During the Beiyang period, the division commander had huge power and was hot.
Have you ever felt that when you mention a division or mixed brigade of the Beiyang Army, such as the 3rd Division, the 6th Division, the 16th Mixed Brigade, etc., you will feel their weight, just like mentioning the 4th Mechanized Infantry Division, the 82nd Airborne Division, and the 7th Armored Brigade of the British Army.
However, if you mention a certain division in the forties, you will not find this feeling in any way. Feng Yuxiang stopped his troops in Wuxue, Ma Lianjia launched a coup d'état in Anhui, and Zang Zhiping and Yang Huazhao left Fujian and entered Zhejiang.
But if it's a division, it's even more terrible. Wu Peifu led the 3rd Division from the Hunan front line back to the north, and Sun Chuanfang led the 2nd Division to leave Hubei and enter Fujian via Jiangxi.
At that time, the warlord could not be the governor of the province, he could not be the overseer of the army, but he could not be the commander of the division. In the provinces and regions controlled by the Beiyang warlords, almost all military and political chiefs had to concurrently serve as a division commander.
Even though many warlords have become patrol envoys and generals at the level equivalent of theater commanders, they still cling to the authority of division commanders. For example, Wu Peifu, he is not only the patrol envoy of Zhilu and Henan, but also the commander of the 3rd Division;Qi Xieyuan is not only the patrol envoy of Suzhou, Anhui and Jiangxi, but also the commander of the 6th Division;Wang Huaiqing is not only the patrol envoy of Rechasui, but also the commander of the 13th Division;Sun Chuanfang is not only the patrol envoy of Fujian and Zhejiang, but also the commander of the 2nd Division;Xiao Yaonan is not only the patrol envoy of the two lakes, but also the commander of the 25th Division;Feng Yuxiang is not only the army review envoy, but also the commander of the 11th Division.
In Beiyang, except for Zhang Zuolin, who was the patrol envoy of the three eastern provinces, all the patrol envoys were also the commanders of a certain division. So, why was a division commander so hot at that time?
Let's start at the beginning.
1. The Origin of China's Army Divisions The military reform in modern China began with the formation and training of the new army at the end of the 19th century, and the army division was born during this period. This change was divided into two main phases, the first of which was from the Sino-Japanese War (1894) to the Boxer Rebellion (1900).
During this period of time, Zhang Zhidong, Hu Liaodi, and others put forward a proposal to organize and train the army according to the Western-style military system, so there was Zhang Zhidong's self-improvement army trained in Nanyang and Hu Liaodong's Dingwu army trained in Beiyang.
Later, Hu Liao was transferred, and the Dingwu Army was taken over by Yuan Shikai and renamed the Xinjian Army. After Yuan Shikai trained in the small station, he was more resolute than his predecessor Hu Liaoqi in reforming the military establishment.
Zhang Zhidong and Yuan Shikai's greatest contribution lies in the fact that they broke the old concept of only attaching importance to the improvement of equipment and not to the reform of the establishment since the Westernization Movement, boldly adopted the Western-style military system, and carried out reforms in the establishment system.
This revolution in military affairs is quietly emerging. In Jiangnan, the initial establishment of the self-improvement army trained by Zhang Zhidong was as follows:
In the self-strengthening army, the battalion is still the basic unit, but on top of this, the organization of wings has been added, and the mixed integration of horsemen, artillery, engineers and other arms has begun to take shape as a composite army.
Compared with the previous situation in which the Green Battalion and the Xianghuai Army had battalions as the highest establishment units and had a single type of troops, this is undoubtedly a gratifying progress. In Beiyang, after Yuan Shikai took over, in his prelude to the imperial court, he proposed the establishment of the new army as follows:
Under the requirements of new weapons and new tactics, this organization has formed a multi-level organization, making the scale of the troops larger and the style of the combined army more obvious. Although the army division has not yet been formally formed, its new hierarchy has already shown great potential.
The second period was from 1900 to 1904. After the Gengzi Rebellion, the Qing court began to organize and train the standing army and the reserve army, but because each province was independent, only Yuan Shikai in Beiyang and Zhang Zhidong in Hubei really took the step of reform.
On the basis of the Hubei Guard Barracks, Zhang Zhidong modeled the establishment of the Japanese army division and regiment and established the Hubei Standing Army in 1902. It is prepared as follows:
In this formation, the corps is equivalent to the division of the Japanese army, the wing is equivalent to the brigade of the Japanese army, the flag is equivalent to the wing of the Japanese army, and the battalion is equivalent to the brigade of the Japanese army. Compared with the self-strengthening army that Zhang Yuan trained, not only the size of the unit has expanded, but it is also closer to the hierarchical structure of modern army divisions.
In the same year, a similar establishment was implemented in the standing army of Beiyang.
Compared with Zhang Zhidong's Hubei Standing Army, the cavalry size of the Beiyang Standing Army was slightly different. The cavalry of the Hubei Standing Army has only one battalion, while the cavalry of the Beiyang Standing Army is a standard (regiment).
This is mainly due to the difference in the conditions for the use of cavalry between the south and the north. The Qing Dynasty realized that the training of troops by the provinces could not meet the unified national standard, so at the end of 1903, the Beijing Division Training Office was set up to coordinate the training of the new army across the country.
The training office was headed by Prince Qing Yixuan as the prime minister, and Yuan Shikai as the conference office. However, Yixuan didn't know anything about military training and was unwilling to take care of things, so the actual power of military training fell into the hands of Yuan Shikai.
