Changchun City, as the capital of this empire, had expanded to cover an area of 30 square miles by 1944 and its population reached 1,217,000, larger than the population of Tokyo at the time. The population was composed of Manchus, Han, Mongolians, Koreans, Russians, and of course, two million Japanese (as Japanese citizens, not subjects of the Manchu Empire). The total population was divided into different classes according to their different tribes. Among the regulations that reflected this stratification was one prohibiting non-Japanese residents from eating rice and white flour. Any non-Japanese resident, if found to have rice or white flour, was taken in as an “economical criminal.” Three languages were used officially: Chinese (Han), Mandarin (the language of Manchu officials) and Japanese. As the population was mostly of the Han tribe, Chinese was the chief official language.
                However, on February 24, 1942, Poland abolished its recognition of the so-called empire and in August, 1945, the empire came to an end when Japan surrendered and the Soviet Army occupied its territory. Henry abdicated once again on August 17 and was captured by the Soviet army as a prisoner of war.
                He was handed over to the Communist Party of China. He was released on December 4, 1959, and died of uremia on October 17, 1967.

The 12/9 event

                After Japan seized the northeastern provinces, they wanted to encroach more provinces further south such as Chahar and Hebei. They intended to establish another puppet government in these provinces. But the Chinese people had had enough. The students rose up in protest. At 10:00AM on December 9, 1935, three thousand students from universities and high schools in Peking demonstrated in opposition to such Japanese aggression. They fought with the police. Many students were injured and at least ten students were arrested. On December 10, all the students in Peking went on strike.
                Students in Hangzhou followed suit. On December 11, the Peking government (still controlled by the Republic of China) sent policemen to the universities and schools to forbid the students going out to demonstrate. On December 12, students in Shanghai, Nanking, Wuhan, Canton, and many other big cities gave their support. The next day, the principals of six universities in Peking told the students that they must go back to classes since those who had been in custody were all released. On the 15th, the mayor of Peking invited student representatives to have a talk. On the 16th, the Peking government and the university authorities announced that any students who refused to attend class would be punished. But on the same day, 10,000 students went out to demonstrate again, and around 30 students were arrested and about 400 injured. Then 20,000 Peking residents joined in. Workers and shop owners all went on strike. On December 17, the mayor asserted that the students were being instigated by the Communist Party.
                In January, 1936, students in Peking and Tianjin organized propaganda groups to go south among the workers and peasants to let them know about the invasion by Japan and calling on them to rise up against the Japanese. On March 31, Guo Qing, a student at the 17th high school in Peking, died in prison. Students indignantly crowded into the streets, carrying his coffin. On May 28, all Peking was protesting, with the slogans “Down with Japan” and “The 29th army must fight Japan.” On May 30, the commander of the 29th army announced that if the Japanese army moved any further, it would face resistance. On June 13, students in Peking demonstrated again, and this time the police did not interfere; on the contrary, they showed their sympathy. On December 12, students held the fifth demonstration. These student protests, though not enough to prevent the Japanese from trespassing further into China, roused the Chinese people at large to resist the invaders.

The Outbreak of the Sino–Japanese War, Or the Anti-Japanese War

The double 7s event—Lugou Bridge event

                At 7:30PM on the 7th of July (07/07), 1937, the Japanese army, stationed at the other side of Lugou Bridge over the Yongding River (with the Chinese army on this side of the bridge), 15 km from Peking, began to exercise, conducting a sham battle in the deserted fields under their control close to Wanping Town. (Wanping had been founded in 1540 in the Ming Dynasty as a satellite town for the defense of Peking.) At about 12:40 that night, reports of gun shots were heard by the Chinese soldiers across the river. Japanese officers said that a soldier in their army had gone missing in the exercise and they heard reports of guns, so the soldier must have been killed by Chinese soldiers. On this pretext they tried to come into Wanping town to search for him. The Chinese army guarding the town, of course, refused their request, answering that everyone in the town was asleep and must not be disturbed, and besides, no Chinese soldier had fired a shot. Therefore, at 5 o’clock in the morning on July 8, they opened fire on the defensive Chinese army at this side of the bridge and also blasted the town with artillery. The Chinese army had to fight back. Historians consider this is the event that lit the fuse of the Sino–Japanese War.

Next day, the Communist Party sent out a public telegram to call on people to resist the Japanese invaders. And Chiang Kai-shek made a speech, saying, “No matter where you are, in the south or in the north, no matter who you are, old or young, everyone has the responsibility to resist, everyone must be determined to make a sacrifice.” in the previous six years Chiang Kai-shek had stuck to a policy of not fighting the Japanese because he was not confident they could achieve the final victory, and he needed time to prepare. He had hired German advisors to train his officers and soldiers up to German standards. He stored ammunition and expanded his air force. He communicated with England, the US and Russia seeking diplomatic support. Though he lacked the self-confidence to win the war, he foresaw that the final victory belonged to China. As a small country, however strong militarily, Japan could never occupy such a big country like China.
                In the first two days of fighting, Japan could see that they were not going to take the bridge easily. So they proposed peace talks to make time to gather more troops. Japan maneuvered its army from Korea and northeastern China to where the battles were, amassing 400,000 troops. On July 9, 11 and 19, peace agreements were signed three times, but they were useless, only serving to numb the Chinese army with a false outlook of peace.
                On July 25, the Japanese army suddenly attacked the Chinese army stationed at Langfang, and 14 Japanese airplanes raided the barracks of the Chinese army. At noon on July 26, the Japanese army occupied Langfang. Then Japan demanded the Chinese army to withdraw from the region of Peking and Tianjin City, a demand that was of course rejected. At 1:00AM on July 26, a Japanese regiment started from Tianjin City and arrived at Fengtai, close to Peking, at 2:00PM. They asked to enter Peking to protect their citizens in the city. They were permitted in. When just half of the regiment was inside the city gates, the Chinese army fired at them. The regiment was cut in two, half inside and half outside the city. The inside half escaped to the embassy area, into the Japanese barracks in the Japanese embassy. The other half returned to Fengtai. On July 28, the Japanese army started to assault Peking. Chinese army resisted and suffered huge sacrifices. In the night of July 28, the Chinese army had to retreat from Peking. The next day, Japan took Peking, and the day after, Tianjin City fell into their hands as well.

The 8/13 event—battle in Shanghai
                In southern China, Japan wanted to occupy Shanghai. On August 9, two Japanese mariners in Shanghai drove a car and trespassed into the Hongqiao airport area to fire guns, but they were shot dead by the Chinese guards. On August 13, Japanese mariners following their tanks attacked the Chinese army stationed along the Songhu railway, but they were beaten. On August 14, the national government made a statement calling for self-defense in resistance of Japan. The statement was really a general mobilization order to all Chinese people. The central national government organized several military blocs to defend Shanghai. On August 15, the Japanese government issued a statement, too, saying that in order to punish the Chinese army for its rash action and to urge the Nanking government not to take severe steps, the Japanese government had to resort to war. They sent more troops by sea to the Shanghai area. In joint action with the mariners, the Japanese army planned to occupy the strategically important zone in the north of Shanghai.
                Chiang Kai-shek divided the warring area into five zones. Shanghai was in the third zone. On August 17, the Chinese army counterattacked and the 87th division took the Japanese sailors’ club. The 88th division fought Japanese troops in Hongkou park. The two divisions jointly broke through the Japanese defensive line to Huishan wharf. At the same time, the Chinese air force attacked that of Japan and also their warships. They downed 47 Japanese airplanes and sank one Japanese cruiser. Two divisions sailed from Japan to the eastern region of Shanghai, arriving on the 22nd. And on the 23rd, they landed at Wusong district. On August 24, the Chinese 15th military bloc entered Shanghai and assailed the two Japanese divisions just as they were setting foot on land. On September 1, a thousand Japanese soldiers attacked the Chinese cannon site and both had heavy casualties. Japan gathered 30 warships to support their army in an attack at Baoshan.
                After September 11, Chiang Kai-shek himself took the command of the third zone. From then till the beginning of October, the Japanese army increased to 200,000 strong. But they did not have a decisive advantage over the Chinese army till early November. At dawn on November 5, under the cover of heavy fog and lifted by the rising tide, Japanese army landed at Hangzhou Bay. On November 6, they took Jinshan and used a vise strategy to attack the Chinese army from two sides. On November 8, under such unfavorable conditions, Chiang had to give order to retreat. On November 9, the Japanese army occupied Songjiang Town and on November 12 they took Shanghai. During the battles, the people of Shanghai had contributed 3.3 million yuan to support the Chinese army.

The battles in Shanxi province

The Japanese army from north marched toward Pingxing Pass in Shanxi province on the 24th of September, 1937, but the Chinese army was lying in wait for them. A Japanese regiment entered the ambush zone and was annihilated. On September 29, the Japanese army broke through the Chinese army’s defensive line at Ruyuekou and attacked the rear of Chinese army at Pingxing Pass. The Chinese army had to beat a retreat to Taiyuan City, capital of Shanxi province. Qikou was an important strategic place, the gate to Taiyuan. On October 14, the Japanese army used a vise ruse to attack Qikou from two wings, but met with strong resistance. There were heavy casualties on both sides. On October 21, the Japanese army sent a division to attack Niangzi Pass with the intention of going in as an indirect route to take Taiyuan from the north side. On October 26, a Japanese division sent a detachment to go round to the back of the Chinese army defending Niangzi Pass. The Chinese army in the Pass had to withdraw. The Japanese army took Niangzi Pass and chased the retreating Chinese to Yangquan. Then the Japanese army occupied Yangquan and marched toward Shouyang, closer to Taiyuan, on the 2nd of November.
Another Japanese military bloc took a different route and took Xiyang on its way to Taiyuan on November 2. The two Japanese blocs converged on Taiyuan. On November 3, the Japanese 5th bloc reached the northern edges of Taiyuan. On November 5, the Japanese broke through the Chinese defensive line and approached the city wall on November 6. In the meantime, the Japanese 20th military bloc penetrated the Chinese defensive line in the southern perimeter. On November 7, the Japanese army surrounded Taiyuan and on the 8th they began an onslaught on the city; at night they entered the city from the northern side. The Chinese army had to escape and then the Japanese army took the whole city.
In February of 1938, the Japanese 108th military bloc took Dongyang Pass and then another two towns. In early March, more towns were taken. By then all the important cities and towns in Shanxi province had fallen into the hands of Japan. Out of 105 cities and towns in Shanxi province, 102 of them were occupied by Japanese army.

