In the early and middle periods of the War of Liberation, our army often formed corps to undertake regional combat tasks separately according to the needs of the development of the battlefield situation. There is a certain degree of difference between this kind of corps and the corps formed after the unified reorganization of the whole army in February 1949. For example, when marching into the Central Plains, our army formulated the strategic plan of "coordinating the three armies and clamping down on the two wings": That is, liu Deng's army was used to carry out an intermediate breakthrough, advance into the Dabie Mountains in a leap forward, and establish a base area; Chen Xie's army went straight out of the border areas of Henan and Shaanxi and established base areas in western Henan and southern Shaanxi; and Chen Su's army advanced into the Yuwan-Anhui Border Region to expand the original base areas.
In the above military deployment, Liu Deng's army refers to the large units of the Jinji-Hebei Luyu Field Army; Chen Xie's army refers to the fourth column of the Jinji-Hebei Luyu Field Army and other units, also known as the Chen Xie Corps; and the Chen Su Army refers to the Outer Line Corps of the East China Field Army. It can be said that the corps at this time was alone in combat tasks in a certain area. The corps formed after the unified reorganization of the whole army in February 1949 was to facilitate the command of large-scale troops to fight, and thus accelerate the historical process of the Liberation War. The Shandong Corps we are talking about today is a corps of the former nature, which undertakes the important task of fighting alone in the Shandong region.
The predecessor of the Shandong Corps can be said to be the Inner Line Corps of the East China Field Army. In the middle of 1947, in order to direct the war to the enemy's control area, the East China Field Army carried out a division of troops, which was divided into the Outer Line Corps and the Interior Line Corps of the East China Field Army. The outer line corps is the Chen Su army we mentioned earlier, and the inner line corps is specifically responsible for the combat tasks in the Shandong region. Later, in early 1948, according to the needs of the development of the battlefield situation, the East China Field Army once again adjusted its strength and formed the First Corps, the Second Corps, the Third Corps, and the Fourth Corps. At that time, these four corps were each responsible for territorial combat tasks.
Among them, the First Corps, with the 1st Column, the 4th Column, and the 6th Column, was ready to advance into Jiangnan and undertake the task of opening up the war situation in South China (after which the corps was ordered to remain in the Central Plains to fight); the 2nd Corps under the jurisdiction of the 7th Column, the 9th Column, the 13th Column, and the Bohai Column continued to remain in Shandong to carry out internal combat tasks; the 3rd Column, the 8th Column, and the 10th Column under the jurisdiction of the Third Corps were temporarily under the command of the Jinji-Hebei Luyu Field Army; the 2nd Column, the 11th Column, and the 12th Column were under the jurisdiction of the Fourth Corps. In northern Jiangsu, it was tasked with further developing the war situation in central China.
The Shandong Corps we are talking about today is the Second Corps that continues to stay in Shandong to carry out civil war combat tasks. At that time, xu Shiyou was the commander of the Shandong Corps, Tan Zhenlin was the political commissar of the Shandong Corps, and Wang Jian'an was the deputy commander of the Shandong Corps. After the establishment of the Shandong Corps, a series of battles, including the Jinan Campaign, were launched in the Shandong region, making important contributions to the liberation of the Shandong region and the opening up of the connection between East China and North China. Subsequently, the Shandong Corps also participated in the Battle of Huaihai. In February 1949, the East China Field Army was reorganized into the Third Field Army, and the Seventh Corps, the Eighth Corps, the Ninth Corps and the Tenth Corps were formed, of which the 7th Corps was developed from the Shandong Corps.
From the Shandong Corps to the Seventh Corps, the battle sequence has undergone great changes, which is out of the consideration of balancing the comprehensive combat effectiveness of each corps. In addition, there is another change that the commander of the Seventh Corps is Wang Jian'an, not Xu Shiyou. Perhaps many people expressed puzzlement, why did Xu Shiyou fail to become the commander of the Seventh Corps? In fact, as early as September 1948, during the Shandong Corps launching the Jinan Campaign, Xu Shiyou was ill and needed to rest. At that time, Chairman Mao thought deeply and personally ordered the generals, still putting Xu Shiyou in charge of commanding the Battle of Jinan, and after the victory of the campaign, Xu Shiyou went to rest and recuperate.
After the Battle of Jinan, because Xu Shiyou was in a state of sick rest, the Shandong Corps was actually led by deputy commander Wang Jian'an. Soon after, Wang Jian'an led the Shandong Corps to participate in the Battle of Huaihai, while Xu Shiyou did not participate in the battle due to illness. In February 1949, the Shandong Corps was reorganized into the Seventh Corps, and Wang Jian'an was appointed commander of the Seventh Corps. So, where did Xu Shiyou go? At that time, the Third Field Army was preparing to cross the river to the south, and the leading organs of the Third Field Army and the leading organs of the East China Military Region had to go south, so that the Shandong Military Region was rebuilt, and Xu Shiyou was appointed deputy commander of the Shandong Military Region (the commander was concurrently held by Zhang Yunyi), and soon became the commander of the Shandong Military Region.
What should be said here is that after the reconstruction of the Shandong Military Region, the rank is the same as that of the corps. In 1952, when our army assessed the rank of army cadres, Xu Shiyou and Wang Jian'an were both rated as the rank of the main corps. When he was awarded the rank in 1955, Xu Shiyou, who was then the commander of the Nanjing Military Region, was awarded the rank of general. Due to his physical health, Wang Jian'an did not participate in the 1955 military rank, and in January 1956, Wang Jian'an was supplemented by the rank of general. It can be said that Xu Shiyou, commander of the Shandong Corps, and Wang Jian'an, deputy commander of the Shandong Corps, later became generals, which is very remarkable.