From paper to real guns, this is a process that military school students must go through, this is also a leap from a student to a soldier in the psychological endurance, when you face the comrades around you who are shot or killed, when you come to the end of a living young life, how do you overcome fear, endure pain, make yourself a soldier without fear of life and death, in addition to courage, what is needed is a spirit that supports you to charge forward, that is: who are you fighting for? Death in battle is also a noble and glorious spirit.
From the opening of the Whampoa Military Academy in May 1924, in August, Dr. Sun Yat-sen urged Chiang Kai-shek and Liao Zhongkai to form an army to fight against Chen Jiongming, Guangdong's greatest enemy.
On November 20, 1924, the Guangzhou Nationalist Government led by Sun Yat-sen had its first armed force, the Whampoa Military Academy Teaching Regiment, which was subordinate to the First and Second Regiments.
The leader of the first regiment was He Yingqin.
He Yingqin (1890-1987), a native of Xingyi, Guizhou, studied in Japan in his early years, studied at the Japanese Army Non-Commissioned Officer School, and after returning to China, he served as the principal of Guizhou Daowu Hall and the chief instructor of the Whampoa Military Academy.
The leader of the second regiment was Wang Bailing.
Wang Bailing (1889-1942), a native of Jiangdu, Jiangsu Province, studied at the Baoding Beiyang Army Accelerated School, the Japanese Zhenwu School, and the Japanese Army Non-Commissioned Officer School, and later participated in the preparation of the Whampoa Military Academy, serving as the director of the Professorial Department of the Military Academy and the first chief education officer of the Whampoa Military Academy.
The teaching regiment adopted the "three-three system" in terms of organization, that is, three battalions per regiment, three companies per battalion, three platoons per company, and 26 to 30 soldiers per platoon. In addition, there are two machine gun companies, a special service company, a reconnaissance team, a heavy brigade, a signal team, and a health team directly under the regimental headquarters. The regiment consisted of about 2,000 men, the main branch of which was infantry. Most of the graduates of the first and second phases of the Whampoa Military Academy served as company and platoon level officers in the teaching regiment, and some outstanding cadres at the battalion level.
After the establishment of the Whampoa Student Army (Teaching Regiment), the first time it participated in the war was the Eastern Crusade.
On February 1, 1925, the Grand Marshal's Office of Guangzhou issued a general mobilization order and decided to carry out the First Crusade. The object of the Crusade was Chen Jiongming, which gave the teaching group composed of Huangpu students a blood and fire experience.
The first battle fought by the Whampoa Student Army was the Battle of Tamsui.
On February 13, 1925, He Yingqin and Wang Bailing led the first and second regiments of teaching to assemble under Tamsui City.
Tamsui is about 35 kilometers away from Huizhou, with Chen Jiongming's troops of more than 3,000 people defending the city, the city walls are high and thick, the city moats are deep and wide, easy to defend and difficult to attack. At the same time, because of the stagnant wait-and-see on the left and middle roads of the Eastern Expeditionary Army, Chen Jiongming's troops were able to come to the rescue from Huizhou urgently. If they could not capture Tamsui before enemy reinforcements arrived, the Crusaders were in danger.
In the early morning of the 14th, the Crusaders decided to launch an immediate attack, with the teaching regiment as the main force. For the first time, the Whampoa Student Army really went to the battlefield and experienced war.
The first confrontation with the enemy can only be summed up in the word "defeat".
After launching the charge, the officers and men of the teaching regiment quickly rushed down to Tamsui City. The enemy had long been prepared, the freshwater wall had three layers of shooting, the lower layer adopted a kneeling position, the middle layer adopted a standing shooting posture, and the upper layer stood on a wooden shelf and fired from the recess at the top of the wall, and the three layers of fire crossed, and whether the besiegers were in the distance or rushed to the city, they were exposed to the fire net of the defending side.
Looking at the students who have fallen down from time to time and who have gone to the battlefield for the first time, it is definitely false to say that they are not nervous. At the same time, they also found that the real battlefield was completely different from the drills in military academies. The soldiers who rushed to the city could not find the ladder for climbing the wall, the ladder was erected and found that the length was not enough, the soldier could not find the commander, the commander could not find the soldier... For a whole day, the task force was not organized into an effective attack.
That night, after consultation, the command decided that it would not be possible to fight in this way, and decided to set up a "brave team (death squad)" to take on the heavy responsibility of attacking the city. That night, the task of organizing the "Valiants" reached the platoons. The "Courageous Brigade" consisted of 10 officers and 100 soldiers, 10 officers were company and platoon cadres, most of whom were graduates of the Whampoa Military Academy, and the captain was Cai Guangju, a party representative of the Second Regiment and The Third Battalion and a first-term student of Huangpu.
At dawn on the 15th, the offensive cannons were fired, and the "Brave Team" took the lead. They carried bamboo ladders to attack the three gates of the east, south and west at the same time. Although there were many people falling down 100 meters and 50 meters away from the city, the team members carried forward the spirit of not being afraid of sacrifice and competed for the lead. These 10 officers played an exemplary role, and the captain Cai Guangju was seriously injured and could not get out of the line of fire (after the rescue was ineffectively sacrificed).
Eventually the daredevils climbed the city walls, planted flags, and shouted "The party army has entered the city!" ”
Seeing the flag, the defenders of the city were in a hurry, while the soldiers under the city were in good spirits and stormed the city like a tide. The first to invade the city was the First Regiment of Teaching, and then the Second Regiment and the Cantonese Army also followed. Two hours later, the battle was over and the Crusaders captured Tamsui. The battle captured more than 1,000 enemy officers and men and captured more than 1,000 guns.
The attack on Tamsui City was the first battle of the Whampoa Student Army, and it was also the first time they experienced blood and death.
In the Freshwater War, the fledgling student army won a hard battle with fewer victories and more victories. This impressed the warlords who had been dismissive or skeptical of them, and all sectors of society praised them.
After that, they continued to march east to occupy Haifeng, Lufeng, and Chaozhou, and in just over a month, they advanced 400 kilometers east, but in the final battle of the Crusade, the Battle of Mianhu, although they won the victory, they also paid a heavy price, especially the teaching regiment lost more than half of its troops.
The significance of the Crusade was a war in which the students of the Whampoa Military Academy went to the battlefield for the first time and whose combat effectiveness was comprehensively tested, and it was a test of blood and fire that made the cadets of the military academy become real soldiers on the battlefield.
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