American General George Marshall arrived in China and was part of negotiations over a ceasefire between the KMT and the CCP, the terms of which would build a coalition government that would include all of the contending political/military groups in China. Neither the Communists (represented by Zhou Enlai) nor Chiang Kai-shek's representatives were willing to compromise on certain fundamental issues or relinquish the territories they had seized in the wake of the Japanese surrender.
In the front row, Mao Zedong is on the right and Chiang Kai-shek is in the middle.The Nationalists demilitarized 1.5 million troops ostensibly to support the Marshall Mission, which turned out to be a fatal mistake for Chiang Kai-shek and Kuomintang, because in reality, Chiang and his associates used this excuse to reduce the power and influence of warlords who allied with Kuomintang. Nearly none of the 1.5 million troops discharged belonged to Chiang's own force, and all of them belonged to that of warlords, including those who collaborated with the Japanese invaders during the Second Sino-Japanese War and pledged their allegiance to Chiang Kai-shek and Kuomintang after World War II. This move alienated many within the Kuomintang. As for the ordinary soldiers who were discharged, their prospects changed for the worse as nothing effective was done to help them integrate into civilian life. Many protests and riots by the discharged soldiers broke out, particularly in Chongqing by discharged former soliders of the Sichuan warlords. Faced with such desperate situations, these former soldiers turned against Chiang and the Nationalist government, and while some turned to banditry, most of them decided to join the communists. The communists welcomed these new recruits because their resentment towards the Kuomintang made them easily susceptible to communist indoctrination. The largest Nationalist defection to the communists occurred in Manchuria, where over half a million discharged Kuomintang soldiers (mostly former Japanese puppet governmental troops) joined the communist force, which previously had never exceeded 50,000, a more than 1000% boost for Lin Biao's forces.
In addition to this, the Nationalist demilitarization also provided communists with much needed weaponry. When Chiang Kai-shek attempted to solve the problem of warlords that plagued China by reducing their troops after World War II via demilitarization, the action backfired badly for him and Kuomintang in Manchuria when it was combined with other critical mistakes the Nationalists made. The Japanese strategy had been to give up Japan rather than give up Manchuria because the latter was so vital, and thus, they had stockpiled large amount of weaponry (enough to sustain more than 700,000 troops for several years) in hidden remote and hard-to-reach areas all over Manchuria. Although the Soviets captured a large quantity of Japanese weaponry, the majority of the Japanese stock survived. The Kuomintang was infatuated with obtaining as many urban centers as possible; therefore, the rural and hard-to-reach areas were ignored. Militarily, the Kuomintang did not have any incentives to recover and destroy this large stockpile of weaponry because the American weaponry used by Nationalist forces was superior. More importantly, since operating modern weaponry needed considerable knowledge and training, the Kuomintang believed that even if these weapons were to reach Communist hands, it would be impossible for the Communists to use them because most of their troops were illiterate. Therefore, the Kuomintang regime generally ignored the information on these Japanese secret depots because they deemed it not worth the effort to recover or destroy the weapons. Furthermore, since the information was provided by those former warlords' troops turned Japanese puppet regime troops who rejoined Nationalist force after World War II, and they were to be discharged, Kuomintang considered their actions no other than attempting to show their importance and to ask for financial rewards, and thus failed to take proper actions to prevent these weapons falling into the wrong hands. Chiang and Kuomintang were correct on the matter originally but when Nationalist demilitarization began, things turned out to be completely opposite. Because those discharged warlords' troops were former Japanese puppet regime forces that rejoined Kuomintang after World War II and had the experience and training needed to handle the weaponry, communists in Manchuria had hit a gold mine when these troops joined them en masse. Not only these valuable troops were able to teach the rest of communists who had no knowledge on how to operate these weapons, but more importantly, these new troops knew exactly where the Japanese secret depots were and contrary to their old Kuomintang master, the communists were extremely appreciative to the information and weaponry obtained, because what was less advanced to Kuomintang was of great value to the poorly equipped communist troops.
