ON THIS DAY ·
Surrender of Beiping
31 Jan 1949 — After Tianjin fell in 29 hours, General Fu Zuoyi’s encircled position was hopeless. He negotiated: the garrison marched out and the PLA marched in. The old capital, with its palaces and universities, changed hands without a shell; in October it would become the capital again.
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The moment in context
In the autumn of 1948 the Nationalist armies in Manchuria faced a choice about their escape route. The railway through Jinzhou (the ✕) connected the northeast with China proper. Communist commanders made that junction the object of the Liaoshen campaign, rather than attacking every opposing force in turn. Jinzhou fell in thirty-one hours in October, leaving roughly half a million government troops cut off. Within weeks the trapped armies surrendered or defected, and Manchuria, contested since 1945, turned red. Twenty-one years after Nanchang, the Communists had the larger and better-equipped army.
From Liaoshen, Huaihai and Pingjin campaigns, chapter 11 of China in Revolution, 1911–1949 (1948).
The place: Surrender of Beiping — map and full story →
Teach this in 5 minutes
- Why it happened — How encirclement worked. Lin Biao, Su Yu and Liu Bocheng had spent years fighting a stronger opponent. They learned to move their forces and choose where to fight. At…
- The turn — Jinzhou, October 1948. The railway through Jinzhou was the route between Manchuria and China proper. Communist forces took the junction in thirty-one hours in October…
- What it changed — The Yangtze line. The Yangtze remained between the Communist armies and the south, and troops and negotiations still stood in the way of a crossing. Yet the…
Then ask the room: Did Communist skill or Nationalist collapse decide the three campaigns, and how far can we separate them? The argued answer is on the chapter page →
The atlas that shows it
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