At the end of the three major battles, the Kuomintang lost control of the Yangtze River north, and the Central Army, which Chiang Kai-shek regarded as the pillar of the party-state, was largely depleted.
Even within the Kuomintang, the situation was changing, and the Gui faction led by Bai Chongxi and Li Zongren was ready to launch a political offensive against Chiang Kai-shek at any time and force him to go into the wilderness.
Moreover, relying only on the troops of local warlords, it was completely impossible to block our army with a strong centripetal force, so Chiang Kai-shek at that time had already begun to consider a way out.
After a series of discussions, he decided to retreat to the island after a complete defeat on the mainland.
So why did Chiang Kai-shek choose Treasure Island? In fact, Baodao was not the only choice at that time, as early as the end of the three major battles, Chiang Kai-shek convened a secret meeting with the participation of high-level government personnel, and the focus of the discussion at this meeting was: How should the Kuomintang continue to resist when our army will inevitably cross the river?
Needless to say, the situation was already very bad at this time, the elite troops were lost, and the Yangtze River could not stop the PLA at all, and Nanjing was next to the Yangtze River, so the core ruling area of the Kuomintang centered on Nanjing was definitely not able to be saved, and escape seemed to be the only option.
At that time, Chiang Kai-shek's henchmen proposed three roads, the first way was to retreat to Sichuan, the second way was to move the capital to Hainan, and the third way was to run to Baodao, these three plans had their own advantages and disadvantages.
First of all, retreating to Sichuan was something that most of the KMT's high-ranking military and political personnel were willing to accept. After all, during the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, the Kuomintang also used Chongqing as the capital and fought a protracted tug-of-war with the Japanese in the southwest.
And since ancient times, once the Central Plains Dynasty has something to do, then the ruler also likes to go to Sichuan first to avoid its edge, and then make a comeback. After all, Sichuan itself is a region with a long history, with a large population, rich arable land, and natural hazards all around, which are easy to defend and difficult to attack.
It's just that Chiang Kai-shek, after careful consideration, finally did not choose to retreat to Sichuan. This was mainly due to the fact that the situation was no longer satisfied, and he retreated to Sichuan.
During the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, the Nationalist Government could use Chongqing as the capital and the southwest as the core to build a defense system, mainly because it was fighting the Japanese invaders at that time, and the Nationalist Government, as a legitimate regime widely recognized by the international community, could get the unanimous support of the whole country.
However, in the War of Liberation, the Kuomintang had basically lost the support of the people, and even if they retreated to Sichuan, it would be difficult to gather strength. Moreover, at that time, Sichuan itself was still under the control of large and small warlord forces......
During the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, these warlords could obey the command of the Kuomintang government in the face of the general interests of the country, but when the general trend of the Kuomintang was gone, Chiang Kai-shek was not sure what choice these local warlords would make. Therefore, the road to Sichuan, at least in Chiang Kai-shek's opinion, was not very reliable.
As for retreating to Hainan Island, it is actually better to flee to Sichuan, because Hainan at that time was not a tourist attraction now, and the economic development was very good. Before the liberation, Hainan Island had a very poor level of development, an extremely weak economic foundation, and even a shortage of arable land in the area.
In other words, if Chiang Kai-shek had fled to Hainan with hundreds of thousands or millions of troops, it would have been difficult for him to survive for a long time. Moreover, although Hainan is isolated from the mainland, it is only separated from the mainland by the Qiongzhou Strait, and even if the PLA was not strong at sea at that time, it is relatively simple to cross the Qiongzhou Strait.
According to the situation of the later Liberation War, we did not spend much effort when we liberated Hainan Island, so no matter how you look at it, Hainan is quite difficult to defend. Therefore, under such circumstances, the famous geographer Zhang Qiyun gave Chiang Kai-shek an idea: we can run to the treasure island.
First of all, from a geographical point of view, Baodao and the mainland are bordered by a Taiwan Strait, and the strait is relatively long, and it is relatively difficult to rely on earth ships to transport a large number of troops across the Taiwan Strait when the strength of the PLA Navy at that time was basically zero.
In addition, the U.S. Navy fleet often cruises nearby, and as long as the Kuomintang authorities can get support from the United States to get the U.S. Navy to intervene, it will be very difficult for our military to eliminate the remnants of the Kuomintang forces in Taiwan. And facts have proved that it was also because of the intervention of the US Seventh Fleet that the Taiwan issue became an issue left over from history.
Moreover, at that time, the treasure island had already achieved initial development. During the Japanese occupation, although the Japanese invaders persecuted the local residents of the island, they also established some rudimentary industrial production systems.
Moreover, our party does not have much revolutionary foundation on the treasure island, which means that as long as Chiang Kai-shek retreats to Taiwan, it will be easy to achieve the goal of consolidating local power, and it will be easier to get support and assistance from the United States. So in the end, Chiang Kai-shek made a decision and fled to Treasure Island when necessary, and then sent his henchman Chen Cheng to run Treasure Island.
Chen Cheng was one of Chiang Kai-shek's most trusted Kuomintang military and political leaders, and he had always been known as the "little chairman" within the Kuomintang party. He himself was also very loyal to Chiang Kai-shek, and did not choose to leave Chiang Kai-shek when he was most in danger. Moreover, although Chen Cheng was not good at fighting, he was a rare first-class strategist and politician in the Kuomintang.
Everyone knows that Chen Cheng really can't command the military, and there will definitely be no good ending for him to command the front-line troops. But during the Liberation War, Chiang Kai-shek sent him to the northeast to command, but was finally beaten by Lin Biao and could only be trapped in a few isolated cities. Later, he was asked to go to Shandong to lead the army, but he was beaten by Su Yu so that he couldn't even find his home.
But despite this, Chen Cheng's strategic vision is quite sophisticated. As early as the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, he put forward the theory of "protracted war" and gave specific strategic guidelines.
That is, through a series of small and medium-sized battles, the focus of the Japanese attack was changed from the south to the west, and the complex terrain in the northwest region was relied on to delay the Japanese attack and drag down the Japanese. Later history has taught us that this is indeed a good strategy.
In addition, Chen Cheng is also a good hand at training troops and building infrastructure, and after he was sent to Taiwan, he quickly adopted martial law measures, and the Gui warlords headed by Bai Chongxi and Li Zongren also wanted to meddle in Taiwan's government affairs, but they have not been able to succeed because of Chen Cheng's strict defense.
After Chiang Kai-shek was forced to flee to the treasure island, the treasure island has been run into an "iron bucket" by Chen Cheng. In addition to the complete industrial facilities, a large number of war readiness facilities were built, which laid a solid foundation for the remnants of the Kuomintang to eventually entrench themselves on the island.