China's AARight to be Hostile - A different way for the Guomindang

25年 8月 20日

The coastal offensive continued with Chiang's troops moving south. Defending forces were already battered and had no supplies due to the fall of Guangzhou. After the victory, Chiang's troops would board trains to Guiyang to lead the final offensive in the west. The defeated troops would be forced to flee to Bao'an and a single division was moved from Guangzhou to watch over them.



25年 8月 26日

Nationalist forces were directed to march into Guangxi itself. The first target was the heavily fortified city of Wuzhou. Nationalist troops attacked from four directions against slightly less numerous enemy troops.



25年 8月 27日

Even with air support, the attack was floundering. Reports of ambushes abounded. The Nationalists were forced to stop and wait for a better opportunity.



25年 8月 30日

At the end of August, Falkenhausen formally submitted his new doctrine for the Revolutionary Army. Close analysis would suggest that it owed more to Mao than to Clausewitz, as many of the successful strategies of the Red Army had been adopted as official Revolutionary Army doctrine. Nationalist forces would be taught to avoid enemy strong points where possible and instead attack with overwhelming force where the enemy was weakest. Encirclement and misdirection was emphasized as a way to control the dynamic and induce strategic paralysis in the enemy.

Chiang Kai Shek was so impressed by his briefing that he was immediately put to work on how to best leverage the numerical advantage of their forces for the coming war with Japan. Also, the capture of Guangzhou, as the most important city in south China, granted the nationalist government significantly more resources and revenue. Military planners in Hanyang were tasked with creating a plan for a modern cavalry division to take advantage of the army's new focus.



25年 9月 4日

Immediately after disembarking the trains, Chiang's forces came under immediate attack.



Though they vastly outnumbered their attackers, the central army was completely disorganized after the transit. A withdrawal was ordered to prevent a truly ignominious defeat.



25年 9月 6日

Falkenhausen took it upon himself to regain the momentum.

Almost 50,000 troops would attempt to force their way across the pearl river. Opposing them were 22,000 warlord troops.



25年 9月 8日

It took two days of vicious fighting, but the river had been crossed. Falkenhausen would move southwest to deny the Gaungxi Clique access to the coast.



25年 9月 10日

Guangxi leaders were alarmed they ordered every soldier they could find to try to oppose the advance. 14,000 soldiers would try to halt the advance, but the nationalist had numbers and superior leadership on their side.




25年 9月 12日

Two days later, a similar sized detachment of enemy forces blocked the way. Unfortunately for them, their commanders had decided that discretion was the better part of valor and were not on hand to help. They too would be forced to flee.



25年 9月 13日

Chiang's forces had finished their withdrawal to Zunyi and the counter attack saw warlord forces receive a swift and brutal crushing.



25年 9月 18日

Another desperate defense of Maoming commenced with another two divisions opposing the advance. Defending forces were outnumbered, but Falkenhausen's forces were nearly exhausted and only reserve divisions stationed in Guangzhou kept the offensive moving.



25年 9月 20日

The final obstacle to their progress were two divisions that appeared in the night. They were well led and had the advantage in terrain and organization, but Falkenhausen's troops had not marched 200 km only to be turned back within sight of their goal. The battles were hard fought but the enemy was again forced to retreat.



25年 9月 25日

It was a happy day for the government. The war was going well in the South, the leadership had been vindicated by victory against the communists and the people were more and more convinced that Revolutionary army might be able to win against the Japanese. The anti corruption campaign of the previous 9 months was deemed a success and scaled back, and resources were allocated to modernizing the army.



25年 9月 27日

Chinese diplomats again sent a request for a significant expansion of the German mission coupled with a diplomatic commitment. The concessions granted to German industrialists and lavish parties at the Chinese embassy in Berlin had done their job. Hitler was said to be receptive and almost two thirds of OKW were advocating the move. It was feared that the Soviet Union might get in there first as they had been the Guomindang's biggest supporters up until that point.



