When I was a little kids in 70s, there were malitia in rural area. I visited my aunt's house in village. She got 5 kids, two girls and three boys. Since two boys are veterans, they were malitia in the village after they were discharged from the army and one was in charge of the machine gun. I remember there was a WWII Japaness machine gun on the bed table. It really took me great strength to load it and pulled the trigger to hear the click sound. Everyone was scared since no one expected I could do that. I also watched the shooting training of the malitia company of the village. Because I was from the city, I was allowed to pick up shell casing after shooting. There were WWII Japaness 38 riffle and the casing was in copper. The SKS casing is in steel. It was spring festival. They alway told me to keep awake until midnight and watch them shooting flare on the roof. But I was little and always fell asleep before midnight (at that time oil lamp was still used in the village and the dim light also made you sleepy) and never watched the flare.
You are scum for focusing on correcting this guy's spelling when he's sharing a genuinely interesting story. His story was more interesting than this dude's video. @@pepebeezon772
The US CMP still sells Garands directly to qualified citizens. And, while prices have gone up dramatically, most of that is inflation - in terms of the buying power of a typical American home, its probably very similar to what CMP prices were to a 1950s family.
@wisconsinkraut3445 Aside from the receivers, damn near every part for the M1 Garand is made by someone. And there are gunsmiths that specialize in restoring/rebuilding Garands. It will be pricey but even the shabbiest foreign buy-back Garand can be restored to factory-fresh form
According to Leland Ness, the writer of "Kangzhan: Guide to Chinese Ground Forces, 1937-1945", during the Second Sino-Japanese War, The KMT aligned Chinese arsenals and factories turned out sufficient rifles (Type 88 Hanyang, "Chiang Kai Sheck" Mauser) and ammunition to support the NRA and associated forces, along with Type 24 Maxim MGs, ZB/26 LMGs and Browning M1917 MGs and a massive number of mortars from 45-150mm. A major Lend-Lease item for China was tons of smokeless powder. This was despite the loss of almost every Chinese urban center. The PRC inherited these production centers but the US stopped shipping smokeless powder and the Soviets never supplied similar quantities, which was one of the areas of tension.
By my count the ROC produced about a million rifles in the eight years between 1937-1945. I dont have records on how many were imported, but it can't be a million. By contrast the German army which was comparable in size made 10 million rifles, not counting captured weapons. The much smaller Japanese army produced 4 million rifles. I wish I had Chinese ammunition production figures to compare. Suffice to say, clearly the KMT armies did not have anything close to sufficient numbers.
This is fascinating, I'd recommend an article by a blog called acoup on raising a tribal army in roman times, societies that can actually do this ironically have military hierarchies baked in to the social structure so that they can actually operate on extremely short notice. If you read about the Cossacks you'll also know how much of this is reliant on a very specific militarist culture being build up by circumstances into a people and the fact that attempts of fabricate the same out of others, even with the same structure, don't work unless there is a nucleus which it is formed around of essentially colonists and their position in the hierarchy leads to it being adopted by the rest of the group as they attempt to appeal to the elite culture as a form of social advancement. Basically Mao has a neat idea, but it is literally impossible to pull off, even if they had the social context to develop it, the process would take generations at a minimum, likewise the society created would look less Marxist-Leninist more Neo-feudal military aristocracy, farmer soldiers were certainly a concept in Tsarist Russia, but there's a reason the Soviets go for a massive bureaucracy and a system of conscription instead, the political system to uphold such a thing and make it actually militarily viable are hard to do and requires certain power structures that tend to become political one's. They also degrade easily, England had the same militia system for centuries, but how well it did was highly dependent on the attention paid to it and the level of motivation at all levels of society, as well as how much the context meant they were on the ball, periods of peace could lead to rapid deterioration as the population that made them up became complacent and lost their edge, however if in a dangerous context or with an enduring culture such troops could and did present a considerable edge over even professional troops, especially in small war or light tactics, the Austrian Granz are an example.
Yeah, that's kinda along the lines that I was thinking he was trying to go with this, at least in the short term. Against the Soviets, conventional resistance is essentially worthless when considering the potential for invasion through Manchuria alone, and until you get nuclear weapons, you have no means of stopping or dissuading them other than having a massed popular uprising. You could conceive of such a movement being rooted in the militia structure, with active insurgency in the mountains while the farmlands and urban centers partake in strikes and mass protests or just outright human wave attacks on soviet columns. The militia structure gets people accustomed to the concept of being a "soldier" if taken seriously, gives the party a means of preserving its control in the event of soviet occupation of provinces, and gets the populace to potentially commit to laying down their lives (if literally everything goes well). As an added bonus, some of them will have rifles or the training to use small arms and other equipment if they happen to get a hold of it, so the Soviets would have to assume everyone does and act accordingly, making resistance more likely due to draconian measures enacted by the occupying force. Not a horrible plan if you think everything will go well in the pre-war phase and the Soviets don't just unleash nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons on anything that moves after the entire city of Beijing tries to evict its occupiers.
@@jacobmartin1100 I mean the soviets had a lot of experience with partisans, the people's militia would probably fold like a wet paper towel (militias, especially newly formed ones are largely not even useful for attrition as they will take most of their casualties running away on first contact, and the shock tactics the soviets used were designed to overwhelm relatively professional soldiers, sending people's militias might as well be blowing lives into the wind, ironically 'Napoleonic' tactics would be the best use as grouping them up would make the morale somewhat higher even if you might as well teach them Zulu chants for all the use they'll be in after a shell comes down on them or they meet armour, honestly cavalry is designed for this sort of war and would make even shorter work of them, especially in the chase), and by making the whole population combatants it would give the soviets every excuse to deal with the logistics guerrilla fighting is dependent on, the British tactic was to put civilians in camps so they can't supply these groups, but the soviets had also practised the wholesale removal of the associated populations, reprisals (which are effective, but the gorillas can counter by escalating violence against the civilian population as well) and the requisitioning of supplies (this sort of warfare typically takes advantage of self-imposed limits by the occupying power, historically that was not feasible as the force can just burn all your food and basically starve out the resistance). Honestly it's a willpower thing at the end of it, I'd compare it to the Japanese plan for operation downfall, but the Japanese had a frankly way better plan (to fortify the North Korean mountain range, leave sacrificial forces behind the lines in Manchuria and turn the home islands into a giant mountainous trap for amphibious landings, of course they were knowingly going to let a large potion of the civilian population starve, and many did even with the surrender), as they weren't testing the opposing nations appetite of inflicting civilian casualties on you, but rather their own military casualties. Basically the test was if the soviets were willing to wipe out a 1/3 of China in order to get rid of Mao, I mean Stalin would have gone for it, but later soviet leaders justified themselves as not being like that, even if they still were when it came to Christians, Church architecture and reactionary rebellions (e.g. not soviet aligned, enough, no matter their actual political ideology) in the eastern block. Actual military casualties might not have been siege of Warsaw one sided, but it still would have been mostly comparable to European colonel wars, especially in North China, where soviet armour would have had a field day, likewise while it would be a logistical nightmare the soviets were the most used to such circumstances of any western military and most of the wartime equipment (notably the trucks) were still operational. TLDR: It would have been a humanitarian disaster as much as a war. The militia system only would have contributed to that.