Contrary to the Nationalist propaganda that the Soviets had given huge quantity of weapons to the communists in Manchuria, the actual amount was extremely low: the total Soviet weaponry and Japanese weaponry captured by Soviet given to the communists was merely enough to equip 30 infantry regiments and 2 mountain gun battalion, equipping a mere 20,000 communist troops out of a total of 400,000 (as of the end of 1947), and the Soviet aids to communists completely stopped by the end of 1947. The communists originally expected the Soviets to play a much larger role and Lin Biao personally wrote a letter to Joseph Stalin on June 25, 1947 asking for Japanese weaponry to be turned over to the communists, and he even asked for captured German weaponry. Stalin, however, did not even bother to respond. On December 28, 1947, Lin Biao wrote another letter directly to Stalin, asking for more weaponry, including: 200,000 rifles, 15,000 light machine guns, 7,000 heavy machine guns, 700 heavy mortars, 1,000 light mortars, 100 anti-aircraft artilleries, 200 mountain guns, and communication gears for 20 divisions. Again, Lin Biao also appealed to Stalin in the letter that if such demand could not be met with captured Japanese weaponry, then captured German weaponry could fill the gap. Stalin, just like he had done previously, did not respond. However, the nearly nonexistent Soviet help proved not to be a problem for the communists, because in the mean time, the huge communist need was filled by an unexpected source, its adversary, Kuomintang. Thanks to the fatal mistake Kuomintang made in its demilitarization, communists were able to pinpoint nearly every Japanese secret depot with the help of former Kuomintang troops in its rank, and the total amount of Japanese weaponry recovered was enough to sustain the communists for 2 years before relying on captured American weaponry from Kuomintang in the later stage of the war. For example, a single secret depot typically contained as much as 150,000 artillery rounds. By February 1947, hundreds of artillery pieces were recovered by the communists included: 49 howitzers, 300 heavy mortars, 137 anti-aircraft artilleries, 141 anti-tank guns, 108 mountain guns, 97 cannons, and many other smaller artillery pieces. More importantly, due to the rapid expansion of its ranks filled by former Kuomintang troops discharged from the demilitarization, the sudden increase of troops of the communists meant that the original Communist peasantry army that was largely illiterate had suddenly became an army with 90% of its force being well trained, technically capable and combat hardened veterans that was more than a match for the Kuomintang force, who now had only three-quarters of the amount of Communist weaponry, with a handful of tanks and aircraft. However, even at this stage, Kuomintang troops still greatly underestimated their communist adversary because the American weaponry used by Kuomintang troops was superior to the Japanese weaponry used by the communist troops. Thus, the huge qualitative advantage of the Kuomintang would, they believed, be more than enough to make up for the numerical superiority of the Communists, a heavy price for which they would have to pay later.
During the Kuomintang demilitarization, the Communists did not sit idly either; it also reduced its troops by a million both in the regular army and in militia to ostensibly support the Marshall Mission. However, such reduction was the result of Mao Zedong's class struggle theory, and in fact, most were discharged due to political persecution and "rectification" campaigns. As a result, the Communist force reduction was much harsher than that of Kuomintang because it was a political purge. Most of those targeted in the Communist force reduction were from the wealthy, land owning and middle classes, and despite their loyalty to the Communists, they were considered unreliable due to their background and thus were purged. These unfortunate souls did not have the luxury like those discharged Nationalist soldiers who at least were able to live on the streets. Those discharged by the Communists were considered "class enemies" and were targeted by their former comrades, and were often executed, jailed, or forced to commit suicide. As a result, most Communist members from well-to-do family backgrounds chose to desert, with the majority defecting to the Kuomintang and becoming ardent anti-Communists. The defection rate was particularly high in those Communist-controlled regions where the struggles of persecutions were brutal, and in Mao's own admission, "in Shandong alone, over 300,000 (former Communists) were driven to the enemy (Kuomintang) side." In addition to joining the regular Nationalist force, Communist defectors also formed their own militias to help the Kuomintang to exterminate the Communists in the civil war that soon followed. The Communists also used the cease-fire period ushered by Marshall to arm and train huge numbers of peasants who had joined the People's Liberation Army during the war with Japan. The political persecution and purges during this era was an extension of Mao's Rectification Movement and was kept secret by the Chinese government, and it was not until the 1990s that the bloody details were allowed to surface in the domestic Chinese media.
The truce fell apart in June 1946 when full scale war broke out on June 26, and although negotiations continued, Marshall was recalled in January 1947, the same time when the last communist envoys in Kuomintang controlled regions were recalled back to Yan'an.
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I would think Nationalist put too much stake in Manchuria Battle and lost it big. 2 out of 5 elite units he had were wiped out in that major battle!
Also Soviet actually didi not supply much weapon to PLA,most of PLA weapon were those leftover Jap weapons in China....
