I believe everyone knows that during the period of the War of Liberation, the heroic People's Army carried out a reorganization of the whole army after winning the three major battles. The reorganized KPA has a total of 16 corps, and the commanders of the 16 corps are also well-known generals who have been in the battlefield for a long time. These 16 corps commanders not only have a wealth of combat experience, but they are also very young, with an average age of about 45 years old.
In this way, the 16 corps commanders also became the best candidates for maintaining the peace of the party and guarding the frontier after the founding of the country. It should be known that the purpose of the 12 major military regions established in 1955 after the founding of the People's Republic of China is to guard the frontiers of our country and maintain local law and order. For example, the Wuhan Military Region is responsible for public order in central China, the Shenyang Military Region is responsible for the border in northern China, the Guangzhou Military Region is responsible for Southern China, the Fuzhou Military Region is mainly responsible for defending Chiang Kai-shek, and the Yunnan Military Region is responsible for guarding the southwest border. There are also three military regions in Tibet, Xinjiang, and Inner Mongolia, which are responsible for guarding China's frontiers.
Wang Zhen, commander of the First Corps, stayed in Xinjiang after leading his troops to liberate Xinjiang and served as commander of the military region. After the liberation of Yunnan, Chen Geng's corps under the jurisdiction of the 13th Army, the 14th Army remained on the border of Yunnan and Burma, undertook the heavy responsibility of defending the border and established the Kunming Military Region. After the liberation of Fujian, the Tenth Corps established the Fujian Military Region, with Ye Fei as its commander, and the Fifth Corps established the Guizhou Military Region after the liberation of Guizhou, with Yang Yong as the commander of the military region. It can be seen from this that the 16 corps commanders during the Liberation War, after liberation, all undertook the heavy responsibility of maintaining public order on one side and defending the country on the border.
Later, however, with the outbreak of the Campaign to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea, Yang Yong, commander of the Guizhou Military Region, Chen Geng, commander of the Kunming Military Region (who had previously participated in the War to Resist Vietnam and Resist France), all threw themselves into the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea, and Wang Zhen, commander of the Xinjiang Military Region, was appointed commander of the railway troops. That is to say, after the victory in the War of Liberation, the commanders of some military regions were all corps commanders.
However, in 1955, after the end of the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea, the major military regions throughout the country were readjusted. Previously, the provincial military districts were under the jurisdiction of six major military regions, including the northwest, southwest, central and southern, north China, northeast China, and east China, but by 1955, these six major military regions were abolished, and twelve major military regions were established throughout the country. For example, before that, the Southwest Military Region had jurisdiction over the military districts of Yunnan, Guizhou, and Chengdu. After 1955, the Southwest Military Region was split into two major military regions, namely the Chengdu Military Region, the Kunming Military Region, and the East China Military Region, which were also split into the Jinan Military Region and the Nanjing Military Region.
The newly established 12th Military Region, in 1955, served as commanders of the Grand Military Region by Wang Enmao (Xinjiang Military Region), Ulanfu (Inner Mongolia Military Region), Zhang Guohua (Tibet Military Region), Xie Fuzhi (Kunming Military Region), He Bingyan (Chengdu Military Region), Xu Shiyou (Nanjing Military Region), Yang Dezhi (Jinan Military Region), Deng Hua (Shenyang Military Region), Yang Chengwu (Beijing Military Region), Chen Zaidao (Wuhan Military Region), Huang Yongsheng (Guangzhou Military Region), and Zhang Dazhi (Lanzhou Military Region). These 12 generals were among the first to serve as commanders of the Twelve Military Regions in 1955. Among them, during the Liberation War, the position was the commander of the corps, Deng Hua (commander of the 15th Corps), Yang Dezhi (commander of the 19th Corps), Yang Chengwu (commander of the 20th Corps), and the Fuzhou Military Region (the first commander Ye Fei), which was established in 1956, was the commander of the 10th Corps.
From this point of view, only four of the 16 corps commanders during the Liberation War, including Deng Hua, Yang Dezhi, Yang Chengwu, and Ye Fei, were the first corps commanders to serve as commanders of the Grand Military Region. Of course, like Chen Xilian, the commander of the later Third Corps, after 1959, he successively served as the commander of Shenyang and Beijing Military Regions. Yang Yong, the former commander of the Fifth Corps after returning from the Korean battlefield, was also appointed commander of the Beijing Military Region in September 1958.