Since the establishment of the four major field armies during the Liberation War, the whole army has been unified and dozens of armies have been built. Some of the legions exist to this day, and the history is very long, such as the Thirteenth Army of Chen Geng's corps. There are also some armies that have a very short existence time.
Take, for example, the Eighth Army. Many people may not have heard of the Eighth Army. The Eighth Army was also in the northwest, but it was not under the command of Mr. Peng. Because the Eighth Army has been fighting in the remote north of Sai, it is under the command of the Junsui Military Region led by Boss He, and is not in the main battlefield in the northwest.
The First Field Army had two corps, each with three corps, of which there was no Eighth Army. The Eighth Army seemed to be a lone army, hanging on the north mountain of Saibei. From its establishment at the end of February 1949 to the end of May, the Eighth Army was abolished and lasted only 3 months.
The Eighth Army should be the shortest-lived corps. What's going on? Who was the commander of the Eighth Army? The 120th Division had a 358 brigade, and the chief of staff was called Yao Zhe, and although it was difficult to recognize, it was a good word, and now many people have a zhe in their names.
From the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression to the War of Liberation, Yao Zhe was under the command of The Elder He for a long time, and everyone must have thought that he was a general of the Red Second Front, but in fact, it was not right. Yao Zhe was really not Boss He's subordinate. Yao Zhe, a native of Shaoyang, Hunan Province, lost his father at an early age, and was wanted by the Kuomintang when he joined the peasant association, so Yao Zhe had to embark on the road of joining the army.
Which unit was he in? The Hunan Independent Fifth Division, fortunately Yao Zhe met General Peng. At that time, Mr. Peng was the commander of the first regiment in the Fifth Division. In 1928, Mr. Peng launched the famous Pingjiang Uprising, and Yao Zhe participated in this great uprising.
Since then, Yao Zhe has followed Mr. Peng in the revolution. What is unexpected is that Yao Zhe was the director of the department at the beginning and cooked, so everyone called him the head of the gang. The soldiers and horses did not move, the grain and grass went first, and Yao Zhe was a very competent secretary general. Every time he fought, he always thought of making the soldiers eat and drink enough to win the battle.
After coming to the Central Soviet Area, Yao Zhe was quickly promoted, from battalion commander to regimental commander, and then promoted to division chief of staff. After the Red Army's Long March reached northern Shaanxi, Yao Zhe became the commander of the supplementary division. O division commander of the Red Army, that is very precious. Therefore, when the War of Resistance broke out, Yao Zhe was assigned to the 120th Division as the chief of staff of the brigade.
In 1938, Yao Zhe advanced into Suiyuan and was ordered to create the Daqingshan Anti-Japanese Base Area, which should be the farthest base area. Daqingshan was located in central Suiyuan, in the territory of present-day Inner Mongolia. There are both Japanese troops and puppet armies here, far from the main force of the Eighth Route Army, and the ethnic composition is more complicated.
If you want to gain a foothold in Daqingshan, it is very difficult. Once, Yao Zhe encountered a "sweep" by the Japanese army, he quickly hidden, but the Japanese army followed the shadow, Yao Zhe had a clever move, led his troops into a valley, fought a beautiful ambush battle, and also captured two Japanese officers.
In this way, while fighting a war and overcoming difficulties to build a base area, Yao Zhe gained a foothold in Daqingshan. He actually brought out a magical cavalry unit. The Northern Cypriot Military Subdistrict was established, with Yao Zhe as commander. During the Liberation War, this unit developed into the Suimeng Military Region and then into the Eighth Column, with Yao Zhe as its commander.
The Eighth Column was reorganized into the Eighth Army, with Yao Zhe as its commander. The Eighth Army stood tall in the north of Sai and effectively contributed to the peaceful liberation of Suiyuan Province. In May 1949, Suiyuan Province was established, and the Eighth Army was incorporated into the Suiyuan Military Region, and the name was abolished.
Since then, Yao Zhe has worked in Suiyuan for a long time. Fu Zuoyi served as commander of the Suiyuan Military Region, and he was the deputy commander. The Twenty-third Corps was established, with Dong Qiwu as commander and Yao Zhe as deputy commander. In 1955, Yao Zhe was awarded the rank of founding lieutenant general and later served as deputy commander of the Wuhan Military Region.