在第五次"圍剿"后期,蔣介石運用"驅其離巢"策略,逼迫紅軍西走。這從表面上看雖有"放水"之嫌,但實際上乃是欲擒故縱,他早已在"遠處張網"。紅軍突圍后,蔣介石又在日記中以"不可錯過剿匪成功之大好機會"自勉,頻繁調動和督促各部,希圖用多道封鎖線剿滅紅軍,阻其入黔。而在紅軍進入貴州前后,蔣介石確實開始將追剿中共與統一西南兩個問題結合起來考量,以求"一石二鳥"。但他從未放松追堵,仍處心積慮欲消滅紅軍,并無驅其入川之意。紅軍巧渡金沙江后,蔣介石更是在日記中懊惱不已,視為"用兵一生莫大之恥辱"。因此,或許蔣介石的某些決策在客觀上有利于紅軍突圍,但其主觀上從未有意"放水"。進而言之,盡管蔣介石后來借追剿之機統一了西南,但卻不能倒果為因地反推他當初便縱共"西竄"。在他的內心中,追剿始終是首要任務,并深以未竟全功為憾,解決西南問題只是其聊以自慰的一個收獲而已

Late in the fifth"encirclement campaign, "Chiang Kai-Shek used the strategy of"forcing the Red Army to abandon its base" to force the Red Army to move westward.This looked as if Chiang was deliberately letting the Red Army go at the time while actually setting a trap to catch them later.After the Red Army had fought its way out of the encirclement,Chiang exculpated himself,writing in his dairy that "this is a great opportunity for the campaign to succeed. " He mobilized his troops frequently and urged them on,hoping to destroy the Red Army by blockading their entry into Guizhou at numerous points.Before and after the Red Army entered Guizhou,Chiang did indeed start to consider a two-pronged strategy of tracking down the Communists while unifying the Southwest,"killing two birds with one stone".He stuck to his policy of pursuing and blockading the Red Army and was obsessed with wiping them out,so had no intention of driving them into Sichuan.After the Red Army crossed the Jinsha River,Chiang confided his fury to his diary,writing that this was the greatest humiliation of his military life.Therefore,although some of Chiang’s decisions did objectively help the Red Army break out of the encirclement,one cannot reverse cause and effect and say that he intended to let the Red Army go.It is thus unreasonable to argue that although Chiang ultimately took advantage of the opportunity afforded by the encirclement campaign to unify the Southwest,he had all along allowed the Red Army to move westward for this reason.For him,pursuit of the Red Army always held pride of place;he bitterly regretted his failure,and the unification of the Southwest region was simply an attempt to console himself