1948, "The Eve of the End of the Civil War" by an American photographer

Mukden (present-day Shenyang), the hub and industrial center that controlled the situation in northern China, had been decimated by food shortages. A group of Nationalist soldiers conducted a military exercise outdoors in temperatures of more than 30 degrees below zero to show that they were ready to defend the city. Ten months later, however, with almost no single shot, the city changed hands.

This series of photographs is from the American photographer Jack Burns' photo book "The Eve of the End of the Civil War", taken in Mukden (Shenyang) in January 1948.