Battle of South Shanxi

The disastrous losses of the first year of the war (1937-38) meant that the internationally-recognized Chinese government (controlled by the Kuomintang or KMT party) had been forced to abandon its capital and all the industrialized areas of the country.

The Zhongtiao Mountains held symbolic importance as the largest area of territory north of the Yellow River still under full Chinese control.

Beyond the south bank lay the railway line connecting the KMT's western base with the Zhongyuan central plain, the 'breadbasket of China'.

The campaign is extensively discussed in the travel book Two Kinds of Time by the US journalist Graham Peck, based on eyewitness interviews with refugees.

Peck reports that the NRA had built a line of fortifications overlooking the major roads through the mountains, which had withstood several earlier Japanese assaults.

A map displaying the location of Chinese and Japanese forces during the Battle of South Shanxi, as described in this section of the article.
The strategic context of the battle. Chinese cities & conventional armies are shown as red icons; Chinese guerrilla forces are shown as red blobs. Japanese-controlled cities & armies are in black-and-white. Note that north is to the right.