Campaign to Defend Siping

The Campaign to Defend Siping (四平保卫战) was a struggle between the Nationalists and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) for the control of Siping in 1946 during the Chinese Civil War. This campaign was characterized by the fact that the supreme commanders of both sides had overestimated their strength and set unrealistic goals, but in both cases, the frontline commanders on both sides averted the potential catastrophes by convincing their respective supreme commanders to change their original decisions. After the defeat of Jinjiatun Campaign, the nationalists resumed their offensive with vengeance. In a short period of just two days, the nationalists were able to regroup and re-supply completely, and continued their push toward Siping. Chiang Kai-shek was determined to take Changchun after taking Siping, and Mao Zedong was equally determined to hold Siping to the end and prevent the nationalists from taking both Siping and Changchun. Both sides realized the upcoming campaign would be a difficult one and both sides placed one of their best field commanders in charge: Du Yuming for the nationalists and Lin Biao for the CCP. Attackers: nationalist order of battle: New 1st Army New 6th Army 71st Army 93rd Army Army-sized 207th Division of the Youth Army Defenders: CCP order of battle: Wan Yi (万毅) Column Southern Manchurian 3rd Column Western Manchurian 3rd Division Northern Manchurian 7th Division Shandong 1st Division Shandong 2nd Division Shandong 3rd Division 3rd Division of the New Fourth Army 8th Brigade of the New Fourth Army 359th Brigade Under Mao Zedong's strategy, the communists were determined to hold Siping to the end. In order to fortify the city, everyone was mobilized to build bunkers inside the city, while food, ammunition and other supplies were stacked. Lin Biao and Mao Zedong had personally inspected communist fortifications at important defensive positions such as Pagoda Mountain (Ta Zi Shan, 塔子山) and Three Lines of Groves (San Dao Lin Zi, 三道林子) with Peng Zhen in preparation for a prolonged campaign.