The New Fourth Army was the second main force of our army in the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, and it was quite difficult to integrate the guerrilla units scattered in many southern provinces, and some guerrillas refused to reorganize and even killed the cadres sent there.
After the Long March of the main force of the Red Army, there were many guerrilla groups distributed in the southern provinces, some of which evolved from the original small base areas, some of which were created by left-behind personnel, and some of which were formed by the units left behind in the course of the Red Army's Long March. By the time the New Fourth Army was reorganized, there were at least 16 Red Army guerrillas in the southern region.
1. Gansu-Guangdong Border Guerrilla Zone: Leaders Xiang Ying and Chen Yi, more than 300 people.
2. Fujian-Gansu Border Guerrilla Zone: Leaders Zhong Min (also known as Zhong Desheng, died in 1954), Peng Shengbiao (Major General). Tingrui guerrillas, more than 300 people.
3. Western Fujian Guerrilla Zone: Leaders Chen Tanqiu (sacrificed), Zhang Dingcheng, Deng Zihui, Tan Zhenlin, 1300 people.
4. Fujian-Guangdong Border Guerrilla Zone: Huang Huicong (died of illness in 1936), He Ming (executed in 1938), Lu Sheng (lieutenant general), Wang Sheng (major general), more than 300 people.
5. Anhui-Zhejiang-Gansu Border Guerrilla Zone: Guan Ying (died in 1937), Tang Zaigang (died in 1935), more than 300 people.
6. Southern Zhejiang Guerrilla Zone: Liu Ying (died in 1942), Su Yu. There were about 1,600 in 1936 and about 400 in the first half of 1937.
7. Northern Fujian guerrilla zone: Huang Dao (assassinated by secret agents in 1939), Wu Xianxi (killed in 1937), division commander Huang Ligui (killed in 1937). At the end of 1936, there were more than 3,000 people. In 1937, there were more than 800 people.
8. Eastern Fujian Guerrilla Zone: Ye Fei (Admiral), at the end of 1937, the independent division of the Red Army grew to more than 1300 people.
9. Xiang'e-Gansu Border Guerrilla Zone: Chen Shouchang (killed in 1935), Xu Yangang (killed in 1936), Fu Qiutao (admiral). This Red Army guerrilla force numbered nearly 1,000 men.
10. Xianggan Border Guerrilla Zone: Peng Huiming (sacrificed), Tan Yubao (vice governor of Hunan Province), Zeng Kaifu (1937 renegade). The Red Army guerrillas numbered more than 400 men.
11. Shonan Guerrilla Zone: Peng Linchang (sacrificed), Cai Huiwen (sacrificed), Zhou Li (vice governor of Hunan Province), You Shixiong. Two guerrilla groups, a total of more than 300 people.
12. Eyu-Anhui Border Guerrilla Zone: Gao Jingting (executed in 1939), Luo Chengyun (sacrificed), Fang Yongle (sacrificed). This guerrilla group was the most numerous, with more than 2,000 men.
13. Eyu Border Guerrilla Zone: Zhang Xingjiang (sacrificed), Wang Guohua (sacrificed), Zhou Junming (Vice Minister of Water Resources). At the beginning of 1938, there were more than 1300 people.
14. Qiongya Guerrilla Zone: Feng Baiju (Vice Governor of Guangdong Province), more than 300 people.
15. Guerrilla group in northeast Jiangxi: Yang Wenhan, fang zhimin red 10 corps remnants. More than 200 people.
16. Ganbei guerrillas: Liu Weisi, also the remaining personnel of the Red Tenth Army. More than 300 people.
These guerrillas totaled more than 10,000 people, scattered in various southern provinces. When the New Fourth Army was formed, the process of reorganizing these guerrillas was divided into three situations.
First, the adaptation process went smoothly
The Guerrilla Zone in the Gansu-Guangdong Border led by Xiang Ying and Chen Yi was the focus of the enemy's encirclement and suppression, and the Nationalist 46th Division repeatedly launched clearance and suppression. After the Xi'an Incident in 1936, the enemy inexplicably and suddenly stopped the offensive. Xiang Ying sent people to Dayu County to get some of the latest newspapers and learn about the latest domestic situation. After exchanging views with Chen Yi, Yang Shangkui, Chen Pixian, and others, he resolutely put forward the idea of carrying out propaganda on resisting Japan and saving the dead.
After the outbreak of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, Xiang Ying and Chen Yi took the initiative to contact the Kuomintang authorities for negotiations. After contacting the Central Committee, they were responsible for contacting the guerrillas in various places and reorganizing the New Fourth Army.
