In the Xiangxi region at the junction of Hubei, Chongqing, Qian, and Gui, the two major mountain ranges of Wuling and Xuefeng run through, with undulating peaks, ravines, dense streams and rivers, and deep caves. Since the Song Dynasty, this has been a weak area of rule in previous dynasties, and the bandit plague has continued. On the eve of the collapse of the Kuomintang government, the remnants of the Kuomintang army, the police, the habitual bandits, and the self-defense forces were all incorporated into provisional armies and provisional divisions, forming a chaotic situation in western Hunan that integrated officers and men, bandits, and secret agents, with many bandits, many guns, and many opium. The bandits of all walks of life, believing that the time had come, began to stir up trouble again; they robbed merchants, military vehicles, and passing boats, destroyed roads and bridges and power lines, attacked the people's liberation army of the Chinese, and killed local cadres and mass activists. They colluded with local bandits to form 3 provisional armies and 12 temporary divisions, as well as more than 10 reactionary armed forces such as the "Xiang'echuanqian Anti-Communist National Salvation Army", totaling more than 100,000 people.
In August 1949, Hunan was peacefully liberated. At this time, Huang Kecheng, who was deputy commander of the Northeast Democratic United Army and political commissar of the Second Corps of the Northeast Field Army, was appointed secretary of the CPC Hunan Provincial CPC Committee and concurrently served as commander and political commissar of the Hunan Provincial Military Region. Suppressing bandits and eliminating bandits is one of the key points of Huang Kecheng's work in Hunan. The serious problem of banditry and the rampant banditry activities seriously threaten social tranquility and become an obstacle to the recovery of the economy and the realization of various social reforms. After the peaceful liberation of Hunan, the Hunan Provincial Party Committee and the Hunan Provincial Military Region used great strength to eliminate and suppress the bandits, and by the end of 1949, the province had annihilated more than 45,000 bandits, but at this time, the bandits occupying western Hunan had not yet suffered a major blow, and their arrogance was still very arrogant. From 1950 onwards, the focus of the province's suppression of bandits was concentrated in western Hunan Province.
Western Hunan borders the provinces of Hubei, Sichuan, Qian, and Guizhou, with a vast area with a population of 3.5 million, a mixed range of Han and Miao on the margins, a cluster of mountains and mountains, and a poor land. The foundation of feudal power is extremely strong. Landlord bullies occupy an absolute majority of the land and own about 80,000 or more guns as a tool for their rule and oppression of the people. Coupled with the Kuomintang's reactionary rule's policy of indulging bandits and harming the people, it has further encouraged the arrogance of the bully bandits in western Hunan Province. These heinous bandits, who kill and set fires, commit adultery and plunder, do everything. The people of western Hunan province, whose disasters were severe, were starving, cold, and miserable under the bloody rule of the trinity of officials, bandits, and tyrants. After the liberation of Hunan, the Kuomintang reactionaries tried to use Xiangxi as their "ideal" "anti-communist guerrilla base" and organized bandit agents and various counter-revolutionary forces everywhere to carry out sabotage activities.
To this end, the Hunan Provincial CPC Committee and the Hunan Provincial Military Region listed the elimination of bandits and secret agents as one of the three central tasks of the province, and demanded that the province, especially the bandits in western Hunan Province, be eliminated first with the greatest possible strength. Huang Kecheng, then secretary of the provincial party committee and commander of the Hunan Provincial Military Region, pointed out: "If the problem of banditry is not solved, there will be no social reform and social construction. He instructed the Forty-seventh Army of the People's Liberation Army, which was preparing to attack western Hunan Province: The strategic position of Western Hunan is very important and has a great bearing on our liberation of the great southwest, and although the Kuomintang has only one regular army here, the bandit forces are entangled and their activities are rampant, and they are the "blind intestines" of Hunan and pose a great threat to our army's march into the southwest. We must open the passage to the southwest and ensure the safety of transportation for the troops to fight in Sichuan, and we must eliminate the bandit armed forces in western Hunan and completely cut off this "cecum." When inspecting the work in western Hunan Province, he further pointed out: "In the work of suppressing bandits, we must do three things well, one is to mobilize the masses, the other is to catch all the bandits, and the third is to build up political power. Only by doing these three things well will the suppression of bandits be completed. ”
In January 1950, the 47th Army, which had entered Sichuan, returned to Western Hunan from Sichuan and established the Xiangxi District Party Committee, the Xiangxi Provincial Bureau, and the Xiangxi Military Region in Yuanling, specifically leading all the work in western Hunan Province, including the suppression of bandits. Under the correct leadership of the Hunan Provincial CPC Committee headed by Huang Kecheng and the Hunan Provincial Military Region, and with the vigorous support and help of the party organizations at all levels and the masses of the people in western Hunan Province, the 47th Army and the broad masses of militia bravely fought and worked together. Besieging Lijiadong, the old lair of ZhangPing, the head of the Guzhang bandits, more than 2,000 bandits were basically eliminated, and more than 2,000 guns were surrendered. Immediately afterward, Chen Zixian, commander of the 1st Provisional Army, Chen Cexun, commander of the 2nd Provisional Division, and Chen Shi, commissioner of the Ninth District of the Kuomintang and commander of the "Anti-Communist Salvation Army," were arrested alive, forcing Qu Boping, commander of the Tenth Provisional Division, and Luo Wenjie, head of the Kuomintang secret service and commander of the Provisional Fourth Division, to surrender, killing Zhang Ping, Cao Zhenya, Cao Zixi, Yang Shuchen, Long Yunfei, and many other bandit leaders. From August 1949 to the end of 1951, a total of more than 200,000 bandits were eliminated in Hunan Province, of which more than 100,000 bandits were eliminated in western Hunan Province, eliminating the historic bandit plague. Huang Kecheng gladly wrote an inscription for the Victory Monument to the Suppression of Bandits in Western Hunan Province: "Eliminate the bandit bullies, the merit is in the people of Western Hunan Province, and the martyrs who sacrificed them will never die!" ”
At the end of 1951, the large-scale struggle against the remnants of the bandits ended. The struggle against bandits in western Hunan has won a decisive victory, and the comprehensive victory in the suppression of bandits in western Hunan has stabilized the social order in western Hunan province, eradicated the plague of bandits in western Hunan province, and consolidated the nascent people's political power. On January 13, 1951, the People's Daily reported under the headline "The Historical Face of Western Hunan Has Changed": "Our army has played a decisive role in accomplishing the task of suppressing bandits. The people's army undertook the arduous and glorious tasks in the history of western Hunan Province, overcame all insurmountable difficulties, endured all unbearable pain, climbed mountains and mountains, worked day and night, endured hunger and cold, ate and slept in the wind, drank porridge for a week and a half, had no oil and no salt, and marched barefoot. Even under such a difficult environment, our army still resolutely safeguarded the interests of the people, strictly observed the discipline of the masses, helped the masses to produce and work, and established a deep class feeling with the people. They have made indelible contributions to the people of western Hunan and created a miracle unprecedented in the history of western Hunan Province. ”