Linfen Campaign Memorial Hall

Linfen Campaign Memorial Hall

The Linfen Campaign Memorial Hall is a classic site on China’s red tourism routes.

The Linfen Campaign Memorial Hall, also known as the Linfen Martyrs' Cemetery, is located north of the Temple of Yao in the southern part of Linfen city proper. Established in 1958, it was built to commemorate the martyrs who sacrificed their lives during the Linfen Campaign. The memorial hall faces south and features a well-arranged layout of pavilions and halls, with the fragrance of pine, cypress, and flowers wafting through the air. In front stands a full-body statue of Marshal Xu Xiangqian, and the Revolutionary Martyrs Monument stands at the center of the garden. The front of the monument bears the inscription “Eternal Glory to the Revolutionary Martyrs,” personally written by Marshal Zhu De. The garden also includes a domed public cemetery complex and other structures. After years of renovation and expansion, the Linfen Campaign Memorial Hall has become a landscaped memorial featuring an artfully arranged layout of pavilions and halls, along with the fragrance of pine, cypress, and flowers.

The Linfen Campaign

Linfen has long been known as the “Crouching Ox City” and is a historically significant military stronghold. This ancient city is high inside and low outside, with thick, solid walls that made it easy to defend but difficult to attack. When the Linfen Campaign began, the city was garrisoned by 25,000 troops from the 66th Division of the Nationalist Kuomintang’s Yan Xishan forces, the 30th Brigade of Hu Zongnan’s forces, six security regiments, and two training supplement regiments. These forces were under the command of Liang Peihu, Deputy Commander of the Sixth War Zone of the Nationalist Army and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Southern Shanxi.

To liberate all of southern Shanxi and support the spring offensives of the People's Liberation Army in the northwest and central plains, the Shanxi-Hebei-Shandong-Henan Military Region decided on February 3, 1948, to establish a forward command post. The first Deputy Commander of the military region, Xu Xiangqian, was appointed commander of this post and given unified command over the 8th and 13th Corps, as well as parts of the Taiyue Military Region and the Lüliang Military Region of the Shanxi-Suiyuan Military Region, totaling 53,000 troops. Their mission was to carry out the assault on Linfen. In the early hours of March 7, after learning that Hu Zongnan had ordered the 30th Brigade stationed in Linfen to be airlifted to Xi’an, our 8th Corps troops seized the Linfen airport and destroyed two enemy aircraft. As a result, the defending enemy in Linfen became trapped like a turtle in a jar.

On April 16, after clearing enemy strongholds and completing the operational plans to capture the city, the assault forces of the Shanxi-Hebei-Shandong-Henan Military Region launched their offensive and engaged the defenders in intense fighting centered on tunnel digging and tunnel destruction. The Nationalist army deployed aircraft to conduct round-the-clock bombings on the attacking forces’ positions, while the defending troops inside the city continuously shelled the attackers digging tunnels and attempted to undermine the attacking tunnels by digging their own. During the counterattacks, most of the 15 assault tunnels dug by the Shanxi-Hebei-Shandong-Henan forces along the eastern edge of the city, as well as more than 40 protective tunnels above and around them, were destroyed.

After a month of fierce struggle involving repeated attacks and counterattacks, tunnel digging and destruction, by May 16, the assault forces of the Shanxi-Hebei-Shandong-Henan Military Region had successfully dug two tunnels, each 110 meters long, right up to beneath the city walls of Linfen. These were packed with 6,200 kilograms of black gunpowder and over 3,000 kilograms of yellow explosive. At 5:30 p.m. on May 17, the final assault began. With three red signal flares ascending into the sky, a deafening explosion shook the earth like a cataclysm, successfully breaching the city walls with two large gaps, each over 50 meters wide, on the eastern side. Our forces surged forward with overwhelming momentum, breached the walls, and stormed into the city. The doomed defenders could no longer hold back the iron fist of the Liberation Army. With nowhere to flee, they descended into chaos and utter disarray.

By midnight, the battle ended, and over 20,000 troops, including the overall defending commander Liang Peihu, were captured alive.

The Linfen Campaign lasted 72 days, eliminating the Nationalist army’s last stronghold in southern Shanxi. It strongly supported the operations on the central plains and in the northwest battlefields and laid the groundwork for the subsequent annihilation of Yan Xishan’s main forces in central Shanxi. At the cost of 15,000 casualties, our forces captured this strategic fortress meticulously fortified by the Nationalists in southern Shanxi, destroying over 400 bunkers of various sizes. It stands as one of the classic battles in the great history of our military and marks a crucial campaign in the PLA’s transition from mobile warfare to positional warfare. Mao Zedong once commented: “In the Battle of Linfen, our nine corps (approximately 70,000 troops) gained valuable experience in urban siege warfare, marking a highly significant victory.” The campaign removed Jiang Jieshi and Yan Xishan’s last stronghold in southern Shanxi, created favorable conditions for the liberation of central Shanxi and Taiyuan, and powerfully supported the national strategic offensive.

A Red Monument

The “Linfen Brigade” (i.e., the 179th Brigade of the People’s Liberation Army) is affiliated with the Nanjing Military Region. Designated as an open unit by the Central Military Commission in 1971, it has so far hosted more than 7,000 visits from heads of state, government leaders, and military and civilian delegations from over 120 countries and regions around the world. It has conducted over 600 military demonstrations for foreign guests and has been awarded more than 1,000 foreign medals. It has effectively showcased the image of our military as a powerful and civilized force, earning the reputation as the “Window of the Chinese Army.”