A Great Force of One Million Soldiers of the
People’s Liberation Army Crosses the Yangzi
River1
(April 22, 1949)
A great force of one million soldiers of the People’s Liberation Army, on a front
more than one thousand li long, broke through the enemy’s position and crossed
the Yangzi River. The People’s Liberation Army’s crossing was in the region
from Jiujiang in the west (not including Jiujiang) to Jiangyin in the east. Starting
on the night of the 20th, the Central Army of the People’s Liberation Army first
broke through the Anqing-Wuhu line on the north bank of the Yangzi and crossed
the river to the area of Fanchang, Tongling, Qingyang, Digang, and Lugang.2
Within twenty-four hours, more than 300,000 troops had crossed. Beginning on
the 21st at five in the afternoon, our West Route armies began to cross the river
near Jiujiang and Anqing. As of the time this telegram was issued, two-thirds of
this army of 350,000 had crossed the river; the remainder will finish the crossing
by the 23rd. This army already occupies a vast position on the southern bank along
the Guichi-Yinjiahui-Dongliu-Zhide-Pengze3 line and is in the midst of expanding to the south. Just as with the Central Army’s contacts with the enemy, the
enemy forces facing our West Route armies collapsed and fled, completely lacking the will to fight. Our army met with only extremely weak resistance. This situation is partially the result of the great courage in battle of the People’s Liberation
Army soldiers, who are unstoppable. It also has much to do with the refusal of
the Guomindang reactionaries to sign a peace treaty. The great majority of the
Guomindang officers and soldiers want peace and no longer want to fight. When
they heard that Nanjing refused peace, they lost heart. War criminal Tang Enbo4
arrived in Wuhu on the 21st to supervise the battle, but it was totally without
effect. Tang Enbo believed that the defensive line between Nanjing and Jiangyin
was solid, and there were weak points only between Nanjing and Jiujiang. He
never thought that on the very day he arrived in Wuhu, our army would pierce
the eastern line of defense. Simultaneously, our 350,000-man East Route armies
and our West Route armies launched the river-crossing battle. All of our prepared
plans have been brought to fruition. At the time this telegram was issued, most of
our East Route armies have crossed to the south bank, and the rest will complete
the crossing by the 23rd. The enemy resistance was relatively strong in this area,
yet in a full day of pitched fighting from the afternoon of the 21st to the afternoon
of the 22nd, we annihilated and routed all resisting enemy forces, occupying the
large area of Yangzhong, Zhenjiang, and Jiangyin counties. We control strategic
points at Jiangyin and have sealed off the Yangzi River. Our army’s vanguard has
also cut off the railway between Zhenjiang and Wuxi.

reproduced from the version published in Renmin ribao, July 9, 1981.

--- Notes

Our source for this text is Mao Zedong junshi wenji, Vol. 5, pp. 552–53, where it is
1.  Mao Zedong wrote this news item for Xinhua News Agency.
2.  Digang is a town located in northwestern Fanchang county, Anhui Province. Lugang
is a town located in southwestern Wuhu (city) in Anhui.
3.  Yinjiahui is a town located in southwest Guichi county, Anhui. Dongliu and Zhide
counties were combined to form Dongzhi county in 1959.
4.  Tang Enbo was commander-in-chief of the Guomindang army’s Nanjing-ShanghaiHangzhou Garrison Headquarters.
DOI:  10.4324/9781315719436-259