Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Battle of Xiushui River
changed from delete) - As far as I can gather, and I have been trying, this battle has been misnamed at best and didn't happen at worst. The Battle of Xuzhou (Jiangsu province) happened in 1938 some 800 kilometres away from the Xiushui river (Jiangxi province) according to Google Maps, so that can't possibly be the correct target for a redirect. Furthermore, the article itself specifies that this engagement was part of the Battle of Nanchang. Assuming this battle happened, as stated, in March at the river, which is around the same time as the Battle of Nanchang, then it makes sense to redirect it there. However, I mention that this battle may not have occured at all, and I base this on the source used at the article for the Battle of Nanchang. You see https://ww2db.com/battle_spec.php?battle_id=178 this source states that; {{tq|The first action '''took place at Wucheng in Jiangxi Province''', where Japanese troops were held down by Chinese positions '''near the Xiushui River''' for four days ...}}. The other relevant quote, which contradicts the first, is {{tq|Chinese troops repulsed a Japanese attack across the Xiushui River near Wucheng, Jiangxi Province, China}}. Indeed, Wuchengzhen (Wucheng is in Zhejiang and Wuchang is at Wuhan) is located between the rivers of Xiushui and Ganjianghttps://www.google.com.au/maps/dir/Wuchengzhen,+Jiujiang,+Jiangxi,+China/Xiushui+River,+Jiujiang,+Jiangxi,+China/Wucheng,+Jinhua,+Zhejiang,+China/@29.1686172,116.008318,13.29z/data=!4m20!4m19!1m5!1m1!1s0x343012e2473ece85:0x64b420e811c0eeac!2m2!1d116.010248!2d29.179411!1m5!1m1!1s0x34300409662d7c03:0x114ffe58da833ddf!2m2!1d115.7588736!2d29.1203373!1m5!1m1!1s0x34490e42fa32b1e3:0x1ab17a944f48640a!2m2!1d119.571633!2d29.086221!3e0. So, at the very least, the placement of the battle is incorrect according to the cited source. The idea that a battle may have occurred here is supported by https://books.google.com.au/books?id=ZYQwDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA37&dq=battle+of+nanchang&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjm6JG8scrWAhWByrwKHcVcDLQ4KBC7BQgpMAA#v=onepage&q=battle%20of%20nanchang&f=false this source which states; {{tq|The Japanese had come to the conclusion that in order to control the central Yangtze valley they would need to destroy IX War Zone south of Wuhan and west of Poyang Lake. To do that they would drive south on the west side of the lake to the city of Nanchang with their 11th army, recent victors at Wuhan. The Japanese offensive kicked off on 17 March 1939 and met with only few instances of hard fighting}}. The source, however, doesn't state where this hard fighting happened. Wuchengzhen is located, coincidentally, on the west side of Poyang Lake, and south of Wuhan. In terms of Xiushui, however, all I could find was a reference to https://books.google.com.au/books?id=tx5H_DC5V-MC&pg=PA238&dq=battle+of+Xiushui+river&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwim78KOocrWAhXEbbwKHY7_C2kQuwUIPjAE#v=onepage&q=battle%20of%20Xiushui%20river&f=false Japanese troops following the Xiushui river, from the recently captured Nanchang, on their approach to Changsha with no battle whatsoever. This might seem odd as Changsha is another 500 kilometres from Xiushui river, again, according to Google Maps. The best that I could do was to follow Google Maps and chart a route via google maps from Xiushui river, but, that's semi-OR. This leads me to the final question, do we rename or simply delete the article. I have done as thorough a search as possible, and have found no reference to a battle at Xiushui, and only one reference to a battle at or near Wuchengzhen. I think deletion is the appropriate action here. The only reference that I could find to the battle comes from a https://ww2db.com/person_bio.php?person_id=179 C. Peter Chen who appears to be a software engineer with an interest in history, but, isn't a historian. This leaves me with my only available source being of some dubious authorship/scholarship. If perhaps the author had listed their sources for the material, I might be inclined to look at them as well. As they haven't, I can't verify any of their information. Furthermore, they keep saying Wucheng, which as I've stated, is in a different province completely. So, I have to come to the conclusion that this article fails  and as such, should be deleted. '''TL;DR''' - The information in the article is unverifiable, the source it appears to come from is of dubious scholarship given that the author is a software technician and not a historian, and as such I come to the conclusion that the article should be deleted. Well, after being notified, I did a second search through the article, refer to my second comment for findings
— User:Mr, 13:01, 29 September 2017 (UTC)
Stance: merge
Cited policy: WP:V (Wikipedia:Verifiability)