The slaughter in Nanking

By October 1937, Nanking, the capital of the national government, was exposed to the attack of Japanese army. Therefore, Chiang Kai-shek decided to set up a temporary capital in Chongqing City in Sichuan province in southwestern China, at a safe distance from the Japanese army.
At first some generals persisted in defending Nanking at any cost. So the national government gathered 100,000 soldiers for that purpose. No matter, as Japanese army approached Nanking, the government at last had to declare that the government was moving to Chongqing City on the 20th of November. Government offices, universities and schools moved inland, one after another. Even residents of the city escaped from Nanking. In June, there were 1,015,000 residents in the city, but in December, only 468,000 or 568,000 remained. On the 20th of December, for humanitarian reasons, over 20 Westerners were still there organizing the international committee of the Nanjing safety zone to take in and protect refugees.
The Chinese national government recognized their efforts and supplied them with cash, food and police protection. Japan was far from pleased, but declared that if there were no Chinese soldiers hiding there, they would not attack it. But after they took the city, their soldiers forced entry into the zone, stealing private belongings, raping women and arresting and killing young men. Several times the international committee made protests to the Japanese embassy and Japanese army authorities, but in vain. During this slaughter, the committee protected 250,000 refugees. On the 18th of February, 1938, the organization was renamed the Nanking international rescue committee, acting only in a rescue role. By June, it was closed entirely.
On the 7th of November, Tokyo gave orders to limit the action of the Japanese army to the east of Suzhou and Jiaxing region. But the army ignored the order and pursued the retreating Chinese army, intending to occupy Nanking. They advanced quickly as no Chinese army fought them on the way. Seeing this, Tokyo issued orders to take Nanking on December 1.
The Japanese army marched so fast that their supply units were left far behind. When they were approaching Nanking, food was scarce. The soldiers pillaged the Chinese villages for anything edible and wantonly violated women. To cover their crimes, they even slew all the people in the village and burned everything. As they came to Nanking, at least 30,000 Chinese people were killed along the way. It was a rehearsal for the slaughter in Nanking.
On December 8, the Japanese army took all the defensive sites outside Nanking. The worst battle took place at Yuhua Terrace outside the city. Two Chinese brigades were guarding the place. From December 9–11, the Japanese army kept on sending reinforcements for the attack, aided by their artillery and air raids, until every Chinese soldier was killed. When the Japanese troops reached the terrace, no one was alive. Then the Japanese army cleared all the defensive lines outside the city, and the Chinese army in the city had to retreat. On December 13, the Japanese army entered the city. Some Chinese soldiers who did not have time to escape stripped off their uniforms and disguised themselves as civilians. Some ten thousand Chinese were taken captive. They were all killed on instructions from the Japanese army authorities. They also searched for other Chinese soldiers in disguise. Anyone they suspected was killed. Many of them were really unarmed civilians. They even murdered old people and children. They killed all the women they had raped.
On December 13, 1937, a Japanese newspaper, Tokyo nichi nichi (mainichi shimbun), reported that two Japanese officers, Mukai Ming and Noda Takeshi, had a competition to see who could kill more Chinese people. Encouraged by their superiors, they declared that whoever was first to kill 100 Chinese people was a hero. They practiced this slaying from Gourong to Tangshan, and Mukai Ming killed 89 while Noda Takeshi killed 78. Certainly, we can all agree they were not heroes. However, the competition continued. When they met at Mt. Zinjin, both had dented the blades of their swords. Noda Takeshi said that he had killed 105 and Mukai Ming said that he had killed 106. However, there was no witness. So they started the competition anew, aiming at 150. The newspaper ran pictures with captions. Both these brave men were executed in Nanking for their crimes after the surrender of Japan.
Statistics show that during the two months the Japanese occupied Nanking, about 80,000 women were raped, some of them pregnant, from girls as young as 12 to women as old as 65. Many died after the violence. They raped women right in front of their families. Many people were buried alive. The victims were forced by the Japanese soldiers to dig their own pits. During the six weeks of the occupation, 23.8% of structures inside and outside the city were destroyed by fire, 63% had been plundered and 88.5% were structurally damaged. They used military trucks to carry away their loot. By some estimates, 26,584 antique curios or artifacts were missing, such as bronze wares from the Shang Dynasty (1765–1122 BC), along with 7,720 paintings and 45,979 valuable books. Some 109,000 casualties were found and buried. The Nanking branch of the World Red Swastika Society gave out statistics in 1945 claiming that from December 22, 1937 to October 30, 1938, they found and buried 43,123 bodies—1,793 inside the city and 41,330 outside the city, including 75 women and 20 children. Those statistics were from just one organization. The victims totaled 300,000 in all.

The battles in Shandong province

Now the Japanese army occupied the north of China and also Shanghai and the Nanking area. What more could they want? Well, the Shandong province, which is between the northern provinces and the southern area. Shandong province was then still under the control of the Chinese army. Xuzhou City was a place of strategic importance. So battles were waged in its vicinity and expanding into adjoining provinces. If the Japanese army occupied Xuzhou, they could go west along the Longhai railway to attack Zhengzhou in Henan province and then go south along the Pinghan railway to attack Wuhan in Hubei province. So the Japanese army came down from the north and came up from the south.
At the beginning of the Anti-Japanese War in 1937, Han Fuju, the chairman of the government of Shandong province, was ordered to take charge of the defensive line along the Yellow River and prevent the Japanese army from crossing the river. But when the Japanese army rushed down upon him from the north, he fled as if to open the gate and invite the enemy in. The Japanese army easily crossed the river. In early March 1938, they occupied JiNan, the capital of Shandong province.
On the 26th of January, 1938, the 13th division of the Japanese army marched from the south towards Fengyang and Bangbu in Anhui province. The Chinese army stationed there, after efforts at resistance, fell back towards the west. On the 3rd of February, the Japanese division took Linhuai Pass and Bangbu. On February 9–10, the 13th division crossed the Huai River to the north. The 51st Chinese army stationed itself on the north bank and fought the Japanese army.

Between March 1–17, the Japanese army attacked Teng Town in the southern Shandong province. On March 14, the battle reached its climax. The Japanese army used 30 cannons. On March 17, Teng Town was lost.
Meanwhile in late February, the Japanese 5th military bloc came down to the south, after taking over a few towns, and approached Linqi Town where the 40th army of the national government held the defense. Then the 59th Chinese army came for reinforcement. From February 14 to 18, the 59th Chinese army attacked the Japanese bloc from the rear and one wing. The Japanese had to retreat this time, leaving behind heavy casualties.
On March 20 a Japanese brigade, after taking a few towns, approached TaiEr village area, which was the front defensive line to Xuzhou. The brigade attacked alone without waiting for the 5th division and another brigade of their army; they were supposed to break through the defensive lines on the left wing and on the right wing. From March 24, the Japanese army assailed fiercely. The 2nd Chinese military bloc held the line. Then the 20th Chinese bloc attacked the Japanese army from behind. The 59th Chinese army arrived in time to contribute their endeavors. They surrounded the Japanese army. The 10th Japanese corps was wiped out and the 5th Japanese corps was put to rout. It was the first and only time that the Chinese army defeated the Japanese army in the early period of Anti-Japanese War.
Anyway, Japan aimed at taking Xuzhou. On the 18th of April, two Japanese divisions attacked the 20th, the 3rd and the 59th Chinese armies. On the 5th of May, the main forces of the Japanese army divided into two detachments and went from west side of Xuzhou to the north and south sides of the city, intending to surround it. On May 14, the 14th Japanese division came from Puyang in Henan province, and crossing the Yellow River, occupied Heze. On May 15, the Japanese army surrounded Xuzhou. So under the command of Chiang Kai-shek, the Chinese army in Xuzhou broke through the circle and escaped to the mountainous area in Henan and Anhui provinces. Xuzhou was at length taken by the Japanese army on May 19.
Now the Japanese army marched west along the Longhai railway and on the 6th of June occupied Kaifeng City in Henan province. To prevent the Japanese army from any further advance, Chiang ordered his men to blow up the south dike of the Yellow River at Huayuankou on May 9, on the northeastern side of Zhengzhou in Henan province. The water from the river flooded south and the Japanese army had to flee eastward. Thus ended the battles in Shandong province. Han Fuju was executed for running away from the battlefield and allowing the Japanese to cross the Yellow River unopposed.

The battles at Wuhan City area
After taking Nanking, the Japanese army wanted to conquer China in three months with blitzkrieg attacks like Hitler did in Europe. They marched along the Yangtze River towards Wuhan, gathering large numbers of troops, amounting to 300,000 strong. If they took Wuhan, half of China would be in their possession. But they neglected to consider that even so, they only occupied the cities and towns in this half of China, not the whole area. They had no manpower to control the countryside. As they pushed forward, they had to leave some of their troops to guard the cities and towns they had captured. And so they could use less and less troops, and then there were those lost in battle. Poor strategy.
The Chinese army totaled 1,100,000 in defense. The whole defensive line extended for 250 miles. The fighting went on for four and a half months, the longest in terms of time and the largest in scale of all the battles between Japan and China. The Japanese casualties were 35,500 while those of the Chinese army were 256,000. After that, the Japanese did not have enough forces in China to make the lightning attacks they preferred; now they had to change their strategy and concentrate on keeping a hold on what they had secured so far.
On the night of the 11th of June, 1938, a Japanese brigade, under the cover of a rainy night, gave a surprise attack and took Anqin the following day. Anqin was the first defensive spot en route to Wuhan. Then they went west by water, riding their warships. In late June, they arrived at Madang, where the Chinese army had built a strong defensive line. Chiang Kai-shek hoped that this line could block their advance for at least one month.
At first, the Japanese army wanted to get through the line by water. On June 22, they approached Madang and found that the water was full up mines, sunken ships, and artificial reefs so that their warships could not go through. They had to advance by land and break through the line through the mountainous areas.

Li Yunheng, the Chinese commander in charge of the defense in Madang, wished to show that he was a clever general—without realizing how serious the situation was. He organized a training class for officers in charge of regiments, battalions, companies and platoons in his army for two weeks starting on June 10. And at 8 o’clock in the morning June 24, he thought he would hold a ceremony marking the completion of the class. So on the 23rd, all the officers went to the headquarters and stayed there for the ceremony next morning. Someone in the training class was spying for the Japanese and gave this information to the Japanese army. So they sent surprise squads to attack some of the fortresses along the front. As there were no officers to direct the action of the soldiers, there was chaos and the squads took the fortresses easily. But when the squads went on to attack Changshan, they encountered strong resistance, because the officers there had refused to attend the ceremony. The fight lasted for two days and the Chinese troops were short of ammunition and telegrammed headquarters. The 167th division was sent as reinforcement. But Xue Weiying, the commander of this division, was a coward and approached slowly to avoid being killed in the battle. At dawn on the 26th, the Japanese squads stole through a thick patch of reeds to attack another frontier post. They used poisonous gas and killed all the defensive soldiers there. Then the Japanese army cleared all mines in the water by firing at them and got rid of other barriers. They shipped mariners to attack Changshan and broke through the defensive line there. The Chinese defense had to withdraw out of Madang and the Japanese army occupied it. Madang was the ‘gate’ in the middle of the Yangtze River to Wuhan. Commander Li Yunheng was severely punished and the division leader Xue Weiying was executed for neglect of his duties.

