In addition, out of fear of the PLA, Chiang Lao had placed most of his defensive forces on the front line, but now the front line has collapsed, and its weaknesses in depth have been exposed. Seeing that the national army was defeated like a mountain, and the enemy was getting stronger and stronger, Lao Jiang had to flee south to Kunming with some troops who were still loyal to him, hoping to use the special terrain of the Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau to keep a little territory, but he didn't think that even the Shu Road, which was "difficult to get to the blue sky", was not difficult to defeat the People's Liberation Army, not to mention the Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau, which was much flatter?

However, to Lao Chiang's surprise, although Li Zongren, one of the two giants of the Gui faction, responded to the call of the Red Party and went to Luoyang to discuss the state of the country, Bai Chongxi, known as "Little Zhuge ", insisted on his long-standing anti-Red stance, rejected the preferential conditions promised to him by the Red Party (Note 1), and resolutely decided to put aside the old estrangement and fight the enemy side by side, and most of the Gui army also remained with him under Lao Chiang's banner. In addition, Xue Yue, who had always been valued by Lao Jiang but did not dare to trust him wholeheartedly, actually withdrew from Hunan all the way to Guangdong with more than 100,000 remnants of the defeated army, and sent a telegram expressing his willingness to continue to stay under the command of the chairman and fight the Red Party to the end. In this way, Lao Jiang's command has an army of millions again, and the million-scale troops can still afford to pay the military salary for a period of time with the gold, silver and foreign exchange he swept away from the treasury, as long as there is money, the military spirit can be stabilized, the military spirit is stabilized, and there is still hope for everything, this is the most important experience that Lao Jiang summed up as a warlord for so many years.

But Lao Jiang forgot that at this time, his own hundreds of thousands of troops were in Yunnan, while Xue Yue and Bai Chongxi's troops were in Liangguang. The fact that the forces that are already inferior to the PLA are still so scattered is undoubtedly a fatal weakness. The two leaders of the Jiangnan Field Army, Liu Deng naturally did not miss this opportunity, they did not give the national army a chance to join forces at all, and sent troops into Liangguang at the first time, although the initial battle was unfavorable, but they successfully contained Xue Yue's troops, and then the millions of lions of the Jiangnan Field Army rolled in, even if they were as strong as Xue Yue, they had to run all the way with the remnants, when he and Lao Jiang met again. The troops brought back were less than 30,000 men

On the contrary, although the Gui army did not have many troops. However, because the ruling foundation of the Gui system in Guangxi was relatively stable, and a relatively complete militia system was established, and Bai Chongxi, who was known as "Little Zhuge ", was indeed not in vain, all these created a lot of trouble for the People's Liberation Army that invaded Guangxi. But after the Central Plains Field Army also entered Guangxi to help in the war. Its sharp and powerful firepower is the nemesis of the brave and tenacious but backward tactics of the Gui army. As a result, the Gui army, which was "as fierce as a tiger and as evil as a wolf", lost more than 70,000 people in less than ten days, and the Seventh Army, the ace army, was even more out of ten. Bai Chongxi, who realized that he was unable to turn the tide after all, had no choice but to gather the rout and retreat to Guizhou. After a little rectification, he quickly abandoned Guizhou and retreated to Yunnan, and joined forces with the remnants of the Central Army to keep warm

However, at this time, the total strength of the national army was less than 500,000, and the morale was low and the morale of the army was weak. Just when Lao Chiang was desperate, the good news came that the Red Party and the British were fighting. Lao Jiang was immediately refreshed when he found out, but before he had time to boost the morale of the whole army, the vanguard of the People's Liberation Army had already overcome the fatigue of continuous campaigns and invaded Yunnan under the requirements of the great man "It is advisable to chase after the poor and brave", and the national army, which was already a frightened bird, was about to collapse. Lao Chiang originally wanted to "kill himself to become a benevolent", but under the persuasion of his (adoptive) son-in-law Chen Cheng and son Chiang Ching-kuo, he finally decided to retreat to Burma with the remaining 300,000 remnants of the defeated army, hoping to restore his strength with the help of the British Liliang and wait until the time was ripe to counterattack the mainland.

But at this time, Britain's total strength in the entire Southeast Asia was only more than 100,000, where could he afford to raise so many masters? In addition, the military discipline of the national army is already poor, and it is even worse after the military salary has been deducted in the past year. In addition, after the successive defeats of the national army, the organizational structure was chaotic, and the binding force on the grassroots was not as strong as before, so that long before the entry of the large army, a small number of border defenders crossed the border without authorization to plunder and subsidize their families, which made the British and Burmese border guards overwhelmed. Therefore, before the order was issued in London, the British and Burmese troops did not dare to let so many national troops enter the country, and because of the long-term contempt of Westerners for the Chinese and the bad feelings caused by the Sino-British war, the British representative said some unfriendly things at that time.

But what they didn't expect was that after the national army was defeated again and again on the domestic battlefield, the officers and soldiers generally held their stomachs of anger, and now that the pursuit is coming, the British will not let the national army enter Burma, that is, they will cut off the life of the big guys! As a result, under the anger and anger, many national army units completely ignored the existence of the British army and wanted to forcibly cross the border.

As a result, it was okay not to shoot, as soon as the gunshot rang out, the remnants of the national army, which had been tense and nervous, suddenly exploded, and some soldiers raised their guns to shoot back, and this fight could not be controlled, Lao Jiang was shocked at first when he knew it, but under the huge crisis that the PLA could kill at any time, he quickly made a decision and ordered the whole army to enter Burma, and if the British army blocked it, then destroy them! Although he was somewhat apprehensive after the order was issued, the political struggle experience that Lao Chiang had experienced over the years told him that although London would definitely be very angry at the forced entry of the Nationalist army into Burma, as long as the brains of the British government and parliament did not enter the water, they would not let the British army in Burma kill the Nationalist army, after all, the two sides now have a common enemy, as the saying goes, "the enemy of the enemy is a friend".

As Chiang had predicted, the British government officials were generally furious when they learned of the forced crossing of the border, but in the end they agreed to allow the Nationalist army to remain in northern Burma, and had the Viceroy of India (then part of British India) provide some supplies to the Nationalist army, making it a pawn in the British counterattack against the Red Party

Note 1: Taizu admired Bai Chongxi very much, and promised in history that as long as Bai Ken came, he would let him lead 500,000 troops, which was already a position at the level of the field army, which was not unfavorable for a general, but Bai Chongxi still refused, preferring to follow Lao Jiang to Taiwan, but after a period of cautious words and deeds, he was finally killed by Lao Jiang's spies (to be continued......