Before the outbreak of the Liberation War, the total strength of the National Army was 4.3 million, the sea, land and air were complete, and the total strength of the People's Liberation Army was 1.27 million, without the air force and navy, and the weapons and equipment were not as good as those of the opponents. Because of this, the nationalist army was full of confidence, and the old Chiang Kai-shek even boldly said that the war could be ended in just one year. However, the course of the Liberation War was greatly unexpected, and in just over three years, he was defeated. There are many reasons why Lao Jiang lost the Liberation War, but as far as the Nationalist Army is concerned, these four big men are to blame, namely Hu Zongnan, Chen Cheng, Liu Zhi and Bai Chongxi.
Let's start with Hu Zongnan. Hu Zongnan was born in poverty, only began to study private school at the age of 8, after graduating from middle school, he worked as a primary school teacher in his hometown for many years, and later went to Guangzhou with the financial support of friends to apply for the Whampoa Military Academy. However, because he was less than 1 meter 6 tall, he was brushed off during the physical examination. Thanks to Liao Zhongkai's help, he was admitted to the first phase of Huangpu. After that, Hu Zongnan went straight up, and the promotion speed was unmatched, creating a number of firsts in the Huangpu department.
The reason why Hu Zongnan was promoted so quickly, in addition to being a fellow countryman with Lao Jiang, was that he was extremely loyal to Lao Jiang. Let's take an example and you will understand. In 1927, the old Chiang went down for the first time under the pressure of the Gui clan, and many generals left him. Just when Old Jiang lamented that the world was cold, Hu Zongnan never abandoned it, and also went to contact old Jiang in many ways. This act of sending charcoal in the snow completely won the trust of Old Jiang, and began to cultivate him as a confidant of the concubine, and since then, he has gone straight up.
After the outbreak of the Liberation War, Hu Zongnan led more than 300,000 troops to fight against Peng Dehuai in the great northwest. At that time, Peng Dehuai only had more than 30,000 troops in his hands, less than one-tenth of Hu Zongnan's, and his weapons and equipment were incomparable. However, Hu Zongnan's military ability was too poor, and he was not Peng Dehuai's opponent at all, and he was eventually defeated in the great northwest. Later, he was defeated in Sichuan and Xikang. After fleeing to Taiwan, he was jointly impeached by 46 "Supervision Commissioners," who held that Hu Zongnan "should bear heavy responsibility" for the defeat of the Nationalist army. Thanks to the elder Jiang Libao, Hu Zongnan escaped a disaster, but was no longer reused, and Hu Zongnan died of illness in 1962 at the age of 66.
Let's talk about Chen Cheng. Chen Cheng is also a fellow of the old Jiang, graduating from the 8th phase of the Baoding Military Academy. When he applied for the Baoding Military Academy that year, Chen Cheng's written test results were very poor, and he simply could not meet the admission requirements. With the help of du zhiyuan, a fellow villager who served as a member of parliament, he entered the military academy in the name of preparing students. After graduating from the Baoding Military Academy, Chen Cheng followed Deng Yanda as a captain and company commander. After the establishment of the Whampoa Military Academy, under the recommendation of Deng Yanda, Chen Cheng became an instructor in artillery science, began to contact the old Chiang Kai-shek, and gradually became his confidant.
In the Jiang-Gui War and the Central Plains War, Chen Cheng performed prominently and was promoted to the commander of the 18th Army, laying the foundation for his position as the boss of the civil engineering department. After the outbreak of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, Chen Cheng held important positions many times, becoming the second most important person in the Kuomintang after chiang kai-shek, known as the "small committee chairman." After the outbreak of the Liberation War, Chen Cheng, as chief of staff, successively supervised the battle in Zhengzhou, Xuzhou, Jinan, and Zhangjiakou. However, due to their limited military skills, the fighting in these areas ended in defeat.
