After the Xi'an Incident Zhang was imprisoned which caused large numbers of Northeast Army troops to defect to the Communists, planting the seeds of the civil war and the eventual fall of the mainland to the Communists.
西安事變後，張學良被囚禁，造成大量東北軍叛逃投共，這也埋下國共內戰，大陸終至淪陷的種子。