Rebirth: I am in Jin-Cha-Ji

"Commander, I think we should first reorganize the various units of our North China Field Army. The current organization of the units is in disarray, and the situation in the Jin-Cha-Ji and Jin-Lu-Yu units is even more complicated.

"Reorganization?"

Marshal Nie nodded and said, "That's as it should be. You also attended the meeting. The North China Bureau's initial idea is to put the Hebei campaign under the charge of Yang Quanwu. At that time, the troops in southern Hebei will also be handed over to Yang Quanwu. The campaigns in southern and central Shanxi will be handed over to Comrade Xu Xiangqian, and the Second Shanxi-Chahar-Hebei Field Army will then be under the command of Comrade Xu Xiangqian. The troops from Shanxi-Chahar-Hebei and Shanxi-Hebei-Shandong-Henan regions will fight together, and each unit should undergo certain reorganizations to adapt to the current war."

Although both the Jin-Cha-Ji and Jin-Ji-Lu-Yu units were PLA units, they had many differences. While they had fought jointly in the past, that kind of joint operation was not the same as today's. Back then, joint operations still involved each unit operating independently, though they would coordinate during battles.

However, the current joint operations require the two forces to become one force.

There will definitely be a lot of problems.

"Commander, I think we should abolish the current organization of the First Jin-Cha-Ji Field Army, the Second Jin-Cha-Ji Field Army, the Third Jin-Cha-Ji Field Army, and the Fourth Jin-Cha-Ji Field Army. After all, we have established the North China Bureau, and we can't continue to call them that. Moreover, the disparity in strength between our several field armies in Jin-Cha-Ji is too great. Therefore, I think we can establish a corps-level field army to replace the original field army name."

“I’ve had that thought too.

Marshal Nie nodded.

The unit numbers in Jin-Cha-Ji are now quite confusing.

There were four field armies in total, of which Yang Quanwu's First Field Army had the largest number of troops, exceeding 20. If the Ji'nan troops were incorporated and some local troops were upgraded, the First Field Army would be able to reach a total size of 30.

The Fourth Field Army had the smallest number of troops.

Because Deng Guo had withdrawn too many main forces to the Northeast, the 13th and 14th columns of the Jin-Cha-Ji Fourth Field Army were now entirely composed of local troops, with only about men under their command. Not only were their combat effectiveness poor, but their weapons and equipment were also mediocre.

The establishment of the North China Bureau marked the beginning of the CCP's formalization of government agencies, including the military.

Therefore, the current organization of the four field armies in the Jin-Cha-Ji region was clearly unsuitable. Therefore, Marshal Nie also considered reorganizing the Jin-Cha-Ji forces and beginning to unify the various units. However, Marshal Nie was still considering how to reorganize them.

Unexpectedly, Wei Hongjun already had an idea.

In fact, in terms of military ability, Wei Hongjun was not the most outstanding in Jin-Cha-Ji. However, Marshal Nie chose Wei Hongjun to be in charge of the daily work of the military region and field army headquarters because of his steadiness and strong sense of the overall situation.

The Jin-Cha-Ji Army was different from other field armies.

The Northeast Field Army, the Central Plains Field Army, the Shandong Corps, the Chen Su Corps, and the newly established Northwest Field Army all have one characteristic: their military commanders have outstanding combat command capabilities.

Marshal Lin, Marshal Liu, General Peng, and General Li who partnered with Marshal Chen, etc.

They can command troops to fight on their own.

But Jin-Cha-Ji is different.

Since the Jin-Cha-Ji base was established during the Anti-Japanese War, Marshal Nie has given his generals free rein, allowing them to establish and develop the base, recruit troops, and command the troops in battle.

If you are highly skilled and capable, you will rise quickly like Yang Quanwu and become an alternate member of the Central Committee. If you are not capable enough and your efforts are insufficient, you will have no choice but to give up your position, like Chen Manyuan, the commander of the Third Division.

Therefore, starting from the Anti-Japanese War, Marshal Nie did not care about the specific ways of fighting the war except for the overall planning.

The same thing happened after the outbreak of the Liberation War.

Yang Quanwu, Guo Tianmin, and Wei Hongjun all fought their own battles, and Marshal Nie would not intervene in the specific command. In this regard, Marshal Nie was very self-aware. The situation has become even more obvious now.

Yang Quanwu in Hebei, Guo Tianmin in Jinzhong, both had been entrenched and operating for years. They couldn't be said to be impenetrable, but at least they were both powerful lords.

So Nie Shuai’s idea is very simple.

