At the end of the Liberation War, our army had a total of four major field armies, so who knows who the predecessors of each field army were? Today, the First Field Army, whose predecessor was the Northwest Field Army, was formed by the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Field Army and local armed forces.
In February 1947, the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Liberated Area became a thorn in the eye of the Nationalist army, if you want to defeat the PLA, you have to attack the base area of the PLA, Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia as the focus of the attack, was surrounded by hundreds of thousands of nationalist troops, Chiang Kai-shek's proud protégé Hu Zongnan was one of the main generals of the Nationalist army, the commander-in-chief of the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Field Army at that time was Zhang Zongxun, and in the contest with the Nationalist army, Zhang Zongxun rarely came to the fore.
In March 1947, the Nationalist army gathered 34 brigades totaling 250,000 people to launch an attack on Shaanxi,Gansu-Ningxia, while the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Field Army at that time was only 25,000 people, plus the local armed forces were only a few tens of thousands, Hu Zongnan led 150,000 people to directly attack Yan'an, once the offensive was very fierce, unstoppable courage, in view of the dangerous enemy situation, the Central Military Commission decided to rectify the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Field Army and local armed forces, strengthen the operational command of the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia area, so the Northwest Field Army came into being!
Because of the crucial importance of this battle, the Central Military Commission transferred Peng Dehuai, chief of the general staff, to the Northwest Field Army as the post of commander-in-chief, while the original commander-in-chief Zhang Zongxun served as the first deputy commander of the Northwest Field Army.
However, what was surprising was that when Hu Zongnan commanded more than 100,000 troops to invade Yan'an, it was easy to do so, when was it really the Northwest Field Army that lost one after another? In fact, this was not the case, because at that time, the northwest field army had only tens of thousands of troops and was poorly equipped, while Hu Zongnan's troops were all American-style equipment or sophisticated weapons received from the Japanese army, and if they were tough, the odds of victory would be very slim.
In order to make full use of his strengths and avoid his weaknesses, Peng Dehuai decided to lure the enemy to go deeper, take the initiative to give up Yan'an, and create the illusion that the Platon Army could not match it; Hu Zongnan once thought that he would win, and after taking Yan'an, he sent a telegram to Chiang Kai-shek to ask for credit, and also vowed that in the shortest possible time, the PLA forces in the Yan'an area would be swept away, and the Blue Sky and White Sun Flag would be planted all over Shaanxi, Gansu, and Ningxia.
Where could Hu Zongnan have imagined that the victory he had fought along the way had actually sounded the death knell. Hu Zongnan was overwhelmed by the victory, and all day long he dragged his troops around Shaanxi, Gansu, and Ningxia, looking for the PLA troops to make a decision with him, Peng Dehuai made a plan, sent a part of his troops to engage him, retreated while fighting, and lured Hu Zong to the north and south, Peng Dehuai gathered the main force in the northeast of Yan'an, Ganguyi, Qinghua, and other places to wait!
After Hu Zong's southern expedition, Peng Dehuai gave an order, the war was full of fire, and the battles in Panlong, Qinghua, Zhaojiagou and other places began one after another, and Peng Dehuai adopted the tactics of blocking the head, breaking the tail, and attacking with both wings, giving Hu Zongnan a blow in the head and annihilating thousands of enemy troops.
Throughout the Liberation War, Zhang Zongxun fought side by side with Peng Dehuai, when the Northwest Field Army was renamed the First Field Army, Zhang Zongxun still served as the deputy commander-in-chief, throughout the war years, Zhang Zongxun was the core figure, as early as the Jinggangshan period, Zhang Zongxun was the director of the First Bureau of the Central Military Commission, creating many legends, and made great contributions to the founding of New China! In 1955, Zhang Zongxun was awarded the rank of general!