The Nationalists' Strategy in Manchuria

Shang decided to commit his best forces in manchuria. He would take over its major cities and from those bases spread through the northern industrial region, sweeping the communists away. The plan worked perfectly - the nationalists easily took the major manchurian cities. Puzzlingly, though, in the face of this critical campaign, the communists strategy made no sense. Their small units harassed the nationalist armies, ambushing them here, retreating unexpectedly there. But these disprsed units never linked up, making them hard to attack. They moved like mercury, never staying in one place. Elusive and formless. A kind of terror overcame the nationalist soldiers. Commanders comfortably remote from the