Funny you mentioning that the SKS was the gun that Chinese people grew up with, I would argue that it was the same for Australians of a certain age. in the 80's/90's they were everywhere in Aussie gun shops and so cheap that they were pretty much the default for young blokes buying their first centrefire rifle, the ammo could also be purchased in spam cans for just a few cents per round, soft points in Norinco cardboard boxes were double the price but could be used for hunting. With 10 round mags they were sold as SKS but there were models with AK pattern mags that in Australia were sold as SKK's. I remember the ammo being so cheap and abundant that my uncles would play a game on the farm where they would see who could get through an entire box of mags quickest, at night the barrels would get so hot they would glow red. Opinions on the SKS family were generally pretty low among most aussie shooters but i think that was usually because of ammo quality/lack of proper maintenance and some examples having a rough life with the PLA. Then we of course had our big gun restrictions in the 90's and most ended up in incinerators, hidden on farms or stashed by less than law abiding organizations. They can still be picked up for $6-700 AUD pretty easily even now.
Those are Chinese modified export model SKSs, the magazines are a variant of the Type 63 mag. China also made a type of 556 sporting AK called the Type 84 for Australia, America and South Africa.
@@sctumminello if you had said the slightly older generation then I'd agree but even in the 90s the .303 surplus was starting to dry up and was waaaay more expensive than 7.62x39. What you did see that was super common was .303-25 Enfields, they were usually sporterised enfields and the cartridge was necked down to a .25 bullet, they were everywhere and cheap, made a great goat or pig gun.
I'd be interested to hear more about your experiences with Chinese gun culture & the overall attitude, availability etc around firearms that you witnessed while you were there. And while it may be outside the scope of this series, I would love to hear more detail about your time in China, just pertaining to day-to-day life, food, living conditions, culture etc
My grandpa told me about the militia training back in the 60s. He got to shoot the SKS and a Japanese surplus LMG I believe was most likely a type 11 based on his description. He was a dirty intellectual doctor at the time and got humbled by missing all his targets lol.
I got this channel recommended because of my interest in firearms history, and along the way I'm getting multiple high-quality presentations about recent Chinese history. 10/10.
960 rounds per man. Which means that the average Type 56 light machine gun (RPD derivative), will fire for 6.5 minutes (assuming sustainable, not continuous rates of fire) and the average AK derivative will fire for 24 minutes. Which explains why people capable of basic mathematics were assigned to the PLA-AF.
Thank you! Fortunately I already have it, or the administrators would already have sent me to @CSSVirginia 's imaginary tobacco field for reeducation :)
As I'm sure you know, the Western education is sadly lacking in Chinese history. I know embarrassingly little. But I've been trying to remedy this over the past few years. So I've been enjoying the heck out of your videos and course. You're not just teaching, you're fun to watch. So...kudos, comrade!
@@joeyj6808From my experience Chinese history is only talked about when it’s tied to something. Look, you can say how little we are taught about with any country’s history. Though the thing is since they span for a long time you can’t exactly teach it all.
2:20 Young children can frankly handle recoil surprisingly well. There are news articles about a 10- year- old competitive shooter easily handling fairly regular pistols and rifles and plenty of other less extreme examples.
A range officer was killed in the Las Vegas area when the barrel of a submachine gun a young child was firing rose to vertical and the round hit him in. the head.
@@robg9236 Yes, that was a fully automatic, extremely fast- firing Mini or Micro Uzi. Small children should not be shooting stockless machine guns and they are different from semi- only Glocks and ARs. The child also probably did not have much practice time working their way up.
I don't know if you'll see this, but it might be very interesting to chart the cost of a weapon system in terms of ratio of value between the armament and the munition it fires: ie a Type 56 costs the same as 20?? rounds; a M16 costs the same as 40?? rounds; a M4 Sherman costs the same as 4,000??? main gun rounds; a B52 costs the same as ???? bombloads
I have of course not watched the whole video yet, but i want to say Happy New Year and a late Merry Christmas from the UK! i have enjoyed every video thoroughly so far and look forward to the ones to come in the new year!
It is very surprising that someone as well-read and well-versed in history as Mao would adopt the militia strategy. Since this has been in practice in some way shape or form in every dynasty. Most prominently in the Tang and Qing dynasties. The Qing dynasty's local militias were mostly to protect the interests of landlords, but the Tang dynasty adopted the strategy as the main army called Fubing. Every fubing comes from a household with their own land, had their own weapons and armour and sometimes horses, all funded by the family's land. This addressed every issue the rulers had at the time, pretty much the exact same problems Mao had/would have as described in the video. It was a very successful strategy, providing the dynasty with centralised power, an unstoppable army early on and high production during peace times. Unfortunately, due to lack of land reforms and times of economic decline, endless wars had the fubing lead the downfall of the Tang dynasty. The problems fubing solves and the problems it had is an almost exact parallel to the people’s militia, though much worse cause the fubing had incentive (loot and rank ups from wars). I guess Mao's thinking at the time was the land reforms during the revolution was enough for this strategy to succeed. Probably would’ve succeeded if it was implemented after 20 years maybe even 10 years of peaceful production. But I guess the issues Mao faced seemed too urgent at the time.
I don't think Mao was specifically focused on the pitfalls of militia system from history. Part of it was ideological to create this vision of a classless society, part of it I suspect was to intentionally breakup any power blocs associated with professional military. Within the CCP system, control of the military grants substantial political power and legitimacy. While it maybe convenient to centralize a professional military under his control, he also probably figured that it was also a path for other potentially ambitious individuals to usurp control from under him. Because of the personality cult he has fostered upon the wider Chinese populace, he gambled that a militia system would ironically be more loyal and pliable under him personally and counter-balance against the professional military. Mao is well-versed in Chinese history and power politics and this move is not unexpected. On a side note, the modern concept of militia is still a bit different from the historic systems like Fubing in the Tang. Be careful in how you compare them. Fubing has parallels with the Hellenistic Cleruchy or the Byzantine Pronoiar where grants of land/revenue rights was tied to providing military service. While these individuals may not be 100% employed in soldiery, they are far from civilians been given sharp stick in an emergency and frequently served for extended time in combat.
