Chapter 18 Chapter 17 The Great Army flies across, the red flag is planted in the "Presidential Palace"

Chiang Kai-shek smiled calmly amidst the uproar, then lowered his face seriously, and said, "Why would I want to go to the wild?" Chiang Kai-shek left, but his soul still hovered over Nanjing. Mao Zedong issued a resounding call to liberate the whole of China and build a new China. He demanded that thousands of troops should not only be good at destroying an old world, but also be good at building a new world. Li Zongren led a small number of entourages to take off on the last special plane, first hovered over the sky for two weeks, as if reluctant to part, and then flew towards Guilin.

On the night of December 31, 1948, on Huangpu Road in Nanjing, the presidential residence was decorated with lights and festoons, and limousines drove in. At 7:00 p.m., more than 40 people including Vice President Li Zongren, Premier Sun Ke, Legislative Yuan Tong Guanxian, Supervisor Yu Youren, and members of the Standing Committee of the Kuomintang Central Committee Zhang Qun, Zhang Zhizhong, Shao Lizi, Chen Lifu, Gu Zhenggang, and Zhang Daofan were invited to the official residence .They came to attend the New Year's Eve dinner held by Chiang Kai-shek. When he was half drunk, Chiang Kai-shek suddenly cleared his throat and announced solemnly: "Everyone, the war can no longer be fought. At present, there are very loud voices for peace in the domestic party. It seems that peace talks are imperative. Let's talk about it. It's still good, in order to preserve the vitality of the party and the country, then, I will go away and let Delin talk about it丨"

Chiang Kai-shek forced a smile, and continued: "I have fought for most of my life. For the sake of peace, I am willing to be a commoner. I and everyone support Brother Delin to go out of the mountains to tide over the difficulties!" Li Zongren was secretly happy when he heard the words, but he still said cautiously: "Zongren felt sudden when the president made this decision. In fact, Zongren didn't want the president to leave." Before Li Zongren finished speaking, many people shouted that the president could not leave, and the president continued to lead us. Chiang Kai-shek smiled calmly amidst the uproar, then lowered his face seriously, and said, "Why would I want to step down, but if I don't step down from the Communist Party, I won't sit down and talk, and our party won't really unite and defend Jiangnan together. Now there is only one big river left, without this river, all of you will be dead without a burial place just like Jiang, please, brother Delin!"

After Chiang Kai-shek finished speaking, he stood up and cupped his hands at Li Zongren. Li Zongren hurriedly supported Chiang Kai-shek, and said gratefully: "We are all standing on the same boat in the south of the Yangtze River with the president, each other!" On January 1, 1949, Chiang Kai-shek published the "Message to the Compatriots of the National Army and Civilians" - the New Year's Day Announcement, stating that "the sacred constitution cannot be violated by me, and the democratic constitutional government will not be destroyed because of this. The state system of the Republic of China can be guaranteed. The rule of law will not be interrupted, and the military has solid guarantees, etc., and is willing to conduct "peace talks" with the CCP.

As soon as Chiang Kai-shek's peace statement was published, it was immediately hit head-on by the CCP. On January 5, Xinhua News Agency published a commentary on Chiang Kai-shek's New Year's Day proclamation "Comment on War Criminals Seeking Peace", ruthlessly exposing Chiang Kai-shek's conspiracy to use peaceful negotiations to preserve the strength of the counter-revolution.Helpless, Chiang Kai-shek asked the Vice President of the Executive Yuan and Minister of Foreign Affairs Wu Tiecheng to come forward on January 8, and sent a note to the United States, Britain, France, and the Soviet Union, requesting to mediate. On January 12, the U.S. government replied: "Under the circumstances, it is hard to believe that any beneficial results can be achieved with the U.S. government acting as a mediator."

