The Zhen song army has not only done the work of bandits, but also performed on the anti-Japanese battlefield, and has both identities.
The predecessor of the Zhensong Army, which was born in the Green Forest, was a rebel army composed of good people from the Green Forest in western Henan led by Zhang Xuan, a shaanxi revolutionary during the Xinhai Revolution, and was subordinate to the Qin Longfu Han Army. After the founding of the Republic of China, the rebels in various places were dismantled, and this Henan Green Forest rebel army was also dismantled.
Later, after Zhang Xiao's campaign, this part of the unit was reorganized into a local unit in western Henan. Because the troops were stationed near Song County after the change, and Zhang Zhenfang, who was the governor of Henan at that time, the troops were named Zhen SongJun. Because Wang Tianzhong had already been invited by Yuan Shikai to take up a post in Beijing, liu Zhenhua was finally the commander of the Zhensong Army.
When the Dharma Protection Movement broke out in 1917, Zhang Xi and Yu Youren responded to the uprising in Shaanxi, and contacted a large number of local armed forces in Shaanxi to form the Jingguo Army, besieging Chen Shufan, the governor of Shaanxi who obeyed Duan Qirui's orders. Duan Qirui appointed Liu Zhenhua as the governor of Shaanxi Province, and led zhen song troops into Shaanxi to support Chen Shufan.
Liu Zhenhua then used his connections on the Green Forest Road in western Henan to win over and recruit a large number of bandits, and entered Shaanxi to fight with his old boss Zhang Xiao. With the help of Liu Zhenhua, coupled with the complex internal composition and lack of cooperation of the Jingguo army, Chen Shufan finally repelled the attack of the Jingguo army and drove them back to northern Shaanxi.
After that, the Zhensong army was stationed in Shaanxi for a long time. During the First Zhifeng War, Feng Yuxiang, the overseer of Shaanxi, left Shaanxi for Henan with his troops, and Liu Zhenhua served as the overseer of Shaanxi.
During the Second Zhifeng War, the direct family was defeated. Liu Zhenhua, who had long coveted Henan, took the opportunity to send his troops into western Henan in the name of expelling Wu Peifu. After Yu Yukun arrived in Western Henan, he once again wantonly recruited the bandit armed forces, and his strength increased greatly for a while.
However, at this time, Qirui had already appointed Hu Jingyi, the leader of the Nationalist Second Army, as the overseer of Henan, and the Nationalist Second Army entered Yu in a big way. Liu Zhenhua felt that Henan was rich and Shaanxi was poor, refused to give in, resisted by force, and personally led his troops to reinforce Henan, and the two sides broke out into a major war.
As a result, the Zhensong army was defeated by Hu Jingyi, fortunately, most of the Zhensong army was born in the green forest, and the running kung fu was good, and everyone returned to the mountains of western Henan to fall into the grass. Liu Zhenhua fled to Shanxi.
Shortly thereafter, the three warlords Zhang Zuolin, Wu Peifu, and Yan Xishan united to launch a war against Feng Yuxiang and defeat him. Wu Peifu reappointed Liu Zhenhua as the overseer of Shaanxi and asked him to pack up his old troops and fight back to Shaanxi. Liu Zhenhua then gathered his old troops in western Henan, and by the way, he drew together many bandit armed forces, claiming that 100,000 troops had entered Shaanxi and captured most of the area except Xi'an.
At this time, the Zhensong army could be said to be mostly bandits, and after entering Shaanxi, they burned and plundered, and all the bad things were done, and the people of Shaanxi suffered greatly, and it is not an exaggeration to say that they are bandits.
The reorganization of the Zhen Song Army was not long in Shaanxi. With the outbreak of the Northern Expedition, the Beiyang warlords were gradually defeated on the battlefield. And Feng Yuxiang also swore an oath in Wuyuan and led his troops back to Shaanxi.
Liu Zhenhua's troops were all rabble-rousers, who naturally could not resist and were repeatedly defeated in battle. In the end, there was no way, Liu Zhenhua could only lead his troops to surrender to Feng Yuxiang, and later fell to Chiang Kai-shek, and the Zhensong Army was organized into the 11th Route Army, and later reorganized into the 15th Army, with Liu Zhenhua's brother Liu Maoen as the commander, and thereafter became one of the miscellaneous armies under the Nationalist government.
After the outbreak of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, the 15th Army also threw itself into the War of Resistance, and successively participated in many battles such as the Battle of Taiyuan, the Winter Offensive, the Battle of Zhongtiao Mountain, and the Battle of Yuzhong.
Although it is said that as a miscellaneous army, and it is the kind of miscellaneous army that is not very good, the 15th Army is not very good in terms of training and equipment, and its combat effectiveness can only be regarded as average. However, the 15th Army also had a certain performance in these battles, which can be regarded as a contribution to the War of Resistance. Moreover, the 15th Army did not defect to the Japanese as puppet troops on a large scale, so it was no problem to say that they were anti-Japanese heroes.