 When the Kuomintang army ordered the Henan locals to destroy the local highways to prevent the Japanese advance, they refused.In fact they sometimes even went back at night and mended roads which the army had torn up by day.With the rapid deterioration of the Chinese front after Japanese launched Operation Ichi-Go in 1944, General Joseph Stilwell saw this as an opportunity to win his political struggle against Chiang Kai-shek, China's leader, and gain full command of all Chinese armed forces.