The People’s Liberation Army, numbering one million troops, broke through the enemy lines and crossed the Yangtze River along a front more than a thousand Chinese miles in length. The entire sector from Jiujiang (excluding Jiujiang itself) in the west to Jiangyin in the east was designated as a PLA crossing area. Beginning on the night of the 20th, the Central Column of the PLA on the north bank of the Yangtze first breached the Anqing–Wuhu line and reached the areas of Fanchang, Shaling, Qingyang, Digang, and Lugang. Within twenty-four hours, 300,000 troops had already crossed.  Starting at 5 p.m. on the 21st, our Western Column commenced its river crossing along the Jiujiang–Anqing section. By the time this dispatch was sent, one-third of the 350,000-strong Western Column—approximately 120,000 men—had already made the crossing. The remainder were expected to complete the operation by the 23rd. This column has now seized extensive positions on the southern bank along the line running through Guichi, Yinjiahui, Dongliu, Zhide, and Pengze, and is currently pressing southward. As with the Central Column, the enemy facing the Western Column has been throwing up only feeble resistance, rapidly disintegrating and losing all morale. This situation is due both to the PLA’s extraordinary bravery and invincibility, and to the Kuomintang reactionaries’ refusal to sign a peace agreement. The vast majority of Kuomintang officers and soldiers long for peace and are weary of fighting; upon learning that Nanjing had rejected the peace terms, their spirits sank. War criminal Tang Enbo arrived in Wuhu on the 21st to direct operations, but his presence proved entirely ineffectual. Tang had believed that the Nanjing–Jiangyin sector of the defensive line was impregnable, with the only weak point lying along the Nanjing–Jiujiang axis. Little did he know that it was precisely on the day he reached Wuhu that our forces broke through the eastern sector as well.  Our Eastern Column, also consisting of 350,000 troops, launched its river-crossing operation simultaneously with the Western Column. All planned objectives have been achieved. By the time this dispatch was issued, the bulk of the Eastern Column had already crossed to the south bank, with the remaining units set to complete the crossing by the 23rd. Here, the enemy offered fiercer resistance; however, after a full day of intense fighting from the afternoon of the 21st through that of the 22nd, we annihilated or routed all opposing forces, captured wide swaths of territory encompassing Yangzhong, Zhenjiang, and Jiangyin counties, and seized control of the Jiangyin Fortress, thereby sealing off the Yangtze. Our vanguard has already severed the railway link between Zhenjiang and Wuxi.