On July 7, 1937, the Japanese "Chinese Garrison Army" provoked a military conflict near the Lugou Bridge under the pretext that a soldier was missing during the exercise, and the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression broke out in full swing. For a long time, most of the works on the "July 7 Incident" have focused on the development of the conflict between the two armies, but there is little clarity on the specific strength of the Chinese and Japanese armies stationed in north China, especially in the Pingjin area.
In the early summer of 1937, what was the strength of the Sino-Japanese garrison in North China? Why did the Japanese army dare to provoke an incident and then launch an all-out war of aggression against China? The answer to this series of questions needs to go back to the evolution of the Sino-Japanese armies in North China and their expansion in the early 1930s.
"29th Route Army" or "29th Army"
In some of the books published in the 1980s, the local Chinese garrison involved in the "Lugou Bridge Incident" is often referred to as the "29th Route Army", but in other works it is called the "29th Army". So, was it the "29th Route Army" or the "29th Army"?
Those who advocate the "29th Route Army" believe that at that time, the unit had more than 100,000 troops, and if it was only one army, it would not be more than 20,000 or 30,000 people at most, how could it be several times greater? At that time, the "road army" was a command structure one level higher than the army, usually under the jurisdiction of two armies or a corps plus several divisions, such a unit with 100,000 troops is reasonable. Therefore, the unit's designation should be "29th Route Army".
Those who advocated the "29th Army" simply refuted it by directly taking out the military history of the unit published later and the archival records of the Order of the National Government and the Ministry of Military Affairs. It is clearly recorded in these archives that the garrison, whose name was the "29th Army", was officially issued by the Ministry of Military Affairs on June 17, 1931, and song Zheyuan was appointed as the commander of the army at the same time.
If there is a basis for the original archives, it is natural that the latter should prevail. But the strange thing is that an army that should have no more than 20,000 or 30,000 people under its jurisdiction at most could have 100,000 troops? This is clearly counterintuitive. In fact, the reason is mainly related to the faction of the army, the environment, the status and other factors. All this has to start from the end of the Central Plains War in 1930.
The 29th Army was formerly known as the Northwest Army led by Feng Yuxiang. When Chiang Kai-shek won the Battle of the Central Plains, Feng Yuxiang, Yan Xishan, and others of the anti-Chiang kai-shek faction were forced to declare their resignation, and most of their troops in northern China were absorbed by the Northeast Army under Zhang Xueliang, who had entered the customs to help Chiang Kai-shek. Among these troops, the 2nd Route Army of the former Northwest Army commanded by Sun Liangcheng and the 4th Route Army commanded by Song Zheyuan totaled more than 50,000 people who surrendered to Zhang Xueliang. Zhang Xueliang considered that Sun Liangcheng was feng Yuxiang's concubine, and Song Zheyuan was a collateral clan that he joined halfway, so he decided to "use Song to abandon Sun" and granted Song Zheyuan full authority to bear the responsibility of downsizing these two troops.
For the sake of the future of his individuals and subordinates, Song Zheyuan opposed Zhang Xueliang's plan at that time to reduce the number of two roads of troops (a total of 12 divisions and 35 regiments) into 8 regiments of the first army and two divisions. After continuous struggle, when the two-way troops were ordered to be reduced to the 3rd Army of the Northeast Border Defense Army on January 16, 1931, Song Zheyuan adopted the tactic of delaying the downsizing on the one hand, and on the other hand, suppressed the collateral departments and retained his own concubines, so that the troops, with the acquiescence of Zhang Xueliang, were reorganized into a total of 17 regiments of the First Army and two divisions, with a total retained number of 38,771 people.
On June 17, 1931, the 3rd Army of the Northeast Border Defense Army was officially renamed the 29th Army, with Song Zheyuan continuing to serve as the commander, and the Military and Political Department of the Nationalist Government officially appointed Feng Zhi'an and Zhang Zizhong as the commanders of the 37th and 38th Divisions of the army. When the 29th Army was formed, it was stationed in the Jinnan region. Under the circumstances, the army's salaries were limited (Zhang Xueliang only provided salaries for 15,000 officers and soldiers), and the defense zone was marginalized, so the army remained in a state of turmoil. If it were not for Feng Zhi'an, Zhang Zizhong, and some brigade commanders who fully supported the Song, I am afraid that it would not take a year to split or even disintegrate. With the efforts of Song Zheyuan, the 29th Army struggled until 1933. In this year, the Japanese army provoked the "Yuguan Incident", and the Great Wall War of Resistance broke out immediately.
