50th Army ( People ' s Republic of China ) The 50th Army was a military formation of the People ' s Liberation Army . Initially it was mostly composed of Chinese Nationalist soldiers surrendered to the Communist side during the Chinese Civil War . During the Korean War , it was part of the People ' s Volunteer Army ( Chinese People ' s Volunteers ( CPV ) ) XIII Army Group . It was composed of the 148th , 149th , and 150th Divisions . " The 50th Army had a unique history amongst PLA armies . It was the former Kuomindang ( KMT ) 60th Army uprising from Changchun City of Jilin Province on Oct . 17 , 1948 . It had a long history and it could dated back to nineteenth Century during Qin Dynasty . During the anti - Japanese War of the Second World War , it had several serious battles against main Japanese armies in Taierzhuang Village and Burma . On April 19 , 1938 , the 60th Army reached the south of Shangdong Province and attended the Xuzhou Battle against Japan . " " During Taierzhuang Village Battle , it resisted the serious attacks from main Japanese forces for 20 days and made several losses for Japanese Invading forces . Lu Han was the Army commander during the time of the World War Two . In the autumn of 1943 , the 60th Army went to Indochina peninsular to attack Japanese forces and also hindered the advance of the Japanese forces . After the uprising from Changchun City of Jilin Province on Oct . 17 , 1948 , the 60th Army of KMT had been formed into the 50th Army of the Chinese Communist Party on Jan . 2 , 1949 . The 50th Army Commander was Zhen Zhesheng and the Political Commissar was Xu Wenlie . " After the 50th Army formation , the whole army was completely controlled by the Communists with the several kinds of political regulations such as the System of the Political Commissars and the System of Political Works . Another more than 5400 people from countrysides joined the Army . The whole army transformed from the old type army into the new one . Its fighting abilities had been reinforced greatly . " " On June 14 , 1949 , the new 50th Army of CCF advanced towards the southeastern part of China and smashed several Kuomintang Army forces . During Chengdu Battle it captured 8100 soldiers of Kuomintang army and forced the surrender of 17 , 700 KMT soldiers with a large quantity of ammunition . In February 1950 , it went to Sha city of Hubei Province to attend the farm production and build the dams of Han River . Another 27 , 000 KMT army forces joined the 50th army . " On October 25 , 1950 , the 50th Army entered Korea as part of the Chinese People ' s Volunteers . The 50th Army deployed southward on the CCF west flank and remained in reserve during the CCF First Phase Offensive . It was responsible for the destruction of British 1st Battalion , Royal Ulster Rifles during the Third Battle of Seoul . The army took part in the first , second and third campaign and completely annihilated the Heavy Tank Battalion of the British 29th Brigade and became the first fighting force to enter Seoul . During the Fourth Campaign of Korean War , the whole army persisted on the battlefields along the Han River near Seoul for 50 days and made a lot of losses on the United Nations . The army ' s complete destruction during Operation Thunderbolt in February 1951 sparked controversies over the treatment of Nationalist POW s impressed into Communist service . Returned to Manchuria in March 1951 ( from 15 March 1951 ? ) for rest and refit . In July , 1951 , it entered Korea again and was commanded to defend west coasts of Korea and build the airfields under the bombing of the U . S air forces . Between October and November 1951 , it occupied several islands which were garrisoned by the South Korean Army . On April , 1955 , the 50th Army of CCF completely withdrew from Korean to China border city Dandong . " In 1967 , the 50th Army went to Sichuan Province for garrison according to the order of Mao Zhedong and Lin Biao . At the end of 1969 , 149th Division went to Tibet for garrison and exchanged the title as the 52nd Division . The old 52nd Division became the new 149th Division . The old 149th Division become the 52nd Mountain Brigade . In February 1979 , the 50th Army had been divided into two parts to have the border war with Vietnam in the east frontier and the west frontier . The 148th and 150th Divisions fought In the east frontier line unsatisfactorily with a whole company annihilated by two Vietnam Divisions . The 149th Division followed the 13th Army to have battles in the west frontier excellently . " In 1985 the 50th Army was disbanded but the new 149th Division joined the 13th Army .