@@syjiang I do understand that the fubing were at a higher class than the landless peseants and the people that worked for landlords. After the revolution the peseantry had their own land. Ultimately I think that is the end goal of Mao's plan, a people's army capable of supplying and arming themselves locally, capable of long hard battles. No personality cult beats the willingness of people defending their own land. This I belive ties to the maoist third worldist strategy.
It is a really interesting episode especially because every problem and solutions proposed were also encountered in France when they were trying to create a large conscription army. The army was seen has risking to become a pretorian army that would in time overthrow the republic. So there was an active effort to democratise the army and many proposal most notable of Jaures called l'armée nouvelle (the new army) that proposes exactly the same thing a national militia of 4 million french without any offensive capacity, a well trained reserved and the end of the permanant army or at least it's diminution (this was after the Dreyfus affair so not trusting the army was understandable). It didn't pass for reasons you've already given (doing actual wars is expensive and complex so you need well trained cadres). That being said it did influence French military thinking for decades and it's interesting to see something similar happening in China.
@@Bruno-ec8ft Thank you for this! I have bottomless curiosity about modern French history, but it gets virtually zero air time in Angloworld. That makes good info/comparisons doubly precious.
Trivia knowledge: The favorite gun in Germany is the Mauser 98. Which is not much of a surprise. But it very well be a surprise to know that Mao himself wrote poems to praise it.
My political leader always told me to not change ox-carts mid-revolution. - This infomercial brought to you by Hua Guofeng. Dont switch ox-cart mid-revolution, unanimously elect the legitimate succeeding Chairman. PS: You do give off a Robert De Niro look from Wag the Dog
An excellent lesson for the Cold War history enthusiasts. I was also interested to hear Chinese people viewed SKS with a fondness. This is similar to commonwealth nations citizens of a certain age views on Enfield. 303 rifles. GB, Australia, NZ , Canada, and even former commonwealth South Africa.. As for Americans respect of the Garand Yes. But they also favor the carbine too. Example my now passed away mother asked to borrow my M 1 carbine when she was worried about a coyote killing her dogs. She was not a gun person but remembered I owned one. She had shot one in the 1950s at some point. I offered her a 30 /30 lever action and she declined holding out for the M 1 . I told her no and my brother armed her.
@@MK_ULTRA420 I was able to get a Red Chinese combat ration. I took it to my local Chinese restaurant to get them to translate the contents for me. They were very alarmed and kept asking me - Do you Know what this is? It is Army food and not going to be appetizing . They wanted to k ow how I got it and Why I would want to eat it voluntarily. It was three Vienna sausages and some pickled vegetables. It was not very good. 😮
His reviews are accurate but your conclusion is incorrect, because MREs are more of a emergency last resort option since the PLA places big emphasis on getting freshly cooked hot food to the troops.
Idk how far you plan on branching out into other topics, but I'd be interested in hearing about the Chinese assessment of western weapons. I know after Nixon opened the door to arms sales, China went shopping for western weapons, though mostly electing to produce their own versions. I heard the UK even tried to get them buy the harrier jump jet.
I have grampas M1 my uncle has his M1A1 carbine. Ive only shot the Garand, really cool to shoot. Kicks way less than the Mosin (I'm guessing because of that huge meaty slide). Tho with a brake you can shoot a lotta mosin painlessly.. just no spike attached with brake.. esthetically displeasing 😂
Sidenote would love to have a conversation with you about modern Russian and Chinese Geopolitical relations and in particular how they focus their attention on propagand it's outcomes in potential adversary countries.. Like I find their modern relationship quite fascinating. But I lack the enormous depth of knowledge on China that you have.
Great content, really enjoying the course so far! Are there any plans to discuss impact of Red Guard access to Milita/PLA armories during the early period of Cultural Revolution?
Realistically the best militia programs can only really expedite basic training. Even modern reserve forces need to be brought up to speed before being close to effective fighters. Here in the US, the gun culture has a huge problem with LARPing. Wishful thinking to the max. A lot of guys talk about self defense but could not run a 10 minute mile, or hit a 8 inch circle at 25 yards under any physical strain or mental duress. The best are the top level competitors at gun matches, and even then, soldiers in active combat duty still freeze up all the time. 99% of effective self-defense is staying out of violent situations in the first place and the gun culture does not reflect this basic fact.
I will say it's very interesting how the overall cultural view of guns can greatly affect how the culture uses them. Just look at America versus say, Switzerland. Both have above average gun ownership, but the culture surrounding gun ownership is vastly different. Even the average person's view of a gun or gun owner is almost black and white between the two cultures as well.
I love your videos. You’re clearly a very serious historian and I have immense respect for the level of research you’ve clearly done. It’s far beyond my own capabilities. However, I believe you have a pessimistic reading of “On Protracted War.” The document, having been written in 1938 during the Japanese occupation, was not about forcing the Chinese people to fight. The Communist Party had no ability at the time to do that. And the “united government” was at the time headed by the KMT as you know. It was the success of the guerrilla tactics of the communist-led units in the war against Japan that won enough popular support for the Chinese revolution to succeed. The KMT discredited themselves by causing unnecessary casualties, having brutal policies against its people, and flirting with compromise with Japan. This I believe shows the sincerity and reality of Mao’s message. That if a new invasion happened, the communists would fight in the same way that won them the support of the country over a grueling 30 years of war with Japan, the KMT, and the warlords. They wouldn’t need to force people. They would rely on their existing support and continue to convince people to stay or become optimistic. The late 20th and whole 21st century shows that uncle Cletus CAN beat back Ivan. Just look at the US in Afghanistan. The Taliban lost the cities and had to fight a guerrilla war to end the occupation and successfully re-establish control over the country, and they did so. Is it optimal? No. But as you point out, China was incapable of matching the US or USSR in conventional warfare. Any military leader in China who was going down that path in 1958 was full of himself. The industrial capacity was not there yet.
The PLA's attitude towards (and uses of) the militia prove Mao right; china was already creating a professional martial class not defined by revolution. In the end, a state is defined by its security structure.
I'd really appreciate it if you could go deeper into China's efforts to deal with the opium crisis under mao also the theoretical discussions and underpinning that led to the reforms and opening up. I know it has nothing to do with fire arms but competent industry and a technically educated and physically healthy society are integral for national defense and "self strengthening".
