Comment on Chiang Kaishek and Fu Zuoyi’s
Vain Hope of Staging a Sneak Attack on
Shijiazhuang
(October 31, 1948)
(Xinhua News Agency dispatch, North China, October 31)
The generals of the Guomindang’s armies are now all like dead dogs that cannot even bite a single hair of the People’s Liberation Army. Now that the People’s
Liberation Army has backed them into a corner, it seems that the dogs still have
some life in them. Bai Chongxi and Fu Zuoyi, have been chosen by American
imperialism and have become the Guomindang’s treasures. Chiang Kaishek has
become a walking corpse without a soul; no one, including his so-called “disciples” and “cadres,” can trust him anymore. Under orders from the United States,
Chiang Kaishek promoted Bai Chongxi and Fu Zuoyi. Now, Bai Chongxi is commander of the “Bandit Suppression” Headquarters in Xuzhou and Hankou, and Fu
Zuoyi is commander of the northern line. The Americans and Chiang Kaishek are
now relying only on them to block the People’s Liberation Army. But even their
masters and they themselves do not know how many more months Bai Chongxi
and Fu Zuoyi can survive. In recent times, Chiang Kaishek has been living in
Beiping, and at his hand the three great armies of Fan Hanjie, Zheng Dongguo,
and Liao Yaoxiang1 were annihilated within two weeks. His task finished, he has
nothing left to do in Beiping, so yesterday he slipped back to Nanjing. Chiang
Kaishek is not Xiang Yu2 and is too lacking in shame to avoid “facing the people
east of the Yangzi River.” He wants to keep living, and he wants to play some
tricks to incite his dispirited armies and people. After racking his brains, he came
up with the brilliant idea of a secret attack on Shijiazhuang. Chiang Kaishek had
originally asked Fu Zuoyi to organize a light team to attack Ji’nan secretly, but
Fu Zuoyi demurred. Fu Zuoyi agreed to the sneak attack on Shijiazhuang, but he insisted that they both should contribute to organizing the forces. Fu Zuoyi has
sent the cavalry and Chiang Kaishek has sent the infantry. Those forces, along
with some tanks and an explosives team, have advanced southward from Beiping.
Extraordinarily brave, they reached the Wangdu region in just one week; their
commander is Zheng Tingfeng.3 Based on recent intelligence, it seems that this
General Zheng feels something is amiss, and he has asked for reinforcements
from Beiping. The reinforcements have also come from both groups, with Fu
Zuoyi dispatching the Thirty-fifth Army and Chiang Kaishek dispatching the
Sixteenth Army, which are advancing southward through Zhuozhou. Here the
question arises: Do they want Beiping or not? Beiping is very empty now, and
only the 208th Division of the Youth Corps is there. Tongzhou is also vacant,
and a few troops are scattered south of the Beiping-Suiyuan railway. In a word,
Chiang Kaishek’s entire northern military line and Fu Zuoyi’s entire system will
be finished within a few months, and yet they still dream of Shijiazhuang!

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Notes

Our source for this text is an article published in Renmin ribao on November 2, 1948.

--- Notes

1.  Fan Hanjie was lieutenant general in the Guomindang army’s Sixth Army, Zheng
Dongguo was commander of the Guomindang’s First Army Group; and Liao Yaoxiang was
commander of the Guomindang’s army’s Ninth Army.

2.  Xiang Yu (232–202 bc) was a famous Qin dynasty warlord. After suffering defeat at
the hands of Liu Bang, founder of the Han dynasty, Xiang Yu committed suicide, along the
banks of the Wu River, because he was ashamed to face the people of his home territory.
DOI:  10.4324/9781315719436-176

3.  Zheng Tingfeng led the Guomindang’s Ninety-Fourth Army.