On January 21, 1949, Chiang Kai-shek bid farewell to Nanjing, returned to his hometown, and gave up the presidency to Li Zongren. Chiang Kai-shek is gone, but his heart is not dead, and he still firmly controls Nanjing. In order to prevent power from falling apart, Chiang Kai-shek made personnel adjustments before leaving the field: Tang Enbo was the commander-in-chief of the Beijing-Shanghai-Hangzhou garrison; Chen Cheng was the chairman of the Taiwan Provincial Government and the commander-in-chief of the provincial garrison; Chiang Ching-kuo was the director of the Taiwan Provincial Party Department of the Kuomintang; Zhang Qun is the director of the Chongqing Appeasement Office; Yu Hanmou is the director of the Guangzhou Appeasement Office; Xue Yue is the chairman of the Guangdong Provincial Government.In addition, Chiang Kai-shek also equipped Xikou with 7 high-power radio stations to implement remote control across the country.

Of course, Xikou was only a temporary shelter for Chiang Kai-shek.He knows that no matter whether Li Zongren's "peace talks" succeed or not, it is impossible to rely on the Yangtze River to stop the PLA from advancing. If the Guangxi clique surrenders to the Communist Party, there will be no place for him in the mainland.Therefore, when he decided to "retire", Chiang Kai-shek was ready to abandon the mainland and surrender Taiwan.He appointed his confidant Chen Cheng as the chairman of Taiwan Province to build and guard the last habitat for him. On February 25th, Li Zongren determined three principles for peace talks with the Communist Party, namely:

1. Both sides of the peace talks must be established on the basis of equality, and the common party cannot pretend to be the victor and force me to accept humiliating conditions. 2. In view of the tragic experience of the countries within the Iron Curtain, the government should absolutely not accept the CCP as the ruling coalition government. For this reason, the government should propose to the CCP to divide the border and rule. 3. The government cannot fully accept the eight demands put forward by the CCP, and can only use them as the basis for negotiations under the principle of the coexistence of two governments.

In fact, the so-called "peaceful" negotiations of the Kuomintang government were nothing more than a double play of false peace and real preparations for war, which was played by Chiang Kai-shek behind the scenes and Li Zongren in front of the stage.The Chinese people and the Chinese Communist Party, who have already gained sufficient experience, will not be fooled by the reactionary Kuomintang government. At the end of December 1948, Xibaipo. New Year's Day is approaching, and Mao Zedong is concentrating on writing a New Year's message for Xinhua News Agency. At this time, the Kuomintang government has fallen into an irretrievable situation of disintegration militarily, economically and politically.The Chinese People's War of Liberation is about to win nationwide.

The main force that Chiang Kai-shek relied on to launch the counter-revolutionary civil war was basically wiped out, and the remaining 2.04 million troops were scattered in the areas south of the Yangtze River and remote provinces in the northwest and southwest.The Chinese People's Liberation Army has liberated the whole of Northeast China, most of North China and the vast area north of the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River. The People's Liberation Army grew to 3.58 million during the battle, and equipped itself with a large number of captured American weapons. In terms of numbers, morale, and equipment, it surpassed the remaining military forces of the Kuomintang government and was in an advantageous position.As long as the People's Liberation Army launches several more major attacks on the remaining Kuomintang reactionary troops, the reactionary rule of the Kuomintang reactionaries in the country will be wiped out.

