Linfen Campaign (临汾战役) was a series of battles fought between the

communist Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, ...

s and the nationalists during the

Chinese Civil War The Chinese Civil War was fought between the Kuomintang-led government of the Republic of China and forces of the Chinese Communist Party, continuing intermittently since 1 August 1927 until 7 December 1949 with a Communist victory on main ...

to control the city of

Linfen Linfen is a prefecture-level city in the southwest of Shanxi province, China, bordering Shaanxi province to the west. It is situated along the banks of the Fen River. It has an area of and according to the 2020 Census, a population of 3,976, ...

, and resulted in the

victory.

Prelude

After the Yuncheng Campaign (运城战役),

was the only

nationalist Nationalism is an idea and movement that holds that the nation should be congruent with the state. As a movement, nationalism tends to promote the interests of a particular nation (as in a group of people), Smith, Anthony. ''Nationalism: Th ...

stronghold left in southern

Shanxi Shanxi (; ; formerly romanised as Shansi) is a landlocked province of the People's Republic of China and is part of the North China region. The capital and largest city of the province is Taiyuan, while its next most populated prefecture-leve ...

was ideal to defend: the city wall was 15 metre tall and 10 metre wide at the top, 25 – 30 metres wide at the bottom, and at the section of the Eastern Pass (Dong Guan, 东关), there was a second wall of the same size, providing additional protection. There were a total of 31 clusters of bunkers around the city and additional strongholds within 3 – 7 km range in the outskirt. There were deep ditches both outside and inside city wall, and fortifications within the city. Located on the eastern bank of Fen River, the east, north and south directions were wide open, with little cover for the attacking enemy to hide. The

strategy was to hold on until reinforcement arrived and then counterattack, while the

strategy was to take the city primarily using tunnels since the

s lacked heavy artillery pieces.

Order of battle

Defenders totaling 25,000:

order of battle In modern use, the order of battle of an armed force participating in a military operation or campaign shows the hierarchical organization, command structure, strength, disposition of personnel, and equipment of units and formations of the armed ...

: *The 66th Division deployed in positions outside the city *The 30th

Brigade A brigade is a major tactical military formation that typically comprises three to six battalions plus supporting elements. It is roughly equivalent to an enlarged or reinforced regiment. Two or more brigades may constitute a division. ...

*The

artillery Artillery is a class of heavy military ranged weapons that launch munitions far beyond the range and power of infantry firearms. Early artillery development focused on the ability to breach defensive walls and fortifications during si ...

battalion A battalion is a military unit, typically consisting of 300 to 1,200 soldiers commanded by a lieutenant colonel, and subdivided into a number of companies (usually each commanded by a major or a captain). In some countries, battalions ...

of the 27th

*Two Security

s *Two Training

Regiment A regiment is a military unit. Its role and size varies markedly, depending on the country, service and/or a specialisation. In Medieval Europe, the term "regiment" denoted any large body of front-line soldiers, recruited or conscript ...

s *Security forces of adjacent 15 counties withdrew into the city of

Attackers totaling 53,000:

: *The 8th Column *The 13th Column *Units of the Taiyue (太岳) Military District

First stage

The nationalists begun to airlift the 30th

to Luochuan (洛川) from

on March 6, 1948, to strengthen the

force in northwestern

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, most populous country, with a Population of China, population exceeding 1.4 billion, slig ...

. In order to prevent this, the

s decided to launch the campaign early and on March 7, 1948, the

24th

of the 8th Column took the airfield south of

after destroying two aircraft, thus cutoff the aerial link of the city. The nationalists were forced to give up the airlift plan and the city was attacked by the enemy from three sides: east, north and south. The

strongholds in the outskirt of

including Cui Family's Bump (Cui Jia Geda, 崔家疙瘩), Train Station (Huoche Zhan, 火车站), High River Hotel (Gao He Dian, 高河店) and Official Yao's Temple (Yao Guan Miao, 尧官庙) fell into the enemy hands, and the

futile attempt to counterattack and retake these strongholds were beaten back for more than thirty times. Afterward, the enemy approached the outer city of

, the Eastern Pass (Dong Guan, 东关), which was the barrier for

, and the nationalists desperately attempted to hold on this critical defensive stronghold. From March 23, 1948 – March 27, 1948, the

defenders twice successfully beaten back the attacks on Eastern Pass (Dong Guan, 东关) by the

13th Column. On April 1, 1948, the enemy adjusted tactic and the

37th

of the 13th Column attacked from southeast and the

23rd

of the 8th Column attacked from northeast simultaneously, while the 4 tunnels were dug toward the city wall. On April 10, 1948, three of the four tunnels were filled with explosives and detonated simultaneously, succeeding in collapsing the city wall of the Eastern Pass (Dong Guan, 东关) section, and attacking

37th

of the 13th Column and the

23rd

of the 8th Column were able to swiftly taking the Eastern Pass (Dong Guan, 东关), the outer city of

, badly mauling the local defenders, the

66th Division.