After taking Madang, the Japanese army continued west. On the 29th of June, they took Pengze. Under orders from Wuhan headquarters, the 64th Chinese army came in hopes of taking back the town, but it was defeated and chased to Hukou, which was soon taken by the Japanese army on the 4th of July. The 64th Chinese army then went to Jiujiang, which was situated by the Poyang Lake. On July 22, the Japanese army attacked the city. At dawn on July 23, the Japanese army stole into the lake in the rain and set foot on the shore at noon. The Chinese defensive army did not see them coming. They spotted the enemy and reported to headquarters only at 4 o’clock. By then, the Japanese army had surrounded the city. The Chinese army inside had to fight through the circle and escape. The city fell into the hands of the Japanese army on July 24.
The next goal of the Japanese army was Tianjia Town. The hilly ground was easy to defend and hard to attack. The river was only 500 meters wide. The Chinese army set up a strong defense here with artillery. On the 21st of August, the Japanese army attacked Matou Town, about 10 miles downstream from Tianjia Town, and took it after more than 20 days of struggle. On the 26th, the Japanese army sailed in warships upstream towards the town. There were more barriers in the water, so the Japanese army advanced very slowly. On August 29, another Japanese detachment went to attack Guangji. If they could take this town, they could go on to attack Tainjia from behind. Tianjia Town was about 25 miles northeast of Guangji Town. The attack began on August 30 and lasted until September 6. Between Guangji Town and Tianjia Town there was only a narrow road between two small lakes. The Japanese army followed that road on September 15. There were some defensive outposts set along this road. Coming to a roadblock, they used poisonous gas again. Some Chinese soldiers were injured and the Chinese army had to retreat.

The Japanese mariners went to Wuxue, some distance from Tianjia. Wuxue was defended only by a company of Chinese soldiers. In the evening of September 15, the mariners began the offensive. The defensive soldiers fought the invaders alley by alley till only a few soldiers left, and they slipped away. But before they left, they destroyed the dike at the river bank and the water flooded Wuxue area, which hindered the advance of the mariners.
A Japanese brigade that was surrounded by the Chinese army was running short of rations and ammunition. A Japanese commander learned about this and called for an air lift to re-supply them. So Japanese airplanes dropped the necessities and ammunition to the brigade. But as the fighting continued, their ammunition was soon used up. The Japanese soldiers were reduced to throwing stones at the Chinese attackers and sometimes threw back the grenades the Chinese soldiers cast at them. The Chinese army figured out that the enemy was in a tight spot and marched forth in a downpour of rain to wipe them out. However, more Japanese troops came to the rescue and assailed the Chinese army from behind, so they had to withdraw. Few men in the Japanese brigade were left alive.
On September 23, some of the wounded Japanese soldiers were shipped away, but the first field hospital was still full. Because of the lack of helping hands, those who were lightly wounded and who could still walk, went to the field hospital by themselves. Sometimes they had to crawl in the rain and in the mud. By the time they reached the hospital, they were almost dying. Some died on the way owing to the loss of blood. The hospital had little food to spare and could only give them what they had. War is cruel to all participants.
After the sunset on the 26th, the 4th Japanese battalion attacked Xinwo. Their soldiers all put on gas masks and cleared out the Chinese company there, except about ten of them who had already escaped. The Japanese soldiers then went in and used bayonets to kill any Chinese soldiers that had not died yet.

The 4th battalion went towards Lujia Mountain without leaving any soldiers to guard Xinwo. It was dark and the mountain contours were complicated. The 4th battalion lost its way in the mountains. The 339th Chinese regiment was taking shelter on this mountain. But after a few battles, only one battalion was left. As Xinwo was lost, the regiment commander chose some hundred soldiers to form an expendable squad to make one last try at Xinwo. When they reached there, they found no Japanese soldiers guarding the place. But by coincidence the 2nd Japanese battalion came into their firing zone. The Japanese troops thought that their 4th battalion had already wiped out by the Chinese soldiers defending the city, but now they encountered the Chinese squad by surprise. So 61 soldiers of the 2nd Japanese battalion were killed and 17 escaped. At daybreak, the 4th battalion found that they were at the foot of Lujia Mountain and they climbed up to attack the Chinese soldiers on the top, who were just ready for breakfast. When they detected Japanese soldiers creeping up the mountainside, they disappeared.
In the early morning of September 28, the cannons from the warships on the river and from land poured heavy fire upon Tianjia and all the defensive structures and weaponry were destroyed. It looked like a sea of flames. At the same time, all the outer defensive spots were lost. The Chinese army in Tianjia was ordered to withdraw. At 10 o’clock on September 29, when the Japanese army entered the town, the Chinese defenders were nowhere to be seen.

At the same time, the 106th Japanese military bloc had been marching south along Nanxun railroad to Nanchang. On the August 20, this bloc, aided by the 101th Japanese bloc, broke through the Chinese defensive line at Xingzi. But the Chinese army had a second defensive line. The two Japanese blocs could not go further this time. In September 1938, a Japanese reconnaissance airplane found that there was a gap in the defensive line after the fight had been going on for a month. So the 106th Japanese bloc was sent to go stealthily through that gap and come upon the Chinese defensive army to attack them from behind. On September 25, the 106th bloc began to steal through the gap, but lost their way in the mountains. They were soon discovered and surrounded by Chinese soldiers. On October 7, the Chinese army attacked and the fight went on for three days. The bloc had no reinforcements and ran out of ammunition. On September 10, 3,000 Japanese soldiers died. The rest escaped.
On the August 27, the 2nd Japanese army attacked Dabie Mountain area and took LiuAn and Huoshan. They split into two detachments. The first went through the Dabie Mountain area to approach Wuhan directly. The second detachment went to Lushan through a circuitous route to Wuhan. But Mt. Fujin was right on their way to Wuhan. They had to occupy Mt. Fujin first. A severe battle commenced. They failed to take the mountain by September 6. On September 11, the 16th Japanese bloc came for reinforcement. The Chinese defensive army in the mountains had to withdraw. As the Japanese army approached Wuhan, there was no more Chinese army seen. The Chinese army already retreated from Wuhan, leaving the city to the Japanese army.
Although the Japanese army took control of many cities and towns, they really did not annihilate the Chinese army, which still had enough strength to fight back when needed. On the contrary, the Japanese army suffered great losses and had no more strength to wage battles on a large scale. As China is such a huge country, even with all the Japanese armies thrown into the territory of China, they could not cover the whole area of the nation. Besides, when they took a city, they took on an additional burden. As they acquired more and more burdens, they had less and less strength to fight. That has to be factored into any military strategy.

The Japanese army takes Canton in the south

The top brass of the Japanese army had a meeting on September 7 and decided to overrun southern China as they had already occupied the northern and middle China. Their final goal was to occupy the whole of China and then occupy all the countries in East Asia to establish what they called Great East Asia Coprosperity Sphere.
However, historians question why they attacked Pearl Harbor, since Hawaii was not in East Asia. This ill-advised action, or ill-advised stratagem, made them pay heavily when America declared war against them. of course, even if they hadn’t attacked Pearl Harbor, the United States would finally have joined the war in East Asia after Germany was conquered, because Japan was one of the axis countries, just as the Soviet Union entered northeastern China to fight the Japanese army.
Anyway, Chiang Kai-shek misjudged the situation, thinking that since Japan was still fighting in the Yangtze River area, they could not go south to Canton. So he maneuvered four divisions from the Canton area to support those battling in Wuhan. In other words, he weakened the defensive forces in Canton. But Canton was a harbor city, an outlet to the sea, a place of strategic importance.
On October 12, 1938, the Japanese 18th and 104th blocs set out for Canton by sea and air from the Pescadores Islands (located between the mainland and Taiwan, which was known at the time by the name Formosa, given by the Portuguese) with the aid of four aircraft carriers. They entered Daya Bay in the Guangdong province. The next day, they dropped bombs on Huiyang Town and after three days, they took it. On October 19, they suddenly attacked Zengcheng and put the Chinese defenders to rout. On October 21, the Chinese army withdrew from Canton and the Japanese army took it. Another burden. On October 22, 110 Japanese airplanes and the 5th fleet pounced upon Humen, a very important strategic spot. Within ten days, they occupied Canton and Human.

The Japanese army attacks Changsha City three times

Although the Japanese army occupied Nanking and Wuhan, two big, important cities, there were other important cities in between that had not taken yet. Changsha was one of them. On the 14th of September, 1939, they gathered 100,000 soldiers and marched towards Changsha. But they had to fight through one Chinese defensive line after another.
The 101th Japanese bloc attacked GaoAn on September 18. On the 19th, the Chinese gave up the town after a severe fight and receded to Shiguling. Then, the Chinese 32nd army counterattacked in GaoAn on September 21. On September 22, the Chinese army took back GaoAn. The Japanese 106th bloc took Ganfang on September 24. The next day, the Chinese counterattacked in Ganfang. On the 6th of October, two Chinese blocs surrounded the Japanese army, who fled back to where they had come from. The Chinese army chased them and took back a few towns that had been captured by the Japanese army. On October 13, Chinese army stopped its pursuit. Thus ended the Changhsha battle for the first time, and the people there had a moment to recover.
In early September of 1941, Japan gathered 120,000 men, with artillery and air support, and marched on Changhai once more. On September 7, the Japanese 6th bloc attacked Dayun Mountain as a decoy to screen the gathering of their 3rd, 4th, and 40th blocs on the right bank of the Xinqiang River. The 4th Chinese army gave up the front line on the mountain. On September 10, the Chinese 58th army came as reinforcements and took back the mountain position. At the daybreak on September 18, the Japanese 3rd, 6th, and 40th blocs crossed the Xinqiang River and the next day they reached the north bank of the Miluo River. The Chinese 37th and 99th armies were stationed on the south bank of the river and they prevented the Japanese army from crossing. Meantime, the Chinese 20th, 58th , and 4th armies went to attack the wing side of the Japanese army. But a telegram from headquarters to the armies at the front was intercepted and deciphered by the Japanese, who changed their original plan and went to assail the Chinese army coming from their wing side. On September 24, the Japanese army crossed the Miluo River. On the 26th, the Japanese 4th bloc crossed Laodao river and the next day crossed Liuyang River and approached Changsha. On the afternoon of September 27, they entered the city from the southeast side and shortly occupied the whole city.

But Chinese armies came from all sides and surrounded the city. The Japanese supply lines were cut and provisions inside the city ran short. On October 1, they had to escape north. So the Chinese army pursued them. On October 5, they caught up with the runaways on the south side of the Miluo River and fought there. The Japanese army had to cross the river to the north side. On October 6, the Chinese army crossed the river, too, keeping up the chase, and they crossed the Xinqiang River on October 8. On October 11, the Chinese army restored all the positions taken by the foe. The second battle for Changsha was over.
After the 7th of December, 1941, when Japan made their semi-secret bombardment of Pearl Harbor, Japan was scheming to attack the Chinese army in Changsha area again lest they should go south to assist the Britain in the defense of Hong Kong.
On December 23, the Japanese army crossed the Xinqiang River once again to pounce upon the Chinese army in Changsha, who put up a firm resistance. Other Chinese armies around the area came to surround the Japanese army, who gradually ran low on ammunition and their supply line was cut off. On January 15, 1942, the Japanese army had to break through the encirclement and escape. They lost 50,000 soldiers.
The victory in these battles made a deep international impression just when the situation appeared unfavorable to the Allies in East Asia. On January 1, 1942, twenty-six nations held an assembly in Washington D.C., and made a joint declaration. The United States, Great Britain, the Soviet Union, and China, the four greatest powers in the world, signed the declaration. And Xue Yue, the commander of the Chinese army in the Changsha defensive war, was conferred a Medal of Honor by American government.

