In February 1949, according to the order of the Central Military Commission, the former Central Plains Field Army was renamed the Second Field Army. The Second Field Army was reorganized into three corps, which were ranked according to the serial number of the corps, and were the Third Corps, the Fourth Corps, and the Fifth Corps.
Among them, Chen Xilian served as the commander of the Third Corps, Chen Geng served as the commander of the Fourth Corps, and Yang Yong served as the commander of the Fifth Corps.
There is no controversy that Chen Geng served as the commander of a corps in Erye, he was a top student in the first phase of Huangpu, an old party member in 1922, the main general of the 129th Division during the Anti-Japanese War, and served as the commander of the "Chen Xie Corps" in the early days of liberation. Although the status of the "Chen Xie Corps" is inferior to that of the field army, it also belongs to the "quasi-strategic group", and Chen Geng, as the number one, can sit in that position, and naturally lead the generals of the second field. Moreover, when Chen Geng served as the commander of the Fourth Corps, he was the military and political shoulders. In other words, even if there is only one corps in Erye, then the commander of this corps must be Chen Geng.
There is some controversy over Chen Xilian and Yang Yong's appointment as corps commanders, and compared with Chen Zaidao, Wang Hongkun and other senior generals of the former Red Fourth Front Army, their qualifications are relatively shallow.
Wang Hongkun of Rang Xian
Wang Hongkun's qualifications are very old, he participated in the 1927 Jute Uprising, and at the age of 23, he served as the commander of the 10th Division of the main force of the Red Fourth Army.
After the outbreak of the all-out Anti-Japanese War, the 129th Division had two brigades, one was Chen Geng's 386th Brigade and the other was Wang Hongkun's 385th Brigade.
The 385 Brigade was divided into two divisions, the 769 Regiment was led by the regiment commander Chen Xilian to go to the anti-Japanese front with the main force of the 129th Division, and the other 770 Regiment was led by the brigade commander Wang Hongkun and deputy brigade commander Wang Weizhou to be formed in the rear of the Eighth Route Army and undertake the task of defending the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningbo border area.
In December 1938, Wang Hongkun left Yan'an and reported to the 129th Division of the Eighth Route Army, and was appointed deputy commander of the Southern Hebei Military Region. After the Southern Hebei Military Region and the Hebei-Shandong-Henan Military Region were merged to form the new Hebei-Shandong-Henan Military Region, Wang Hongkun served as the first deputy commander.
On August 20, 1945, the Shanxi-Hebei-Shandong-Henan Military Region led by Liu Deng was established, with Teng Daiyuan as the first deputy commander and Wang Hongkun as the second deputy commander. During this period, Wang Hongkun's position reached the highest, above Chen Geng.
After the establishment of the Shanxi-Hebei-Shandong-Henan Field Army, Wang Hongkun still served as the deputy commander of the Shanxi-Hebei-Shandong-Henan Military Region and the commander of the Sixth Column.
If this trend continues to develop normally, Wang Hongkun will have no problem serving as the commander of any corps in the second field in the future, but he is relatively generous and does not attach much importance to the level of his position, and first gave Wang Jinshan the part-time position of the commander of the Sixth Column, and after the old chief Xu Xiangqian came to the Shanxi-Hebei-Shandong-Henan Military Region as the first deputy commander, Wang Hongkun took the initiative to ask Chief Liu Deng to lead the newly formed 10 Column.
First of all, Bo Yibo, deputy political commissar of the military region, disagreed, he believed that much of the work of the military region could not be separated from Wang Hongkun, and hoped that another person would be selected to lead the 10 th column, but Wang Hongkun insisted on going, and in the end, Chief Liu Deng made a decision to appoint Wang Hongkun as the commander of the 10 th column, and personally led the 10 th column to the south to open up the Tongbai base area.
After that, Wang Hongkun led the main force of the Tongbai Military Region to be responsible for cooperating with the main force of the field army, and played a no small role.
Of course, there is also a theory that before the battle of crossing the river, Erye reserved the establishment of the Sixth Corps for Wang Hongkun, but with the smooth progress of the battle of crossing the river, the establishment of the Sixth Corps was no longer followed.
Wang Hongkun is old, has strong ability, and has great military achievements, and did not become the commander of the corps of Erye, largely because he is generous and has made virtuous many times.
Chen Zaidao, who is not easy to arrange
Chen Zaidao's qualifications are also very old, he is one of the 72 warriors of Mulan Mountain, participated in the Jute Uprising, and served as the commander of the Red Fourth Army during the Red Army.
When the 129th Division was established, if there were three brigades, Chen Zaidao must have been one of the brigade commanders. However, the establishment given by the Nationalist Government was limited, and he was only appointed as the deputy commander of the 386 Brigade and Chen Geng as his deputy.
Chen Zaidao did not stay in the 386 Brigade for a long time, so he was ordered to form a "eastward anti-Japanese guerrilla column" and start from scratch to open up an anti-Japanese base area in southern Hebei. Throughout the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, Chen Zaidao insisted on the War of Resistance in Southern Hebei for five years and made great achievements.
During the War of Liberation, Chen Zaidao successively served as the commander of the southern Hebei column of the Shanxi-Hebei-Shandong-Henan Field Army, the commander of the second column and the commander of the southern Hebei Military Region, and the commander of the second column of the Central Plains Field Army.
When Erye was founded, Chen Zaidao did not serve as the commander of one of the corps, and he most likely replaced Chen Xilian, who was less senior than him. However, Chen Xilian is a rising star, both military and political, and his ability and military exploits are not inferior to Chen Zaidao, and he is deeply favored by Chief Liu Deng.
Secondly, the battle of Yangshanji also had a certain impact on Chen Zaidao's defeat as the commander of the corps. At first, the commander of the second column, Chen Zaidao, commanded the second and third columns, but the battle did not go well, and the casualties of each unit were very large.
Political Commissar Deng spoke highly of Chen Xilian, and he once said: "Comrade Xilian is open-minded and has a big belly, and he is not only able to fight wars, but also can unite people in particular. ”
Taking into account various considerations, Chief Liu Deng finally chose Chen Xilian as the commander of the Third Corps, rather than Chen Zaidao.
However, Chen Zaidao's qualifications were too old to be arranged for any of the corps deputy posts, so he was finally appointed commander of the Henan Military Region to be responsible for local anti-bandit affairs.
Before and after the founding of New China, the status of commanders of provincial military regions was not low, such as Xiao Jinguang, commander of the Hunan Military Region, Wang Jian'an, commander of the Zhejiang Military Region, and Ye Fei, commander of the Fujian Military Region. Therefore, Chen Zaidao's appointment as commander of the Henan Military Region did not suffer a loss.
As for Yang Yong's appointment as commander of the Fifth Corps, this situation is rather special. The main backbone of the Fifth Corps, including Corps Commander Yang Yong and Political Commissar Su Zhenhua, 17th Army Commander Wang Bingzhang, and 18th Army Commander Zhang Guohua, were all from the Red Army. The 16th Army is the backbone of the Fifth Corps, formerly known as the famous "Yang Su Column", which was brought out by Yang Yong and Su Zhenhua. Yang Yong's situation is similar to "bringing capital into shares", and to balance the mountain, it is very suitable for Yang Yong and Su Zhenhua to become the leaders of the Fifth Corps.