Southern China

September-December

"We fight for a better Vietnam!"

These were some of the signs that many of the VNQDD supporters saw as they marched up North, leaving behind a long-dead insurgency against the French to resurrect a new one against the Chinese.

Or, at the very least, against the Communists in China. The VNQDD were being prodded from two angles, one from the DRV and another from the PLA, only now have they actually received funding and weapons.

Thank you for the new shoes!

The VNQDD, to show their betters their tenacity, elected to march across the Chinese border to directly combat the PLA. Although the front is slurred, the people are extremely unsympathetic to them.

They relay their goals to the Kuomintang - they hope to gain experience fighting in China to return back to Vietnam to open a new front and restore democracy from the Heathens in Indochina.

The forces in the region themselves were reduced to primarily bandits until the VNQDD showed up to assist, enabling a more "harsher" quid-pro-quo policy of assistance between both groups. Guerrillas have had some limited skirmishes since, but above all, the situation is hardly like that of the North.

Mongolian Clashes

Ma Bufang, clients and forces began what was called "a systematic campaign of harassment and distraction" against Communists in Shaanxi and Gansu. It worked extremely well, especially at first as their forces skirmished guerrilla-held positions, mostly cavalry skirmishing their lines to encourage and entice guerrillas into a trap.

In Southern Shaanxi just on the outskirts of Xi'an, it worked expertly as communist forces finally broke from their formations and pushed out to attempt to make the skirmishers go night-night long time, only to be led into a trap by awaiting riflemen.

Again, it worked expertly - until a detachment of forces breached what they initially assumed to be the PLA-held city of Khangi. The cavalrymen outright took the small city bravely from the Mongolian defenders. It wasn't until the officers tromped up north to the reported positions of his troops when he, along with his men, discovered the breach.

Mongolian Forces were dispatched and had several days-long clashes with the cavalrymen before forcing them back down South and out of the country, but at great expense.

Worst of all, this was hardly the first time Ma Bufang has had a run-in like this happen under his watch.

The Nephew

Ma Chengxiang, nephew of Ma Bufang, had another encounter in Xinkiang along the Mongolian border. The situation appears to persist, only now it runs the risk of involving the Soviet Union and Mongolia itself.

Northeast China - The Battlegrounds

Initially, both the PLA and the NRA prepared to have a long drawn-out staring contest of who would attack first.

It came at great surprise as, when the snow started to fall, neither side began their own strikes against the other. The war was at a stand-still in this region of China while the South and the East continued to flare up with sporadic fighting, enough for both sides to still continue to insist that the ceasefire had not been broken but not enough for them to fight over it.

There has been bands of teams from both sides hoping to sabotage the other including a small team of PLA forces set with explosives.

Manchurian Troubles

There was another set within Manchuria in KMT-held villages as the local militias were suddenly and inexplicably attacked by an unknown force. PLA soldiers marched through, executing the leaders while hardly speaking a word, moving through like a viper at its prey. The whole situation lasted minutes as the Communists executed the militia leaders, leading the locals to attack the soldiers in outrage.

A force from the NRA came to relieve the village but found that the soldiers were all dead. The villagers themselves had gathered the bodies, already desecrating them in fashions they hadn't seen since the Japanese came through.

The NRA took up camp in the village, surprised and shocked as they took down evidence less of the communists killing NRA soldiers but more of the bravery of the locals fighting back against the Communists.

The PLA, upon hearing this, extended documents that they had no troops in the region, insisting they were bandits taking up stolen uniforms. The locals remained on the fence but still have majority sympathies to either the communists or simply non-intervention.

Losses

• Mongolian Casualties - 485 soldiers, 122 policemen, 29 civilians, 52 horses

• Ma Clique - 625 soldiers, 118 horses

• PLA - 165 soldiers (7 captured with explosives in KMT custody)

• NRA - 54 soldiers

• VNQDD - 97

Map