Extended data:
At the beginning of 1944 in War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression, Japan was facing the increasing sea and air threats from Southeast Asian allies and local maritime traffic. Therefore, in order to maintain the stability of the local defense circle, the Japanese army made a battle plan to open the traffic line in Chinese mainland, referred to as "Operation No.1".
To this end, the Japanese army assembled more than 500,000 troops, 1500 guns and 15000 vehicles. With the cooperation of the Japanese navy, it launched a large-scale attack on the Kuomintang troops in Henan, Hunan and Guangxi, with the intention of opening up the railway and highway traffic from North China to Vietnam via the coast of Guangxi.
In order to preserve its strength, China Kuomintang troops fought passively in this war, and there were also various command mistakes. Therefore, by the beginning of 1945, Japan had successfully opened the railway and highway communication lines from Henan to Hunan and lower Guangxi, and basically achieved its operational objectives.
On the other hand, the National Government lost more than 600,000 troops, more than 30,000 tons of ammunition and more than one million square kilometers of land. It can be described as a crushing defeat and terrible, which greatly weakened the initiative of the war of resistance.
At that time, all social strata were extremely dissatisfied with the passive resistance of the Kuomintang. Under the pressure from all sides and the massive loss of troops, the National Government is determined to rectify the army and replenish fresh blood in order to completely change the quality of the army.
1On August 27th, 944, Chiang Kai-shek issued the call of "an inch of mountains and rivers and an inch of blood, 100,000 young people and 100,000 troops" in the National Assembly in order to encourage the educated youth to join the army to defend their country. To this end, Chiang Kai-shek also introduced many preferential policies, such as: government officials can keep their original salaries and give special care to the families of young people who joined the army, and so on. He also appointed Luo as the director of this youth army group and the director of the political department. It is not difficult to see from the composition of the leaders of this institution that Chiang Kai-shek attached great importance to this unit.
By the end of 1944, the number of people who have signed up for the Youth Army has exceeded100000, including more than10.5000 college students. Considering that there were only more than 60,000 college students,100,000 high school students and nearly 600,000 junior high school students in China at that time, it is not difficult to see that the enthusiasm of educated youth for serving the country is very high.
The structure of the entire youth army can be said to be completely in accordance with the standards of the US military, including infantry, artillery, communications, engineering, transportation and other arms. Compared with other Kuomintang troops, the biggest difference is that the people who joined the army have a very high cultural quality and the purpose of joining the army is very clear, that is, to fight against the Japanese aggressors and defend the country. Moreover, it is equipped with a full set of American-made equipment, and its combat effectiveness cannot be underestimated.
References:
Baidu Encyclopedia-an inch of mountains and rivers and an inch of blood, 100,000 young people and 100,000 troops