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KMT Warlord and military commander Li Zongren hoped to hold southern China by making a stand at the Yangzi River. The Yangtze is the major river floing through central China, seprasting the north and south. Li tried to negotiate with Mao. Mao had no intention of negotiating having defeated the principal KMT field armies. He insisted on his eight-point surrender program. Li Zongren refused the ultimatum. The British ordered the Amethyst frigate up the Yangzi to Nanjing to evcuate their embassy. PLA forces fired on it killing 17 sailors (April 7, 1949). Other British ships aempted to reach Nanking, but were unable to do so., Mao ordred the PLA to cross the Yangzi (April 21). With many if the strongest KMT units destoyed in the northern fighing, the PLA swept south. KMT resistance collapsed. The PLA quickly took Nationalist-controlled cities and with each victory they gaining increasing popular support. The PLA enter Nanking (April 23). The LA took Hangzhou, Shanghai, Nanchang, and Wuhan with little fighting (May). Shanghai on the Yangziwas was China's principal port and the business and commercial center of China and the major prize in the Civil War. Yan Xishan in Shanxi tried to hold on to his power by using thousands of Japanese troops that had not been repstristed. The PLA entered Taiyuan (April). He set fire to the prison holding Communist prisoners and then committed suicide. Peng Dehuai led a PLA Army west and took Xi’an defended by a Muslim general from Gansu. He then entered Lanzhou (August) before moving into Xinjiang. Lin Biao’s forces captured Changsha (August) as the Communists took control of Hunan, Hubei, and Fujian. As the PLA swept south, CPC operatives rounded up and summrily excuted those they saw as enemies. Guangzhou fell to the Communits (October 13) The PLA occupied Guizhou and Sichuan (November). The remiming KMT forces defended Xiamen as more Nationalists fled to Taiwan. Xiamen fell (December 9). KMT forces held out for a time in southwest China.
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