After the end of the three major battles, the Kuomintang lost control of the north of the Yangtze River, and the Central Army, which was regarded by Chiang Kai-shek as the backbone of the party-state, was basically exhausted. Even within the Kuomintang, the situation is changing. The Guangxi clique headed by Bai Chongxi and Li Zongren is always ready to launch a political offensive against Chiang Kai-shek and force him to step down.
Moreover, relying solely on the troops of local warlords, it was completely impossible to block the People's Liberation Army, which had strong centripetal force, so at that time, Chiang Kai-shek had already begun to consider a retreat. After a series of discussions, he decided to retreat to Taiwan after the mainland was completely defeated.
So why did Chiang Kai-shek choose Taiwan? In fact, Taiwan was not the only option at that time. As early as the end of the three major battles, Chiang Kai-shek held a secret meeting with the participation of high-level government officials. The focus of this meeting was: How should the Kuomintang continue to resist when the People's Liberation Army will inevitably cross the river?
There is no doubt that the situation was already very bad at this time. All the elite troops were lost, and the Yangtze River could not stop the People's Liberation Army at all. Nanjing was right on the edge of the Yangtze River, so the Kuomintang's core ruling area with Nanjing as the center could not be saved, and escape seemed to be the only option.
At that time, Chiang Kai-shek's confidants proposed three options. The first was to retreat to Sichuan, the second was to move the capital to Hainan, and the third was to run to Taiwan. Each of these three options had its own advantages and disadvantages.
First of all, retreating to Sichuan is what most senior KMT military and political personnel are willing to accept. After all, during the Anti-Japanese War, the Kuomintang also fought a protracted tug-of-war with the Japanese with Chongqing as its capital and the southwest as its depth.
And since ancient times, once something happens to the Central Plains dynasty, the rulers also like to go to Sichuan first to avoid the trouble, and then make a comeback. After all, Sichuan itself is a region with a long history, a large population, rich arable land, and is surrounded by natural dangers, making it easy to defend but difficult to attack.
It's just that after careful consideration, Chiang Kai-shek finally did not choose to retreat to Sichuan. This was mainly because the situation at that time was no longer satisfactory and he retreated to Sichuan.
During the Anti-Japanese War, the Nationalist Government was able to build a defense system with Chongqing as its capital and Southwest China as its core, mainly because it was fighting the Japanese invaders at that time. As a legal regime widely recognized by the international community, the Nationalist Government could receive unanimous support from the whole country.
However, during the Liberation War, the Kuomintang had basically lost the support of the people. Even if they retreated to Sichuan, it would be difficult to gather strength. Moreover, Sichuan itself was still within the control of large and small warlords at that time...
During the Anti-Japanese War, these warlords could obey the command of the Kuomintang government in the face of national justice. However, when the Kuomintang was gone, Chiang Kai-shek was not sure what choices these local warlords would make. Therefore, the retreat to Sichuan was not reliable, at least in Chiang Kai-shek's opinion.
As for retreating to Hainan Island , it is actually better to escape to Sichuan, because Hainan at that time was not the tourist destination it is now, and its economy was developing very well. Before liberation, Hainan Island's development level was very poor, its economic foundation was extremely weak, and even local arable land was extremely scarce.
In other words, if Chiang Kai-shek ran to Hainan with hundreds of thousands or millions of troops, it would be difficult to survive for a long time. Moreover, although Hainan is isolated from the mainland, it is only separated from the mainland by the Qiongzhou Strait . Even if the People's Liberation Army's maritime strength was not strong at the time, it was relatively simple to cross the Qiongzhou Strait.
Judging from the subsequent situation of the Liberation War, we did not spend much effort when liberating Hainan Island, so no matter how you look at it, Hainan is quite difficult to hold. Therefore, under such circumstances, the famous geographer Zhang Qiyun gave Chiang Kai-shek an idea: We can run to Taiwan.
First of all, from a geographical point of view, there is a Taiwan Strait across Taiwan and the mainland. The strait is relatively long. At that time, when the People's Liberation Army's naval strength was basically zero, it was difficult to transport a large number of troops across the Taiwan Strait by relying on earthen ships.
Moreover, the U.S. naval fleet often patrols nearby. As long as the Kuomintang authorities can get support from the United States and allow the U.S. Navy to intervene, it will become very difficult for the People's Liberation Army to eliminate the remaining Kuomintang forces in Taiwan. Facts have proved that the Taiwan issue later became a historical issue due to the intervention of the US 7th Fleet.
Moreover, Taiwan had already achieved initial development at that time. During the Japanese occupation, although the Japanese invaders severely persecuted the local residents on the island, they also established some rudimentary industrial production systems .
Moreover, our party does not have much revolutionary foundation in Taiwan. In other words, as long as Chiang Kai-shek retreats to Taiwan, it will be easy to achieve the purpose of consolidating local power, and it will also be easier to receive support and assistance from the United States. So in the end Chiang Kai-shek decided to flee to Taiwan when necessary, and later sent his confidant Chen Cheng to run Taiwan.
Chen Cheng was one of the top military and political leaders of the Kuomintang whom Chiang Kai-shek trusted most, and he was always known as the "little chairman" within the Kuomintang party. He himself was very loyal to Chiang Kai-shek and did not choose to leave when Chiang Kai-shek was in greatest danger. Moreover, although Chen Cheng is not good at fighting, he is a rare first-class strategist and politician within the Kuomintang.
Everyone knows that Chen Cheng does not know how to command the military, and letting him command the front-line troops will definitely not end well. But during the War of Liberation, Chiang Kai-shek sent him to command in the Northeast, but he was eventually defeated by Lin Biao and could only defend a few isolated cities. Later, he was asked to lead the army in Shandong, but he was beaten so hard by Su Yu that he couldn't even find his home.
But despite this, Chen Cheng's strategic vision is still quite sophisticated. As early as the Anti-Japanese War, he proposed the theory of "protracted war" and gave specific strategic guidelines.
That is: through a series of small and medium-sized battles, the focus of the Japanese army's attack was changed from the south to the west, relying on the complex terrain in the northwest region to delay the Japanese attack layer by layer and wear down the Japanese. Later history also tells us that this is indeed a good strategy.
In addition, Chen Cheng is also a good man in training troops and building infrastructure. After he was sent to Taiwan, he quickly implemented martial law measures. The Guangxi warlords headed by Bai Chongxi and Li Zongren also wanted to intervene in Taiwan's government affairs, but they were unable to succeed because of Chen Cheng's strict defense.
After Chiang Kai-shek was forced to flee to Taiwan, Taiwan had been run by Chen Cheng into an "iron barrel". In addition to complete industrial facilities, a large number of combat readiness facilities have also been built, which laid a solid foundation for the remnants of the Kuomintang to eventually establish themselves in Taiwan. However, the situation is gradually changing, and I believe that sooner or later, Taiwan will return to the embrace of the motherland.
