Before reading this article, I sincerely invite you to click the "Follow" button, so that you can continue to push such articles in the future, and it is also convenient for you to discuss and share, your support is the driving force for us to insist on creating~
Text: Wings of Light
Edit|t
introduction
From 37,978 people to about 500,000 people, in less than three years, Taiwan suddenly poured into so many people from other provinces.
So many people suddenly appeared in Taiwan, especially the large number of soldiers evacuated to Taiwan, who did not even have a place to stay. And all this is thanks to Chiang Kai-shek.
(Taiwan was liberated in 1945)
Chiang Kai-shek was defeated in the War of Liberation, and how many troops were left after he withdrew to Taiwan? Do these defeated armies still have a complete structure? Let me briefly sort them out.
1. 400,000 is probably the last formed army
On January 18, 1949, Tang Enbo obtained a job and was transferred from the front to the rear as the commander-in-chief of the Beijing-Shanghai-Hangzhou garrison. Compared with Du Yuming, who dragged his sick body to the front line to fight the fire for President Chiang, although Tang Enbo's military level was not very good, because he won the trust of Chiang Kai-shek, he could be arranged by Chiang to a "proper" position at every critical moment.
The background of Tang Enbo's taking over the defense of the Gyeonggi region this time was that the Kuomintang army was deflated one after another in the Northeast, North China, and East China battlefields. At this time, even Chiang Kai-shek himself knew that his defeat was only a matter of time.
(Townenburg)
So when Tang Enbo took over his new position, he was actually guarding the gate for Chiang Kai-shek, who was preparing to escape. At that time, there was an army of 400,000 people in Nanjing and Shanghai. In Chiang Kai-shek's view, handing over this fully formed army to the command of a trusted person is the last guarantee in the event of an unexpected retreat to Taiwan.
Therefore, these 400,000 troops should be the largest and relatively well-equipped army after Chiang Kai-shek retreated to Taiwan. Compared with the other Kuomintang armies, this unit did not participate in decent battles after January 1949, and some of them had already withdrawn to Taiwan in advance.
Therefore, in the composition of the army that later Chiang Kai-shek defeated and fled to Taiwan, this team was also the largest number. In addition to preparing the army, Chiang Kai-shek also prepared other "aftermaths" before.
(Townenburg)
At the same time, Chen Cheng became the chairman of Taiwan Province, and Chiang Ching-kuo became the director of the party department of Taiwan Province.
At the beginning of 1948, because of his successive defeats in the Northeast Battlefield, many Kuomintang representatives demanded that Chen Xie be killed. Chen Cheng had no choice but to resign from all positions, and then under Chiang's hard protection, he was arranged to go to Taiwan to "recuperate".
In fact, Chen Cheng went to help Chiang run Taiwan at that time. In case the mainland can't stand it, they still have a place to retreat. Chen Cheng later became both chairman of Taiwan Province and commander-in-chief of the garrison, and in essence he first went to Taiwan to help Chiang "watch his family."
(Chen Cheng)
It is worth mentioning that before and after Chen Cheng went to Taiwan, the Nationalist Government stationed defense troops in Taiwan, and these troops were stationed after the victory of the Anti-Japanese War and the recovery of Taiwan in 1945.
Overall, by the beginning of 1949, Chiang Kai-shek had not yet withdrawn troops from Taiwan on a large scale, and he was only preparing in advance for the next defeat. This is not to say that Chiang did not want to withdraw, but that the army in his hands at that time had either been wiped out or firmly contained in various battlefields.
(During the martial law period in Taiwan, photos of Chiang can be seen everywhere)
Second, there is not much left of the 4.3 million regular troops who have been beaten
Towards the end of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, there were at least 120 armies under the jurisdiction of the Kuomintang, and although the units were not yet organized, the scale was still very large. By 1946, when the civil war was about to break out, the strength of the regular Kuomintang army reached 4.3 million.
In comparison, the PLA had a strength of 1.27 million troops during the same period, including 610,000 in the regular army and about 660,000 in local troops and rear organs. There was still a big disparity in the strength of the two sides before the war.
This is why Chiang Kai-shek was confident that he could completely wipe out the communist army within three to six months. However, Jiang's dream soon woke up because of the continuous loss of troops and generals.
(People's Liberation Army during the liberation of Beiping)
Throughout 1947, the regular army of the People's Liberation Army gradually expanded to 900,000 people, and the total number of local troops and organs exceeded one million. Although the Kuomintang army still has 3.8 million people at the moment, it has fallen compared to before.
