2nd Field Army Archives - China's Invincible Second Field Army

Author: Zhang Junfu
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-08-01
Features: A Major Turning Point in the History of the People's Liberation Army: The Birth of the Five Major Field Armies. Liu Bocheng and Deng Xiaoping Held the Command of the Second Field Army. On February 11, 1949, the Central Plains were covered in ice and snow, with flurries swirling in the air. At that moment, an American jeep was speeding through the morning snow, making its way to the command headquarters of the Second Field Army near Zhangcaiyuan in Shangqiu, Henan. In the car was Liu Bocheng, newly appointed as the commander of the Second Field Army by the Central Military Commission. He was rushing back from Shijiazhuang at the Central Military Commission's command, organizing the troops to prepare for the Yangtze River crossing operation and liberate the southern provinces.
Liu Bocheng had just attended (or was a member of) the Central Political Committee meeting in Xibaipo, Hebei, before receiving the Central Military Commission's new appointment on his way back to his troops. Unifying the army's organizational structure and unit designations was a crucial strategic deployment by Mao Zedong and the Central Military Commission for achieving a complete victory in the revolutionary war. It also marked a major turning point in the course of the Chinese revolution.
As the saying goes, "A man is familiar with a place in a season, and rice ripens in a flash." The development of the revolutionary situation was no different. The two major political forces in modern Chinese history—the Nationalist Party and the Communist Party—had engaged in a complex and fierce struggle for nearly 30 years, with unpredictable twists and turns. By the end of 1948 and early 1949, the strength of each party and their positions in Chinese society were undergoing unprecedented rapid changes. The original hierarchy of size and strength had quickly reversed, with each party rapidly transforming in opposite directions at lightning speed.
Even as the Liaoshen Campaign was just beginning and the September Central Political Committee meeting had recently concluded, Mao Zedong predicted that based on the results of the past two years' battles and the overall situation of the enemy versus us, it would be entirely possible to build a five million-strong People's Liberation Army and eliminate approximately 500 divisions (or corps) of regular enemy forces within about five years (starting from July 1946). This would include eliminating around 750,000 enemy regular, irregular, and special forces (an average of about 150,000 per year), thereby fundamentally overthrowing the reactionary rule of the Nationalist Party.