The long river of history is running endlessly, there are calm waves, there are also waves, let Xiaobian take you into history and understand history.
I have previously introduced the establishment of the "A-type Division" of the Republic of China Army in the early 30s, that is, the A-type Division has three brigades and six regiments, the B-type Division has two brigades and four regiments, and the C-type Division has no brigade-level establishment and three regiments directly under its jurisdiction. However, the reason why military fans are easily confused about the relationship between these two establishments mainly appeared in the issue of the "integrated brigade" in 1946.
The "brigade" level combat unit originated from the "association" of the military system at the end of the Qing Dynasty, in fact, it was originally the meaning of "small division", according to the Qing court's new army construction plan for "dividing 36 towns throughout the country", a new type of army of 12,500 people per town (later division) began to be formed, and each town had two "infantry associations", and the commander was called "xietong". However, due to the different situations and financial resources of each province, only 26 towns and 16 "mixed associations" were eventually formed, that is, there were 52 ordinary "step associations" and 16 mixed "mixed associations".
The so-called "infantry association" is a single-branch unit, which is more similar to the "infantry brigade" of the Japanese army in World War II, while the "mixed association" is the combination of various arms, the scale is slightly larger than the infantry association and significantly smaller than the town organization, which is also similar to the early "mixed brigade" of the Japanese army (note that it is different from the independent mixed brigade, and it is necessary to be professional). By 1912, during the Republic of China period, Yuan Shikai ordered that the town and the association be renamed "division and brigade", so the brigade-level number officially appeared, of course, including the two types of infantry brigades and mixed brigades.
Therefore, the most important campaign units of the Beiyang Army are the division and brigade levels, the infantry brigade belongs to the combat sequence of each division, and the mixed brigade is generally directly subordinate to the headquarters at the division level or above. For example, the troops of the Fengzhi warlord Zhang Zuolin once had two regular divisions (the division then had infantry brigades) under its jurisdiction, as well as a bunch of mixed brigades that were expanded by themselves, which were directly under the command of the Fengjun General Headquarters and were incorporated into various armies (Fengjun is sometimes called legions) during wartime.
Therefore, the infantry brigade commander is the direct subordinate of the division commander, and the mixed brigade commander is slightly lower than the division commander, but there is no direct subordination, which is the difference between the positions of the division commander and the brigade commander in the early Republic of China. At the beginning of the Northern Expedition of the National Revolutionary Army, the military system was modeled after the Soviet Union's "three three systems", that is, the military had three divisions and three regiments under the jurisdiction of the division, and the other seven armies did not have a brigade-level structure, and only the Seventh Army of the GuiZhou Army directly administered eight brigades.
However, with the continuous victory of the Northern Expedition, in the period of rapid expansion of the army, in order to increase the number and personnel of the division, the number of "brigade" came up again, that is, as described in the opening paragraph. Then some independent brigades, siege brigades, artillery brigades, and cavalry brigades were also formed, but the soup was not changed, and the infantry brigades under the jurisdiction of each division must be the commander of the division, and the ranks were mostly major generals or colonels, and the base rank of the division commander was lieutenant general.
Independent brigades and special forces brigades are directly under the command of the command of the command of the military rank or higher, and most of the brigade commanders are colonels (of course, there are major generals), and the official positions are actually slightly lower than that of the infantry brigade commander. For example, after Zhang Lingfu defected to the 51st Division, he first served as a colonel and then the commander of the 305th Regiment, and later promoted to the commander of the 153rd Brigade of the division, and the division commander Wang Yaowu was already a lieutenant general. Li Tianxia also served as the deputy division commander and brigade commander of the major general, so the "deputy division" and "main brigade" levels are close.
From 1939 onwards, the infantry divisions abolished the brigade structure and became three or four regiments under the jurisdiction of the division, and the position of infantry brigade commander did not exist (some independent brigades and special forces brigades were still there), and the base rank of the regimental commander was colonel, which opened up the rank gap. In 1946, after the victory of the War of Resistance Against Japan, Chiang Kai-shek's army carried out "reorganization" in order to cover up the eyes and ears of the people, and among the units involved in the reorganization, the original infantry division was downsized into an "integrated brigade," and the original division commander was renamed brigade commander, but the rank and rank of this brigade commander were completely equal to those of the division commanders of the units that did not participate in the reorganization.
For example, in the reorganized 58th Brigade of the reorganized 74th Division, the brigade commander Lu Xing was a major general, because he was the commander of the 58th Infantry Division before; and in the 25th Division of the 52nd Army, which was not reorganized in the northeast, the division commander Li Zhengyi was also a major general, which was 100% the same as the rank and rank of the reorganized brigade commander Lu Xing. Of course, this was the product of a special period, and by June 1948, when the reorganized brigade numbers were unified and restored to "divisions", this chaotic situation did not exist, only the commander of the major general division, and there was no longer the commander of the reorganized brigade of the major general.
At the beginning of the victory of our army in the War of Resistance Against Japan, all field armies had both division-level and brigade-level structures, such as the Shandong Field Army as a division, and the Central China Field Army as a brigade. It was not until the merger of the Yamano and Central China Field Army that it was renamed "division" under the column, and when the whole army was unified in November 1948, all the field armies no longer had a brigade-level structure, forming a command sequence of no divisions, corps, corps, divisions, and regiments, and the brigade-level structure was abolished.
In the past few years, the division was reformed into a brigade, and the personnel and establishment have been reduced, and the brigade commander is basically the rank of colonel (there are also a small number of colonels), but the army level system has not changed, and the brigade commander is still "deputy division level".
Well, today's sharing ends here, and we'll see you next time