Former Site of the Baiyun Mountain Battle Command Post

Former Site of the Baiyun Mountain Battle Command Post

The Former Site of the Baiyun Mountain Battle Command Post is a cultural relic protection unit of Jiangxi Province.

The Taihe Baiyun Mountain Battle Command Post is located in Baiyun Mountain Village, Xiaolong Town. In March 1931, Chiang Kai-shek assembled 200,000 troops to launch the second “encirclement and suppression” campaign against the Central Revolutionary Base. At that time, our forces numbered only 30,000. Comrade Mao Zedong, overcoming interference from both “Left” and Right opportunist lines, advocated for “concentrating our forces and striking the weaker enemy first.” Together with leading comrades such as Zhu De, Zhu Yunqing, and Huang Gonglue, he set up an encircling “pocket formation” at Qiaotougang at the foot of Baiyun Mountain to ambush the enemy. On May 14, Comrade Mao Zedong used the ancient temple at the foot of the western cliff on Baiyun Mountain as the battle command post. At dawn on the 16th, the 28th Division Commander Gong Bingfan led his troops into Bozuo Pit and walked straight into the “pocket.” At Mao’s command, “like a flying general descending from the skies,” the battle was over in five hours, killing over 2,000 enemy soldiers, wounding over 2,000, capturing over 4,000, and seizing over 3,000 weapons. The entire enemy division was annihilated; although Gong Bingfan fled after being captured, the first battle ended in victory. Comrade Mao Zedong wrote the timeless and stirring poem “Yu Jia Ao · Against the Second Encirclement Campaign” about the Baiyun Mountain Battle:

Clouds rise in anger over Baiyun Mountain’s crest,

Loud cries ring out beneath its ridge,

Deadwood and fallen trees lend strength to the rest.

Muskets form a wall,

As generals descend from heaven’s vault.

Seventy miles in fifteen days we raced,

Grey waters of Gan and blue hills of Min embrace,

Sweeping thousands of foes like a mat unrolled.

Some weep alone,

Lamenting their doomed step-by-step control.

Today, the command post (the ancient temple) still remains. In 1977, the county government built an exhibition room for the Baiyun Mountain Battle Command Post next to the temple. The site is an important historical relic of the second “anti-encirclement” campaign. It was designated as a county-level cultural relic protection unit in 1984.

Further Reading:

· Sixth Batch of Jiangxi Provincial Cultural Relic Protection Units