The name "Golden Triangle" is presumably familiar to everyone, it is close to the borders of Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, because of the local drug trade and the "three disregards" state, has become a famous chaotic area in the world.
However, few people know that in 1950, the remnants of a Kuomintang force of less than a thousand people fled to the southwestern border and into the jungles of Burma, where they not only stationed there, but also caused a bloody storm there.
What exactly did the remnants of the Kuomintang fleeing to the Golden Triangle do there? Seventy years have passed, what kind of fate do they have, and what kind of life are they living now for the 60,000 descendants they have left behind?
The remnants of the rout were stationed on the Burmese border
In 1949, the War of Liberation had come to an end, and Chiang Kai-shek's rule in the southwest was on the verge of extinction, he did not accept the reality of defeat, on the one hand, let the Kuomintang army continue to resist, on the other hand, secretly trained bandit armed forces.
At the end of the same year, after Chiang Kai-shek led the Kuomintang remnants and a large number of gold and silver jewels to retreat to Taiwan, there were still many Kuomintang troops stationed in the southwest region, as well as bandit armed forces hidden in the ravines and rural areas, and the remaining troops in Yunnan and other places also became the last hope of the Kuomintang.
However, it is obvious that the stubborn resistance of the Kuomintang is tantamount to using the mantis arm as a car, and under the offensive of the People's Liberation Army and the sharp encirclement and blockade, most of the Nationalist army has been annihilated and captured by our army, and only some scattered remnants have fled.
The remnants of the 709th Regiment of the Eighth Army, Led by Li Guohui, were one of the troops, and in order not to be caught by the People's Liberation Army, Li Guohui fled all the way to the southwestern border with more than 700 remnants.
Speaking of this Li Guohui, he did not have any historical records before the founding of the People's Republic of China, and the information related to him can only be learned from the interviews of some founding generals by reporters after the founding of the People's Republic of China. Li Guohui was the commander of the Eighth Army, Li Mi, and when the People's Liberation Army invaded from Sichuan and Guangxi at the same time, Li Mi's army collapsed in an instant, and among the many remnants of the defeated Eighth Army, Li Guohui led only a small and inconspicuous team.
His only hope now is to lead the team into Burma, evade the Pla-Plaçaise, and buy time to recuperate there.
The remnants of the army fled all the way, and in just a few days, they entered the large country located at the junction of the three countries of Burma
The city of Qili. It is a place of dense mountains and wild beasts, and it is also a paradise for mosquitoes and poisonous snakes, and the first thing they have to solve now is the problem of survival. Li Guohui's remnants did not have many troops, not to mention that there were not only wounded people in this team, but also women and children, and the harsh environment was a very big test for them.
In order to solve the livelihood problem, Li Guohui thought of two plans, the first plan is to go all the way and find a way back to Taiwan, and the second is to take root in place, live here for the time being, and then get in touch with Taiwan.
There are only towering trees and wild grass vines here, and it is difficult for them to cross Central and South Asia to Reach Taiwan on two legs, and myanmar is heavily guarded, and the other side will not let this armed force cross Myanmar.
Now they have only one choice, and that is to survive in this dangerous place. After wandering around the area for several days, Li Guohui collided head-on with two other remnants of the Kuomintang army, namely Tan Zhong, deputy commander of the 278th Regiment of the Twenty-sixth Army, and more than 600 remnants of the former Chinese Expeditionary Force.
In this way, the three remnants of the army were combined, and there were a total of fifteen hundred people.
Because the highest rank among the three remnants was Li Guohui, he naturally became the commander-in-chief of this team. Then they got in touch with the Kuomintang in Taiwan through the only radio station, and Li Guohui and others thought they saw hope, but after they finished reporting the situation, the kuomintang, who was weak and skilled, only dropped a sentence of "solving difficulties on its own."
It was clear that they had been abandoned by the Kuomintang authorities.
Hearing this news, the whole army wept, and their survival process abroad officially began.
Raise an army with poison and expand your power
In order to survive, Li Guohui could only lead his troops to find a way out. The opium trade in the Golden Triangle has a long history, but it has always been a scattered force and has not formed a climate, and opium dealers need to walk along ancient horse roads for months to be transported to the outside world for trade, often robbed by bandits on the way.
Li Guohui saw an opportunity from this, so he took the troops to provide protection for these opium merchants, and took commissions to make money, and for a long time, the funds of this team were derived from this.
At the same time, they also recruited troops and horses in the local area, built camps, and expanded their power, and other remnants of the Kuomintang stranded here came to join them when they heard the news, and the local bandits were also eliminated by them.
Gradually, this team grew stronger and stronger, and unconsciously expanded to more than 3,000 people, and called itself the "rejuvenation team of the Republic of China".