Under such circumstances, what did the Chinese Communist Party and the Chinese People's Liberation Army do in 1949?Mao Zedong looked up at the map from time to time. On the map, there are not many blue circles, and the remaining ones are mainly concentrated in the northwest and south of the Yangtze River.Mao Zedong was not too concerned about the northwest region, where Hu Zongnan could not last long.As for the enemies in the south of the Yangtze River, Mao Zedong was very worried because of the natural danger of the Yangtze River. The Yangtze River cannot be the dividing line!China can no longer be divided!We must return a complete land of China to the people!Mao Zedong swiped his pen and wrote: "In 1949, the Chinese People's Liberation Army will march south of the Yangtze River, and will achieve greater victories than in 1948..." On January 10, 1949, in the war room of the Central Military Commission of Xibaipo, Mao Zedong, Liu Shaoqi, Zhu De, and Zhou Enlai sat together to study the issue of crossing the river. Mao Zedong first spoke: "Now, the Huaihai Campaign is over, and Huaye and Zhongye have wiped out more than 10,000 enemies. We are superior to the Kuomintang army in terms of numbers, morale, and equipment. We can breathe a sigh of relief. But we can't relax, we still want to eliminate Chiang Kai-shek's remaining military forces. In the future, we will study how to carry out cross-river operations." Zhu De said: "The Military Commission has sent a telegram to Su (Yu), Chen (Shiju), Zhang (Zhen), Deng (Xiaoping), and Zhang (Jichun), asking them to rest for two and a half months. From March 31st to March 31st, every half month is a period, a total of five periods, and they are required to complete all preparations for the battle across the river." Mao Zedong said: "To study the issue of crossing the river today, first understand and listen to the enemy's situation." A staff officer walked to a large combat map and introduced the enemy situation on both sides of the Yangtze River: "On both sides of the Yangtze River, the enemy has two groups, one is Bai Chongxi's West Group, and the other is Tang Enbo's East Group. The West Group has 40 divisions with about 250,000 people. It is centered on Wuhan and deployed on both sides of the Yangtze River. It starts from Minggang in the north. , east to Jiujiang, west to Yueyang. The East Group has 75 divisions with about 450,000 people, of which 54 divisions are deployed in the west to Hukou, east to Jiangyin along the Yangtze River and the Shanghai area. There is another division as the second echelon It is deployed on the Zhejiang-Jiangxi line." Zhou Enlai: "But we have to consider the influence of the United States. Once the United States sends troops, it will be very difficult for us to cross the river." "It's not a big deal for the United States to send troops to intervene. They never dare to invade us on a large scale." Mao Zedong said: "However, in order to deal with the situation of the United States sending troops, I want the middle field to be close to the Huaye. Let’s attack Nanjing and Shanghai together. Let the Northeast Field Army fight Bai Chongxi.” On March 5, the Second Plenary Session of the Seventh Central Committee of the Party was held in Xibaipo.At this meeting, Mao Zedong resoundingly issued a call to liberate the whole of China and build a new China. He demanded that thousands of troops should not only be good at destroying an old world, but also be good at building a new world. In order to realize the strategic concept of going to the south of the Yangtze River and taking over the world, Mao Zedong reorganized the elite field armies in the Northwest, Central Plains, East China, and Northeast China, which had been tempered in the flames of war, into the first, second, third, and fourth field armies in sequence, with a total strength of 4 million.Among them, the original Central Plains Field Army was renamed the Second Field Army, still under the command of Liu Bocheng and Deng Xiaoping, under the jurisdiction of the 3rd, 4th, and 5th Corps, with a total of 280,000 horses; , 8, 9, 15 Corps, 580,000 troops.In addition to the more than 100,000 people of the Fourth Field Army cooperating with the Battle of Crossing the River and the total strength of the local troops in the Central Plains and East China reaching one million, they shouldered the important task of splitting the Yangtze River and sweeping across the south of the Yangtze River. On March 31, Deng Xiaoping, Chen Yi, Su Yu, Tan Zhenlin, Rao Shushi and others held a meeting, and finally determined the determination and deployment of the Battle of Crossing the River. On April 1, it was reported to the Central Military Commission and reported to Liu Bocheng, Zhang Jichun, and Li Da of the Second Field. The "Outline" decided that the second field and the third field should form three assault groups in the east, middle, and