When you think of "Myanmar", the first thing that comes to mind is definitely the Golden Triangle, because the geographical location of the Golden Triangle is extremely special, and many large countries are reluctant to pay attention to this small place.
Over time, the humble Golden Triangle became a haven for many drug lords.
Many people only know that the Golden Triangle is a good place for the drug trade, but they do not know that after the 1950 Liberation War, a Kuomintang army fled there and became the famous "Emperor of Burma" after several years.
Not only that, but they are said to have left nearly 60,000 of their descendants there. So how did they flee to Burma at that time, and what did they rely on to become the "Earth Emperor of Burma"?
Today, we will take you and take a closer look at how this Kuomintang army survived in Burma.
Remnants of the Kuomintang who were tragically abandoned
At the end of the Liberation War, because the Kuomintang was already gone, many Kuomintang members at that time chose to abstain and flee.
However, there are still some more stubborn Kuomintang officers who are not willing to choose to concede defeat and are ready to make a comeback after thinking of a perfect strategy.
However, there were also some shrewd people who began to think about their own way back from the defeat, especially the senior Officers of the Kuomintang, who chose to abscond with Chiang Kai-shek to Taiwan.
But at that time, not all people were qualified to follow Chiang Kai-shek to Taiwan, especially some of the lower-ranking officers.
Even if they also wanted to go to Taiwan, they did not have the ability and could only choose to fend for themselves on the mainland, including Major General Li Guohui of the 709th Regiment of the 237th Division of the Kuomintang 8th Army.
In 1950, in order to preserve the strength of his 709 regiment, the defeated Li Guohui led his troops to retreat from the Wa Mountains in Yunnan to Burma.
At that time, Li Guohui originally wanted to take advantage of this to recuperate for a while, and then prepare to counterattack the mainland at the right time and make a comeback.
Coincidentally, Li Guohui encountered Tan Zhong, deputy commander of the 278th Regiment of the 26th Army, who had the same idea as him on the way to lead the army to withdraw.
Subsequently, Lee's army merged with Tan Zhong's troops, and the two decided to go to Burma together. In this way, two teams of nearly 2,000 people embarked on the journey to Burma.
After some escape, the two led the army to finally come to Burma, although the road to escape was extremely difficult, but finally successfully arrived in Burma, the two were still very happy.
After arriving in Burma, after consultation between Li Guohui and Tan Zhong, the two agreed that such a large contingent would definitely attract the attention of the local government if there were many people in Myanmar.
Therefore, in order to avoid being discovered by the local government, Li Guohui's army could only stay in a relatively sparsely populated place. Subsequently, they found a boundary that was not easy to find, and chose to camp there for a short stay.
After solving the problems of the army's life, Li Guohui and Tan Zhong thought of using the only radio station in the army to contact the troops who had absconded to Taiwan, and wanted to ask for their assistance.
Although they successfully made contact with the Troops in Taiwan, the Kuomintang at that time was also unable to protect itself and did not have the energy to take care of them.
Therefore, on the grounds that the current situation is relatively serious and they cannot come to support them, they gave them 50,000 baht and let them solve the problem of survival on their own.
At that time, Li Guohui looked hopeless for help, so he consulted with Tan Zhong and felt that since he could no longer go back to the large army, it was better to form a unit himself.
In this way, Li Guohui and Tan Zhong began to carry out a systematic transformation of the army, using the 50,000 baht given by the Taiwanese troops not only to expand the army's personnel, but also to purchase some materials to prepare for a long stay in Myanmar.
Stationed in the "Golden Triangle", and finally stayed in Myanmar
Under the guidance of Li Guohui and Tan Zhong, an abandoned remnant of the Kuomintang gradually regained its combat effectiveness and also had a certain scale.
Not only that, but some other defeated troops came to li guohui when they heard about Li Guohui's recruitment and chose to defect to their army.
With the addition of more defeated troops, Li Guohui's army has suddenly expanded from about 2,000 people at the beginning to more than 3,000 people.
