Huaihai Campaign
After the Second Sino-Japanese War, He was put in charge of Guangdong province and then named as one of President Chiang Kai-shek's military advisors. After the disastrous Huaihai Campaign, Vice President Li Zongren took over as acting President, Zhang was named as chief military administrator of Hainan and commander-in-chief of Nationalist ground forces in March 1949. He did not retreat to Taiwan with his commander Xue Yue. He stayed in Hong Kong.