On July 7, 1937, the Japanese army launched an attack on the Lugou Bridge, officially opening a full-scale war of aggression against China.
In less than a month, the Japanese army successively captured Beiping, Tianjin and other important places, intending to sweep China in three months.
Then the Battle of Songhu broke out, and more than 70 divisions of the Northwest Army, the Gui Army, the Guangdong Army, the Sichuan Army, and the Dian Army rushed to Shanghai.
As a result, more than half of the more than 700,000 troops were killed, and the situation of the War of Resistance was precarious.
Compared with Shanghai, the Northeast presented a completely different situation, under the policy of non-resistance of Chiang Kai-shek and Zhang Xueliang, the 300,000 Northeast Army chose to retreat and surrender the Northeast to the Northeast.
The people of the country all beat their chests and feet, and they were angry.
Now more than 70 years after the end of the Anti-Japanese War, we have always wanted to know an answer, if the Northeast Army rose up to resist back then, what were the odds?
Of course, this is something that did not happen, and we have to look at the results from several different angles.
The first is the comparison of military strength, the second is the situation of the Northeast Army, and the third point is also the most important.
In the whole battle situation, what position does the Northeast occupy in the layout of the Japanese army, and how will we face it?
1. Comparison of the combat strength of the Northeast Army and the Kwantung Army
As early as May 1, 1931, the Northeast Army was reorganized into the National Revolutionary Army and became one of the unified sequences of the Kuomintang army.
Under the jurisdiction of the Office of the Commander of the Northeast Frontier Defense, its army has 1 division, 7 brigades, 3 artillery brigades and 2 independent regiments.
In addition, there are 5 brigades, 3 regiments, and 6 northeast military police brigades stationed in Heilongjiang Province.
At that time, the Northeast Army had a total strength of 300,000 men, three naval fleets, and more than 260 fighters.
These are the most battle-hardened divisions, especially the navy and air force, which are more than all the rest of the country combined.
However, it should be pointed out that 12 brigades of the 30,000-strong army were later rebelled by the Japanese army.
Therefore, many of the statements circulating on the Internet are inaccurate, and before the "918" incident, the Northeast Army had 300,000 people in name.
However, there are less than 190,000 people under Zhang Xueliang's control, stationed in Liaoning, Jilin, and Heilongjiang provinces, of which Jilin has the largest number of troops, with 80,000.
At that time, the Japanese Kwantung Army stationed in the northeast had a total of 98,582 people, but excluding the Arthur Fortress Command and the Arthur Heavy Artillery Brigade.
In addition, there are a large number of spy agents, as well as rebel troops.
Overall, the total strength of the Kwantung Army is more than 100,000, and this number is likely to exceed 150,000.
Therefore, from the point of view of troops, the contrast between China and Japan in the northeast is not very large, and if we take into account the factors of equipment, training, tactics, and command, in fact, the Japanese army has a clear advantage.
So, how did the Kwantung Army encroach on the three northeastern provinces step by step? The main reasons are as follows:
The first is the distribution of troops, the Northeast Army is stationed in three places, and the forces are scattered, while the Kwantung Army concentrates on operations.
In addition, the 190,000 people of the Northeast Army were not stationed at three points, but from Shanhaiguan to Manchuria, and the defense line was very long.
Take the Seventh Brigade in Shenyang as an example, although it has a strength of 10,000 troops, because the battle line is long, it needs more auxiliary troops.
There are less than 6,000 people who can actually participate in the battle, and if they fight head-on, it is likely to be a situation in which the Japanese army is three against one.
In addition to the deployment of troops, the Kwantung Army also controlled the transportation arteries of the three northeastern provinces at that time, so in terms of mobility, it was far superior to the Northeast Army.
The second is the sophistication of weapons and equipment, although the Northeast Army is known as the most elite unit in China, but compared with the Japanese army, the gap is still relatively large.
At that time, the equipment of an infantry wing of the 2nd Division of the Kwantung Army was as follows: 1 wing had 2 brigades, 1 brigade had 5 squadrons, and one of these 5 squadrons was a machine gun squadron and a non-artillery squadron.
A company had 110 machine guns, including 20 heavy machine guns, 20 grenadiers, 600 trolling grenades, 6 rifle guns, 2 mountain guns, and 300 shells.
From the equipment of the Japanese army alone, we can see that their weapons and equipment are not only advanced, but also complete in variety and quantity, and the two sides are not at all on the same level.
The last point, in fact, is the most important point, that is, the gap between the tactical literacy and the will to fight of the two armies.
In order to invade China, the Japanese army prepared for at least 20 years in advance.
These soldiers have been trained since elementary school, and they have adopted a very extreme militaristic education.
Japan's militarist education can be said to have annihilated human nature, and they do not regard the enemy as human beings.
Because when they were training, they didn't treat their soldiers as human beings, they were all war killing machines.
They are killing indiscriminately on Chinese soil, with no moral restraint at all.
On the other hand, our Northeast Army, after the Japanese army had launched the "77 Incident", the Northeast Army's war mobilization also demanded that the officers and men should "tolerate it in all directions and not resist it"!
2. The policy of non-resistance
Judging from the overall combat strength, there may be some gaps between our Northeast Army and the Japanese army, but with the support of the common people, it should not be a problem to hold on for a period of time.
