to abandon Xuzhou, then Japanese military took control of the city. The Administrative Commission of the Su-Huai Special Region () was established in January 1942, with its seat at Xuzhou. It was replaced by a new puppet province, Huaihai (). Hao Pengju was appointed as the governor. After the Second Sino-Japanese War, the troop under He Zhuguo entered Xuzhou on 6 September. The Xuzhou Pacification Commission () was founded in the end of year, and Gu Zhutong was appointed as the Chief. It was disbanded when the Army Command Headquarters of transferred to Xuzhou on 5 March 1947. Meantime, a military tribunal attached to the commission was organized to sentence 25 Japanese soldiers. Guo Yingqiu as the representative of the CPC went to Xuzhou to negotiate a regional truce, since 10 February 1946. On 2 March, the "Committee of Three", comprising George Marshall, Zhang Zhizhong and Zhou Enlai arrived for the ceasefire in Central China. Still, the KMT and the CPC came into conflict soon. The CPC revealed that Yasuji Okamura assisted the KMT in the local warfare against the PLA. The Huaihai was the a critical of the trinity of the major campaigns during the Chinese Civil War. Fighting centred around the city of Xuzhou, seat of the Bandit Suppression Headquarters () established on 6 June 1948. It turned into a fiasco, which led to the fall of the Nationalist Chinese capital Nanjing. The CPC controlled the city on 1 December. Then Xuzhou (the old urban area) was made a part of Shandong province temporarily, together with the rest area of the northern Jiangsu along the Longhai Railway. The city was returned to Jiangsu as the province was restored in 1953. The railways in Xuzhou bore the brunt of the transporting muddle in the 1970s, Beijing was concerned with the issue in 1974. Thus, the then Minister of Railways, Wan Li went to Xuzhou to inspect and rectify in March. It was deemed as a breakthrough on restoring order later. On April 22, 1993, Xuzhou was ratified as a "Larger Municipality" with legislative power by the State Council. Administration The evolutionary history The present administrative division The prefecture-level city of Xuzhou administers ten county-level divisions, including five districts, two county-level cities and three counties. These are further divided into 161 township-level divisions, including 63 subdistricts and 98 towns. Geography Xuzhou is of strategic importance for linking South China and