In order to save face, Chen Cheng used means to squeeze Du Yuming out and went to the northeast to preside over the war, but this time the defeat was even worse, and more than 69,000 people were eliminated by the People's Liberation Army in just 50 days. Chen Cheng not only did not review his own command mistakes, but instead pushed the responsibility to the subordinates, and as a result, he committed public anger, and finally left the northeast in ashes, leaving a mess for Wei Lihuang to clean up. Because their performance on the battlefield was so poor, many "NPC deputies" attributed the responsibility for the loss of the northeast to Chen Cheng, calling for "killing Chen Cheng to thank the people of the country." Old Chiang Kai-shek lost the War of Liberation, and Chen Cheng's responsibility was really not small.
Having said Chen Cheng, let's look at Liu Zhi again. Although Liu Zhi's performance in the Liberation War was very bad, he was an out-and-out fierce man in his early days. During the Northern Expedition, Liu Zhi defeated Sun Chuanfang twice in Nanchang and Longtan, and his reputation rose to fame; during the Jiang-Gui War, he led his troops to defeat the Gui general Hu Zongduo in one fell swoop, and the soldiers occupied Wuhan without bloodshed, making the first contribution to jiang-gui's victory over the Jiang-Gui War; during the Jiang-Tang War, he defeated Tang Shengzhi's main force in one fell swoop and made another miracle in the Battle of the Central Plains; in the Battle of the Central Plains, he defeated Fu Zuoyi on the Jinpu Line and reoccupied Jinan, turning the tide of the war in one fell swoop.
It is no exaggeration to say that during the warlord melee, Liu Zhi was the top general under lao Jiang. Because of this, after the outbreak of the Liberation War, old Chiang entrusted Liu Zhi with a heavy responsibility, making him the director of the Zhengzhou Appeasement Office and the commander-in-chief of Xuzhou. However, at this time, Liu Zhi had long since ceased to be brave. In the Battle of Huaihai, he killed Huang Botao because of his own selfish interests, and then made many mistakes in command, and finally buried hundreds of thousands of elite nationalist troops, and lao Jiang completely lost the capital to continue to fight with our army. Old Jiang lost the Liberation War, and Liu Zhi's responsibility was no less than Hu Zongnan's.
Finally, let's talk about Bai Chongxi. Bai Chongxi was one of the leading figures of the Gui clan and had repeatedly opposed Chiang Kai-shek with Li Zongren. Old Jiang went down to the field three times in his life, and there were shadows of the Gui family behind the scenes. However, due to the strong strength of the Gui clan, Old Jiang has always had no way to take Bai Chongxi. After Liu Deng's army leapt thousands of miles into the Dabie Mountains, Nanjing was directly threatened, and old Jiang sat restlessly and ordered Bai Chongxi to personally lead a large army to encircle and suppress. Bai Chongxi was worthy of the little Zhuge Ge, and he used a variety of means at the same time, and soon received results. Nakano held out at Mt. Dabie for only half a year before being forced to turn out, losing nearly half of his troops and almost all of his heavy weapons.
It was precisely because of Bai Chongxi's outstanding military talents that Old Jiang planned to make him the commander-in-chief of the Nationalist Army in the Huaihai Campaign, but Bai Chongxi first agreed and then refused, giving Old Chiang a chance. At the end of the Battle of Huaihai, in order to save the defeat, Lao Jiang transferred Song Xilian's corps to participate in the battle. However, in order to dismantle old Chiang Kai-shek's platform, Bai Chongxi held on to song Xilian's regiment on the grounds that it was subordinate to the general sequence of central China suppression, and almost stunned old Chiang. This was not the end of it, and soon after Bai Chongxi united several Gui generals and jointly wrote a letter to force old Jiang to go down. Old Jiang was forced to be helpless and had to go to the wilderness for the third time. Bai Chongxi demolished the old Chiang Kai-shek's platform many times, and finally did not listen to Li Zongren's advice and ran to Taiwan, only to die inexplicably at the age of 73.