Taiyuan Campaign - First Stage

First Stage

In order to strengthen the defense of Taiyuan, Yan Xishan had to take as much food and able-bodies recruits as possible from the rural area, so on October 2, 1948, he sent out seven nationalist divisions to do so, and these divisions pushed southward in the region between the Fen River in the east and Tianjin-Pukou Railway in the west. By the next day, the nationalist 44th Division, 45th Division and units of the nationalist 72nd Division reached the region of the town around Little Hotel (Xiao Dian, 小店) and the Village of Southwestern Shore (Xi Nan Ban Cun, 西南畔村) while the nationalist 40th Division, 49th Division, and the 73rd Division reached the region of Autumn Village (Qiu Cun, 秋村) and Western Warm Village (Xi Wen Zhuang, 西温庄), and the nationalist 66th Division and the 69th Division reached the region of Red Temple (Hong Si, 红寺). The communists decided to take this great opportunity of striking the enemy out in the open when they came out of their fortifications by launching Taiyuan Campaign ahead of the original planned schedule.

At the dawn of October 5, 1948, the communist 7th Column crossed the Fen River at Qingyuan (清原), and struck eastward to the region north of the town of Little Hotel (Xiao Dian, 小店). In conjunction with the communist 7th Column striking eastward strike, the communist 15th Column struck westward to the north of Wuxiu (武宿) Airport from Tai Gu (太谷) and Yu Ci, (榆次), thus cutting off the escape route of the nationalist forces at Wuxiu (武宿) Airport and Little Hotel (Xiao Dian, 小店) region to Taiyuan. The communist 8th Column and 13th Column besieged the nationalist forces that had just took regions of Little Hotel (Xiao Dian, 小店) and Southern Black Yaodong, (Nan Hei Yao, 南黑窑). By the early morning of October 6, 1948, the nationalist 44th Division and 45th Division were completely annihilated, while the nationalist 49th Division and 72nd Division were badly mauled. Riding on these successes, the communist took Wuxiu (武宿) Airport and approached the nationalist positions at Eastern Mountain (Dong Shan, 东山) from its southern flank. In accordance with the communist offensive in the Little Hotel (Xiao Dian, 小店) region, communist 7th Column launched its own offensive against nationalists positions at the Phoenix Pavilion Ridge (Feng Ge Liang, 凤阁梁) to the north of the city, annihilating a regiment of the nationalist 68th Division and a battalion of the nationalist 39th Division, and shelled the New Urban (Xin Cheng, 新城) Airport to the north of the city. After eleven days of fierce battle, three nationalist divisions were badly mauled, suffering over 12,000 casualties, and the enemy was at the first defensive line of the city. Both sides took a brief break for regrouping.

On October 16, 1948, units of the communist 7th Column, 8th Column, 13th Column, and 15th Column attacked nationalists positions at Eastern Mountain (Dong Shan, 东山) simultaneously from both the south and the north. By October 19, 1948, nationalist stronghold at Eastern Mountain (Dong Shan, 东山) including positions at Black Camel (Hei Tuo, 黑驼), Stone Person Ridge (Shi Ren Liang, 石人梁), Greater Yaodong Head, (Da Yao Tou, 大窑头), Greater and Lesser Northern Point (Da Xiao Bei Jian, 大小北尖), Elm Grove Level Ground (Yu Lin Ping, 榆林坪), Meng's Family's Well (Meng Jia Jing, 孟家井), and Ox and Camel Camp (Niu Tuo Zhai, 牛驼寨). The defenders of the main peak of the Eastern Mountain (Dong Shan, 东山), Mt. Rear (Han Shan, 罕山), consisted of a regiment, was forced to surrender. Yan Xishan deployed the nationalist 30th Army and the 10th Column (Division) consisted of former Japanese troops to launch continuous counterattacks on the communist 7th Column under the artillery coverage, which averaged over 10,000 per day on a position that was merely three hundred square meters. After three days of fierce fighting and suffering extreme heavy casualties, the nationalists were finally able to dislodge the enemy and take back the position. However, the enemy would not give up so easily and was determined to take the position. By October 26, 1948, the communists readjusted their tactics and deployed units of the communist 7th Column, 8th Column, 13th Column, and 15th Column to once again take nationalist positions at Ox and Camel Camp (Niu Tuo Zhai, 牛驼寨), Lesser Yaodong Head (Xiao Yao Tou,小窑头), Mountain Peak (Shan Tou, 山头), and Zhuo Ma (淖马). With air support, the defenders attempted to counterattack but without success, and even with the deployment of gas attack and incendiary rounds, the enemy was able to have the newly gained positions firmly in their hands.