Second stage

On April 16, 1948, the battle mostly had switched to underground when the

8th Column and Taiyue (太岳) Military District at eastern outskirt of

and the 13th Column at southern outskirt of

begun to dig 15 tunnels toward the city wall and an additional 40+ tunnels for cover. Taking the lesson learned from the loss of Eastern Pass (Dong Guan, 东关), the defenders also begun to dig tunnels to counter the underground threat. In addition, under the cover of shelling with incendiary rounds and gas attacks, the

30th

counterattacked the enemy with air cover. Although the

counterattack was beaten back the enemy, and the nationalists did succeed in destroying most of the enemy tunnels. On May 1, 1948, the Xu Xiangqian changed their tactic by deploying the

13th Column to the east of the city to assist the

8th Column to attack the city, while the 22nd

of the

8th Column and the 39th

of the

13th Column were deployed to assist the

regiment A regiment is a military unit. Its role and size varies markedly, depending on the country, service and/or a specialisation. In Medieval Europe, the term "regiment" denoted any large body of front-line soldiers, recruited or conscript ...

of the Taiyue (太岳) Military District on the western bank of the Fen River to blockade the escape route of the fleeing enemy. On May 16, 1948, the 23rd

of the 8th Column succeeded in extending two 110 metre-long tunnels directly under the city wall, filling one with 6,000 kg black dynamite and the other with 3,500 kg dynamite. On May 15, 1948, at 7:50 PM, the dynamites were detonated, blowing up two 50 metre wide gaps in the city wall and the assault team of the 69th

of the

23rd

was the first to ventured into the city and other

units soon followed under the cover of heavy artillery fire. After fierce street fights, the battle ended after midnight when all of the defenders were either killed or captured, and the campaign concluded.

Outcome

The entire

garrison of

was lost, including the Commander-in-chief, Liang Peihuang 梁培璜, who was captured alive by the enemy. The fall of

meant that the last

stronghold in southern

was finally eliminated. The

victory of

Campaign resulted in the linking up of the Lüliang

base and Taiyue (太岳)

base, and the entire southern

region falling into the

hands. The

23rd

of the 8th Column played a significant role in the taking of

and was honored as

after the campaign.

References

*Zhu, Zongzhen and Wang, Chaoguang, ''Liberation War History'', 1st Edition, Social Scientific Literary Publishing House in

Beijing } Beijing ( ; ; ), Chinese postal romanization, alternatively romanized as Peking ( ), is the Capital city, capital of the China, People's Republic of China. It is the center of power and development of the country. Beijing is the world's Li ...

, 2000, (set) *Zhang, Ping, ''History of the Liberation War'', 1st Edition, Chinese Youth Publishing House in

, 1987, (pbk.) *Jie, Lifu, ''Records of the Liberation War: The Decisive Battle of Two Kinds of Fates'', 1st Edition,

Hebei Hebei or , (; alternately Hopeh) is a northern province of China. Hebei is China's sixth most populous province, with over 75 million people. Shijiazhuang is the capital city. The province is 96% Han Chinese, 3% Manchu, 0.8% Hui, and ...

People's Publishing House in

Shijiazhuang Shijiazhuang (; ; Mandarin: ), formerly known as Shimen and romanized as Shihkiachwang, is the capital and most populous city of China’s North China's Hebei Province. Administratively a prefecture-level city, it is about southwest of Beijin ...

, 1990, (set) *Literary and Historical Research Committee of the

Anhui Anhui , (; formerly romanized as Anhwei) is a landlocked province of the People's Republic of China, part of the East China region. Its provincial capital and largest city is Hefei. The province is located across the basins of the Yangtze Riv ...

Committee of the

Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference The Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC, zh, 中国人民政治协商会议), also known as the People's PCC (, ) or simply the PCC (), is a political advisory body in the People's Republic of China and a central part of ...

, ''Liberation War'', 1st Edition,

People's Publishing House in

Hefei Hefei (; ) is the capital and largest city of Anhui Province, People's Republic of China. A prefecture-level city, it is the political, economic, and cultural center of Anhui. Its population was 9,369,881 as of the 2020 census and its built-up ( ...

, 1987, *Li, Zuomin, ''Heroic Division and Iron Horse: Records of the Liberation War'', 1st Edition,

Chinese Communist The Chinese Communist Party (CCP), officially the Communist Party of China (CPC), is the founding and sole ruling party of the People's Republic of China (PRC). Under the leadership of Mao Zedong, the CCP emerged victorious in the Chinese Ci ...

Party History Publishing House in

, 2004, *Wang, Xingsheng, and Zhang, Jingshan, ''Chinese Liberation War'', 1st Edition,

People's Liberation Army The People's Liberation Army (PLA) is the principal military force of the China, People's Republic of China and the armed wing of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). The PLA consists of five Military branch, service branches: the People's ...

Literature and Art Publishing House in

, 2001, (set) *Huang, Youlan, ''History of the Chinese People's Liberation War'', 1st Edition, Archives Publishing House in

, 1992, *Liu Wusheng, ''From

Yan'an Yan'an (; ), alternatively spelled as Yenan is a prefecture-level city in the Shaanbei region of Shaanxi province, China, bordering Shanxi to the east and Gansu to the west. It administers several counties, including Zhidan (formerly Bao'an) ...

: A Collection of Military Records and Research Publications of Important Campaigns in the Liberation War'', 1st Edition, Central Literary Publishing House in

, 1993, *Tang, Yilu and Bi, Jianzhong, ''History of Chinese

in Chinese Liberation War'', 1st Edition, Military Scientific Publishing House in

, 1993 – 1997, (Volum 1), 7800219615 (Volum 2), 7800219631 (Volum 3), 7801370937 (Volum 4), and 7801370953 (Volum 5) {{coord missing, Shanxi Conflicts in 1948 Battles of the Chinese Civil War 1948 in China Military history of Shanxi

Prelude

Order of battle

First stage

Second stage

Outcome

See also

References