After nearly a year of fighting, the cumulative losses of the Kuomintang army exceeded 2.6 million, and the number of replenished troops reached 3.65 million, while the number of combat troops deployed on the front line was around 1.7 million.
On the PLA side, after the replenishment of new recruits, plus the captured and reformed Kuomintang troops, the total number has exceeded 2.8 million. Therefore, in terms of the comparison of forces, the Kuomintang no longer has the advantage.
(People's Liberation Army during the Huaihai Campaign)
By the beginning of 1949, when Chiang Kai-shek began to prepare for the aftermath, the number of troops under his command had plummeted to 2.04 million, and the number of troops who could actually fight on the front line was less than 1.5 million. The strength of the People's Liberation Army has increased to 3.58 million at the moment. The balance of strength between the two sides has been reversed, and Chiang Kai-shek is powerless.
It is worth mentioning that by the beginning of 1949, a large part of Chiang Kai-shek's remaining army was not directly related to the Central Army, including hundreds of thousands of troops from the Gui system, as well as Fu Zuoyi's heavy army group in North China. Remove these two parts, and the remaining part is Chiang's descendant troops.
Moreover, at the beginning of 1949, these troops were firmly pinned down on various battlefields, and Chiang Kai-shek could not be transferred even if he wanted to. Therefore, if Chiang Kai-shek wanted to take the initiative to withdraw most of his troops to Taiwan, it would be absolutely impossible.
(Defeated Kuomintang army retreating from Taiwan)
Most of his army was either wiped out or taken prisoner, and the number of troops that could really be mobilized and controlled was dwindling. Because of this, from the beginning of 1949, Chiang handed over the only army that could be mobilized to Tang Enbo.
Chiang Kai-shek may have fantasized that even if he failed, his army could be evacuated in an orderly manner, but as the so-called defeat was like a mountain, in the final period of the Liberation War, although the remnants of the Kuomintang defeated generals had been retreating, no matter where they fled, they were bitten by the People's Liberation Army.
(The People's Liberation Army (PLA)
3. Disrupting the establishment and only caring about fleeing for your life
Chen Cheng went to Taipei in early January 1949 to preside over political affairs, and then Chiang Kai-shek was forced to go to the opposition under pressure, but in fact he hid behind the scenes and rushed to Taiwan to transport gold and silver.
On the fifth day of Chen Cheng's arrival in Taipei, Chiang Ching-kuo met with Yu Hongjun, president of the Central Bank, in an office in Shanghai. Chiang Lao had only one order, to ship all the gold, silver and dollars worth of $500 million to Taiwan.
(Withdrawal of National Army)
In the next few days, every night, soldiers with loaded guns and ammunition carried large boxes to the warships along the Huangpu River. By the time Li Zongren learned of this later, the central bank had already been emptied.
In addition to rushing to transport gold and silver, all kinds of materials in Shanghai that could be transported were ordered by Chiang Kai-shek to be shipped to Taiwan. According to incomplete statistics, in the months before the liberation of Shanghai, there were more than 1,500 ships transporting supplies in Shanghai alone.
Although there was a moat on the Yangtze River, Chiang Kai-shek knew that he could not stand it at all. On April 23, the People's Liberation Army occupied Nanjing, and Chiang Kai-shek was already in hiding, flying to South China, Taiwan, and Southwest.
(Chiang Kai-shek in 1950)
The slogans of the defense war were shouted loudly, but the Kuomintang troops had no fighting spirit. From April to May 1949, a large part of the hundreds of thousands of troops originally commanded by Tang Enbo were also wiped out around Shanghai.
The remnants of the army fled, and Chiang Kai-shek went to Fujian to continue commanding the battle. At that time, most of the Kuomintang army was either in disarray, or there were only local warlords who were not of the same mind as Chiang.
Under these circumstances, Chiang Kai-shek himself was powerless. For example, in the later campaign to liberate the southwestern provinces, a large part of the Kuomintang troops left behind in the local area were the original Sichuan warlord team.
Not to mention whether these troops could travel long distances and withdraw from South China to Taiwan, even Chiang Kai-shek himself would not agree to let these troops leave. On the one hand, Chiang Kai-shek repeatedly shouted that he would defend the southwest, and these local troops would continue to work for him.
