ON THIS DAY ·
Yangtze River Crossing campaign
20–21 Apr 1949 — Once peace terms lapsed, a million men crossed the Yangtze in junks and sampans over two nights, along a 500-km front. Nanjing fell on the 23rd. The war’s last great natural line had been crossed almost without pause, and the Nationalist army south of it existed mostly on paper.
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The moment in context
The Yangtze was the Nationalists’ next line of defense, but the armies that might have held it had been broken in the three campaigns. After peace terms lapsed, roughly a million Communist troops crossed on junks and sampans along a front of some 500 kilometers. The crossing began on the night of 20–21 April 1949 (the ✕) and met little resistance. Nanjing fell on 23 April. Its government had left, and soldiers photographed one another sitting in the presidential chair.
From Communist victory in China (1949), chapter 12 of China in Revolution, 1911–1949 (1949).
The place: Yangtze River Crossing campaign — map and full story →
Teach this in 5 minutes
- Why it happened — The war against Japan. In 1937 the CCP had about 40,000 survivors in the loess hills. By 1945 it claimed a million troops and some 90 million people under some form of…
- The turn — Tiananmen, 1 October 1949. The ceremony at Tiananmen gave a visible form to a transfer of power won through years of conflict. At the old gate on 1 October 1949, the new flag…
- What it changed — Governing after victory. After victory came the work of governing. In the following years the new state unified currency, suppressed inflation and pursued land reform on a…
Then ask the room: Why did Mao win and Chiang lose, and was Communist victory inevitable after Japan surrendered? The argued answer is on the chapter page →
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