After fierce battles of nineteen days, by November 13, 1948, all four nationalist stronghold at Eastern Mountain (Dong Shan, 东山) had been taken and the in addition to the 22,000+ casualties suffered, the defenders also lost an entire division when the nationalist 8th Column (Division) defected to the communist side. Meanwhile, units from the communist Central Shanxi Military Region also the town of Green Dragon (Qing Long Zhen, 青龙镇) to the north of the city, the Temple of Xu (Xu Tan, 许坛) to the south of the city, and the South-North Dyke (Nan Bei Yan, 南北堰) on the western bank of Fen River, thus further isolated the defenders by strengthening the siege. The nationalist commander of the 30th Army, Huang Jiaosong (黄樵松), was disillusioned with the nationalist regime and decided to defect, and the communists sent liaison officers into the city to help. However, the conspirators were sold out by one of Huang's subordinates, a divisional commander named Dai Bingnan (戴炳南) and everyone involved were arrested. Based on the letters captured, Yan Xishan erroneously believed that the lead communist liaison officer, Jin Fu (晋夫) was Hu Yaobang, and eventually sent all of the captured conspirators to Chiang Kai-shek, who had all of them executed after failing to obtain any information from them. However, nationalists had committed a serious blunder that would cost them dearly for the rest of the Chinese Civil War: Commander Dai Bingnan (戴炳南) was paid in huge amount of gold for his action but he was not allowed to be evacuated when the fall of the city was imminent. After the fall of the city, Dai Bingnan (戴炳南) attempted to hide under a table in a house and carried the gold on him, but of course he was captured by the communists. After the much publicized propaganda of his capture and a humiliating public trail, Dai Bingnan (戴炳南) was executed in public. The nationalist failure to save lives of informers such as Dai Bingnan (戴炳南) had greatly alienated those within the nationalist own rank, and since then, most showed their objection to defection by either not joining in or leaving the defecting nationalist units, instead of revealing the conspirators. The idea to leave those informers behind was that since they had no way out, they would fight to the death in the face of communist attack, but this idea rumored to be approved by Chiang had backfired seriously, as proven later in many other similar incidents in the rest of the Chinese Civil War.

After the end of Liaoshen Campaign, the nationalist force in North China headed by Fu Zuoyi became almost exposed and isolated. The communists feared that if the city of Taiyuan was taken too early which would lead to the complete exposure isolation of the nationalist force in North China, the nationalists would withdraw and avoid annihilation. Furthermore, if the nationalist force in North China was redeployed elsewhere in China, the communists would have great difficulties later on. As a result, a decision was made to temporarily stop the offensive on the city to finish Pingjin Campaign first, and then take Taiyuan afterward. While the order was given on November 16, 1948 to stop the assault on the city itself, preparation was also done to further isolate the city. The I Corps of the communist North China Military Region acted accordingly by taking nationalist strongholds to the north of the city, including the Village of Su (Su Cun, 苏村), Yangqu (阳曲), the Orchid Village (Lan Cun, 兰村), and nationalist strongholds to the south of the city, including Huaqitou (化七头), Zhao Family's Village (Zhao Jia Shan, 赵家山), Qi's Ditch (Qi Gou, 邱沟), and nationalist stronghold to the east of the city, the Pine Tree Slope (Song Shu Po, 松树坡). While the defenders were forced into a region of 15 km centered at the city, the communists stopped their offensives and launched another round of psychological warfare by stepping up the political pressure and sending the relatives of the defenders to the front to ask the defenders to surrender. As a result, from December 1, 1948 thru March, 1949, over 12,000 defenders defected to the communists.