On the other hand, from the bottom of Chiang's heart, he did not trust these warlord ranks. Moreover, if a large number of troops are withdrawn to Taiwan, the small land will not be able to withstand the sudden increase in population.
(In 1949, the Kuomintang troops in the Shanghai area withdrew to Taiwan)
Because of this, like Xue Yue, he later withdrew to Hainan Island. On the surface, it seems that like guarding the southwest, Chiang Kai-shek also asked Xue Yue to defend Hainan, but in fact, receiving the island is just an excuse. This can not only buy time for Taiwan, but also consume the strength of the PLA as much as possible.
Therefore, Chiang Kai-shek's real calculation is that the only thing he wants to hold in the end is Taiwan, and the others, such as the southwest region and Hainan Island, are just Chiang's pretense, and he neither wants to defend them, but also knows that other places cannot be defended.
(Taiwan in 1949)
About this, Chiang Kai-shek revealed as early as the autumn of 1946. On the first anniversary of Taiwan's liberation, Chiang Kai-shek attended the celebration and toured the entire island of Taiwan, during which he said that Taiwan had not been infiltrated by the Communist Party and could be regarded as a pure land.
By the fall of the Chiang dynasty in 1949, the Kuomintang army disrupted the establishment and fled, except for those people or things that were deliberately abandoned by Chiang Kai-shek and he wanted to take to Taiwan, they had already prepared in advance.
So, how many troops went to Taiwan during this period?
(Kuomintang troops retreating from Dachen Island to Taiwan)
Fourth, the millions of people who have retreated to Taiwan
After the First Sino-Japanese War, Taiwan was colonized by Japan for half a century, and by the time Japan was defeated in 1945, the population of Taiwan Province was more than 6 million. In 1946, Taiwan's total population was 6097117, of which only 37,978 were from other provinces who came to Taiwan from the mainland.
From 1946 to 1947, a total of 61,000 people traveled to Taiwan from the mainland, which is not a large number. However, with the outbreak of the Liberation War, the number of people traveling to Taiwan from the mainland began to increase. By 1948, the population of the provinces had increased by 98,580.
Especially from 1949 onwards, the number of people from the mainland to Taiwan began to skyrocket, with the addition of the military and other personnel. In the second half of 1949, more than 300,000 mainlanders poured into Taiwan. By 1951, more than 600,000 people from the mainland had traveled to Taiwan, not including military personnel.
The additional calculation of the army's trip to Taiwan spanned from 1945 to 1952. During this period, the army's march to Taiwan can be roughly divided into three stages.
(In 1949, the Kuomintang troops withdrew from Nanjing)
The first stage consisted of the surrendered troops sent from the mainland after Japan's surrender, the second stage consisted of the troops assisting in the defense of Taiwan, and the third stage consisted of the troops that retreated to Taiwan after the defeat of the Kuomintang.
Between 1945 and 1949, about 500,000 Kuomintang troops marched to Taiwan. By May 1950, with the defeat of the Kuomintang army and the retreat of the Zhoushan Islands, about 120,000 troops plus the strong men withdrew to Taiwan.
After the liberation of Hainan Island, more than 20,000 remnants of the Kuomintang army also withdrew to Taiwan. From 1953 to 1954, about 40,000 people were evacuated from Southeast Asia to Taiwan.
(In 1949, the Kuomintang tank unit was transported from Shanghai)
At this point, after Chiang Kai-shek lost the mainland, the remnants of the Kuomintang army that withdrew to Taiwan totaled about 600,000 people. If you include non-military personnel, the total number of mainlanders who went to Taiwan after the Liberation War exceeded 1.2 million.
The number of troops does not sound small, but they have all lost battles and have no structure, and their quality can be described as uneven. Chiang Kai-shek was obsessed with counteroffensives, so from the end of 1949, he began to reform Taiwan's army. Previously, the army was all mainland soldiers, and after the reform, Chiang Kai-shek began to implement conscription in Taiwan.
However, although he did not forget to counterattack, he never had a chance to die again. The soldiers who were brought to Taiwan by Chiang became more and more homesick as they grew older. Similarly, most of them never returned to the mainland.
Resources:
December 10, 1949: The Kuomintang retreated to Taiwan.Sohu News, 2005-04-17
Why did Chiang Kai-shek choose Taiwan as his place of survival?.People's Digest,2010(02)
Chiang Kai-shek's Escape to Taiwan.Sichuan News Network,2004-07-02