Battle of Baoying

Battle of the Chinese Civil War

Battle of Baoying

Part of the Chinese Civil War
| Date| August 15–23, 1945

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Location|

Central Jiangsu, China

Result|  Communist victory
Belligerents
China|  Chinese Communist Party
Commanders and leaders
Unknown|  Unknown
Strength
2,000+|  Several hundreds
Casualties and losses
2,005 captured|  Minor

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Campaigns of the Chinese Civil War

* Outline of the Chinese Civil War

First Phase (1927–1937)

* Autumn Harvest Uprising
* Li Lisan line
* Encirclement campaigns
* Japanese invasion of Manchuria
* Long March
* Southern Guerilla War

Resumption of hostilities (1945–1949)

* Operation Beleaguer
* Northeast China
* Liaoshen
* Huaihai
* Pingjin
* Yangtze River
* Shanghai
* Hainan
* Guningtou
* Wanshan

Aftermath

* Xinjiang
* Kuomintang Islamic insurgency
* China–Burma border
* Cross-strait conflict

The Battle of Baoying (traditional Chinese: 寶應戰鬥; simplified Chinese: 宝应战斗) was a part of the Chinese Civil War in the immediate post-World War II era. The battle was fought in the Baoying region in central Jiangsu. It was a clash between the Communists and the former Nationalists turned Japanese puppet regime force who rejoined the Nationalists after World War II. The battle resulted in a Communist victory.

## Prelude

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Like other similar clashes immediately after the end of World War II between the Communists and the Nationalists in China, this conflict also rooted from the fact that Chiang Kai-shek had realized that his Nationalist regime simply had neither the sufficient troops nor enough transportation assets to deploy his troops into the Japanese-occupied regions of China. Unwilling to let the Communists who had already dominated most of the rural regions in China to further expand their territories by accepting the Japanese surrender and thus would consequently control the Japanese occupied regions, Chiang Kai-shek ordered the Japanese and their turncoat Chinese puppet regime not to surrender to the Communists and kept their fighting capabilities to “maintain order” in the Japanese occupied regions, fighting off the Communists as necessary, until the final arrivals and completion of the deployment of the Nationalist troops. As a result, most members of the Japanese puppet regimes and their military forces rejoined the Nationalists.

However, most of these former Nationalists turned Japanese puppet regime forces were not from Chiang Kai-shek's own clique, but instead, they were mainly consisted of troops of warlords who were only nominally under the Chiang Kai-shek's before World War II, since they were Nationalists in name only and mostly maintained their independent and semi-independent status. These warlords were only interested in keeping their own power and defected to the Japanese side when Japanese invaders offered to let them keep their power in exchange for their collaborations. After World War II, these forces of former Japanese puppet regimes once again returned to the Nationalist camp for the same reason they defected to the Japanese invaders. Obviously, it was difficult for Chiang to immediately get rid of these warlords for good as soon as they surrendered to Chiang and rejoined Nationalists, because such move would alienate other factions within the Nationalist ranks, and these former Japanese puppet regime's warlords could still help the Nationalists to gain more territories by holding on to what was under their control until Chiang completed the deployment of his own troops to take over. Chiang Kai-shek's objective was to simultaneously solve the warlord problem that had plagued China for so long and the problem of the extermination of communism together, which proved to be an extremely fatal mistake for him and his Nationalist regime later on, as shown in this conflict.

## Nationalist Strategy

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In accordance with his strategy to simultaneously solve the warlord problem that had plagued China for so long and the problem of the extermination of communism together, Chiang Kai-shek and his followers had hoped that these former Japanese puppet regime's warlords who rejoined the Nationalists would be able to hold on to the regions long enough for Chiang to deploy his own troops by holding off Communists. If the Communists were victorious in such conflicts, however, the result would still benefit to Chiang and China because the power of these warlords would be reduced as their military forces were smashed by the Communists, and the warlord problem plagued China for so long could thus be greatly reduced, while at the same time, Communists would be weakened by the fights and Chiang's own troops would have easier time to take control.

