Zheng Dongguo

As part of the much greater Liaoshen Campaign, Communist forces led by Lin Biao, in the areas surrounding Changchun, cut off roads, railways, and other routes of entry and egress to the Northeast, and cordoned off the city of Changchun itself. Though not surrounded by an ancient city wall, owing to the modernity of the city, the garrison had constructed, with the help of conscripted civilian labor a large moat, eight feet deep and twelve feet wide in 1947. The defenders, veterans of many campaigns against communist and Japanese forces, were considered crack-troops. Lin Biao deemed an assault on the city was deemed too costly and dangerous. Instead, communist forces decided to conduct a siege of the city, while preparing ambushes and traps for any Nationalist relief columns, using the city as bait.

Zheng Dongguo (Chinese: 鄭洞國; pinyin: Zhèng Dòngguó; Wade–Giles: Cheng Tung-kuo) was a field commander in the Republic of China National Revolutionary Army. He took part in the Second Sino-Japanese War, and was active in southern China and in the Burma theatre of the war, drawing troops from Yunnan. After the Japanese surrender in 1945, he was an important commander in the Chinese Civil War serving under Du Yuming and Chen Cheng in Manchuria.

From 1945–47 Zhang Dongguo served as a commander of Nationalist forces in Northeast China led by Lieutenant General Du Yuming participating in several significant victories against Communist forces there, including Du Yuming's defeat of the Communist general Lin Biao twice at Siping. After Chiang Kai-shek ordered Du Yuming's replacement by Chen Cheng, Zheng's and his troops were transferred under Chen's command. Chen was not as capable as Du, and Communist forces led by Lin Biao quickly took control of the region in 1948, surrounding Zheng's troops garrisoned inside the city of Changchun.

After destroying or thwarting several Nationalist relief columns, communist troops made overtures to the defenders, enticing them to surrender, but these were unsuccessful. Mao Zedong decided that the city would fall once the defenders had been weakened sufficiently. Famine was used by the communists during the siege in order to force the defending nationalist troops to capitulate; estimates range as high as 330,000. Communist forces allowed Nationalist soldiers to leave, but prevented civilians from doing so, going so far as to force them back into the city at gun-point. Many civilians starved to death at the city limits in front of communist forces as a result. The siege would last for 150 days, and resulted in the deaths from starvation of approximately 80 percent of the civilian population. When the 60th Army and New 7th Army surrendered, only 40,000 survivors remained by the time Zheng gave the order.