As we all know, the column was the main military establishment of the People's Liberation Army during the War of Liberation. Although in 1948, after the unification of the number of troops, the original column was renamed "army" and the commander of the column was also renamed "army commander", many people simply think that the rank of the column is equivalent to the military rank, but in fact this understanding is inaccurate.
In fact, the column is one of the formations in the irregular formation sequence of the ** period. The irregular establishment is relative to the regular establishment, and the regular establishment of the troops, soldiers, and equipment are clearly stipulated, and there are corresponding military salaries and subsidies. Only the regular establishment of the army will receive the highest regular military salary, otherwise the military expenses will have to be solved by themselves.
* The number of members of a standard regular division in the period was 12,500, which means that no matter what period the number of people in this division is counted, it will be found that it must be 12,500 people. Of course, the total number of this division will definitely exceed 12,500 people, because the formation will ensure that a certain number of soldiers will be replenished. In the event of war losses, the replenishment of troops will be brought into regular strength. However, in the warlord warring period, due to the lack of sufficient troops, the actual number of regular divisions may be only a few thousand or even less. As a result, the regular establishment also lost its practical value as a measure of troop strength during that period.
During the Central Plains War, in order to win over the warlords of various factions, Chiang Kai-shek enabled the establishment of the road army. However, there is no clear concept of the road army, it simply refers to all the armed forces in a large area. As for how many people there are in this road army, the difference is even more obvious.
For example, the old warlord Zhang Fang in Henan originally did not have a single soldier at his disposal, but Chiang Kai-shek directly appointed him as the commander-in-chief of the 20th Route Army. With the help of the name of the 20th Route Army, Zhang Fang incorporated the old department and organized it into more than a dozen columns. The external name of these troops is the XX Column of the Twentieth Route Army.
After the Great War in the Central Plains, ** carried out a unified reorganization and adopted a regular establishment. The establishment of the road army was reorganized into a group army, the column was reorganized into a division, the detachment was reorganized into a brigade, the brigade was reorganized into a regiment or battalion, the squadron was reorganized into a company, the squad was reorganized into a platoon, and the detachment was reorganized into a squad.
Comparison of regular and irregular establishments: road army (group army), column (division), detachment (brigade), brigade (regiment or battalion), squadron (company), squad (platoon), detachment (squad).
In August 1937, the Red Army was reorganized into the Eighth Route Army, which had three regular divisions (two brigades and four regiments). Subsequently, ** asked the Eighth Route Army to change the number to the "Eighteenth Group Army". However, due to the refusal of the request for the three regular divisions of the Eighth Route Army to be upgraded to corps, our army has always used the number of the Eighth Route Army.
After the reorganization of the Eighth Route Army, it entered the anti-Japanese front. As the local anti-Japanese armed forces in various localities joined our party's troops one after another, the armed forces in Shandong were unified into the Shandong Column. After that, the Eighth Route Army sent the deputy commander of the 129th Division into Shandong, and incorporated the Shandong Column into the Eighth Route Army system, officially named "The First Column of the Eighth Route Army". This is also the first time that our army has used the number of columns.
During the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, in addition to the three regular divisions under the jurisdiction of the Eighth Route Army, it also included five columns: the first column (commander: ** second column (commander: Zuo Quan), the third column (commander: Lu Zhengcao), the fourth column (commander: Xiao Ke), and the fifth column (commander: Huang Kecheng).
In 1941, the main forces of the Eighth Route Army were localized. The way in which the army is localized is to start the formation of second-line troops and reserve units on the basis of the main forces. Taking the 129th Division as an example, this division formed the Shanxi-Hebei-Shandong-Henan Military Region, and the 386th Brigade formed the Taiyue Military Region. The troops of the Taiyue Military Region include the main force (386 Brigade), the second line army (the new 1st Brigade) and the reserve force (the new 2nd Brigade).
After the victory of the Anti-Japanese War, in order to cope with the siege of the Kuomintang army, the Shanxi-Hebei-Shandong-Henan Military Region began to form a field army. The four second-level military regions under the jurisdiction of the Shanxi-Hebei-Shandong-Henan Military Region, namely, Hebei-Shandong-Henan, Southern Hebei, Taihang, and Taiyue, respectively formed the Hebei-Shandong-Henan Column, the Southern Hebei Column, the Taihang Column, and the Taiyue Column. Later, they were reorganized into the first, second, third, and fourth columns, respectively.
The column is a field unit formed by the second-level military region during the Liberation War. When the column leaves the second-level military district in which it is located, the second-level military district reorganizes its troops. However, when the higher authorities again asked the second-level military region to form a field column, due to the shortage of soldiers, the three brigades under the original column may only be able to barely make up two brigades. As a result, during the War of Liberation, some columns had three brigades under their command, while others had only two brigades.
The Shandong Military Region was originally formed by the 115th Division, but because the Shandong Military Region bordered the New Fourth Army after the reorganization of the Southern Anhui Incident. After the Southern Anhui Incident, the New Fourth Army had seven divisions under its jurisdiction. Although the brigades of the Eighth Route Army and the divisions of the New Fourth Army were at the same level, in order to facilitate command, the 115th Division upgraded eight teaching brigades to divisions in the early days of the Liberation War.
The troops of the Shandong Military Region later joined the Northeast and joined other units of the Eighth Route Army to form troops. Since the brigades of the Shandong Military Region were upgraded to divisions, while the other units of the Eighth Route Army were mainly brigades, the establishment of the Northeast Field Army was three divisions under the jurisdiction of a column.
In November 1948, the PLA units were unified and the column was renamed "Army". However, at this time, the columns of the various field armies were clearly different.
The Fourth Field Army was replenished all the way south, and the column generally had four full-strength divisions under its command, with a column of about 50,000 men.
After the Huaihai Campaign, the Third Field Army prepared for the battle of crossing the river, and its strength was replenished, and the column had three full-strength divisions under its jurisdiction, with a column of about 30,000 people.
The 2nd Field Army entered the southwestern region, and the troops were not replenished in time. The column has three brigades or a few two brigades, and the number of columns is about 20,000 to 30,000.
Due to the relatively barren location of the First Field Army in the northwest, when the field army was formed, the column could only have two brigades under its jurisdiction. Later, although the unified number was supplemented to a certain extent, the number of Ichino's column was always only about 10,000.
Columns are formed by the second-level military districts, and each second-level military district will form several columns. The columns of the same second-class military region were merged into the corps, and the commander of the corps was usually the commander of the first column, and in 1955 the rank of general was generally awarded. The commander of the second formed column is awarded between the general and the lieutenant general, and the commander of the third formed column is awarded the rank of lieutenant general and major general. He Jinnian and Zhong Wei both belonged to the commanders of the column formed for the third time, so it was normal for them to be awarded the title of major general.
To sum up, the formation of columns played an important role during the War of Liberation. It is a field unit formed by the second-level military district, and the number of brigades under the column will also vary according to the number of soldiers. After many reorganizations and unified reorganization, the column eventually became the main military establishment of the PLA. There are certain differences in the number of personnel and the titles of cadres in each column, which is determined by the combat situation of different columns in the course of the war.