sentences:  The difficult terrain made it ideal as a hideout for bandits, who had plagued the local region for more than a century.By the end of 1949 the bandits were led by Shi Xingzhou (师兴周).In late December 1949 the Nationalist Temporarily Organized 1st Army led by its commander Chen Zixian (陈子贤) withdrew to the mountains and convinced the local bandits to join them, fighting the communists together.