The 28th Army traces its lineage to the Eighth Route Army's guerilla units in the Bohai Military District of Shandong during the War of Resistance Against Japan. After the end of World War II, most units of the Bohai Military Districts were relocated to Manchuria but the remaining units were reorganized into the 7th and 11th Divisions of the Shandong People's Liberation Army in 1946. At the outset of the Chinese Civil War in February 1947, these two divisions became the 10th Column of the East China Field Army, with 116,000 troops, under the command of General Song Shilun. In 1947, the 10th Column defeated Li Xianzhou's Nationalist forces in the Battle of Laiwu and then participated in the Battles of Taian and Menglianggu in April and May. The 10th Column then covered the advance of the Jin-Ji-Lu-Yu Field Army into the Dabie Mountains in June and spent the fall fighting along the Longhai Railway.