Faction -- the Chinese Armies.
The National Revolutionary Army
and the Chinese Red Army.
World War II.
The Qing Dynasty came to an end and China became a republic in 1912.
The Chinese Nationalist Party called the Kuomintang or KMT dominated the New Republic and ruled from 1927 in the capital Nan King.
The military arm of the KMT, known as the National Revolutionary Army
defeated the Warlords recovering Beijing from their control and completing the Northern Expedition.
The Chinese Civil War would begin in 1927 and see the formation of the other largest faction the Communists, which would oppose the KMT.
It's military force was the Chinese Red Army.
Chiang kai-shek would modernize the Nationalist Army greatly using support from the USSR and by Weimar Germany.
But as the KMT moved more and more right politically, it became a strongly anti-communist.
This meant that from 1933, the National Revolutionary Army would reject aid from the Soviet Union and only take assistance from Nazi Germany.
The attempt to create a unified force was not majorly successful and only eight divisions were reformed by 1937 under German advisors.
These were the 3rd, 6th, 9th, 14th, 36th, 87th, and 88th Chinese divisions, which used German weapons and equipment.
Germany would pull out support upon an alliance with Japan, which was preparing to expand into China.
The divisions caused by the civil war between the nationalist and communist forces made the nation vulnerable to invasion.
In 1937, the Second Sino-Japanese War would see Chinese forces unite against the Japanese invaders.
The Nationalists, led by Chiang kai-shek and the Communists, led by Mao Zedong formed an uneasy truce with the communist military integrating into the National Revolutionary Army as the 18th army group.
But known as the 8th route Army to the Communists and the New 4th Army which organized in the lower Yangtze River.
the Communists also used local guerrillas and partisans against the Japanese forces.
Cooperation between the two political factions was minimal and there were even instances of continued clashes during the Japanese occupation.
The Nationalist Revolutionary Army while outnumbering the Japanese forces was poorly equipped and trained in comparison.
In the first year of the Sino-Japanese War, there were heavy casualties.
Chiang kai-shek therefore moved to conscription which was achieved through brutal means such as kidnapping and press gangs.
As the Second Sino-Japanese war was absorbed into World War II, the Army received aid by the American lend-lease scheme.
A Chinese Expeditionary Force was sent by Chiang kai-shek to Burma in 1942, equipped with British and American equipment and uniforms,.
They would assist the Allied efforts and protect their supply lines there.
Chiang kai-shek tended to use his nationalist army sparingly rather than engaging in full-out offensives with the Japanese.
Possibly in preparation for the inevitable civil war which would resume with the Communists after the War.
From 1937 to 45, around 14 million troops were drafted into the Nationalist Army with an estimated 1.3 million killed and 1.8 million wounded.
The communists forces were pooly equipped but were more motivated and better led and numbered at 1 million men and around 2 million at regulars.
From 1937 to 1945, there were approximately 500,000 communists casualties.
After the Japanese had surrendered at World War 2 was over, the civil war in China resumed in 1946.
Under Mao, the Communists and People's Liberation Army, previously known as the Red Army, used their well-organized movement to defeat Chiang and the National Revolutionary Army,
ending the Civil War in January 1949.