Yan Xishan's invention of the grenade was different, ridiculed by the generals of the Central Army, but it made the Japanese army afraid
The grenade is an important weapon used by infantry in combat, and the farther it is thrown, the easier it is to kill the enemy, which is more lethal than the rifle. A grenade invented by Yan Xishan, the king of Shanxi, was different, and was once ridiculed by the generals of the Central Army, but it could make the Japanese devils suffer great losses and be frightened.
On March 15, 1912, Yuan Shikai officially appointed Yan Xishan as the governor of Shanxi, and since then Yan Xishan has occupied Shanxi and developed a local armed force, first called the Jin Army, then the Jin Sui Army, which became his military force to rule Shanxi, and the number of the Jin Sui Army reached its peak before the Battle of Jiang Feng Yan Zhongyuan.
At that time, Yan Xishan expanded the Jin Sui Army into 10 corps, 4 security columns, 4 cavalry divisions and 7 artillery brigades, with a total of about 200,000 people. After the defeat of Feng Yan in the Central Plains War, the strength and status of the Jin Sui Army dropped significantly, but it still maintained a relatively complete structure and played an important role in the War of Resistance.
Because it was a local army, the weapons and equipment of Yan Xishan's Jin Sui Army mainly relied on itself, and Yan Xishan established the Taiyuan Arsenal and established the Shanxi Gunpowder Factory, with 17 branches under its jurisdiction. Later, Yan Xishan set up a new military enterprise: the Northwest Industrial Company, which can produce guns and bullets.
Among them, a special grenade he designed is different, which is a giant grenade that weighs more than ten pounds and is so large that almost no one can throw it out with bare hands. This is the complete opposite of the idea that grenades were small, easy to carry, and thrown far.
When many Kuomintang Generals of the Central Army saw this kind of grenade, they laughed at Yan Xishan for not fighting a war, but only talking on paper. However, Yan Xishan tried his best to suppress the public opinion and forced the military factory to produce more of these heavy grenades, which could not be thrown away, and what was the purpose of producing so much.
Many people had such suspicions, but in later actual combat, the grenade played a big role. It turned out that Yan Xishan did not intend to let the soldiers throw this grenade at all, but used it to defend the mountain pass and the commanding heights, just need to roll down. The mountains in Shanxi are not rare, and there are mountains everywhere, so they often rely on the mountains to fight against the Japanese army.
After this grenade was rolled down from a high place by the soldiers of the Jin Sui Army, the First Time the Japanese Army faced this giant grenade, they did not care, so they did not have any defense, did not expect that the grenade was loaded with more medicine, the power was huge, the Japanese army was blown up by the grenade that rolled down the mountain, and suffered a big loss, and later the Japanese army found that this grenade rolled down and immediately retreated, which was simply frightening. After the actual battle, the generals of the Central Army also changed their views and began to equip some of these giant grenades in mountain combat.