Zhucheng Campaign - Campaign

Campaign

In late August 1945, the communist launched their general counteroffensive in Shandong against the Japanese and their Chinese puppet regime force. Communist force rapidly threatened the Jiaoji Railway and Japanese strongholds around Zhucheng were isolated. On September 5, 1945, Japanese force withdrew to Gaomi, and most of strongholds were defended by the former nationalists turned Japanese puppet regime force under the command of Zhang Buyun (张步云), who rejoined the nationalists refused to surrender to the communists. Communists, in turn, decided to take the region by force.

The defenders were scattered in different locations so the communists concentrated their force by massing a single division and attacked the isolated outposts on the very same day the Japanese troops retreated. Although the defenders enjoyed the overall numerical superiority, their morale was extremely low and the sparsely stationed garrisons had no advantage when facing the attacking enemy who enjoyed local numerical superiority, so when the communist attack begun, nearly all of the garrisons abandoned their posts and fled to the safety behind the city wall of Zhucheng. As a result, most of the region had fallen into the communist hands within a single night after continuous communist assaults. By the early morning of September 6, 1945, the eastern and western passes of Zhucheng were firmly in the attackers’ hands and the attackers demanded the defenders to surrender. After the defenders refused to surrender, the communists launched their general assault at 7:00 PM and after suffering a mere several hundred fatalities, the defenders’ morale completely collapsed and everyone abandoned their post and fled. The commander in charge of defense, Zhang Buyun (张步云) was unable to control the situation and was forced to lead his remaining troops to retreat to Gaomi. By 8:15 PM, communists declared the town was secured after capturing over 2,100 defenders alive. Two days later, the garrison of Rizhao abandoned the city and the communist victory was completed. However, it must be said that the despite losing most of their territory, the defenders had successfully managed to keep most of their strength: they had only lost around 2,400 out of the original 20,000, and would continue to carry on the fight against the communists until June 1946.