At the beginning of the Liberation War, there was a super army in the Nationalist army, that is, the 36th Army, which was the commander of Zhong Song, which at that time had 5 divisions under its command and a total strength of more than 70,000 people, which was about the size of a corps. At the same time, there was also a super division in the New Fourth Army, and when the division went to the northeast to fight, its strength was so strong that even Du Yuming was deeply surprised. The commander of the division established his position as the third-largest general with an important suggestion.
This super division is the Third Division of the New Fourth Army. The predecessor of the division was the 344th Brigade of the 115th Division of the Eighth Route Army, and in May 1940, Huang Kecheng, who was then the political commissar of the 2nd Column of the Eighth Route Army, led the 344th Brigade and the New 2nd Brigade, a total of about 12,000 people, from the Jiluyu base area to the south to support the New Fourth Army. Three months later, this unit was merged with the Suluyu detachment of the New Fourth Army, which was active in northeastern Anhui, and reorganized into the 5th Column of the Eighth Route Army, with Huang Kecheng as commander and political commissar.
Shortly after the Anhui Incident, the 5th Column was reorganized into the Third Division of the New Fourth Army, with Huang Kecheng as the division commander and political commissar, and the whole division had three brigades under its jurisdiction, with a total strength of more than 20,000 troops. In the next four years or so, Huang Kecheng led the 3rd Division to fight against the Japanese puppet army many times, killing and wounding more than 60,000 enemy troops and creating an anti-Japanese base area in northern Jiangsu. After the victory of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, Huang Kecheng was keenly aware of the important strategic position of the northeast and sent a telegram to the central authorities in his personal name, suggesting that he immediately send about 100,000 troops to the northeast to establish a strategic base area.
Huang Kecheng's proposal was extremely forward-looking at the time, which fully demonstrated his strategic vision that was different from ordinary people. The superiors quickly adopted Huang Kecheng's suggestion and began to dispatch elite troops and strong generals from various liberated areas to the northeast and formed the Northeast Democratic Autonomous Army. Soon after, Du Yuming led the strength of two armies to the northeast, and the enemy and we fought a bloody battle for this strategic place. In the early days of the war, our army repeatedly lost, mainly because of the serious shortage of weapons and ammunition.
Some friends may ask, didn't the troops of our army marching into the northeast carry guns and ammunition? Not really. The reason for this is that Zeng Kelin should bear no small responsibility. Zeng Kelin was the first person of our army to advance into the northeast, he only brought two regiments of troops with him when he entered the customs, and by the time he arrived in Shenyang, he had grown to more than 90,000 people, and along the way he also received many arsenals left by the Japanese army. Soon after, he sent a telegram to his superiors, saying that the troops who followed the customs did not need to bring weapons and ammunition, because the northeast was full of weapons and could be replenished at any time.
At that time, the War of Resistance had just been won, and the weapons and ammunition of the Eighth Route Army and the New Fourth Army were not very sufficient. After listening to Zeng Kelin's suggestion, the troops who followed the customs left their guns and ammunition in the old area and drove into the northeast empty-handed. However, when these troops arrived in the northeast, they found that the situation was not as optimistic as Zeng Kelin said. There were many weapons and ammunition left behind by the Japanese army in the northeast, but they were all taken away by the Soviet Red Army and were not used by us at all. How can the troops fight without guns? Lin had no choice but to send someone to borrow a gun from Zeng Kelin, but only solved part of the problem.
Due to the serious shortage of guns and ammunition, and the troops led by Du Yuming were the elite of the Nationalist army, the Northeast Democratic Coalition Army lost one after another in the early stage of the war. On November 24, 1945, Du Yuming led his troops to attack Jinzhou, and the Northeast Democratic Coalition Army failed to repel the enemy's attack after a bitter battle, and was forced to retreat, and the enemy pursued closely behind him, in a vain attempt to encircle and annihilate the main force of our army. On the 25th, when the 89th Division of the Kuomintang 13th Army pursued the area around Qianjiazhai, it was suddenly blocked by a fierce force of our army, and soon lost its position and retreated.
When Du Yuming learned that the troops of our army blocking the attack in the Area of Qianjiazhai had only one division of troops, he did not pay too much attention, believing that a division had only more than 10,000 people at most, and would certainly not be able to stop the attack of the 13th Army. Unexpectedly, the news from the intelligence department surprised him, and the 3rd Division of the New Fourth Army in the Area of Qianjiazhai had four brigades and three independent regiments under its jurisdiction, with a total strength of more than 37,000 troops, more than the total strength of the 13th Army in his hands. Moreover, when Huang Kecheng set out from Jiangnan, he insisted on bringing all his weapons, and the Third Division was not only fully equipped, but also fully equipped, becoming a powerful force that Lin relied on most. In 1955, when the title was awarded, Huang Kecheng was awarded the rank of general, ranking ahead of Chen Geng.