The request was granted. The Chinese government was given permission to directly negotiate with German companies for military procurements and the German mission was further expanded with 4000 German military advisors sent to oversee the modernization. Secret agreements within the treaty specified that China would be obligated to move on Mongolia in the event of a German war with Russia and that Germany would not seek a formal alliance with Japan.



It was now a whole new ball game.



Next time on AARight to be Hostile, the war continues apace and the South shows that they aren't quite beaten yet.

nomonhan said:

Porkman,
Can you post, please a list of the "Old Guard" generals you retired that were "loyal to Yuan Shikai"? It would be helpful for Empire of China in my mod. I'll give either you or the otherwise appropriate person credit.

Click to expand...

Here's the event. I don't actually know whether all those generals were loyal to Yuan Shikai, but they do all have the old guard trait so they had to go.



# sleep old guard CHI by Porkman

event = {
id = 9000003
random = no
country = CHI
name = "China's old guard resigns."
desc = "Facing a new era, Chiang Kai Shek finally felt secure enough to start a massive reorganization of the armed forces. Though touted as a necessary step for fighting japan, this was more about improving his own control then any real military aim. He particularly targeted generals who served under the Qing dynasty and later Yuan Shikai. Commanders who were unwilling to go along were forcibly retired."
style = 0
date = { day = 1 month = january year = 1936 }
offset = 1
deathdate = { day = 30 month = december year = 1946 }

action_a = {
name = "It's time to resign."
command = { type = sleepleader which = 50030 }
command = { type = sleepleader which = 50031 }
command = { type = sleepleader which = 50041 }
command = { type = sleepleader which = 50087 }
command = { type = sleepleader which = 50112 }
command = { type = sleepleader which = 50169 }
command = { type = sleepleader which = 50205 }
command = { type = sleepleader which = 50193 }
command = { type = sleepleader which = 50207 }
command = { type = sleepleader which = 50260 }
command = { type = sleepleader which = 50280 }
command = { type = sleepleader which = 50334 }
command = { type = sleepleader which = 50361 }
command = { type = sleepleader which = 50366 }
command = { type = sleepleader which = 50173 }
command = { type = sleepleader which = 50337 }

First of all, the response has been amazing. I started this four days ago and I was just forced to upgrade my photobucket account，because you guys have exceeded my bandwidth allotment. Keep up the good work.

Rudie That's how I do it!

BritishImperial I did write it. It's based on Kanitatlan's event for Germany which he talks about on the HOI2 wiki.

Maj. von Mauser Haven't seen their navy which I'm sort of glad of because I view all of Guangxi's military assets as my military assets, so if it wants to stay in port until annexation, that's fine with me.

As for the German alliance all that changes is that I get "Luftwaffe Crazy german word beginning with B" a skill 4 air doctrines tech team. I think the event is written to add falkenhausen back in case someone allies in 1940 and has had him recalled previously.

Creslin That wasn't so much about Mao being bad as it was about how China was able to afford it's military expansion with such a terrible technology base. 我也住在四川一年， 在那儿，很多人饿死了。 我看书，可是我也听很多故事。 周恩来, 邓小平, 刘少奇, 彭德怀, 朱德, 他们比毛都君子。 毛真的知道怎么职权，可是他职权为自己不是国。

Mao definitely did know how to wield power and if you look at his life solely in terms of what was good for Mao personally, he never made a bad decision. He never went hungry, had anything he wanted and was adored as "the red sun of our hearts" by a billion people. That's pretty much the wish list of everyone who seeks power for selfish ends. Not that Chiang Kai Shek was much better, he just had a lot less imagination, so the idea of plunging the country into anarchy for ten years because Liu Shaoqi had made him lose face, would not have occurred to him.

Anyway, it's off topic as Mao in this time line is already dead with future historians laughing at the audacity of the library assistant turned would be Chairman.

elbasto Go go gadget arm and a leg to the Germans!

