During the Liberation War, the strongest of the columns (equivalent to the army) of the Central Plains Field Army was the 4th Column. In particular, in September 1945, the main force of the Jin army was attacked (the Shangdang Campaign annihilated more than 30,000 shi Zebo troops); in the Battle of Huaihai, Nakano and Huaye cooperated to annihilate the Huang Wei Corps, of which the 4th Column played a key role, and was the main force in blocking the encirclement and later attack on the enemy's 12th Corps. Before crossing the river, the main force of the 4 columns was organized into two armies, the 13th and 14th, which are still in the sequence of the People's Liberation Army, which shows the high status. Why is the strength of the 4 columns particularly prominent in Nakano, and the most successful battles?
First of all, there are the 4-column staffing factor. The predecessor of the 4th Column was a very combative force, which fought in the Jin-Hebei area during the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression. How strong this force is, even reflected in many famous film and television works. In "Bright Sword", the independent regiment led by Li Yunlong belongs to the 386 Brigade, and the 4th Column has always been the backbone of General Chen Geng's troops, and there are many famous generals who have come out of the 4th Column. Whether a unit can fight or not is largely determined by the quality of the commander. No column within Nakano could surpass the 4 columns. In particular, the commander of the army, General Chen Geng, was the only one who became a general as the commander of the corps later, which shows the high military level and combat achievements.
Second, there are strategic and historical factors. Although Nakano was poorly equipped, this did not include Chen Geng's 4th Column and the 9th Column under his command, but mainly referred to those troops who had been to Dabie Mountain. In the 47th, Nakano approached the Dabie Mountains, and according to the overall strategy, which did not include the 4 columns, Chen Xie's army penetrated deep into the territory of Yu, Shaanxi, and formed a decisive momentum with Nakano's Dabie Mountain troops and Huaye's Chen Su army, increasing the overall threat to the nationalist army. This layout took shape smoothly, but Nakano had to discard a large amount of heavy equipment in the process of entering the mountains, especially the artillery that was not surplus, which weakened the combat effectiveness of most of Nakano's troops. During the Dabie Mountains period, Nakano's main force faced The strongest of the local armies, Bai Chongxi's troops, that is, the steel 7th Army of the New Gui clan, and other fierce enemies, which had been fought very hard in the past year, coupled with poor weapons and equipment, and in the process of dealing with enemies several times larger than themselves, the attrition of Nakano's troops was very serious. During the same period, the 4 columns were further strengthened, and the equipment level and personnel strength were the most prominent among the columns in Nakano at that time. This has a lot to do with the operational position of the 4th Column and the overall strategic arrangement.
Finally, the reason why the 4th Column is the Nakano unit that annihilates the most enemies is related to the combat tasks after crossing the river. This is also due to the outstanding strength of the 4 columns, so it was allocated to the unified command of the Northeast Field Army, as an important fist, used to deal with Bai Chongxi, the most powerful of the remnants of the Southern Nationalist Army, which shows its important position. At this time, the 4th Column had been upgraded to a more powerful Fourth Corps, with more than 100,000 troops still under the command of General Chen Geng. In 1949, the Fourth Corps won successive battles in Hunan, Jiangxi, Guangdong, and Guangxi, and the southern city of Guangzhou was laid down by the Fourth Corps of Nakano, and together with Higashino completed the important task of suppressing the new Gui warlords. In the entire war, General Chen Geng led his troops to annihilate more than 500,000 enemy troops, of which the main force and the backbone team in the later period were Nakano 4 Columns.