Even with the establishment of the North China Military Region and the North China Field Army, the headquarters would only handle routine affairs and would not interfere in actual combat. They were left to their own devices. Therefore, the current North China Military Region and the North China Field Army did not need generals like Xu Xiangqian, Yang Quanwu, and Guo Tianmin. Instead, they needed a cadre with a strong sense of the overall situation, strong strategic capabilities, and the ability to handle daily affairs.

So Wei Hongjun is the most suitable.

Marshal Nie had only just begun to consider the idea of ​​reorganizing the North China Field Army, but judging by Wei Hongjun's expression, he already had a plan in mind. This was why Marshal Nie valued Wei Hongjun so highly. He was able to anticipate many things.

"Tell me what you think."

"Commander, my idea is to disband the field armies and establish five corps within the North China Field Army. Each corps will be composed of at least three columns, and there will be no specific regulations regarding the organization of each column. After all, the current situation in each region is different, and the strength of each column cannot be the same. The Fourth Field Army has been cooperating with Comrade Deng Guo in the battles in eastern Hebei, so we can leave it alone for now."

"My suggestion is to reorganize the First Field Army and the southern Hebei troops into the First and Second Corps of the North China Field Army. Expand the army based on the Shanxi-Chahar-Hebei Second Field Army to form the Third Corps of the North China Field Army. Reorganize the troops led by Comrade Xu Xiangqian in southern Shanxi into the Fourth Corps of the North China Field Army, and reorganize the Shanxi-Chahar-Hebei Third Field Army into the Fifth Corps of the North China Field Army."

Wei Hongjun had started considering forming a corps in North China early on.

The current field army organization is too chaotic and not suitable for commanding war.

The Corps organization is still suitable for the current war. And once the Corps is formed, it will be a regular organization. For the military cadres in North China, it is a good thing.

"Comrade Yang Quanwu will take full command of the First and Second Corps in the Hebei campaign. Comrade Xu Xianggan will be given full responsibility for the southern and central Shanxi battlefields, commanding the Third and Fourth Corps. The Fifth Corps will be fighting in Rehe and can also move south to Hebei to cooperate with the First and Second Corps.

"Ah."

Marshal Nie looked at the map and nodded.

Thus, the North China battlefield was divided into two parts: the Hebei battlefield and the Jinzhong and Jinnan battlefields. In reality, the North China Field Army Headquarters did not need to intervene in the command, and at most it could only do some coordination.

As for the North China Military Region, it is mainly responsible for military logistics, recruitment, training of new recruits, etc.

Wei Hongjun continued, "Moreover, the Central Hebei Military Region, the Hebei-Shandong Military Region, and the Southern Hebei Military Region all have large populations and abundant resources. They are also the old bases of our Eighth Route Army. They are very suitable places for military expansion. We also have enough veterans here. So my opinion, Comrade Yang Quanwu, is that while fighting in Hebei, you can completely form a new corps. After the battle in Hebei is concluded, you can withdraw one or two corps to support the Shandong battlefield to the east and the Central Plains battlefield to the south."

Yang Quanwu's position is the best.

Because there are people, money and supplies here.

Here, the army could be expanded at will. In comparison, the situation in southern Shanxi, where Xu Xiangqian was currently stationed, was the worst, as the population was small and the food production was low, making it impossible to support many troops. Currently, Guo Tianmin controlled the Tongpu Road and, further south, some of the counties surrounding Taiyuan, and his life was better than Xu Xiangqian's.

It was extremely difficult for them to expand their army. Even if they conquered Jinzhong, they could only support two corps at most.

"Your idea is good."

Marshal Nie nodded.

Support Wei Hongjun's idea.

"What do you think, Fifth Corps?"

The Fifth Corps was a unit built by Wei Hongjun himself. Therefore, Marshal Nie still had to ask Wei Hongjun for his opinion on the cadre composition of the Fifth Corps. Wei Hongjun said: "I serve as the commander and political commissar of the Fifth Corps. Comrade Zhang Zihua serves as deputy commander, Comrade Zhu Liangcai serves as deputy political commissar, and Comrade Li Tianhao serves as director of the political department. Comrade Zhao Lu left the Fifth Corps and served as the head of the logistics department of the North China Military Region. In normal times, Comrade Zhang Zihua serves as acting commander and Comrade Zhu Liangcai serves as acting political commissar. The Fifth Corps is composed of the Eighth Column, the Tenth Column, and the Eleventh Column. The Eighth Column is currently too strong, so I plan to withdraw the 24th Brigade from the Eighth Column and add the local troops of my Hebei-Rehe-Chahar Military Region to form the 12th Column. Temporarily cooperate with the Fifth Corps to fight in Rehe."

"Row."

Wei Hongjun's proposal to form a corps for the North China Field Army was quickly approved by the North China Military Region after it received support from Marshal Nie. At the same time, Wei Hongjun proposed the formation of the East Group Army and the West Group Army of the North China Field Army.