At this time, Yuan Shikai was keen on military training and had already achieved certain results. Now that he has the real power to train troops throughout the country, China's military training undertaking has begun to enter a period of rapid development.
On the third day of the eighth month of the thirtieth year of Guangxu, September 12, 1904, this day is of great significance to the history of China. On this day, the new army constitution system jointly drawn up by the Military Training Department and the Ministry of Military Affairs was officially approved and implemented throughout the country.
Since then, the Chinese Army has gone through a decade-long exploration and reform, and finally completed the transformation from the old system to the new system after breaking the old shackles. A new army establishment unit, the town, later the ** army division, was born.
2. The establishment and equipment of the Beiyang Army Division is a unified establishment of the whole army led by Yuan Shikai, and the establishment of the new-style army basically follows the framework of the Beiyang Standing Army. By 1912, before the Army was renamed, the establishment of the town was slightly changed and increased.
First of all, the number of battalions was reduced from 4 to 3 battalions in the Standing Army. Secondly, a new town-affiliated telecommunications team was added, which was at the company level, with 2 radio communication platoons, 2 construction platoons, and 1 transportation platoon, with a total of 163 officers and soldiers.
This building row is actually a line row, but now the name is different. Third, the new town-affiliated balloon team, which is also a company level, has 1 gas production platoon, 1 ball platoon, 1 cage platoon, 1 transport platoon, and 1 mooring class and 1 communication class.
A total of 221 officers and soldiers. Fourth, a new machine gun team was added to the infantry and horse standards. The machine gun teams of the infantry and horse standards have jurisdiction over 2 platoons, with a total of 71 officers and soldiers.
According to the research of netizen Cicero, at this time, the town was also directly under a machine gun team. In September 1912, the names of towns, associations, standards, battalions, teams, platoons, and sheds of the new-style army were changed to divisions, brigades, regiments, battalions, companies, platoons, and squads.
After the renaming of the Army, the initial establishment was exactly the same as before the change. Around 1914, another minor adjustment was made, resulting in the following formation:
The military establishment and equipment during the period of the Beiyang warlords are as follows: * Rifles: Mainly equipped with German-made Mauser series rifles and Japanese-made 30 series rifles.
After entering the **, the rifles equipped by the Beiyang Army have not changed much. The most used is still the German-made 88 style 79mm rifles and Japanese-made 65 rifles.
Machine guns: Machine guns are organized in companies, which are divided into 4 infantry regiments, may be organized in cavalry regiments, or may be directly controlled by divisions and a machine gun company, with a total of 24 machine guns.
24 machine guns in one division, which may seem shabby today, but at the end of the nineteenth century, until the outbreak of the First World War, the army divisions of the Great Powers were no more than that.
Artillery: The artillery of the Beiyang Army is mostly German-made Krupp 75 mm field and mountain artillery, and the artillery regiments of the 1st, 3rd and 5th divisions are all this artillery.
The second is the Japanese imitation of the Krupp 75-mm field and mountain guns, which are all equipped by the artillery regiments of the 2nd and 4th divisions. Again the French-made Lebel 8mm rifle, which was used by 1 division.
3. The Strong Strength of the Beiyang Army Division The Beiyang Army Division can be called strong in terms of strength, and its path of elite troops has made it an army with extremely strong combat effectiveness. Compared with the armies of other periods, the Beiyang Army Division has a more streamlined establishment and fewer troops, but its sophisticated equipment and training make its combat effectiveness far superior to that of other units.
The Beiyang Army Division has excellent strength, each division has a relatively small number of people, but it has strong combat effectiveness. Its establishment includes infantry, cavalry, artillery, engineers, baggage and other arms, each of which is equipped with sufficient equipment and personnel to be able to conduct all-round battles.
In addition, the Beiyang Army Division is also very well equipped with units of various arms, and each division has a 54-gun artillery regiment, which is not available in other periods and armies.
The establishment structure of the Beiyang Army Division is also an important factor in its strong strength. In China during the Beiyang period, only the Beiyang Army Division had a complete combat system, including infantry, cavalry, artillery, engineers, baggage and other arms.
In other periods, although there were divisions composed of various arms, the units of their arms were not fully equipped and could not achieve all-round combat. The composition of the Beiyang Army division is only reflected in the division level, while in other periods, the army has combat support, logistics support, and combat support units at each level of the command, corps, regiment, and battalion.
This enables the Beiyang Army Division to conduct combat more efficiently and achieve all-round combat support and support. Generally speaking, the strong strength of the Beiyang Army Division stems from its sophisticated equipment, comprehensive armament of arms, and efficient organizational structure.
These factors have made the Beiyang Army Division far surpass other units in combat effectiveness and become an important army in the history of China.
Although the form of existence of the mixed brigade is always a wartime formation, history has inadvertently made it a peacetime formation unit. Unlike other units, the formation of a mixed brigade is not temporarily assigned by a higher level, but is a fixed subordination, so it is no longer just a first-class wartime group, but a first-level peacetime establishment unit.
Although there is no statutory establishment for a mixed brigade, it is very flexible and can be grouped according to different regions and operational patterns. The mixed brigade has all the functions of combat, combat support and combat service support, and can independently carry out combat missions.
Therefore, the mixed brigade is the best of the tactical units, and although it is not as awesome as the army division, it is also quite powerful.