At the beginning of General Peng's leadership of the Northwest Field Army, there were less than 20,000 soldiers, and the number was not even enough to form a complete column. At the same time, the ratio of strength between our army and Hu Zongnan's army was 1 to 10, and the situation was extremely grim. Although the number had been established, the strength of the Northwest Field Army had not been effectively replenished, and it had only barely expanded to more than 40,000 before the two corps of the North China Military Region came to help in 1949.
Until the peak of the army, there were only more than 150,000 people, making it the weakest of the field armies at that time. However, what is puzzling is that on the basis of the 120th Division of the Eighth Route Army, Mr. He successfully developed into a powerful force with more than 80,000 people, including more than 40,000 main field troops. So in the spring of 1947, when General Peng took over the Northwest Field Army, why did the number of troops only have more than 20,000?
This seems a bit counterintuitive. There are many online articles that tend to favor the idea that Mr. He was not fully reused during the Liberation War, and Mr. Peng took over his descendants and presided over the Northwest War. However, this statement is too one-sided. The troops led by Mr. He are far more than the more than 20,000 people when the Northwest Field Army was established.
In fact, the predecessor of the Northwest Field Corps was the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningbo Field Army with Zhang Zongxun as its commander, and Zhang Zongxun was the right-hand man of the 120th Division during the Anti-Japanese War. Therefore, the Northwest Field Corps was only drawn and developed from a part of the original 120 Division, and was far from the entire force. There are both objective and subjective factors.
Objectively, Mr. He served as the commander of the Jinsui Military Region at that time, and in 1946, he joined forces with Nie Shuai to fight Fu Zuoyi, so most of the troops were transferred to the North China battlefield, and the situation in the northwest was not the top priority.
Subsequently, the troops led by Zhang Zongxun were really used to form the Northwest Field Corps, with only more than 20,000 troops, which formed the initial foundation of the Northwest Field Army and directly explained why Zhang Zongxun later became the first deputy commander of the Northwest Field Army and assisted General Peng for many years. Subjectively, this is also related to the great importance attached to the frontline warfare in various major theaters.
Although it is stationed in Yan'an, it is unwilling to leave too many combat troops in the rear of northern Shaanxi, so as not to adversely affect the combat strength of other theaters, which shows the grandeur of the army. Mr. He did not use all of his original troops, and even after the Northwest Field Army was upgraded to the Northwest Field Army, he only mobilized more than 20,000 people from the Jinsui Military Region.
The sparse population and barren land in the northwest make it difficult to form large-scale combat units. Until the beginning of 1949, there were only 100,000 troops under Nishino, which was slightly insufficient compared to other brother field armies. Most of the troops led by Mr. He remained in the Shanxi-Chahar-Hebei region, later known as the North China Military Region, to form the main field corps, which is often overlooked.
For example, during the liberation of Sichuan in the Southwest Campaign in 1949, Mr. He was ordered to command the 18th Corps to contain Hu Zongnan's army and become the first PLA main force to enter Chengdu. Why did you choose Mr. He to command the 18th Corps and not others?Because the core force of this corps is Mr. He's old subordinates in the past, he can give full play to his power when he commands it.
Although Mr. He directly commanded relatively few battles in the War of Liberation, his contributions at different historical stages had a significant indirect impact on the course of the War of Liberation. It is a completely wrong idea to think that he "did not play a role" in the war of liberation.