North China Field Army

Author: Zhang Hongtao (Compiler)
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-08-01
Features: In the history of the People's Liberation Army's campaigns, there was once a valiant army that was once as renowned as the Four Major Field Armies. Together with the Four Major Field Armies, it formed the five main field armies of our army. This valiant army was the only strategic mobile force directly under the Central Military Commission—the North China Military Area Field Army. The North China Military Area Field Army was formed by reorganizing and reconstituting the main forces of the Eighth Route Army's Jin-Cha-Ji Military Area and a portion of the forces from the Jin-Ji-Lu-Yu Military Area during the Anti-Japanese War.
In the early stages of the Anti-Japanese War, in accordance with the agreement between the Communist and Kuomintang parties, the Chinese Workers' and Peasants' Red Army was ordered to be reorganized into the National Revolutionary Army's Eighth Route Army, which was composed of the 115th, 120th, and 129th Divisions, among which the 115th Division was particularly famous for its victory at the Battle of Pingxingguan. As the Anti-Japanese War situation developed, the Kuomintang's front line suffered heavy defeats, and Japanese forces advanced rapidly, creating large vacuums in the occupied areas. To strike at the enemy in the rear and strengthen itself, Mao Zedong, with his farsighted vision, ordered the Eighth Route Army to penetrate the occupied areas and widely open up rear battlefields. The 115th Division divided into two groups, with one portion, under the command of the Division Political Committee Secretary Nie Rongzhen, advancing into the Wutai Mountains in Shanxi, establishing the Jin-Cha-Ji Anti-Japanese Base Area as a foothold and engaging in an arduous eight-year struggle against the Japanese, puppet, and stubborn forces.
During the eight years of the Anti-Japanese War, Nie Rongzhen led the vast military and civilian population of the Jin-Cha-Ji Military Area to actively operate in the broad rear battlefields, gaining fame in the Hundred Regiments Campaign, inflicting heavy losses on more than a thousand Japanese soldiers at Huangtuling, and killing the Japanese general Abe Noboru, known as the "Flower of the Famous Generals." In military history, they left behind a series of glorious records. They not only destroyed the enemy but also strengthened themselves. The Jin-Cha-Ji Anti-Japanese Base Area was praised by Mao Zedong and the Central Military Commission as the "Model Base Area" and was even visited and praised by international friends concerned about China's Anti-Japanese War who advocated peace. What was even more profound was that the unprecedented development of the Jin-Cha-Ji Military Area's anti-Japanese armed forces laid a solid foundation for the development of the North China Military Area Field Army. The 19th and 20th Corps, which later gained fame in the North China battlefield, were the historical extension of the Jin-Cha-Ji Anti-Japanese armed forces.
From the Red Army to the 115th Division, from the 115th Division to the Jin-Cha-Ji Military Area, and from the Jin-Cha-Ji Military Area to the North China Military Area, different historical stages gave this main force different historical missions. The difficult and winding history of its growth and development constitutes a microcosm of the development history of our army. Each main force has its own heroic predecessors, which is a characteristic of our army's main forces. Each main force has a series of glorious victories, which is also a feature of the main force.