Lesson 1: Two news items

Unit 1 News Reading

Lesson 1: Two news items

Mao Zedong

My 300,000-strong army triumphantly crossed the Yangtze River to the south

(April 22, 1949)

Xinhua News Agency, Yangtze River Front, 22.02 p.m. - The heroic People's Liberation Army has crossed the Yangtze River on the 21st with about 300,000 men. The battle for the crossing began at midnight on the 20th, between Wuhu and Anqing. The Kuomintang reactionaries had been operating the Yangtze River line for three and a half months, but when they met the People's Liberation Army, they seemed to have destroyed it, and the army had no will to fight and retreated. In less than 24 hours, 300,000 People's Liberation Army broke through the enemy's line and occupied a large area on the south bank, and are now advancing to Fanchang, Tongling, Qingyang, Digang and Lugang. The People's Liberation Army is resolutely carrying out the order of Chairman Mao and Commander-in-Chief Zhu with heroic battles of its own.

The People's Liberation Army crosses the Yangtze River with millions of troops

(April 22, 1949)

Xinhua News Agency, Yangtze River Front, 22:22 p.m. (April 22, 1949) - The People's Liberation Army (PLA), with millions of troops, has broken through the enemy line and crossed the Yangtze River from a front of more than 1,000 miles. From Jiujiang (not included) in the west to Jiangyin in the east are the areas where the People's Liberation Army crossed the river. From the night of the twentieth, the Middle Army of the People's Liberation Army on the north bank of the Yangtze River first broke through the Anqing and Wuhu lines and crossed to Fanchang, Tongling, Qingyang, Digang and Lugang areas, and within twenty-four hours, 300,000 people had been crossed. From 5:00 p.m. on the 21st, our West Road Army began to cross the river at the Jiujiang and Anqing section. Until the time of power generation, the road of three hundred and fifty thousand people's liberation army has crossed two-thirds, the rest of the 23 days can be finished. This road has now occupied the vast south bank positions on the line of Gui Chi, Yin Jiahui, Dongliu, Zhide and Pengze, and is expanding southward. Like the enemy encountered in the middle army, the enemy in front of my west army has also collapsed, no fighting spirit, our army encountered resistance, very weak. On the one hand, the People's Liberation Army was brave and good at fighting, and on the other hand, it had a lot to do with the refusal of the Kuomintang reactionaries to sign the peace agreement. The Kuomintang officers and soldiers unanimously wanted peace and did not want to fight anymore, and were very discouraged to hear that Nanjing refused to make peace. The war criminal Tang Enbo went to Wuhu on the 21st to supervise the war, but it did not work in the slightest. Tang Enbo thought that the defenses of Nanjing and Jiangyin were very solid, and that the weakness only existed in the line of Nanjing and Jiujiang. Unexpectedly it was the day Tang Enbo arrived at Wuhu that the eastern defensive line was broken by our army again. Our 350,000 troops on the east side launched the river crossing operation at the same time as the west side on the same day. All the planned plans had been realized. By the time the power was generated, most of our eastern armies had crossed the south bank, and the remainder could be finished on the 23rd. The enemy's resistance here was relatively stubborn, but during the fierce battle from the afternoon of 21 to the afternoon of 22, I had destroyed and routed all the resisting enemies, occupied a large area in Yangzhong, Zhenjiang, and Jiangyin counties, and controlled the Jiangyin fortress and blocked the Yangtze River. The front of our army had already cut off the railway line of Zhenjiang and Wuxi.