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Chapter 11: Analysis of the Southern Campaign

The capture of Nanjing led to the collapse of the Republic of China and international recognition of the People's Republic of China. Roughly 66% of the NRA defected and joined the PLA upon the RoC's defeat. The rest either sabotaged their equipment, fled into the one of the now autonomous provinces, or remained hidden, waiting to strike against the CPC. As such, the PLA's size more than doubled. However, the defectors were equipped with seriously outdated equipment, and it would take more than a year to bring their weapons up to the standards enjoyed by the original PLA soldiers. Two medium bomber wings were also seized, but all lighter aircraft were destroyed by their pilots and ground crews. Nearly the entire Republic of China Navy was captured intact, with only the RoCN's destroyers being scuttled before the PLA could crew them. However, the newly-formed People's Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) was composed of only a flotilla of troop transports, 5 pre-WW1 era cruisers (the "newest" of which was completed in 1911) and 2 semi-modern light cruisers. The PLAN was no match against even the Soviet Union's Red Navy, let alone the navies fielded by the Entente, which counted the world's largest, 3rd largest, and 4th largest navies as members.

In addition to its acquisition of a large portion of the NRA, the PRC gained the bulk of Chinese industry. Prior to Nanjing's capture, the PRC's industrial output was roughly equal to 35 IC units. After the KMT's surrender, the PRC's industrial capacity rose to 91 IC units, nearly tripling the size of the PRCs potential arms industry. The remaining bulk of Chinese industry now lay in Guangxi and Shanxi provinces, and were to be the first targets of the continued campaign to reunify China. Guangxi was the most modern and reformed province in regards to economic matters, while Shanxi held the Taiyuan Arsenal, one of China's 5 great arsenals.

A summary of the PLA and its air and naval support branches. The PRC's officer ratio was damaged with the influx of new soldiers.
A very brief summary of the PRC's economy can be seen at the top info bar.



The Southern Campaign saw the large-scale use of trench warfare. Both sides could only conduct successful offensives if they used multiple axes of attack. However, it was often the case that not every division that was to participate was organized and ready for an offensive. As a result, the attacks had to be delayed while preparations were being made, which allowed both sides to construct large-scale trenches of the type seen in Europe during WW1. The main difference between the Eastern and Southern Campaigns and WW1 was the use of artillery. During WW1 both sides fielded large quantities of heavy artillery. During the War of Liberation, only the PLA fielded such weapons. The use of heavy artillery proved to be decisive, as the artillery could bombard the NRA trenches at will while the infantry advanced nearly unopposed.

PLA soldiers during an NRA counter-attack near Jinan
trenches.jpg


Mao and the rest of the CPC leadership came away from the conflict with several conclusions regarding military strategy. First was that keeping the PLA equipment as up to date as possible was a major key to their victory. Where earlier terrain had caused serious setbacks, improved equipment eventually allowed the PLA to overcome those obstacles. As such, the PLA's man-portable weapons were top-notch and comparable to those fielded by the other major world powers, and its soldiers were amongst the most experienced in the world. In regards to equipment, training, and leadership the PLA was now a world-class army. This army would be vital to recapturing Manchuria.

Second, the PLA's operational doctrine of using large numbers of infantry to attack the enemy in overwhelming waves was proven to be a competent strategy. However, the PLA's main opponent was an army of poorly led and poorly equipped peasant soldiers whose only advantage was numerical superiority. Whether or not these tactics would still be viable against an enemy that possessed their own heavy artillery was not certain. Given China's vast pool of potential recruits and large post-unification borders, it was deemed that the top priority of the PRC was to expand the PLA as quickly as possible. The best time to strike at either Mongolia or Japan would be when they and their allies were distracted in Europe, and with Germany collapsing time was running short.

