In the history of the Korean War, there is a volunteer army that is famous, not only because of their bravery and good fighting, but also because of their outstanding achievements in the battles of breaking through Seoul and the Han River Blockade, but more importantly, their predecessor was an insurrectionary force, that is, the 50th Army.
Commander of the 50th Army, Zeng Zesheng (first from the right)
The 50th Army, whose predecessor was
On October 17, 1948,
Lieutenant General
Captains
Zeng Zesheng
Led the former Kuomintang 60th Army of the Yunnan Clan in the uprising on the Changchun Battlefield.
The Twenty-third Corps of the People's Volunteer Army, another unit of the Kuomintang uprising, participated in the Korean War for much shorter periods, only a little more than two months, and it did not fight a war with the "United Nations Army" on the frontal battlefield, but it played a very important role in the historical process of the Korean War.
On August 20, 1951, the Central Military Commission ordered:
Chinese the 23rd Corps of the People's Liberation Army was changed to the 23rd Corps of the Chinese People's Volunteer Army, and the preparatory work was completed on the 10th, and it went to Korea to fight and strengthen the strategic counterattack force
。
However, the preparation of the Twenty-third Corps began half a year ago! Half a year ago, not only did the organizational structure of the corps be established, but also the core leadership with the former rebel general Dong Qiwu as the chairman of the military and political committee was formed, and the twenty-third corps began to carry out military training, reorganization, replenishment and other tasks in the twenty-third corps.
On September 19, 1949 (the 38th year of the Republic of China), with the help of General Fu Zuoyi, Dong Qiwu led more than 40,000 Kuomintang military and political personnel in Suiyuan Province to revolt, realizing the peaceful liberation of Suiyuan and creating the "Suiyuan Way" in the Liberation War. The Suiyuan method played a pivotal role in the history of the Liberation War.
On March 5, 1949, at the Second Plenary Session of the Seventh Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, Chairman Mao Zedong proposed the "Suiyuan Method", that is, consciously preserving a part of the Kuomintang army and making temporary concessions, so that this part of the army would be politically on the side of the people, or remain neutral, in order to concentrate forces on solving an important part of the remnants of the Kuomintang, and after a considerable period of time, this part of the army would be reorganized according to the system of the People's Liberation Army.
However, the Twenty-third Corps, which had been changed in the Suiyuan way, was still a long way from a real People's Liberation Army. After half a year's efforts, the Twenty-third Corps eliminated hidden counter-revolutionaries, completed the military reform, and at the same time replenished nearly 20,000 troops, and the ideological outlook, technical and tactical level of the troops have been unprecedentedly improved.
At this time, China has liberated the entire territory of the mainland, and there is basically no opportunity for combat in the country, and the best way to test it is the Korean battlefield. However, the task of the Twenty-third Corps was not to go to the front line to fight, but to repair the airfield!
The task of repairing the airport this time can be described as a tight time and a heavy task. On September 8, 1951, after the Military and Political Committee of the Twenty-third Corps arrived in Andong, Liaoning Province, it accepted the instructions of Peng Dehuai, commander-in-chief of the Volunteer Army:
In the current two months, the Twenty-third Corps is mainly responsible for the construction and rear vigilance of the three airports in Taecheon, Yuanli, and Namshi in North Korea.
The tasks received by the Twenty-third Corps were inseparable from the changes in the Korean battlefield at that time.
In June 1951, the first phase of the five battles all ended, and the "United Nations Army" led by the United States launched the so-called armistice negotiations, but in the process of negotiations, the US military's compensation theory of sea and air superiority was nakedly hooliganized, and the negotiations reached an impasse!
The commander-in-chief of the United Nations Army, Ridgway, waved a big hand to negotiate with the volunteers with aircraft cannons, this time aiming at the logistics transportation line of the volunteer army's rear, which is known in history as the "aerial strangulation war".
The U.S. Air Force bombs logistics lines
The construction of the rear airfield is so that the Volunteer Air Force can contain the powerful aerial firepower of the United Nations Army in the rear and ensure logistics and transportation.
At 17:20 on the afternoon of September 9, the vanguard of the corps crossed the Yalu River. As planned:
The 36th Army led the 319th Regiment of the 106th Division and the 107th Division to Go to Gachuan County and build the yuanli airport;
The 37th Army led the 325th Regiment of the 110th Division and the 109th Division into the outskirts of Guicheng County to build nanshi airport;
The Corps led the 107th Division (owed to the 319th Regiment) and the 109th Division (owed to the 325th Regiment) to Taecheon County to build the Taecheon Airfield.
