Changsha campaigns; and their claims to the contrary notwithstanding, they appear to have contained but a minor proportion of the Japanese military forces operating in China.54 A minor proportion, that is, in comparison to the Nationalists. Gauss was no admirer of Chiang, but he could see that the CCP was not the magic key that could transform the worsening war situation in China. In Yan’an, Vladimirov, who could see the CCP close up, agreed. “The Eighth Route Army and New Fourth Army have actually folded up military operations since 1941,” he stated flatly in his report to Moscow.
