Siping Campaign

Part of the Chinese Civil War

Date	June 11, 1947 – March 13, 1948
Location	Siping, Jilin, China
Result	Communist victory

Belligerents

National Revolutionary Army

People's Liberation Army

Commanders and leaders

Chen Mingren

Chen Cheng

Li Tianyou

Lin Biao

Strength

55,000

60,000

Casualties and losses

35,000

20,000

Siping Campaign (四平战役) was a nine-month struggle between the communist and the nationalist for Siping in Jilin, China during the Chinese Civil War in the post World War II era, and resulted in communist victory.

By the early June 1947, the communists had successfully isolated Siping (city) in their Summer Offensive of 1947 in Northeast China, the communists decided to take the city despite the fact that they had totally lacked the experience of taking strongly defended cities that are heavily fortified, and it was obvious to both sides that the isolated city would be the next battlefield. Siping (city) was defended by three divisions belong to two separate armies and the commander of the nationalist 71st Army, Chen Mingren (陈明仁) was named as the nationalist commander-in-chief of the urban defense. All three nationalist divisions suffered greatly in earlier battles and none of them was fully manned. However, the communists had eradicated nationalists in the region from Tieling in the south and Changchun in the north, and most of these nationalist forces had retreated to Siping (city). Chen Mingren (陈明仁) successfully recruited and incorporated these forces into his force, and every able bodied-man who had a governmental job was also recruited into the local garrison. Construction for additional fortifications and strengthening the current ones was also completed in very short span of time, and in a devoted effort, many bunkers were built by sacks full of wheat and starch of American aid. On June 3, 1947, Chiang Kai-shek flew to Shenyang and personally wrote to Chen Mingren (陈明仁) stating that Siping (city) was a very important location in Northeast China and if lost, the nationalists would not only lose Northeast China, but also endangering the rest of China, so the city must be defended at all cost, and Chen Mingren (陈明仁) was determined to hold the city, and the nationalist reporters claimed the city as Chen Mingren (陈明仁)’s fortress after witnessing the extensive defensive complex built.

...
Wikipedia