杜聿明
After the war against Japan was over, Sun was named garrison commander of Chongking and Nanjing, while keeping the command of the 16th army. He participated early successful campaigns against the communist forces along with his old classmates, they were Du Yuming, Fan Hanjie, Hu Lien and Liu Yuzhang. The communists lost all of their holdings in Central and Eastern China except Shandong and Henan Provinces. In November 1948, the determining battle of the Chinese Civil War, the Huaihai Campaign broke out. Due to the poor leadership of Liu Zhi, one of the least effective Kuomintang commanders and major security breaches caused by communist moles, Sun's troops were encircled by the communist Eastern China Field Army commanded by Su Yu. As a seasoned veteran, he urged Du Yuming, the deputy commander of the nationalist troops to break out before it is too late. Du, being a noted Chiang Kai-shek loyalist, decided to wait for reinforcement as Chiang had promised. Sun decided to breakout on his own, his 16th army was destroyed by the communist troops, but he made it safely to Nanjing in 1948. Chiang again appointed him as commander of the 16th army and tasked to reorganize his unit. In 1949, while he was defending Sichuan province from communist attack, many of his officers went to the communists. Sun was forced to resign as army commander and retired shortly after following Chiang Kai-shek to Taiwan.