In order to defend North China and prevent the Japanese army from breaking through along the Great Wall, the 29th Army was ordered to participate in the battle. In this battle, the 29th Army fought hard for several months at Xifengkou and Luo Wenyu, and the report of its large knife team attacking the Japanese army at night is more well known throughout the country. After the end of the Great Wall War of Resistance, the 29th Army became famous throughout the country and became a famous army of the War of Resistance.
The road to an expansion of 100,000 troops
Just as the Great Wall War of Resistance was underway, Feng Yuxiang, the founder of the Northwest Military System, also tried to make a comeback. He recruited the old department to form the "Chahar People's Anti-Japanese Allied Army", dealt a heavy blow to the puppet army in the Chadong area, and recovered many towns, especially the restoration of Duolun became a sensational news event. Chiang Kai-shek could not tolerate Feng Yuxiang reorganizing his military forces in the name of the War of Resistance, so during the armistice negotiations between China and Japan, he dispatched troops to try to eliminate the allies by means of military encirclement and suppression.
Under these circumstances, Feng Yuxiang was forced to send a telegram to the whole country on August 5, 1933, stating that "the military will be completely reduced, the political power will be returned to the government, and the people of the country will be restored to the land", and ask Song Zheyuan to go to Zhangjiakou to "clean up the aftermath". Feng Yuxiang believes that Song Zheyuan, who has become a famous anti-Japanese general, is after all a deceased person of the Northwest Army, and although he cannot continue to maintain the allied army under the pressure of all sides, if Song takes over the remnants of the allied army, he can still continue to maintain the existence of the northwest army system and prepare for the future rise again. Chiang Kai-shek was indeed interested in the Song at that time, so he decided that the Song would come forward to incorporate it.
Song Zheyuan relied on the 29th Army to gain the prestige of the Northwest Army and attracted chiang Kai-shek's attention, but after all, he was alone among the warlords of all sizes in the country, and if he wanted to seek longer-term development and political capital for himself, a fixed territory and a huge military force were indispensable. Therefore, for Feng Yuxiang's "entrustment" and Chiang Kai-shek's orders, Song Zheyuan was happy to enjoy his success. In this way, under the authorization of the Beiping Branch of the Military Commission, Song Zheyuan annexed 828 regiments of the allied army in one fell swoop.
Swallowing 828 regiments with the original 17 regiments looks a bit like a fantasy, but Song Zheyuan did it.
For the 828 regiments of the allied army, Song Zheyuan did not retain all of them when he was reorganized, he recruited these units in a carefully selected and downsized situation. After taking part of the territory of Chahar Province and Hebei Province, Song Zheyuan first had to meet the needs of the 29th Army, especially to complete his plan to expand the army into 4 divisions (37th Division, 38th Division, 132nd Division, and Provisional 2nd Division), and then, in the name of the chairman of the Chahar Provincial Government, successively downsizing the undigested parts of the Allied Army into provincial defense forces. After a year of reorganization, reorganization, and downsizing, Song Zheyuan expanded his troops into 26 regiments and the rest of the Allied forces into 10 regiments.
In 1935, the situation in North China became increasingly tense. The outbreak of the "Chadong Incident" and the "Zhangbei Incident", coupled with the signing of the "He Mei Agreement" and the "Qin-Tu Agreement", gave the 29th Army more room for development. In particular, when the Central Army in the Pingjin area withdrew south according to the treaty, and with the approval of the Beiping Army Branch, the 29th Army took over the defense of The cities of Beiping and Tianjin and most of Hebei Province in October 1935. Song Zheyuan himself served as chairman of the Hebei Provincial Government, Zhang Zizhong as chairman of the Chahar Provincial Government, Qin Dechun as the mayor of Beiping, and Xiao Zhenying as mayor of Tianjin. At this time, Song Zheyuan garrisoned Beiping with the 37th Division, the 38th Division in Tianjin, the 132nd Division in Baoding, and the provisional 2nd Division (later renamed the 143rd Division) remained in Zhangjiakou.
After winning the four places of Ping, Tianjin, Hebei, and Cha, the financial revenue of the 29th Army doubled, which provided a solid financial foundation for Song Zheyuan, who was also the director of the Jicha Appeasement Office and chairman of the Jicha Administrative Affairs Committee, to continue to expand the army. From February 1936, Song Zheyuan imported a large number of weapons and equipment from Europe, expanded the repair center, and produced weapons and ammunition by himself. Although the development of the troops was limited by the name of the Ministry of Military Affairs, he still successively added 8 independent brigades under the establishment of the 29th Army, and formed two paramilitary armed forces in the name of the Hebei Provincial Government, the Jibei and Jinan Security Brigades.
