently composed of 205 full members and 171 alternate members. Members are nominally elected once every five years by the National Congress of the Communist Party of China, though in practice the selection process is managed entirely by the party's Politburo and its Standing Committee.
Order of battle
Nationalists:
Newly Organized 11th Division
19th Division
44th Brigade of the 15th Division
2 Brigades (including the 142nd Brigade) of the 48th Division
Newly Organized 2nd Brigade
Newly Organized 3rd Brigade
Communists:
9th Division (Brigade-sized)
Independent Regiment
26th Regiment
Hunan – Western Hubei Garrison Regiment
Mianyang Independent Regiment
Training Regiment
Independent battalions of guerrillas
First stage
On 1 March 1931, the nationalist Newly Organized 11th Division and a brigade of the nationalist 48th Division crossed the Yangtze River and attacked the communist base on the southern bank of the Yangtze River. The local communist force was unable to repel the numerically and technically superior nationalist force, and was forced to fall back, and nationalists took Lotus Pond (Ouchi, 藕池), Stone Head (Shishou, 石首) as a result.
Communists were fully aware that they were no match for the enemy and reasoned that if they were to concentrate their forces and face off the enemy, they would be annihilated. Instead, the communists decided to split their forces into two, operating on both banks of the Yangtze River, and once the nationalists were stretched out too thin, the communists would counterattack. The primary objectives of communists were to defend their base on the southern bank of the Yangtze River, and to reestablish their base in the northern bank of the Yangtze River when possible, and if the enemy was overstretched and provided the needed opportunity, the communist would establish new bases if possible. Under the command of Duan Dechang (段德昌), the communist Independent Regiment and CPC party apparatus crossed the Yangtze River, and began guerrilla warfare in the regions of Qianjiang (潜江), Mianyang (沔阳) and Jiangli (监利), deep behind the nationalist line in the heart of the nationalist-controlled area. Under the command Zhou Yiqun (周逸群), the communist force on the southern bank of the Yangtze River also began guerrilla warfare, and at the same time, a portion of the force penetrated deep into the regions around the Dongting Lake, while another portion of the force escorted the local populace to the Eastern Mountain (Dongshan, 东山) region.
Dongting Lake is a large, shallow lake in northeastern Hunan province, China. It is a flood basin of the Yangtze River. Hence the lake's size depends on the season. The provinces of Hubei and Hunan are named after their location relative to the lake: Hubei means "North of the Lake" and Hunan, "South of the Lake".
Second stage
In early April, 1931, nationalist 142nd Brigade of the 48th Division, 44th Brigade of the 15th Division, Newly Organized 11th Division, and the 19th Division attacked toward Eastern Mountain region from Tiaoxuankou (调弦口), Wanyu (万庾), Huarong County, and Yueyang respectively. After two major clashes at regions of Rape-Turnip Temple (Sanweisi, 三葑寺) and Pine Wood Bridge (Songbanqiao 松板桥), the communist attempt to check the nationalist advance was crashed. Local communist regular army and the communist Huarong Guerrillas were forced to withdrew to the north of the Yangtze River by mid-April, and the nationalist force succeeded in taking the Eastern Mountain region. However, by this time, the nationalist force was overstretched, and was unable to eradicate the remaining communist guerrillas in the newly conquered region, and moreover, their rear was constantly harassed by the communists forces that had crossed the Yangtze River, and with the bulk of the force deployed away during the campaign, there was simply not enough troops to stay behind to guard the vast areas in the rear. Realizing the nationalists had overstretched themselves way beyond the threshold, the communists jumped on the opportunity to counterattack.
Huarong County is a county in Hunan province, China, it is under the administration of Yueyang City.
Yueyang, formerly known as Yuezhou or Yochow, is a prefecture-level city on the southern shores of Dongting Lake in the northeastern corner of Hunan Province in the People's Republic of China.
