When we watch war-themed film and television dramas or war history materials, we often see organizational arrangements such as spy companies, spy battalions, spy regiments. Some netizens often wonder: Why are the regular army organized "spy agents"?
In fact, the so-called spy regiments, battalions, and companies in the army at that time were not the "spy" meaning when we watched spy war dramas, but the special organization of the guard team and technical team. It was even said that there were spy brigades at that time, and it was obvious that these thousands of people gathered together to engage in "spy war".
Of course, the specific compilation levels are different, and the connotation of a certain department of the spy is also not very similar.
For example, if it is just a spy platoon, it is often just the commander's guard unit ; if it is a spy company, it may also be a pure guard unit, but it may also be a cavalry, machine gun , communications, and engineering detachments; and when it comes to the spy regiment and spy brigade, there are often artillery units.
In the Northwest Army, there are often organizational units from spy brigades to spy platoons, which is basically the case above.
But it should be noted that the pistol team commonly mentioned in the Northwest Army is not completely equivalent to a certain unit of the spy. It will only be equivalent if this secret service unit does not have other technical corps, but only a pistol team.
For example, the famous 29th Army has a spy brigade, a division directly has a spy regiment, and a brigade directly has a spy company. Among them, the spy company is first level, usually called the pistol company or the pistol team.
However, it is at the level of the division's special regiment. In addition to the pistol battalion, it also has cavalry battalion, artillery battalion , engineer battalion, machine gun battalion, and heavy mortar company. Such a complex force can obviously not be said to be a pistol regiment, because there are special pistol battalions under the regiment.
When specifically speaking to the spy brigade, the situation will naturally become more complicated. However, we will not talk about the 29th Army's spy brigade here, but about another Northwest Army-the 22nd Army Special Brigade.
In the Central Plains War in 1930, the Northwest Army no longer existed as a complete military system, but in addition to being eliminated and disintegrated, the Northwest Army also survived many in various forms.
Among them, General Ji Hongchang's troops were organized into the 22nd Route Army, and its basic cadres were organized into the 30th Division. In addition, the old subordinate Zhang Yinxiang's troops were also affiliated with him to form the 31st Division. In addition, Ge Yunlong's 33rd Division was also assigned to the 22nd Route Army, but the division's funds were independent and applied directly to Nanjing. It also has an office in Ningbo, which is not much the same.
The infantry division of the 22nd Route Army is organized by the 6th Regiment of the Third Brigade. In addition to infantry, there are also direct troops such as the secret service regiment, engineer battalion, machine gun battalion, cavalry battalion, baggage battalion and ; at the same time, there are also some artillery units in the headquarters and infantry division and brigade units.
In 1931, the spy brigade directly under the headquarters was established with artillery as the foundation.
This spy brigade is very interesting. It has three regiments, of which the 1st Regiment is the Infantry Regiment, and the 2nd Regiment and the 3rd Regiment are the Artillery Regiment , which does not mean combining the various technical arms of the 22nd Route Army.
Not long after, the 22nd Route Army was abolished, the troops were reduced to the 30th Army, and the commander was appointed by Zhang Yinxiang.
However, the troops under their jurisdiction did not change much at that time. Apart from the 30th Division and the 31st Division, the spy brigade mentioned above was the above.
This special brigade has the 1st Infantry Regiment, the 2nd Artillery Regiment and the 3rd Artillery Regiment. The brigade has a spy company directly under it, with a total force of more than 5,000 people in the brigade.
The 1st Infantry Regiment has three infantry battalions under its jurisdiction, and is also directly affiliated to the regiment, with a total force of more than 1,600 people. The mission of this regiment is mainly to protect artillery, and it can also be used as an infantry regiment alone.
The focus of this spy brigade is obviously its artillery.
Artillery 2nd Regiment, with a total of 3 artillery battalions, and the entire regiment has more than 1,900 troops. Its main equipment is:
Artillery 1st Battalion, equipped with 14 Gongxian Arsenal , which has a 150mm caliber heavy mortar , with a total of 579 artillery shells; in addition, the battalion is also equipped with 45 rifles and 22 cavalry rifles.
in its reported note stated that its mortar is still available, but the gun needs to be repaired.