Before September 18, after a week of expulsion, the units of the 23rd Corps arrived at the construction site and were warmly welcomed by the local government and the masses of the DPRK.
In order to unify the leadership, according to the instructions of Zhisi, the 23rd Corps set up a construction committee, with Dong Qiwu as the director, Gao Kelin as the political commissar, Yao Zhe, Yang Shangru (director of the Logistics Department of the Volunteer Air Force), and Kim Won-bong (the DPRK Inspector General) as the deputy directors. The courtyard, Nanshi, and Taicheon Airports are divided into the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd work zones, and the construction committee branches are established respectively. In addition to the corps units, each industrial zone is equipped with anti-aircraft artillery units, automobile regiments and technical brigades of the air force, with a total of more than 20,000 people.
Construction of the airport began, but several major difficulties were faced:
1. Safety cannot be guaranteed. Because of the absolute air supremacy of the US military and the transfer of the combat center of the war to a large area behind the PLA during the war phase, the bombing density is unprecedented, and basically all the construction work is carried out at night at the risk of life.
2, almost no experience. This team that has become the People's Liberation Army through the Suiyuan way is not from the engineering unit, one has no experience, two has no technology, and three has no drawings, and it can be said that the construction qualification is "unqualified"!
3, lack of equipment and materials. There is basically no engineering equipment, and then there is a shortage of raw materials used.
In this case, some people have the idea of being willing to participate in the front line of the war and not willing to participate in the construction. It was also human nature, but after mobilization, it was quickly corrected and they were all scrambling to accomplish the most difficult tasks.
Since the official start of construction on September 19, the soldiers of the 23rd Corps have shown selfless labor enthusiasm and high fighting spirit, and "the construction site is the battlefield" has become the action slogan of all commanders and fighters. Picking sand and gravel, beating cement, paving roads... The job site is busy with their figures, the air is fluttering with exciting slogans, and victory is getting closer and closer to them...
The soldiers of the 23rd Corps built the Taichuan Airport
Nanshi, Taicheon and Inari Airports were completed ahead of schedule on October 20, October 29 and November 4, respectively, and even the most difficult to complete airports in the courtyard was much shorter than the two-month construction period.
In the whole construction process, the whole corps invested more than 1.07 million projects, completed three runways with a length of 2,000 meters and a width of 60 meters, 8 aprons, 193 aircraft bunkers, taxiways, liaison roads, pushways and ancillary projects.
The 23rd Corps reported the completion of the construction of the airport to the Central Military Commission, the North China Military Region, and the Dprk Government, and they all called back to express their congratulations. The Central Military Commission's call back said:
"The 23rd Corps entered the DPRK to carry out the construction task, and although it was obstructed by the continuous bombardment of the enemy planes, it finally completed the task beyond the plan, which was very good."
The North Korean government has also expressed its gratitude through the award of medals and other means. After resting and reorganizing, the troops began military training again and actively prepared to go to the front line to participate in the battle.
However, at that time, the front line of the Korean battlefield had entered the stage of position warfare, there were troops stationed on different fronts, the volunteer army had initially established a defense system with tunnels as the main defense body, and the 23rd Corps had no opportunity to fight on the front line.
However, at that time, it was the critical stage of the volunteer army's anti-strangulation, and the pressure of logistical support was unprecedented.
In order to alleviate the shortage of transportation and supplies in The DPRK, the Central Military Commission ordered the 23rd Corps to return to China for training, and at the end of the month, the 23rd Corps returned to China in two ways from the mouth of the Andong and Changdian Rivers, and arrived in the Dingxian area of Hebei in early December.
Although this unit did not fire a single shot at the "United Nations Army" in the Korean battlefield and let go of a single shot, when the airfield they built for the Volunteer Air Force to cooperate with the logistics unit for "anti-hanging" and the later anti-landing combat defense had a very large effect.
At the end of 1952, the 23rd Corps was downsized to the 69th Army (abolished in 1985) due to the needs of troop construction and development, and in 1953, it was transferred to Baoding and became the capital garrison, which was the importance and trust of the Central Military Commission in this team.
The 23rd Corps, although it did not fight a war in the Korean battlefield, its contribution was not lost to the 50th Army!