While the crack troops of the nationalist force was penetrating deep into the enemy territory and taking more lands, their rear was guarded by the second rate troops most consisted of poorly trained conscripts who were drafted just shortly prior to the First Encirclement Campaign against Honghu Soviet. Seizing the opportunity, communist force on the northern bank of the Yangtze River including the Independent Regiment attacked and took the town of Red River (Zhuhe 朱河) for four time, annihilated the 2nd Regiment of the nationalist Newly Organized 2nd Brigade in the process, forcing the nationalist brigade to be out of the action for the rest of the campaign. The communist force operated on the northern bank of the Yangtze River also attacked the town of Fengkou (峰口) twice, completely annihilated two battalions of the nationalist Newly Organized 3rd Brigade in the process. A regiment of the nationalist Newly Organized 3rd Brigade consisted of newly drafted conscripts could not handle the pressure and after suffering a defeat that did not produce too much casualties, the surviving conscripts in the regiment deserted en masse. The destruction of the two nationalist newly organized brigades caused the total collapse in the new nationalist positions on the north bank of the Yangtze river, losing nearly all of the territories newly taken from the communists during their earlier success, and the communists thus successfully reestablished their original base on the northern bank of the river.
Third stage
The complete recovery of the communists on the northern bank of the Yangtze River marked the beginning of the communist counteroffensive. In April, 1931, the communist Independent Regiment was expanded to have a second regiment, the 26th Regiment, and the new formation was renamed as the 9th Division of the 3rd Army, even though the new unit is only a brigade-sized formation at the best, since it only had two regiments. Additional communist military units were also formed, including Hunan – Western Hubei Garrison Regiment, Mianyang Independent Regiment, Training Regiment and the Independent battalions of guerrillas of several counties in the communist base. After the reorganization, communists took the initiative by attacking the nationalists, and in the battle fought in the region of Laoxinkou (老新口) in mid April, the previously badly mauled nationalist Newly Organized 3rd Brigade was struck again with disastrous result: after each of the two surviving regiments of the nationalist Newly Organized 3rd Brigade lost a battalion completely in the battle, the four surviving battalions of the two regiments of the nationalist Newly Organized 3rd Brigade disintegrated when the conscripts in the surviving units deserted en masse. The nationalist Newly Organized 3rd Brigade ceased to function and only existed in names on papers, and after the devastating defeat, regions including Dragon Gulf (Longhaiwan, 龙海湾), Bear's Mouth (Xiongkou, 熊口), Han River Mouth (Hanhekou, 汉河口), and Dafengkou (大丰口) fell back into the communist hand by late April in a domino effect.
As warlords' armies begun to crumble, the strategic reserve, Chiang Kai-shek's own troop, the 10th Army could not offer any help. The reason was because the heightened tension between Chiang and warlords in Guangdong and Guangxi, so the 10th Army was redeployed to Changsha for the preparation to faceoff the warlords from the two provinces in case war broke out. Taking the advantage of the in-fights among the nationalist themselves, the communist force on the northern bank of the Yangtze River attacked toward Jiangling County, and by the early June, 1931, in a series of battles fought in the regions of Three Official's Palace (Sanguandian, 三官殿), Sand Hill (Shagang, 沙岗), Puji Temple (Pujiguan, 普济观),Haoxue (郝穴),and Wang Family's Bridge (Wanjiaqiao, 汪家桥), communist force on the northern bank of the Yangtze River succeed in killing over two thousand nationalist troops, capturing more than a thousand guns from the defeated nationalists. The communist force on the southern bank of the Yangtze River also made impressive gains in that it retook the Eastern Mountain region, but during the process, their commander-in-chief Zhou Yiqun was killed in action in a battle near Yueyang. However, this nationalist achievement was not enough to avert the strategic failure of the encirclement campaign and the nationalists were forced to withdraw and call off the campaign. The communists not only successfully defended their base, but in addition, also further strengthened it by expanding into the regions around Tongting Lake, and the communist force on the southern bank of the Yangtze River crossed the Yangtze River after the campaign, and reorganized into the 26th Regiment of the 9th Division of the 3rd Army of the Chinese Red Army.
Han Xianchu was a general of the Chinese Communist Party. Han participated in many military campaigns and battles such as Battle of Pingxingguan, Liaoshen Campaign, Pingjin Campaign, Hainan Campaign, and the Korean War. In 1955 he was among the first group of military leaders to be awarded the Shang Jiang rank.
The Fourth Encirclement Campaign is an abbreviated name used for several different encirclement campaigns launched by the Nationalist Government with the goal of destroying the developing Chinese Red Army and its communist bases. The battles took place in several separate locations in China during the early stage of Chinese Civil War, between the late 1920s to mid-1930s. These are:
The Campaign of the North China Plain Pocket, also called the Breakout on the Central Plains by the Communist Party of China, was a series of battles fought between the nationalists and the communists during the Chinese Civil War, resulting in a successful communist breakout from the nationalist encirclement. The campaign marked the beginning of the full-scale civil war fought between the communists and the nationalists in the post-World War II era.