Li Guohui also constantly reformed the ranks, he made a clear division of labor for everyone, and actively got along with the local people, the Burmese people had a good impression of them, and many soldiers were married to Burmese girls.
Soon, their actions caught the attention of the Burmese military. Myanmar has only been independent since 1948, and although its national strength is weak today, as a sovereign country, especially a country that has only recently gained sovereignty, it is natural to be wary of an army from other countries. What's more, this team is still recruiting on its own turf, and the Myanmar government naturally cannot sit idly by.
They issued an ultimatum to Lee's troops, limiting them to withdraw from Burma within ten days, otherwise they would be fully encircled and suppressed.
Li Guohui and others naturally could not do what Myanmar said, they came to Burma because they fled for their lives, and now they are facing the fate of annihilation when they return to China. So Li Guohui decided that he could not withdraw from Burma, at least there was still hope for survival here.
Therefore, in the face of the Myanmar government's ultimatum, Li Guohui and a group of people claimed to be "borrowing soil to feed their lives", not aggression, so they would not withdraw
。 Naturally, burma did not believe this, and they were fully prepared for war, and soon concentrated more than 10,000 troops, equipped with fighters, heavy artillery, and heavy machine guns, and came towards Li Guohui's base area.
Although the strength of this remnant of the Kuomintang is constantly expanding, what is now facing the regular army mobilized by the state force is that the strength of the two sides is very different.
When Li Guohui was worried, the Burmese military line was pushed over, and the "revival troops" could not withstand the bombardment of heavy artillery and could only retreat into the mountains and forests.
The remnants of this Kuomintang are people who have seen the world, they have come all the way from the War of Resistance Against Japan, fought with the devils for eight years, and fought with the People's Liberation Army for another three years, naturally have rich combat experience, and from the moment they retreated into the jungle, they began to think of a solution.
The Burmese army, with its numerical and weapon superiority, soon occupied its position.
Just when they thought they had won the war, Li Guohui silently led the team, took advantage of the night to explore the mountains and forests, came to the headquarters of the Burmese army and the heavy artillery base, and occupied the Arsenal of the Burmese army.
With the blessing of weapons, the situation on the battlefield was suddenly reversed, and the Burmese army was beaten by Li Guohui's team, and in the later battlefield, they also had no way to deal with this unit that had mastered heavy weapons.
Since the war could not be won, Myanmar had no choice but to negotiate with the other side. Li Guohui also understood the truth that "rabbits will bite people when they are anxious", and when he saw the other party compromise, he released all the puppets. With the Burmese government turning a blind eye, the remnants of the army took root in this land, and Li Guohui sat in Mensa, smuggling opium, almost becoming the exclusive industry of Li Guohui's domination of the world. In the later period, even the local toastmasters were subdued by him, but he was the leader of the horse, and he became a figure that even the Burmese military could not do.
It can be said that the armed drug trafficking industry in the Golden Triangle was developed by Li Guohui, and the Luo Xinghan era and the Kunsha era that appeared later were the heirs of his career.
Li Guohui's "brilliant achievements" shocked Southeast Asia and the world. No one expected that a small remnant of the Kuomintang could grow into such a terrible force in the Golden Triangle.
Chiang Kai-shek, who was far away in Taiwan, could not sit still when he learned that there was such a strong Kuomintang unit in the Golden Triangle, so he summoned Li Mi and asked him about Li Guohui.
Li Guohui, a small person, as a military commander, naturally did not know, and could not answer how.
Chiang Kai-shek believed that this force was his hope for a counter-offensive on the mainland, so he asked Li Mi to go to Burma to rectify this force and make them a southern base for counter-attacking the mainland.
With Chiang Kai-shek's orders, Li Mi traveled all the way to the Thai-Burmese border and met with Li Guohui. Although he had changed from an insignificant figure in the Kuomintang to a well-known leader in the Golden Triangle, this did not change Li Guohui's loyalty to the army in the slightest, and when he heard Chiang Kai-shek's order, he immediately handed over the military power directly to Li Mi, and he himself flew back to Taiwan, and the era that belonged to him ended.
The Golden Triangle industrial chain was formed
After Li Mi took over the military power, he continued to gather the remnants of the Kuomintang, continuously developed the armed forces in the local area, and established the "Yunnan People's Anti-Communist National Salvation Army" and began to attack the Border of Yunnan.
However, their attack was soon dismantled by the PLA, and Li Mi's forces had to retreat to Burma again.
The Burmese military, seeing their growing power, could no longer turn a blind eye, and they repeatedly sent troops to encircle and suppress Li Mi's troops, but each time it ended in failure.
