As one of the most important enemies in Chairman Mao's life, the old Chiang Kai-shek's life was not easy, not only to deal with the People's Liberation Army, but also to be careful of enemies from within at all times. In the life of the old Chiang Kai-shek, he encountered three times of going to the wilderness, especially the third time, which directly determined the defeat of the Nationalist army in the liberation war.
In the process of going down to the wilderness for the third time, the Gui warlord Bai Chongxi made great contributions, and it can even be said that he directly forced old Jiang to go down, so what kind of confidence did he have?
New hate old hate
Before the outbreak of the War of Resistance Against Japan, Lao Jiang was desperately suppressing the Gui forces represented by Bai Chongxi, and although the Gui forces had let the old Chiang go to the field (the first time they went down), in the end they were still suppressed by the old Chiang to the limit.
After the end of the Central Plains War, as the number one force in the anti-Chiang Kai-shek alliance, the Gui clan suffered a great blow, that is, blatant disarmament. In terms of the strength and equipment of the Gui clan at that time, they could still meet a large number of expansion quotas, but in 1933, the Gui clan only had two regular numbers of the army.
Even if the quota of some local troops is added, the total number of Gui forces will not exceed 30,000 people, if it were not for Bai Chongxi putting down his face and taking the initiative to find old Jiang to reconcile, the Gui forces would have been further squeezed, but just when Bai Chongxi was about to come to an end, war broke out.
After the outbreak of the War of Resistance Against Japan, Bai Chongxi obtained the establishment of two armies, and he expanded his forces from less than 30,000 to 160,000 in one go, which was close to chiang kai-shek's central army.
Not only that, at this juncture, Li Zongren of the Gui clan was not idle, at that time he served as the commander of the Fifth Theater, and together with Bai Chongxi, he also built the Tenth Theater of Operations against the Dabie Mountain region, due to the chaos of the war, Li Zongren and Bai Chongxi maintained their strength in the frontal battlefield while frantically expanding their troops.
According to records, on the eve of the victory of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, the number of gui forces in the formation had reached a staggering 240,000, not including some local forces, garrison regiments and rapid reaction forces.
Press again
Bai Chongxi was not happy for long before he was suppressed by Lao Jiang for the second time. During the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, Old Chiang knew exactly what Bai Chongxi had done, but because of the enemy of the Japanese Army, Old Chiang never did anything.
Between the victory of the War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression and the outbreak of the War of Liberation, Lao Jiang began his own black-box operation, transferring Li Zongren to Beiping as the director of the Bei parallel battalion, and at the same time giving Bai Chongxi a position of defense minister.
These two positions seemed to be high and powerful, but in fact there was no real power, especially Bai Chongxi, who had almost all the power to act, all in the hands of Chen Cheng, the chief of staff at that time.
In the course of completing the new round of deployment, in the name of disarmament, Chiang Kai-shek directly cut off the establishment of the entire three group armies of the Gui faction, and arranged a large number of combatants under the quota of the Central Army.
For this scene, neither Li Zongren nor Bai Chongxi had the ability to resist, and could only watch as the troops they had cultivated with one hand became cannon fodder for Old Jiang in the blink of an eye.
At that time, the Gui forces represented by Li Zongren and Bai Chongxi were suppressed and integrated, but Old Jiang was still not satisfied, he had already achieved disarmament to the extreme, and the next method could only be consumed.
After the outbreak of the Liberation War, Chiang Kai-shek sent all the original Gui forces to the Shandong battlefield in an attempt to wipe out all their consumption, the most typical of which was the Battle of Laiwu, in which the reorganized 46th Division of the Gui forces was annihilated.
After hearing this news, Bai Chongxi was in the same place for a long time, and he could not calm down for a long time, whether in terms of equipment or combat quality, the reorganized 46th Division should not get such a result, this incident became a thorn in Bai Chongxi's heart, and also made him strengthen his determination to oppose Chiang Kai-shek again.
Old Jiang Xiaye
As Liu Deng's army advanced into Dabie Mountain, Lao Jiang's troops and generals began to tense, and in desperation, he could only arrange for Bai Chongxi to go out of the mountain and be responsible for the task of "suppressing", but Bai Chongxi did not launch several effective attacks after gaining power, but put all his energy on reorganizing the Gui forces.
During this period, he not only reorganized the 46th Division, but also withdrew the other three reorganized divisions from the Shandong battlefield, allowing the Gui forces to remain and becoming an important force for forcing old Jiang to go down in the future.
May 1948, is a big day of the Gui forces, with the success of Li Zongren's campaign for vice president, Bai Chongxi was expelled from Beiping by the old Jiang and came to Wuhan, although at first glance Bai Chongxi was deprived of real power, but invisibly also gave Bai Chongxi a free body, coupled with the then Huang Shaohu and Li Zongren internal and external echoes, the Gui forces have a "heavenly good fate".
In the following time, Bai Chongxi exerted the word "forbearance" to the extreme, never opposing Lao Jiang's orders, only to silently accumulate power in secret, and at the same time consume Lao Jiang's concubine troops.
By the end of 1948, the balance of strength between Bai Chongxi and Lao Jiang began to take a turn, and the central army of Lao Jiang's concubine was successively folded in the three theaters of operations in northeast China, north China, and central China, and suffered a huge loss of strength, while Bai Chongxi's troops were growing step by step.
According to records, at that time, Bai Chongxi's troops under the formation had a total of 280,000 people, plus some local troops and rapid reaction troops, a total of 310,000 people. In addition, Li Pinxian and others of the Gui clan also have a lot of power, and they are well organized and have strong combat effectiveness.
After the end of the three major battles, Lao Jiang was no longer able to restrain Bai Chongxi, even if he still had the Tang Bourne Group in his hands, but from the perspective of combat effectiveness, he was not Bai Chongxi's opponent, but at this time, Bai Chongxi's biggest killer was not the army, but the support of the Americans behind him.
At the end of 1948, with the defeat of the three major battles, the United States had lost confidence in the old Chiang, and the then ambassador to China, Stuart Layden, made it clear that the old Chiang had lost his prestige and set his sights on Li Zongren and Bai Chongxi.
Under these circumstances, Bai Chongxi directly forced lao Jiang to go to the palace, and under the guise of peaceful negotiations, he used old Jiang Xiaye as a bargaining chip for negotiations.
Subsequently, Bai Chongxi once again frantically expanded his troops, and by the time the People's Liberation Army launched the Battle of the River Crossing, the Gui forces represented by Bai Chongxi already had a full twenty armies and 51 divisions, but unfortunately, the highlight moment of the Gui forces did not last long.
With the end of the Guangxi Campaign, Bai Chongxi completely became a light rod commander, and under the rhetoric of old Chiang, fled to Taiwan and became a prisoner of old Chiang, as for Li Zongren, he had to be smarter, and after the defeat, he chose to go into exile overseas and spend the rest of his life.