No, it's weird, I'm completely out of touch with what the KMT government was doing (and I'm not even sure whether Nanjing actually, really controlled all the arms production happening in the ROC).
@@Type56_Ordnance_Dept According to Wikipedia (I know) they built 600,000 Chiang Kai-shek rifles and 1,000,000 Hanyang 88, but that's total from 1895. Since those where the only two rifles in mass production during The Second Sino-Japanese War my estimate would be 1-1.5 million over the 8 years. 😭
Quote from Lord of War, " there are over 550 million firearms in worldwide circulation" so just enough for every chinese person. Only problem is they aren't owned in China lol.
Honestly if only they were more industrialize and had the means to supply everyone and are able to keep the core infantry within the main military force this idea is actually rather genius really. I can see a long and slow grinding down of a invading force getting stuck fighting the militia forces being slowed down and through time losing personal and equipment along with supplies and time. While the main PLA forces could focus on what they got maybe to help the militia forces from time to time while getting more veterans and being test while improving and changing things along the way without a major lost to their core forces. In time that core force could gain enough and finalize a prepared counter push as a possible killer blow. The only issue is apart from their piss industry and supply issues is now time which is the real question mark in all of this. If either US and allied force or Soviet force were to attack them they are going to have no choice but to fight them off long enough and hope they bleed the enemy force enough to make this possibility happen. Yet if they invading forces are able to totally waste them and go for the main core forces this might force the Chinese to return to the insurgency days with maybe a better stock pile at least with maybe hope for personal joining up with their cells to improve organization of the cell.
Read Edward Coffman's book "The Old Army" or "the Regulars" Mao basically copied the 19th century American military strategy of an expandable army, a small group of trained permanent soldiers that can rapidly expand and incorporate militia units in times of emergency. Infact the Civilian Marksmanship Porogram, the NRA, West Point, Virginia Military Institute & The Citadel were established based on the concept of local milita units that become part of the professional Army in times of emergency.
Honestly, I kinda surprised myself by more or less agreeing with Mao on this one; not the goofy ideological reasons, mind you, but just from the practical perspective that if the primary opponent is now the Soviets, you have no effective means of actually holding them off or deterring invasion without those "special technical weapons" and the delivery systems for them with industrial deficiencies, the education level of the populace, and the institutions of the state. There was no capacity or need for a conscription system, they couldn't keep track of the veterans to call them up when necessary, and you lack the industrial and technological base for a professional volunteer army with the capabilities to withstand or deter the Soviets. Really, the only solution you have if they come pouring over the border is to have a mass rising of the populace, civil and militant alike. While the party is an excellent vehicle for organizing that, it is not a militaristic one at heart, and if you need people to be ok with potentially dying when forming human chains in front of T-55s or hurling molotovs at BTRs, and more importantly to do so for *you* and the party, getting as many people as possible into a paramilitary organization and motivating them to fully commit to it is a superior form of organization than just about any alternative. As an added bonus, you strengthen the position of the party over a potentially nationalist-stratocratic military (a recurring theme for the Communist Party as Xi would find out in our century), and some of the trainees might even know how to use any small arms they happen to stumble across should the worst happen. The only real issue with it is the lack of arms, munitions, and the likelyhood the soviets just start dropping plague and anthrax throughout the countryside after the first few times they encounter this sort of resistance (if it even materializes at all). You would be better off concentrating what arms and munitions you have in the mountains and training a couple thousand-score die-hard ready-made insurgents to serve as the core of your insurgency while the cities and low-land farmers are prepared to conduct mass civil action to disrupt the occupiers, but *theoretical* numbers meant more to him than they do to me.
Ethos over arms worked during the civil war. Who wants to go against the war heros? Politically between a rock and a hard place. Making the most of the least would have been prioritizing friendly relations with anyone and everyone who could possibly pose a threat.
When I was a little kids in 70s, there were malitia in rural area. I visited my aunt's house in village. She got 5 kids, two girls and three boys. Since two boys are veterans, they were malitia in the village after they were discharged from the army and one was in charge of the machine gun. I remember there was a WWII Japaness machine gun on the bed table. It really took me great strength to load it and pulled the trigger to hear the click sound. Everyone was scared since no one expected I could do that. I also watched the shooting training of the malitia company of the village. Because I was from the city, I was allowed to pick up shell casing after shooting. There were WWII Japaness 38 riffle and the casing was in copper. The SKS casing is in steel. It was spring festival. They alway told me to keep awake until midnight and watch them shooting flare on the roof. But I was little and always fell asleep before midnight (at that time oil lamp was still used in the village and the dim light also made you sleepy) and never watched the flare.
Thank you for posting this memory
Militia
You are scum for focusing on correcting this guy's spelling when he's sharing a genuinely interesting story. His story was more interesting than this dude's video. @@pepebeezon772
Are they still allowed to have those guns ?
@JohnSmith-7n8 no
Interesting: I got a Chinese-language ad for Crest toothpaste before the video played.
Did it work? Does your toothpaste now have an accent?
The US CMP still sells Garands directly to qualified citizens. And, while prices have gone up dramatically, most of that is inflation - in terms of the buying power of a typical American home, its probably very similar to what CMP prices were to a 1950s family.
The quality has unfortunately gone down as the good surplus drains and the CMP is mostly equipped with lend lease returns that got well used.
@@wisconsinkraut3445 They still haven't gotten to M14s yet!
@@teslashark And they never will, because every M14 is legally a machinegun.
@wisconsinkraut3445
Aside from the receivers, damn near every part for the M1 Garand is made by someone. And there are gunsmiths that specialize in restoring/rebuilding Garands.
It will be pricey but even the shabbiest foreign buy-back Garand can be restored to factory-fresh form
@@geodkyt they're also not a fan of fudds just turning around and try to sell the Garands on gunbroker for 3k+. AH NO WAH AH GAWT SONNY!1!1!
1 HOUR!!! We have surely reaped the Golden Harvest comrades!
Intro bit is average family conversation during the resource wars of the 2030s
According to Leland Ness, the writer of "Kangzhan: Guide to Chinese Ground Forces, 1937-1945", during the Second Sino-Japanese War, The KMT aligned Chinese arsenals and factories turned out sufficient rifles (Type 88 Hanyang, "Chiang Kai Sheck" Mauser) and ammunition to support the NRA and associated forces, along with Type 24 Maxim MGs, ZB/26 LMGs and Browning M1917 MGs and a massive number of mortars from 45-150mm. A major Lend-Lease item for China was tons of smokeless powder. This was despite the loss of almost every Chinese urban center. The PRC inherited these production centers but the US stopped shipping smokeless powder and the Soviets never supplied similar quantities, which was one of the areas of tension.
