



For Want of a Spy



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Chapter I: The Fall of Yan’an, March-June 1947



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Under the conditions of the unconditional surrender dictated by the

United States

, remaining Japanese forces in

China

had to surrender to the nationalist Kuomintang or KMT, and not to the Communist Party of China present in some areas. In Manchuria, where no Kuomintang forces were present, the Japanese surrendered to the Soviet Union, which had liberated Manchuria through the mammoth Manchurian Strategic Offensive Operation in August 1945 (Chiang Kai-Shek subsequently instructed them not to surrender their arms to the communists).

The first post-war peace negotiation was attended by both Chiang Kai-shek and Mao Zedong in

Chongqing

from

August 28th 1945

to

October 10th 1945

. Both sides stressed the importance of a peaceful reconstruction, but the conference did not produce any concrete result. Fighting between the two sides continued even as the peace negotiation was in progress, though large scale confrontations were temporarily avoided. An agreement was reached in January 1946, but it wouldn’t last.

In the meantime, Chiang Kai-Shek realized he didn’t have the means necessary to prevent a CPC takeover of

Manchuria

following the scheduled Soviet departure. He tried to make a deal with the Soviets, but they denied him permission to move troops through their territory. Therefore the US Air Force airlifted KMT troops to

North China

to occupy key cities there, while the CPC already dominated the countryside.

On

November 15th 1945

an offensive commenced with the intent of preventing the communists from strengthening their already strong base. Chiang Kai-Shek’s forces pushed as far as

Jinzhou

, by

November 26th 1945

, encountering little opposition. This was followed by a communist offensive on the

Shandong

Peninsula

that was largely successful, as the entire peninsula, except what was controlled by American forces, fell to them. The truce fell apart completely in June 1946, when full scale war between CPC and KMT broke out on June 26th.

The Soviets spent the extra time systematically dismantling the extensive Manchurian industrial base (worth up to 2 billion dollars) and shipping it back to their war-ravaged country. The Red Army under Marshal Rodion Malinovsky also continued to delay its withdrawal because Stalin wanted Mao to have firm control of at least the northern portion of

Manchuria

before the Soviet pullout. Communist leader Mao Zedong acquired a hardware advantage because the withdrawing Red Army left him their captured stockpiles of Japanese weapons.

With the breakdown of talks, all-out war resumed. On

July 20th 1946

, Chiang Kai-shek launched a large-scale assault on communist territory with 113 brigades (~ 1.6 million troops), which marked the final phase of the Chinese Civil War. Knowing their disadvantages in manpower and equipment, the CPC executed a “passive defence” strategy. They avoided the strong points of the KMT army, and were prepared to abandon territory in order to preserve their forces. In most cases, the surrounding countryside and small towns had come under Communist influence long before the cities. They also attempted to wear out the KMT forces as much as possible. This tactic seemed to be successful; after a year, the power balance became more favourable to the CPC. They wiped out 1.12 million KMT troops, while their strength grew to about 2 million men.

One of the reasons for the successes of the Communists was a man named Xiong Xiang-hui, a Communist spy embedded in the command structure of Nationalist General Hu Zongnan. He had been spying for the communists since the 1930s, starting at the age of 17, and had remained undiscovered until 1947, by which time he was one of the General’s confidants. In the meantime, a young but also sharp-eyed, ambitious and slightly paranoid young agent of Chiang’s secret police noticed some suspicious behaviour on Xiong’s part. He doubted whether he should pass on what he’d observed since it concerned the confidant of an important general. In the end his sense of duty won through and he reported it to his chief, who saw fit to officiously assign a few agents to track the movements of this individual. Xiong Xiang-hui was put under observation and ultimately intercepted in

Shanghai

when he was about to leave the country for study leave in the

United States

. He was confronted by the evidence against him and he was tortured as well. At some point he was also personally interrogated by Hu Zongnan himself, who was reportedly infuriated when he learned that a close associate of his was a traitor. He was executed by firing squad in early 1947.

The capture and execution of this man – who remains unknown outside the circles of historians specializing in Chinese history – proved to be a pivotal point in the Chinese Civil War. At the time of his capture several important papers passed through Hu Zongnan’s office concerning an offensive that aimed to capture Yan’an, which had served as the CPC capital since the end of the Long March in 1935. Chiang made 150.000 troops and 75 aircraft available for the operation and Mao remained unaware of the pending Nationalist offensive.

The offensive commenced on

March 12th 1947

with an artillery and aerial bombardment that rudely awakened Mao and the communist leadership. This was followed by a massive infantry attack, supported by the small number of obsolete armoured vehicles that KMT forces had to their disposal, including captured Japanese tanks. Mao was forced into a pitched battle, which was exactly the type of battle he usually avoided because it played into the strengths of the KMT’s National Revolutionary Army. It had superior equipment compared to the People’s Liberation Army and in this case it also outnumbered them 2:1. The PLA’s flanks collapsed under enemy attack and Yan’an was encircled within a week’s time, after which it was a matter of wearing out the surrounded defenders. The food and ammunition supplies of the Communist garrison dwindled while the Kuomintang, despite constant harassment of it supply lines by guerrillas, was able to bring in fresh troops and supplies.

The remaining defenders surrendered on

May 7th 1947

, by which time 25.000 PLA soldiers had been killed while another 45.000 were taken prisoner, destroying an entire field formation. Their leader Mao Zedong was captured as well and his captors saw through his attempt to pass for a regular soldier. In fact, most of the CPC’s leadership had been captured in the fall of Yan’an and they were sent to

Nanjing

where they underwent a show trial and were then executed for treason. Though they were enemy combatants and therefore entitled to the firing squad, at least according to military protocol, Chiang personally ensured that they were sent to the gallows. He did this so as not to validate the Communists as a legitimate combatant, and also out of spite. The captured CPC leaders were executed almost simultaneously in their respective prisons, but Chiang chose to make an example out of Mao. He was ignominiously executed in one of the last public executions in

China

on June 18th 1947 in the capital of

Nanjing

at age 53 surrounded by a jeering and booing crowd. His last words went unheard as the crowd drowned them out with their shouting.

Inspired by abc123's naval thread, I've recently begun working on a TL wherein the ROC wins the Chinese Civil War ('winning' as in not being driven off mainland China). I hope everyone likes it