In 1949, Chiang Kai-shek, seeing the fierce momentum of the PLA offensive, decided to make the southwest region the last position to reverse the situation, hoping to take advantage of the dangerous terrain in the southwest region to hinder the pace of the PLA's offensive and buy enough time for its subsequent counteroffensive.
Song Xilian, who was then the director of the Appeasement Office of the Sichuan-Xiang'e Border Region, was a very important military force for Chiang Kai-shek at this time. Chiang Kai-shek ordered Song Xilian to withdraw his troops from the Xiang and Sichuan regions in its entirety and re-enter Sichuan if necessary.
Song Xilian obeyed Chiang Kai-shek's orders and flew to Chongqing in August 1949 to ask Zhang Qun, the military and political commander of the southwest, for military supplies. However, on the third day of landing in Chongqing, he received an invitation from Hu Zongnan to fly to Hanzhong to meet with him.
It was at this meeting that Song Xilian proposed the Burma plan, and later he was captured by the People's Liberation Army, recalling this past, and his words were still full of regret that the Burma plan could not be implemented. What kind of plan is this? Can it really reverse the trend of the KMT's decline?
Song Xilian proposed the Burma plan
On August 11, 1949, Song Xilian arrived at the Hanzhong Military Airport by plane, and Hu Zongnan personally picked him up. Both Hu Zongnan and Song Xilian were very important concubines of Chiang Kai-shek, and Song Xilian was 11 years younger than Hu Zongnan, but they were on a par with each other in merit and official title.
At this time, almost all the southeastern provinces were liberated, and if Chiang Kai-shek could not hold the southwest, he would undoubtedly be defeated, and only Hu Zongnan still held hundreds of thousands of troops in his hands, becoming Chiang Kai-shek's only hope for counterattack.
Hu Zongnan found Song Xilian at this time because in addition to him, only Song Xilian had the elite troops left in Sichuan, although this elite was no longer what it used to be.
After the two of them got together, they had a long talk. According to Song Xilian's recollection, the two discussed three issues: whether the first and third world wars would break out in a short period of time, whether the Kuomintang and the People's Liberation Army would have enough certainty of victory in the decisive battle in Sichuan, and whether Chiang Kai-shek would be able to protect the southeast and Taiwan regions.
After the two exchanged views on these three issues, Song Xilian proposed his well-thought-out plan for Burma. He believed that with the current strength of the Kuomintang army, the decisive battle with the People's Liberation Army would be an egg touching a stone, and it would be better to preserve the strength and transfer the elite of the Hu and Song troops to western Yunnan, so that they would return from the counterattack in western Yunnan in the next day.
If Guizhou, Sichuan, and Yunnan could not hold on, then withdraw their troops to northern Burma. In order to smoothly implement the Burma plan, it is necessary to transfer heavy weapons and military supplies to the border of Yunnan and Burma before the People's Liberation Army attacks the southwest.
The reason why Song Xilian proposed such a plan was because he had been stationed in Yunnan for a long time during the War of Resistance Against Japan, and had participated in the battles in the region, and was familiar with the geographical location and customs of the Burma region, so the implementation of the Burma plan would also be handy, and it could be completed well without great effort.
Hu Zongnan shouted Gao Ming, and Chiang Kai-shek jumped like thunder
Unexpectedly, Hu Zongnan was overjoyed when he heard this plan, shouting that Song Xilian was too clever. For Hu Zongnan, preserving his strength at present is what he most hopes to do.
In the past major and small battles, Hu Zongnan was repeatedly defeated, and 43,000 people were lost in 5 days in the Battle of Fumei, so he himself lost confidence in fighting the People's Liberation Army in the northwest and could only hide in the Hanzhong region with the remnants.
At present, his troops have a total of 12 armies, and although the quality of the army is uneven, it is still a powerful military force in terms of numbers.
