A million People's Liberation Army soldiers crossed the Yangtze River on April 21, 1949, to overthrow the Kuomintang government.

On Sunday, August 1, a ferryboat famous for its brave performance in that campaign was launched once again on the Yangtze to celebrate Army Day.

The ceremony took place at the Guannan Shipping Company in Jiangsu Province.

In early 1949, after numerous military setbacks in northeast and central China, the KMT government was on the verge of falling. The Communist Party of China was able to seize control of the north and focus on the war south of the Great Wall. On April 1, KMT peace negotiators flew to Beiping, as Beijing was then known. But the talks broke up just a day later, and the CPC outlined its plan for the Nanjing-Shanghai-Hangzhou Campaign.

On April 21, Mao Zedong and General Zhu De ordered a million PLA troops to cross the Yangtze River and launch an attack on the KMT army, the first stage of the campaign. By the evening of April 23, the PLA had crossed the river and on the morning of the second day, the advance troops had seized Nanjing, the seat of the KMT government. A red flag was hoisted over the gate of Chiang Kai-Shek's presidential palace.

The wooden ferry was the PLA's primary naval weapon in the assault on Nanjing. With supporting laborers sailing the vessel, the vanguard of 100 PLA troops landed on the south bank of the Yangtze. As the fighting progressed, the ferry carried more than 1,400 troops across the river, including Deng Xiaoping and Chen Yi.

The entire campaign lasted 42 days. Some 430,000 KMT troops were eliminated, while the PLA suffered 60,000 casualties. Major cities such as Nanjing, Shanghai and Wuhan were liberated, as well as the adjacent provinces. The campaign sounded the knell of the KMT government.

Shanghai's Shenbaoji Shipping Company built the 23-meter-long, 49-ton ferry in 1925. In the half-century plus since its days of glory in battle, it had grown old, dilapidated and full of rust.

To preserve this precious historical artifact, experts began working to restore the ferry to its original appearance last year. After nine months of work, the veteran ferryboat was re-launched with full military honors. 

(China.org.cn by Li Liangdu, August 1, 2004)