The battles in Nanning City

On the 1st of September, 1939, Germany invaded Poland. World War II broke out in Europe. Japan thought that it would be best to speed up the process of conquering China. Considering that China got all its supplies from international support through its southwestern border, Japan understood it had to cut off this supply line and China would soon surrender. Japan sent army and navy forces to occupy Nanning City in Guangxi province and took control of the railroads there. And the Chinese defensive forces were not so strong there as around Changsha.
On the 9th of November, 1939, the Japanese attackers gathered at Shanya Bay, ready for action. On the 13th, a Japanese fleet started out from Shanya Bay and arrived at Beihai on the 14th. As the Chinese army there was not ready to fight, Beihai soon fell to Japan. On November 17, the Japanese army took Qinzhou and continued north. Guided by bandits through the mountains in that area, the Japanese army accelerated its advance. On November 22, they reached the south bank of the Yong River in the vicinity of Nanning City. But at the time, Chinese armies had already arrived in the city and its outskirts.
On November 23, the Japanese army crossed the Yong River with air cover. At dawn on November 24, the attack on the city began. The Japanese army saw strong resistance, but took the city at last in the afternoon. The Chinese army retreated to Gaofeng Pass. On November 26, the Japanese army attacked the pass, and they captured it by December 1. Three days later they had Kunlun Pass as well. Then, both sides held their respective positions for a while. No fighting went on.

On December 7, the Chinese army began to attack the invaders. On December 16, the Chinese army surrounded Kunlun Pass. The newly organized Chinese 22nd division went round the pass from its right side to block Japanese reinforcements from Nanning. Two regiments went round from its left side to block the Japanese army’s escape route. At daybreak on December 18, the Chinese army commenced the assault and took Kunlun Pass. At the noon the next day, the Japanese army came back and took the Pass again. It changed hands several times. On December 18th, the Chinese 170th division attacked the Gaofeng Pass defended by the Japanese army and took a hilltop nearby, but that same night, the Japanese army gave a surprise attack and occupied the hilltop again. On December 20, the Japanese army at Kunlun Pass could not hold out anymore. And the reinforcements were blocked. In the afternoon of December 26, both Japanese forces escaped and safely arrived in Nanning.
At night on December 28, the Chinese army attacked Jieshou Highland, the gate to the Kunlun Pass. The following morning, the Chinese army took the highlands, and on the 30th of December, the Chinese army took Kunlun Pass. On December 31, they wiped out all enemies in the area of Kunlun Pass. If the Chinese army could have advanced in the pursuit of their enemies at the time, the situation might have been different.
On January 1, 1940, Japan sent reinforcements, and the warfare continued. On the 7th, Chiang Kai-shek flew to Huilin City and on January 10, went to the headquarters at Qian River to hold a meeting with all the frontier commanders. At that time, Japan had not gathered all the forces it needed. So at the request of some of the commanders, Chiang decided to launch an attack, but next day, when he returned to Liuzhou, he changed his mind and missed the chance to annihilate the remaining foe in that area, which proved that Chiang was not a good military leader.
On January 14, 3,000 Japanese soldiers landed in Qinzhou, and two days later, they began to assail the Chinese army. On the 27th, the Japanese army resumed their assault. The Chinese commanders did not have enough information about the maneuvers of the Japanese army and made a terrible mistake. They did not have enough time to make proper arrangements.

On February 1, the Japanese army made their all-out attack. But Chiang changed the commander-in-chief at the front, which really runs counter to the fundamental rules of the art of war. In the afternoon on February 2, the Japanese army entered Binyang Town. On February 3, they took Kunlun Pass and other spots. The Battles for Nanning City ended in failure for the Chinese.
It was actually Chiang Kai-shek’s fault, as he often changed orders, confusing his subordinates. Chiang Kai-shek was not really a good commander himself, though he had graduated from a famous military academy in Japan. He should have been able to beat Mao, who had no such advantage but only learned his tactics from Chinese history books. This leads to the inevitable conclusion that Mao was more intelligent than Chiang Kai-shek. Every Chinese person knows that Chiang Kai-shek’s rulership was bad, but many found that the rule of the Communist Party under Mao was worse. Part of this is due to personal characteristics of the leaders, part of it is due to the fact that under Mao China remained on a more-or-less war footing under constant menace from the West, and some of it depends on the position of the people talking. Obviously, when the Communists started expropriating private property, those who had something to lose were never going to forgive them. Some historians said that if Chiang could have beaten Mao, the Chinese people wouldn’t have suffered so much during all the cruel political movements under Mao, some of which were quite poorly thought-out and highly destructive. Even so, no one can claim that the regime in Taiwan, after Chiang Kai-shek’s eventual defeat, was either democratic or open.

The battles of 100 regiments of the Communist Party

In the Anti-Japanese War, most battles were waged between the Japanese army and the army of the national government. The Communist Party, though having their own army, did their best to shun any major fights with Japan so that they would still have enough forces to fight Chiang Kai-shek after the Anti-Japanese War; this way, they could seize power and rule China.
That was why Mao Zedong thanked the first Japanese delegation when they came to China for saving the Communist Party, and himself too, from the destruction Chiang might have inflicted on them, if Japan hadn’t invaded China. Mao graciously gave up the right to war indemnities from Japan, regardless of the demands of the Chinese people for some compensation for their extraordinary losses.
Anyway, at that time, Japan also wanted to occupy the territory the Communist Party possessed. So warfare did break out at last between the Japanese army and the army of the Communist Party, from the 20th of August to the 10th of September, 1940, in the first stage. The Japanese army was 300,000 strong, while the Communist Party had gathered 105 regiments. They called this the “100 regiments battles.” Their commander-in-chief was Peng Dehuai. At that time, the Red Army changed their name to the 8th Route army, included in the military system of the national government. Their aim was to damage the railroads so that the Japanese army could not get supplies by train. They attacked Zhengtai railway, Tongpu railway, Pinghan railway, and Jinpu railway, especially Zhengtai railway, the main route for the traffic of the Japanese army. Japan in the northern China didn’t have so many soldiers to guard every inch of the rails and as a result, all the four railways did not function any more after the attacks.
From the 22nd of September to the 10th of October, for the second stage, the 8th Route Army attacked some important strategic spots controlled by Japan. At 8:00PM that day, the 8th Route Army began to attack the Lailing area and took some Japanese front fortresses round Laiyuan Town, but they could not break through the defense of the town itself because they did not have effective weapons for that kind of attack. On September 23, they stopped besieging the town and changed their stratagem to first seize the defensive spots outside the town.

On September 25, they turned to attack the stronghold at Dongyuan. The Japanese army inside gave a robust resistance, even using poison gas. However, they were forced to withdraw to the central redout, which the 8th Route Army then surrounded. As the Japanese soldiers knew that they could never escape, they committed suicide by self immolating.
On September 28, 3,000 Japanese soldiers came as reinforcements. That changed the situation and it was no longer possible to attack the town and so the Chinese forces withdrew. On October 1, the Japanese army took back most of the places that the 8th Route Army had occupied. On October 7, the Japanese army at Lingqiu got some intelligence indicating that the 8th Route Army was planning to attack their position, and so the Japanese just headed out to meet the right wing detachment of the 8th Route Army and give them a trouncing. From the night of October 8 to dawn, the left wing detachment of the 8th Route Army took their chances now that the Japanese army had left their position; they took it over as well as other positions in the vicinity. But on October 10, the 8th Route Army learned that the Japanese army had gathered together and would clean out the area where the 8th Route Army was in place, so they withdrew from the combat. Thus ended another 18 days of warfare.
In this period, the 8th Route Army had suffered heavy casualties, more than the Japanese army had lost. After the combat, Mao Zedong criticized Peng Dehuai for losing so many soldiers. Mao’s intention was to keep his losses as low as possible so that he could fight Chiang Kai-shek after the Anti-Japanese War.
But during the Japanese army’s clean-up operation, the 8th Route Army always retreated to elude any fight with the Japanese army. They called this the mobile warfare strategy. So the Japanese army just vented their disappointment and wrath on the common Chinese people who had supported the 8th Route Army. Records show that on the 25th of January, 1941, when the Japanese army ran a clean-up operation without finding any 8th Route Army soldiers in the northern Hebei province, they just encircled a village called Panjiayu in the area of Fengrun Town and slaughtered 1,237 villagers and burned 1,000 houses there. The 8th Route Army had already escaped, deserting the villagers.

The campaigns in northern Burma and western Yunnan province

In 1942, a detachment of the Chinese national government army went to Burma through Yunnan province to help fight the Japanese army, who had entered Burma through Thailand on the 4th of January, 1942, and occupied Rangoon (Yongon) on the 8th of March. Japan’s goal was first to cut off the supply line to China from western countries, and second to enter India in the future. The British army was in Burma at that time and fought the Japanese army. The Chinese detachment went to Burma to assist the British army and secure the supply lines.
The Chinese detachment went into Burma in 1942, but at first was defeated by the Japanese army. A section of it escaped to India and was trained there by US advisors, and the other section returned to the western Yunnan province. Both sections would attack the Japanese army in Burma when they were ready.
On October 24, 1943, the 112th regiment of the new 38th division began to attack the Japanese army and on October 29, took Shinbwinyang and entered Hukawng Valley. When the Japanese army there found the regiment, they surrounded it. In resistance, the regiment lived on Japanese bananas and on food delivered by air drops. The Japanese army could not break through their defense. On November 24, the new 38th division came to assist and on November 29, they took the position of the Japanese army, who lost round 1,000 soldiers.

The campaign continued in January 1944, when the Japanese army receded into the valley and made their defensive line at Dalou and Tabajia. The Chinese new 38th division came to attack Tabajia, and the new 22nd division came to attack Dalou. At dawn on January 28, the American air force came to bombard the Japanese position at Dalou and the tanks of the new 22nd division ran through the Japanese defensive line. The new 22nd division took all the fortresses outside Dalou. On January 31,, Chinese tanks entered Dalou and crushed the Japanese headquarters. On that day, the new 38th division attacked Tabajia. The American air force raided the Japanese army there, who had to retreat. On the 1st of February, the new 38th division occupied Tabajia.
The Japanese army retreated to Mengguan and Walupan, 8 miles apart. They wanted to induce the Chinese army to attack Walupan so that another section of their army could attack from the back. The new 22nd division assaulted Mengguan with artillery and tanks. The new 38th division stationed at the left rear to protect its back. The Japanese section came to attack the new 22th division from behind, but was blocked by the new 38th division. As the new 22nd division attacked for a week and could not secure the place, the new 38th division sent its 113th regiment to attack Walupan to distract the attention of the Japanese army. On March 1, the American 5307 corps reached them and launched their onslaught. So the 22nd division broke through the Japanese defensive line. On the 4th of March, the new 22nd division took Mengguan. Now the Japanese army was surrounded in the narrow strip of Walupan. At noon of the 8th of March, the Chinese army and the American corps jointly attacked Walupan and took it on the 9th of March. Thus ended the campaign in this area.