Why did Chiang Kai-shek and Zhang Xueliang adopt a policy of non-resistance?
At that time, Lao Jiang's reason was that "if you go outside, you must first settle inside", but people have already come to the door, and Lao Jiang's reason is obviously untenable.
And what we let out is not only the four provinces in the northeast, but also the family business that Zhang Zuolin has worked hard to accumulate, including a large number of advanced arsenals.
There is a very frightening statistic, in the 8 years of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, 25% of the weapons and ammunition used by the Japanese army were made by arsenals in the Northeast!
Therefore, one thing to be clear is that the loss of the Northeast is related to the overall situation, and war is like this.
But is the crime of not fighting all to blame on the Northeast Army and Zhang Xueliang and others? Let's go back and look at the Huanggutun incident in 1928.
When the Japanese bombed Zhang Zuolin that year, the Fengtian authorities chose to "keep it secret and not mourn", because they were afraid of causing panic.
In fact, behind this lies a huge conspiracy and crisis.
At that time, the Japanese tried to kill Zhang Zuolin and cause civil strife in the Northeast Army, so as to take advantage of the chaos to occupy the Northeast.
But in the end, the Northeast Army stabilized the situation, and in addition, the Japanese military top brass still had some disagreements on whether to launch a full-scale war of aggression at this time, and some people believed that the time was not yet ripe.
When recalling the Huanggutun incident, Hanaya Masasa, a member of the Fengtian secret service of the Kwantung Army, once said that when Zhang Zuolin was taken action that year, there was no consensus within the Kwantung Army on the follow-up plan.
Considering the importance of the Northeast in their overall plans, in the end they decided to postpone the dispatch of troops.
At the end of August 1928, the Japanese Army Headquarters held an important military conference on the attack on Northeast China.
The meeting came up with a plan for the time, place, and various stages of the Northeast Army's attack, but in the end they decided to leave the decision on the timing of the attack to the Kwantung Army.
3. Whose hands is the initiative?
A series of evidence shows that the Japanese army and the army headquarters agreed on the timing of the attack.
Judging by their preparedness at the time, the offensive could have been launched even years in advance.
In the end, they decided to brew in the Northeast for a longer period of time, preparing more supplies for future wars.
At the same time, pay close attention to the movements of the Chinese army, and once a critical point is reached, the first shot can be fired at any time.
The Japanese army launched the "918 Incident", which was actually the most chaotic time in China.
At that time, the Kuomintang was divided into three factions, and the CCP also established a provisional central government.
In addition, there are some powerful local warlords, and these forces contain each other, the key is that the contradictions are difficult to reconcile, and the Kuomintang cannot play a leading role.
These analyses made above illustrate the basic situation at that time, that is, the whole country did not have a genuine united anti-Japanese front.
The loss of the Northeast is not the sin of one party, it can be defeated, but there are too many uncertainties.
As we mentioned earlier, more than one-third of the 300,000 Northeast Army has been rebelled by the Japanese army.
Then the Japanese army conducted hundreds of large-scale exercises around the Northeast Army every year, and Zhang Xueliang knew better than anyone about the real combat strength of the Kwantung Army.
Before the outbreak of the "77 Incident," the Northeast Army had to devote a large part of its energy to dealing with the rebels, resulting in a lack of border air defense.
Under the rebellion of the Japanese army, Yan Xishan, Shi Yousan, and Han Fuyu formed an anti-Zhang alliance.
These forces, none of them are easy to provoke, at this time, Zhang Xueliang is equivalent to being roasted on the fire, it is not to fight, it is not good to fight, it is difficult to ride a tiger.
What's even more fatal is that the Japanese army also poached several major military advisers of the Northeast Army, and once the war starts, the Northeast Army is likely to collapse from within.
epilogue
From the perspective of the overall situation, every step of the Japanese Kwantung Army in the northeast has a bearing on the overall situation.
Every military conflict and troop movement is affecting various forces in China and promoting its "mainland policy."
In fact, after the "918" incident, Zhang Xueliang himself seemed to have a strong army, but in fact he was weak, and he could not reverse the situation without strong reinforcements to join forces to resist the enemy.
In other words, in the northeast at that time, all the Japanese troops knew what their plans were in the northeast, and they all knew that a full-scale invasion was a matter of time, but they just needed a suitable opportunity.
And what about the Chinese side? As far as the Kuomintang was concerned, Lao Chiang had always told the outside world that the Japanese would not attack the Northeast, and officers at all levels of the army had always "cooled down" the soldiers and ordinary people.
In fact, the Japanese army has already hung its sword over our heads, and the military and political leaders of the Kuomintang have all turned a deaf ear! In this environment, what is the combat power of the Northeast Army? To fight or not to fight? The life and death of the nation is not a matter for the Northeast Army.
References:
"With the strength of the Northeast Army, can Zhang Xueliang defeat the Japanese army if he resists? The answer is in a set of data"2024-04-10 Chu Xiaocheng
"With the strength of the Northeast Army, can Zhang Xueliang defeat the Japanese army if he resists? The answer is in a set of data"2024-04-27 Qingyao is chaotic and the moon is blowing