ColossusCrusher I have to have the war with Japan over by, I think, April of 1938 to preserve the anschluss. That gives me a little over a year to annex Yunnan, annex Shanxi, annex Xinjiang, annex Manchukou and kick Japan off the mainland.

trekaddict I like Human wave for China because the poor infrastructure and long distances makes sustaining an offensive very org intensive. Whether you win or lose, stacks moving around in China are going to arrive at their destinations with org in the single digits. Then the morale boost of human wave comes in very handy. As for casualties, it doesn't seem to be a big deal yet. I also tend to build only a small (200 divisions) army after unification. Blitzkrieg for China could very well be a viable strategy but I have yet to try it.

And now the update！

AAR 05

25年 9月 28日

The good news was not to last. Guangxi forces had been biding their time, waiting for the main body of Falkenhausen's force to move south. Upon his arrival in Zhanjiang, his rear guard in Maoming was attacked. Two divisions only one of which could be considered professional, faced almost three times their number.



The troops reluctantly withdrew to Guangzhou, leaving Falkenhausen facing encirclement.



25年 9月 29日

However, the German had advanced south for a reason. Hainan with its air and naval facilities was a key objective and his troops were tasked with defeating the island's defenders. This was the first amphibious assault in the history of the Revolutionary Army and all eyes were on the battle about to unfold across the narrow Qiongzhou Strait.



The island's defenders were now cut off from the mainland. They had entrenched positions in the mountains overlooking the coast and were amazed to see a fleet of fishing boats re purposed as troop transports. This had problems as they were woefully easy to sink and troops aboard were entirely without cover. However, the length of coast line that had to be defended allowed some of the invasion force to make it across unmolested. Once it became clear that a beachhead had been established and was secure, the defenders threw down their weapons and did their best to adapt to their new vocations as farmers.



25年 9月 30日

Resistance having evidently abated, 7,000 troops that had been stationed with the fleet landed on several beaches and quickly secured it.



25年 10月 4日

After Hainan was secured, the troops were sent back to their transports. Hainan itself would be left with only a token garrison as nationalist naval supremacy made a Guangxi counterattack impossible.

Those troops would then act in concert with Falkenhausen to reinforce Maoming. The risk of being cutoff was growing the longer his troops stayed in the south.



25年 10月 6日

The troops arrived just in time and the enemy was forced to turn back before they could take the nationalist supply depots. Zhanjiang was deemed unimportant and left undefended as a lure to pull enemy troops away from the north.



25年 10月 7日

The first trade with the Germans was negotiated and they were not as friendly as had been originally hoped. In exchange for military aid, they demanded raw materials and coal, commodities which the Chinese themselves were running short of. Still the deal was a success and the Germans sent over advanced equipment to equip Chinese factories and engineers to teach how to use them.



A second attack was orchestrated against Wuzhou. Over 100,000 troops would be involved making it the largest single attack since the Battle of Xianyang. They were opposed by 28,000 defenders who had already had weeks to dig in to the hilly terrain. In addition, they were attacking into Guangxi province itself, which was considerably more loyal to the Southern warlords than Guangzhou had been. The battle looked to be brutal.



25年 10月 8日

The battle was indeed costly, but the swiftness , misdirection, and massive numerical superiority of the nationalist armies meant that there was very little hope of a successful defense. Adding to the defender's worries had been the 1st Revolutionary Airforce.

This force was composed of a ragtag group of bomber aircraft that had been assembled from various regional commands. Italian three-motor Savoia S.72's flew with Heinkel He111A-0's (which had been rejected by the Luftwaffe, but, in 1935, six machines had been purchased by the aviation command of Guangdong Province). Finally, there were a few American Martin 139WCs (the version of the B-10 exported to China.) The airforce was not up to world standards, being composed of planes that had generally been rejected by other governments, but that didn't matter so much when the enemy had no air defenses.



25年 10月 19日

The first battle for Wuzhou had ended in a loss, the second had been a rough fight, and the third was quickly deemed a joke. Two divisions, using rifles purchased during the Qing era, fought against the newly modernized Revolutionary Army. Warlord troops found themselves facing Krupp artillery and Mauser rifles with predictable results. Of particular utility was the new version of the Chiang Kai Shek Rifle, based on the German Karabiner 98k.



