Battle of Yiwu - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

The battle of Yiwu is also called the Battle to Defend Yiwu (伊吾保卫战) by the Communist Party of China

Communist Party of China

The Communist Party of China , also known as the Chinese Communist Party , is the founding and ruling political party of the People's Republic of China...

, and resulted in the communist victory. After the local nationalist

Kuomintang

The Kuomintang of China , sometimes romanized as Guomindang via the Pinyin transcription system or GMD for short, and translated as the Chinese Nationalist Party is a founding and ruling political party of the Republic of China . Its guiding ideology is the Three Principles of the People, espoused...

commanders in Xinjiang

Xinjiang

Xinjiang is an autonomous region of the People's Republic of China. It is the largest Chinese administrative division and spans over 1.6 million km2...

defected to the communist side, there were many nationalists

Kuomintang

loyal to Chiang Kai-shek

Chiang Kai-shek

Chiang Kai-shek was a political and military leader of 20th century China. He is known as Jiǎng Jièshí or Jiǎng Zhōngzhèng in Mandarin....

refused to join the communists, and one detachment of these loyal nationalists

Kuomintang

decided to take the town of Yiwu (伊吾) to turn it into a nationalist

Kuomintang

guerrilla base in order to fight on until the eventual return of Chiang.

The battle

The 2nd Company of the 46th Regiment

Regiment

A regiment is a major tactical military unit, composed of variable numbers of batteries, squadrons or battalions, commanded by a colonel or lieutenant colonel...

of the communist 16th Division

Division (military)

A division is a large military unit or formation usually consisting of between 10,000 and 20,000 soldiers. In most armies, a division is composed of several regiments or brigades, and in turn several divisions typically make up a corps...

with less than 100 men were stationed at the town of Yiwu (伊吾), 200 km northeast of Hami

Hami Prefecture

Kumul Prefecture, also known as Hami Prefecture is located in eastern Xinjiang, China. It has an area of 140,749 km² and 492,096 inhabitants .- History :...

, and over 700 nationalists

Kuomintang

under the nationalist Hami

Hami Prefecture

Kumul Prefecture, also known as Hami Prefecture is located in eastern Xinjiang, China. It has an area of 140,749 km² and 492,096 inhabitants .- History :...

special envoy commissioner Yulbars Khan

Yulbars Khan

Yulbars Khan , courtesy name Jingfu , was a Uighur born in Yangi Hissar in 1888. He entered the service in the Kumul Khanate of Muhammad Khan of Kumul and later his son Maksud Shah. He served as an advisor at the court, until when Maksud died in March 1930, governor Jin Shuren abolished the khanate...

(尧乐博斯) and the former nationalist county head Abdullah (艾拜都拉) of Hami

Hami Prefecture

Kumul Prefecture, also known as Hami Prefecture is located in eastern Xinjiang, China. It has an area of 140,749 km² and 492,096 inhabitants .- History :...

planned to take the town in late March, 1950. The nationalist

Kuomintang

attack on the town was launched according to schedule on March 29, 1950.

The nationalists

Kuomintang

were confident in that the town could be taken within a little as three days and on the first day of the battle, the nationalists

Kuomintang

had succeeded in taking the northern and southern peaks next to the town, thus seriously threatened the enemy defenders with in the town. Realizing the serious situation, the enemy defenders sent out four squads to retake both peaks, and thus solidified the defense of the town, threatening the nationalists

Kuomintang

instead. The nationalist

Kuomintang

attempts to take the two peaks back was met with disastrous failure after several dozens assaults were beaten back with heavy losses. Realizing the tactic must be changed in order to avoid further casualties and the two hilltops must be taken, the nationalists

Kuomintang

adjusted their tactic of small scale assaults to launch a coordinated large scale attacks on April 5, 1950. After the five hour long battle that lasted from 3:00 AM to 8:00 AM, the nationalist

Kuomintang

again suffered defeat with great loss due to favorable terrain the enemy defenders enjoyed. It was the last large scale attack the nationalists

Kuomintang

were able to muster and the defeat cost the nationalists

Kuomintang

so much that nothing on the similar scale could be repeated again in the battle.

