The 20th Army was reorganized in 1949 from the First Column of the East China Field Army. After its establishment, the army was subordinate to the Ninth Corps of the Third Field Army, and its commander was Liu Fei, with a total of 32,000 troops. The newly formed 20th Army, under the leadership of its commander Liu Fei, took part in the famous Battle of the Yangtze River in April of the same year. As you may all know, the 20th Army was reorganized from a group of veterans who had experienced hundreds of battles and had a tenacious style of Huaye's first column, and could be regarded as one of the number one ace troops in Sanye.
Therefore, in the Battle of Crossing the River, the 20th Army, under the leadership of its commander Liu Fei, crossed the river like a fierce tiger, and together with its brother troops broke through the Yangtze River defense line painstakingly managed by Chiang Kai-shek, and a million troops marched south to Jiangnan. The 20th Army threw itself into the battle to liberate Shanghai, and the superior leaders did not let this large industrial city be destroyed in the war. When the Third Field Army liberated Shanghai, it forbade the use of heavy weapons and instead engaged in large-scale street battles with the enemy.
All the officers and men of the 20th Army, in groups of regiments, scattered to attack Shanghai. The 20th Army, which is good at field warfare, has also achieved brilliant results in street battles. Successively captured Pinghu and Jinshanwei, and attacked from Longhua into downtown Shanghai. Just after the successful liberation of Shanghai, The commander of the Third Field Army, Mr. Chen Laozong, became the mayor of Shanghai. The ace force, the 20th Army, remained in Shanghai and took on the task of guarding.
Since its establishment, the 20th Army has participated in the Battle of Crossing the River and the liberation of Shanghai. Liu Fei, the first commander of this unit, may be because, during his tenure as commander of the 20th Army, he only commanded two battles, and in less than a year before and after, the army was responsible for the Shanghai garrison.
After the victory in the Liberation War, the military commander Liu Fei was also transferred to the Anhui Southern Military Region as a commander. Various factors have led to the fact that Liu Fei, the first commander of the 20th Army, is not very famous, and may not be as well-known as the second commander Zhang Yixiang. It should be known that Zhang Yixiang led the 20th Army to participate in the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea, and participated in the Battle of Chosin Lake, which severely damaged the US imperialists. Therefore, the military commander Zhang Yixiang was greatly famous and was selected as one of the top ten tiger generals of the volunteer army, and also one of the best performing tiger generals on the battlefield of aiding Korea.
Maybe Liu Fei, the first commander of the 20th Army, is not very familiar to everyone? But the founder of this ace army is a well-known general. He was General Ye Fei, a fierce general of the East China Field Army.
During the Liberation War, Ye Fei was the commander of the first column of Huaye, and the predecessor of the Twentieth Army was reorganized from the first column of Huaye. Under the leadership of commander Ye Fei, this unit has developed a tenacious fighting style, and at the same time, this unit has also retained the fine tradition of the Independent Division of Eastern Fujian to bear hardships and stand hard work.
On the battlefield of East China, under the leadership of commander Ye Fei, the first column of Huaye really made many military achievements. Especially in the Battle of Laiwu, Ye Fei relied on the strength of a column to contain Li Xianzhou's 50,000 troops, winning valuable time for Huaye to annihilate the corps. In the Battle of Menglianggu, huaye's first column served as a interspersed, divided and encircling combat task, and successfully divided Zhang Lingfu's reorganized 74th Division with the large troops with brother troops, and then carried out encirclement. He made important contributions to the completion of what Mr. Chen said about the million-strong army taking the first rank of general (referring to Zhang Lingfu's reorganized 74th Division).
It can be said that on the battlefield of liberation, the East China Field Army ranked the number of fierce generals annihilating the enemy, and Ye Fei's first column could at least rank in the top five. Together with Tao Yong, Wang Bicheng, and Nie Fengzhi, he was called the four fierce generals of Huaye. In 1949, when the troops were reorganized, Ye Fei missed the position of commander of the 20th Army because he was the commander of the Tenth Corps. If he had not been transferred to the Tenth Corps as commander, the first commander of the Ace 20th Army must have been him, after all, he was the founder of this unit and a well-known general.
If you talk about the history of the East China Field Army, or talk about the famous generals who founded the country, Ye Fei is a relatively popular founding general. Mainly, the achievements he created during the Liberation War have made the world talk about it. Of course, he also commanded a defeat, that is, the Battle of Kinmen. The defeat of this battle was due to the lack of experience in sea warfare of the Tenth Corps, and when it was not ready, it took the initiative to launch the Battle of Kinmen, which ended in failure.