 Afterwards, within the Japanese occupied provinces and behind enemy lines the KMT and CPC forces carried on warfare with each other, with the Communists eventually destroying or absorbing the KMT partisan forces or driving them into the puppet forces of the Japanese.The communists under the leadership of Mao Zedong also began to focus most of their energy on building up their sphere of influence wherever opportunities were presented, mainly through rural mass organizations, administrative, land and tax reform measures favoring poor peasants; while the KMT allocated many divisions of its regular army to carry out military blockade of the CPC areas in an attempt to neutralize the spread of Communist influence until the end of the Second Sino-Japanese War.After the Second Sino-Japanese War, Chiang Kai Shek and Mao Zedong attempted to engage in peace talks.