The campaigns in the western Hunan province

After the outbreak of the Pacific War, the US air force helped China to fight Japan. Towards the termination of the Sino–Japanese War, the Americans got the upper hand over the Japanese air force. American bombers raided important Japanese military bases, including airports. More than once, the American fighter planes engaged Japanese fighter planes in the air and gained victory. There was an airport for US airplanes at the Zhijiang in the western Hunan province. The goal of Japan at the start of this campaign in 1945 was to capture the airport. It was the last major battle in the Sino–Japanese War.
On April 9, 1945, the Japanese 47th military bloc and the 116th bloc started their onslaught at Lantian. The commander of the Chinese defensive 73rd army in that area estimated that the Japanese army had not finished pulling together its forces. And so he gave orders to launch a surprise attack. The Japanese 47th bloc suffered the blow, and later when it was ready, the 47th bloc began to cross the Zi River on April 14. The Chinese commander let the Japanese cross the river, but as most of the Japanese army was reaching the bank of this side of the river, the Chinese army struck them with artillery while American airplanes attacked those Japanese soldiers still on the boat. Many boats were sunken. The Japanese army had a heavy loss.
On April 28, the Japanese 116th bloc was surrounded by the Chinese army and signaled to the 47th bloc for rescue. When the 47th bloc arrived, they could not break the Chinese 73th army’s defense. On the 30th day, the Chinese army fought back and defeated the enemy, aided by air raids. The Japanese army had to retreat back to where they had come from. The battle ended in this district, but the warfare still continued in other districts.
On the 12th of April, the Japanese 34th bloc had attacked Xinning. A Chinese battalion under the 58th division of the 74th Army fought them for three days. Then as the Japanese reinforcements came, the battalion had to withdraw from Xinning, which was taken by the Japanese army. On April 21, 4,000 Japanese soldiers marched towards Meikou. On April 23, they began to cross the Wushui River. The Chinese 44th division waited there patiently till the first 200 Japanese soldiers set foot on the bank. Then they fell on them fiercely and slew them all. The Japanese kept on crossing, but had to stop under heavy cannon fire. On April 27, they turned to attack Wuyang, and after two days’ fighting, they took half of Wuyang. On April 29, the Chinese 44th division came and the Japanese army had to give up the attack and turn back to fight the 44th division, who soon put the Japanese army to rout.

On April 27, another Japanese detachment attacked Wugan, which was an old town. The walls were very strong, because the bricks were stuck together using sticky rice cooked in water, which became glue. Many ancient tombs were also built this way to prevent them from being dug through. So when the Japanese cannon balls exploded and hit the walls, the shards did little damage to the walls. On May 1, the Japanese formed suicide squads, but the soldiers, who had not reached the wall yet, were killed by gunfire from the battlements. At last, some soldiers got to the wall and blew a hole in it with dynamite. However, the Chinese people, who helped their soldiers in the defense of the town, heaved bags filled with sand down on the spot and the hole was blocked by the sand bags. Then the Japanese army used long wooden siege ladders. But the Chinese army used flame throwers, provided to them by the United States, to burn the ladders. For seven days the Chinese soldiers, aided by civilians, kept the small ancient town safe and sound. The Japanese army was defeated by the Chinese reinforcements.
Other battles also took place in other districts in the western Hunan province. The whole campaign ended on June 2 with the failure of the Japanese army.
Failure or victory in war mostly depends on two factors: how strong are the forces and how wise are the strategies used. But oftentimes, using a very wise ruse, the weaker side can defeat the stronger and the few fighters can defeat greater forces.

Building the Communist Ranks in YanAn

Gathering students

After the XiAn event at the end of 1936, the Central Committee of the Communist Party moved in January of 1937 to YanAn, a small backward town in the north of Shaanxi province. At that time, Chiang Kai-shek would not come to fight them anymore as they had an agreement. Therefore, the Communist Party was ready to gather lots of people with intelligence and talent, no matter young or middle aged. Their party members in big cities, where the most intelligent and talented people generally lived, adopted every possible means to allure such people, especially young students, to YanAn to serve the Communist Party. Young people were easier to entice than middle-aged ones. So many young people went to YanAn, thinking that they could be trained to fight the Japanese invaders. Most young people went there in 1937, 1938, and 1939. Later many of those who became communist cadres were those who had gone there in 1938. So ’38 cadres became a special name for those.
The Communist Party founded a so-called Anti-Japanese military and political university and some schools to mentally train the students to become communist cadres. Yue Shan, a student in Duize high school in Changsha city, recalled that one day in 1938, Xu Deli, a Communist Party member and a representative of Changsha bureau of the 8th Route Army, came to give a speech about the Japanese invasion and called on young people to go to YanAn. His speech was so touching that Yue Shan and some other students enrolled on the spot.
Duan Xuesheng, a Communist Party member and a writer, worked in Shandong province as a teacher, and propagandized to students about communism and instigated them to go to YanAn to take part in the revolution. In Suiyang province and inner Mongolian district, more than 100 young people were attracted to YanAn. In Peking, from May to August in 1938, 107 young people decided to go.

The Central Committee of the Communist Party set up 8th Route Army bureaus in many towns and cities to enroll young people, especially students, to go to YanAn. Statistics showed that the bureau in Lanzhou of Gansu province sent 3,000 in the autumn of 1937. The bureau in Wuhan sent 880 from March to May in 1938. Chongqing sent 2,000. However, those who were permitted to go to YanAn had to have three interviews. Everyone had to produce a letter of recommendation from an organization established by the Communist Party in the place he or she lived. The last interview was held by the organization department of the Central Committee of the Communist Party.
The tide of young people flowing to YanAn caused concern in the National Party. Chiang Kai-shek ordered these young people to be detained. In Yanyang, 103 students were detained by the military police of the national government. After more than ten days, 40 students were carried away in a truck and others were still in custody. In November 1939, labor camps were set up to confine all the students on the way to YanAn. They were assailed with counter-propaganda and “mentally trained” until they expressed their loyalty to the national government, and then they were freed. By the end of 1940, 1,167 students had been detained in the labor camps. From 1939 to 1943, 2,100 students were taken into custody on their way to YanAn.
By the end of 1943, there were 40,000 young newcomers in YanAn, and half of them were female. Many of the females married high-ranking cadres of the Communist Party. Those of the cadres who had already married village girls deserted their wives when they entered big cities like Beijing after 1949, and simply married young city girls.
A special case must be mentioned. Wen Lianchen, alias Xia Sha, a girl of 14 at the time, was the daughter of a town mayor. When the family was in Wuhan, she stole out of the house and wanted to go to YanAn, but was stopped in a train and taken home by a friend of her father’s at Zhengzhou. When the family moved to Chongqing, she insisted on going to YanAn. Her father could do nothing but let her go. He bought a plane ticket for her to XiAn. She found the 8th Route Army bureau there and was safely sent to YanAn. This was the only case when someone went to YanAn by plane.

Jiang Qing—Mao Zedong’s 4th wife —in YanAn

Jiang Qing (1914–1991) was born in Zhu Town of Shandong province. Her original name was Li Yunhe. Her father Li Dewen ran a carpentry shop. Her mother was his concubine, who had been a maidservant. In the summer of 1921, Li Yunhe was in primary school, but in 1926, she was expelled. Her father died of some disease in the same year and her mother took her to live with her brother-in-law in Tianjin City; he was an officer in the army of the warlord Zhang Zuolin. Li Yunhe had worked for three months as a child laborer in the factory of the British–American Tobacco Co., Ltd. In 1928, the brother-in-law moved his troops somewhere else, and her mother took her to live with her cousin in JiNan. In spring of 1929, when she was 15 years old, she learned to be an actress in a theater in the city. In May of 1931, she married a man from a wealthy family, but got divorced in July. Then she went to Qingdao, and from July of 1931 to April of 1933, she worked in a library there. But in February of 1932, at the age 18, she was living with (not married to) Yu Qiwei, three years older than she, a university student majoring in biography, who was also the leader of the propaganda department of the Communist Party there. He had contact with those in the circles of so-called communist culture.
Li Yunhe had acted in a one-scene play named Put Down Your Whip, which could be performed in the street as a protest against the Japanese aggression. In February of 1933, she took an oath and joined the Communist Party through Yu Qiwei in a warehouse in Qingdao. In April, Yu was arrested and she ran away to Shanghai. In May, she attended “The Great China University” by auditing classes. In July she worked as a music teacher in a primary school in the western suburb of Shanghai and acted in some amateur plays after work. In September of 1934, she was arrested, but in February 1935, she was released and went to Peking to live with Yu Qiwei again, who had been released, too.
But in March, she returned to Shanghai to join the Diantong Film Company, using her stage name Lanping. She acted the heroine in the play Nara, and got good reviews. Afterwards, she played roles in two movies. In September, she was living with Tanner, a movie reviewer. In April of 1936, she was married to him. The ceremony was held together with two other couples, before Liuhe Pagoda in Hangzhou, in the moonlight. A romantic ritual.

However, she still kept in touch with Yu Qiwei and by July Tanner could not bear it; he failed in an attempted suicide. She went back to Shanghai and joined the Lianhua Film Company. She had a role in the film Blood on Wolf Mountain. In February of 1937, she acted in the drama Thunderstorm. On the 30th of May, Tanner attempted suicide again, but still to no avail. Afterwards he went to France and lived there forever.
In September of 1937, as the Anti-Japanese War broke out, Li Yunhe left Shanghai and in August, she arrived in YanAn and changed her name to Jiang Qing. In November, she was enrolled in the Anti-Japanese Military and Political University. On the 10th of April, 1938, the Lu Xun Arts College was founded and she was appointed instructor of the drama department. She acted in two dramas, and in August acted in a Peking opera. Her efforts were appreciated and soon afterwards, she was promoted to secretary in the office of the military committee, close to Mao. It was said that she often went to see Mao and asked for instructions from him. The intimacy changed their relationship and soon she was living with Mao in place of his current wife He Zizhen, who was studying in Moscow at the time. In 1939, Mao married her. But at the time, she had not been divorced from Tanner yet and Mao had not been divorced from He Zizhen. Both committed bigamy.
Quite a few Communist Party leaders opposed the marriage, Zhang Wentian first and foremost. He maintained that He Zizhen was a good comrade and must be respected as a legal wife. Besides, she had been wounded in the Long March and could not be ignored like this. Wang Shiying had been in Shanghai and knew all about Jiang Qing’s love affairs, which were really scandals. And as the leader of the Communist Party, Mao should not marry a woman with such a background. So he wrote a letter outlining these scandals. He asked Nan Hanchen to sign the letter, too, who also worked in Shanghai and knew about it all. (Both were later persecuted to death by Jiang Qing in the Cultural Revolution.) Only Kang Sheng (1898–1975) supported their marriage.
Then the Communist Party had a meeting and put up three conditions: 1) Jiang Qing should not interfere in political affairs; 2) Jiang Qing could not take up any office, inside or outside the Communist Party; 3) Jiang Qing’s main task was to look after Mao in his health and personal life.
Jiang Qing had a daughter with Mao, born in 1940 and called Li Na, who is still alive now, in retirement.