west, and adopt a wide front and focused multi-line assault tactics to launch a cross-river operation from Jingjiang, Jiangsu to Wangjiang, Anhui, and first annihilate the troops along the river. The defensive Kuomintang army then developed southward, occupied southern Jiangsu, southern Anhui, and the entire province of Zhejiang, captured Nanjing, Shanghai, Hangzhou and other cities, and completely destroyed the political and economic centers of the Kuomintang. The East Group is composed of 8 armies of the 8th and 10th Corps of Sanye and 3 independent brigades of the North Jiangsu Military Region, with a total of 350,000 people, commanded by Su Yu and Zhang Zhen, and crossing the river from Sanjiangying to Zhanghuanggang; The Central Group is composed of 7 armies of the 7th and 9th Corps of Sanye, with a total of 300,000 people, commanded by Tan Zhenlin, and crossing the river from Yuxikou to Zongyang Town; The West Group is composed of 9 armies of the 3rd, 4th, and 5th Corps of the Second Field and local troops, with a total of 350,000 people. Commanded by Liu Bocheng, Zhang Jichun, and Li Da, they crossed the river from Zongyang Town to Wangjiang. The entire campaign is divided into three stages: the first stage is to complete the task of crossing the river and implement the campaign; the second stage is to split and encircle the Kuomintang army, to control a section of the Zhezong line, and to cut off the enemy's retreat; the third stage is to annihilate the surrounded Kuomintang army. , complete the entire campaign. Regarding this "Outline", the Central Military Commission replied on April 3 to agree.The troops of Sanye and Erye planned to advance along the Yangtze River! Although the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the Central Military Commission made preparations for crossing the river, they did not reject the Kuomintang government's request for "peace talks". On March 26, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China sent Zhou Enlai, Lin Boqu, Ye Jianying, Li Weihan, Nie Rongzhen, etc. as representatives of the peace talks, with Comrade Zhou Enlai as the chief representative, and was scheduled to hold negotiations with representatives of the Kuomintang government in Beiping on April 1.The Kuomintang government then sent Zhang Zhizhong, Shao Lizi, Huang Shaohong, Zhang Shizhao, etc. as negotiators, with Zhang Zhizhong as the chief representative, and arrived in Peiping by plane on April 1.On the same day, the delegation of the Communist Party of China and the peace negotiation delegation of the Kuomintang government began negotiations. On the night before the Kuomintang government delegation left for Peiping (March 31), Li Zongren hosted a banquet at the Kuomintang "Presidential Palace" to send off the peace talks delegation headed by Zhang Zhizhong. After the meeting, Li Zongren held a military meeting in his office to discuss three issues: 1. To strengthen the defense deployment of the Yangtze River, instruct the Beijing-Shanghai-Hangzhou Garrison General Command and the Central China Military and Political Commissioner's Office to order all troops to strictly guard against the Communist Army's southward crossing, and to send the navy to patrol along the river and the air force to conduct reconnaissance, and to make decisions on transportation supplies and other issues ; 2. The meeting considered that the front line was too long and the distribution of troops was not enough, so it was decided to transfer most of the 100,000 Kuomintang troops stationed in Xinjiang to the east; 3. Distributing the American equipment shipped by the United States to 10 divisions in Shanghai, Taiwan and other places. From here, we can see the true face of the Kuomintang government's fake peace and real preparations for war. Nevertheless, the Chinese Communist Party considers that signing an agreement is beneficial to the people, to the People's Liberation Army, to all those in the Kuomintang government who are willing to redeem themselves, and to the officers and soldiers of the Kuomintang army.Therefore, starting from April 1, the Chinese Communist Party delegation still negotiated with the Kuomintang government delegation. Negotiations between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party continued until the 12th, and the "Draft Domestic Peace Agreement" was drawn up. On the 15th, the Domestic Peace Agreement (Final Amendment) was drawn up. The full text has 8 articles and 24 paragraphs.This agreement was negotiated on the basis of the eight conditions of the Chinese Communist Party. The Chinese Communist Party delegation announced that April 20 is the deadline for negotiations, and the final signing date of the above-mentioned agreement is April 20, waiting for a reply from the Kuomintang government. On April 16, Huang Shaohong, the representative of the Kuomintang government, took the "Domestic