In the early days of the War of Liberation, the Kuomintang government not only had an unprecedented increase in its international status, but also had strong economic strength, and Chiang Kai-shek had millions of elite soldiers under him. Military superiority is the Kuomintang's greatest reliance, with a total of about 2 million troops in the army alone, about 740,000 irregular troops, 360,000 special forces, and about 1.01 million logistical organs and military academies. The People's Liberation Army has only more than 1.2 million troops, and in the Navy, the Kuomintang mainly received 288 Japanese and puppet warships and 271 ships transferred by the US military, with a total of more than 500 large and small ships. For the Air Force, it was equipped with the most advanced B-24, B-25 bombers and P-51 fighters of the time. The Nationalist army has five fighter groups, two medium bomber groups, a reconnaissance aircraft squadron, and a B24 group, with about nine hundred aircraft.
In 1946, the Nationalist Army had at least 22 integrated divisions and 64 brigades with American and semi-American ordnance equipment. The reorganized 11th Division alone was equipped with 11,520 long and short guns, 2,370 submachine guns and other automatic weapons, 440 artillery pieces, 120 bazookas, and 360 vehicles. The rapid columns formed by the Nationalist army have the title of "modern composite units", because each rapid column has an infantry brigade, a tank battalion, two artillery battalions, an armored search battalion, two engineer battalions and two automobile battalions, equipped with forty tanks, twenty-four heavy artillery, two hundred cars, and paratrooper troops. Chiang Kai-shek also believed that the time for civil war was fully ripe for the armistice agreement to be torn up in June 1946 and a blatant all-out attack on the Liberated Areas. Subsequently, the Kuomintang began to attack Guanwai, successively capturing Shanhaiguan, Jinzhou, Shenyang, Changchun and other places, and completely controlling most of the area south of the Songhua River.
In the course of Chiang Kai-shek's founding, all those who carried out Premier Sun's correct line of cooperation between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party succeeded, and those who violated Premier Sun's policy of cooperation failed. It can be said that it betrays the revolution and the historical mission. The so-called "prospers the people" and the losers perish. Although the military strength on paper is in a state of crushing, but the fight is not the case at all, the Kuomintang provoked a civil war, lost more than victories, and was often beaten to the ground to find teeth. Why is it that the Kuomintang army, which has absolute military superiority, cannot defeat seemingly weak opponents? Because they don't know what kind of hatred the people have for greedy vampires, they will be eaten back.
In order to obtain a steady stream of foreign aid, the Kuomintang completely defected to the United States, suppressed anti-American demonstrations, and signed many unequal treaties with the United States. The Kuomintang's traitorous nature determines that it cannot represent the broad masses of the Chinese people at all, nor can it lead China to "real prosperity and strength." In order to support the war, the Kuomintang took aid from the United States on the one hand, and at the same time collected high and heavy taxes, and once the cost was tight, it began to "print money madly" and "issue gold yuan coupons" to loot social property. The Kuomintang extended its hand to the civilians, and how much military expenditure could the poor people who had long been exploited not only did not have any significant help for military spending, but also made the people hate these "vampires" even more.
Many Kuomintang soldiers were reluctant to fight a civil war, and in the middle of the war, officers at all levels who repeatedly lost battles were generally tired of war. Chiang Kai-shek's opponents within the Kuomintang in Nanjing were no longer silent and took action one after another. The open and secret struggles between the various factions affected the troops in the front. There was an internal tilt, especially the ambition of The Gui clan to replace it. Many generals of the Nationalist army have more military command ability than the communist army, but the soldiers are not strong, and no matter how good the command, there is only one way to die. The antagonism between officers and soldiers within the Kuomintang army is very serious, and grass-roots soldiers are deducted from their salaries in the army, there is no hope in life, and their families are bullied by landlords and bullies. On the other hand, the Communist army divides the land among all. If you have a field, you can marry your daughter-in-law, and you can shoot the landlord bully and give the soldiers a blow, can such a soldier not give you a life? The Communist Party will win the future life will be beautiful, and all the grassroots soldiers will desperately fall to the communist side.
Economic exploitation was enough, the image of the Kuomintang troops among the people was completely destroyed, and the upper-level officers were very indulgent to their subordinates. In order to attack the economy of the Liberated Areas, the Kuomintang even deliberately and systematically burned and plundered the people in wartime, which was comparable to the Three Lights Policy of the Japanese Army. According to relevant information, more than 84,900 heads of cultivated animals have been robbed in 14 counties in Luzhong District alone, more than 1.2 million mu of cultivated land has been destroyed, and millions of farmers have become disaster victims.
The well-disciplined Kuomintang troops were only a minority, and huang Wei's corps, one of the five main forces, also committed numerous atrocities after rushing to the Huaihai battlefield, and the troops forcibly pulled the people as guides along the way and did not let them go, forcing them to act as soldiers. After the crossing, the people's mules, horses, pigs, cattle and other livestock were all snatched away, and the chickens and dogs were not left along the way, so that the people complained. When the troops arrived at the garrison, such as the construction of fortifications, the door panel furniture was forcibly requisitioned, and the people's firewood and grass were swept away, and they did not give anything, causing the people to hate the teeth and itch. The people's hatred of the Kuomintang reactionaries has reached the point where they are eager to "eat their flesh." Therefore, in the Huaihai Campaign, the people everywhere who were full of hatred used millions of primitive means of transport, such as picks, stretchers, carts and carts, to build a complete transportation chain for the PLA from the front to the rear on the various battlefields of the Huaihai Campaign.
Zhu Qizhao, a veteran minister of Beiyang, predicted as early as 18 years ago: "The Chinese civil war mostly relied on weapons, silver dollars, and doctrines, and silver dollars are not as good as weapons, and weapons are inferior to doctrines." I only have weapons in Beiyang, and there are few silver dollars, and there is no doctrine at all, which is the hero of the past. Now the Nanjing government has silver dollars, weapons, and a little doctrine, which is the hero of the present. Fifteen years after my view, the communist youth with weapons and firmness is afraid of being the hero of China." Sure enough, it became a slur, and it became a reality.
The early communist forces were basically dominated by guerrilla warfare, and heavy firearms were seriously inadequate. In just one year, the People's Liberation Army switched from defensive to offensive and entered the "strategic counter-offensive phase" in an all-round way, during which the Nationalists lost as many as 710,000 men in combat. The Kuomintang army, which had great military superiority, not only did not quickly solve the opponent, but won the title of "transport brigade leader". In the end, in the course of the Liberation War, the People's Liberation Army defeated a total of 5,542,000 Kuomintang regular troops and 2,528,000 irregular troops, including 4,586,000 prisoners, 1,711,000 wounded, and nearly 1,800,000 people who surrendered to the uprising and accepted the reorganization.