25年 10月 21日

Li Zongren would once again find himself facing the wily German and, once again, would come up lacking. He would console himself with the recent recapture of Zhanjiang.



25年 10月 26日

The fall of Wuzhou was the condition necessary to start the advance in the north.

Chiang Kai Shek and troops from Kaili would attack Liuzhou. The plan was not immediate occupation, instead they were trying to get the enemy army to retreat. Which it did in short order.



25年 10月 28日

The attack on Liuzhou had the desired effect troops from Bose were leaving their positions to go defend the east. The final attack was about to commence.




Up next, the war concludes with typical trickery accompanied by swift, brutal crushing.

Maj. von Mauser I will build an air force, research in this update. As for Grand Battle, it's worse than Human Wave up until 1942 when the night bonus kicks in. The greatest challenge for Nat China are first two years so that's when you need help. Falkenhausen also only has one mismatch for most of the human wave tree.

trekaddict I'll have to try it. (though last time I researched the required techs for tanks as nat. china, I found it more exasperating than fun)

Arilou Isn't that awesome? Welcome, by the way.

The next update arriveth!

25年 10月 29日

Chiang's forces massively outnumbered the beleaguered defenders but were hampered by unfamiliarity with the local terrain and local languages. In addition, the many rivers had swollen as result of the rainy season and crucial bridges were washed out or otherwise unusable.



25年 11月 1日

Though victory would be achieved quickly with enemy forces beating a hasty retreat, it was almost Pyrrhic as Chiang's forces had broken up into uncoordinated regiments moving haphazardly across the countryside. Having far too much experience of what happens when a large uncoordinated army meets a smaller one with a better command structure, the advance was halted.



Falkenhausen's troops had been moved north. The western half of Guangdong had been ruled unimportant as the real base of enemy support was Guangxi. This was not told to nominally allied Sichuan militarist Liu Wen Hui. Deemed one of Chiang's less trustworthy rivals he had not been informed about Falkenhausen's move to the until it well underway. His personal forces therefore were caught unprepared when the southern counterattack came.



He was among the more capable of the provincial militarists and was able to hold for almost 9 hours against a vastly superior force. It was only after his troops were in the middle of a demoralized headlong retreat, that his withdrawal orders, dated a week earlier, arrived.



25年 11月 11日

Sufficiently reorganized, and now properly supplied for an offensive, Chiang's forces once again marched towards Bose (Baise.)



25年 11月 18日

In the week previous, the Luftwaffe had sent over several wings of bombers to aid in the nationalist cause. The "Drachenwehr" as the force was known in Germany, was composed of almost 400 planes. It included many prototype bombers that were deemed to valuable risk in Spain as the Republicans had a viable airforce. The newly redesigned Heinkel 111B would have it's first combat tests over China. Being able to fly daylight missions with very little risk made it possible to test various modes of strategic bombing. Of particular value was the ability of a bomber squadron to be their own recon unit. It was the first use of airpower where the bombers were actually able to fly back over their targets and assess the damage. Luftwaffe bombing tables and targeting equipment would be almost entirely based off of data gathered in China. In a decision that he would later come to regret, Chiang had given the Drachenwehr almost complete autonomy per German request. While this undoubtedly led to a much larger commitment of German air power, it also meant that German aims sometimes went against Chiang's political goals. The Luftwaffe wanted to know if midrange tactical bombers could effectively mount strategic bombing raids against enemy supplies and industry. While this did serve to cripple the warlord's in the short run, as they had very little industry to begin with, the Germans would often attack targets that Chiang wanted preserved for postwar use.

This was especially galling as the war was clearly approaching its final stages, making further destruction of non military targets unnecessary and counterproductive.

The biggest offensive of the war in the south was the attack on Guilin. 180,000 soldiers attacked from four directions, converging on the city. Though not the official capital of Guangxi province, (that was Nanning) as its military headquarters, it had served in that capacity since 1921 when Sun Yat Sen made it one of the headquarters of the Northern Expeditionary Army.

The enemy had over 120,000 troops under Chen Jitang. They were prepared to sell their lives dearly as the loss of the Guilin arsenal would be the death knell for the south as an independent entity.



