In July 1937, the Japanese invaders launched the Lugou Bridge Incident, and the Chinese army rose up to resist, and a full-scale war of resistance broke out. In late August, the Chinese Workers' and Peasants' Red Army, led by our Party in the northwest, participated in the struggle to resist Japan and save the people under the order of the Nationalist government army for the sake of the interests of the whole nation and the peril of the country, and was reorganized into the Eighth Route Army of the National Revolutionary Army. The Eighth Route Army administers three main divisions, namely the 115th Division, the 120th Division and the 129th Division, which were formed by the Red 1 front, the Red 2 Front, the Red 4 Front, and the Northwest Red Army, which were the three main forces of the former Red Army.
As everyone knows, since its founding, the people's army has attached great importance to ideological and political work, and the army has implemented a "double-chief system" under the joint leadership of military and political chiefs. However, due to differences between the Kuomintang and the Communists during the negotiations, in order to reach an early anti-Japanese united front, our Party abolished the system of political commissars in the early days of the establishment of the Eighth Route Army, and the original Political Department was also changed to the Political Training Office. Then, there is a problem in the personnel arrangement: how did the political commissars of the various ministries of the Red Army arrange it? Where have they gone?
The following is the whereabouts of some of the political commissars of the Red Army units that the author has obtained after looking up the information.
Let's look at the 115th Division. This unit was formed by a combination of the main forces of the Red 1st Army, the Red 15th Army, and the 74th Division of the Red Army in southern Shaanxi.
The Red 1st Army was the first main force of the Red Army, and the political commissar was Nie Shuai, one of the founders of our army who participated in the Nanchang Uprising and the Guangzhou Uprising. There were 3 main divisions under the Red 1St Corps, namely the Red 1st, 2nd, and 4th Divisions. Deng Hua, political commissar of the Red 1st Division, was reappointed deputy regimental commander of the 685th Regiment of the 343rd Brigade and director of the Political Training Office; Xiao Hua, political commissar of the Red 2nd Division, was reappointed deputy director of the Political Training Office of the 115th Division; and Yang Yong, political commissar of the Red 4th Division, was reappointed deputy regimental commander of the 686th Regiment.
The political commissar of the Red 15Th Army was Cheng Zihua, who was assigned to work in the General Mobilization Committee of the National Revolutionary War in the Second Theater as early as after the Xi'an Incident, serving as secretary of the party group and minister of the people's armed forces and member of the Northern Bureau. The Red 15th Army also had three divisions before it was reorganized into the 344th Brigade: the 73rd Division, the 75th Division, and the 78th Division. Chen Manyuan, political commissar of the 73rd Division, went to work at the brigade headquarters and served as chief of staff of the 344th Brigade; Zhao Lingbo, political commissar of the 75th Division, was reappointed deputy regimental commander of the 687th Regiment (later defected); and Cui Tianmin, political commissar of the 78th Division, was reappointed as the director of the Political Training Office of the 687th Regiment of the 344th Brigade.
As for Li Longgui, political commissar of the 74th Division of the Red Army in southern Shaanxi, this is a name that makes everyone feel strange. He was an old Red Army soldier who had participated in the jute uprising, and in August 1937, Li Longgui mysteriously disappeared while accompanying his troops from Guanzhong to Jingyang.
The 120th Division of the Eighth Route Army, mainly the 2nd Army (Red 2nd Army) and the 6th Army (Red 6th Army) of the Red Second Front, was formed by merging with the Red 27th and 28th Armies and the independent 1st and 2nd Divisions.
The political commissar of the 4th Division of the Red 2nd Army, Xie Henghan, was reappointed as the director of the Political Training Office of the 120th Division's Teaching Regiment; Liao Hansheng, the political commissar of the 6th Division, was reappointed as the deputy commander of the 716th Regiment of the 358th Brigade; and Wang Zhen, the political commissar of the 6th Red Army (2nd Army), was changed to deputy brigade commander of the 359th Brigade of the 120th Division.
The 129th Division of the Eighth Route Army was formed by the combination of the Red 4th Army, the Red 31st Army, and the 4 independent regiments of Shaanxi, Gansu, and Ningxia, with division commander Liu Shuai and deputy division commander Xu Shuai. It administers the 385th Brigade and the 386th Brigade.
The Red 4th Army was the absolute main force of the Red Fourth Front, and the political commissar at that time was Wang Hongkun, who had also served twice as the commander of the Red 4th Army, so after the Red 4th Army was reorganized into the 385th Brigade of the Eighth Route Army, Wang Hongkun continued to serve as the military commander, that is, the brigade commander. The 385th Brigade had two regiments under its command, the 769th Regiment, headed by Chen Xilian, known as the "Little Steel Cannon", who was originally the political commissar of the 11th Division of the Red 4th Army; and the deputy commander of the 770 Regiment, Hu Qicai, was originally the political commissar of the 12th Division of the Red 4th Army.
The prestigious 386th Brigade of the 129th Division was reorganized from the Red 31st Army. The political commissar of the Red 31st Army at that time was Guo Shushen, who left the army after reorganization and went to work in the local area, serving as the secretary of the Hubei Provincial Working Committee of the COMMUNIST Party of China and the director of the Workers' Movement Committee. The Red 31st Army administers the Red 91st Division and the Red 93rd Division. Huang Zhentang, political commissar of the 91st Division, served as the director of the Political Training Office of the 771st Regiment of the 386th Brigade after the reorganization. The political commissar of the 93rd Division was Ye Chenghuan, who after the reorganization, served as the commander of the 772nd Regiment of the 386th Brigade (wang Jinshan, the commander of the 93rd Division, was the deputy regimental commander), but unfortunately, Ye Chenghuan died on the anti-Japanese battlefield in the spring of 1938.
Conclusion: From the arrangement of the above personnel, it can be seen that in the early days after the Red Army was reorganized into the Eighth Route Army, most of the political commissars were reappointed to military deputies of the Eighth Route Army, some of them still did their "old business" and served as the director of the Political Training Office of the Eighth Route Army, and some of them were "diverted" to local work. There were also a small number of political commissars who were transformed from political chiefs to military chiefs, such as Yang Yong and Chen Xilian, who later became the ace generals of our army.