Unable to swallow this breath, Burma reached an agreement with the Indian government to provide weapons from India, and they sent troops to work together to drive out this group of bandits who were not leaving.
To this end, Burma also spent a lot of money to hire more than 4,000 Indian mercenaries who fought in World War II, adding up to a total of 20,000 people.
The Burmese government had thought that 20,000 people would be victorious against a force of only a few thousand. However, the reality disappointed them again, although the size of Li Mi's troops was not large, but they could make full use of tactics, and after a few rounds, they defeated the Burma-India coalition army and fled, and Li Mi's position in the Golden Triangle was completely stable.
Li Mi took over Li Guohui's position, and naturally wanted to consider the survival of these thousands of people for Li Guohui. He continued to trade opium in the Golden Triangle and laid down rules for all the powers, requiring them to grow only opium, but all opium exports could only be priced through Li Mi's troops, and they also had to pay opium taxes to Li Mi's troops.
Through this model, Li Mi flourished in the drug industry in the Golden Triangle, and also set up a military and political university to train anti-communist military and political cadres, but anti-communist cadres were not trained, but many drug lords who were proficient in military skills were trained.
The famous drug lord Kun Sha was trained by this school.
Naturally, Myanmar was not happy that Li Mi's troops were growing stronger and stronger in the Golden Triangle, and they repeatedly filed complaints with the United Nations, hoping that the United Nations would stop the aggressive acts of Li Mi's troops. On April 23, 1953, the United Nations publicly condemned the violation of Burma's territory and sovereignty by Li Mi's forces, called on other countries to stop giving them aid, and put pressure on Taiwan.
Chiang Kai-shek was forced to withdraw his troops under pressure, but he still kept an eye on it and did not withdraw all the troops until 1954, when a total of more than 5,000 officers and men and more than 800 family members were withdrawn.
At the same time as the withdrawal, Chiang Kai-shek ordered Liu Yuanlin, former deputy commander of the Kuomintang Eighth Army, to infiltrate Burma and let him command the remaining remnants of the army. After Liu Yuanlin arrived in Myanmar, while continuing the drug trade, he secretly accumulated strength, and these remnants not only caused great trouble to Myanmar, but also often harassed China's Yunnan border.
In 1960, China and Myanmar signed the "Agreement on the Border Issue between China and Myanmar," and in response to the threat posed by the remnants of the Kuomintang on the border between the two countries, China decided to send troops to solve the problem.
Subsequently, the Burmese army launched the Mekong Spring Operation, and China also mobilized the People's Liberation Army to assemble at the border, and under the double blow of the People's Liberation Army and the Burmese army, the remnants of the National Army no longer dared to stay in Myanmar and could only retreat all the way.
At the same time, Myanmar has also constantly complained about the Taiwan authorities in the international community, and Chiang Kai-shek can only order Liu Yuanlin to withdraw his troops, but after more than ten years of development, many generals have established families here and are unwilling to return to Taiwan.
After Liu Yuanlin withdrew, Duan Xiwen and Li Wenhuan took his place, and they led the remnants of the Kuomintang army all the way to northern Thailand. As an independent country, Thailand naturally does not welcome them either. At that time, the activities of armed reactionaries in Thailand were very rampant, and Duan Xiwen consulted with the Thai government to quell the war in Thailand as a transaction, so that the other side would allow them to stay in Thailand.
After obtaining the consent of the Thai side, Duan Xiwen took the remnants of the army and launched an attack on the reactionary forces in Thailand, and finally successfully eliminated the reactionary forces here.
The Thai government has also kept its promise by giving them citizenship and residency rights.
Over time, they settled there, and the remnants of the sensitive, stateless, wandering Kuomintang in the Golden Triangle became legitimate citizens of Thailand.
By now, the size of their descendants has reached 60,000 people. Right
In the situation of these 60,000 descendants, the world has different opinions. The most widely circulated legend is that these 60,000 descendants were recruited by the Thai royal family, handed over all their weapons, and the soldiers and dependents all joined the Thai nationality and enjoyed the same treatment as the Thais.
But the truth may not be as good as we think. Although Thailand allowed the remnants of the Kuomintang to remain in its territory, this did not mean that the government was willing to accept their presence. Of the 60,000 Kuomintang descendants left, a small percentage of them were able to join Thai nationality, and most of them were stateless refugees.
Because they do not have nationality, they cannot receive higher education in Thailand. However, the Government has not forgotten this group of displaced people, and in recent years, our borders have opened many projects to Myanmar to provide assistance to those people. We also actively support and make arrangements for those who want to return to their home countries to meet their families, believing that in the near future, these people will be able to live a happy life.