25年 11月 20日

Two days later, the battle would be won. Nationalist troops would advance south into Guilin in an ironic contrast to the Northern Expedition. The defending troops though numerous were rapidly devolving into more of a disorganized aggregation of soldiers than a real army.



Chiang's well supplied forces also triumphed against troops rushing to defend Bose.

When asked to explain the recent victories, Nationalist General Chen Cheng elaborated, "The emphasis of our war effort is not predicated on the gain or loss of cities, but whether we can seize the initiative and conduct mobile warfare throughout the entire country, in order to harass and disperse enemy force. Under the general principle of mobile warfare, our army must not only engage in frontal or flanking attacks, but also aggressively operate behind enemy lines. Such a strategy will make it impossible for the enemy to cover all points, put the pressure on it both in the front and in the rear, and render it incapable of doing anything right."



25年 11月 22日

The last territory to be reunited in the offensive was Liuzhou. Again, Wenzhou would prove its worth as a staging area as Falkenhausen's now completely resupplied army was able to attack north at will.



The defenders, all recently retreated from Guilin, provided little in the way of meaningful resistance.



25年 11月 26日

The offensive was almost halted when a single division arrived in Bose to contest the offensive. Chiang's forces were almost spent after their two week march, but, as Chiang himself liked to say, "the ability to outlast the enemy in the last five minutes is the key to all success."



25年 11月 30日

The last battle to be fought in the Southern War (南大战） was a last ditch defense of Liuzhou. 28,000 troops would try to hold the line against 130,000.



They would inevitably fail. This saw the end of Guangxi as every single northern prefecture was taken on the same day.



By this time, most of the armies in the south were in complete disarray. On paper, the warlords had only lost 1 division in the entire war but, in practical terms, they had been losing control of their army for almost two months. No one had been paid, most the soldiers were starving, and several officers had been shot by their own troops when they tried to order offensives.

In contrast, the Central Army had never been stronger. The alliance with Germany, while costly, radically altered the balance of power between the regional forces and the central government. Of particular importance was Germany's donation of parts for several new arms factories in the lower Yangtze delta. Arms production in China before this was generally based on Qing era arsenals under regional authorities. Foreign observers in 1935 wryly remarked that, all together, China had the biggest military in the world with 4 million soldiers, unfortunately they all had to share 1 million rifles. Chiang had broken this trend when he had opted in 1936 to not create whole new divisions on German lines but rather spread that equipment and training to existing ones. The upgrade in the supply system had allowed much more food to be sent to nationalist units, making them less reliant on local requisition. Trains, civilian planes, radios and trucks from Germany had given the Guomindang the ability to reliably control and supply its forces away from their home bases. A Guomindang soldier was now better armed, fed and trained than any army in China, excepting the Japanese. Before, Chiang had been compelled to use the stick to keep his armies and alliances in line. Now, he also had a huge carrot to dangle in front of the local commanders.

It was in this state that the Guomindang had begun sending envoys to the individual combat units. With all of northern Guangxi under his control, Chiang issued an ultimatum to enemy forces.

Option A: Surrender and be integrated into the central army, receiving pay for the time that they had already served under the South as well as new weapons and equipment. This was different from the usual bribe and integrate strategy as their weapons would be confiscated for the first two months, they would be forced to undergo reorganization of their officer corps, and they would have to accept Guomindang commissars. The senior warlords would be demoted and given commands chosen by the central government. Furthermore, all divisions would be expanded to a full complement of 10,000 soldiers, but the reinforcements would be from different areas to dilute the regional identity of the divisions.

Option B: Swift. Brutal. Crushing.



About 90% of southern forces chose Option A. The other 10% was promptly shot.

