The Grand Han Righteous Army (大漢義軍) was a collaborationist Chinese army cooperating with the

Empire of Japan The also known as the Japanese Empire or Imperial Japan, was a historical nation-state and great power that existed from the Meiji Restoration in 1868 until the enactment of the post-World War II 1947 constitution and subsequent fo ...

in campaigns in

northern China Northern China () and Southern China () are two approximate regions within China. The exact boundary between these two regions is not precisely defined and only serve to depict where there appears to be regional differences between the climate ...

and

Inner Mongolia Inner Mongolia, officially the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, is an autonomous region of the People's Republic of China. Its border includes most of the length of China's border with the country of Mongolia. Inner Mongolia also accounts for a ...

immediately prior to the official start of hostilities of the

Second Sino-Japanese War The Second Sino-Japanese War (1937–1945) or War of Resistance (Chinese term) was a military conflict that was primarily waged between the Republic of China and the Empire of Japan. The war made up the Chinese theater of the wider Pacific Th ...

History

The Grand Han Righteous Army was formed by minor

warlord A warlord is a person who exercises military, economic, and political control over a region in a country without a strong national government; largely because of coercive control over the armed forces. Warlords have existed throughout much of h ...

and commander of the

Chahar People's Anti-Japanese Army The Chahar People's Anti-Japanese Army (察哈尔民众抗日同盟军) consisted mostly of former Northwestern Army units under Feng Yuxiang, troops from Fang Zhenwu's Resisting Japan and Saving China Army, remnants of the provincial forces from ...

Wang Ying after his defeat by the

Imperial Japanese Army The was the official ground-based armed force of the Empire of Japan from 1868 to 1945. It was controlled by the Imperial Japanese Army General Staff Office and the Ministry of the Army, both of which were nominally subordinate to the Emperor o ...

in what now part of

in 1936. Wang defected to the

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

and persuaded the Japanese to permit him to recruit unemployed

Chinese soldiers Chinese can refer to: * Something related to China * Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity **''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation ** List of ethnic groups in China, people of va ...

Chahar Province Chahar ( mn, , Чахар; ), also known as Chaha'er, Chakhar or Qahar, was a province of the Republic of China in existence from 1912 to 1936, mostly covering territory in what is part of Eastern Inner Mongolia. It was named after the Chahar ...

to form a mercenary army with Japanese advisors. He managed to recruit approximately 6,000 men, who were trained by the Japanese and organized into four

infantry Infantry is a military specialization which engages in ground combat on foot. Infantry generally consists of light infantry, mountain infantry, motorized infantry & mechanized infantry, airborne infantry, air assault infantry, and marine i ...

brigades in Japanese-occupied northern Chahar. The troops were armed with weapons seized from

Northeastern Army The Northeastern Army (), was the Chinese army of the Fengtien clique until the unification of China in 1928. From 1931 to 1933 it faced the Japanese forces in northeast China, Jehol and Hebei, in the early years of the Second Sino-Japanese War. ...

armories and warehouses in northern China. That force was attached another Japanese proxy army, the

Inner Mongolian Army The Inner Mongolian Army, also sometimes called the Mengjiang National Army, referred to the Inner Mongolian military units in service of Imperial Japan and its puppet state of Mengjiang during the Second Sino-Japanese War, particularly those led ...

, under the overall command of Mongol Prince

Teh Wang Demchugdongrub ( mn, , Demchigdonrob, Дэмчигдонров, translit=Demchigdonrov, , Chinese: 德穆楚克棟魯普, 8 February 1902– 23 May 1966), also known as Prince De ( zh, 德王), courtesy name Xixian ( zh, 希賢), was a Qing ...

. During the Invasion of Suiyuan the Inner Mongolian Army attacked

Hongort Hongort ( mn, хонгор, lit= ''soft'', or ''sweetheart'', ) is a town (镇) of the Chahar Right Back Banner, which in turn is part of Ulanqab prefecture-level city in Inner Mongolia, China. It is located about 30 km northwest of Shangdu co ...

on November 15, 1936. After several days of fighting, the attackers failed to capture the town. On November 17, a Chinese counterattack surprised the invaders and led to a disorganized retreat. Taking advantage of the disorder among the Mongolian forces, Chinese General

Fu Zuoyi Fu Zuoyi () (June 2, 1895 − April 19, 1974) was a Chinese military leader. He began his military career in the service of Yan Xishan, and he was widely praised for his defense of Suiyuan from the Japanese. During the final stages of the Chines ...

made a flanking movement to the west of the Mongolian headquarters at Pailingmiao, attacked and captured it, and routed the defenders. The Japanese transported Wang and his Grand Han Righteous Army by trucks into a location near Pai-ling-miao and launched a counterattack, which failed dismally on December 19. With the bulk of its men captured or killed, the Grand Han Righteous Army ceased to exist as an effective combat force, and the Japanese disbanded the remnants.

Sources

* * 中国抗日战争正面战场作战记 (China's Anti-Japanese War Combat Operations) ** Guo Rugui, editor-in-chief Huang Yuzhang ** Jiangsu People's Publishing House ** Date published : 2005-7-1 ** {{ISBN, 7-214-03034-9 ** Online in Chinese

**
日本侵绥的战备企图和中日
Japanese invasion of Suiyuan to prepare their planned union of China and Japan

History

Sources

See also