Peace Agreement" (the final amendment) and flew to Nanjing to ask for instructions.Regarding whether to sign, Li Zongren said that he could only decide after asking Chiang Kai-shek in Xikou for instructions.At this time, the Central Standing Committee of the Kuomintang held an interim meeting in Guangzhou and passed a statement that the domestic peace agreement was absolutely unacceptable. At 4:00 p.m. on April 20, He Yingqin, President of the Executive Yuan of the Kuomintang, attended a secret meeting of the Legislative Yuan of the Kuomintang and declared that "the government has no room to consider the demands made by the CCP." That night, the Kuomintang government replied to the delegation from Nanjing, saying that they did not agree to sign.So far, the "peace" scam of the Kuomintang government has also been declared bankrupt. At dusk on April 20, all the large and small boats hidden behind the embankment were dispatched together to overturn the dam and enter the river.The peaceful atmosphere on the north bank of the river suddenly became hot, and thousands of boats of all sizes gradually unfolded on the bank of the north bank of the river. The enemy noticed it, and the artillery shells flew over the Yangtze River and exploded behind the river embankment with a rumble.The powerful artillery of the People's Liberation Army immediately returned fire, and the artillery battle kicked off the prelude to the battle across the river. At 20 o'clock in the evening on the 20th, under the cover of night, the large and small ships on standby by the river shot straight to the south of the Yangtze River like arrows leaving the string. The assault of the Central Combat Group has begun.The first echelon of the Central Road Combat Group deployed four armies and crossed the river at the same time on a river of more than 100 kilometers. Thousands of wooden boats race across the Baili River at night.The water jets raised by the explosion of the artillery shells fell down under the flickering light beams of the enemy's searchlights, like huge water sprays.Looking from the north of the river, there is a red indicator light hanging behind each boat, like a little fire, and the whole river crossing scene is magnificent and exciting. The crossing of the middle road combat group went very smoothly. They chose the best time to cross the river and the landing place.When crossing the river was launched, the enemy's 88th Army was making defenses against the 20th Army. The 88th Army lacked training and was not strong in combat. The commander Ma Shigong had no confidence in Jiang Fang. He fled the army with excuses in the first 10 days and handed over the command to the deputy commander.Although the enemy's 20th Army is the main force, the task of receiving defense has not yet been completed, and the task of river defense between the various divisions has not yet been clarified, and they are arguing with each other, so they were broken through by the two corps of Wang Jian'an and Song Shilun. Yang Gancai, the commander of the 20th Army of the Kuomintang, led all the enemies to resist desperately, but they couldn't stop the breakthrough of the People's Liberation Army.The People's Liberation Army surged forward like a flood that broke its embankment. In the early morning of April 21, Mao Zedong and Zhu De issued the "Order to March to the Nation" to the Chinese People's Liberation Army.The order pointed out that the refusal of the Kuomintang reactionaries to sign a peace agreement is to express their "determination to fight the counter-revolutionary war they launched to the end."Under such circumstances, we order you: "Forge ahead bravely, resolutely, thoroughly, cleanly, and completely wipe out all Kuomintang reactionaries who dare to resist in China, liberate the people of the whole country, and defend the independence and integrity of China's territorial sovereignty." After our middle combat group broke through the Kuomintang army's Jiang defense in one fell swoop with a sudden and rapid military operation and achieved major results, on the evening of the 21st, our east and west combat groups launched new attacks. The section where our West Road Combat Group crossed the river and broke through is the junction of the two major groups of the Kuomintang, Tang Enbo and Bai Chongxi. The enemy along the river is the 68th Army, 96th Army, and Army of the 8th Corps with a total of more than 40,000 people.There are only two armies of the 17th Corps in the enemy's deep area, located in the Anhui-Zhejiang border Shexian to Ningguo area.The overall defense force is relatively weak, and there are very few mobile forces, which is conducive to my cross-river assault. According to the situation of the enemy in front of us, our West Road Combat Group decided to arrange three corps side by side on the front with a width of about 100 kilometers between Guichi and Madang.Among them, the 