By my count the ROC produced about a million rifles in the eight years between 1937-1945. I dont have records on how many were imported, but it can't be a million. By contrast the German army which was comparable in size made 10 million rifles, not counting captured weapons. The much smaller Japanese army produced 4 million rifles. I wish I had Chinese ammunition production figures to compare.
Suffice to say, clearly the KMT armies did not have anything close to sufficient numbers.
The CMP still mails out M1 Garands. I have received three.
This is fascinating, I'd recommend an article by a blog called acoup on raising a tribal army in roman times, societies that can actually do this ironically have military hierarchies baked in to the social structure so that they can actually operate on extremely short notice. If you read about the Cossacks you'll also know how much of this is reliant on a very specific militarist culture being build up by circumstances into a people and the fact that attempts of fabricate the same out of others, even with the same structure, don't work unless there is a nucleus which it is formed around of essentially colonists and their position in the hierarchy leads to it being adopted by the rest of the group as they attempt to appeal to the elite culture as a form of social advancement.
Basically Mao has a neat idea, but it is literally impossible to pull off, even if they had the social context to develop it, the process would take generations at a minimum, likewise the society created would look less Marxist-Leninist more Neo-feudal military aristocracy, farmer soldiers were certainly a concept in Tsarist Russia, but there's a reason the Soviets go for a massive bureaucracy and a system of conscription instead, the political system to uphold such a thing and make it actually militarily viable are hard to do and requires certain power structures that tend to become political one's. They also degrade easily, England had the same militia system for centuries, but how well it did was highly dependent on the attention paid to it and the level of motivation at all levels of society, as well as how much the context meant they were on the ball, periods of peace could lead to rapid deterioration as the population that made them up became complacent and lost their edge, however if in a dangerous context or with an enduring culture such troops could and did present a considerable edge over even professional troops, especially in small war or light tactics, the Austrian Granz are an example.
Holy Toledo, thank you for introducing me to ACOUP! You're making me think now of something like a Chinese version of the Soviet DOSAAF.
Yeah, that's kinda along the lines that I was thinking he was trying to go with this, at least in the short term. Against the Soviets, conventional resistance is essentially worthless when considering the potential for invasion through Manchuria alone, and until you get nuclear weapons, you have no means of stopping or dissuading them other than having a massed popular uprising. You could conceive of such a movement being rooted in the militia structure, with active insurgency in the mountains while the farmlands and urban centers partake in strikes and mass protests or just outright human wave attacks on soviet columns. The militia structure gets people accustomed to the concept of being a "soldier" if taken seriously, gives the party a means of preserving its control in the event of soviet occupation of provinces, and gets the populace to potentially commit to laying down their lives (if literally everything goes well). As an added bonus, some of them will have rifles or the training to use small arms and other equipment if they happen to get a hold of it, so the Soviets would have to assume everyone does and act accordingly, making resistance more likely due to draconian measures enacted by the occupying force. Not a horrible plan if you think everything will go well in the pre-war phase and the Soviets don't just unleash nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons on anything that moves after the entire city of Beijing tries to evict its occupiers.
@@jacobmartin1100 I mean the soviets had a lot of experience with partisans, the people's militia would probably fold like a wet paper towel (militias, especially newly formed ones are largely not even useful for attrition as they will take most of their casualties running away on first contact, and the shock tactics the soviets used were designed to overwhelm relatively professional soldiers, sending people's militias might as well be blowing lives into the wind, ironically 'Napoleonic' tactics would be the best use as grouping them up would make the morale somewhat higher even if you might as well teach them Zulu chants for all the use they'll be in after a shell comes down on them or they meet armour, honestly cavalry is designed for this sort of war and would make even shorter work of them, especially in the chase), and by making the whole population combatants it would give the soviets every excuse to deal with the logistics guerrilla fighting is dependent on, the British tactic was to put civilians in camps so they can't supply these groups, but the soviets had also practised the wholesale removal of the associated populations, reprisals (which are effective, but the gorillas can counter by escalating violence against the civilian population as well) and the requisitioning of supplies (this sort of warfare typically takes advantage of self-imposed limits by the occupying power, historically that was not feasible as the force can just burn all your food and basically starve out the resistance). Honestly it's a willpower thing at the end of it, I'd compare it to the Japanese plan for operation downfall, but the Japanese had a frankly way better plan (to fortify the North Korean mountain range, leave sacrificial forces behind the lines in Manchuria and turn the home islands into a giant mountainous trap for amphibious landings, of course they were knowingly going to let a large potion of the civilian population starve, and many did even with the surrender), as they weren't testing the opposing nations appetite of inflicting civilian casualties on you, but rather their own military casualties.
Basically the test was if the soviets were willing to wipe out a 1/3 of China in order to get rid of Mao, I mean Stalin would have gone for it, but later soviet leaders justified themselves as not being like that, even if they still were when it came to Christians, Church architecture and reactionary rebellions (e.g. not soviet aligned, enough, no matter their actual political ideology) in the eastern block. Actual military casualties might not have been siege of Warsaw one sided, but it still would have been mostly comparable to European colonel wars, especially in North China, where soviet armour would have had a field day, likewise while it would be a logistical nightmare the soviets were the most used to such circumstances of any western military and most of the wartime equipment (notably the trucks) were still operational.
TLDR: It would have been a humanitarian disaster as much as a war. The militia system only would have contributed to that.
Funny you mentioning that the SKS was the gun that Chinese people grew up with, I would argue that it was the same for Australians of a certain age.
in the 80's/90's they were everywhere in Aussie gun shops and so cheap that they were pretty much the default for young blokes buying their first centrefire rifle, the ammo could also be purchased in spam cans for just a few cents per round, soft points in Norinco cardboard boxes were double the price but could be used for hunting.
With 10 round mags they were sold as SKS but there were models with AK pattern mags that in Australia were sold as SKK's.
I remember the ammo being so cheap and abundant that my uncles would play a game on the farm where they would see who could get through an entire box of mags quickest, at night the barrels would get so hot they would glow red.
Opinions on the SKS family were generally pretty low among most aussie shooters but i think that was usually because of ammo quality/lack of proper maintenance and some examples having a rough life with the PLA.
Then we of course had our big gun restrictions in the 90's and most ended up in incinerators, hidden on farms or stashed by less than law abiding organizations.
They can still be picked up for $6-700 AUD pretty easily even now.