Artillery 2nd Battalion, equipped with 1 Dasho sixth-year 75mm mountain cannon, 2 Russian-made 76.2mm heavy mountain cannons, 2 Krupp 75mm field cannons, and 4 Trinity 75mm field cannons, totaling 9 mountain cannons.
These 9 guns contain four models, and most of them are old guns with complex sources. The notes say that field guns and Russian guns are still good, but in reality, they may not be so ideal. In addition, this battalion is equipped with 12 rifles and 59 rifles.
Artillery 3rd Battalion, equipped with 12 Krupp 75mm field cannons. The number of equipment is very standard and is a typical organization of the artillery battalion of our army at that time. The Ke-style field guns are also very famous in modern Chinese history. It is good to be able to get the equipment of this full artillery battalion.
And it is also specifically stated in the notes that its artillery is completely good and is definitely the essence of the Northwest Army artillery. In addition, the 3rd Battalion is also equipped with 89 rifles of various types, all of which are useful.
There are 1,071 shells of various types of artillery battalions and 3rd Battalions, with an average of only about 50 shells per gun. This is obviously not a lot, but at least there are some to be shot.
The 3rd Artillery Regiment of the Special Forces Brigade actually formed two artillery battalions, with a total force of about 1,400 people.
The 1st Battalion of the Artillery was equipped with 6 Skoda 75mm field guns and 6 Type 375mm field guns. They also had 12 guns, but there were two models. The origin of these two types of artillery in the Northwest Army was extremely complex, and it was not easy to preserve it in the early 1930s, but the condition was no longer very good. There were only remarks that were still usable, but they were barely useful.
Compared with the artillery shells of the 2nd Artillery Regiment, the 3rd Artillery Regiment has 1,015 shells, with an average of more than 80 guns per gun, which is more than enough.
The 2nd Battalion of the 3rd Artillery Regiment is also a heavy mortar battalion. In addition to the 4 150mm caliber heavy mortars built by the Gongxian Arsenal, there are 11 other caliber mortars, totaling 15 guns.
The 15 guns have a total of 157 shells, with an average of only 10 rounds per gun, which is not as good as the mortar-provisioning shells of the 2nd Artillery Regiment.
At the same time, the only two artillery battalions of the 3rd Artillery Regiment also have about 60 infantry and rifles.
or above, the total artillery of the 22nd Army (30th Army) Special Brigade includes:
Dazheng 1 six-year mountain cannon, 2 Russian heavy mountain cannons, 14 Krupp field cannons, 6 Skoda field cannons, 10 Sany field cannons, 18 heavy mortars, and 11 other heavy mortars.
There are 33 mountain artillery pieces, 29 heavy mortars, and 62 of various types of artillery pieces. In addition, there are 2086 mountain artillery shells and 4736 mortar shells.
Among the various armies at that time, one army-level unit had two artillery regiments, and there were 62 types of mountain artillery and heavy mortars. In terms of quantity alone, it was not a small number. Although its model is complex and quite old, it is better than nothing. Moreover, this is the direct unit of the Northwest Army, and ordinary troops obviously cannot even touch the edges of these cannons.
However, when the 30th Army was transferred to the 26th Army, the spy brigade could not be found.
Because Lao Jiang sent Hao Pengju to serve as chief of staff to the 30th Army to report in 1934, he believed that the artillery was defeated, the technical training was too poor, and the mules and horses were insufficient, and the monthly consumption was very large, so the report was cancelled.
It can be used to transfer the artillery to the Central Army artillery, and the unbearable ones are sent to the arsenal. As for the special brigade, the vacancies of the 30th and 31st Divisions were dispersed and supplemented.
After that, the special brigade system was not found in the 30th Army, and it should indeed be implemented in accordance with this suggestion. Because the 30th Army had been assigned to the 26th Army, it gradually became Sun Lianzhong's basic cadre unit. Of course, since Sun Lianzhong was also from the Northwest Army, the 30th Army still belongs to the Northwest Army system. During the Anti-Japanese War, the 31st Division and other departments that were intimidated by Taierzhuang were from this department.
