The Jingshan–Zhongxiang Campaign was a half-year-long struggle in Hubei between the nationalists and the communists for the control of Jingshan and Zhongxiang regions during the Chinese Civil War; it resulted in communist victory. In the second half of 1947, Liu Bocheng, Deng Xiaoping and Li Xiannian decided to reestablish Jianghan (江汉) Military Region by combining the communist 5th Division from southern Shaanxi and the communist force in western Hubei in the Dabie Mountains, and Zhao Jimei (赵基梅) was named as the first commander. On December 14, 1947, under the new commander Zhang Caiqian (张才千), the communist force crossed the Beijing–Hankou railroad to strengthen their positions, and on December 20, 1947, the 1st Regiment of the communist Independent brigade launched its assault on Jingshan. Faced with overwhelming enemy force, the security battalion guarding the city retreated without a fight, but in the haste of retreat, the nationalists failed to destroy abundant provisions stocked in the city, and thus provided the enemy with great resources, which proved to be fatal for the nationalists in the subsequent battles in the region. At 3:00 AM on December 22, 1947, the communists concentrated their forces by gathering three regiments to start their march toward Zhongxiang. The nationalist force was scattered to defend other isolated positions and thus was not able to regroup and reinforce the Zhongxiang, which was defended by a single regiment. After an hour of fierce battle, all of the nationalist positions in the outskirt of the city fell and being cut off by the attack enemy, the surviving defenders of these positions were forced to retreat to other directions instead of back into the city. After witnessing the annihilation of the defenders outside the city wall, the defenders inside the city wall attempted to break out via the south gate, but they were beaten back into the city. At 4:00 PM, the final assault on the city began under the cover of shelling of the nationalist positions from several dozen artillery pieces and fire from over 90 machine guns. The defenders were completely suppressed and the attacking enemy was able to breach the city wall at places of White Tiger Hall (Bai Hu Tang, 白虎堂) and Fuying Hall (Fu Yin Hall, 福音堂). The enemy assault team was able to subsequently breach the defense at the Great East Gate of the city wall, enabling the main force of the attacking enemy to enter