History

In November 1948 a hundred and ten thousand of Chiang Kai-shek’s best troops were sealed inside a pocket at Shuangduiji. The army that closed the ring had almost no artillery. It had oil drums, shovels, and twenty-three days. This is the story of the battle that decided the Huaihai campaign.

On the night of 20 April 1949, nine thousand wooden boats left the north bank of the Yangtze, and three days later the capital had fallen. On the same morning a British warship came up the river and was driven onto a shoal. This is the story of the crossing that ended a civil war, and of the last foreign gunboat on the Yangtze.

In 1449 a Ming emperor rode north at the head of two hundred thousand men. A month later he was a prisoner, the army was gone, and enemy cavalry were riding on the capital. This is the story of the disaster at Tumu, and of the civil servant who refused to let a dynasty run.