On the evening of September 18, 1931, the Japanese Kwantung Army stationed in Northeast China suddenly attacked Shenyang and launched an invasion of China's Northeast Region, known as the "September 18 Incident" in history. In this incident, the original Northeast Army wanted to recapture the land occupied by the Japanese army, but the Nanjing people strictly ordered Zhang Xueliang not to resist, and let him lead the Northeast Army back to Shanhaiguan.
Because the Northeast Army did not fire a single shot, a large part of the country fell, which led to a lot of domestic scolding, and they were accused of being **, but in the face of high-level orders, what could they do?
Before the September 18 Incident, China's Northeast Army was close to 300,000 people, while Japan's Kwantung Army stationed in Northeast China was less than 30,000. Japan, on the other hand, has been coveting China's northeastern region for a long time and has planned this incident.
On September 18, 1931, they blew up the South Manchurian Railway, and framed the incident on the Northeast Army, and attacked the North Camp of the Northeast Army at night. After a night of fierce fighting, the Beida Battalion of the Northeast Army was occupied by the Japanese army, with more than 300 people in this battle, while the Japanese army only had 24 people.
Because Chiang Kai-shek has always pursued the policy of "settling the interior before attacking the outside world" and has always been committed to destroying our party's revolutionary base areas, his foreign policy is to "not resist Japan's provocations and avoid conflicts." It was at his request that Zhang Xueliang had already ordered that no matter what the Japanese army did, they must not resist, and stored the guns in the warehouse. It was because of this that the Beida Battalion, which had nearly 8,000 soldiers, was defeated by the Japanese army, which had only 300 soldiers.
Subsequently, the Japanese army began to invade various parts of the Northeast. Faced with such a situation, the Northeast Army in various places did not intend to carry out Zhang Xueliang's order and spontaneously organized a counterattack, but they were defeated by the Japanese army. In the end, Changchun, Jilin and other places fell one after another.
The Japanese army was so aggressive that anyone with a discerning eye could see their ambitions for aggression, so Zhang Xueliang gathered troops in Jinzhou, intending to regain the lost territory by force.
The people of Nanjing** would not sit idly by and watch the situation escalate, and while they stopped Zhang Xueliang's behavior, they sent an ambassador to negotiate, and proposed to classify Jinzhou as a neutral zone, and claimed that they would let the Northeast Army withdraw from Jinzhou and Shanhaiguan.
Later, Zhang Xueliang also planned to preserve his own strength, and expressed his willingness to support this plan of Jinzhou's neutrality, so he decided to lead the army into the customs, and began to withdraw the army in early December. Although Chiang Kai-shek did not want Zhang Xueliang to resist, he did not want him to withdraw so quickly, in case the Japanese army rebelled and attacked further, he still needed to resist.
Sure enough, the Japanese army began a fierce offensive against Jinzhou in December, and Zhang Xueliang was already bent on preserving himself, and strictly enforced Chiang Kai-shek's policy of non-resistance, and withdrew to Shanhaiguan. In this way, it took less than half a year for the Northeast to occupy the Northeast region.
Although Chiang Kai-shek, Zhang Xueliang and other high-level leaders adhered to the "policy of non-resistance" and led to the fall of Northeast China, there were still many Northeast Army troops who did not follow Zhang Xueliang out of Northeast China. They fought separately, only to resist the Japanese invaders, such as Ma Zhanshan, Huang Xiansheng and others, and organized the old troops of the Japanese army to launch a fierce counterattack.
Over the course of several years, Japan's Kwantung Army suffered heavy losses in the Tohoku region. According to the data given by Japan, in the period from 1931 to 1934, the Kwantung Army lost nearly 20,000 men.
This shows how brave the troops left in the Northeast were, and how much sacrifice they made because of it. These old units of the Northeast Army resisted for 14 years and, despite the lack of resources, persisted in the struggle against the Japanese invaders.
Although the Northeast Army that entered the customs did not experience the hardships of those people, the psychological torture they suffered was very heavy. Because of the fact that no shot was fired, the Northeast fell, causing the Northeast Army to be abused by the people. Although Zhang Xueliang has repeatedly pursued a "policy of non-resistance," he has also suffered from psychological torture. Therefore, at the end of 1936, the "Xi'an Incident" was launched against Chiang Kai-shek, prompting him to stop the civil war and fight against Japan in an all-round way.
In the following years, the Northeast Army, which entered the customs, fought very bravely on the front line in order to wash away the shame. In the eight-year War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, more than 100 generals of the Northeast Army were martyred, and the ** rate of the Northeast Army also exceeded 80%.
Although they were reviled for their superiors' "non-resistance policy", which led to the fall of Tohoku, their contributions to the later wars were also indelible.