The 5th Army * * * governs 3 divisions. 200 division, division commander General Dai Anlan (graduated from Huangpu Phase III); Newly edited 22 nd Division, Teacher Qiu Qingquan; Honorary 1 teacher, Zheng Dongguo. In addition, there are two infantry supplement regiments, two chariot regiments and armored vehicle search regiments, engineering corps, automobile corps, heavy artillery corps, trench corps and other directly affiliated units, and the whole army has about 50,000 people. The 200 th Division and the Military Department are in Quanzhou, Guangxi, and the newly compiled 22 nd Division is in Dong 'an, Hunan. The Honorary 1 Division is in Lingling, Hunan.
When Zheng Dongguo arrived at the Fifth Army, the troops were training hard in the rear. General Xu and General Du are good at running the army. Especially after Du succeeded as commander, he further strengthened military training, and put forward slogans such as "the playground is the battlefield" and "sweating more in peacetime and bleeding less in wartime", demanding that this newly formed army should have the vigor of "five divisions" (not arrogant, lazy, false, desirous and evil) and the drive of "three habits" (learning essence, honesty and diligence) and train hard. He set an example by himself and worked in the army almost day and night, strictly urging. When I first arrived, I felt that this unit really had a new atmosphere different from other Kuomintang units, which was encouraging and inspiring.
Honorary division is made up of officers and men injured in War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression. The officers and men are resolutely anti-Japanese, have rich combat experience, are brave and good at fighting, and are a team with excellent quality. However, due to the large number of veterans in the army, it is more troublesome to control, especially among regiment and battalion officers, and there are also some contradictions between Hunan officers and Guangdong officers. After the war in eastern Hubei, this army was broken and in urgent need of rectification.
After Zheng Dongguo took office, he won the trust of the commanders, that is, he made careful planning and determined to rectify, trying to train this unit into an anti-Japanese powerhouse in the shortest time. First of all, pay attention to the patriotic ideological education of the troops, strive to enhance the national hatred and anti-enemy awareness of the officers and men against the Japanese aggressors, and at the same time vigorously rectify the military style and be strict in discipline. At that time, there was a head surnamed Chen in the second regiment of our division, who was not very disciplined and was still smoking opium in the army. Although he couldn't correct it after repeated persuasion, I managed to transfer him to another school. For other officers and men who violate discipline and military regulations, I will give corresponding punishment according to the severity of their mistakes. Reward officers and men who perform well in time. For example, Zheng Tinglai, head of the 3rd regiment, is not only brave and good at fighting, but also has a good personal integrity. I trust him and depend on him in many ways. At first, some people refused to accept it, privately saying that the head of the regiment shared my surname "Zheng" and might be related, deliberately flattering him. Actually, Zheng is from Wenchang, Hainan, and I am from Shimen, Hunan. Our hometowns are thousands of miles apart, so we have never met each other at all, and there is no "nepotism" relationship. Later, Colonel Zheng lived up to expectations and made great contributions in the Battle of Kunlun Pass in southern Guangxi, which was appreciated by Du, so he was transferred to the 200 th Division and promoted to the commander of infantry.
In a word, after a period of serious rectification, the mental outlook of the army has really changed a lot. In military training, with the assistance of the deputy division commander and the chief of staff, we boldly broke the old formalism, paid attention to actual combat training, and strictly required every officer and soldier to master military techniques such as shooting, stabbing, bombing, night fighting and melee. Considering that modern warfare has developed into multi-arms joint operations, special attention should be paid to strengthening the cooperative combat capability of infantry artillery (including chariots). After just half a year's rigorous training, the honorary teachers' morale is strong and their combat effectiveness is greatly improved.
During this period, in order to enrich the military leaders at all levels (before and after Zheng Dongguo's arrival, there were many vacancies in HQ and regimental headquarters), Zheng Dongguo once invited some old family members who were originally in the 2nd Division to * * *. Soon, Wu Xiucun,,, and others were invited. What particularly moved Zheng Dongguo was that comfortable storage was highly valued by General Guan because of his extraordinary talent. He had intended to promote him to chief of staff of the army, but Shu made an agreement with me, which made him refuse to accept, so he came as promised. After he came, General Guan also wrote a special book to see him off, including "When my brother went, he had the demeanor of an ancient righteous man. When he was respectful, it was especially difficult for my brother to give up his love."
From the winter of 1938 to the autumn of 939, after nearly a year of strict reorganization and training, the military quality of the whole army reached a high level and its mental outlook was completely new. In the meantime, the high command sent personnel to inspect the whole state, and the military training of the 5 th Army ranked first in the country. After the autumn, the 5th Army held a large-scale division attack, defense, chase and retreat exercise in the border area of Guangxi, which lasted for one month. General Bai Chongxi, Minister of Military Training, General Xu, Minister of Training, and other leaders and relatives visited the school for guidance. Through this large-scale exercise, the operational foundation of the Fifth Army was further laid.