The difference between a garrison and a field army is not just a literal difference. In order to truly understand this question, we must first start from the roots: what is a garrison? What is Field Army?
Garrison troops, as the name suggests, combine one defense and one preparation. What is Shou? It is mainly an important node with outstanding strategic value, such as border areas, coasts (islands), fortresses or specific important cities, to build permanent fortifications and equip them with strong firepower, so as to form a relatively independent defense system.
To take the simplest example, in the well-known Inner Changshan Fortress Area, the garrison is a typical garrison. Kang Honglei's "The Years of Burning Passion", the filming location is the Neichangshan Fortress Area, which objectively restores the combat life of the garrison troops.
The allusion to the field army comes from the "siege field" said by Bai Qi, the first general of the Warring States period, emphasizing mobility, strategy, and offensiveness. Since our army set up the "five major field armies" during the War of Liberation, and until the group army was reorganized from 18 to 13 after the military reform, profound changes have taken place in the numbering, organization, and operational concept. However, everything remains the same, and what the group army pursues is to destroy the enemy in a war of movement.
As for the difference between the garrison and the field army, there are four main differences:
There is a big difference between the equipment of the garrison and the field army, which can be seen from the most basic equipment of the two, automatic rifles. The garrison units are armed with Type 03 automatic rifles, while the field units are armed with lightweight Type 95 automatic rifles. Those who are attentive will find that the face of the Type 03 automatic rifle rarely appears in the field army units.
The garrison forces not only emphasize defense, but also have the task of combat readiness. Once there is a change in the world, the garrison can rely on a relatively independent defense system to create favorable conditions for the country's rapid transition to a wartime system and the orderly deployment of strategic reserves.
The field army was able to reach the area of the incident as soon as it was ordered. Taking Wenchuan as an example, after the incident, all military regions realized strategic projection from multiple directions, long distances, and large spaces, and quickly invested in earthquake relief.
The operational area of the garrison troops is mainly concentrated around the support point, which is equivalent to the "beacon tower" in ancient China and plays the role of an armed police. It is the field army that really takes the lead, and it can rely on powerful logistics in a vast operational area to achieve mobile operations, so as to destroy the enemy in the course of movement.
The formation of garrison troops is in the form of fortified areas, garrison areas, garrison divisions, garrison brigades, garrison regiments, etc., while group armies are military headquarters, composite brigades, composite battalions, and all the way up to combat squads. Unlike the establishment of the main division level in the fortified area, the group army is at the regular army level.