In 1949, the Ninth Corps was established, and the commander chose Song Shilun, an appointment that is very controversial and debatable. Later, the Ninth Corps entered the Korean War and suffered heavy losses in the Battle of Changjin Lake, and Song Shilun, the commander, bore unshirkable responsibility.
(The first one on the left is Bicheng, and the one on the left who is sitting is Song Shilun)
Then, many people questioned whether it was appropriate to let Song Shilun be the commander of this corps, and whether it was the best choice?
There were as many as a dozen columns in the East China Field Army, but there were also differences between columns and columns. Some are the workhorse, some are not. When Su Yu commanded the battle, he used it most easily, and he valued the first column, the fourth column, and the sixth column.
These three columns are, of course, the elite units of the East China Field Army, the ace troops. As the commander of the Sixth Column, Wang Bicheng performed prominently in the Laiwu Battle and the Menglianggu Campaign, and it can be said that he played a key role.
Wang Bicheng has a nickname called Wang Laohu, the offensive is fierce, like a tiger descending the mountain, not giving the enemy a chance to breathe, he has won the essence of Su Yu's art of war. And Song Shilun is good at defense, and there is a saying that "if the cannon does not move, it must be ten verticals".
is also the commander of the column, Wang Bicheng's six columns, and his combat exploits are greater than those of the ten columns of Song Shilun. Why can Song Shilun be the commander of the corps, but Wang Bicheng cannot?
First of all, it depends on qualifications. Seniority matters. Song Shilun is 5 years older than Wang Bicheng, and he joined the party 3 years earlier than Wang Bicheng. Song Shilun graduated from the fifth phase of Huangpu, while Wang Bicheng was a general of Dabie Mountain who was born with mud legs.
(Su Yu and Wang Bicheng)
Song Shilun followed the Central Red Army to complete the Long March, is the senior general of the Central Red Army, the Long March arrived in northern Shaanxi, Song Shilun served as the commander of the Red 30th Army, after Liu Zhidan's unfortunate death, Song Shilun took over as the commander of the Red 28th Army, he is a regular general.
Wang Bicheng followed the Red Fourth Front Army through the Long March, and he served as a deputy division commander at his peak. During the Anti-Japanese War, Song Shilun was the earliest commander of the Eighth Route Army, and Wang Bicheng became the commander of the New Fourth Army a little later.
In terms of qualifications, Wang Bicheng is not as good as Song Shilun.
Qualifications are only one aspect, but more importantly, the mountain. The predecessor of the Third Field Army was the East China Field Army, and the East China Field Army consisted of two parts, one was the Shandong Field Army led by Chen Yi, and the other was the Central China Field Army led by Su Yu.
Su Yu is more modest, of course, his revolutionary qualifications cannot be compared with Chen Yi, so the two major field armies merged, Su Yu himself became a deputy, he proposed that the generals of the Central China Field Army should be the deputy as much as possible, and let the generals of the Shandong Field Army be the main posts.
The generals of the Shandong Field Army held relatively high military ranks. For example, Tang Liang, director of the Political Department of the Shandong Field Army, became the director of the Political Department of the East China Field Army, while Zhong Qiguang, director of the Political Department of the Central China Field Army, had no choice but to succumb to Tang Liang and become the deputy director of the Political Department.
By the time the Third Field Army was established, the generals of the former Su Yuhua Central Field Army still suffered a great loss in their posts. Of the commanders of the four major corps, only Ye Fei was Su Yu's old subordinate, and the other three Wang Jian'an, Chen Shiyu and Song Shilun were all generals of Chen Yi's Shandong Field Army.
In this way, I have to grieve the king. In a sense, Wang Bicheng is a microcosm of Su Yu, with strong ability and great military achievements, but unfortunately his qualifications are too shallow.
When the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea broke out, Song Shilun led the Ninth Corps into Korea, but for various reasons, he was not well prepared and rushed into battle, resulting in heavy losses, and many soldiers were frozen to death and frostbite. In this regard, Song Shilun could not escape the blame.
Therefore, after returning from North Korea, Song Shilun no longer led troops, but went to military academies to serve. After Song Shilun returned to China, Wang Jian'an entered North Korea as the commander of the Ninth Corps, and Wang Bicheng served as the deputy commander. Because Wang Jian'an was not in good health, in fact, Wang Bicheng was in command of the Ninth Corps.
It's a pity that there is no big battle to fight on the Korean battlefield, and Wang Bicheng came too late. If Wang Bicheng led the Ninth Corps into the DPRK to fight, I am afraid that there would not be so many losses in the future.
After returning from North Korea, Wang Bicheng has been serving in the large military region, serving as deputy commander of the Nanjing Military Region, commander of the Kunming Military Region, and commander of the Wuhan Military Region. The Military Commission took him very seriously.
(Reference book: "Tiger General Wang Bicheng")