In 1985, a major event occurred in China's military history, the central government disarmed one million, and at the same time, the existing 11 major military regions should be merged and reorganized, and only 7 of them should be retained. This was later known as the Seven Military Regions.
From the perspective of national strategic defense, the position of these seven military regions is quite important. But for each military region, the situation is different. When the old marshals were consulted earlier, the surviving Marshal Nie Rongzhen and Marshal Xu Qianqian both questioned the retention of a large military region.
This is the Jinan Military Region. Nie Rongzhen and Xu Xiangqian, two marshals, both agreed to retain the 7 major military regions, but they did not approve of retaining the Jinan Military Region.
First, since the establishment of the 13 major military regions, the Jinan Military Region has been the smallest military region. Other large military regions are military armed forces that command several provinces, such as the neighboring Nanjing Military Region, which at most commands the military of five provinces and one city in East China. The Shenyang Military Region administers the entire three eastern provinces.
There are also provinces under the jurisdiction of one province, such as the Xinjiang Military Region, the Tibet Military Region and the Inner Mongolia Military Region, which all rule over one province, but that is a special frontier ethnic minority area, and the area of these three provinces is very large, and it is the top three provinces and cities in China.
Even the Fuzhou Military Region, established in 1956, controlled the military forces of Fujian and Jiangxi provinces. Only the Jinan Military Region is the smallest, responsible for a province in Shandong, as well as the defense of the area from Xuzhou to Lianyungang in Jiangsu Province.
By 1978, the area from Xuzhou to Lianyungang was assigned to the Nanjing Military Region, which was originally on the territory of the Nanjing Military Region. In this way, the Jinan Military Region only manages one province in Shandong, becoming an "alternative" among the major military regions in the country.
There is really no need to establish a large military region in a single province.
Second, from the perspective of strategic position, the Jinan Military Region and the Beijing Military Region are too close, the strategic values overlap, and the enemy generally does not simply attack the Shandong Peninsula, and if he attacks the Shandong Peninsula, his purpose must be North China and must be to point to Beijing.
It is enough to have the Beijing Military Region, as long as we do a good job in defending the Beijing Military Region. The Jinan Military Region is a bit cumbersome, and unlike other large military regions, it has the strategic value of independent defense, and it can be completely merged into the Beijing Military Region.
The two veteran commanders suggested that if the Jinan Military Region is retained, it must be made clear that its strategic value is to cooperate with North China. Neither of the two veteran commanders agreed with the retention of the Jinan Military Region, and they hoped that a large military region should be retained in the hinterland of the Central Plains, that is, the Wuhan Military Region.
Although the focus of the national strategic defense is in the border areas, it cannot be only in the border areas, and a large military region should also be set up in the heart of the Central Plains, as a strategic mobile force of the whole country, which can support any direction in all directions at any time.
(Group photo of Xu Xiangqian and Yang Dezhi Zhang Chengxiu)
The author thinks that the opinions of the two veteran marshals are very reasonable, and now we have set up the Central Theater. However, in the end, the central government did not adopt the suggestions of Nie Rongzhen and Xu Xiangqian, but abolished the Wuhan Military Region, retained the Jinan Military Region, and assigned Henan under the jurisdiction of the Wuhan Military Region to the Jinan Military Region.
In this way, the Jinan Military Region has jurisdiction over the military forces of Shandong and Henan provinces and has the size of a large military region. Judging from the overall situation of the whole country, the existence of the Jinan Military Region is still to defend North China, to guard Beijing and Tianjin, and to support and cooperate with the Beijing Military Region.
Especially in the new period, the threat from the sea and air is increasing day by day, and the strategic position of the Jinan Military Region, as the southern gate of the Beijing Military Region, the outpost of sea and air defense, and directly facing The wolf's ambitions of Japan, is even more prominent.