The Open Door

China's Communists conquered as fast as they could march. They met almost no Nationalist opposition. In the south, battle-hardened infantrymen under one-eyed Red General Liu Po-cheng had breached the green heights of the Wu Lin mountains, the last major range blocking the approaches to the Nationalists' capital at Canton. In the dusty reaches of the northwest, twelve armies under Communist General Peng Teh-huai had spilled to within 25 miles of the Kansu provincial capital ot Lanchow (see map).

"The big door to Canton is open," boasted headlines in Shanghai's Communist press. In sweltering Canton, Nationalist officials packed frantically to get out before the Communists arrived and shut the door. Their destination this time: the old wartime capital, Chungking. U.S. Charge d'Affaires Lewis Clark evacuated his staff to Hong Kong, announced that he would commute daily between the British colony and Canton--so long as Canton held. Few thought it would hold very long.

In less than a month the Communists had rolled southward across 250 miles of the flood-drenched lands of Kiangsi province. At the Kwangtung border, advance units of Liu Po-cheng's troops shook hands with leaders of Kwangtung Red guerrilla chieftains who already controlled more than half the province. Other Red troops to the southeast had walked into Foochow practically unopposed and swung south toward Amoy. With these two coastal strongholds in their hands, the Communists would be in a position to mount an attack on the island redoubt of Formosa, base of the two-months' Nationalist blockade of Shanghai and other coastal cities.

The Reds were particularly jubilant over their successes in the northwest. So far, the Moslem troops of General Ma Pufang, commander of the northwest, had retreated all the way from Sian without putting up serious resistance. But at Lanchow itself, with its vital Nationalist air terminus and motor road junctions, the Communists expected stiff resistance.

Two weeks ago Ma Pufang flew hastily to Canton to plead for an airdrop to supply him. He left his sg-year-old son, General Ma Chi-yuan, in command of the defense of Lanchow. At dinner there the next night, the slim, boyish general was asked if he would fight to defend the city. "Na shih yi ting ti" (That is definite), he declared earnestly. "Lanchow will never fall to the Communists..."

At week's end, General Ma Pufang flew back to Lanchow from Canton; his plea for supplies had gone unheeded. Two hours later, he abandoned Lanchow, headed west across the Yellow River bridge by truck for Sining. Like many another Nationalist general before him, Ma had made a quick personal decision: he would rather continue to be governor of his native Chinghai province than commander of a hopelessly beaten army.

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