Second Encirclement Campaign against Honghu Soviet
Encyclopedia
The Second Encirclement Campaign against Honghu Soviet was a series of battles launched by the Chinese Nationalist Government that was intended to destroy communist
Honghu
Soviet and its Chinese Red Army in the local region. It was responded by the Communists’ Second Counter-Encirclement Campaign at Honghu Soviet , also called by the communists as the Second Counter-Encirclement Campaign at Honghu Revolutionary Base , in which the local Chinese Red Army successfully defended their soviet republic in the Honghu region against the Nationalist
attacks from March 1, 1931, to early June, 1931.
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 March 1, 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 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.
Communists:
and attacked the communist base on the southern bank of the Yangtze River. Local communist force was unable to repel the numerically and technically superior nationalist force, and was forced to fallback, 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 faceoff 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 to thin, the communists would counterattack. The primary objective of communists were to defend their base on the southern bank of the Yangtze River, and 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 begun 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 nationalists controlled area. Under the command Zhou Yiqun (周逸群), communist force on the southern bank of the Yangtze River also begun 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.
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.
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.
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.
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...
Honghu
Honghu
Honghu is a county-level city in the municipal region of Jingzhou, in central China's Hubei province. The city lies on the left bank of the Yangzi River, across from Hunan Province and Xianning, Hubei...
Soviet and its Chinese Red Army in the local region. It was responded by the Communists’ Second Counter-Encirclement Campaign at Honghu Soviet , also called by the communists as the Second Counter-Encirclement Campaign at Honghu Revolutionary Base , in which the local Chinese Red Army successfully defended their soviet republic in the Honghu region against the 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...
attacks from March 1, 1931, to early June, 1931.
Prelude
After their defeat in the First Encirclement Campaign against Honghu SovietFirst Encirclement Campaign against Honghu Soviet
The First Encirclement Campaign against Honghu Soviet was an encirclement campaign launched by the Chinese Nationalist Government that was intended to destroy communist Honghu Soviet and its Chinese Red Army in the local region...
in early February 1931 and the subsequent forced withdraw to regroup, 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...
forces launched the second encirclement campaign
Encirclement Campaigns
Encirclement Campaigns is a term used to describe several different campaigns launched by forces of the Chinese Nationalist Government against forces of the Communist Party of China during the Chinese Civil War. The campaigns were launched between the late 1920s to the mid-1930s with the goal of...
against the communist base in Honghu on March 1, 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
First Encirclement Campaign against Honghu Soviet
The First Encirclement Campaign against Honghu Soviet was an encirclement campaign launched by the Chinese Nationalist Government that was intended to destroy communist Honghu Soviet and its Chinese Red Army in the local region...
, 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
Warlord era
The Chinese Warlord Era was the period in the history of the Republic of China, from 1916 to 1928, when the country was divided among military cliques, a division that continued until the fall of the Nationalist government in the mainland China regions of Sichuan, Shanxi, Qinghai, Ningxia,...
who were nominally under the command of 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....
.
The communists were not jubilant after their victory achieved in First Encirclement Campaign against Honghu Soviet
First Encirclement Campaign against Honghu Soviet
The First Encirclement Campaign against Honghu Soviet was an encirclement campaign launched by the Chinese Nationalist Government that was intended to destroy communist Honghu Soviet and its Chinese Red Army in the local region...
, 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
Central Committee of the Communist Party of China
The Central Committee of the Communist Party of China is the highest authority within the Communist Party of China. Its approximately 350 members and alternates are selected once every five years by the National Party Congress....
(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.
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 March 1, 1931, the nationalist Newly Organized 11th Division and a brigade of the nationalist 48th Division crossed the Yangtze RiverYangtze River
The Yangtze, Yangzi or Cháng Jiāng is the longest river in Asia, and the third-longest in the world. It flows for from the glaciers on the Tibetan Plateau in Qinghai eastward across southwest, central and eastern China before emptying into the East China Sea at Shanghai. It is also one of the...
and attacked the communist base on the southern bank of the Yangtze River. Local communist force was unable to repel the numerically and technically superior nationalist force, and was forced to fallback, 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 faceoff 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 to thin, the communists would counterattack. The primary objective of communists were to defend their base on the southern bank of the Yangtze River, and 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 begun 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 nationalists controlled area. Under the command Zhou Yiqun (周逸群), communist force on the southern bank of the Yangtze River also begun guerrilla warfare, and at the same time, a portion of the force penetrated deep into the regions around the Dongting Lake
Dongting Lake
Dongting Lake, or Lake Dongting 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...
, while another portion of the force escorted the local populace to the Eastern Mountain (Dongshan, 东山) region.
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 YueyangYueyang
Yueyang is a prefecture-level city at the northeastern corner of Hunan province, South Central China, on the southern shores of Dongting Lake.The Yueyang metropolitan area occupies 14,896 km². and the city proper occupies 304 km²...
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.
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
First Encirclement Campaign against Honghu Soviet
The First Encirclement Campaign against Honghu Soviet was an encirclement campaign launched by the Chinese Nationalist Government that was intended to destroy communist Honghu Soviet and its Chinese Red Army in the local region...
. 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
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 own troop, the 10th Army could not offer any help. The reason was because the heightened tension between Chiang and warlords in Guangdong
Guangdong
Guangdong is a province on the South China Sea coast of the People's Republic of China. The province was previously often written with the alternative English name Kwangtung Province...
and Guangxi
Guangxi
Guangxi, formerly romanized Kwangsi, is a province of southern China along its border with Vietnam. In 1958, it became the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region of the People's Republic of China, a region with special privileges created specifically for the Zhuang people.Guangxi's location, in...
, 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.
See also
- List of battles of the Chinese Civil War
- National Revolutionary ArmyNational Revolutionary ArmyThe National Revolutionary Army , pre-1928 sometimes shortened to 革命軍 or Revolutionary Army and between 1928-1947 as 國軍 or National Army was the Military Arm of the Kuomintang from 1925 until 1947, as well as the national army of the Republic of China during the KMT's period of party rule...
- History of the People's Liberation ArmyHistory of the People's Liberation ArmyThe history of the People's Liberation Army began in 1927 with the start of the Chinese Civil War and spans to the present, having developed from a peasant guerrilla force into the largest armed force in the world.-Historical background:...
- Chinese Civil WarChinese Civil WarThe Chinese Civil War was a civil war fought between the Kuomintang , the governing party of the Republic of China, and the Communist Party of China , for the control of China which eventually led to China's division into two Chinas, Republic of China and People's Republic of...