During the period of Kuomintang rule, there was such a private armed force, which did not belong to the sequence of the nationalist army, but was an elite force that even the regular Kuomintang army could not match.
Its first commander graduated from the United States Military Academy at West Point, and Sun Liren, a graduate of Tsinghua University and the Virginia Military Academy in the United States, was the commander of this unit.
Most of the officers above the company level in this unit were international students, and it also had a senior advisory board, and these senior advisers were all German officers.
This unit is the "National Government Ministry of Finance Taxation Police Corps".
As the name suggests, it is supposed to be an irregular force for anti-smuggling taxation.
To set up the Taxation Police Corps, Song Ziwen neither obtained Chiang Kai-shek's consent nor reported it to the Military and Political Department in charge of the army; the establishment, equipment, and personnel arrangements of the "National Government Taxation Police Corps" were all decided by Song Ziwen, and no one could interfere.
Therefore, it is not an exaggeration to say that the "Tax Police Corps" is Song Ziwen's private armed force.
The source of military expenditure of the Tax Police Corps is very simple, but it is very abundant.
The National Government levies a large amount of "salt tax" every year, and in addition to repaying the loans of the eight-country banks, most of the remaining funds are used to "support" the Tax Police Corps, and the amount of money is quite large.
Therefore, at that time, the Tax Police Corps was the most "local" army in China, and their weapons and equipment were procured by the Ministry of Finance itself, and the advanced weapons purchased from Europe and the United States were not comparable to ordinary troops.
The rifles are all Mauser guns, equipped with anti-aircraft guns, amphibious fighting vehicles, water-cooled heavy machine guns, and even "Carden Royd" ultralight tanks.
It can be said that in the Tax police corps, in addition to the gray cloth military uniforms and blue sky and day hat badges worn by the officers and men, even small items such as canned food, mosquito nets, and bedding are "imported goods."
The quality of the officers and men of the Taxation Police Corps is also much higher than that of the regular Kuomintang army, and the students of the British and American military schools have a large number of students, and even ordinary soldiers have a certain culture.
The establishment of the Tax police regiment is also very special, under the regiment there are five regiments plus direct subordinate units, a squad has 14 soldiers, a platoon has 6 squads, a company has 252 people, a battalion has 4 companies, and a regiment has more than 5,000 troops.
The regiment also has 7 battalions, including special agent battalions, anti-aircraft artillery battalions, artillery battalions, and communication battalions, and the entire tax police regiment has more than 30,000 troops.
Some people want to ask, can Chiang Kai-shek not ask or care about Song Ziwen's private formation of the army?
In fact, Song Ziwen's movement of forming the Tax Police Corps is not small, and it is impossible to achieve "quietly", and the National Government has long had people pointing fingers and talking about it behind their backs.
However, everyone knows that the marriage between Chiang Kai-shek and Soong Mei-ling was a political marriage, and to some extent, the relationship between Chiang Kai-shek and Song was equivalent to Sino-US relations, and Chiang Kai-shek has always been "obedient" to the Soong family.
Therefore, no one will be "bored with themselves".
In addition, Song Ziwen, the "uncle of the state," has never bought Old Jiang's account, and when the two disagreed, Song Ziwen dared to lift Old Jiang's desk in person.
Chiang Kai-shek was not unaware of the existence of the Taxation Police Corps, but he thought that this was a contingent that existed for the purpose of "collecting taxes" and was insignificant, so he did not care.
Old Jiang also did not expect that Song Ziwen would turn an insignificant tax police corps into a lean armed force.
For the Taxation Police Corps, Song Ziwen poured a lot of effort into it, for example, all the senior officers of the Taxation Police Corps were personally recruited by him and promoted by one hand.
Sun Liren was a military talent that Song Ziwen was very optimistic about and personally promoted.
Sun Liren also did not bear the heavy trust, he integrated the educational methods of the Chinese and American military academies, and formulated a set of training exercises that were different from other units of the Nationalist army - "Sun's Exercise Code".
All the units under their command have been strictly trained in accordance with the "Sun's Code of Conduct," and the officers and men have all excelled in their academic achievements, technical skills, and military skills.
"Raise troops for a thousand days, use soldiers for a while."
The Tax Police Corps has played a considerable role in matters related to "tax collection", but more difficult tasks await this force.
When the "128" incident broke out and the Japanese army raided Shanghai, the Taxation Police Corps was ordered to go to the front line of resistance against the enemy, and Song Ziwen personally issued a combat order.
Because of the fear that this matter would be opposed by the Bank of Eight Countries, the Taxation Police Corps did not use its own name, and Song Ziwen handed over the Second Taxation Police Regiment and the Third Taxation Police Regiment to the 19th Route Army of the Nationalist Army, which was under the unified command of the 19th Route Army and participated in the War of Resistance.
The Tax police corps was one of the first Chinese troops to engage the Japanese.
In this battle, the first battalion of the second regiment of the tax police held its position, and the Japanese suffered heavy casualties, but the officers and men of the first battalion were also martyred.
In addition, the Taxation Police Corps also participated in battles such as guarding Longhua Airport and once recaptured the Zhabei Railway Station.
In a fierce defensive battle, the officers and men of the Taxation Police Corps were not afraid to face a strong enemy, and they dealt a heavy blow to the Japanese army with their strong morale, excellent military technology and sophisticated weapons.
In this battle, the number of Japanese casualties exceeded the number of casualties of the Tax police corps, which was rare and very rare at that time.