In this way, a remnant of the Kuomintang army really gained a foothold in Burma, but with the continuous addition of personnel, the problem of materials and salaries of the entire army also made it difficult for Li Guohui.
Just when Li Guohui was very distressed about this matter, he suddenly had the idea that they could do business with other forces around Myanmar. In this way, it can not only solve the current problems, but also prepare sufficient materials for the future development of the army.
In this way, Li Guohui relied on the weapons in his hands, and soon they had their first order. Not only that, in order to survive better in Myanmar, Li Guohui also led the army to start reclaiming farmland near the camp to maintain life.
In addition, in order to be able to live in Burma, Li Guohui also ordered the people in his army to have good relations with the local people.
Because he knows that only by truly gaining the recognition and support of the local people can they live in that land that does not belong to them for a long time.
Later, as Lee's army grew stronger, the burmese government quickly attracted the attention of the Burmese government as it began to operate on a large scale around Burma.
When the Burmese government learned that Lee's army was remnants of the Kuomintang, it was furious and began to send troops to expel them.
At that time, Li Guohui's army had already taken shape, so for the army sent by the Burmese government to attack them, Li Guohui did not pay attention to the Burmese government's army at all.
After some artillery fire, neither side achieved a stage victory, and after the local residents learned of the battle between the two sides, they began to jointly write a decision to prevent the war from happening.
In order to stabilize the hearts and minds of the local residents, the Burmese government and Lee Kwok-fai finally decided to stop the war and start negotiations.
After some negotiations, Lee decided to exchange captured Burmese prisoners for their right to remain in Burma. Faced with burmese captives, the Burmese government had to agree to Lee's terms.
The reason why Li Guohui was able to accept negotiations with the Burmese government also had a lot to do with a Kuomintang general, Li Mi.
At that time, when Li Guohui led the army to Burma, it was Li Mi who generously gave Li Guohui 100,000 US dollars at his own expense, which made Li Guohui's army grow stronger and stronger.
After the negotiations were over, Li Guohui led his army to withdraw to the boundaries of his camp. With the cessation of the war, Li Guohui and others have begun to slowly get used to the days without war.
But in the face of such a large team, even if they have reclaimed the farmland and started a business, they will still worry about their livelihood. Faced with another difficult problem, Li Guohui found Tan Zhong and Li Mi for consultation.
After several deliberations, they finally decided to start vigorously developing their own economy in Burma and making more money to maintain the expenses of the entire army.
When Li Guohui was worried about what to do, he suddenly remembered that Britain, France and other countries had come to the region to teach the cultivation and refining of opium and other techniques, so he had an idea in his mind, that is, to do the "drug trade".
Not only that, But Lee also encouraged local residents to grow poppies together.
Became a threat to Myanmar and almost eradicated
With the cultivation of the poppy, Li Guohui slowly turned the drug business into an unshakable industrial chain.
Not only did he successfully distribute drugs to various countries in the world with the help of General Staff Officer Qian Yunzhou, but he also built the place where he lived into a "golden triangle drug paradise".
Not only that, in order to be able to penetrate more deeply into the hearts and minds of local residents, Li Guohui also came up with a method of military-civilian marriage.
He encouraged his soldiers to marry the local population, so that his ranks could not only grow, but also gain greater power.
However, as Lee's influence in Burma grew, it also made the Burmese government extremely uneasy, knowing that their army could not defeat Lee's army.
So they began to seek the help of the United Nations, hoping to use the power of the United Nations to completely eliminate Lee's army.
When the United Nations learned of this, it wanted to contact Chiang Kai-shek and wanted to borrow Chiang Kai-shek's hand to eliminate Li Guohui and others.
When Chiang Kai-shek learned of this, he never imagined that a crippled army that he had abandoned had now become the biggest threat to Burma.
Chiang Kai-shek admired Li Guohui's army since he knew that the army led by Li Guohui was so outstanding, so he secretly contacted his former confidant Li Mi through the radio, hoping that Li Mi would take over this very large army for his use.
In fact, Chiang Kai-shek's purpose in doing so was ostensibly to ease relations between the two sides, but secretly he wanted to make Li Mi and Li Guohui want to take this opportunity to make a comeback and fight back against the mainland.
