Meridian Ridge Campaign


The Meridian Ridge Campaign was a series of battles fought between the nationalists and the communists in the Shaanxi province of northwest China during the Chinese Civil War in the post World War II era, resulting in a nationalist victory.

Prelude

The 300-km-long Meridian Ridge, covered with dense forest, was a strategically important position in Guanzhong because it was a natural barrier in the southwest for the communist base in northwest China. To the east, it overlooked the Yulin – Xianyang Highway, and to the west, it overlooked the Xi'an – Lanzhou Highway, along which Xi'an could be reached within two days. The region was a dagger in the belly of the nationalist domain to the north of the Wei River and it had been a communist base since the late 1920s. During the Second Sino-Japanese War, the communist 385th Division led by commander Wang Hongshen was stationed in this region, and was surrounded by nationalist forces several times its strength. Clashes between the two sides were inevitable and after World War II such clashes finally developed into full-scale battle in the Chinese Civil War.
In August 1947 nationalists deployed two divisions totaling six brigades to launch an encirclement and eradication campaign against the communists in their base at the Meridian Ridge. The communist local forces including the 1st and the 3rd Garrison brigades, and the headquarters of the communist 4th Column of communist regular field army with its lightly armed 6th Cavalry Division disengaged the pursuing nationalists by retreating separately northward, and then returned to Guanzhong region once more by reaching the region surrounding the Nine Steep Hills Town in heart of the Meridian Ridge.

Order of battle

Nationalist :
  • Reorganized 82nd Division commanded by General Ma Jiyuan
  • *Reorganized 100th Brigade commanded by General Tan Chengxiang
  • *Reorganized 8th Cavalry Brigade commanded by General Ma Buluan
  • *Independent 5th Cavalry Regiment commanded by General Ma Bukang
Communist :
  • 2nd Regiment of the 1st Garrison Brigade commanded by Wang Shitai, who was also in charge of overall command
  • 3rd Regiment of the 1st Garrison Brigade commanded by Wang Bingxiang
  • 5th Regiment of the 3rd Garrison Brigade commanded by Huang Luobin
  • 6th Cavalry Division of the communist 4th Column
  • Gao Xuewen Independent Battalion commanded by Gao Xuewen
  • Northern Wei Column commanded by Yao Pengfei

    Commanders

The nationalist frontline commander was General Ma Jiyuan, Ma Bufang's only son. Awarded with the rank of colonel at the age of 16 to become a deputy regimental commander, Ma Jiyuan was one of Ma Bufang's favorite field commanders. By the ago of 20, Ma Jiyuan was awarded the rank of major general and attended training courses for generals at the Nationalist Party of China Army Officer Academy. Just barely two months ago, Ma Jiyuan had led his nationalist Reorganized 82nd Division into victory against another main communist force, the communist 2nd Column led by Wang Zhen in Heshui Campaign and the young nationalist general who was only 28 years old at the time was still immersed in the previous victory and was determined to achieve another victory of similar or great scale.
The communist commander of the regular troops Wang Shitai was not as familiarized with the local situation as the local communists, but he was assisted by a brilliant local communist commander, Wang Wang Bingxiang, who first joined the communists in 1934. In 1935, the four communist guerrilla forces operating in Xinning region were annihilated by the nationalists, with the First Squadron of the Third Group suffering the most: in less than a year, six guerrilla commanders were killed in battles consecutively. In 1936, the 20-year-old Wang Bingxiang became the commander, and within six months, the guerrilla originally was just going to finally collapse had its fortune completely reversed: not only it survived, its rank boosted to over 200 and became the only communist guerrilla force survived in the region. Due to his excellent record, Wang Bingxiang was promoted to several posts at the same time: he was both the political commissar of the 1st Regiment of the communist 1st Garrison Brigade and the political commissar of the communist western Guanzhong command, the communist party secretary of the Xinning county, and the communist propaganda minister. However, Wang Bingxiang was suffering from typhus, but he nonetheless fought at the frontline in this campaign, and on August 15, 1947, he was among the first to discover the massive nationalist troop deployment at Golden Village Temple region.

