In 1949, after the three major battles and successive defeats on the Southern Front, the Kuomintang army actually had no power to recover from the civil war, and could only make the decision to retreat to Taiwan with the remnants of the army. At that time, the national strength of our army had exceeded 5 million, and the ** troops also began to surrender upsurge, especially in the southwest direction, nearly 700,000 people. At this time, the question arises: since the war situation in the whole country is so clear that Chiang's army has no future, why are there still 600,000 Kuomintang soldiers willing to follow the old Chiang across the sea to Taiwan? Isn't that unreasonable? Let's find out.
Among the 600,000 troops who fled to Taiwan, a very small number of Kuomintang officers at the rank of general and colonel were considered to have voluntarily gone to Taiwan. The main reason why they are willing to carry out their plan to go to Taiwan is that there is a certain degree of loyalty among the first-class officers. For example, Li Wen, commander of the Kuomintang 5th Corps, had already defected to the People's Liberation Army in the Battle of Chengdu, but later took the opportunity to go to Taiwan via Hong Kong. Therefore, it is not that there are no die-hard people in the Kuomintang army, such as Liu Huan, Dai Zhiqi, Zhang Lingfu, etc., who stubbornly died in battle during the war and were even willing to commit suicide.
In 1949, it was actually normal for those generals who still had the army in their hands to choose to follow the people. In the past three years or so, these people have a relatively large record of fighting with our army, and although our side has repeatedly stated that they will give preferential treatment to the rebels, some generals still have concerns and dare not surrender to Chengcheng, which is a kind of psychological game, and finally chose to flee Taiwan. In addition, some local warlords who have a deep hatred for our troops, such as Bai Chongxi and Yan Xishan, are worried that they will be sanctioned and suppressed by our army after the defeat of the mainland, so they choose to go to Taiwan, which seems to be relatively safe. Although they and Lao Chiang have always had a bad relationship, nominally they have been in the same camp for a long time, and they feel more secure than staying on the mainland. In fact, once they arrived in Taiwan, these old warlords lost their former glory, not to mention the right to command the army. These former first-class generals are still like this, and there is no guarantee for other officers when they arrive in Taiwan, and the conditions for their living and treatment have dropped markedly.
Of course, among the ** troops who went to Taiwan, except for a small number of officers and soldiers who voluntarily crossed the sea to follow, more of them were coerced. As early as 48 years, the Kuomintang arranged for the families of some ** generals to live in Taiwan, with two words: coercion. This move is very insidious, although at this time ** has been in decline in the civil war, but thinking that the family has been sent to Taiwan, it is obvious that most of the officers on the battlefield neither dare to surrender nor revolt, can only fight desperately. If they stay on the mainland alive, it will be difficult for them to go to Taiwan to reunite with their families even after the founding of the People's Republic of China, and their families will be in danger of their lives in the event of an uprising. Therefore, when Chiang's army withdrew to Taiwan on a large scale, the vast majority of officers and soldiers who were coerced by family factors also had to follow. When a corps commander or division commander is coerced, he naturally will not cross the sea alone like a bare-bones commander, and when he leaves, he takes with him the remnants of his troops on the mainland. Chiang's army was able to have as many as 600,000 troops to Taiwan in the end, and most of them were for this reason.
The last one was forcibly captured by the defeated Kuomintang army. **When retreating to Taiwan, he passed through many provinces and regions in the south, and the task was not only to hurry, but also to collect nearly 200,000 recruits on the way, especially in Zhejiang, Fujian and other places. Some of them died in the process of fighting with the pursuing People's Liberation Army, and some were taken to Taiwan Island and Hainan Island, and most of them never had the opportunity to return to the mainland, and finally died in Taiwan. It is worth mentioning that 600,000 people is not actually the total number of people who have withdrawn to Taiwan, but only the number of combat troops. Another 2 million civilians were also taken to Taiwan by Chiang's army. Most of them were not allowed to return to the mainland to visit their relatives until 1987, nearly 40 years later.