Mao’s marriage history and his other women

Mao had four formal marriages. His first wife was Ms. Luo (no given name known), whom Mao married in accordance with arrangements made by his parents. She was then 20 years old while Mao was only 16. The Mao family and Luo family were relatives. Though she was a pleasant woman, Mao did not like her. They married in 1907. But in February of 1910, she died of some disease. Using this as a pretext, Mao left his family and went to Peking.
His second wife was Yang Kaihui (1901–1930), whose father, Yang Changji, was a graduate returned from England who became a professor of ethics at Peking University. At that time Mao worked in the library and studied as a guest student. He and Yang Kaihui were classmates. In 1919, Mao began to court Yang Kaihui, and in 1920, they lived together without legally marrying. At that time Mao was 26 years old and Yang was only 18. She bore three sons for Mao. In 1921, Yang joined the Communist Party, but afterwards she was arrested by the national government and was executed on the 14th of November, 1930. Her first son, Mao Anying (1922–1950), died in the Korean War. Her second son, Mao Anqing (1923–2007), was escorted by Kang Sheng to Moscow. He joined the Communist Party in 1947. In July of 1949, he was given the rank of Lieutenant Colonel, but he was engaged in research work in the Academy of Military Sciences, not combat. He died of heart disease. Yang’s third son, Mao Anlong, was a riddle. It was said that he went missing as a child and no one knew what became of him even now. And no one ever appeared claiming that he was Mao’s third son.

Mao’s third wife was He Zizhen (1910–1984), sister of marshal He Long. In 1927 when Mao went to Jinggang Mountain after the riot, he met He Zizhen there. That year, Mao was 35 years old while she was only 17. In June of 1928, they got married while his second wife Yang Kaihui was in prison. It has never been said that Mao had endeavored to rescue her from the prison. When He Zizhen grew up, she became the secretary of the frontier committee of the Red Army and director of the women’s league in the southwestern Jiangxi province. In the Long March, while protecting the wounded soldiers from air raids, she was wounded herself. In January of 1938, she went to study in Moscow and returned to China in the summer of 1947. Then she took up offices like director of the women’s league in Hangzhou City. He Zizhen had her first child with Mao in 1929, and when they had to escape, He Zizhen left her daughter with a local family. The child was called Mao Jinhua. In April, 1932, when He Zizhen wanted to find the child, she was told that the child had died. In fact, the child did not die. At that time some agents of the National Party had come to inquire about the child and so the adoptive family lied, saying the child had died, lest they kill it. The child grew up and was named Yang Yuehua. In 1973, an old Red Army man came to the place and learned something about Yang Yuehua and he notified He Zizhen’s brother, who informed his sister of the truth. However, it was during the Cultural Revolution when Jiang Qing was in power, so the mother and the daughter could not see each other. The daughter is alive now in retirement. He Zizhen had another daughter called Mao Jiaojiao. But afterwards when Mao Zedong changed his name to Li Desheng to avoid being arrested by the national government, this daughter changed her name to Li Min, which is used now. He Zizhen died in Shanghai at the age 75.

His fourth wife was Jiang Qing (see above). But he had many other women outside of marriage. The first one we know about was Tao Siyong, from a rich family. She was known as a woman of talent and a beauty, too. From 1919 to 1920, she and Mao opened a bookstore in Changsha. Mao wrote many love letters to her. Five of them were found later. In 1921, she went to study in Jinling College in Nanking. As her father did not like Mao, she did not marry him. She died in 1931 at the age of 36 without marrying anyone. The next one was Ding Ling, a so-called red writer. She was born on the 12th of October, 1904. She was a classmate of Yang Kaihui in high school. She joined the Communist Party in 1932 and was arrested too, but in September of 1936, with the assistance of the Communist Party, escaped from prison in Nanking and went to YanAn. Mao loved her at first sight. She was the chief editor of Journal of Literature and Arts, and then the party secretary of the Chinese Writers Association, and the chief editor of People’s Literature, etc. But in the anti-rightist movement in 1957, she was declared a rightist and was exiled to a cold region in northeastern China. She died on March 4, 1986.
Another was Wu Lili, born in 1912. She went to America for further studies after graduation from the Normal University in Peking. When she learned of the outbreak of the Anti-Japanese War, she came back to China, to YanAn, to fight Japan. She became Mao’s interpreter and they fell in love. But when He Zizhen heard about this, she went there and caught them together. She wanted to kill them both. This became such a big scandal that the Central Committee of the Communist Party had to intervene. Wu Lili was sent away. Afterwards, she married an officer of the National Party and went to live in Taiwan.

Sun Weishi was also one, whose father was a fellow fighter of Premier Zhou. When he died in 1927, Sun Weishi was only 5. So Premier Zhou took care of her and looked upon her as his adopted daughter, but openly known as his niece. Then she went with Zhou Enlai to YanAn. She was called the red princess. In 1939, she went with Zhou Enlai to Moscow to study drama. In December 1949, Mao went to the Soviet Union with Zhou; Sun Weishi was their interpreter and also taught Mao some Russian. Mao had a carriage of his own in the train. One night Mao raped her in his carriage. Sun told Zhou about it, but Zhou did not dare to say anything. In the Cultural Revolution, her brother was tragically beaten to death and Sun wrote to Jiang Qing to ask for an investigation. She also wrote to Zhou. Both without result. In December 1967, her husband was put in prison on spying charges. Her home was searched and some letters to Mao were found. Jiang Qing took these letters to see Zhou Enlai and blamed him for it. Jiang even slapped Zhou’s face in wrath. Zhou could not do anything to her. Before long Sun Weishi was put in a secret prison on the orders of Jiang Qing and was tortured to death. A long nail was driven into her head. Jiang Qing wanted Zhou Enlai to sign an order to execute Sun Weishi; Zhou did not dare to refuse and signed it. No comment needed here. Everyone can see what a man Zhou was.
Feng Fengming was a returned overseas Chinese and was talented in drama. When she arrived in YanAn, she was enrolled in the Lu Xun Arts College and then became an actress. One day after a performance, Mao invited her to his place to discuss acting. Then and there, he violated her. She was so infuriated that she left YanAn. No one knew where she went.
In 1962, Mao went to Shanghai. The mayor Ke Qingshi at the time made arrangements for Mao to meet the famous movie star Shangguan Yunzhu. A friend of hers had witnessed a note Mao had written to Shangguan. Mao wrote that “A hero loved a beauty since the olden days. I am the hero. You are the beauty.” The next year, Mao came to Shanghai again and met her again. Every time, they would stay together for several days. In 1965, she was brought to Zhongnanhai (literally, central south sea) in Beijing, where Mao lived. They openly lived together. Not long later, Mao took her back to Shanghai and she never saw him again. In 1966, she was arrested under orders of Jiang Qing and she died in jail.
In Mao’s late years, Zhang Yufeng worked as Mao’s secretary and looked after him day and night. Zhang was born in 1944 to a poor family in northeastern China. In 1958, Zhang worked as a train attendant. Then she was transferred to the special train for Mao in 1962. In 1967, she was married to a man working in the railway department. But in July 1970, Mao took a liking to her and she was sent to work in Zhongnanhai. She looked after Mao’s health and daily life. She lived with Mao till his death. Then she moved out of Zhongnanhai. Now she’s enjoying a quiet retired life.

The Puppet Governments in China Under Japan

The assassination of Wang Jingwei

Japan knew that for such a big country as China, they would need to set up some puppet governments as they could not rule all China by themselves. Manchukuo in the northeastern China was the first puppet government Japan established. As Japan expanded into other provinces, they founded other local puppet governments. From December 1937 to March 1938, puppet governments were set up in Peking and in Nanking.
Japan always wanted to induce Chiang Kai-shek and the national government to surrender to Japan and became the central puppet government, but never succeeded. In November, 1938, Japan sent someone to talk to Wang Jingwei (1883—1944) and his clique. His two important followers were Chen Gongbo (1892—1946) and Zhou Fohai (1897—1948). Both were originally members of the Communist Party. It was said that most of the members of any party were mainly opportunists. They would go where personal benefits beckoned to them.
Wang always wanted to be the head of a government, but he was no rival to Chiang Kai-shek who controlled the army. Now Japan offered him a chance to be one, though only the head of a puppet government. Better than nothing. So the representatives of both sides had a secret talk in Shanghai and signed an agreement stating that the new government recognized Manchukuo, and that Japan had priority over any natural resources in China, etc. On the 18th of December, 1938, Wang Jingwei, Chen Gongbo and Zhou Fohai stealthily left Chongqing, the temporary war-time capital, and went to Kunming, where they took a plane to Hanoi in Vietnam.
On December 29, 1938, Wang sent out a public telegram stating three points as his principles for negotiating with Japan: firstly, be friendly to the adjacent countries; secondly, to cooperate with Japan against the Communist Party; thirdly, to get financial assistance from Japan. The national government and the Communist Party both saw Wang’s statement as a betrayal of China and a capitulation to Japan. So Wang and his followers were defined as traitors.
Therefore, on New Year’s Day of 1939, Chiang Kai-shek had a meeting to announce that Wang was expelled from the National Party and dismiss from all his offices. Next he planned to get rid of Wang physically. Some special agents were sent to assassinate him in Hanoi.

Wang and his wife, Chen Bijun, and another follower, hid in a house and seldom went out. The special agents were composed of 18 experienced assassins, called “18 Arhans,” which came from the Buddhist culture, but meant “strong men” in Chinese culture. They arrived in Hanoi and got all the information they needed about Wang, and where he lived. They were waiting for the final order from Chiang Kai-shek. Chiang still harbored a hope that Wang would turn back to the national government. He sent an emissary to Hanoi to have a talk with Wang, but Wang refused the request to go back. Wang and his wife knew that they were now in danger of being killed.
On the 19th of March, Chiang Kai-shek gave the final order to rid of Wang. So the 18 Arhans got ready for action. At 9 o’clock on the 20th day, when the agents had a meeting to arrange for the action, they heard that Wang and his men were getting ready to leave the house. So the agents came to chase them, riding in two cars. When Wang and his men found that they were being followed, they succeeded in shaking the agents off in the heavy traffic at an intersection.
At 4 o’clock the next day, Wang’s new location was disclosed. So six agents went there. They had to act fast because they were in a foreign country. Vietnam at that time was under French rule. Wang’s guards could not carry guns. But the agents secretly had guns carried in. So when the agents attacked, the guards were defenseless. One agent went to the room where Want was supposed to be. The agent used an ax to make a hole in the door and saw a man and a woman inside. He shot at the man three times. He witnessed the bullets hit home and left as fast as he could. Three of the agents escaped and three of them were arrested by the police in Hanoi. Afterwards, while they were happy thinking that they had finished off Wang, information arrived that Wang was still alive. Only one of his followers was killed. Some of the agents left and some remained behind for further action. But they never killed Wang.

