During the War of Liberation, there were hidden dangers in Yiye, and Mr. Peng couldn't control it, and the army basically became "**".
In the early days when the Red Army was reorganized into an anti-Japanese force, the size of our regular army was only more than 50,000 people, which was weak compared to the Kuomintang claim that it had an army of "several million".
However, this force, which had only tens of thousands of people, displayed unparalleled combat effectiveness and achieved remarkable achievements in the face of Chiang Kai-shek's Kuomintang army, which was more than a million troops. After the outbreak of the War of Resistance Against Japan, the Red Army shocked the Japanese army through the victory at Pingxingguan, and the victory at Yangmingbao boosted the morale of the whole country.
Even in the Battle of Henan-Xiang-Gui, when the Kuomintang army was defeated for thousands of miles, our army was still able to recover a large territory against the trend.
With the passage of time, the original army of only more than 50,000 people gradually evolved into four major field armies, namely the Northeast Field Army, the East China Field Army, the Central Plains Field Army, and the Northwest Field Army.
These four major field armies later evolved into the first.
Fourth, the first. III.
2. The First Field Army has become a solid cornerstone for the founding of New China.
It is worth noting that at the time of the official reorganization, there was an extremely large disparity in the number of field armies. The Northeast Field Army had the largest number of people, reaching more than one million, followed by the East China Field Army, with more than 500,000. The relatively weak Central Plains Field Army and the Northwest Field Army had more than 200,000 and 100,000 each.
Although the strength of the PLA has changed dramatically, the disparity in strength between the various field units is still significant. In particular, the Northeast Field Army, which ranked first, and the Northwest Field Army, which ranked last, differed several times in strength. However, what is strange is that the Northwest Field Army became the first field army, which was the more core unit of our army at that time, and played a key role in defending the army.
It is worth mentioning that this "weakest" field army actually liberated about 1 3 of the territory of the country, and its contribution was in no way inferior to that of the Northeast Field Army. Therefore, we can't help but wonder how such a seemingly "weak" Northwest Field Army created such a dazzling record.
1. The plight of the Northwest Field Army.
Compared with other field armies, the Northwest Field Army faced a unique and awkward situation.
Although the Northwest Field Army shouldered the responsibility of defending Yan'an and obeying the leadership of ***, the harsh cold climate of the northwest region made it a barren land, especially in northern Shaanxi, where grain production has always been limited.
In 1947, northern Shaanxi was also hit by natural disasters, and the grain output that year was less than half of that of 1946. In addition, Hu Zongnan's wanton oppression of the common people in various places led to the formation of a so-called "no man's land" for a time. Therefore, the development process of the Northwest Field Army was extremely difficult and could not be compared with the Northeast Field Army at all.
In this context, the leader of the Northwest Field Army, Mr. Peng, was troubled by the food problem every day, so it was difficult to increase the number of troops he had.
Regarding the establishment of the Northwest Field Army, the earliest dates back to 1945.
At that time, the Kuomintang had frequent movements, and the ** Military Commission decided to use the army as the main force of the military region to form the Jinsui Field Army, which was subordinate to the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningjin-Sui Joint Defense Army. The commander of the joint defense forces and the commander of the field army are held by **, and there are 6 brigades under its jurisdiction.
By 1946, a full-scale civil war broke out, and a major war broke out in the northwest. In this battle, Hu Jingduo, deputy director of the Northern Shaanxi Command Department of the Kuomintang Army, led more than 2,100 people to revolt and joined the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningjin-Sui Joint Defense Army.
In 1947, Hu Zongnan led hundreds of thousands of troops to advance to the northwest. In the face of a strong enemy, the ** Military Commission abolished the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningjin-Sui Joint Defense Army and formed the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Field Army, with Zhang Zongxun as the commander, with a total number of 2More than 80,000 people.
In this battle, Hu Zongnan behaved quite strongly, which put a lot of pressure on our army. Therefore, the Military Commission ordered that the vice chairman and commander-in-chief of the Central Military Commission should be under unified command of the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningbo Field Army, and that the field troops and local units should be integrated into the Northwest Field Corps, which will be specifically responsible for defending the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningbo Liberated Area.
Mr. Peng showed outstanding military talent, with a force of less than 30,000 people, he successfully delayed the strength of more than 30 brigades of the enemy and annihilated the enemy army260,000 people. However, the enemy's strength was too strong after all, and it was finally decided to evacuate Yan'an. **The Military Commission decided to assign the Jinsui Military Region to the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningbo Joint Defense Army, and the Northwest Field Corps was officially renamed the Northwest Field Army, with the commander and political commissar still serving as the commander.
