Eight years to increase the number of troops, where do the guns and ammunition of the Eighth Route Army come from? Restore the true face of the history of the War of Resistance

July 7, 1937, a day that all Chinese can never forget, was a day when the Japanese invaders launched a full-scale invasion of China, and countless people were killed in the war. It can be said that this is the Chinese nation, and it has come to the time when it is really the most dangerous.

At such a critical juncture, the Kuomintang and the Communists chose to put aside their years of grudges and drive the invaders out of their homes first. Therefore, in August 1937, the former Workers' and Peasants' Red Army changed its banner and went to the front line of the War of Resistance in North China, and from then on, the title of "Eighth Route Army" became the loudest voice in the land of China.

However, many people do not know that at the beginning of the establishment of the Eighth Route Army, only 3 divisions and 6 brigades, plus some soldiers who stayed behind, the number was less than 50,000. But even so, with the advancement of the war, the size of the Eighth Route Army expanded rapidly, and the number of people was as high as 400,000 during the Hundred Regiments War;

By the end of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, the total strength of the Eighth Route Army was as high as one million people, and the speed of expansion was amazing. But behind this speed there is also a problem, how can so many people meet their weapons and equipment needs?

It should be known that in the era of thermal weapons, war's dependence on ammunition is very strong, and once these combat materials are lacking, it is equivalent to standing and being beaten. However, the Eighth Route Army was very backward in the military industry in that era, so where did the guns and ammunition that supported the fight of millions of people come from? Today, I will restore the true face of the history of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression.

During the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, the Eighth Route Army had many ways of obtaining ammunition supplies, the first of which was supply from the Nationalist government.

Although the relationship between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party was very tense before this, the fact is that the Eighth Route Army did not have enough equipment to fight at that time, so it could only reach out to the government. Therefore, the early battles of the Eighth Route Army were inseparable from the support of the Nationalist government.

However, in the first year of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, not all theaters were willing to provide weapons and equipment, and only Yan Xishan's Second Theater provided more timely and sufficient supplies to the Eighth Route Army.

According to historical records, before the Eighth Route Army was officially renamed, the Nationalist government had already provided the Red Army with a total of 700,000 rounds of ammunition, in addition to more than 600 mortar shells and 15,000 grenades. After the beginning of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, it successively provided ammunition supplies with a total of nearly 6 million rounds of ammunition, more than 70,000 grenades, and 9,000 mortar shells.

Although there were not many of them, in the early stage of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, the Eighth Route Army quickly opened up the situation, so it still played a very important role. Unfortunately, Chiang Kai-shek was not a stable man, and after seeing the expansion rate of the Eighth Route Army in the first year of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, he directly set up a "Committee for the Defense of communism" in January 1939 and put forward the idea of "dissolving the Communist Party, limiting the Communist Party, and preventing the Communist Party."

Thus, from then on, the Supply of Weapons by the Nationalist Government to the Eighth Route Army became a matter of not giving if it could be withheld, and dragging it if it could not be withheld.

According to the existing historical data, from the second year of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, the amount of ammunition provided by the Nationalist government was reduced to more than 3 million rounds, which was about 50 percent less than in the first year.

Later, in order to ensure the safety of its own base areas, the Eighth Route Army broke the pocket blockade plan designed by Chiang Kai-shek at that time, so from the end of December 1939 until the complete end of the War of Resistance, the Eighth Route Army never received any support from the Nationalist government. It can be seen from this that the eighth route army's first ammunition supply method was declared over.

The second way of supply is that we often see in many anti-war TV dramas--- captured enemy equipment, so it is still rumored that "no guns, no cannons, the enemy built for us." So is the reality like in the TV series?

In this regard, Zhou Shidi, chief of staff of the 120th Division of the Eighth Route Army at that time, wrote in his diary: From July to November 1938, in a four-month period, the 120th Division captured more than 37,000 bullets of various types and more than 600 shells. However, in these four months, the 120th Division consumed more than 220,000 rounds of ammunition and more than 4,000 grenades, which was obviously insufficient. And this phenomenon has occurred not only in the 120th Division, but also in other divisions. And the reason for this is actually very simple.

First, two conditions need to be met in order to capture sufficient weaponry:

The first point: it is better to eliminate the enemy's formed squads, more equipped and well-equipped; of course, it is better if the brigade can be eliminated;

The second point: it is necessary to solve the battle quickly, after all, if a battle is fought for a long time, even if it is finally won, then there will not be much to get, and the warrior will lose his life in vain.

