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In other words, during the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, which province in China made the greatest contribution and sacrifice, then, Sichuan Province undoubtedly should be the first, according to incomplete statistics, the War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression Sichuan invested a total of more than 3.5 million armed forces, and during the war Sichuan contributed more than half of the finances for the War of Resistance.
On the anti-Japanese battlefield, for every 5 regular troops, there will be a Sichuan army soldier, and on average, for every 17 Sichuanese, there will inevitably be one person fighting on the front line.
In the wartime, the number of casualties and disappearances of the Sichuan Army exceeded 646,000, but the capture rate of Sichuan soldiers was extremely low, and later, people had the saying that "no river is no army". However, before the outbreak of war, almost no one thought that the Sichuan Army could have such a strong will to fight.
The Xinhai Revolution was destroyed by the Manchu Qing Dynasty, China entered a state of warlord melee, Sichuan is naturally no exception, directly appeared 5 major factions, more than 10 warlords, according to statistics in Sichuan Province, the number of warlord melee wars has more than 470 times.
These warlords often "fight small fights", even if they win a battle, they will not take advantage of the victory to pursue and kill the other party, but call the other party to "comfort", if the other party's family is unfortunately captured, then the victorious side will settle down. This is a bit like the "gentleman's war" in the Spring and Autumn Period. This kind of chaotic war is not destructive, quite comedic, and the local people also like to watch the hilarity.
However, Old Jiang did not have a good impression of these Sichuan Army scoundrels, and during the period when the Emei Training Corps was held, Old Jiang scolded the Officers of the Sichuan Army: Niang Xipi! Some officers passed by my car on a sliding pole, and they were lying on their backs, with no military etiquette, no education, and they were like bandits!
At that time, the "standard" of the Sichuan Army was a broken rifle plus an old smoking gun, and the military discipline was loose and had no combat effectiveness, and it was derogatorily called "double gun soldier". Some Yankees who have witnessed the style of the Sichuan army joked that the Chinese troops like this comedy are really eye-opening.
However, it was precisely in other people's "extremely poor quality" that the Sichuan Army degenerated into a mighty division that made the enemy shudder during the War of Resistance, and the reason is very simple: The war of foreign resistance and aggression is by no means comparable to the civil war in which compatriots are cannibalistic.
After the fall of Northeast China, North China, and other places one after another, once Little Japan opened up the Two Lakes region and inserted itself directly into Sichuan, then the entire Chinese nation even lost the last strategic buffer zone, so the Sichuan Army absolutely could not bow its head, so the Sichuan Army fully displayed the last bloodiness of the Sichuan people.
During the Battle of Songhu, the 26th Division of the Sichuan Army threw itself into this, and more than 4,000 officers and men from all over the division were only more than 600 wounded and disabled when they had to withdraw, and the death rate was as high as 85%, which can be said to be one of the units with the best combat results during the Battle of Songhu.
During the Battle of Nanjing, the 145th Division of the 21st Army of the Sichuan Army engaged the Japanese until the ammunition was exhausted, and the division commander Rao Guohua did not want to become a prisoner of the ranks and martyred the country; during the Battle of Yuzhong, when the 36th Army of the Sichuan Army was covering the friendly forces, the direct subordinate unit of the headquarters unfortunately encountered the main force of the Japanese army, and the commander-in-chief Li Jiayu died in battle.
Why was the Sichuan Army so brave in the War of Resistance? Many generals have also interpreted it with practical actions, and Wang Mingzhang, commander of the 122nd Division of the Sichuan Army before the Battle of Taierzhuang, was ordered to block the attack of the Japanese 10th Division in Tengxian County.
Wang Mingzhang knew that Fujian County could not be defended at all, but he still said to the soldiers: As a soldier, sacrifice is a natural duty, and now only sacrifice can complete the task, even if there is no soldier left, we have no complaints! Otherwise, we would have no face for the country, let alone redeem the guilt of the Sichuan Army's civil war for twenty years.
In the last three days of the defense of Tengxian County, the Japanese army attacked strongly, and the Japanese army took Tengxian at the cost of more than 1,000 casualties, the division commander Wang Mingzhang was martyred, and none of the Sichuan troops defending the city survived.
Although Fuji County was lost, the elite Japanese army division and the extremely poorly equipped Sichuan army did not take any advantage, which surprised them, and at the same time proved the resoluteness and fearlessness of the Sichuan army's resistance to the war, laying a solid foundation for the victory of the Subsequent Battle of Taierzhuang.
Li Zongren once commented on the Sichuan Army: "With the enemy outnumbered and the enemy, he did not hesitate to make major sacrifices to prevent the enemy from going south to complete the task, which became the most glorious stroke in the history of the Sichuan Army."
If there had been no hard battle in Teng county, there would have been no great victory in Taierzhuang, and the results of Taierzhuang's battle were the credit of the Tengxian campaign of the Sichuan Army. In view of the large number of Sichuan troops and the great sacrifices, "no river and no army" is not an exaggeration in fact. Before the death of Liu Xiang, commander of the Seventh Theater, he left a will and exhorted the generals of the Sichuan Army: The Sichuan Army is bound to resist to the end, and it will not be unswerving, and the Japanese will not roll out of the country for a day, and the Sichuan Army will not return to its hometown!
For a long time, the officers and men of the Sichuan Army on the front line would recite their oaths in unison every day when raising the flag to show their determination to resist the war, and this belief may be one of the important reasons why the Sichuan Army can become the main force of the War of Resistance!
References for this article: "The Complete Record of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression in China 1931-1945", "Sichuan Army", "Tengxian Defense War", "Baidu Encyclopedia Related Terms - No River No Army, Sichuan Army Out of Sichuan, etc."