The NRA had very little in regards to heavy artillery. The field guns below were often the only artillery available for NRA divisions
kmtartillery.jpg


Third, while air power was never a major factor in the war, it most definitely would come into play against the more industrialized major powers that still held Chinese territory. Japan was known to possess many medium and long range bombers, which if left unopposed could decimate China's cities and industry. As such, as part of the PLA's expansion interceptor aircraft had to be developed and built to counter Japanese bombers. The Soviet Union was unfortunately unwilling to provide any assistance in this matter and the PRC had no experience designing or building aircraft, so the planned expansion had to start from scratch. Starting a war of aggression against any of the imperialist powers would only end in defeat if there was no way to prevent enemy bombers from reaching their targets.

Finally, the PLAN would need to be expanded if the PRC was to protect its long shoreline from amphibious invasions from the Entente. Realistically, with no experience in naval engineering there was no way the PLAN could expand and be able to counter the naval might fielded by the Entente within even 5 years, it could expand enough to harass their merchant shipping and foil sea invasions. Short-ranged invasions against Taiwan could be made possible with such an investment. As such, minor investments into submarines and destroyers to create a green water navy were to be made, but not at the expense of the newly formed People's Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF).
 
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The PRC does actually look quite powerful now with a good amount of infantry forces, along with the militia. You also have a decent amount of IC now and hopefully a useful leadership pool. I am imagining that you will be going to war against the Entente at some point, since clearly the situation in Manchuria and the British, French and Portuguese concessions are hardly tolerable. Time is clearly important if the war in Europe is drawing to a close, but you have identified serious weaknesses (air and naval power) and still have the remaining warlords to deal with. So, some challenges to face and maybe some hard choices to make.
 
The PRC is now strengthened by a bunch of old equipped units , now it's time to turn on the other chinese minors and invest in an air force to become a great power to be able to continue the reconquest!
All resources are in red? strange , but i did not play HPP.
 
Chapter 11.5: World War III

As mentioned in chapter 5.5, the focus of this work is on the Chinese War of Liberation against the enemies of the people. However, as was stated earlier China would have no chance of regaining land lost to the imperialists without outside assistance. As such, the situation in Europe at this time is to be noted, as it will indirectly affect the events to come and the PRC's future.

The first major item of interest in Europe occurred on March 9, 1942 when Romania surrendered to the Soviet Union. At this point the Red Army had pushed far into Southern Poland and had entered Pommerania. German resistance in Belarus and Central Poland was stiff, but the Entente advance to in the west was barely checked. All of southern Germany and most of Austria was firmly under French control, and the Entente forces had penetrated into Bohemia and were close to Berlin. Germany's days were numbered.

The situation in Europe on March 9, 1942
romaniasurrenders.jpg


Indeed, Germany's attempt to assert itself on the world stage was once again thwarted by most of the same powers that defeated it in 1918. On March 14, Berlin was captured by Entente forces and Germany's unconditional surrender to France and the Soviet Union was accepted on March 15, 1942. Poland was liberated as a Soviet puppet state, as was Czechoslovakia, which was reborn in Slovakia and Soviet-held areas of the former nation. Hungary was the only Axis power still at war with the Entente and USSR.

Germany Surrenders on March 15, 1942.
Notice the huge change in Italian progress in Yugoslavia



The surrender was somewhat chaotic, as each side took over administration duty of the land it occupied. The big question was what to do about Germany. The Entente did not wish to permanently occupy Germany, Austria, nor Bohemia/Moravia, and wanted to prop up Germany and Austria as democratic, capitalist nations to form a sort of buffer state against the USSR. The USSR, having suffered at the hands of the Germans twice within 30 years, did not wish to see a united Germany ever form again. Then there was also the question of Poland. The Entente initially demanded that Poland return to its original state, but later suggested that Poland's borders be shifted west into German lands as a compromise solution to strengthen Poland and allow the USSR to keep the portions of Belarus and Ukraine it had lost 21 years earlier.

