Meridian Ridge Campaign - Commanders

Commanders

The nationalist frontline commander was General Ma Jiyuan (马继援), Ma Bufang's only son. Awarded with the rank of colonel at the age of 16 to become a deputy regimental commander, Ma Jiyuan (马继援) was one of Ma Bufang's favorite field commanders. By the ago of 20, Ma Jiyuan (马继援) 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 (马继援) 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-year 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 (王世泰) 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 (王秉祥), who first joined the communists in 1934. In 1935, the four communist guerrilla forces operating in Xinning (新宁) 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 (王秉祥) 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 (王秉祥) 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 (新宁) county, and the communist propaganda minister. However, Wang Bingxiang (王秉祥) 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 (Jin Cun Miao, 金村庙) region.