Everyone knows that the Japanese invaders once built a "puppet Manchukuo" in the three eastern provinces of China, but few people know that this so-called country also has an army, called the "Manchurian Defense Force", which can be said to be the first puppet army in China's modern history.
Originally, the three eastern provinces were the territory of the warlord Zhang Zuolin, after the outbreak of the 918 Incident, the Northeast Army left behind here about 100,000 troops, after Japan established the "puppet Manchukuo", the "Manchurian Defense Army" was established on the basis of the Northeast Army.
From left: Ma Zhanshan, Zang Shiyi, Zhang Jinghui, Xi Qia
On February 16, 1932, the leaders of the puppet army who surrendered to Japan held the "Northeast Political Affairs Conference" under the auspices of the Kwantung Army, and the presidium of the meeting was composed of the commander of the Kwantung Army, Honjo Shigeru, and the powerful figures in the Northeast at that time, Ma Zhanshan, Zang Shiyi, Xiqia, and Zhang Jinghui. This meeting established the basic structure of the "Manchurian Defense Force."
On March 1, 1932, the puppet state of Manchukuo was established. On 9 March, with the consent of the Japanese Kwantung Army, Pu Yi appointed Ma Zhanshan as Minister of National Defense, marking the formal establishment of the puppet Manchurian "National Defense Force."
At its peak, the Manchurian Defense Force reached a scale of nearly 150,000 men, with deployment by sea, land, and air.
Pu Yi (second from left) at the opening ceremony of the Xinjing Army School
Japan also took great pains to establish the Manchukuo Xinjing Army Military Academy in Changchun on the model of the Japanese Army Noncommissioned Officer School.
The ranks of the Manchurian Defense Forces are divided into nine ranks: general, colonel, and lieutenant. After graduating from the military academy, he became a second lieutenant for the first time, and after 2 years he became a lieutenant......
The highest military rank is general, which is a tenured position. Above the general, the General's Office was established in imitation of the Japanese Marshal's Office, which was an honorary military rank.
The unit also has a "flying squad", with the Air Force at its peak numbering about 110 aircraft.
At the same time, the "Jiangshang Army" was set up in the Heilongjiang and Ussuri rivers to serve as water patrols.
Manchurian Defense Army "Jiangshang Army"
The earliest establishment also had a guard army directly under Puyi (Imperial Forest Army), which was later disbanded by Japan, and the Kwantung Army directly protected Puyi's security.
As far as Japan is concerned, this so-called Manchurian Defense Force is just a façade project, and it has never intended to make this army stronger. Therefore, in terms of armament, it can be saved, and all that is used is to eliminate backward ordnance.
All of them used mainland weapons and equipment captured by the Japanese army in the northeast, such as 7.92 caliber rifle machine guns, and the 6.5 and 7.7 mm guns used by the Japanese army could not be used, and the ammunition supply was extremely unstable, which was also a method of the Japanese army to control the puppet army.
Although the troops are equipped with heavy weapons such as field guns, the caliber is like a United Nations, which is extremely complex, and it is difficult to match suitable and sufficient shells.
Manchurian Defense Forces recruit training
The Kwantung Army never trusted this puppet army, and dispatched "instructors" of the Kwantung Army who held real power in companies, and then mobilized a large number of retired Japanese soldiers and ronins to join the Manchurian Defense Force to implement point-to-point comprehensive monitoring.
In order to buy people's hearts, the treatment of the Manchurian Defense Forces is not bad, and the monthly salary of generals can reach thousands of yuan (Manchurian dollars), generally hundreds of yuan at the middle level, and nearly 20 yuan for the lowest-ranking soldiers. You must know that at that time, 50 catties of flour were only sold for 2 Manchurian dollars.
But even so, what all the Japanese invaders did not expect was that this unit could be said to be the unit with the largest number of continuous "deserters" in the history of the world! Moreover, the "deserters" were not cowardly, and later basically joined the War of Resistance Against Japan, that is, anyway!
On 1 April 1932, just one month after the establishment of the Manchurian Defense Force, Ma Zhanshan, the supreme commander of the unit, led a battalion of infantry and a battalion of cavalry of the guards to run away in the name of inspecting the troops!
According to a large number of materials such as "Japan's Colonial Rule in Northeast China" and "Report of the Manchurian Inspector":
In 1932, there were 30,500 officers and men, in 1933 there were 59,850 officers and men, in 1934 there were 10,670, in 1935 there were 6,820, in 1936 there were 18,090.
What about combat capability? The original Manchurian Defense Force had only one function, to assist the Kwantung Army in suppressing the anti-Japanese volunteers in the northeast. After the outbreak of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression in 1937, Japan, which was a small land, became more and more troubled by the extra-long front, and the soldiers were overstretched. So he began to officially treat the Manchurian Defense Forces, changing them with Japanese-style equipment, thinking that this army could play some role. But......
In August 1937, the 1st Division of the Manchurian Defense Forces (Jing'an Army), led by Shigero Fujii and Zhu Jiaxun, marched to Hebei, where they were killed by Chinese troops in Zhangjiakou just a few days later, and the troops were scattered.
Later, this army was also present in many battles in Hebei and Shanxi, and they were basically the first to retreat.
In the Battle of Nomenkan in 1939, the 2nd Division of the Manchurian Defense Army was instructed by Japan to "defend the country and Jingbian", but it was defeated by the Soviet army and was powerless, and even the entire battalion surrendered to the Soviet army. From then on, Japan had no illusions about this force, and the Manchurian Defense Force was once reduced to less than 50,000 men.
In May 1945, Germany surrendered, and the Kwantung Army quickly expanded the Manchurian Wehrmacht to 129,000 in a short period of time. Some of them were transferred to the Guannai to fight against the Eighth Route Army in North China, but the puppet army equipped with Japanese-style weapons did not win a single battle against the Eighth Route Army with earthen guns and artillery.
In August 1945, the Soviet Union declared war on Japan, and under a charge, the Kwantung Army was completely annihilated, and the "Manchurian Defense Army" was also disbanded. After that, part of the puppet army joined the national army. In the Battle of Jinzhou in 1948, this part of the original puppet army that joined the national army was completely wiped out by our army.
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