By the second half of 1944, the defeat of the Japanese invaders was inevitable, and although there was friction between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party, they were both making arrangements for the new post-war stage.
After a long period of arduous struggle, the liberated areas behind enemy lines under the leadership of our party began to gradually reverse their predicament from 1943 onwards, and even began to carry out attacks against the Japanese and puppet armies in some areas.
At this time, our party's military policy was to "expand the liberated areas and reduce the occupied areas." However, the Kuomintang authorities continued to resist Japan and were unable to expand on a large scale into the Kuomintang area, so it became an important goal to march behind enemy lines in the Japanese-occupied areas and to regain lost territory and expand the anti-Japanese base areas when the Japanese army invaded the south when the rear was empty.
As a result, ** and *** mobilized troops and transferred troops to Central, South and East China for strategic deployment.
In 1944, in order to expand the revolutionary base area, the Taihang and Taiyue Military Regions of the Eighth Route Army began to advance to Henan and established a base area in the western Henan region abandoned by the Kuomintang army.
Subsequently, the CCP decided to send Dai Jiying, Wang Shusheng and others to Henan to establish the Henan Military Region, and echoed the 5th Division of the New Fourth Army led by ***. At the same time, the 4th Division led by Peng Xuefeng also restored the anti-Japanese base area on the Henan-Anhui Soviet border, and the 5th Division of the New Fourth Army also advanced to the central part of Henan.
By August 1945, the New Fourth Army had opened up 20,000 square kilometers of base areas in Henan. At the same time, the CCP also decided to set up a new Hubei-Henan-Anhui Bureau, preparing to let the former commander-in-chief of the Red Fourth Front Army, who had fought here, return to this place as secretary, reorganize the old department, and restore the Hubei-Henan-Anhui base area that spanned the three provinces in the past.
In November 1944, the main force of the 359th Brigade of the Eighth Route Army, together with more than 4,000 people from the Yan'an Cadre Brigade, began a new "Long March of 10,000 Miles" in the name of the 1st Independent Guerrilla Detachment of the 18th Group Army.
At the turn of the spring and summer of 1945, the troops entered Hunan and prepared to develop to Guangdong in the next step to join the Dongjiang Column and establish a base area in South China, so as to create a southern wing in the national strategic pattern after the outbreak of civil war in the future.
In 1945, the CCP began to deploy its strategy in the base areas behind enemy lines, planning to connect the Eighth Route Army in North China, the 5th Division of the New Fourth Army in the Central Plains, and the Dongjiang Column in South China to form a strategic barrier connecting the base areas.
Some cadres and elite troops of the 120th Division of the Eighth Route Army led by He Bingyan returned to the Hunan and Hubei border areas to prepare for the reconstruction of the Hunan and Hubei base areas; Mo Wenhua and other former cadres of the Guangxi Red Seventh Army prepared to lead the team back to Guangxi and establish a base area while the Japanese army was not firmly established; The 1st Division of the New Fourth Army and 1 of the original 6th Division led by Su Yu entered southern Jiangsu and penetrated directly into the Nanjing-Shanghai-Hangzhou triangle to establish a base area in the border area between Japan and the puppet.
The military and civilians in the liberated areas have carried out extensive work to pull out strongholds and seize remote towns, basically changing the situation in which the base areas have been divided. The invading Japanese army also admitted that the CCP's anti-Japanese army had the sympathy of the majority of the people, and thus rapidly expanded its power.
Through advanced planning, the CCP has preliminarily sketched out the strategic picture of the squadrons in North China, the Central Plains, and South China joining together to form a strategic barrier and blocking the main force of the Kuomintang in the mountainous areas of the southwest.
Seize half of China first, and then the whole of China.
Unfortunately, because the allies kept China's Yalta Agreement secret, the CCP did not know about the Soviet Union's imminent participation in the war against Japan in northeast China. At that time, the CCP still believed that there would be a long time for Japan to collapse, so in June 1945, ** and others, who were expected to go south, said: "The decisive battle between Japan and the United States will be after next summer, so you have about a year to a year and a half to use." ”
Therefore, the grand plan of "seizing half of China first, and then the whole of China" is still in the layout stage, many personnel appointments have just been put in place, and the southbound troops have only just set off one after another.
However, the situation changed abruptly, and the expected landing of American troops did not take place, but the Soviet troops appeared in northeastern China, and Japan quickly surrendered, and the Kuomintang and the Communist Party were surprised and somewhat unprepared.
This sudden victory has brought great unexpected problems to the CCP and made it impossible to realize this plan. In order to cope with the changing situation, the CCP later had to rethink a new path.
But looking back on history, we can't help but sigh that the CCP's advanced layout to seize half of China's strategic planning blueprint first is indeed bold and generous.