Those are Chinese modified export model SKSs, the magazines are a variant of the Type 63 mag. China also made a type of 556 sporting AK called the Type 84 for Australia, America and South Africa.
Same for Canada, I got a matching serials Tula '56 for $200 CAD first hand. Cheapest centrefire rifle. Now they are $700+
I would have thought it would have been the No. MK. III Lee-Enfields.
@@sctumminello if you had said the slightly older generation then I'd agree but even in the 90s the .303 surplus was starting to dry up and was waaaay more expensive than 7.62x39.
What you did see that was super common was .303-25 Enfields, they were usually sporterised enfields and the cartridge was necked down to a .25 bullet, they were everywhere and cheap, made a great goat or pig gun.
I'd be interested to hear more about your experiences with Chinese gun culture & the overall attitude, availability etc around firearms that you witnessed while you were there.
And while it may be outside the scope of this series, I would love to hear more detail about your time in China, just pertaining to day-to-day life, food, living conditions, culture etc
This channel is so absurdly specific, yet somehow very entertaining to watch :D
It was quite expensive but when I was in Vietnam I got to fire an RPD. First Soviet-made (or at least designed) firearm I've ever fired.
My grandpa told me about the militia training back in the 60s. He got to shoot the SKS and a Japanese surplus LMG I believe was most likely a type 11 based on his description. He was a dirty intellectual doctor at the time and got humbled by missing all his targets lol.
Well, we got some help pulling tobacco today.
Who ?
The economics professor from UNC
Hahahaha.
"Chop some wood/ Do ya good/ and you'll eat in the sweet by and by/ that's no lie"
Synopsis: Mao goes full Leroy Jenkins on the PLA. : )
I got this channel recommended because of my interest in firearms history, and along the way I'm getting multiple high-quality presentations about recent Chinese history. 10/10.
Norinco SKS were relatively popular in NZ before the big shooting.
I grew up with it and still have fond memories.
960 rounds per man. Which means that the average Type 56 light machine gun (RPD derivative), will fire for 6.5 minutes (assuming sustainable, not continuous rates of fire) and the average AK derivative will fire for 24 minutes. Which explains why people capable of basic mathematics were assigned to the PLA-AF.
References CMP and Leeeeroy Jenkins in the same lecture? Give this man tenure!
Thank you! Fortunately I already have it, or the administrators would already have sent me to @CSSVirginia 's imaginary tobacco field for reeducation :)
As I'm sure you know, the Western education is sadly lacking in Chinese history. I know embarrassingly little. But I've been trying to remedy this over the past few years. So I've been enjoying the heck out of your videos and course. You're not just teaching, you're fun to watch. So...kudos, comrade!
Why would it go into Chinese history? Does China even study their own history given how much of it they destroyed?
@@ulyssespulido9556 Wow. Thanks for proving my point.
@@joeyj6808From my experience Chinese history is only talked about when it’s tied to something. Look, you can say how little we are taught about with any country’s history. Though the thing is since they span for a long time you can’t exactly teach it all.
2:20 Young children can frankly handle recoil surprisingly well. There are news articles about a 10- year- old competitive shooter easily handling fairly regular pistols and rifles and plenty of other less extreme examples.
A range officer was killed in the Las Vegas area when the barrel of a submachine gun a young child was firing rose to vertical and the round hit him in. the head.
@@robg9236 Yes, that was a fully automatic, extremely fast- firing Mini or Micro Uzi. Small children should not be shooting stockless machine guns and they are different from semi- only Glocks and ARs. The child also probably did not have much practice time working their way up.
Mom, can we get ?
We have Suppressing Fire at home!
The suppressing fire we have at home:
I don't know if you'll see this, but it might be very interesting to chart the cost of a weapon system in terms of ratio of value between the armament and the munition it fires: ie a Type 56 costs the same as 20?? rounds; a M16 costs the same as 40?? rounds; a M4 Sherman costs the same as 4,000??? main gun rounds; a B52 costs the same as ???? bombloads
@@csours This is a really interesting idea.
I have of course not watched the whole video yet, but i want to say Happy New Year and a late Merry Christmas from the UK! i have enjoyed every video thoroughly so far and look forward to the ones to come in the new year!
It is very surprising that someone as well-read and well-versed in history as Mao would adopt the militia strategy. Since this has been in practice in some way shape or form in every dynasty. Most prominently in the Tang and Qing dynasties. The Qing dynasty's local militias were mostly to protect the interests of landlords, but the Tang dynasty adopted the strategy as the main army called Fubing. Every fubing comes from a household with their own land, had their own weapons and armour and sometimes horses, all funded by the family's land. This addressed every issue the rulers had at the time, pretty much the exact same problems Mao had/would have as described in the video. It was a very successful strategy, providing the dynasty with centralised power, an unstoppable army early on and high production during peace times. Unfortunately, due to lack of land reforms and times of economic decline, endless wars had the fubing lead the downfall of the Tang dynasty. The problems fubing solves and the problems it had is an almost exact parallel to the people’s militia, though much worse cause the fubing had incentive (loot and rank ups from wars). I guess Mao's thinking at the time was the land reforms during the revolution was enough for this strategy to succeed. Probably would’ve succeeded if it was implemented after 20 years maybe even 10 years of peaceful production. But I guess the issues Mao faced seemed too urgent at the time.
I don't think Mao was specifically focused on the pitfalls of militia system from history. Part of it was ideological to create this vision of a classless society, part of it I suspect was to intentionally breakup any power blocs associated with professional military. Within the CCP system, control of the military grants substantial political power and legitimacy. While it maybe convenient to centralize a professional military under his control, he also probably figured that it was also a path for other potentially ambitious individuals to usurp control from under him. Because of the personality cult he has fostered upon the wider Chinese populace, he gambled that a militia system would ironically be more loyal and pliable under him personally and counter-balance against the professional military. Mao is well-versed in Chinese history and power politics and this move is not unexpected.
On a side note, the modern concept of militia is still a bit different from the historic systems like Fubing in the Tang. Be careful in how you compare them. Fubing has parallels with the Hellenistic Cleruchy or the Byzantine Pronoiar where grants of land/revenue rights was tied to providing military service. While these individuals may not be 100% employed in soldiery, they are far from civilians been given sharp stick in an emergency and frequently served for extended time in combat.
@@syjiang I do understand that the fubing were at a higher class than the landless peseants and the people that worked for landlords. After the revolution the peseantry had their own land. Ultimately I think that is the end goal of Mao's plan, a people's army capable of supplying and arming themselves locally, capable of long hard battles. No personality cult beats the willingness of people defending their own land. This I belive ties to the maoist third worldist strategy.