Strategies

As the communist 4th Column headquarters with its 6th Cavalry Division entered the Nine Steep Hills Town in the heart of the Meridian Ridge, they were detected by the nationalist scouts in the western part of the mountain. Nationalist response was immediate: once the intelligence from the scouts was received on August 13, 1947, the nationalists sprung into action to exterminate the enemy. The nationalist strategy planned by Ma Jiyuan was to first encircle the enemy within 24 hours, and then annihilate the enemy within the encirclement. Ma Jiyuan would personally lead the campaign. In order to achieve the objective, the entire nationalist Reorganized 82nd Division was mobilized in the following manner:
  • The nationalist Independent 5th Cavalry Regiment would be the vanguard in the center
  • The nationalist Reorganized 100th Brigade would be at the right flank
  • The nationalist Reorganized 8th Cavalry Brigade would be at the left flank
  • Ma Jiyuan would personally lead 4 battalions following the main forces
Once the pincer movement was completed, encirclement of the enemy was achieved and it would only be a matter of time before the enemy would be completely annihilated. The nationalist Reorganized 82nd Division began its move on August 13, 1947.
The original communist strategy was to disengage the enemy and not to fight, because after Yulin Campaign, the communist 4th Column was tasked to penetrate behind the enemy line to cut off the Lanzhou – Xining Highway, thus threatening the nationalist flank in the rear so that the nationalist force there would be tied down and could not be deployed against communists in other areas. After the communist scouts first discovered the nationalist troops camping at the regions of Teeth Village and Golden Village Temple, the commander of the communist 4th Column, Wang Shitai originally planned to follow his order by disengaging the nationalists by retreating, but the strong opposition of local communists forced him to change his mind. Following the defeat of communists in Heshui Campaign, the victorious nationalists immediately launched eradication operations against the local communists and their bases in the Meridian Ridge. In the two months-long struggles, the local communists had suffered greatly in the hand of nationalist Reorganized 82nd Division. Local communists strongly wanted the field commanders to organize a counteroffensive against the nationalist Reorganized 82nd Division to avenge the death of their comrades. Communists such as the deputy communist party secretary of the Guanzhong region, Zhao Boping claimed that they could not left the civilian behind, and consequently, Wang Shitai sent out scout to check out the enemy strength.
However, the communist scouts had made a grave error in that they mistakenly believed advance guard of the nationalist vanguard, the Independent 5th Cavalry regiment was the entire nationalist force deployed, not realizing that the entire nationalist Reorganized 82nd Division was soon to follow, and reported back that the enemy strength was only a regiment strong. Based on this erroneous report, Wang Shitai the communist commander was confident that with the current communist strength, they were able to annihilate the enemy and made plans accordingly to ambush the nationalists to the west of Nine Steep Hills Town:
  • The 2nd Regiment of the communist 1st Garrison Brigade was deployed to the west of Nine Steep Hills Town.
  • The 3rd Regiment of the communist 1st Garrison Brigade was deployed to New Village
  • The 5th Regiment of the communist 3rd Garrison Brigade was to outflank the enemy from the north of Nine Steep Hills Town and cutting off the escaping route of the enemy
  • The 6th Cavalry Division of the communist 4th Column was deployed to Peach Tree Village act as reserve
The communists began their deployment in the early morning of August 15, 1947.

First battle

After Xihuachi Campaign, the nationalists adjusted their deployment and the nationalist Reorganized 82nd Division of Ma clique was tasked to encircle the communist base in the Meridian Ridge with other nationalist units commanded by Hu Zongnan. The Reorganized 100th Brigade of the nationalist Reorganized 82nd Division was stationed at Ning County, the Reorganized 8th Cavalry Brigade of the nationalist Reorganized 82nd Division stationed at Qingyang, and the brigade-strength Independent 5th Cavalry Regiment of the nationalist Reorganized 82nd Division stationed at Zhengning. General Ma Jiyuan 's plan would require the entire division to complete, but the bad weather had prevented the nationalists from taking full advantage of their cavalry. The heavy rain severely slowed down the marching of the nationalist formation, and it took an entire day to for the nationalist force to reach its designated position.
On August 14, 1947, the heavy rain in eastern Gansu had finally stopped. The nationalist advanced guard consisted of the nationalist Independent 5th Cavalry Regiment and the 2nd Regiment of the nationalist Reorganized 100th Brigade made contact with the enemy at regions of Golden Village Temple and Dou Family's Ridge near Nine Steep Hills Town. The communist local garrison Gao Xuewen Independent Regiment fought a delay action while gradually retreating eastward, finally disengaged the enemy, but the nationalists were not able to resume their rapid push by taking advantage of the good weather as they had hoped, because they were further blocked by another communist guerrilla force, the Northern Wei Column at Fu Family's Village. Although the nationalists managed to driven the enemy from their positions and severely wounding the communist guerrilla commander Yao Pengfei, the blocking actions fought by these communist units had provided the much needed times for the communists to evacuate and redeploy.