When you said that a corps would be the best "on map unit" for unit about how much soldiers do we talk here? In your division/corps TOE is no strength information and as far as i discovered in the past a European unit could be pretty different form an Asian unit in terms of numbers and strength (like this Japanese type A quarter divisions with up to 30ooo soldiers per division).
So i think a Chinese corps is close to 15ooo soldiers in general? Or is the Chinese army close to this numbers (basing on the big casualties of the Chinese army).
Depends on how you define soldiers.
Theoratically, there would be 35k in one triangular corps, including corps HQ, corps attachments(temporarily attached art units excluded) and 3 inf. divs. it could be 10k men in each div, a little less than 3k in each inf rgt.
The actual number varied. Some corps in south Shanxi north of Yellow River in charge of guerrilla mission with 2 divs(one being the main force div or as I named, core div, the other units may be in terrible condition) or 1 div+1 bgd could have even less than 10k, 50% of toe, because of poor logistical capacity(1/3 soldiers were carring food/ ammunition on shoukders and foot from riverine port to their camp in mountains, 1/3 on their way to the port), While some main force corps could have more than 40k, e.g. 74A had 45k in 1944*11*7.
However, lacking of weapon, a large portion of regimental or even company men were just porters, carring luggages with stick on the shoulder(called Iron Shoulder Team). A famous chinese history prof. Huang Renyu(16th cadet graduate of ROC military accademy, then a platoon leaderof 54A, a fairly good A-leve, front-linel corps, then an staff officer in New 1st Army in India, Then US staff College, then Doctor of history in ,Michigen U, Post-dictor and Professor in US and UK), stated in his memo, that only 4 smart soldiers in his platoon were fairly trained how to shoot, while the other 30 men were too dum to train, they were just porters in most case, and then in combat, they might shoot freely to scar the enemy. That case was in 1941-1942, the darkest hour of china, and though his corps was A-level, frontliine corps, his platoon could had been a poor one, it could be better ealier or later, but you could get some gist. So if all men counted, the corps would have 35k, if only combat soldiers equivalent to western infantry unit counted, 20k would be fine.
If we set chi land force as 100 corps('cause there were 123 inf corps), I suggest 30k-35k each. We could realize its poor actual number by limiting CHI 's military industry and reinforcent rate.Lacking-Art, Poorly-Trained, Low-Actual Number CHI units, might make their contribution in defence, at least they could disperse JAP force and lower its strength(number of divs) that JAP could use to attack .
PS: different from westerners knowledge, CHI was facing lack of qualified soldier since 1939, due to its medieval administrative structure(especially conscription) and poor economy(must leave some strong peasants in their villages). Human wave, as i see, should be rather a system of politics than just a low level land doctrine.