Due to the lack of communication and the closest communist force was more than 200 km away, it was not until early April 1950 did the closest enemy force learned that their comrades in the town of Yiwu (伊吾) was besieged, and sent out a token reinforcement, which was successfully stopped by the nationalists

Kuomintang

more than a dozen kilometers away from the town. Due to the lack of intelligence, the commander of the enemy reinforcement mistakenly believed that the town had fallen into the nationalist

Kuomintang

hands when the entire garrison was wiped out, and withdrew to Mi City (Mi Cheng, 沁城) on April 14, 1950. However, the enemy defending Yiwu (伊吾) was far from being wiped out, but instead, successfully beaten back seven nationalist

Kuomintang

assaults, badly mauling the attacking nationalist

Kuomintang

in the process by taking advantage of the favorable terrain.

In the beginning of May, 1950, the communist 16th Division

Division (military)

learned that the 2nd Company of the 46th Regiment still had the town firmly in its hands, and thus immediately sent out two battalions for reinforcement. By May 7, 1950, the enemy reinforcement had taken the Black Hilltop (Hei Shan Tou, 黑山头), and surrounded the nationalists

Kuomintang

who besieged the town. Sandwiched between the enemy defending the town and the enemy reinforcement surrounding them, the fates of the trapped nationalists

Kuomintang

were sealed. Realizing it was all over, the nationalists

Kuomintang

collapsed and attempted to flee despite the fact there was nowhere to escape. The enemy defenders easily linked up with their reinforcement and completely annihilated the nationalists

Kuomintang

on the same day, and not a single nationalist

Kuomintang

were able to escape. For its successful defense of the town, Peng Dehuai

Peng Dehuai

Peng Dehuai was a prominent military leader of the Communist Party of China, and China's Defence Minister from 1954 to 1959. Peng was an important commander during the Second Sino-Japanese War, the Chinese civil war and was also the commander-in-chief of People's Volunteer Army in the Korean War...

, the communist defense minister awarded the 2nd Company of the 46th Regiment

Regiment

A regiment is a major tactical military unit, composed of variable numbers of batteries, squadrons or battalions, commanded by a colonel or lieutenant colonel...

of the communist 16th Division

Division (military)

the title Steel and Iron 2nd Company, while the deputy battalion

Battalion

A battalion is a military unit of around 300–1,200 soldiers usually consisting of between two and seven companies and typically commanded by either a Lieutenant Colonel or a Colonel...

commander, Hu Qingshan (胡青山) was awarded the title Combat Hero.

Outcome

The nationalist

Kuomintang

defeat was primarily due to Chiang Kai-shek

Chiang Kai-shek

Chiang Kai-shek was a political and military leader of 20th century China. He is known as Jiǎng Jièshí or Jiǎng Zhōngzhèng in Mandarin....

’s uncompromising doctrine of holding onto the land conquered at all costs, which was faithfully followed by the local nationalists

Kuomintang

, despite that it was simply impractical and impossible to hold onto the town. As it was becoming obviously clear that attacking nationalists

Kuomintang

were impossible to take the town, the nationalists

Kuomintang

refused to retreat, thus exhausting all of their available supplies. The lack of supplies, in turn, forced nationalists

Kuomintang

to attempt to capture the town in order to capture more supplies, and thus nationalists

Kuomintang

were locked in a dilemma they had created themselves, resulting in eventual total annihilation.

For the communists, there was a special recipient of third class honor: it was not a soldier, but a military horse named Jujube Colored Horse (Zaoliu Ma, 枣骝马). During the battle, the supply line (especially for water) to the communists defending the northern peak 211 metres above the sea level was sealed off by the nationalist

Kuomintang

fire. A communist soldier named Wu Xiaoniu (吴小牛) of the 2nd Company was sent to take the horse to supply the isolated but crucial communist position. Once fired by the enemy, the soldier immediately lie down and take cover behind rocks, and amazingly, the horse did the same by following its master, the soldier. Due the severe shortage of manpower, Wu Xiaoniu (吴小牛) only performed the supply mission once and then was tasked with other duties, and the horse was instructed to perform the mission itself by Wu Xiaoniu (吴小牛) first loading it up with supply, and then pointing toward the northern peak. Amazingly, during the forty-day battle, the horse completed every mission itself while dodging enemy fire. Due to its special contribution, not only it was awarded the third-class honor after the battle, it remained in the service until its natural death in November 1967, instead of being discharged when aged like all other military horses. The Jujube Colored Horse (Zaoliu Ma, 枣骝马) had a military burial at the foothill of the northern peak its helped to defend, and in August, 1985, a marble monument was added to its tomb.

The battle

Outcome

See also