@Outofmilkpowders and @syjiang in one thread! Everyone pull up a chair and listen! This is a great dialog.
It is a really interesting episode especially because every problem and solutions proposed were also encountered in France when they were trying to create a large conscription army. The army was seen has risking to become a pretorian army that would in time overthrow the republic. So there was an active effort to democratise the army and many proposal most notable of Jaures called l'armée nouvelle (the new army) that proposes exactly the same thing a national militia of 4 million french without any offensive capacity, a well trained reserved and the end of the permanant army or at least it's diminution (this was after the Dreyfus affair so not trusting the army was understandable). It didn't pass for reasons you've already given (doing actual wars is expensive and complex so you need well trained cadres). That being said it did influence French military thinking for decades and it's interesting to see something similar happening in China.
@@Bruno-ec8ft Thank you for this! I have bottomless curiosity about modern French history, but it gets virtually zero air time in Angloworld. That makes good info/comparisons doubly precious.
Very similar. 5 government-supplied cartridges per year for training, so heavy emphasis on bayonet work.
Trivia knowledge: The favorite gun in Germany is the Mauser 98. Which is not much of a surprise.
But it very well be a surprise to know that Mao himself wrote poems to praise it.
It was a function first design that works well in rough conditions. Forgotten weapons has a video on a competitor that was much easier to manufacture.
Sporting the hat of ultimate glory again... I'd ask what rank it indicates but now I've seen enough videos to know rank is meaningless in the PLA :D
My political leader always told me to not change ox-carts mid-revolution.
- This infomercial brought to you by Hua Guofeng.
Dont switch ox-cart mid-revolution, unanimously elect the legitimate succeeding Chairman.
PS: You do give off a Robert De Niro look from Wag the Dog
An excellent lesson for the Cold War history enthusiasts. I was also interested to hear Chinese people viewed SKS with a fondness. This is similar to commonwealth nations citizens of a certain age views on Enfield. 303 rifles. GB, Australia, NZ , Canada, and even former commonwealth South Africa..
As for Americans respect of the Garand Yes. But they also favor the carbine too. Example my now passed away mother asked to borrow my M 1 carbine when she was worried about a coyote killing her dogs. She was not a gun person but remembered I owned one. She had shot one in the 1950s at some point. I offered her a 30 /30 lever action and she declined holding out for the M 1 . I told her no and my brother armed her.
love the intro today lol
If steve1989’s reviews are accurate, they aren’t getting much in the way of meat.
A man who eats MRE vegetables, rice, and mushrooms before a firefight, will have a crappy time.
@@MK_ULTRA420 I was able to get a Red Chinese combat ration. I took it to my local Chinese restaurant to get them to translate the contents for me. They were very alarmed and kept asking me - Do you Know what this is? It is Army food and not going to be appetizing . They wanted to k ow how I got it and Why I would want to eat it voluntarily. It was three Vienna sausages and some pickled vegetables. It was not very good. 😮
His reviews are accurate but your conclusion is incorrect, because MREs are more of a emergency last resort option since the PLA places big emphasis on getting freshly cooked hot food to the troops.
@@xingyuliu3178 The PLA MREs entirely miss their purpose of maximizing protein, fat, and carbohydrates while minimizing fiber.
Idk how far you plan on branching out into other topics, but I'd be interested in hearing about the Chinese assessment of western weapons. I know after Nixon opened the door to arms sales, China went shopping for western weapons, though mostly electing to produce their own versions. I heard the UK even tried to get them buy the harrier jump jet.
Mao as the "good idea fairy" is a darkly hilarious concept.
Happy New Year Comrade Professor 😊
7:00 I remind me Gay Space Luxury Communism
No, for one thing I know for a fact they would have bayonets.
excellent comment 😂
what's the use of a bayonet when you don't have a gun to mount it on? They would use spears.
@@xuansu9036 But isn't a rifle with bayonet basically a spear?
Great video! Thank you! Very fortunately you published this video just in time for me to avoid permanent injury to the edge of my seat.
Worried about the PLA turning into the pretorian guard.
Unit 8341: pretorian guard is not real, it can't hurt you while we protect you...
I have grampas M1 my uncle has his M1A1 carbine. Ive only shot the Garand, really cool to shoot.
Kicks way less than the Mosin (I'm guessing because of that huge meaty slide).
Tho with a brake you can shoot a lotta mosin painlessly.. just no spike attached with brake.. esthetically displeasing 😂
Sidenote would love to have a conversation with you about modern Russian and Chinese Geopolitical relations and in particular how they focus their attention on propagand it's outcomes in potential adversary countries..
Like I find their modern relationship quite fascinating. But I lack the enormous depth of knowledge on China that you have.
The first quarter of this video has me wondering how Mao intended to handle internal security, since cleary thats something he was worried about.
Special technical weapons?
Are they the weapons of Hiroshima and Nagasaki fame?
+10 points for @wasa8680!
The civilian marksmanship program is still in affect you can still get m1 a mailed to you
I love these videos!
I would be interested in hearing more about your experiences in China
What was the SKS/Type 56 training session like in China, Professor?
That is a story that belongs in its very own episode (and maybe after some of the parties are safely retired).
Great content, really enjoying the course so far!
Are there any plans to discuss impact of Red Guard access to Milita/PLA armories during the early period of Cultural Revolution?
Realistically the best militia programs can only really expedite basic training. Even modern reserve forces need to be brought up to speed before being close to effective fighters.
Here in the US, the gun culture has a huge problem with LARPing. Wishful thinking to the max. A lot of guys talk about self defense but could not run a 10 minute mile, or hit a 8 inch circle at 25 yards under any physical strain or mental duress.
The best are the top level competitors at gun matches, and even then, soldiers in active combat duty still freeze up all the time.
99% of effective self-defense is staying out of violent situations in the first place and the gun culture does not reflect this basic fact.
replacing the main army infantry with militia is a peak tfw to intelligence galaxy brain move
50:25 the best line of this entire series so far 😂😂
Great videos. I think your lens is dirty
My man, you deserve to lecture at the general staff college.
I will say it's very interesting how the overall cultural view of guns can greatly affect how the culture uses them. Just look at America versus say, Switzerland. Both have above average gun ownership, but the culture surrounding gun ownership is vastly different. Even the average person's view of a gun or gun owner is almost black and white between the two cultures as well.
Sorry Professor. Now i want to See you making Videos as a Pig farmer. Spin off Series maybe?
I love your videos. You’re clearly a very serious historian and I have immense respect for the level of research you’ve clearly done. It’s far beyond my own capabilities. However, I believe you have a pessimistic reading of “On Protracted War.”
