Zhengtai Campaign - Outcome

Outcome

The internal power struggle and the lack of corporation contributed to the nationalist defeat at least as much as the enemy pressure if not greater. Yan Xishan, the nationalist commander-in-chief and the warlord of Shanxi was not willing to sacrifice his own troops to help Fu Zuoyi, the nationalist commander and warlord who controlled Hebei. The personal relationship between the two nationalist commanders were strained due to history: prior to the Second Sino-Japanese War, Fu Zuoyi was originally a trusted officer of Yan Xishan but later defected from Yan’s clique in the wars among warlords, and eventually became a rival of Yan. Although both came under Chiang Kai-shek’s nationalist government’s rule after World War II, the distrust among the two still ran deep. As a more capable commander, Fu Zuoyi was not happy to see the overall command was given to Yan Xishan, who in turn, was not willing to make a full commitment to fight communists outside his own turf for somebody else, especially somebody who betrayed him before, so the corporation among the two was half hearted at the best. The result was that although an impressive force totaling more than 100,000 with technical superiority was deployed, but they were not concentrated in offensives against communist forces and thus was not effective at all in thwarting the enemy’s advance, which inevitably led to the loss of more than a third of troops deployed in the campaign, as well as territories, and initiatives on the battlefield.

For the communists, their victory included taking seven cities / town, three important mineral rich regions including Huangdangou (黄丹沟), Jingin (井陉) and Yangquan. A vast region along the 180 km stretch railway from Huolu (获鹿) to Yuci had fallen under Reds’ control, and Shijiazhuang, the provincial capital of Hebei was isolated. The Zhengtai Campaign proved to be pivotal for Reds because it turned the tide in North China: after the defeat, the nationalists were forced to be on the defensive and were never able to launch large offensives against the communists like they used to do, and a stalemate was reached. The initiatives changed hands to the communist side, which changed their defensive posture to an offensive posture by gradually stepped up their own offensives against the nationalists as time goes by.