For the former Nationalist turned Japanese puppet regime forces, these warlords and their troops had no problem of following Chiang's orders, and they were eager to prove themselves. These warlords and their troops were well aware that due to the collaboration with the Japanese invaders during the Second Sino-Japanese War, they were well hated by the general population in China, including those Nationalists who refused to surrender to the enemy and fought the enemy until the eventual victory. Therefore, in the impending demilitarization after World War II, they would certainly be disarmed and discharged, which would probably be the best outcome and the power of these warlords would be reduced or even completely eliminated as a result. Chiang Kai-shek's ordering them not surrendering to the Communists and fighting off the Communists was a savior for them because by carrying out such orders, these warlords and their troops could legitimize themselves and thus retain their power by fighting the Communists who were targeted as rebels by Chiang Kai-shek and his Nationalist regime.

## Communist Strategy

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The Communist strategy was much simpler than that of the Nationalists because there was not any huge division within the Communist rank like that of the Nationalist. The Communists already earned considerable popular support by being the only Chinese force left in the region fighting the Japanese invaders and their puppet regime after the Nationalists withdrew, and after successfully establishing Communist bases in the rural regions where better life was provided to the general populace in comparison to that of Japanese occupied regions, the general Chinese populace agreed that the Communists were well deserved to represent the China to accept the invaders’ surrender in the region and takeover the regions occupied by the invaders.

## Order of battle

[edit]

Nationalists

* 106th Regiment of 42nd Division of the 5th Army
* Baoying Security Regiment

Communists

* Units of Central Jiangsu Military Region
* Baoying Independent Regiment

## Battle

[edit]

On August 21, 1945, the 13th Brigade of the 5th Division of the communist New Fourth Army decided to take the town of Baoying in central Jiangsu by force after the local defenders consisted of former Nationalists turned Japanese puppet regime force who rejoined after World War II refused to surrender. The battle begun on August 15, 1945, and the attacking Communists were soon succeeding in taking all enemy strongholds outside the town. A week later, the Communists succeeded in breaching the defense of the town at the night of August 22, 1945. By the next day, the defenders were completely annihilated, with the deputy regimental commander captured alive along with most of his troops by the attacking Communists. In addition, the Communists also captured more than 60 machine guns and over 600 firearms, and the vast stretch of 100 km along the Grand Canal of China from Gaoyou to Huai'an had fallen to the Communist hands.

## Outcome

[edit]

Like other similar clashes immediately after the end of World War II between the Communists and the Nationalists in China, this conflict also showed that Chiang Kai-shek's attempt to simultaneously solve the warlord problem that had plagued China for so long and the problem of the extermination of Communism together proved to be a fatal mistake. Although the result of the campaign turned out exactly like Chiang Kai-shek and his subordinates had predicted, and consequently the power of the warlords in this region was indeed reduced as their military forces were smashed by the communists, so that the warlord problem plagued China for so long was thus reduced for this particular region, and Chiang Kai-shek's secondary objective was achieved here, any positive gains obtained by the Nationalists were negated by the political fallout. The reason was that this success of achieving the secondary objective came at a huge cost in Nationalists’ loss of popular support in this region formerly dominated by the Japanese, because the local population had already blamed Nationalists for losing the regions to the Japanese invaders, while reassigning these former Japanese puppet regime forces as the nationalist forces to fight the Communists, the only Chinese force left in the regions, only further alienated the local populace and strengthened the popular resentment to Chiang Kai-shek and his Nationalist government(The Wangs).