I have to say that Chiang Kai-shek was really a scheming man, and at that time he felt that Li Guohui and his army were useless, so he let them fend for themselves. Now that the army has been well cultivated by Li Guohui, he wants to use it again.
When Li Mi learned of Chiang Kai-shek's orders, he consulted with Li Guohui on whether he could give him command of the army.
And Li Guohui also knew that if there was no Li Mi's 100,000 US dollars to help him expand the army, the strength of the army would not be so strong now, so Li Guohui did not think about it and handed over the command of the army to Li Mi.
As the saying goes, "Ginger is still old and spicy", since Li Guohui handed over the command to Li Mi, he has expanded the army that originally had only more than 3,000 people to 30,000, making the team even larger.
Not only that, but their military activities have occupied 200,000 square kilometers of Myanmar.
Seeing that the army had not been eradicated, but had grown stronger, the Burmese government watched the united Nations turn to the United Nations without success, so they went to India again and wanted to use the Indian army to eliminate that army.
When the Indian government learned of this, it wanted to take the opportunity to make Burma their own colony.
Therefore, the Indian government wanted the Burmese government to say that if they wanted to help Burma eliminate Li Mi's army, then after the fact, they must make Burma a colony of India.
In fact, the Burmese government has long been prepared, and they understand the wolf ambitions of the Indian government, so they have also turned around and put forward three conditions to India.
When the Indian government listened to the three conditions of the Burmese government, they agreed without hesitation.
However, although the Indian government promised to be very happy, in fact, they had far more than that in their hearts, they thought that as long as the Indian army entered the territory of Myanmar and gained a firm foothold, then even if the Burmese resisted them, they could control it.
Became the "Earth Emperor" of Burma, leaving behind 60,000 descendants
Since Li Mi took over the military power, he had hoped to prepare to counterattack the mainland according to Chiang Kai-shek's orders, but before they could start counterattacking the mainland, they ushered in a war between Burma and India.
Faced with the Burmese and Indian armies, Li Mi and Li Guohui did not have the slightest fear, and they quickly adjusted their preparations for battle to fight with the Burmese and Indian armies. Thus began the real war between the Nationalist forces and Burma and India.
First of all, Li Mi and Li Guohui faced mercenaries from India, but fortunately Li Mi was more clever, and he launched a fierce attack on India before the Indian army had established a fortification on the shore.
In just ten minutes, Li Mi's Kuomintang troops wiped out the vanguard of the Indian mercenaries, and the Indian army watched its vanguard troops being defeated, and even used bombers to deal with the Nationalist troops.
Subsequently, dozens of bombers appeared in the air above the Salween River Theater and began to bomb the Nationalist troops. Seeing that the bombers above were constantly destroying the Kuomintang troops, Li Guohui was angry and decided to fight himself.
With Li Guohui's guidance, it did not take long for the Indian army to be defeated and killed and fled. When Li Guohui saw this, he did not hesitate to chase and fight the Indian army.
The leader of the Indian mercenaries watched his army being defeated by the Nationalist army that he despised the most in the past, and when it was difficult to accept such a heavy blow, he shot himself.
When Li Guohui led his army to the Salween River, he saw nearly 3,000 Indian mercenaries kneeling in front of the Kuomintang troops hoping to get their forgiveness.
But when Li Guohui thought that his brothers who had followed him from birth to death had died in this war, he did not think about it and ordered the heads of Indian mercenaries to be cut off to commemorate their fallen brothers.
With the victory of that battle, the title of "Emperor of the Earth" of Burma was born, and Burma did not dare to wage war against the Nationalist army after learning that the Indian army had lost to the Kuomintang army.
Since then, the Kuomintang army has never been encircled and suppressed by the Burmese government, and not only that, they have completely rooted in Burma and become the "earth emperor" of Burma.
Later, with the marriage of some officers and soldiers of the Kuomintang army at that time with local women, they also had nearly 60,000 descendants and began to live a self-supporting life.