The complete destruction of the southern section of the Pinghan Railway and the eastern section of the Longhai Railway has shattered Chiang Kai-shek’s operational system in the Central Plains, the main theater of his civil war. Meanwhile, three major newly liberated areas—the regions spanning Henan, Hubei, and Anhui; Jiangsu, Shandong, Henan, and Anhui; and Henan, Shaanxi, and Hubei—have coalesced into a single vast contiguous zone. This development has created exceptionally favorable conditions for the People’s Liberation Army to annihilate large numbers of enemy troops in the future and heralds even greater victories in 1948.

Over the past month or so, our three-pronged southern counteroffensive forces had been concentrating their efforts on sweeping away local bandit and puppet elements in the new liberated areas, helping the broad masses of the people rise up and seize power, which temporarily quieted the fighting.

Chiang Kai-shek’s forces were thrown into alarm and confusion by this situation. Seeing that the destruction of the section of the Longhai Railway east of Kaifeng had already dealt them a severe blow, they rashly attempted to amass heavy reinforcements to secure the only remaining railway line in the Central Plains: the southern segment of the Pinghan Railway.

However, our three armies, wielding overwhelming force like thunderbolts, launched massive demolition operations on the 13th and 14th with lightning speed.

In just three days, they destroyed 840 li of railway track between Zhengzhou and Xinyang on the southern Pinghan Line and between Kaifeng and Zhengzhou on the eastern Longhai Line.

They captured thirteen county seats: Xuchang, Lanfeng, Minquan, Xinzhongmu, Chenliu, Weishi, Weizhou, Changge, Yanling, Fugou, Xinzheng, Xixian, Shangcai, Queshan, Xiping, Suiping, Linying, as well as Tongbai, Biyang, Wuyang, Yexian, Xiangcheng, and Zaoyang.

In these battles, over ten thousand of Chiang’s troops were wiped out.

Strategically important towns in the Central Plains that had long been fiercely contested during the civil war, such as Luohe and Zhumadian, have also been liberated by our forces.

This massive campaign is still ongoing.

The destruction of the Pinghan and Longhai railways has not only shattered Chiang Kai-shek’s operational system in the Central Plains but has also rendered futile his ability to exploit rail transport for rapid troop movements and tactical redeployments.

As the war progresses, Chiang’s chronic shortage of manpower will increasingly expose his weaknesses: being stretched too thin, scrambling to patch together forces from different directions, and constantly running himself ragged.

This will create ideal conditions for our mobile, battle-hardened field armies to launch large-scale annihilations.

At present, key Chiangist strongholds such as Zhengzhou, where the Nationalist Army’s General Headquarters is located, as well as Kaifeng, Luoyang, and Shangqiu, have become isolated.

Another critical Chiangist base, Xinyang, now lies directly in front of our advancing forces, its fate uncertain.

Almost the entire Central Plains region is now under our control.

From here, the PLA can strike east toward Jingpu, west toward Xiangfan, or south across the Yangtze River at will, leaving Chiang Kai-shek, who relies on hollow tactics, completely at a loss.

The mass uprising of the liberated people in the Central Plains, rising up in self-defense and closely coordinating with the PLA, has endowed our counteroffensive forces with unprecedented strength.

And through close cooperation among our three armies, we will surely deliver the deserved punishment to each isolated Chiangist pocket.

The great victory on the southern Pinghan Line is merely the beginning of a series of even greater triumphs to come.