By December 1936, the 29th Army under Song Zheyuan had become a huge force with 4 divisions and 23 brigades, including 80,000 regular troops and more than 20,000 provincial security forces, not counting a large number of armed police. Such a large contingent is exaggerated to the outside world with only the name of one army, but it is also a helpless move of the Nationalist government to deal with the complicated situation in north China.
Due to Song Zheyuan's background in the Northwest Army system, basic financial independence, and the scruples and use of the ministry by the central government in Nanjing, the 29th Army formed a de facto division in the Jicha Pingjin area. Coupled with Song Zheyuan's continuous "de-Fengization" in the army, the outside world gradually produced the "Song Family Army" statement for the 29th Army. However, with the outbreak of the "July 7 Incident", the fate of the 29th Army finally ushered in a major change.
Unmobilized "Chinese Garrison"
The "Chinese Garrison Army" under the Japanese Army can be called "with a long history". It was a military force that had existed in China since June 1901, and initially came under the name of expelling the Boxers and "protecting the Japanese diaspora." With the signing of the Treaty of Xinugu, the great powers had the right to legally garrison troops in China, and this unit of the Japanese army also received a corresponding name, and was officially renamed the "Chinese Garrison Army" in October 1901.
According to Japanese officials, the task of the "Chinese Garrison" was to "serve as the protection of the imperial legations, consulates and imperial subjects" and did not undertake direct combat tasks, so its initial strength was only 1650 people. After the founding of the Republic of China, the strength of the "garrison army" was reduced to 734 people, and even by the beginning of 1935, its basic units were only 8 unmobilized "peacetime" infantry squadrons stationed in Beiping and Tianjin, with a total strength of 1771 people.
With such a small number of troops, the 29th Army, which was gradually expanding to more than 100,000 people, had no chance of victory in theory. In order to consolidate the vested achievements of aggression in North China and not to be at a disadvantage when launching military operations in the future, the Japanese army also began to strengthen the strength of the "garrison army" after supporting the puppet regime in eastern Hebei.
In December 1935, When The Chief of the Chinese Section of the Japanese General Staff Headquarters, Makoto Kita organized a meeting of staff members when he inspected Tianjin, at which he formulated a plan for the increase of the number of troops for the "Garrison Army". On April 17, 1936, the Cabinet of Hirota Hiroshi officially ordered the strengthening of the "Garrison Army". A day later, the new plan for the "Chinese Garrison Army" was officially unveiled, with 1 infantry brigade (the brigade had 2 infantry companies), 1 artillery company, and 1 combat convoy, cavalry team, engineer team, signal team, and gendarmerie team. According to the promulgation of the new establishment, the total strength of the "garrison army" surged to 5774 people. It should be noted that the "garrison army" at this time is still a non-mobilizing organization in the "peacetime" state.
As a result of this expansion, the total strength of the "Chinese Garrison Army" has increased by more than 3 times. But this was not the end of it: as the 29th Army also launched a massive expansion in 1936, especially in the Pyeongjin area, the Japanese General Staff Headquarters decided to change the "garrison army" to a "wartime" mobilization structure, so that the total strength of the department at the end of 1936 suddenly increased to more than 14,000 people. By June 1937, before the outbreak of the July 7 Incident, the total strength of the "Chinese Garrison Army" had increased to nearly 20,000 people, a ratio of 1 to 5 with the number of Chinese troops. Given the Superiority of the Japanese in firepower and chain of command, such a numerical comparison could have largely resisted most of the 29th Army's military offensive. It is worth noting that the "Chinese Garrison Army" has been stationed in the Pingjin area for 36 years, and its familiarity with the area far exceeds that of the 29th Army stationed as a guest army, especially the details of the alleys and near roads are almost all mastered, which has enhanced the attack power.
Not only that, although the "Chinese Garrison Army" is abroad, it is not isolated. First of all, the "garrison army" could get reinforcements from the Kwantung Army from the south of puppet Manchukuo at any time, and the puppet Manchu army could also send out to assist in the battle at any time. Second, the "garrison army" could use the coastal military ports already occupied to send reinforcements from the Japanese mainland. In this way, on the surface, it seems to be alone, but in fact, it has no fear, and can launch a pre-emptive attack at any time.
In this way, on July 7, 1937, war finally broke out.