The Entente had the stronger position during the negotiations, as they were the ones who had occupied most of Germany. The USSR, however, had the largest military in the world, over twice the size of the combined armies of the Entente. With both sides in a position of strength and neither trusting the other, Stalin firmly rejected the UK's offer of reorganizing Europe and declared war on the imperialists on March 16, 1942.

Stalin will not deal with the Imperialists! The global revolution was to continue!
Author's note: :rofl:



As WW3 began, WW2 ended on May 21, with Hungary's surrender to the Soviet Union. On July 25, 1942 Hungary was released as a Soviet puppet state.

Hungary's surrender ended WW2.
Note that Italy's earlier gains have been reversed by combined Yugoslav and Greek armies

hungarysurrenders.jpg


The borders of the Hungarian Soviet Socialist Republic
puppethungary.jpg


---------------------------------------------------------

I laughed hard at the USSR starting WW3. In fact, I fell out of my chair I was laughing so hard. The last time I did that was when I watched Detroit Metal City episode 6 four years ago.

Anyway, there's a vanilla bug that caused some problems, which I hinted at earlier. At this point I was busy taking out the RoC and was too into the game to want to save and fix the issue. After the RoC surrendered I edited the save to stop the war and fix Poland's war status (it was at war with both the Comintern and Allies, yet was a Soviet puppet), then waited about 4 months for both sides to get ready and restarted it in 1943. Hungary's post-war borders aren't right, but that is because the order of events to deal with that were out of order. The borders were cleaned up via the transfer land decisions after I temporarily ended the war and put everyone back on a peace footing. These events made the game so much more interesting from my point of view, because now I don't have to worry about trying to drag the USSR into a war against the Entente with me. I'll let both sides fight each other while I build up and get ready to join the fun :)

@sprites: resources are red because my industry expanded very quickly, but the resource provinces I hadn't taken yet had to rebuild their resource stockpiles from scratch. I'll be green later, but not right away.
 
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OMG! this is wild! Could be to your advantage, too.
 
This is the first time I have seen WW3 happen and boy did it happen early.

From your screenshots and text, West and East Germany were never created. I think there are HPP events for the creation of the post WW2 borders. Did these events not fire because of the refusal of the Soviets? Where are the Brits in all of this? This is one of the times I wish I could check out your savegame and load up as different countries.

This is exiting!

Cheers
Moe

EDIT: Where is the US in all of this?
 
OMG! this is wild! Could be to your advantage, too.

Yes, it is :) I'll be spending the next few years expanding the army and getting ready, so I had a lot of time to watch what was going on. Future updates before my grand entry into WW3 will be mixed between what I'm doing to get ready and what's going on elsewhere.

Join the Comintern and spread the revolution!

At some point I will. Right now my biggest problem is my neutrality of 100, which won't let me join a faction or declare war on anyone aside from the breakaway provinces.

This is the first time I have seen WW3 happen and boy did it happen early.

From your screenshots and text, West and East Germany were never created. I think there are HPP events for the creation of the post WW2 borders. Did these events not fire because of the refusal of the Soviets? Where are the Brits in all of this? This is one of the times I wish I could check out your savegame and load up as different countries.

This is exiting!

Cheers
Moe

EDIT: Where is the US in all of this?

Yes, those events didn't fire because Stalin didn't want to negotiate. The UK was the one who proposed partitioning Europe, and it was the USSR that wanted to expand west. There was a sizeable chunk of the British Army in Europe helping out France, but it was Japan's expeditionary force that caused Germany's ultimate collapse.

The Italians and Bulgarians are all that's left of the Axis, and they're both at war with Greece and Yugoslavia, but no one else. The US is fighting off the Great Depression still and likely laughing just as hard as I am at what's going on.

