Bamian Mountain, located at the junction of the three provinces of Xiang'echuan, rises from the flat ground, up to hundreds of zhang, the terrain on the mountain is very steep, only a few sheep intestine trails can be climbed, easy to defend and difficult to attack. At the beginning of the founding of the People's Republic of China, there was a bandit army entrenched in these eight mountains, and continued to be the enemy of the new regime, this bandit force was the unit of Shi Xingzhou, the "Emperor of Tu" of Longshan and the commander of the Kuomintang division.
Shi Xingzhou was originally a man who did not learn and had no skills, and during the kuomintang administration, he vigorously developed his troops in Longshan County, which was a disaster for one side. During the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, Shi Xingzhou defected to the Japanese, but was later arrested by the Kuomintang government and imprisoned for several years. However, after the victory of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, the Kuomintang released Shi Xingzhou again, and after Shi Xingzhou was released from prison, he began to recruit troops, and the troops soon grew to more than a thousand people, which were later reorganized into temporary divisions by the Kuomintang government. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, Shi Xingzhou was appointed by Chiang Kai-shek as the deputy director of the "Xiang'echuan Qianbian Self-Defense Committee.", and he led more than 4,000 bandits to occupy the Bamian Mountain, built fortifications, openly made enemies of the local government, and even arrogantly declared that "the Bamian Mountain will become a small Taiwan that cannot be defeated."
Because bandits were too rampant and seriously threatened the lives of the local people, the People's Liberation Army sent a division of bandit troops to besiege Bamian Mountain. The 421st Regiment of the 141st Division of the People's Liberation Army, led by regimental commander Xie Songbai, launched an attack southward by Riye, while the 422nd Regiment attacked from the south to the north, completely eliminating the bandits on the Bamian Mountain with a two-sided attack. On January 18, 1950, the general offensive was officially launched, and the local people took the initiative to give directions to the People's Liberation Army, which greatly accelerated the process of suppressing bandits. On the 19th, the PLA troops began to climb the mountain, and soon took dayan gate, Wangxiangtai, Ximei Gorge and other places, and headed in the direction of Yanzi Cave, Shi Xingzhou saw that the situation was not good, so he hid in the Swallow Cave with the remnants. Yanzidong is the headquarters and logistics base of Shixing Zhou's bandits, and there are a large number of weapons, ammunition and grain here, and because of this, Shi Xingzhou once said that "the People's Liberation Army will not be able to defeat the Eight-Sided Mountain in three years."
Swallow Cave is located on the cliff of Bamian Mountain, a total of four openings, only a small road can enter the cave, the terrain is very dangerous. The space inside the Swallow Cave is very large, it can accommodate more than 100,000 people, as long as the mouth of the cave is blocked with firepower, it is difficult to enter. On the 21st, the 422nd Regiment of the People's Liberation Army bombarded the cave entrance with artillery, and a cannon knocked out the carmen at the mouth of the cave, and Shi Xingzhou's heart and abdomen Shi Wenjin personally organized bandits to resist at the mouth of the cave and resisted the first wave of our army's attack. That night, under the political offensive of our army, many bandits were unwilling to give their lives for Shi Xingzhou and took the initiative to hang themselves from the mouth of the cave and surrender to the People's Liberation Army. When Shi Xingzhou and Shi Wenjin woke up, they had become lonely, so they had to escape from the secret passage and sneak all the way to the area around the Great Lake in Sichuan. However, after all, this was not the base camp of Shi Xingzhou, he was not familiar with life here, and it was quite difficult, and soon after, Shi Xingzhou secretly sneaked back to the bottom of the Eight-Sided Mountain and hid.
In the winter of 1950, when Shi Xingzhou's son Shi Wenyu was studying in the Provincial Eighth Division, under the work of the People's Liberation Army, Shi Wenyu promised to go home and persuade his father Shi Xingzhou to surrender, after Shi Wenyu's persuasion, Shi Xingzhou finally went down the mountain to surrender, and this bandit leader who had been known as Xiangxi for many years was finally suppressed by the People's Liberation Army.