Mount Ararat after these had vanished from the popular mind, that the Armenian theologians ventured to locate on its eternal snows the resting-place of Noah's ark." The 13th century Franciscan missionary William of Rubruck is usually considered the earliest reference for the tradition of Mount Ararat as the landing place of the ark in European literature. The 14th century English traveler John Mandeville is another early author who mentioned Mount Ararat, "where Noah's ship rested, and it is still there." Most Christians identify Mount Ararat with the biblical "mountains of Ararat," despite the fact that six other landing places have been proposed,
Campaign in the Eastern Foothills of the Funiu Mountains new bases. To carry out this strategy, Chen Geng (陈赓) and Xie Fuzhi decided to launch the Campaign in the Eastern Foothills of the Funiu Mountains. Both sides were equally matched in terms of numbers, but the nationalists enjoyed significant technical advantage in terms of weaponry. The campaign started on October 29, 1947 with the communist 55th Division of the 38th Army deployed along the Longhai Railroad to tie down the nationalist forces, and the rest units of the communist 38th Army and the 12th Brigade of the communist 4th Column struck toward southern Shaanxi. The rest units of the