After that, the Fifth Army of the Nationalist Army rushed to the aid of Shanghai, and the participating units of the Taxation Police Corps were organized into the Independent Brigade of the 87th Division of the Fifth Army, under the command of the Fifth Army.
After the signing of the "Songhu Agreement," the Taxation Police Corps had to be transferred out of Shanghai and sent to the Lianghuai region for retraining.
Song Ziwen realized that Japan would not stop there, and there would be a big war between China and Japan sooner or later.
In 1932, Song Ziwen flew to Beiping to contact Zhang Xueliang and Tang Yulin, who had retired to Guannei, and wanted to transfer the Tax Police Corps to North China and put it on the anti-Japanese front.
Unexpectedly, as soon as the Taxation Police Corps arrived in Zhengzhou, it was discovered by Liu Zhi, chairman of Henan Province, and Liu Zhi immediately reported the situation to Chiang Kai-shek.
Chiang Kai-shek was furious and strictly ordered the Taxation Police Corps to return the same way.
As a result, the Taxation Police Corps was unable to go to the front, so Song Ziwen had a big quarrel with Chiang Kai-shek, and in a fit of anger, resigned from the post of finance minister and "went abroad to investigate."
After the "August 13" Songhu War of Resistance began, the Taxation Police Corps once again marched to the Shanghai Anti-Japanese Front.
This time, the Tax police regiment was assigned to Zhang Zhizhong's Ninth Army, and the troops were organized into two detachments, with the commanders He Shaozhou and Wang Gongliang, and the commander-in-chief Huang Jie.
From October 1 to December 5, the Taxation Police Corps participated in the garrison battle between Yunzaobang and Suzhou Creek, and after the Japanese landed in Hangzhou Bay, the Taxation Police Corps undertook the task of covering the transfer of the army into combat, which lasted for sixty-six days.
In order to hold the position, the officers and men of the Taxation Police Corps followed in succession, and even competed with the Japanese army house by house, becoming a thorn in the eyes and a thorn in the flesh of the Japanese army.
The Battle of Zhoujiaqiao was the most tragic battle of the Tax police corps.
Sun Liren led his troops to defend the first line of Zhoujiaqiao on suzhou creek, and fought a bloody battle with the Japanese army for two weeks, during the battle, Sun Liren was seriously injured by Japanese mortars, hit thirteen shrapnels all over his body, and was in a coma for three days, and was sent to Hong Kong by Song Ziwen for treatment.
Shortly after the end of the Battle of Songhu, Huang Jie was placed under the command of Gu Zhutong, the commander of the Third Theater, and the remnants of the Tax Police Corps were organized into the 40th Division, leaving more than 5,000 wounded, and Huang Jie ignored it.
Sun Liren, who had not yet recovered from his war wounds at this time, rushed to Wuhan after hearing the news, and based on these 5,000 people, he recruited the old ministry and reorganized the "Anti-Smuggling Corps" of the Ministry of Finance in March 1938.
In early 1939, the Anti-Smuggling Corps reinstated the name of the Tax Police Corps.
In December 1941, most of the Tax Police Corps was reorganized into the Army's new 38th Division.
In the battle of Yunnan burma, the new 38th Division shined, and in the Battle of Ren'anqiang, the new 38th Division defeated seven times the Japanese army and rescued more than 7,000 British troops stationed in Burma.
In October 1942, the New 38th Division and the New 22nd Division were organized as the newly organized First Army, with Zheng Dongguo as the commander, Sun Liren as the commander of the New 38th Division, and Liao Yaoxiang as the commander of the New 22nd Division.
In Ramga, the new First Army changed its american weapons and equipment, received American training, and soon after, the "tiger" was "out of the mountains" again!
As soon as the new First Army came out of the mountain, it crushed the Japanese Eighteenth Division, known as the "King of Jungle Warfare".
During the 80-day Battle of Myitkyina in Burma, the New First Army annihilated nearly 4,000 enemy troops, forcing major general Shui Yuanzang, the commander of the Japanese defense of Myitkyina, to commit suicide by cutting his abdomen.
The capture of Myitkyina marked a decisive victory for the Chinese, American, and British allies in the Indo-Burmese battlefield.
The Tax Police Corps also grew from a private force to an ace unit considered a fierce enemy by the Japanese army.
The New First Army, with the Taxation Police Corps as the "bottom of the old family," was worthy of being a hero of the anti-Japanese resistance, but in the end it became the martyrdom of Chiang Kai-shek's "all-out civil war."
In the "Black Mountain Blockade Battle" of the Liaoshen Campaign, Liao Yaoxiang mobilized the New First Army and other units to take turns to launch a fierce attack on Montenegro.
The Montenegrin blockade battle was fought for 5 days, but the elite main forces of the Kuomintang such as the New First Army never broke through Montenegro.
In the early morning of October 26, 1948, the Northeast People's Liberation Army launched a general offensive against Liao Yaoxiang's corps.
In this chaotic battle of unprecedented scale, the new First Army was completely defeated.
A number of senior officers, including the deputy commander of the New First Army, were captured, and the commander Pan Yukun escaped by chance.
On October 19, 1948, the New 38th Division, which originally belonged to the New First Army, surrendered to the Northeast People's Liberation Army in Changchun, and in November 1948, the last division of the New First Army, the Provisional 53rd Division, also chose to lay down its arms.
With the withdrawal of the last unit with the blood of the Tax Police Corps, the story of the Tax Police Corps ends here.