Nationalist Pursuit
The rapid communist retreat made the nationalists very suspicious, fearing that it was just another trap to lure them into yet another ambush. By 3:00 p.m. on August 15, 1947, the firepower of resisting communists subsided but the cautious nationalists did not move forward. After another hour, the nationalist Reorganized 100th Brigade launched a cavalry charge at the enemy, and realized that the enemy had already retreated. Carefully, the nationalist moved forward and by 6:00 PM, they took every position abandoned by the enemy to the west of Nine Steep Hills (Jiu Xian 九岘) Town. By this time, the nationalist Reorganized 8th Brigade under the command of Ma Buluan (马步銮) finally arrived after being delayed by heavy rain for nearly 12 hours. Consequently, Ma Jiyuan (马继援) was very unhappy because his original plan of encircling the enemy failed due to the delay. After a conference, the nationalist decided to pursuit the enemy at night.
At night of August 15, 1947, the communist force divided into two, with one portion consisted of the 3rd Regiment of the communist 1st Garrison Brigade with high ranking local cadres (prefecture level), and this smaller force successfully evaded the pursuing nationalists by moving southward. Majority of the communist force continued its eastward retreat along the valley of Meridian Ridge. The local communists had drafted many donkeys to help to carry the supplies, and this had jammed the road, thus seriously slowed the speed, with the fleeing communists only moved 20 km for the entire night.
The slow speed of fleeing communists was equally matched by the equally slow if not slower speed of pursuing nationalist cavalries. By midnight, the nationalist scouts reported to their commander-in-chief Ma Jiyuan (马继援) that the terrain ahead was extremely difficult for cavalries and there were dense forest that was perfectly for the enemy to lay an ambush. After being continuously harassed by the enemy ambushes, the cautious nationalists decided to stop completely to camp, and then continue the pursuit in the morning. In deed, the darkness had helped the communists, and Wang Bingxiang (王秉祥) with his communist forces successfully reached the safety at Kang Family’s Plateau in the night of August 15, 1947 by going northwestward.
Read more about this topic: Meridian Ridge Campaign
Famous quotes containing the words nationalist and/or pursuit:
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