With the gradual growth of the Northwest Field Army, the Battle of Yulin became a landmark victory, and Hu Zongnan's ten brigades went north and successfully annihilated more than 5,200 enemies. In the following battle of Shajiadian, the Northwest Field Army once again won the victory of more than 6,000 people of the main force of the 36th Division of Hu Zongnan's group. From this moment on, the Northwest Field Army quickly switched from strategic defense to strategy. As the continuous fighting progressed, the Northwest Field Army continued to grow, and the size of the original less than 30,000 men expanded to 760,000 people, and the combat effectiveness has been significantly improved. In February 1948, the Northwest Field Army launched a strategic campaign, and the Battle of Yichuan achieved its first major victory, destroying the enemy 2940,000 people. The subsequent Chenghe, Libei Battles and Winter Battles came one after another, successfully destroying more than 60,000 enemies, making Hu Zongnan, who had arrogantly claimed to eliminate ***, unable to raise his head at all. The Northwest Field Army finally got out of the predicament, and the situation ushered in a huge reversal. However, at this critical moment, the Northwest Field Army ushered in a huge crisis. According to records at the time, from July 1946 to October 1946, the People's Liberation Army had captured 100,000 people, most of whom poured into the Northwest Field Army, and some units even accounted for half or even more than 80%. Despite the exceptional circumstances at that time, in order to truly defeat the enemy, the Northwest Field Army had to accept surrendered troops in order to stabilize the overall situation. The People's Liberation Army (PLA) has been extremely good at this and is good at absorbing and transforming the old army. During the Huaihai Campaign, Su Yu recruited new soldiers in the morning, and in the afternoon he was able to make him a veteran and make military achievements. Similarly, in the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea, the motley units of the Kuomintang showed amazing combat effectiveness when engaged with the US army.
However, the leadership of the North-Western Field Army was keenly aware of the problem. They did not become complacent about the expansion of the size of the troops, on the contrary, they have maintained a cautious attitude and paid close attention to the subtle changes within the troops.
Initially, their concerns focused on the supply of troops. The northern Shaanxi region could not feed too many troops, and at that time our army was facing a severe food shortage. In order to solve this problem, the Northwest Field Army was forced to grind rice bran, melons and vegetables into flakes of black beans, boil them in water, and make porridge-like food with bran vegetables, barely satisfying hunger. Later, ** and others were fully responsible for the logistics work, and finally successfully solved the food problem. However, the leadership was more worried about the issue of military discipline in the troops. It is worth noting that Hu Zongnan once turned the northwest region into a so-called "no man's land", and the military discipline of his troops was corrupted, which was simply a locust transit. Under the leadership of ***, although our army defeated the enemy militarily, politically, it vigorously publicized the superior policy of our party, which eventually led to the surrender of a large number of Hu Zongnan's troops. Although these surrenderers joined the PLA, they were still a group of warlord forces with old ideas. They didn't understand why they were fighting, they just knew that they had rations when they were soldiers. This part of the soldiers not only has loose discipline and extremely poor combat effectiveness, but also easily affects the atmosphere of the entire unit.
In addition to these problems, there are also some ruffians mixed in. These people used to have the bad Xi of bullying the weak, but later they still showed violations of law and discipline, seriously violated our party's principles, and also posed a threat to the image of the PLA.
Initially, these problems manifested themselves in the Xi habit of stealing livestock, which escalated into direct robbery, and the adverse effects continued to increase. Although the backbone of the Communist Party was present and the newly recruited units could be quickly reorganized, due to the fierce fighting on the front, the formation of the various units was accelerated, and they had to be quickly thrown into more intense battles. As a result, the core forces of the Communist Party gradually reduced their proportion of the overall force, and it was unable to effectively stop the deteriorating atmosphere. Soon, in the battle of Shajiadian, although our army successfully eliminated the enemy's 36th division, the problem of military discipline began to come to the fore, and someone towed the masses with more than 30 donkeys at the cypress pier.
Perhaps out of the motive of wanting to confuse the public, some spies, hooligans, and individuals who were originally old landlords also joined the army, and they set off a storm in the army, did whatever they wanted, desperately destroyed the ties between the PLA and the people, and actively spread the ideas of the old army, which had a serious impact on the PLA. In addition to Hu Zongnan's army, the army of the Northwest Erma also experienced a large number of surrenderers, such as in the Battle of Lanzhou, our army annihilated the enemy270,000 people, 1 prisoner370,000 people. In the Battle of Ningxia, the enemy was annihilated 330,000 people, 1 prisoner80,000 people, while also fighting for 1An uprising of 20,000 people. The composition of these surrendered armies varied widely, including some members of ethnic minorities who were somewhat estranged from the Han Chinese at the time. Coupled with the erroneous propaganda of the Second Horse in the Northwest, the national question has become a headache, and the slightest carelessness may lead to a rebellion.
