In film and television works, the Kuomintang military organization is huge and complex, and various names make people confused, especially the titles of appeasement office, camp, and general manager are intertwined, making people dazzled and confused, and they can't tell what they are doing.
Office of Appeasement
The original meaning of appeasement refers to the maintenance of local law and order. The Appeasement Office was an organ set up by the government of the Republic of China during the Civil War between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party, referred to as the "Appeasement Office".
During the first Kuomintang-Communist cooperation, under the Office of the Executive Committee of Guangdong South Road in 1926, executive commissar Gan Naiguang reported to the then Government of the Republic of China in Guangzhou. Because there were too many bandits and displaced people in the Yangjiang area, an appeasement committee was set up to deal with related matters, and an organic law was attached.
In 1930, the government of the Republic of China began to divide the country into a number of appeasement areas in order to encircle and suppress the Workers' and Peasants' Red Army. On February 6, 1932, the National Government re-established the Military Commission for the Reconstruction of the Military, and established an Appeasement Office in the central city of the Appeasement District, which was responsible for commanding the military and controlling the political, economic and social life in the area. Generally one is set up in each province, and in special cases (fighting the Red Army) there is one in the border areas of two or more provinces. There are more than ten appeasement offices throughout the country.
The Appeasement Office shall have a director, generally a general officer, who shall be specially appointed by the Government of the Republic of China, subordinate to the Military Commission of the National Government, and under the command of the Minister of Military Affairs and the Chief of Staff.
According to the regulations, the troops, local county governments, land and water public security police, security forces and vigilante groups in the appeasement zone, and the appeasement director may direct the transfer at any time. In addition to the military, the Appeasement Officer also controls the political, economic, and social activities in the region, and is responsible for war matters such as training soldiers and collecting military food. By June 1937, "appeasement offices" were set up in Gansu, Henan, Hubei, Beiping, Taiyuan, Guangzhou, Nanning, Fujian, Guizhou, Jicha, Yuwan, Dianqian, Chuankang, Gansu, Xi'an, and Jiangsu. Among them, the establishment of the "Appeasement Office" in Gansu, Beiping, Gansu, and Xi'an was abolished shortly after its establishment.
After the outbreak of the War of Resistance Against Japan, the Appeasement Office was either abolished or reorganized into a "group army" organization.
After the victory of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, various theaters were reorganized into appeasement offices one after another, such as: Hu Zongnan's First Theater was reorganized into "Xi'an Appeasement Office," Yan Xishan's Second Theater was reorganized into "Taiyuan Appeasement Office" (the name remained unchanged, and its rank was upgraded), Gu Zhutong's Third Theater was reorganized into "Xuzhou Appeasement Office," Liu Zhi's Fifth Theater was reorganized into "Zhengzhou Appeasement Office," Yu Hanmou's Seventh Theater was reorganized into "Quzhou Appeasement Office," and Fu Zuoyi's Twelfth Theater was reorganized into "Zhangyuan Appeasement Office."
Camp (Xingyuan)
The term Xingying is derived from "Xingyuan" or "Yuanmen". "Yuanmen" is the gate outside the shogunate when the ancient generals went out on expeditions, because they were often crossed by the logs of chariots, so they were called "Yuanmen". In some places, the sides outside the military office are surrounded by wooden fences, also known as the gates. Most of the xingyuan and yuanmen are located in military powerhouses. In addition, Xingyuan is also called "Xingtai". Xingtai originated from shangshutai (later developed into Shangshu province) in Waizhou from the central imperial court of the Southern and Northern Dynasties to the Sui and Tang dynasties of China, in the same way as "Xing province".