The Eastern Group Army was composed of the 1st and 2nd Corps of the North China Field Army, with Comrade Yang Quanwu as Commander, Comrade Wang Zhi as Political Commissar, Comrade Geng Biao as Deputy Commander and Chief of Staff, and Li Zhimin as Deputy Political Commissar and Director of the Political Department. It was responsible for the Hebei campaign. The Western Group Army was composed of the 3rd and 4th Corps of the North China Field Army, with Comrade Xu Xiangqian as Commander, Comrade Teng Daiyuan as Political Commissar, and Comrades Guo Tianmin and Zhou Shiti as Deputy Commanders. It was responsible for the campaigns in central and southern Shanxi.

The Fifth Corps served as the mobile force of the North China Field Army and was directly under the command of the North China Field Army Headquarters.

The North China Field Army was about to formally establish a corps organization. Wei Hongjun immediately communicated with the various units under him to understand their situation.

After all, while the military region and field army headquarters wouldn't interfere with the day-to-day operations of the two group armies below them, they still had to participate in the formulation of grand strategy. When formulating grand strategy, if the situation of the subordinate units wasn't fully understood, deviations were bound to occur. Furthermore, the arrangements for the cadres of the various corps had to be discussed.

The situation on Marshal Xu's side is the worst.

Not long after the outbreak of the Liberation War, the main force of the 129th Division moved south and joined forces with the original Central Plains Military Region to form a new Central Plains Military Region.

After the two armies joined forces, their strength was very strong.

Under the command of General Liu, many beautiful battles were fought.

But the better the Central Plains Military Region fought, the more sleepless Chiang Kai-shek became. As the saying goes, "Whoever controls the Central Plains controls the world." The Central Plains region radiates in all directions and is a place of war. The Central Plains Military Region is like a dagger stuck in the core area. Moreover, the existence of the Central Plains Military Region prevented Chiang Kai-shek from concentrating his forces to attack other liberated areas. It can be said that as long as the Central Plains Military Region exists, the pressure on other liberated areas will be much less. Therefore, Chiang Kai-shek organized a number of troops to encircle and suppress the Central Plains Military Region. Several important Kuomintang troops in Xuzhou, Zhengzhou, and Wuhan participated in the encirclement and suppression of the Central Plains Military Region. Even Hu Zongnan's troops entered western Henan.

After the main force of the 129th Division went to the Central Plains, Chen Geng led his troops to fight in southern Shanxi. He fought very well, frequently annihilating Kuomintang troops in interior operations. Hu Zongnan's troops also suffered a heavy blow in southern Shanxi.

However, the Central Plains Military Region was under immense pressure. Therefore, the Central Committee decided to form the Chen Geng Corps, bringing nine brigades and the rebellious 38th Shaanxi Army, totaling troops, south to western Henan. Meanwhile, the newly established East China Field Army was operating in southwestern Shandong and eastern Henan. These two forces would attack western and eastern Henan to alleviate the pressure on the Central Plains Military Region. At the same time, the fighting would be extended to the outer Kuomintang-controlled areas to ensure economic stability in the liberated areas.

After Chen's army moved south, the military work in southern Shanxi was handed over to General Xu. General Xu came to southern Shanxi and used the troops of the 129th Division left in southern Shanxi to fight against the troops of Hu Zongnan and Yan Xishan.

The strength in all aspects is insufficient.

The main force moved south, and the rest were mainly local troops.

The troops are few and their weapons and equipment are poor.

Despite this, this unit was still assigned to the Fourth Corps of the North China Field Army. After all, the North China Field Army couldn't deny the Shanxi-Hebei and Shandong-Henan units their own divisions. The Fourth Corps comprised the 15th, 16th, and 17th columns of the North China Field Army. Of course, each column of the Fourth Corps only had around 10,000 men, roughly the same strength as a main brigade in the Shanxi-Chahar-Yihe region. The entire Fourth Corps comprised fewer than 40,000 men.

To support General Xu and to advance the campaign in southern and central Shanxi, Guo Tianmin led the newly formed Third Corps southward to Jinzhong, carrying a large quantity of weapons, ammunition, and supplies. These weapons, ammunition, and supplies had been specially amassed by the North China Military Region for the Fourth Corps. With the support of the Third Corps, General Xu reorganized several more troops, bringing the Fourth Corps to nearly 13 men. Together with Guo Tianmin's Third Corps, General Xu had approximately troops under his command. General Xu submitted his battle plan to the military region, and the Third and Fourth Corps prepared to launch the Campaign of Central Shanxi.

Make preparations to capture Taiyuan.

