{{no footnotes, date=July 2015 The East Hopei Army was raised from the former soldiers of the Peace Preservation Corps that had been created by the

Tangku Truce The Tanggu Truce, sometimes called the , was a ceasefire that was signed between the Republic of China and the Empire of Japan in Tanggu District, Tianjin, on May 31, 1933. It formally ended the Japanese invasion of Manchuria, which had begun in ...

of 31 May 1933. The

Demilitarized Zone Peace Preservation Corps The Demilitarized Zone Peace Preservation Corps was a police force created by the Tanggu Truce to patrol and maintain order in the demilitarized zone extending from south of the Great Wall, to a line north east of the Bai River in Hebei province i ...

had been the "neutral" force policing the demilitarized area south of the

Great Wall The Great Wall of China (, literally "ten thousand Li (unit), ''li'' wall") is a series of fortifications that were built across the historical northern borders of ancient Chinese states and Imperial China as protection against Eurasian noma ...

when

Yin Ju-keng Yin Rukeng; (; Hepburn: ''In Jyokou''; 1885 - December 1, 1947) was a politician in the early Republic of China, later noted for his role as chairman in the Japanese-controlled East Hebei Autonomous Government and subsequent puppet regimes, ...

, at the instigation of the

Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...

, proclaimed an

Autonomous Government of Eastern Hopei The East Hebei Autonomous Government (),Japanese also known as the East Ji Autonomous Government and the East Hebei Autonomous Anti-Communist Government, was a short-lived late-1930s state in northern China. It has been described by historians ...

in November 1935, with its capital at Tungchow. The Peace Preservation Corps was disbanded and absorbed by the East Hopei Army and was trained by Japanese advisors, officers from the

Kwantung Army ''Kantō-gun'' , image = Kwantung Army Headquarters.JPG , image_size = 300px , caption = Kwantung Army headquarters in Hsinking, Manchukuo , dates = April ...

, who drilled the men by day and gave them anti-communist lectures by night. The Japanese officers had final say in all matters pertaining to the army. Trained for a year, the Japanese believed they had created a reliable and well trained force. Intended for local policing they were only equipped with rifles and sidearms, and had no machine guns or artillery.

Organization

The East Hopei Army had four Corps divided into three Brigades each and a Training Corps. Each brigade (called "Divisions") was divided into three sub-brigades; each sub-brigade had an attached Japanese Advisor. ''Strength and organization July, 1937:'' - East Hopei Army -

-- 1st Corps "Tungchow" - Chang Ching-yu 4,000 men—2nd Corps "Tsunhua" - Chang Yen-tien 4,000 men—3rd Corps "Tungchow" - Li Yen-sheng 4,000 men—4th Corps "Tsunhua" - Han Tze-hsi 4,000 men—Training Corps "Tungchow" - Yin Ju-keng 2,000 men

Operations

December 1935, 4th Detachment of the East Hopei Army attacked the Nationalist held towns of Taku and the port of Tangku. Forces from the 32nd Army killed two of the East Hopei soldiers and the rest retreated. Threats were made by the Japanese and the 32nd Army was withdrawn. The East Hopei Army then occupied the two towns. July 1937 they were involved in the

Marco Polo Bridge Incident The Marco Polo Bridge Incident, also known as the Lugou Bridge Incident () or the July 7 Incident (), was a July 1937 battle between China's National Revolutionary Army and the Imperial Japanese Army. Since the Japanese invasion of Manchuria ...

and

Battle of Beiping-Tianjin A battle is an occurrence of combat in warfare between opposing military units of any number or size. A war usually consists of multiple battles. In general, a battle is a military engagement that is well defined in duration, area, and force ...

until they revolted in the Tungchow Mutiny on the morning of 29 July 1937. After the mutiny was put down by the Japanese, the East Hopei Army was dissolved, as was the Autonomous Government.

Sources

* Jowett, Phillip S., Rays of The Rising Sun, Armed Forces of Japan’s Asian Allies 1931-45, Volume I: China & Manchuria, 2004. Helion & Co. Ltd., 26 Willow Rd., Solihull, West Midlands, England. *Hsu Long-hsuen and Chang Ming-kai, History of The Sino-Japanese War (1937-1945) 2nd Ed., 1971. Translated by Wen Ha-hsiung, Chung Wu Publishing; 33, 140th Lane, Tung-hwa Street, Taipei, Taiwan Republic of China. Second Sino-Japanese War

Organization

Operations

See also

Sources