History is the memory of things that have been said and done. —Carl Baker
During the Republic of China period, warlords divided the territory. For example, the Xiang Army is in Hunan, the Gui Army is in Liangguang, and the Sichuan Army is in charge of Sichuan. Yunnan, located on the southwestern border, was the territory of the Dian Army.
In the past war-themed film and television dramas, whether it is the melee between the warlords of the Republic of China or the late Anti-Japanese War, we can often see the Sichuan Army, the Xiang Army, and the Gui Army, but rarely see the figure of the Dian Army. So what was the combat effectiveness of the Dian army led by Wang Longyun of Yunnan at that time?
First, from the Forces nouvelles.
The Dian Army originated from the New Army in Yunnan, that is, the 19th town of the Army, which was built in the thirty-fourth year of Guangxu (1908). After the Xinhai Revolution, Tang Jiyao took advantage of the opportunity of successively serving as the governor of Guizhou and the governor of Yunnan to gradually control and unify all the Dian army. In the fourth year of the Republic of China (1915), the Dian Army was also known as the "Yunnan Protectorate Army". On February 6, the sixteenth year of the Republic of China (1927), a coup d'état occurred within the Dian clan, and the four towns in Yunnan overthrew the Tang Dynasty, and Long Yun became the leader of the Dian warlords. On December 9, 1949, LuHan declared an uprising, and the Dian army officially withered away.
At that time, Yunnan was remote, the transportation was backward, and the economy could not be compared with the Central Plains. Therefore, when Yuan Shikai was in power, in terms of supplies, he still made a tilt towards this unit that was struggling to defend at the border. Only then did the Dian army have spare money to set up a lecture hall in a remote place far away from the mountains and highlands to cultivate its own military talents.
Later, the warlords fought in a scuffle, because of the small number of people in Yunnan, it was not easy to replenish the troops, plus Zhu Peide brought a group of people to Guangzhou, and when Long Yun took over, there was only one 60th Army. In order to resist Japan, the local security regiment, reserve team and other second-line armed forces had to be organized into a 93rd Army.
2. Anti-Japanese Resistance against Japan.
After the outbreak of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, although he was in the rear of the Anti-Japanese War, Wang Longyun of Yunnan actively responded to the call for national salvation and expressed at the 1937 National Defense Conference that he was willing to take out the elite of the Dian Army to support the anti-Japanese resistance. It was equipped with German mountain guns and French anti-aircraft machine guns, three heavy machine guns, six light machine guns, three mortars, four grenadiers, and each soldier was equipped with a French steel helmet, making it an elite division with more than 40,000 people in three divisions.
Due to the embarrassment of military expenditure, the Dian army at that time had not yet realized mechanization, and the Anti-Japanese War could only be carried out on foot, and it took more than 40 days to reach the central China battlefield 2,000 kilometers away, and the average daily marching speed reached 50 kilometers, which showed the sincerity and determination of the Dian army to resist Japan.
The Dian army first participated in the defense of Nanjing, and was then transferred to the main battlefield of the Battle of Xuzhou, when the Nationalist army had just won the Battle of Taierzhuang under the command of Li Zongren, but the Japanese army soon mobilized elite troops to counterattack Taierzhuang again.
At this time, Tang Enbobu and Sun Lianzhongbu suffered too many casualties in the previous battles, and it was difficult to resist the crazy attack of the Japanese army, so they could only retreat step by step, and Taierzhuang saw that they were about to fall into the hands of the enemy. The Republic of China government urgently ordered the 60th Army to speed up its march, and after arriving in Xuzhou day and night, it was arranged to take over the positions of Xuezhongbu and Tang Enbobu.
Although the French weapons of the Yunnan Army are well-equipped, due to backward tactical thinking and old-fashioned command, soldiers have low proficiency in the application of new weapons. In addition, the soldiers were weak in physique and most of them smoked a lot of cigarettes, which was common in the three armies of Sichuan and Dianqian, so they were still not opponents of the Japanese. In the absence of air support, heavy firepower was not as good as the Japanese army, and due to the poor coordination and cooperation between the friendly and neighboring units, the Dian army almost resisted the crazy attack of the Japanese army with its flesh and blood in the battle of Yuwangshan.
In this defensive battle, despite their bravery, the 35,000 Dian troops who participated in the battle suffered heavy casualties, with as many as 13,869 casualties, 4,545 wounded, and 430 missing, while one brigade commander was killed, 5 regimental commanders, and more than half of the battalion company platoon commanders were also killed.
However, the Dian army also inflicted heavy damage on the Japanese army, and was responsible for covering the retreat of the main force of the nationalist army in the Xuzhou battlefield, until all the main forces withdrew, and the Dian army was the last to withdraw from the defense. Even the Japanese newspapers at that time commented that it was rare to encounter such a national army team that was not afraid of sacrifice and would rather die than retreat.
3. Uprising and surrender.
After the end of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, the Dian Army was incorporated into the Nationalist Army, and the 8 divisions that had undergone the baptism of the War of Resistance were reduced to 6 divisions and assigned to different theaters. Fearing that the prestigious Long Yun would influence the Dian army to participate in the civil war, the Nationalist government forced him to step down and replace him with Lu Han as the new governor of Yunnan.
But even so, the generals of the Dian Army still knew the great righteousness, in 1948, the commander of the 60th Army, Zeng Zesheng, led the uprising, and in 1949, Lu Han declared the uprising of Yunnan Province and accepted peaceful reorganization. In this way, this army, which was formed from the end of the Qing Dynasty and showed its courage in the War of Resistance, withdrew from the stage of history.
It is not difficult to see that among the various warlords of the Republic of China, the Dian Army is well-equipped, second only to the Northeast Army, and even slightly superior to the Central Army. In terms of combat effectiveness, the Dian army was heroic and fearless, second only to the Central Army and the Gui Army, stronger than the Sichuan Army and the Jin Sui Army, and even stronger than Zhang Xueliang's Northeast Army by ten thousand times.