It was precisely because of Hu Zongnan's repeated defeats that Chiang Kai-shek was already dissatisfied with him, and it was not good to have a huge army in his hands at this time. Hu Zongnan hoped to preserve his strength first, so that Chiang Kai-shek would not be able to blame him, because if the entire army was destroyed in the duel with the People's Liberation Army, he would not have good fruit to eat if he fled to Taiwan with Chiang Kai-shek.
Transferring the troops to the Border of Yunnan and Burma has room to retain strength and counterattack, as long as the troops are there, Hu Zongnan can keep his position.
However, when Chiang Kai-shek met with Hu and Song, he heard that the Burma plan was thunderous and violently reprimanded the two. Chiang Kai-shek said that he must preserve the southwest, but he cannot save the southwest, and it is difficult to keep the islands along the southeast coast and Taiwan.
Hu and Song still insisted that the southwest would be difficult to defend, and although the number of troops still in Sichuan was considerable, they were all unreliable new armies and Sichuan troops, and there was no chance of victory with the People's Liberation Army in the decisive battle in Sichuan.
Chiang Kai-shek's face was sullen, but he could only suppress his anger, and he said that he would immediately form the Twentieth Corps and classify it as a subordinate of Song Xilian to stabilize Song Xilian. According to the promise, Chiang Kai-shek did give Song Xilian the command of the corps, but in fact, Song Xilian found himself to be an empty shell commander, and the commander of the corps still reported directly to Chiang Kai-shek.
Song Xilian had no choice but to abandon the Burma plan, while Hu Zongnan was bitterly criticized by Chiang Kai-shek, believing that he had a large army but only wanted to retreat to preserve his strength. Because of Chiang Kai-shek's insistence, the Two died prematurely before the Burma plan was implemented.
The Burmese plan looks beautiful
Hu Zongnan and Song Xilian actually made plans for the follow-up plan of withdrawing their troops to the Border of Yunnan and Burma. They all believed that the Burma plan was the best option at present, with 300,000 troops withdrawn to Burma, and if there was a war with the Burmese army, it would be completely out of the question to defeat the Burmese army.
In order to smoothly withdraw more than 300,000 troops, the two men thought out the plan of action: Hu Zongnan transferred an army to southern Sichuan, song Xilian transferred a division to Luzhou, and once the decisive battle was unfavorable, they could rely on southern Sichuan and Luzhou to smoothly withdraw the main force to western Yunnan. But in fact, the Burma plan is only beautiful.
First of all, the 300,000 troops of Hu and Song were all withdrawn to western Yunnan, and there would certainly be attrition. And 300,000 troops do not participate in the decisive battle but retreat and flee, will make the People's Liberation Army liberate the southwestern provinces faster, from the Hu and Song troops marching speed, execution ability, can smoothly withdraw to western Yunnan Kuomintang army will not be a complete 300,000.
Secondly, more than 300,000 troops retreated, and the supply along the road was a big problem. Even if they are withdrawn to northern Burma, the survival of more than 300,000 troops is a very serious problem, and it is simply impossible to rely on Taiwan to provide supplies to feed so many troops.
Finally, if the Burma plan is implemented, it will inevitably cause an uproar in the international community. Li Guohui, the former commander of the Kuomintang Army, withdrew to the Golden Triangle with more than 1,000 people, and later expanded to more than 10,000 people, which was strongly opposed by the United States, demanding that Chiang Kai-shek transport the remnants of the army back to Taiwan. More than 300,000 troops are gathered in northern Myanmar, and international public opinion will also let the Platon Army send troops to solve the problem.
brief summary:
On December 19, 1949, Song Xilian was captured, and many years later he recalled: If 300,000 people had been evacuated to Burma at that time, the consequences would have been really serious. The so-called "very serious" should be from the perspective of Jiang Jun, which shows that he still regrets that this plan has not been implemented.
But in fact, those who win the hearts and minds of the people win the world, and the PEOPLE's Liberation Army can liberate most of China's provinces so quickly, so that Chiang Kai-shek's army will eventually flee to Taiwan in a hurry. What Hu Zongnan, Song Xilian, and Chiang Kai-shek and others did was more based on personal interests, so they were bound to fail.