At this point I loaded up as a member of each faction to check what the AI was building. The remaining Axis duo have about 300 brigades, 30 aircraft, and 60 ships. The Allies have around 700 brigades total, 200 aircraft, and 400 ships. The Comintern at this point had 1,500 brigades, 70 aircraft, and 40 ships (mainly transports and subs). UK has about 2,000 MP, France has around 900 MP, and Japan has around 800 MP; UK has a drafted army, hence the high MP, while France and Japan have standing armies, hence their low MP. USSR had 4,000 MP to spare!
 
World War III? Mao must be elated! Now to get hold of Manchuria before Stalin does...

Really looking forward to seeing how this one plays out. I just hope your game isn't ruined by any more vanilla bugs. Giving both sides a breather will probably help as they may have troops crossing each other's territory. More problematic could be that issue of formerly "friendly" AIs being unable to attack each other - which totally broke my one attempt to take HPP past this point.

As for the US, I don't think they will be laughing once the rest of the world has been painted red! ;)
 
That is a lot of planes, 200 vs. 70, but is it enough to defeat the extra 700 brigades. The soviets got the strategic advantage of interior supply lines but must fight in all directions, oh well if they are fast the extra 200 divisions will do the difference before the planes can affect the outcome.
 
Chapter 12: The End of the Chinese Civil War - March 28, 1943 to June 9, 1944

The Chinese Civil War

Having defeated the most immediate enemy of the people, the internationally recognized People's Republic of China sets its gaze upon the provincial warlords. The warlords were originally semi-autonomous regions of the RoC who chose to remain neutral during the War of Liberation. Now that the PRC had become the dominant force in China after Japan, the next logical action for the PRC to take was to reassert its control over the western provinces. However, having been free from meddling from either Beijing or Nanjing for the past 22 years, the provinces were reluctant to willingly come under communist control. These disunited enemies of the people had to be forcefully removed from power.

The PLA's first target was the province of Shanxi led by Yan Xishan, who held China's most advanced arsenal - the Taiyuan Arsenal. While the KMT defectors were being reorganized into a competent command hierarchy to assault Guangxi province, the original members of the PLA had surrounded Shanxi and began their attack on March 14, 1943. Yan was not prepared for hostilities to begin so quickly, and surrendered on March 28, 1943. The capture of the Taiyuan Arsenal brought the PRC's effective military Industrial Capacity up to 90 (base) from 83, and increase of 8%.

Next was the province of Guangxi. Guangxi was arguably one of China's richest and most modern provinces, due to the leadership of Bai Chongxi and the New Guangxi Clique. The KMT defectors were charged with defeating the New Guangxi Clique, a task that began on May 29, 1943. While Guangxi's army was better trained and better equipped than the NRA was, it was small and ultimately ineffective. However, it was strong enough that, combined with advantageous defensive terrain, the PLA was unable to restore order to the province until June 14. The liberation of Guangxi raised the PRC's IC from 90 (base) to 101 (base), a 12% increase in military potential.

The liberation of Sichuan, Yunnan, Guangxi and Shanxi allowed the PRC to gain the industrial strength required to become a Major world power.
As a reference, Italy is a regional power and France and Japan are major powers.



The Yunnan and Sichuan cliques quickly followed, surrendering on July 23. This left Tibet as the last province not controlled by an Entente member. Tibet is a mountainous wasteland, with high altitudes, cold weather, and the fact it lies in the rain shadow of the Himalaya Mountains limiting plant growth. The rivers in the eastern portion of the province allow for agriculture, but the near-barren west of the province encourages a nomadic lifestyle. With little natural resources, poor farmland, no industry, and a feudal social hierarchy, Tibet offered little of substance to the PRC. However, since 1244 Tibet had either been a province of China or a vassal state of China. The United Kingdom in 1906 recognized Tibet as a province of the Qing Empire, and no nation in the world recognized Tibet's declaration of independence in 1912, despite the central Chinese government having no practical authority over Tibet. Regardless of Tibet's de-facto or real Independence, Mao saw Tibet as a breakaway province like Guangxi and Yunnan, and ordered the PLA to liberate the Tibetan serfs. Despite winning the Battle of Lhasa on November 9, 1943, the harsh terrain of the Tibetan Plateau delayed the occupation of the Tibetan capital until June 8, 1944 when the weather cleared.