Campaign to Suppress Bandits in the border region of the Hubei-Hunan-Sichuan (湘鄂川边剿匪) was a counter-guerrilla / counterinsurgency campaign the communists fought against the Kuomintang guerrilla left behind after the nationalist government withdrew from mainland China. The campaign was actually fought after the Chinese Civil War was declared over by the PRC in Beijing a year earlier, and took place in the border regions of the following three Chinese provinces: Hubei, Hunan, and Sichuan, and resulted in communist victory. This campaign was part of Campaign to Suppress Bandits in Central and Southern China.
The First Encirclement Campaign against the Shaanxi-Gansu Soviet was an encirclement campaign launched by the Chinese Nationalist Government that was intended to destroy the communist Shaanxi-Gansu Soviet and its Chinese Red Army in the local region. It was responded by the Communists' First Counter-Encirclement Campaign at Shaanxi-Gansu Soviet, also called by the communists as the First Counter-Encirclement Campaign at Shaanxi-Gansu Revolutionary Base, in which the local Chinese Red Army successfully defended their soviet republic in Shaanxi and Gansu provinces against the Nationalist attacks from March 1934 to 26 August 1934.
The First Encirclement Campaign against the Hubei-Henan-Shaanxi Soviet was a campaign launched by the Chinese Nationalist Government intended to destroy Communist Party of China's Hubei-Henan-Shaanxi Soviet and its local Red Army. It was met by the Communists' First Counter-Encirclement Campaign at Hubei-Henan-Shaanxi Soviet, also called by the communists the First Counter-Encirclement Campaign against Hubei-Henan-Shaanxi Revolutionary Base Area. The Red Army successfully defended their border region territory against the Government attacks from January to February 5, 1935.
The Second Encirclement Campaign against Hubei-Henan-Shaanxi Soviet was a campaign launched by the Chinese Nationalist Government that was intended to destroy the communist Hubei-Henan-Shaanxi Soviet and its local Red Army. It was met with the Communists' Second Counter-Encirclement Campaign at Hubei-Henan-Shaanxi Soviet. The local Red Army successfully defended their territory in the tri-provincial border region from February 1935 to April 18, 1935.
The First Encirclement Campaignagainst Jiangxi Soviet was a series of battles launched by the Chinese Nationalist Government intended to annihilate the Chinese Red Army, and destroy the Chinese Soviet Republic. The communists later responded with the First Counter-Encirclement Campaign at Central Soviet, also called by the communists as the First Counter-Encirclement Campaign at Central Revolutionary Base, in which the Red Army successfully defended the Soviet Republic in the southern Jiangxi province against Nationalist attacks from November 1930 to January 3, 1931.
The Second Encirclement Campaignagainst Jiangxi Soviet was a series of battles launched by the Chinese Nationalist Government in the hope of encircling and destroying the Jiangxi Soviet after the previous campaign had failed. The Red Army repelled the encirclement by launching their Second Counter-Encirclement Campaign, also called by the communists as the Second Counter-Encirclement Campaign at Central Revolutionary Base, in which the local Chinese Red Army successfully defended the Jiangxi Soviet against the Nationalist attacks from April 1, 1931, to May 31, 1931.
The Third Encirclement Campaignagainst Jiangxi Soviet was the third campaign launched by the Chinese Nationalist Government in the hope of destroying the Red Army in Jiangxi. It was launched less than a month after the previous campaign failed. However, this encirclement was repelled by the Red Army's Third Counter Encirclement Campaign at the Central Soviet, also called as the Third Counter-Encirclement Campaign at the Central Revolutionary Base.
The Fourth Encirclement Campaign against the Jiangxi Soviet was the fourth campaign launched by the Chinese Nationalist Government in hope to destroy the Red Army in Jiangxi. The Nationalist headquarters in the provincial border of Jiangxi-Guangdong-Fujian organized nearly 400,000 men, and prepared for another major encirclement on the Chinese Soviet Republic. As a response, the Jiangxi Soviet launched the Fourth Counter Encirclement Campaign at the Central Soviet, also called as the Fourth Counter-Encirclement Campaign at the Central Revolutionary Base. Although the Red Army achieved victory once again, their counter encirclement was not as successful as the previous ones this time, and the Red Army elsewhere suffered considerable loss when many other communist bases were lost, including two major ones.
