Monday, 13 November
At 9.00 a.m. we extended the memorial week of the Sixth Plenum. General Chiang explained the declaration of the Fifth National Congress, saying that it was one part of the textbook of our party. We should study it closely and examine it. The meeting lasted until around 1.30. Zhang Qun (張群)[1] invited us for lunch.
During the first meeting of the Sixth Plenum, Minister He Yingqin (何應欽)[2] made a report about the military situation. The main content was as follows: Our side. The reorganisation of the army was finished in an orderly manner. We had reduced large units and made small units better. In every division, five groups were reduced to three groups. In every group people were increased from 1,500 to more than 2,300. The first phase was from January to May. Thirty-eight armies, which included 98 divisions, had been reorganised. In the second phase, the 40 divisions which were under direct control by the Central, as well as the 38 divisions in various areas were reorganised. their combat power had been strongly increased. The other special troops for cavalry, artillery and so on, had been reorganised substantially. As for ammunition, since there had been no major battle it was needless to put great efforts into replenishment. Since the number of armies had been increased, the military expenditure was also on the rise. It was increased to some 100,000,000 dollars. (Foreign ammunition was not counted.) The finances of various divisions had become independent. As the number of troops had increased to 4,800,000 soldiers, finding enough cotton-padded clothes for them had become a major problem. There were around 50,000 wounded men, while some 35,500 men fell ill, which gave some 86,000 men in total. The figure was lower than before. For military training, it could raise 25,000 people per year. The replenishment figures for the armies were put into the table as follows:
| The 1st War Zone | 225245 |
| The 2nd War Zone | 289607 |
| The 3rd War Zone | 653072 |
| The 4th War Zone | 90841 |
| The 5th War Zone | 662014 |
| The 6th War Zone | ———— |
| The 8th War Zone | 4551 |
| The 9th War Zone | 632643 |
| The 10th War Zone | 17552 |
| Shandong Soviet War Zone | 2443 |
| Hebei–Chahar War Zone | ———— |
| Appeased Troops | 34179 |
| 1st Phase Reorganized Armies | 222367 |
| 2nd Phase Reorganized Armies | 186343 |
From the beginning of this year to the end of October: Total replenishment — 3,020,857 soldiers.
The replenishment figures for the troops stationed in Guangxi, Yunnan, Sichuan, Shanxi, Hebei were not reported so I have not listed them in the table.
Numbers of conscripted able-bodied men in the provinces
| Henan | 700639 |
| Hunan | 741069 |
| Hubei | 242038 |
| Zhejiang | 148352 |
| Jiangxi | 383356 |
| Fujian | 128540 |
| Guangdong | 285709 |
| Guizhou | 134946 |
| Shaanxi | 273360 |
| Gansu | 136801 |
| Sichuan | 603814 |
| Shandong | 29194 |
| Guangxi | 452681 |
| Yunnan | 121779 |
| Ningxia | 4000 |
| Qinghai | 2500 |
| Xikang | 5000 |
| Jiangsu | 38859 |
| Anhui | 126080 |
| Total | 4598762 |
Numbers of able-bodied men in provinces who have received training
| Zhejiang | 2057067 |
| Hunan | 1185135 |
| Hubei | 485828 |
| Sichuan | 1185243 |
| Xikang | 38366 |
| Fujian | 1209020 |
| Guangdong | 531196 |
| Guangxi | 1219945 |
| Yunnan | 49017 |
| Guizhou | 347439 |
| Henan | 641562 |
| Shaanxi | 341918 |
| Gansu | 230821 |
| Qinghai | 50000 |
| Suiyuan | 1031 |
| Total | 45047363 |
Hebei has not reported yet. The able-bodied men in provinces which were now undergoing training (those 13 provinces which had reported) were numbered at 2,923,032 people.
Military strength. Before the Battle of Wuhan, our army had around 200 divisions. Now it was increased to 261 divisions and 78 independent groups. As for the replenishment of regular armies, there were some 1,120,000 people. For guerrillas there were 710,000 fighters. The troops in total: Regular armies; 3,200,000 people; Regular armies and guerrillas; above 4,800,000 men.
Enemy side: The latest estimations of the number of its armies were put in the following tables :
The estimation of number of armies of enemy at the moment (in 10,000)
| Number of armies before the war | Regular Armies
In-force: 38.0 In-preparation: 73.8 Total: 111.8
Reserved: 87.8
Replenished forces 1st 157.9 2nd 90.3 Total: 248.8
Total 4480000
|
| The number of armies being used | Combat Force
Armies: 114.0 Navy: 9.0 Air Force: 2.0 In miscellaneous duties in the rear and so on: 55.0 In training: 25.0
Total 2,050,000 |
| The number of people who had been depleted and therefore could not be allocated into the army | Death and wounded in China: 103.4
Death and wounded in the Manchurian-Mongolian border: 2.0 People who could not be conscripted : 45.0
Total 2,000,000
|
| The number of divisions and corps that could be allocated again into the army | Regular
Reserved
Total 22.0
Replenished armies: 1st 2nd Total 21.0
Total 430,000 |
| National armies: about 79.0
470000 people would be due to serve every year, and 200000-300000 could be selected as new armies to join training. This year there were 190,000 fresh armies. Probably Japan could summon eleven divisions.
|
The allocation of the enemy’s troops
| South China | 3 divisions |
| Central China | 13 divisions |
| North China | 18 divisions |
| Mongolia-Suiyuan | 2.5 |
| Total | 36.5 divisions |
| Northeast China | 9 divisions |
| Korea | 2 divisions |
| Taiwan | 0.5 division |
| Japan | 4 divisions |
| Total | 15.5 divisions |
War-trophies captured
| Captives | 9748 |
| Armored cars | 1800 |
| Cannons | 617 |
| Machine guns | 2774 |
| Infantry firearms | 55701 |
Casualties of enemy
| From Marco Polo Bridge Incident to the end of 1938 | 701090 |
| January 1939 | 14018 |
| February 1939 | 29317 |
| March 1939 | 35799 |
| April 1939 | 53864 |
| May 1939 | 51891 |
| June 1939 | 31835 |
| July 1939 | 30559 |
| August 1939 | 26093 |
| September 1939 | 28643 |
| First half of October 1939 | 30908 |
| Total | 1034000 |
Death and wounded: 40%
Ill and disabled: 60%
Death wounded ratio: 1 to 4
About 40,000 people per month on average
As for the air force, during the beginning of the war, the enemy operated about 614 planes in China, and 1,162 at most. Recently there were 687 planes which made 2,586 bombardments, and dropped 49,580 tons of bombs. Regarding the strength of the air force, the enemy was four times stronger than ours. Now we have three manufacturing factories and could produce tens of planes. Recently our air force has bombarded Wuhan, destroying 35 Japanese planes and killed 130 people.
Wang Chonghui invited the American Minister to China, Johnson, and others to have farewell meals at his home. I talked to the Military Attaché, McHugh, for quite a long time.
[1] Zhang Qun(1889-1990) had studied in Japan and was a close associate of Chiang Kai-shek.
[2] He Yingqin (1890-1987) was a close associate of Chiang Kai-shek. He had studied at the Tokyo Shinbu Gakko, a military preparatory school in Japan.