When the all-out War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression broke out in 1937, the Jinsui Army had a total of 6 infantry corps, 2 cavalry divisions, 5 independent brigades, and 10 artillery regiments (the 30th regiment number of the artillery brigade was the top), and the regular strength totaled more than 100,000 people.
Because the weapons and equipment of the Jin Sui Army were mainly supplied by the Taiyuan Arsenal, its artillery and automatic weapons were relatively strong; Basically, the corps and division-level units of the Jinsui Army can be supported by artillery regiments, and the brigade-level units can be supported by artillery battalions; And weapons like submachine guns can even be equipped to the squad level.
However, the Jin Sui army suffered a lot of losses in a series of battles from northern Jin to Taiyuan, especially a large number of artillery, so by the winter of 1937, its strength had been seriously damaged.
Therefore, after the war in Shanxi came to an end, Yan Xishan spared no effort to restore the strength of the Jin Sui army.
And the situation at that time was not in the establishment, nor in the weapons, after all, the establishment of the Jin Sui army was still relatively large, and it was sufficient; In terms of weapons and equipment, although the Taiyuan Arsenal was lost, it was enough to equip a large army with the help of the stock of weapons rushed out.
The main problem was in terms of troops, after all, at that time a large area of Shanxi had already fallen, and it was relatively difficult to quickly restore a large army in the limited control area.
As a local powerful faction who has worked hard all the way in the warlord melee era, Yan Xishan knows what the result will be if he has no army; In particular, he has a clear understanding of Lao Chiang's means to solve the local powerful faction.
Therefore, at the beginning of 1938, Yan Xishan reported the strength of the Jin Sui army after "restoration".
It was mentioned in the relevant telegram that the Jinsui infantry originally had 68 regiments, which were reorganized into 58 regiments after the war, and now 10 new regiments have been established, but in fact, it has been restored to the level of 68 regiments, with a total strength of 134398 people; 6 regiments of cavalry remained unchanged, with a total of 6,584 men; The artillery originally consisted of 9 regiments and 1 artillery brigade, which was later reduced to 6 regiments, and now 3 regiments and 1 artillery brigade have been newly established, with a total of 15,382 personnel.
It means that the current establishment of the Jin Sui Army has completely returned to its original level, with a total of 74 infantry cavalry regiments, 9 artillery regiments + 1 artillery brigade, and a total strength of more than 150,000 infantry cavalry artillery.
In fact, this so-called 150,000 army was to fool Lao Jiang, according to the conscription situation of the Jin Sui Army at that time, there must not be these; In particular, the basic establishment of the infantry of the Jin Sui Army was 1,500 people, and even if it was all full, it was only a little over 100,000, and it was impossible to beat the full strength at that time, let alone 30,000 more.
The reason why the number of troops with full strength was reported was to prevent Lao Jiang from attacking the Jin Sui army after learning that it had been seriously weakened.
However, in terms of weapons and equipment, because the original Taiyuan plant's inventory was still sufficient, it did not inject much water.
At that time, Yan Xishan's telegram mentioned that the Jin Sui army was equipped with 720 heavy machine guns and 3,885 light machine guns, and the total number of light and heavy machine guns reached 4,605.
Because the artillery unit is not equipped with light and heavy machine guns, these more than 4,600 machine guns are equipped with infantry and cavalry; Since the cavalry itself is not as large as an infantry regiment and carries fewer machine guns, we calculate 6 cavalry regiments into 3 infantry regiments.
That is, the establishment of about 71 infantry regiments, equipped with 720 heavy machine guns and 3,885 light machine guns, what is the approximate configuration?
First of all, pay attention to machine guns, 720 heavy machine guns with 71 regiments, and the average regiment is more than 10 each.
The heavy machine guns of the Jin Sui Army can be formed in two states, one is integrated with the mortar into the machine gun company directly under the infantry regiment, but a company of 10 heavy machine guns is obviously too scary.
The other is in the machine gun company of the infantry battalion, the Jin Sui army usually has 4 guns, and in practice 3 can also be used, so a regiment is equipped with 10 heavy machine guns, which is basically 3 machine gun companies under the battalion, and each company is equipped with 3 or 4 guns.
In terms of light machine guns, 71 regiments were equipped with 3,885 units, with an average of more than 50 per regiment.
Light machine guns were equipped in the infantry regiment, and the infantry regiment at that time was composed of 3 battalions and 9 companies, with more than 50 light machine guns corresponding to 9 infantry companies, with an average of 6 light machine guns per company.
This configuration was also common at the time, and later the standard of the Central Army was also equipped with 6 units.
However, the standard of heavy machine guns in the Central Army is also 6 per company, while the situation in the Jin Sui Army is 3 to 4, and the situation in this regard is still slightly worse.
But considering that not everyone in the central army can be fully equipped, most of the weapons of the Jin Sui army can be in place.
Therefore, the Jin Sui Army still surpassed the auxiliary units of the Central Army in terms of the allocation of light and heavy machine guns, and basically reached the level of the general units of the Central Army.
It's just that the quality and performance of weapons made in Shanxi are poorer, and in this regard, it is better to rely mainly on large domestic arsenals and the Central Army units that purchase original goods; However, among the local armies, the armament level of the Jin Sui army was at least good.