3rd Corps governs the 10th, 11th and 12th Corps, crossing the river from the east of Anqing to Zongyang; the 5th Corps governs the 16th, 17th and 18th Corps, from the west of Anqing to the Crossing the river was implemented in the Wangjiang section; the 4th Corps governed the 13th, 14th, and 15th armies, and crossed the river from Wangjiang to Madang. At 17:00 on the afternoon of the 21st, our army on the west road launched a battle across the board. Countless cannons fired at the same time. On the front less than 15 kilometers away, there were more than 300 cannons of various kinds.After an hour of fierce shelling, the entire enemy position on the south bank was completely engulfed in a sea of ​​flames, and the river surface and sky were reddened by artillery fire.Nine times out of ten the enemy's forward positions were blown up.Then, thousands of warships poured out from various ports and immediately flew towards the south bank. Our 4th Corps crossed the river as planned from Huayang Town to Batou section.When the warships of the assault force of the 15th Army on the left set off, it was raining heavily, and they took advantage of the dark and rainy opportunity to go straight to the opposite bank.When the ship arrived in the middle of the river, the enemy's artillery fire suddenly shot at me violently. Some warships were hit and leaked, and some ships lost their way.However, with the firm belief that crossing the river will win, the heroic soldiers shouted the battle slogans of "Fight across the Yangtze River and liberate the whole of China" and "Get to the other side is victory". After half an hour of bloody fighting, they finally rushed to the bank of the river. Our 15th Army quickly expanded its battle results along the river to the two wings, and successively repelled the attacks of 7 enemy ships.The 13th Army of the right wing of our 4th Corps also carried out smuggling to Babaozhou on the evening of the 21st, and was discovered by the enemy when it was only more than 100 meters away from the enemy's shore.The enemy fired heavily.My brave fighter landed on the enemy's shore after only 10 minutes of fighting, and occupied Babaozhou at 12 o'clock that night. On the 22nd, our army occupied the famous Madang Fortress in the northeast of Pengze and repelled many enemy counterattacks. The units of our 3rd Corps and 5th Corps also successfully crossed the river, broke through the enemy's river defense positions across the board, and quickly controlled the landing area 100 kilometers wide and 5-10 kilometers deep. On the 22nd, Guichi, Pengze and other places were liberated, and more than 30,000 enemies were captured. In order to closely cooperate with our East and Central combat groups to ensure the success of the pincer offensive, all units of our Second Field Army quickly developed deep into the enemy without losing the opportunity, and plunged into the Zhejiang-Jiangxi line. The advance troops of the Fourth Field Army and the troops of the Central Plains Military Region, in order to cooperate with the Second and Third Field Army to successfully cross the river, actively moved southward along both sides of the Ping-Han Railway, pretending to attack Wuhan, in order to contain the troops of the Kuomintang Bai Chongxi, so that he had to shrink to Wuhan troops. On the evening of the 21st, at the same time that our West Road Combat Group launched an attack, our East Road Combat Group also launched an attack. At that time, the enemy's defense focused on the area east of Zhenjiang.Tang Enbo deployed six armies along the river in this area, namely the 123rd Army, 21st Army, 51st Army, and 4th Army under the jurisdiction of the 1st Appeasement Area of ​​the Kuomintang, and the 45th Army and 28th Army under the jurisdiction of the Kuomintang Capital Garrison General Command.In addition, the 54th Army and the 99th Army of the Kuomintang formed a mobile corps, stationed in Danyang and Longtan, echoing from east to west, so as to support the two wings of Nanjing at any time.The Second Fleet of the Kuomintang Navy also stationed in this area of ​​the Yangtze River, and cooperated with the army to strengthen the defense of the river. In view of the above-mentioned military deployment of the enemy, our East Road Combat Group decided to use the 8th Corps to command the 20th and 26th Corps, in addition to taking active actions across the river to attract and restrain Zhenjiang and Nanjing to defend the enemy. He and the 10th Corps commanded the 23rd Army, 28th Army, 29th Army, and 31st Army to cross the river from Sanjiangying in the southeast of Jiangdu County to Zhanghuanggang in the east of Jingjiang County. At 7 o'clock in the evening on the 21st, the first echelon of our 10th Corps, composed of the 23rd Army, 28th Army and 29th Army, started crossing the river side by side in the Shengang and Jingjiang areas.In the bewildered night, the warships