The document, having been written in 1938 during the Japanese occupation, was not about forcing the Chinese people to fight. The Communist Party had no ability at the time to do that. And the “united government” was at the time headed by the KMT as you know. It was the success of the guerrilla tactics of the communist-led units in the war against Japan that won enough popular support for the Chinese revolution to succeed. The KMT discredited themselves by causing unnecessary casualties, having brutal policies against its people, and flirting with compromise with Japan.
This I believe shows the sincerity and reality of Mao’s message. That if a new invasion happened, the communists would fight in the same way that won them the support of the country over a grueling 30 years of war with Japan, the KMT, and the warlords. They wouldn’t need to force people. They would rely on their existing support and continue to convince people to stay or become optimistic.
The late 20th and whole 21st century shows that uncle Cletus CAN beat back Ivan. Just look at the US in Afghanistan. The Taliban lost the cities and had to fight a guerrilla war to end the occupation and successfully re-establish control over the country, and they did so. Is it optimal? No. But as you point out, China was incapable of matching the US or USSR in conventional warfare. Any military leader in China who was going down that path in 1958 was full of himself. The industrial capacity was not there yet.
The PLA's attitude towards (and uses of) the militia prove Mao right; china was already creating a professional martial class not defined by revolution. In the end, a state is defined by its security structure.
Wild. The ads I was shown on this video had Chinese subtitles…
I'd really appreciate it if you could go deeper into China's efforts to deal with the opium crisis under mao also the theoretical discussions and underpinning that led to the reforms and opening up. I know it has nothing to do with fire arms but competent industry and a technically educated and physically healthy society are integral for national defense and "self strengthening".
52:50 was so weirdly funny to me, it caught me off guard and i just steated laughing out loud rather hard.
All these people with no guns... were they going to fight with knives??
Do you have rifle, machine gun, and ammo production figures for WWII China to compare to the Mao period?
No, it's weird, I'm completely out of touch with what the KMT government was doing (and I'm not even sure whether Nanjing actually, really controlled all the arms production happening in the ROC).
@@Type56_Ordnance_Dept According to Wikipedia (I know) they built 600,000 Chiang Kai-shek rifles and 1,000,000 Hanyang 88, but that's total from 1895. Since those where the only two rifles in mass production during The Second Sino-Japanese War my estimate would be 1-1.5 million over the 8 years. 😭
Quote from Lord of War, " there are over 550 million firearms in worldwide circulation" so just enough for every chinese person. Only problem is they aren't owned in China lol.
Maybe at one point you can look at the Mosin
He's told us enough about the Type 53.
@BrettBaker-uk4te cool, doesn't hurt to talk about it again.
Honestly if only they were more industrialize and had the means to supply everyone and are able to keep the core infantry within the main military force this idea is actually rather genius really.
I can see a long and slow grinding down of a invading force getting stuck fighting the militia forces being slowed down and through time losing personal and equipment along with supplies and time. While the main PLA forces could focus on what they got maybe to help the militia forces from time to time while getting more veterans and being test while improving and changing things along the way without a major lost to their core forces. In time that core force could gain enough and finalize a prepared counter push as a possible killer blow.
The only issue is apart from their piss industry and supply issues is now time which is the real question mark in all of this. If either US and allied force or Soviet force were to attack them they are going to have no choice but to fight them off long enough and hope they bleed the enemy force enough to make this possibility happen. Yet if they invading forces are able to totally waste them and go for the main core forces this might force the Chinese to return to the insurgency days with maybe a better stock pile at least with maybe hope for personal joining up with their cells to improve organization of the cell.
Read Edward Coffman's book "The Old Army" or "the Regulars" Mao basically copied the 19th century American military strategy of an expandable army, a small group of trained permanent soldiers that can rapidly expand and incorporate militia units in times of emergency.
Infact the Civilian Marksmanship Porogram, the NRA, West Point, Virginia Military Institute & The Citadel were established based on the concept of local milita units that become part of the professional Army in times of emergency.
When I first saw your channel I legitimately thought it was Chinese state ran propaganda
Honestly, I kinda surprised myself by more or less agreeing with Mao on this one; not the goofy ideological reasons, mind you, but just from the practical perspective that if the primary opponent is now the Soviets, you have no effective means of actually holding them off or deterring invasion without those "special technical weapons" and the delivery systems for them with industrial deficiencies, the education level of the populace, and the institutions of the state. There was no capacity or need for a conscription system, they couldn't keep track of the veterans to call them up when necessary, and you lack the industrial and technological base for a professional volunteer army with the capabilities to withstand or deter the Soviets. Really, the only solution you have if they come pouring over the border is to have a mass rising of the populace, civil and militant alike. While the party is an excellent vehicle for organizing that, it is not a militaristic one at heart, and if you need people to be ok with potentially dying when forming human chains in front of T-55s or hurling molotovs at BTRs, and more importantly to do so for *you* and the party, getting as many people as possible into a paramilitary organization and motivating them to fully commit to it is a superior form of organization than just about any alternative. As an added bonus, you strengthen the position of the party over a potentially nationalist-stratocratic military (a recurring theme for the Communist Party as Xi would find out in our century), and some of the trainees might even know how to use any small arms they happen to stumble across should the worst happen. The only real issue with it is the lack of arms, munitions, and the likelyhood the soviets just start dropping plague and anthrax throughout the countryside after the first few times they encounter this sort of resistance (if it even materializes at all). You would be better off concentrating what arms and munitions you have in the mountains and training a couple thousand-score die-hard ready-made insurgents to serve as the core of your insurgency while the cities and low-land farmers are prepared to conduct mass civil action to disrupt the occupiers, but *theoretical* numbers meant more to him than they do to me.
The story about the first mass casualty training accident.... yikes.
Yeah, Mao was definitely channeling his good idea fairy nature.
Would you consider changing your channel's name?
@bigmi2times I may be getting to the point where something like "The Story of the PLA" would be fit better. Got any input?
@@Type56_Ordnance_DeptTo me, the name is OK as is.
Basically wanted to create a military reserve under the color of a militia. A real militia is too independent of the PLA to be allowed.
Sounds like MAGA and Trump: The triumph of the arrogance of ignorance over science and technology.
Kamala lost get over it.
We were fucked either way really
Ethos over arms worked during the civil war. Who wants to go against the war heros? Politically between a rock and a hard place. Making the most of the least would have been prioritizing friendly relations with anyone and everyone who could possibly pose a threat.
The Sun Rises in Mar A Lago.