## See also

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* Outline of the Chinese Civil War
* National Revolutionary Army
* History of the People's Liberation Army

## References

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This article includes a list of references, related reading, or external links, but its sources remain unclear because it lacks inline citations. Please help improve this article by introducing more precise citations. (September 2014) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

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* Zhu, Zongzhen and Wang, Chaoguang, Liberation War History, 1st Edition, Social Scientific Literary Publishing House in Beijing, 2000, ISBN 7-80149-207-2 (set)
* Zhang, Ping, History of the Liberation War, 1st Edition, Chinese Youth Publishing House in Beijing, 1987, ISBN 7-5006-0081-X (pbk.)
* Jie, Lifu, Records of the Liberation War: The Decisive Battle of Two Kinds of Fates, 1st Edition, Hebei People's Publishing House in Shijiazhuang, 1990, ISBN 7-202-00733-9 (set)
* Literary and Historical Research Committee of the Anhui Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, Liberation War, 1st Edition, Anhui People's Publishing House in Hefei, 1987, ISBN 7-212-00007-8
* Li, Zuomin, Heroic Division and Iron Horse: Records of the Liberation War, 1st Edition, Chinese Communist Party History Publishing House in Beijing, 2004, ISBN 7-80199-029-3
* Wang, Xingsheng, and Zhang, Jingshan, Chinese Liberation War, 1st Edition, People's Liberation Army Literature and Art Publishing House in Beijing, 2001, ISBN 7-5033-1351-X (set)
* Huang, Youlan, History of the Chinese People's Liberation War, 1st Edition, Archives Publishing House in Beijing, 1992, ISBN 7-80019-338-1
* Liu Wusheng, From Yan'an to Beijing: A Collection of Military Records and Research Publications of Important Campaigns in the Liberation War, 1st Edition, Central Literary Publishing House in Beijing, 1993, ISBN 7-5073-0074-9
* Tang, Yilu and Bi, Jianzhong, History of Chinese People's Liberation Army in Chinese Liberation War, 1st Edition, Military Scientific Publishing House in Beijing, 1993 – 1997, ISBN 7-80021-719-1 (Volume 1), 7800219615 (Volume 2), 7800219631 (Volume 3), 7801370937 (Volume 4), and 7801370953 (Volume 5)

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Chinese Civil War

Principal belligerents and campaigns
Nationalist Party /  National Government ( National Revolutionary Army) → Constitutional ROC Government (ROC Armed Forces) → Republic of China on Taiwan

* * *

Communist Party /  Soviet Republic ( Red Army) → Liberated Area ( 8th Route Army, New Fourth Army, etc. → People's Liberation Army) →  People's Republic of China

| Pre-1945| Post-1945

|

|  1923|  Sun–Joffe Manifesto

|

1924|  First United Front
1926|  Canton Coup
1927–1949|  Chinese Communist Revolution
1927|  Nanking incident
Shanghai Commune
Shanghai massacre
Nanjing–Wuhan split
715 Incident
Little Long March
Nanchang uprising
Autumn Harvest Uprising
Guangzhou Uprising
1930–1934|  Li Lisan line
Encirclement campaigns
1931–1934|  Chinese Soviet Republic
1933–1934|  Fujian People's Government
1934–1936|  Long March
1936|  Xi'an Incident
1937–1946|  Second United Front (Wartime perception of the Chinese Communists)
1941|  New Fourth Army incident
1944|  Dixie Mission

|  1945|  Chongqing Negotiations
Double Tenth Agreement
Retrocession of Taiwan

|

1946|  Jiaochangkou Incident
Peiping rape case
1945–1947|  Marshall Mission
1945–1949|  Operation Beleaguer
1947|  Yu Zisan Incident
1948|  SS Kiangya incident
Liaoshen campaign
1948–1949|  Huaihai campaign
Pingjin campaign
1949|  Taiping Steamer Incident
Yangtze River Crossing campaign
Amethyst Incident
ROC Government retreat to Taiwan
PRC incorporation of Xinjiang
1949–1953|  Bombing of Shanghai
1950|  Hainan Island campaign
Wanshan Archipelago Campaign

1950–1958|  Kuomintang Islamic insurgency
1961–1972|  Project National Glory
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