The Encirclement Campaign against the Hunan-Jiangxi Soviet was a series of battles in the border region of Hunan and Jiangxi provinces initiated by the Chinese Kuomintang (Nationalist) Party / Government. The Encirclement Campaign was met by the Communists' Counter-Encirclement Campaign at Hunan-Jiangxi Soviet, also called Counter-Encirclement Campaign at Hunan-Jiangxi Revolutionary Base (湘赣革命根据地反围剿). The Hunan-Jiangxi Soviet successfully defended itself against the Nationalist attacks from January 29 to March 24, 1931.
The Encirclement Campaign against the Hunan-Hubei-Jiangxi Soviet was a campaign launched by the Right-Guomindang Nationalist Government that was intended to destroy the communist Soviet in the Hunan-Hubei-Jiangxi border region and its army. It was responded to with the Communists' Counter-Encirclement Campaign at the Hunan-Hubei-Jiangxi Soviet, also called their Counter-Encirclement Campaign at the Hunan-Hubei-Jiangxi Revolutionary Base. The local red army successfully defended this soviet republic against the government attacks from December 1930 through to May 1931.
The Hunan–Hubei–Jiangxi Soviet was a Comintern and local communist-led liberated zone in the 1930s south of the Yangzi River, comprising parts of counties in what are now the municipal regions of Yueyang in Hunan, Xianning in Hubei and, in Jiangxi, Jiujiang and Yichun. It was a constituent part of the territorially discontiguous and diplomatically unrecognised Chinese Soviet Republic (CSR). Before the declaration of the CSR in November 1931, the liberated zone had been known to Communists as the Hunan-Hubei-Jiangxi (Xiang-E-Gan) Revolutionary Base Area (湘鄂赣革命根据地).
The Encirclement Campaign against the Hunan-Western Hubei Soviet was an encirclement campaign launched by the Chinese Nationalist Government that was intended to destroy the communist Hunan-Western Hubei Soviet and its Chinese Red Army in the local region. The Communists' responded by launching the Counter-Encirclement Campaign at Hunan-Western Hubei Soviet, also called by the communists as the Counter-Encirclement Campaign at Hunan – western Hubei Revolutionary Base, in which the Nationalist force defeated the local Chinese Red Army and overran the communist base in the southern Hubei and Hunan provinces from November 1930 to January 1931. Since the bulk of the fighting was fought at the second stage of the campaign, concentrated at the heart of the communist base, the Honghu region of Jingzhou, the campaign is therefore also frequently referred as the Fourth Encirclement Campaign against Honghu Soviet and the Fourth Counter-Encirclement Campaign at Honghu Revolutionary Base by the communists, or Fourth Counter-Encirclement Campaign at Honghu Soviet for short.
The First Encirclement Campaign against the Honghu Soviet was an encirclement campaign launched by the Chinese Nationalist Government that was intended to destroy the communist Honghu Soviet and its Chinese Red Army in the local region. It was responded by the Communists' first counter-encirclement campaign at Honghu Soviet, also called by the communists as the first counter-encirclement campaign at Honghu Revolutionary Base, in which the local Chinese Red Army successfully defended their soviet republic in the southern Hubei and northern Hunan provinces against the Nationalist attacks from early December 1930 to the end of January 1931.
The Third Encirclement Campaign against the Honghu Soviet was an encirclement campaign launched by the Chinese Nationalist Government that was intended to destroy the communist Honghu Soviet and its Chinese Red Army in the local region. It was responded by the Communists' Third Counter-Encirclement Campaign at Honghu Soviet, also called by the communists as the Third Counter-Encirclement Campaign at Honghu Revolutionary Base, in which the local Chinese Red Army successfully defended their soviet republic in the southern Hubei and northern Hunan provinces against the Nationalist attacks from early September 1931 to 30 May 1932.
He Bingyan was a general in the People's Liberation Army of the People's Republic of China from Hubei. He was known as the “one-armed General (独臂将军)” for his injuries suffered during the Long March.
References
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