of our assault troops quickly sailed out of the hidden ferries and headed straight for the landing target on the south bank. When the boat passed the middle stream, there were suddenly intensive gunshots on the south bank. Obviously, the enemy discovered our army's crossing operation.If smuggling fails, forced immigration will be implemented.Our cannon immediately fired violently, and the enemy's bank continued to flash with explosions.In the dark night sky, the rumble of enemy planes came again.Enemy planes strafed the river indiscriminately.Gunshots rang out in the darkness.My heroic warship rushed towards the south bank under the dense fire net.The troops of the first batch of 8 regiments of our army broke through the enemy's Jiang defense positions in the three sections from Weitang Town to Wangtan Town, Shengang to Xiagang and on both sides of Changshan, annihilating the enemy at all fronts, thus ensuring the follow-up echelon The 31st Army waited across the river. The 20th Corps of the 8th Corps and the 20th Corps of the right wing of our East Army launched an assault from the Sanjiangying and Yong'anzhou areas to Yangzhong County on the central continent of the Yangtze River. They quickly succeeded in crossing the river and continued to advance southward. From April 20th to 21st, when our army was launching operations to cross the river, four warships including the British "Amethyst" that invaded the Yangtze River, together with the Kuomintang warships, bombarded the defense line of the 23rd Army of the People's Liberation Army, causing our There were 252 casualties, and Comrade Deng Ruobo, head of the 202 regiment, was shot and died.Our army counterattacked immediately. The British ship "Amethyst" was damaged and moored on the river near Zhenjiang, and the other three British ships escaped.This serious act of aggression by the British government has been strongly condemned by the Chinese people.A spokesman for the Chinese People's Liberation Army Headquarters issued a statement stating: "China's territorial sovereignty must be defended by the Chinese people, and foreign governments are absolutely not allowed to infringe upon it." Nanjing on April 22 was in chaos.The defeated Kuomintang army was crowded on the Beijing-Hangzhou National Highway, scrambling to flee for their lives in the direction of Xiangmei and Hangzhou.Officials of the Nanjing government boarded planes and fled to Guangzhou.More than 30 planes of various airlines were transported by air, and it is said that the government departments were evacuated within 6 hours. Li Zongren and He Yingqin were helpless, so they had to fly to Hangzhou urgently to discuss countermeasures with Chiang Kai-shek.Chiang Kai-shek met them at the airport. Li Zongren said to Chiang: "You asked me to come out at the beginning for peace talks. Now the peace talks have broken down and Nanjing is about to fall. What do you think?" Chiang Kai-shek said: "If you continue to lead, I will always support you." Nothing of substance but empty promises.Li Zongren was still unable to command the army, so he had to return to Nanjing in the evening.Tang Enbo urgently asked for an interview, saying that the communist army was approaching the outskirts of the city, and asked him to evacuate immediately.That night, the sound of artillery in the suburbs of Nanjing rumbled, and Li Zongren suffered from insomnia all night. On the morning of the 23rd, Li Zongren led a small number of entourages to take off on the last special plane, first circled in the sky for two weeks, as if reluctant to part, and then flew towards Guilin. On the morning of the 23rd, the 35th Army received a telegram from Su Yu and Zhang Zhen at 24:00 on the 22nd: "If the enemy of Nanjing flees, the 35th Army should immediately cross the river and occupy Nanjing to maintain order and protect all public and private properties abandoned by the enemy. Pay attention to abide by the policy and strictly enforce city discipline.” The 35th Army had no task of crossing the river, nor did it have a boat in hand.After receiving the order, the whole army immediately got busy looking for ships everywhere. On the evening of the 23rd, the 35th Army began to cross the river.All the 35th Army arrived in Xiaguan overnight.After rectifying the military capacity, he began to enter the city to take over. April 24, 1949 is a date of historic significance. The 312th Regiment of the 104th Division of the 35th Army first entered the "Presidential Palace" and planted the red flag on the gate tower of the "Presidential Palace". On the second day after the liberation of Nanjing, there were crowds of people on both sides of Zhongshan Gate, red flags like forests, and gongs and drums shaking the sky.The students performed the Yangko dance and beat their waist drums, the workers held up slogans saying "It's dawn" and "Liberation", and firecrackers exploded in the air.