The surrender of Tibet ends the Chinese Civil War
lastwarlord.jpg


Finalizing a basic destroyer design is the first step to expanding the PLAN


The Italian Front

While the Chinese people were being liberated from their heartless masters, Europe delved further into madness. After its new government finished consolidating power and reaching a semblance of stability, Romania joined the global revolution and declared war on the imperialist powers on November 9, 1943. At this point the Comintern was gaining ground in Europe and against the UK's Iranian puppet, but was losing territory to Japan.

On December 26, 1943 WW3 expanded to include the remnants of the Axis. Greece had become a member of the Entente, now known as the Allies, in July of 1943. However, Greece was not at war with the Comintern, but with the Axis. All of that changed on December 26, when Greece asked the UK to join it in the war against Italy. The leader of the Imperialists happily agreed, and the entirety of the Allies declared war on Italy and Bulgaria.

Through the Greek alliance with Iran, the Allies join the war against Italy and Bulgaria
snowballstarts.jpg


However, an event that outraged Mao and the CPC occurred on January 2, 1944. Tannu Tuva agreed to become a soviet socialist republic in the USSR and was annexed by the Soviet Union. Tannu Uriankhai was formerly the northwestern province of Mongolia in the Qing Empire, and as the empire's successor the PRC claimed the province as its own territory. Mao and the CPC had hoped to negotiate with their communist allies in regards to reincorporating all of Mongolia into the PRC. Stalin had given vague promises, and his decision to annex Tannu Uriankhai showed how little he cared for the PRC. While Mao never expected to receive Soviet aid without a price, he was insulted that the annexation occurred without any warning beforehand.

The Soviet Union annexes Tannu Uriankhai
endoftannu.jpg


Meanwhile, the wars continued in Europe. Red Army progress was incredibly slow, but the Soviets were like a sledgehammer; slow moving but nearly unstoppable. However, on June 9, 1944, the turning point in WW III and the Allies-Axis war occurred. Yugoslavia entered the UK-led Allies after joining its front in Northern Italy with that of France's.

Yugoslavia's decision to join the Allies will have far-reaching consequences.
Note that Italy controls most of northern Africa despite its losses in Europe.

alliedyugo.jpg
 
So Yugoslavia joined the allies in fear of SU? good!
the axis are done for now , they couldn't hold their own against Yugo and Greece , not they Have the allies to fight too ...
 
Now Yugoslavia joining one or the other doesn't seem that war deciding unless the Soviets were really weak, while they are no problem for the Germans normally they might fare slightly better against the Soviets.
 
So Yugoslavia joined the allies in fear of SU? good!
the axis are done for now , they couldn't hold their own against Yugo and Greece , not they Have the allies to fight too ...

Maybe. Italy was doing so bad it was losing to Yugoslavia and Greece, and now France entered the mix. However....

Now Yugoslavia joining one or the other doesn't seem that war deciding unless the Soviets were really weak, while they are no problem for the Germans normally they might fare slightly better against the Soviets.

Try and recall what the AI does during peacetime with its military. I had to edit the save to stop WW3 for 3-4 months due to a bug. During that time the Allies and Comintern were at peace and moved their units around to guard the new borders. Now, I wonder where Yugoslavia's and Greece's armies were when I restarted WW3, and where they were when Yugoslavia joined the Allies? Looking at that last screenshot, it's apparent that they had enough troops in Italy to push Italy back, but what about the long Soviet border with Yugoslavia.... :)

Would like to see some prod screens etc and how MP & IC is doing :p.

Nothing yet, but there will be a chapter dedicated to all of that right before I join the fun. The next chapter will be about WW3 up to the point I join in, and the following chapter will be all about my research, army, IC, MP, resources, OOB, etc.
 
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