People’s War of Liberation Shifts to the Stage of Strategic Offensive

For the first time, the revolutionary armed forces led by the CPC have achieved comprehensive superiority in the military struggle against the KMT troops. On June 30, 1947, under the leadership of Liu Bocheng and Deng Xiaoping, 120,000 troops of the Shanxi-Hebei-Shandong-Henan Field Army crossed the Yellow River in Southwest Shandong Province, made a key breakthrough and leaped thousands of miles into the Dabie Mountains, thus opened the prelude of the strategic offensive of the People's Liberation Army.

On June 26, 1946, the KMT began an all-out attack on the Liberated Areas, and the War of Liberation began in full swing. The People's Liberation Army, after a year of fighting on the internal front, made a significant change in the overall war situation.

In July 1947, the total strength of the KMT army was reduced from 4.3 million at the beginning of the war to 3.73 million, of which the regular army saw a decrease from 2 million to 1.5 million. The People's Liberation Army, on the other hand, experienced rapid growth in strength, with a total force of 1.95 million, including more than 1 million regular troops, all of whom could be used for mobile operations, and with much improved equipment and more experience in combat.

Great changes took place in the balance of strength between the People's Liberation Army and the KMT army. The time was ripe to shift from internal operations to external operations and from strategic defense to strategic attack.

The CPC Central Committee timely analyzed and formulated the main directions of the strategic offensive: Liu Bocheng and Deng Xiaoping led the main force of the Shanxi-Hebei-Shandong-Henan Field Army to leap a thousand miles into Dabie Mountain; Chen Geng and Xie Fuzhi led the Taiyue Corps of the Shanxi-Hebei-Shandong-Henan Field Army to advance into Western Henan; Chen Yi and Su Yu led the East China Field Army to fight in Henan, Anhui and Jiangsu. The three armies penetrated deep into the areas ruled by the KMT and launched mobile operations on the outer line. They launched a strategic attack on the KMT army in the vast Central Plains, South of the Yellow River, North of the Yangtze River, starting from the Han River in the West and reaching the coast in the East. The war situation changed from passive defense to active offence.

The shift of the People's Liberation War to a strategic offensive was an important indicator of the remarkable change in the balance of the forces of the enemy and us. It is also the first time that the revolutionary armies led by the CPC achieved a comprehensive advantage in the struggle for military power, which created the conditions for a strategic showdown and the rapid arrival of the liberation of all China.