The establishment of the puppet government in Nanking

On March 27, Wang published an article revealing the minutes of a national government meeting where the conditions of peace proposed by Japan were discussed. And Chiang Kai-shek basically agreed to the conditions. Wang wanted to show to Chinese people and the world that Chiang Kai-shek was the first to negotiate with Japan, not he. But he did not know the difference there. Chiang Kai-shek only wanted to negotiate with Japan for a truce while Wang himself was ready to surrender to Japan.
On March 22, the Japanese general consulate reported to the Japanese government about the assassination attempt on Wang. On March 25, Wang and his men went on board a French ship under the protection of Japan and then were transferred to a Japanese ship. He arrived in Shanghai on the 6th of May. Then Wang went to Tokyo to have a talk with the prime minister about the establishment of a central puppet government in China. On the 30th of March, 1940, the puppet government was founded in Nanking, with Wang at its head.
Japan called it the Nanking national government, but Chiang Kai-shek refused to recognize it. But Germany, Italy, Hungary, Romania, Denmark, Spain, Croatia, Slovakia, and Bulgaria recognized it. The puppet government imitated the national government in organization and had its own puppet army, which was thus called by people. But the puppet army took orders from the Japanese army, not directly from the Wang and his men. The puppet government did everything under the supervision and command of Japan, just like the Manchurian puppet emperor in northeastern China.

In March of 1944, Wang was very ill and went to Japan for treatment. On the 10th of November, he died in the hospital there. Then Chen Gongbo, one of the founders of the CPC, became the head of the puppet government. When Japan surrendered in 1945, Chen Gongbo and his wife flew to Japan but were extradited to China on October 3. He and Chen Bijun, the wife of Wang, were put in prison in February of 1946 in Suzhou. On the 4th of June, Chen Gongbo was executed. Chen Bijun was sentenced to life and died in prison on the 17th of June, 1959. She pleaded for herself, saying that she had wanted to save the nation in an indirect way. “Trying to save the nation in an indirect way” was a common term of ridicule thereafter.
As for Zhou Fohai, another founding member of the CPC, when he sensed that Japan would soon perish, he secretly made contact with Chiang Kai-shek and the Nationalists. After the victory, Chiang Kai-shek appointed him as commander-in-chief to maintain law and order in Nanking and Shanghai till the national government army came. But on the September 30, 1945, he was apprehended and sent to Chongqing, then brought back to Nanking. On October 21, his case was tried in court, and on November 7, he was sentenced to death. But in March of 1947, Chiang Kai-shek issued an order of amnesty for him, and the sentence was commuted to life imprisonment. He died of heart disease in the jail on February 28, 1948.

The rectification campaign of the Communist Party in YanAn

Besides the 8th Route Army, the new 4th army was also under the control of the Communist Party. The new 4th army had their position in the southern Anhui province. So the Communist Party had two armies of their own, one in the northwest and the other in the southeast. Mao always hated Chiang Kai-shek and had once planned to attack Chiang Kai-shek from behind with 150,000 men. But the plan was aborted when the Communist International objected to it. In 1941, an incident flared up between the new 4th army and the 32nd military bloc of the national government.
On the night January 4, 1941, 9,000 of the new 4th army under the command of Xiang Yin maneuvered from the southern Anhui province to the north side of the Yangtze River through the southern Jiangsu province, without notifying the national government. The National 32nd bloc thought that the new 4th army was trying to attack their 40th division, and on January 6, they surrounded it and assailed it. Several times, Xiang Yin telegrammed YanAn, but Mao never answered or gave any instruction what to do. On January 10, the new 4th army telegrammed Mao again. On January 12, Mao asked Zhou Enlai to protest to the national government and request the withdrawal of their army. So the next day, Zhou protested to the national government. The fight had already been going on for seven days. Of the 9,000 soldiers in the new 4th army, only 2,000 escaped.
After the incident, Mao decided that the Communist Party of China should not follow the guidance of the Communist International any more. They should make decisions on their own. Therefore, the Communist Party launched a rectification campaign, which is considered to have begun in May 1941 when Mao made a speech, “Reform Our Studies.” In June, the propaganda department of the Central Committee of the Communist Party issued a document, “Instruction concerning how to wage the campaign of studies and rectification within the whole party.” But the campaign actually started in February, 1942, when Mao made another speech, “Rectify Our Style of Work,” and it ended when a bill was passed in a session of the Central Committee of the Communist Party, “The resolution of some historical problems,” in April 1945.

However, what really happened in the rectification campaign was that everyone had to make some kind of confession about their inner thoughts to show loyalty to the party. Many people who had come to YanAn from the regions under the national government were suspected of being spies of the National Party. Many of those were forced to confess that they were indeed spies sent by the National Party. If they wanted to be punished less severely, they had to expose others who were also spies. Mao hinted that to achieve this purpose, some harsh measures would be necessary. The most common method was not to let the one being cross-examined get any sleep. It was called fatigue-torture. In  American it’s called sleep deprivation. Another method was to let those suspects watch someone being shot; just a little psychological pressure.
In April 1943 alone, several thousand people were put under custody. Some were locked up in caves. Some were just confined to their work places—“equivalent prisons,” they called them. There were not enough jailers to watch over the prisoners, so their colleagues assumed the task. This was a clever invention of Mao. To show their loyalty to the party, the colleagues had to do their duties faithfully and keep watch over the prisoners. No one could escape their vigilance. About a thousand people died. Some committed suicide. To them this was not a political movement, but terrorism. Many people who had come to YanAn in hopes of fighting Japan died at the hands of their own comrades.
On August 15, 1943, Mao said that in such campaigns, some errors were unavoidable (like a bit of torture). The errors should not be corrected too early, or there would be no targets and that would hinder the development of the campaign. If the errors were corrected too late, people would be very upset and it would cause too much loss. So the principle was to watch the campaign closely, calculating accurately, and stop it at the right time.
As it became more apparent that Japan was likely to lose the war, Mao liberated those prisoners who luckily had survived and who, in Mao’s calculation, could be sent to fight Chiang Kai-shek after the victory. To assuage their enmity, Mao apologized several times, saying that the aim of the rectification campaign was to let them have a political bath to wash off the dust they carried from the regions under Chiang’s government, but too much potassium permanganate (which can cause caustic burns) was used, which had hurt the tender skin of the new comers. He added that if a son was beaten by the father, he should not hate his father.

Chapter 4. The Second Civil War Between The National Party and the Communist Party

Conflicts Between The Two Parties to Take Over Areas Occupied By Japan

After Japan surrendered, there arose a problem as to who would take over the areas that had been occupied by the Japanese army. The National Party thought that they were the legal government and had the right to these areas. Afraid that the Communist Party would take those areas when the Japanese army withdrew, the national government ordered the Japanese army to remain in the areas they occupied till the army of the national government came to take them. However, the Communist Party declared that they had the right to these areas. So regardless of any orders from the national government, they marched to some of the areas controlled by Japan and took over by force.
Now, most of the national government army was in the southwestern provinces and part of it was stationed to south of the Yangtze River. Almost no national Army forces were in the areas north of the Yangtze river. And the army of the Communist Party spread widely in the countryside north of the River and in the northeastern provinces. But when the Communist Army commanded the Japanese army to surrender to them, the Japanese army refused as they had received orders not to surrender to the Communist Army. Therefore, the Communist Army had to fight the Japanese army and the puppet army to occupy towns possessed by the Japanese army.
Even before Japan surrendered, the national government and the Soviet Union signed a treaty stipulating that the national government recognized the independence of Outer Mongolia (as the Chinese called it), and the special rights of the Soviet Union in northeastern China, in exchange for the Soviet Union’s promise not to support the Communist Army in occupying the northeastern provinces. From then on, Outer Mongolia became the Mongolian Republic and Inner Mongolia still belonged to China.

From August 14–23, Chiang Kai-shek telegrammed Mao three times to invite him to Chongqing to talk about the future of China. On August 25, the Communist Party issued a declaration that the national government must recognize the government in YanAn (denoting the local red government of the Communist Party) and its army in the so-called liberated areas as lawful, and that all the parties were legal and would have to organize a joint government. On August 26, the Communist Party decided that Mao should go to Chongqing to negotiate. But the talks did not produce an agreement, especially about who would take over all the areas occupied by the Japanese army. So while the talks were going on, the fighting was going at the same time. For the Communist Party, when they attacked the Japanese army and the puppet army to take over towns in their possession, they had to fight the National Army as well, as both wanted to take the same town.
By August 26, the Communist Army took 59 towns from the hands of the Japanese. Then under orders from the national government, the Japanese army and the puppet army attacked the Communist Army and restored more than 20 towns by the end of September. The Communist Army changed their original plan; they gave up the eastern part of the Ping-Han railway line and concentrated on the northern provinces. So many of the Communist Army set out for the north and by the end of November, more than 100,000 communist soldiers reached northeastern China, the farthest place, where the National Army could not arrive ahead of them.
On the 10th of September, the Communist Army attacked several towns under control of the national government in Shanxi province and took most of them within ten days. Then they surrounded Tunliu. The national defensive army in Changzhi sent 6,000 soldiers to Tunliu, but they were blocked on the way by a communist detachment. This strategy was often used by the Communist Army to surround some place and lay an ambush along the likely approach route by which reinforcements would come. So the National Army from Changzhi could not go to Tunliu and had to return to Changzhi. On September 12, the Communist Army took Tunliu and came to surround Changzhi. On the 2nd of October, a national reinforcements went to Chingzhi, and as usual, encountered a communist detachment who came out of ambush and surrounded them. As the communist detachment met with strong resistance, they adopted another stratagem. They surrounded the national reinforcements from three sides, leaving one side open for them to escape, and laid another ambush down that way. The reinforcements did escape, only to fall into the second ambush, and was wiped out on the 5th of October. This ruse was often used in Chinese war history. It was not invented by the Communist Party.

On the 10th of October, after lengthy peace talks, the National Party and the Communist Party at last signed an agreement, called the 10/10 agreement, which contained the articles to form a joint government, to nationalize the armies of both sides, and to implement democracy and constitutionalism.
Although the peace agreement was signed, the Communist Party still planned to stop the National Army from going to the northern areas to accept the surrender of the Japanese army there. They looked upon the northern areas as belonging to them, and considered the National Army to be trespassing if they went there.
On the 20th of October, when the National Army arrived at Zhuang River, on the way to Handan, and on October 22 crossed the river, the Communist Army was waiting for them. On October 24, the National Army broke through the blockade and reached Matou Town in a narrow valley where they were encircled by the Communist Army. On October 28, more Communist Army troops came and they began the attack. At the same time the Communist Party sent an envoy to see the commander of the new 8th army of the national government and persuaded him to betray the national government. On October 30, the new 8th army declared their insurrection. On October 31, the main national forces broke the encirclement of the Communist Army and escaped south. From October of 1945 to January of 1946, the Communist Army occupied Jinpu railway line, Longhai railway line, Jiaoji railway line, and all the towns along the three lines. These areas had strategic importance and were threats to the safety of Nanking and Shanghai.

