What is history: it is the echo of the past to the future, the reflection of the future on the past. - Hugo
In the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression after 1937, Chiang Kai-shek used the strength of the whole country (including troops, manpower and material resources) to resist the Japanese attack, but the army was defeated like a mountain, the Songhu War of Resistance failed, the Nanjing Defense War failed, the Taiyuan Defense War failed, the Wuhan Defense War failed, the Changsha Defense War failed, the Hengyang Defense War failed, and the Guilin Defense War failed.
Why?
Chairman Mao later had a passage sufficient to explain the cause of his defeat:
"As far as I know, there is no valuable military book, any relatively intelligent military expert, and no matter whether ancient or modern, Chinese or foreign, whether strategic or tactical, there is no one who does not oppose passive defense. Only the stupidest, or the most arrogant, hold up passive defense as a magic weapon. However, there are such people in the world who do such things. This is a mistake in the war, a military manifestation of conservatism. We should resolutely oppose it. ”
In short, the reason for Chiang Kai-shek's great defeat in the great battle is 4 words: passive defense.
So, how do you play an active defense? Mao Zedong's magic weapon is 18 words:
"Offense in defense, quick decision in persistence, outside in the inside."
During the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, the Eighth Route Army and the New Fourth Army led by the CPC used these 18 characters as guidelines to take the initiative in the war against Japan, defeated the strong with the weak and the big with the small, gained a firm foothold behind the enemy, expanded the ranks, gained territory, won the masses, and strengthened themselves, and the army developed from about 100,000 before the outbreak of the all-out War of Resistance to a million troops.
Therefore, some people say that in the War of Resistance Against Japan, Chiang Kai-shek lost in 4 words, and Mao Zedong was better than 18 words.
It is precisely because of the active defense of the 18 characters that the Eighth Route Army and the New Fourth Army have become the mainstay of the Chinese people's War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression in an environment of being enemies on all sides, and have become the hope of the whole people's War of Resistance, so hundreds of millions of people have gathered under the banner of the CCP like a great river to the east and become their followers.