Over 11,000 officers and soldiers and a giant array formed by over 400 fighting vehicles stretched as long as two kilometers. The “iron army”, one division from Jinan Military Area Command, drove new-style wheeled infantry fighting vehicles.
This army’s predecessor was the famous “Yeting independent regiment” of the Northern Expeditionary Army, which was the first armed force led by the CPC. The “combat hero battalion” was equipped with a new type of self-propelled anti-craft guns; the battalion’s predecessor was the famous “first company of the Red Army”, the guard company of the second regiment of the first division under the first army of the Red Army. Mao Zedong carried out experiments to “establish branches of the CPC at the level of companies” in this famous company during the Sanwan Reorganization, and the CPC accumulated experience in building a new type of PLA under the leadership of the CPC. The unit driving advanced antitank missile vehicles from Nanjing Military Area Command was a Red Army troop created during the Huangma Uprising.