In the face of numerous crises, the leaders of the Northwest Field Army were extremely vigilant, and commanders at all levels were fully aware of the seriousness of the problem. After careful observation, we also found that because there were many Sichuan people in Hu Zongnan's army, the proportion of Sichuan people in the surrendered army was quite large, so that the Northwest Field Army almost became a Sichuan army. As a result, the phenomenon of the military's geographical grouping has become impossible to ignore. What should be done in the face of this situation?
3. Implementing a Package CampaignUnder the leadership of the Northwest Field Army, the Northwest Field Army launched a large-scale package campaign and decided to conduct comprehensive training for the entire army. The training is divided into two main parts, one of which is the rotation training of cadres at all levels. What needs to be emphasized here is that at that time, among the major field armies, the North China Corps of the North China Military Region was also facing serious problems. Due to the logistical tasks of the Anti-Japanese War, many high-ranking leaders of the North China Corps were burdened with the responsibility of commercial operations, which led to some high-ranking leaders becoming corrupt elements, and the combination of the military and commerce made the phenomenon of corruption in officialdom very prominent. Similarly, the Northwest Field Army was caught in this problem. Under the infiltration of some landlords and careerists, some ** have shown an obvious bureaucratic style, and the phenomenon of corruption is worrying.
**Personally give orders, requiring the column to be responsible for cadres above the rotation training battalion, the brigade headquarters to be responsible for company and platoon cadres, and the regimental headquarters to be responsible for squad leaders. In addition, cadres at all levels need to thoroughly study Xi party's land reform policy, take class education as the core, inspect and rectify discipline, and enhance class consciousness.
In the face of any illegal or criminal acts, we will resolutely arrest and promptly conduct trials through legal procedures, and carry out effective rectification and education for individuals with less serious circumstances. At the same time, it is of utmost importance to carry out ideological education for grassroots fighters.
Back in the history of the Northwest Field Army, when troops faced intense combat missions, most of them were new recruits who were not necessarily willing to fight for communism. Under these circumstances, how to quickly stimulate their desire to fight became a challenge at that time.
An inspired approach originated from a Sichuan soldier of the 358th Brigade of a column, who wept alone in the field, deeply saddened the tragic death of his mother, and said that he wanted to avenge his mother. This struck a chord with the other fighters, evoking similar painful experiences and weeping together with passion.
The field army command quickly realized that this method had worked, and decisively organized a meeting of all the soldiers to complain about their life experiences. Everyone shared their own tragic past, with sincere emotions and tears.
It is worth noting that this kind of experience is also common among the founding generals of our party. Each leader came from a poor peasant family and suffered the oppression of the reactionary rule of the Kuomintang, and many families were ruined.
Therefore, as long as everyone recounts their tragic experience, the soldiers in the audience, regardless of their background, will empathize with them, generate anger and form a consensus that they must avenge the KMT.
When the soldiers' emotions were aroused, the Northwest Field Army quickly launched the "Three Investigations Campaign" to gain an in-depth understanding of the class composition and attitude of each soldier and find out those bad elements who had blended into the ranks.
As everyone's emotions were mobilized, the landlords and spy forces lurking in the army were quickly uncovered, and the pests in the army were quickly cleaned up. The reunited army laid a solid foundation for the subsequent liberation cause. Subsequently, the PLA launched a land reform and education campaign.
As people from poor families, those who surrendered to the Sichuan Army, regardless of their past experiences, understood the importance of revenge, especially in the face of the prospect of the Communist Party allocating land to them.
In addition, the superb ideological education of the Communist Party has enabled them to profoundly understand the lofty status of the proletariat in a concise and easy-to-understand manner. This part of the soldiers, who originally had some degenerate Xi, quickly developed a desire to join the battle, consciously maintained the discipline of the Red Army, and established deep ties with the local people.
Through a series of efforts, the Northwest Field Army successfully survived the crisis, and its combat effectiveness was rapidly improved. Based on this, Mr. Peng once again advocated ethnic unity and called for respect for the traditional Xi of ethnic minorities. The surrendered Ma Jiajun troops soon followed suit and threw themselves into the arms of the Communist Party, becoming a staunch force in the army.
The subsequent course of history is well known. In February 1949, the Northwest Field Army grew again and was reorganized into the First Field Army, with an expanded strength of 150,000. By May, the size of the First Field Army had increased again, reaching 350,000, completely overwhelming Hu Zongnan's troops.
By September 1949, the Northwest Field Army had successively liberated Shaanxi, Gansu, Ningxia, and Qinghai provinces. Immediately afterwards, Xinjiang was also integrated into New China in the tide of peaceful liberation. By January 1950, the First Field Army was renamed the Northwest Military Region, and its jurisdiction included five provinces: Shaanxi, Gansu, Ningxia, Qinghai, and Xinjiang. The Northwest Field Army made outstanding contributions to the liberation of New China.