By the beginning of 1950, the Plakal Army had grown to more than 5 million people, but interestingly, 2.8 million of the 5 million troops were reorganized from the Kuomintang troops that surrendered or revolted. The education and reform of these captives was an important part of the work of the PLA, and the Kuomintang captives after ideological reform recognized the PLA from the bottom of their hearts, and then took up arms again and aimed them at the Kuomintang army.
Chiang Kai-shek never dreamed that the troops he had painstakingly spent money to buy weapons and then asked American instructors to train were all sending soldiers to the People's Liberation Army, and they were all high-quality soldiers. At the end of the Liberation War, Chiang Kai-shek said bitterly: "What particularly saddens me is that many high-ranking generals who have been captured and cannot be generous, and many lower-ranking officers and men have been captured and incorporated into the People's Liberation Army to fight the Kuomintang army. ”
As for the question of captives, as early as the red army period, Chairman Mao implemented the corresponding policy, every time the captured soldiers were caught, the political department would publicize it, if they were willing to stay in the Red Army troops, they would stay, they were unwilling to pay some travel expenses to everyone, and they would be sent home by a farewell party.
On October 16, 1945, in the "Instructions of the Central Committee on the Handling of Prisoners of War", the "Instructions of the Central Committee on the Handling of Prisoners of War" for the first time clarified the captive policy that the PLA should implement during the War of Liberation, that is, all captured elite soldiers were fought for as much as possible, and most of the captured officers were not released, but handed over to the local government for supervision and education, so as not to continue to fight with our army after they returned. There was a certain gap between this captive policy and the period of the Red Army, and the purpose was to strengthen the strength of our army and weaken the strength of the Kuomintang army.
Many of the soldiers of the Kuomintang army have undergone strict training by AMERICAN advisers, among which artillery, tank troops, anti-aircraft artillery, engineers, automobile soldiers and other branches of the army are of high quality, and what the PLA lacks is the talent of the special forces. Therefore, special attention is paid to the treatment of this part of the captured personnel, and generally after capturing the artillery, engineers, air force, radio soldiers, military doctors, and veterinarians of the Kuomintang army, they will be educated and supplemented to various units.
The Plaster Also takes great care of the self-esteem of these captives, generally not calling them captives, but calling them "liberation fighters." In fact, most of these liberation fighters were also from poor backgrounds, and they were often beaten and scolded in the Kuomintang army, so it was easy to cultivate class feelings.
Through ideological and political work such as complaining about grievances, education, and meritorious service, the PLA has greatly enhanced the ideological consciousness of the liberation fighters, enabling them to understand who they are fighting for when they are soldiers and have found their own direction of struggle. Many generals of the People's Liberation Army actually like to use captives, because the military quality of these captives is very good. During the Battle of Menglianggu, the PLA captured more than 10,000 officers and men of the reorganized 74th Division.
Later, these captive soldiers were added to the People's Liberation Army, and these soldiers acknowledged their defeat, but they also pointed out some shortcomings that appeared in our army in combat, such as when the infantry squad attacked, it advanced in a column formation, the formation was too dense, and if shells fell in the middle, all three squads would suffer losses. When the attack of the troops was blocked, the soldiers did not know how to protect themselves, and the officers and men of the 74th Division would dig a simple lying hole on the spot after lying down, hide it and then shoot, and the officers and men of our army also improved their tactical level by learning from the captives.
The Battle of Huaihai was the largest of the three major battles, and it was also the one with the most tragic casualties, but Huaye and Nakano's troops fought more and more, such as the East China Field Army led by Su Yu, during the battle, Huaye suffered 105,000 casualties, accounting for 28.4% of the total troops. According to the Western "collapse point theory" of infantry warfare, when the casualties of the attacking troops reach 33%, the troops will collapse. However, instead of "collapsing", the troops under Su Yu's command fought continuously, fighting more and more courageously and fighting stronger and stronger, and by the end of the campaign, the strength of the army had increased to 551,000, and the additional part of the fighters were basically liberation fighters.
The reason why Hua Ye was able to do this was that they used the policy of "that is, capture, make up for it, teach and fight" in the war, and the various political departments of the People's Liberation Army let the liberation fighters see the darkness of the Kuomintang army through grievance education, and then treat them equally, give them hope, and let them see that following the PLA is promising.
During the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, the highest honor in the Kuomintang army was the "Guoguang Medal", followed by the "Qingtian White Sun Medal", and during the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, of the 172 Kuomintang soldiers who received the Guoguang Medal and the Qingtian White Sun Medal, 143 were officers above the rank of general, and the others were also school officers, only 3 lieutenants, and none of the soldiers. During the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, the Eighth Route Army and the New Fourth Army conferred the title of Heroic Model on 150 people, of whom 146 were commanders and fighters below the company level, and only 4 cadres at the battalion and regimental level were awarded the title of Heroic Model.
During the Battle of Huaihai, many of the Kuomintang soldiers captured during the battle against Huang Baitao became squad leaders, platoon leaders, and even company commanders when du Yuming was fought, and within the Kuomintang army, it was impossible to rise so quickly without currying favor with their superiors, which is why some soldiers were unwilling to give their lives in the Kuomintang army and fought desperately in the People's Liberation Army.
In addition to replenishing the soldiers of the Kuomintang army, the PLA also transformed the officers of the Kuomintang army. During the Liberation War, all major field armies set up a "PLA Officer Instruction Corps," which is only one word away from the "PLA Officers' Instruction Corps," but it is completely different. The reason for the name is also to take care of their emotions.
The captured Officers of the Kuomintang Army at and above the brigade level will be sent to the rear for key education, and the regimental and battalion-level cadres will remain in the major military regions for education, and after the education is completed, some elements will be enlisted in our army, and even the platoon-level officers will also undergo short-term training and be supplemented in the PLA.
After the large-scale implementation of this method of supplementing the liberation fighters in large numbers, the scale of the liberation fighters in the PlaK was also solved, and in the later stage of the liberation war, some squads, platoons and even all of them were liberation fighters, and the difference was only between the "old liberation" and the "new liberation", and the addition of these liberation fighters enriched the strength of the PEOPLE's Liberation Army. They have won national power for the CCP and made their own contributions to the cause of the liberation of the Chinese people.