Xingying, full name "Xingying, Chairman of the Military Commission of the National Government", is a military organ dispatched by the chairman of the Military Commission of the Republic of China Government in various places, and the director of the camp exercises functions and powers on behalf of the chairman of the Military Commission of the National Government. On May 21, 1933, the "Nanchang Xingying, Chairman of the Military Commission of the National Government" was proclaimed, and became the general command body that launched the fifth "encirclement and suppression" of the Red Army. On May 30, 1933, Chiang Kai-shek issued "The Establishment of the Nanchang Camp and the Date of The Opening of the Customs Defense Campaign": "The Chairman of the Committee set up the Nanchang Camp in The Gansu Governor to suppress the bandits and the Communists, thinking that it was a unified military organ, and it has been formally established. There are three departments, four halls and twelve divisions, as well as the "Nanchang Xingying Bandit Suppression Army Special Action Corps" and the "Nanchang Xingying Temporary Correctional Hospital Jiujiang Branch". It was revoked on 16 February 1935.
On August 7, 1946, the Military Commission of the National Government was abolished. The chairman of the Military Commission of the National Government in various localities was renamed "The Chairman of the National Government Xingyuan", which was directly subordinate to the government of the Republic of China, and its functions and powers and organizational structure remained the same. The head of the xingyuan was the director, and his duties were similar to those of the qing dynasty's overseers.
Historically, the government of the Republic of China successively set up the Chongqing Camp, the Chengdu Camp, the Guangzhou Camp, the Xi'an Camp, the Baoding Camp, the Tianshui Camp, the Guilin Camp, the Xichang Camp, the Kunming Camp, the Hanzhong Camp, the Ganzhou Camp, the Wuchang Camp, the North Parallel Camp, the Northwest Camp, and the Northeast Camp.
Suppress the general
The General Headquarters for Suppression of Bandits, referred to as the "Suppression General", is a cross-regional and cross-establishment military unit of the Republic of China government before and after World War II, which is preparing to carry out military encirclement and suppression of the Liberated Areas, usually as the first-line command organ. It is mainly divided into four major systems, Northeast China, North China, Xuzhou and Central China. Generally speaking, a general command has a number of corps, a garrison headquarters, an appeasement office, a theater, and an appeasement area, and the hierarchy is generally parallel to that of the military and political chief's office, but in military combat, the command level is often higher than that of the military and political chief's office.
The connection between the Appeasement Office, the Xingying (行辕), and the Suppression General
Before 1937, during the first Kuomintang-Communist Civil War, the Nationalist government set up a series of military organs in various places to encircle and suppress the Red Army in various Soviet areas. At the beginning of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, the command structure of the Kuomintang army was a 7-level tactical unit according to "headquarters-theater-group (corps, road)-army-division-brigade-regiment"; after 1940, it was simplified to "headquarters-theater-group army-army-army-division-regiment", a 6-level command organization.
After 1945, the government of the Republic of China took over the Japanese occupation zone, began to prepare for the battle against the liberated areas, and established many government agencies in various places. As the representative office of the central government and the unit that controls the local army and political power, it is called the "Chairman of the Republic of China Government", and the director is the representative of the supreme commander, which is an institution for political and military integration. As the command unit of the inter-provincial military region, it is the Office of the Military and Political Governor, which directly commands the combat tasks of the area of responsibility and is a military organ of the inter-provincial region, of which the more famous and long-maintained is the Office of the Military and Political Governor of the Southeast.
The xingying (行辕) is a forward base for planning, deployment, and command, and its setting is often changed according to the needs of military operations, for example, the second and third encirclement and suppression of the Red Army was planned by the Nanchang xingying. After the end of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, the Military Commission was reorganized into the Ministry of National Defense, and most of the battalions were changed to xingyuan, the office of the military and political commander, or the more targeted general headquarters for suppressing bandits, and the formation of the group army was changed to an appeasement area.
The Office of the Appeasement Director is a provincial-level (theater-level) military organization, and the Appeasement Director has the right to dispose of important party and government affairs in the area under his jurisdiction.
Therefore, the Kuomintang's military command structure envisaged the following: headquarters - Xingyuan (Military and Political Commander's Office, Suppression General) - Appeasement Office (Theater) - Appeasement District - Corps / Reorganized Army - Army (Reorganized Division) - Division (Reorganized Brigade) - Regiment", a total of 8 levels.