Ningxia Campaign (1949)

The Communists launched their offensive on three fronts. By 14 September 1949, towns including Jingyuan (靖远), Tongxin (同心) and Zhongning (中宁) had fallen into communist hands. On 15 September 1949, the Nationalist 15th Cavalry Brigade guarding Jingtai (景泰) surrendered to the Communists. The main force of the Communist 63rd Army took Changle Bunker (Chang Le Bao, 常乐堡) to the south of Zhongwei (中卫) County on 16 September 1949, after completely destroying two regiments of the nationalist 81st Army. Meanwhile, the 188th Division of the communist 63rd Army approached Zhongwei (中卫) County from the west from Jingtai (景泰) on 17 September 1949, after passing through the Tengger Desert. The nationalist 81st Army was hard pressed from both south and west. Under heavy military and political pressure, Ma Hongbin, the nationalist deputy commander of Northwestern China, and his son Ma Dunjing (马惇靖, not the same person as Ma Hongkui’s son, Ma Dunjing, 马敦静, the nationalist commander-in-chief of the Ningxia Corps), the commander of the Nationalist 81st Army defected to the Communist side on 19 September 1949. The 81st was subsequently reorganised by the Communists into the 2nd Northwestern Independent Army on 19 December 1949.

On 19 September 1949, the Communist 64th Army launched its offensive against Jingji (金积) and Lingwu, badly mauling the Nationalist 128th Army in the Jinji-Lingwu Campaign. By 21 September 1949, all three defensive lines organized by the Nationalists were completely destroyed. Ma Dunjing (马敦静) fled to Chongqing by air and the Ningxia Corps lost its commander. As a result, the nationalist 11th Army, the remnant of the 128th Army and the Helan (贺兰) Army disintegrated as the surviving Nationalist troops deserted en masse. On 24 September 1949, the communist XIX Corps entered Yinchuan without resistance and the campaign concluded with a Communist victory. The Nationalists lost over 40,000 of the original 75,000 troops, while the remaining deserted, and the Communist victory ended the 36-year rule of Ma clique in Ningxia, as well as overall Nationalist rule over the region.

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• National Revolutionary Army
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