fight against communists when the biggest local drug lord Liu Chaozhang (刘朝章) was arrested by the communists. As communist forces were destroying Liu Chaozhang's opium plantation totaled several dozen acres, they were constantly harassed by drug dealers' sniper fire in the process during their drug eradication effort that lasted more than two weeks. Attacks like these prompted the communists to formally launch a campaign to eradicate bandits in the local area. Although the communists strength was in absolute disadvantage, they were helped greatly by the lack of corporation among bandits themselves. Battle of Hungtuchang On April 14, 1950, over a thousand bandits from Ma Li (马力)'s band gathered in the region of Yellow Earth Field (Huangtuchang, 黄土场), and prepared to attack communists. As communists learned the news, they immediately decided to launch a preemptive strike against the nationalist guerrilla despite absolute numerical inferiority. The 5th Company of the communist 87th Regiment was ordered to proceed to Yellow Earth Field to attack the main body of the bandit force, and the Longquanyi District (garrison) Squadron was ordered to attack nearby Stone Plate Beach (Shibantan, 石板滩) to help. The battle lasted continuously for two night and two days, and the nationalists were completely surprised by the sudden preemptive strike by their enemy. The bandits, landlords, and drug lords only wanted to keep their own strength and did not want to sacrifice their own force for the others, and everybody expected others to fight the communist enemy instead. As a result, different bands of bandits begun to flee from the battlefield almost as soon as the battle begun, and others soon followed. The flight of bandits from the battlefield begun more rampant when another news reached the battlefield: of thousands bandits active in the region, only a hundred or so came to help fight the communist enemy, while all of the rest did not do anything. Only bandits under the command of chieftain Zhang Hua (张华) and the nationalist agent Wang Zhongxian (王忠贤) put up some real resistance, but they efforts were futile and they were nearly completely annihilated. As the main force of bandits were defeated and dispersed, every member of the 100 plus strong bandit reinforcement was also captured alive by the communists. The communist casualties were surprising low, with only one fatality, the 2nd platoon commander Jiao Lianyu (焦连玉) was killed in action, while other five soldiers were injured. Battle