Chapter 332 14. Inventory

The battle of crossing the river lasted 42 days. The People's Liberation Army used wooden sailboats as the main means of crossing, broke through the Kuomintang army's defense line on the Yangtze River in one fell swoop, and combined mobile warfare with urban battles to encircle and annihilate its heavy forces.In this campaign, the People's Liberation Army suffered more than 60,000 casualties, annihilated 11 military headquarters and 46 divisions of the Kuomintang Army with a total of more than 430,000 people, and liberated major cities such as Nanjing, Shanghai, and Wuhan, as well as the entire territory of Jiangsu and Anhui provinces and major cities in Zhejiang Province. The Ministry created important conditions for the liberation of the entire territory of East China and the march to South China and Southwest China.

In this battle, 436,015 enemies were wiped out, of which 28,144 were killed and wounded, 322,313 were captured, and 85,558 defected in the uprising; 2,426 mortars, 14,356 light and heavy machine guns, 179,771 long and short guns, 318 bazookas, 2,084 grenades and grenades, 359,835 shells of various types, 28,793,732 shells of various types, 123 tanks and armored vehicles, 2,171 cars, 220 warships (ships), 6,250 horses, and 160 radio stations; destroyed and damaged 3 aircraft, 11 tanks and armored vehicles, 9 cars, and 37 ships (ships). The Battle of Crossing the River is a battle of great strategic significance launched by our army to march to the south of the Yangtze River. It has an extremely important position in the history of China's new democratic revolution.

With the victory of the Battle of Crossing the River, the Kuomintang troops have actually been completely defeated, which created favorable conditions for our army to march into South China, the Great Southwest and liberate the whole of China. The Battle of Crossing the River not only achieved a great military victory, exposed the Kuomintang's civil war conspiracy through peaceful negotiations, and captured Nanjing, the capital of the Kuomintang government, but also had a great political impact.Nanjing is a symbol of the semi-colonial and semi-feudal old China ruled by the Kuomintang.The liberation of Nanjing declared the demise of the Jiang family dynasty.Shortly thereafter, Mao Zedong declared the founding of the People's Republic of China on October 1, 1949 in Beijing.

Deng Xiaoping summed up the battle of crossing the river and pointed out: "The battle of crossing the river is undoubtedly a great victory. This victory represents the destruction of the enemy's largest and most organized force in the south of the Yangtze River. After the battle of Liaoshen in the northeast , the Battle of Huaihai in East China, and the Battle of Pingjin in North China, the largest remaining army of the Kuomintang reactionaries was placed on the front south of the Yangtze River. They did not have a larger organized army than this. Crossing the river and annihilating the enemy four times More than 100,000, means that the Kuomintang has no more powerful resistance. Politically, this victory means the demise of the reactionary Nanjing government. The People's Liberation Army will never encounter more serious resistance in the military, and the time to eliminate the remaining enemies is not long. It's far away. The time for the final liberation of the whole country is not far away." (Deng Xiaoping: "From Crossing the River to Occupying Shanghai", "The Battle of Crossing the River", p. 4)