In late October 1948, amid the decisive Liaoshen campaign of the Chinese Civil War, a brutal three-day engagement on the slopes of Heishan (Black Mountain) crystallised both the ferocity of the conflict and the tactical resilience of the Northeast Field Army. Faced with a superior Nationalist formation under Liao Yaoxiang, thinly manned formations from the communist Tenth Column and attached units held and retook a string of positions—most famously the 101 Heights—through desperate close-quarters fighting, artillery coverings and timely counterattacks.
The initial Nationalist offensive began before dawn on October 24, with air strikes and sustained assaults battering frontline positions at Gaojiatun, the 92 and 101 heights. The second battalion of the 84th Regiment, tasked with defending 101 Heights, endured repeated attacks from a force roughly the size of a brigade. After exhausting their ammunition, defenders resorted to bayonets and improvised weapons and were eventually overwhelmed, suffering total loss of the hill.
A rapid operational response by the Northeast Field Army followed. Division commander He Qingji concentrated divisional artillery to blanket the captured crest and ordered reserves into a counterattack. Under heavy bombardment, the counterattack penetrated enemy formations and reclaimed the 101 Heights, where subsequently the second battalion of the 82nd Regiment established defensive positions and repelled more than 20 assaults using close-combat tactics and covered positions in shell craters.
On October 25 at 18:00 a general counteroffensive by the 82nd Regiment, elements of the 84th and supporting artillery and infantry units drove along separate axes to retake Gaojiatun and the surrounding line after a half-hour of intense fighting. The Nationalist Ninth Corps' offensive collapsed; by dawn on October 26 Liao Yaoxiang’s remnants were in disarray and retreat. The Northeast Field Army’s defence at Heishan directly facilitated the encirclement of Nationalist forces around Jinzhou and hastened the fall of Liaoning province.
Chinese military commemorations later recognised the company that twice spearheaded counterattacks on the 101 Heights with the honorific "Combat Model Company". The battle is often recited in PLA histories as a textbook example of how firepower concentration, timely reserves and the morale of small units can blunt and undo numerically superior attacks.
Beyond the immediate battlefield outcome, the Heishan episode mattered strategically: it helped seal a key phase of the Liaoshen campaign, shortened the timeline for the communist capture of Northeast China and contributed materially to the collapse of organized Nationalist resistance in the region. Militarily, it underscored the continuing centrality of combined-arms coordination—artillery to fix and attrit, followed by infantry manoeuvre—and the political value of heroic narratives in consolidating postwar legitimacy.
For international readers, Heishan illustrates a recurring pattern in modern Chinese military thought. The emphasis on tenacity under fire, rapid concentration of supporting fires, and disciplined local counterattacks remains audible in contemporary PLA doctrine and training reforms that stress “battlefield resilience” and joint-arms integration. The episode is therefore both a historical case study and a cultural touchstone in how the PLA remembers and teaches operational art.