Campaign To Suppress Bandits in Northeast China - Prelude

Prelude

Due to the grave communist blunder, nationalists had an upper hand in the initial struggle for the control of Northeast China. Despite being reaching the region before the nationalists could, vast majority portion of the region was dominated by the bandits sided with the nationalists. Bandits under the command of Ma Yuechuan (马越川) with more than eighteen thousand troops, including artillery and cavalries controlled most of Nenjiang (province), and attacked Martial Art Temple region of (Wu Miao Zi, 武庙子) in Tailai (泰来) county, succeeded in killing the communist commander-in-chief of Tailai (泰来) Military Sub-Region, Zhang Pingyang (张平洋). The vital communication line between the region to the north of Changchun and south of Changchun was controlled by three thousand bandits headed by Ma Xishan (马喜山) and Zheng Yunfeng (郑云峰). Communist controlled trains were constantly ambushed and the greatest casualties suffered in an ambush exceeded a hundred. In Hejiang, over twenty thousand bandits under the command of Li Huatang (李华堂) and Xie Wendong (谢文东) struck numerous times, including successfully killing Sun Xilin (孙西林), the communist deputy mayor of Jiamusi. However, the bandits made a serious blunder when they indiscriminately murdered more than two hundred innocent ethnic Korean civilians in three villages in execution style in Mishan (密山) County, even babies of several weeks old were not spared. The mass execution and the subsequent burning down of every building in the village had outraged the local populace, and ethnic Koreans in the local area were firmly allied with communists as a result.

In Heilongjiang, the rear area of communists in Northeast China, the bandits were most numerous, totaling more than seventy thousands, all received ranks and titles from Chiang’s government because the nationalists planned to use them to harass the rear area of their communist enemy. The largest band of bandits were headed by Shang Qiyue (尚其悦), totaling over ten thousands, struck many time, succeeding raiding communist held areas numerous times. In Yan’an (延安) County, (communist party) secretary Zhao Guang (赵光) was ambushed and killed when he was sent to Tongbei (通北) County. Gu Yanling (顾延岭), the communist chief of Xunke (逊克) County and two squads of communist soldiers totaling eighteen were captured and executed by being buried alive. Communist garrison of Sunwu (孙吴) County totaling forty soldiers were also executed by being buried alive after their capture. However, such brutal execution only strengthened communist resolve to exterminate the bandits to avenge the death of their comrades, which totaled 154 in a single region to the north of Changchun along. Another unexpected consequence of such brutal methods of execution was that the highly disciplined regular nationalist army sent to Northeast China later on was equally outraged with the bandits’ behavior like the local populace, and not wanting to be associated with the bandits and thus had their image tarnished, hence they were not enthusiastic in coordinating their military operations with these bandits to fight together against the communists, despite the fact that Chiang’s government rewarded most of the bandit chiefs with higher ranks than these nationalist regular army commanders. However, the bandits did enjoy the temporary advantage over the communists, controlling over two third of the total territory. For example, in the region to the north of Changchun, twenty-nine out of sixty-five cities and towns were controlled by bandits, and over two third of the rural area was also in the bandits’ hands. In Songjiang (province), communists were only able to control four towns including Bin (宾) County, Hulan (呼兰), Bayan (巴彦) and Shuangcheng, while for the rest, garrisons of fifteen counties totaling over ten thousand troops defected and joined the bandits. The total number of bandits peaked in December 1945 when they strength exceeded 110,000.