The Central Army had just gained twenty regular infantry divisions, five "zapai" divisions and what remained of the merchant marine. ( zapai 杂牌， means an inferior brand and was the term given to regional forces not trained through formal military academies. Central government troops were known as 嫡系 dixi which means "direct descent")

The acquired army was, however, in a state of grave disrepair having just lost a war and all. For example, the divisions in Bao'an. Each of which had, on paper, 8,000 men, in practice, 6,500 men, currently, only 3,000. The war ending allowed Chiang to exert a more proactive policy about army deployment. Part of the upgrade program for the Revolutionary Army had required that all units receiving new equipment accept commissars and undergo political indoctrination. In addition, upgraded divisions were to be 10,000 strong (previously only Chiang's crack divisions had reached this number) He wanted to put the guns back in the hands of the party, which he controlled, instead of the regional militaries. Many regional commanders thus found themselves initially thrilled at government largess, but they soon realized it was also a silk collar that they were powerless to break.

With more control, came the ability to prepare for the next grand offensive against Long Yun in Yunnan. The more combat ready forces would deploy to the mountainous borders of Yunnan and Shanxi. Chiang's elite troops redeployed to Guiyang to lead the main offensive while Falkenhausen deployed north to Anyang to keep Yan Xishan contained should he attempt to intervene, which was quite likely. Other smaller forces were deployed to Yan'an, Xi'an, Anyang, Xining, Chengdu, Bose, Chongqing, Xianyang and Yantai for defense and to provide strategic flexibility.



25年 12月 4日

Chiang took the chance to increase his spy network at home. The lack of internal unrest allowed him to repurpose some of his secret service towards counter espionage.



25年 12月 7日

Massive logistic difficulties led to the first official army expansion in almost a year. The last war had shown that individual units and armies were fighting better but coordination over long distances and large numbers had been ponderous and inefficient. Chinese units needed to be reorganized into something approaching the field armies of other nations.



25年 12月 8日

Census tabulating machines had been successfully created. An order was then given to see if a more powerful calculation machine could be produced.

Also, Central Aircraft Manufacturing Co. Federal Inc. (CAMCO) had begun researching ways to feasibly produce modern tactical bombers in China.



25年 12月 11日

The zapai divisions were deemed unnecessary for the coming war so they were split off from the other armies and redeployed to coastal defense duties. Vulnerable provinces would be given two zapai divions. They would be supplemented with a single infantry division to provide extra firepower and let them know that Chiang had his eye on them. Many of the newly acquired divisions were redesignated coastal defense divisions to allow them to resupply.



26年 1月 3日

The new year was marked by a speech by Chiang Kai Shek, laying out his new policy.

"If our party wishes to employ politics to improve people's well being , we must first of all put a thoroughly unified China under the control of the national government. As long as the reality of feudalistic division of the country persists under the nominal unity of the national government, none of the central government's reconstruction programs can be effectively implemented."



26年 1月 17日

An angry Yan Xishan flew to Nanjing furious that his forces had not received the promised government support for the past several weeks. Alone with Chiang in his office, he railed on and on about the unfairness, his military superiority, and his years of loyal support. Chiang remained quiet until Xishan threatened to resign his position as arms minister and move against Chiang. Chiang opened his mouth for the first time and said only, "I accept your resignation."



26年 1月 19日

Long Yun had been an annoyance but had remained a relatively low priority for Chiang. He had long provided a haven for dissidents and barred Chiang's secret police from operating in territories under his jurisdiction. Of more importance was the size of his army, Long Yun and his allies had tens of thousands of men that were doing nothing in Yunnan. They could be very helpful in the coming struggle against Japan, but would not move unless the power of the Yunnan's governor was broken. Chiang now had achieved parity in numbers with the warlords and autonomy became a crime that he could successfully prosecute. Not wanting to give his enemies, foreign or domestic, any more time, he started moving troops into Yunnan.



Up next, the real war begins...

Astute readers might notice that I reloaded in November.I got greedy and tried to rush Chiang's stack in after the first victory and ended up getting beaten 2 days before arrival. The lesson for all the children out there? When attacking over long distances over unfavorable terrain in China have offensive supply and more org than you think you need.

I laid it out earlier, but for troop compositions I treated each division as 7,000 troops until it got upgraded, in which case it was 10,000. The exception is Chiang's personal divisions which each had 10,000 troops before the upgrade.