Therefore, this requires that if the Eighth Route Army wants to capture enough weapons, it needs to use the method of beating sticks in the back to obtain them, but this tactic is not very well implemented.

Especially after 1939, the Japanese army issued a "cage policy", using the method of "railway as the mainstay, highway as a chain, and bunkers as a lock" to isolate the transportation of grain between the various anti-Japanese base areas, which at the same time led to much less fighting between the Japanese army and the Eighth Route Army, and fewer guns and ammunition were captured.

Therefore, the Eighth Route Army can only rely on itself!

However, doing military work yourself is not a simple 1 + 1, especially bullets, which consume a huge amount of war materials, which seems to be a small one, but in fact, it is extremely difficult to manufacture. It needs enough materials and accuracy to be maintained at a certain level to achieve, and it was also said before that the military industry department of the Eighth Route Army at that time was very low, so in order to meet the bullets used for combat, the military factories were mainly reloaded bullets.

To this end, in some TV scenes, we can see that many troops need soldiers to recycle the shell casing after fighting, just for secondary use. Although this method does solve a temporary problem, we all know that the battle process is very tense, and it is difficult to completely recover, so under various factors, the recovered shell casing is basically only 40% of the consumption. Coupled with the fact that some shells will be damaged, how many can really be used twice is simply a drop in the bucket.

But even though it was so difficult, the leading bodies of the Eighth Route Army at that time still thought of two unique methods: 1. Mobilize the masses throughout North China and collect the guns in their hands; 2. Collect those defeated deserters, and then buy weapons and raise armaments.

You must know that since the end of the Qing Dynasty, the situation in our country has always been developing in turmoil, so there are countless warlords and bandits in the whole land of China. Therefore, in such a situation, many villages adopted a militarized strategy for the safety of their own Zhuangzi, so many ordinary people at that time had guns in their homes.

As recorded in the county chronicle of Linquan County, Fuyang, Anhui Province: In addition to police and other security personnel, 600,000 people have nearly 7,000 guns in their hands, nearly 90,000 rounds of ammunition, which means that 90 people have a gun. Don't look at the small proportion, but Australia was able to reach this level in 2014.

What's more, at that time, the landlords and the old wealth still had their own vigilante groups, so the first way to mobilize the masses was to collect the guns of the people and use them to resist the war.

This method takes a lot of time, and in a tense combat situation, it is difficult to achieve it overnight, so the second method of buying weapons comes in handy. To put it simply, it is to use various methods to buy ammunition from the hands of the Kuomintang army and the Japanese puppet army. In this regard, some people may wonder, who would trade with a poor person?

But the fact is that between 1941 and 1945, the Yubei Office of the Eighth Route Army alone bought more than 1 million rounds of bullets from the puppet army. Then some people will ask: The Eighth Route Army is so difficult, where does the money come from?

In fact, it is very simple, in the second half of the War of Resistance, Japan's defeat in the Pacific Theater led to the extreme discomfort in the Chinese battlefield, and the decline became more and more obvious. Therefore, many Japanese puppet armies began to find a way back for themselves, after all, if the war was lost, they did not want to lose their lives for it.

Therefore, when these puppet armies controlled a large number of cities and counties, they would often secretly contact the Eighth Route Army and sell bullets, hoping that they would not pursue themselves after the war.

Later, in 1943, the Eighth Route Army began to counterattack, and many strongholds had to choose to shrink the city and avoid fighting. But after all, the city is not a place of production, and after a long period of closure, there is a natural lack of materials such as daily necessities. Therefore, the Japanese puppet army needed living materials, and the Eighth Route Army needed guns and ammunition, so the terms of the deal were met.

According to the "Shandong Base Area Military Industry Historical Materials", in 1945, the Coastal Military Sub-district alone received more than 360,000 rounds of various types of bullets and more than 50 shells from the Hands of the Japanese Puppet Army. From this point of view, other places believe that they have obtained a lot from the hands of the Japanese puppet army.

Therefore, it is really not easy for the Eighth Route Army to drive the Japanese aggressors out of China under such difficult conditions. Therefore, as sons and daughters of China, we must understand this true history, after all, without the heroic efforts of our ancestors and the lack of sacrifice, there would be no Yangyang Huaxia today.

Friends who like this article can pay attention to my WeChat public account "Ancient Stories", which has more articles to share with everyone!

"Disclaimer: This article is reproduced from the Internet. The copyright of the graphic belongs to the original author, if there is any infringement, please contact to delete』