The easiest side to reorganize the corps this time is Yang Quanwu's side.

Yang Quanwu has too many troops.

There was no difficulty in establishing two corps. During this period, Yang Quanwu reorganized the local troops under his command and added a lot of captured soldiers to expand a column. Currently, the First Field Army of the Shanxi-Chahar-Hebei Region is composed of the First, Second, Third, and Fourth columns.

Because of the sufficient manpower, each column has four brigades with a total of about 60,000 people.

Upon receiving the order to form two corps, Yang Quanwu immediately transferred one brigade from each column, leaving each column with three brigades of approximately 50,000 men. These four brigades, combined with two brigades from local troops of the Southern Hebei Military Region, formed the Ninth and Eighteenth Columns.

Then the First Corps of the North China Field Army was formed with the First, Third and Fourth columns, and the Second Corps was formed with the Second, Ninth and Eighteenth columns.

Yang Quanwu was appointed Commander and Political Commissar of the First Corps, Huang Fa was appointed Deputy Commander, and Liu Shude was appointed Deputy Political Commissar. Wang Zhi was appointed Commander and Political Commissar of the Second Corps, Chen Kaikun was appointed Deputy Commander, and Wang Daobang was appointed Deputy Political Commissar.

The reorganization of the troops is easy to say but it is a lot of work to do.

Yang Quanwu, in particular, has the greatest ambition.

Compared to General Xu, Yang Quanwu had more people, money, and food. So after "swallowing" the Ji'nan troops, he became even more arrogant. Ji'nan didn't have any field troops, but it had plenty of local troops.

Although the Ji'nan Military Region had just established two field brigades, it still had many local units. Yang Quanwu had no shortage of capable generals or political cadres. Furthermore, with the establishment of the North China Military Region and the North China Field Army, in addition to the cadres from the Shanxi-Chahar-Hebei region, a large number of cadres from the Shanxi-Hebei-Shandong-Henan region were also added. Yang Quanwu also recruited many cadres from the Ji'nan region and the Hebei-Shandong-Henan region. Many of them were military and political cadres with many years of experience in the battlefield.

So Yang Quanwu told Wei Hongjun that he now had two things to do.

One was to capture Baoding and annihilate Sun Lianzhong's troops, and the other was to form the Sixth Corps of the North China Field Army.

To capture Baoding, Yang Quanwu requested that the Fifth Corps be temporarily loaned to the Eastern Group Army of the North China Front Army. This was to allow the Fifth Corps to advance southwards to attack Jixian and Zunhua, and then to advance further into the Langfang area, thereby tying down the 53rd, 16th, and 92nd Armies, as well as other Central Army units in Peking and Tianjin.

In order to form the Sixth Corps, Yang Quanwu had already begun to form the 19th and 20th columns. In order to form the 19th and 20th columns, Yang Quanwu transferred many cadres from the First and Second Corps and then upgraded the local troops.

Even the leader of the column has been found.

Xiao Xinhuai was appointed commander of the 19th Column, and Fu Chongbi was appointed political commissar of the 19th Column. Zeng Siyu was appointed commander of the 20th Column, and Wang Zhifeng was appointed political commissar of the 20th Column.

However, with so many newly formed troops, Yang Quanwu needed weapons and ammunition from the military region. He also requested sufficient students from the Anti-Japanese Military and Political University and the North China Military and Political University. Yang Quanwu immediately asked Wei Hongjun for 3000 military and political cadres.

Wei Hongjun was very confused.

Given the relationship between Yang Quanwu and Wei Hongjun, the old leader had to give him what he wanted, but he couldn't give him everything either. This was because Yang Quanwu wanted too much, and if he gave it all to Yang Quanwu, he wouldn't be able to support Marshal Xu.

Marshal Xu's side was poor and had nothing.

If you want to fight a big war, you need the support of the military region.

So Wei Hongjun could only bargain with Yang Quanwu. Because Wei Hongjun knew that Yang Quanwu wanted so many weapons, ammunition and cadres, and he didn't expect Wei Hongjun to agree to all of them. He just wanted to ask for an exorbitant price.

During the bargaining, Wei Hongjun provided additional cadres, weapons and ammunition to General Xu, Yang Quanwu and others.

Chapter 692: The Establishment of Various Institutions in North China

Wei Hongjun was busy improving the military region and field army headquarters, allocating military and political cadres, weapons, ammunition, and logistical supplies to the various units. He met with numerous cadres daily and assigned them tasks. He also had to bargain with frontline officials like Xu Xiangqian and Yang Quanwu. Meanwhile, the North China Bureau continued its work.

The North China Bureau had just been established and many of its departments were not perfect, so there was a lot of work to do.