America’s mediation between the National Party and the Communist Party

After the outbreak of the Pacific War, beginning with the Japanese raid of the Pearl Harbor, America aided China a lot, in both military action and supplies of goods. Joseph Stilwell, chief of staff of the Allies, came to China. His main job was to guarantee that the supplies needed in the Anti-Japanese War reached the hands of the National Army through the highway from Burma to Yunnan province.
At the request of the Allies, in early 1942, the national government sent its army into Burma, where it would be under the command of Joseph Stilwell to aid the English army. But when the Chinese army reached Burma, the English army there was already defeated by Japan. Then the Japanese army surrounded the Chinese army, which, nevertheless, succeeded afterwards in breaking through the encirclement, and separated into two parts. The first part, under orders from Joseph Stilwell, went to India, and the second part returned to Yunnan province through the virgin forest. The international supplies were mostly used in the Burmese battlefields and only a few reached the national government. Chiang Kai-shek was dissatisfied with this and also with the failure of the Chinese army under the command of Joseph Stilwell in the Burmese war. Therefore, in 1943, Chiang asked twice for Stilwell to be replaced. But Chiang did not succeed because of the opposition of Alfred Marshall in the United States.
After the spring of 1944, the withdrawal of the National Army after the Japanese army attack made President Roosevelt send his vice president Wallace to China to see what was the real situation. Wallace was not impressed with the national government of China. In August, three times, President Roosevelt asked Chiang Kai-shek to give the command of the Chinese army to Stilwell, but Chiang replied that if he had to give up his command of the army to Stilwell, he would rather break off relations with the Allies and fight Japan with Chinese forces alone. At length, after consideration, President Roosevelt gave order to replace Stilwell and appointed Wedemeyer for the task, on the 18th of October, 1944.
Meantime, with the quick development of the communist forces, an American delegation headed by Colonel Barrett went to YanAn, in July of 1944, followed on the 7th of November, 1944, by Patrick Jay Hurley, American ambassador in China, who went to YanAn to talk about the legal status of the Communist Party. They reached an agreement to end the dictatorship and one-party rule, to include all the parties in the Anti-Japanese War in the joint national government, to recognize the legal status of all the parties, and to distribute all the supplies among them.

Patrick Jay Hurley came back to Chongqing and had a conversation with Chiang Kai-shek, who had three conditions: 1) the national government recognized the lawful status of the Communist Party and would reorganize its army; 2) the Communist Party must give the command of its army to the military committee of the national government and the national government would appoint some generals of the Communist Party as members of the military committee; 3) the aim of the national government was to realize Three Principles of the People. Of course, two conditions were denied by the Communist Party. They could never yield the command of their army to anyone else, and their aim was to install communism. But in face, no one in the Communist Party knew what communism really was. They mainly used it as a slogan to mislead people.
After Japan’s surrender, the Communist Party and the National Party fought each other over the areas occupied by Japan. To appease both sides, Hurley suggested Chiang Kai-shek invite Mao to Chongqing for a talk. Though Mao came, the fight continued. The Communist Party, supported by the Soviet Union, took the initiative to attack the National Army. On November 26th, 1945, Hurley handed in his resignation to President Truman. Fearful of a civil war in China, President Truman sent Alfred Marshall there, who arrived in Shanghai on the 20th of December, 1945.
Alfred Marshall talked to both sides and then formed a trio group. Besides Alfred Marshall, Zhang Jun represented the National Party and Zhou Enlai the Communist Party. On the 10th of January, 1946, they reached an agreement for truce, effective at zero hour on the 13th of January. Both sides issued orders for a ceasefire.
On the 5th of January, Chiang Kai-shek made a suggestion to Alfred Marshall about how to reorganize the army of both sides. On January 23, a trio group discussed it. Alfred Marshall suggested that after the reorganization, there would be only 60 divisions, 20 of them under the communist command. As to the navy and air forces, the Communist Party would have 30% of each. Chiang did not consent to that, but made some concessions. However, on 25th, the trio signed an agreement. Then they flew to Peking and YanAn to oversee the preparations.

On the 11th of March, Marshall went back to the States. The two parties went back to war. When Marshall came to China again on April 18, the situation was serious. Chiang Kai-shek told Marshall that the Communist Party would not abide by the agreement and was continuing its attack on Changchun City. Chiang added that the National Army might withdraw from the northeastern provinces and leave the problem up to the international parties to decide. Marshall promised to transport the 60th national army and the 93rd national army to those provinces, but he refused to have two more armies transported there. (If two more armies had been transported there, China might have had a different future. Was this a typical case of a gentleman fighting a rogue?)
In late May of 1946, the National Army counterattacked the Communist Army and took Changchun and pursued the Communist Army to the Songhua River, approaching Harbin. Then, under pressure from Marshall, on June 6 Chiang Kai-shek had to give order to the National Army to stop further attacks for 15 days. (Another wrong decision.) During the truce, the military trio had talks concerning the restoration of traffic and a truce throughout the northeastern areas. In July, Marshall found that the military conflicts had become worse. In mid-July, seven American mariners were kidnapped by the Communist Army in the eastern Hebei province and at the end of July, some American transport trucks were ambushed by the Communist Army on the way from Tianjin to Peking. Three mariners were killed and 12 wounded.
At Marshall’s suggestion, on the 11th of July, John Leighton Stuart was appointed ambassador in China to help Marshall with the mediations. As Chiang Kai-shek said that the final goal of the Communist Party was to attain power over all the country, not just a truce with the national government, all these negotiations ended in nothing. On the 15th of November, 1946, the People’s Conference for drawing up the constitution opened and the Communist Party refused to attend. On the contrary, they declared on November 16 that they considered the conference unlawful. On January 8, 1947, Marshall went back to America. The national government was about to send a delegation to YanAn for peace talks, but the Communist Party said that there was no need unless the People’s Conference and the Constitution were declared unlawful.
So the door to peace talks was closed.

The national Government Was Expelled to Taiwan

The second civil war actually began

On the 26th of June, 1946, the day when the effective truce period was over, the National Army started their onslaught to the Communist Army, but they had already escaped. This date is considered by historians as the actual outbreak of the second civil war between the Communist Party and the National Party.
To protect the Nanking wing, from July to December, the National Army attacked the Communist Army in the northern Jiangsu province seven times. The result was that the National Army occupied all the towns in that area, but the Communist Army annihilated the 69th division of the National Army. Who was the winner? The Communist Party. The towns were still there. If they were lost, they could be retaken some time later. But once a division was wiped out, the National Army had lost a division forever. Mao Zedong’s strategy was to make the first aim the annihilation of the national army, not to keep possession of towns. Once the National Army was totally wiped out, who could fight them for the towns? Therefore, from a strategic point of view, Chiang Kai-shek and the National Party were doomed to lose in the long run.
On the 20th of July, the Communist Army began their attack of Datong Town in Shanxi province. In August they surrounded the town, but by September they could not take the town and had to retreat. In October, Marshall was hard at work trying to broker an agreement, but the national government made two last minute demands that again sabotaged his efforts. On October 11, the National Army made a surprise attack and took Zhangjiakou in Hebei province. When Liang Shuming, a mediator belonging to none of the parties, read in the newspapers that Zhangjiakou was taken by the National Army, he sighed, “By the time we woke up, the peace was already over.”
But he was wrong in that. When Mao secretly made up his mind to rule China by himself with his party, peace was already out of the question. Chiang Kai-shek only wanted for his rule and that of the National Party to last a bit longer, hoping to defeat the Communist Party by force. However, he always chose wrong tactics; so his case was already hopeless. Wise stratagems can enable the weak to conquer the strong. If statesmen or generals wish to be wise and victorious, they must learn from history.

On August 10, the Communist Army occupied some hundreds of miles of railway line between Tangshan and Lanfeng. When the National Army counterattacked, the Communist Army withdrew, but they annihilated another division of the National Army during the process in early September. In late October, the National Army took 25 towns and it looked like victory was theirs. But they were wrong. The Communist Party still had their full forces while the National Army was diminishing, division by division. Once they had a town, they had taken on a burden, just like the Japanese army had done. If Chiang Kai-shek had been wise enough, he would have concentrated his army on wiping out the Communist Army bit by bit. Instead he lost the mainland to the Communists. The tragic fate of the common Chinese people was thus sealed.
From December in 1946 to April in 1947, the Communist Army eliminated more than 40,000 of the National troops and took 11 towns in the northeastern provinces. On the 10th of March, 1947, the National Army came to assail YanAn. The Communist Army withdrew from it and adopted their well-known guerrilla strategies. The National Army could not get at them, let alone to extinguish them.
In Shandong province, the Communist Party often boasted of their best strategy used in the campaign in Menglianggu area from late March to early May. The National Army gathered 450,000 men and planned to occupy all the so-called liberated areas from the Communist Party. The National Army strategy was to advance step by step, pushing forward like a wall and leaving no gap for guerrilla movements, which was temporarily successful. But the strategy of the Communist Army was to make a sham retreat to let the enemy think that they were trying to escape, while they would seek for chances to attack a small part of the National Army. Like eating a big cake, bite by bite.
The 74th division of the National Army was thought of as a trump division, but Zhang Lingfu, their commander, was an arrogant and thoughtless man, though brave. He marched ahead, leaving other two divisions far behind. Although this region was controlled by the National Army, there were gaps between their troops. So the Communist Army made a bold plan to wedge between the groups and surround the 74th division. When Chiang Kai-shek learned that his 74th division was in danger, he commanded other divisions close to Zhang to rush to his rescue. The Communist Army knew that reinforcements would be coming from the National Army, as usual, and so they ambushed them at Huangya Mountain and blocked the way to Menglianggu.

This was the decisive battle. Whoever won in this battle would win in the entire campaign in the region. The Communist Army reached the top of the mountain a few minutes earlier, seizing the high ground, and got control of the entire battlefield. Though the national reinforcements did their best to launch attack after attack from the foot of the mountain, geography was not in their favor. Meanwhile, the Communist Army poured fire at the surrounded 74th division. The Communist Army sent a suicide squad to steal in and make a surprise attack on the command center of the 74th division, which was in a cave. When they got to the entrance, only three of them were still alive. They shouted, “The first battalion go east; the second battalion west; the third battalion, block the front exit.” Then they yelled inside, “Hands up!” When Commander Zhang Lingfu came out and saw only three of them, he fired and killed one. But a Communist soldier shot him dead before he could do more. The whole 74th division and a regiment from the 83rd division with them were all eradicated, over 30,000 in all.
On the 31st of July, 1947, the Communist Party officially named their army the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA, as it is known today), and it was divided into four so-called field armies. They recruited mostly young people in the countryside, who were generally illiterate and easily tricked into sacrificing their lives. So their army swelled in size. They used ten times the troops to attack the National Army and it was said that when one enemy soldier was killed, they could sacrifice ten of theirs.
In the second civil war, there were three major campaigns besides many minor battles.