In addition, the leaders of many guerrilla groups, such as Huang Dao in the guerrilla zone in northern Fujian, Su Yu in the guerrilla zone in southern Zhejiang, Zhang Dingcheng, Deng Zihui, and Tan Zhenlin in the guerrilla zone in western Fujian, also received information from the Xi'an incident, took the initiative to contact higher-level organizations, and negotiated with the local nationalist forces encircling and suppressing the nationalist forces to jointly resist Japan.
Gao Jingting of the Eyu-Anhui Border Guerrilla Zone and Zhou Junming of the Eyu Border Guerrilla Zone sent people to Beiping to look for higher-level organizations, and later made contact with Yan'an. Feng Baiju of the Qiongya guerrilla zone also contacted his superiors through Hong Kong.
There are also some guerrillas who are able to accept the leadership of their superiors and are smoothly reorganized.
For example, in the Fujian-Gansu Border Guerrilla Zone, in October 1937, Chen Pixian came to contact on behalf of the Central Sub-Bureau, and the guerrilla group accepted the leadership and reorganized.
After receiving the letter from the CPC Central Bureau, the Anhui-Zhejiang-Gansu Border Guerrilla Zone successively went down the mountain to concentrate on rectification and training. In the process of reorganization, the Gansu-Guangdong Border Special Committee always maintained vigilance, insisted on camping independently near mountains and rivers, and maintained a distance from the nationalist troops. No losses were suffered during the adaptation.
Second, losses suffered in the adaptation
In the reorganization, some guerrillas believed that the Kuomintang and the Communists cooperated, trusted the enemy, and suffered losses.
A guerrilla group led by Liu Tujun and Yang Caiheng in central Fujian, with more than 200 people, was reorganized by the Kuomintang into an independent brigade of the 80th Division. After the reorganization, the Kuomintang demanded that the unit march into quanzhou. After entering the city, the brigade leader Liu Tujun was assassinated, and the guerrillas were surrounded and disarmed. Later, after a struggle by the Party organization, the Kuomintang authorities were forced to return the weapons. In May 1938, Yang Caiheng (deputy commander of the Zhangzhou Military Subdistrict) led 100 backbone cadres north to southern Anhui and was organized into the Second Company of the Special Service Battalion of the New Fourth Army.
In the winter of 1936, Huang Huicong, the leader of the Fujian-Guangdong Border Guerrilla Zone, died of illness. He Ming, the acting secretary of the successor special committee, lost his vigilance in the reorganization, and in July 1937, he led the Red 3 Regiment to the county seat of Zhangpu County. On July 16, the Nationalist 157th Division surrounded the Red 3rd Regiment, and nearly a thousand Red Army troops were forced to disarm. That night, deputy brigade leader Lu Sheng and chief of staff Wang Sheng led the backbone of the troops to sneak out of the city and rebuild the Red 3rd Regiment. This incident caused heavy losses to the Fujian-Guangdong border guerrillas. In February 1938, Lu Sheng led the remaining 400 or so people to join the New Fourth Army.
In this incident, He Ming himself was detained by the 157th Division. In 1938, he made contact with the party organization and returned to the Red Army guerrillas. In June 1939, the Military Justice Department of the New Fourth Army found He Ming fully responsible for the disarming of the Red 3 Regiment and shot him. In 1950, He Ming was posthumously recognized as a revolutionary martyr.
The third, refusal to adapt, and ultimately complete loss
In the process of reorganization, there were also some Red Army guerrillas who did not believe in the comrades sent and did not believe in joint resistance to Japan, and the reorganization process was full of thrills.
Tan Yubao, secretary of the Xianggan Provisional Provincial Party Committee, served as the political commissar of the Xianggan guerrillas. In early 1937, the guerrilla commander Zeng Kaifu was seduced by the enemy's beauty plan and followed the female agent Ling Yan to the enemy. Tan Yubao adjusted his deployment after receiving the news, but some of the secret contact points and communication stations of the Red Army guerrillas suffered losses.
In October 1937, Cao Shuliang, the leader of the 1st Shonan Guerrilla Detachment, went up the mountain to convey the guerrilla cooperation work, and Tan Yubao killed his comrades because of the recent Kaifu defection to the enemy. In mid-November 1937, Chen Yi personally went up the mountain, was arrested by Tan Yubao, tied up for 4 days, and was almost killed. Later, after Tan Yubao sent people down the mountain to inspect the situation, he believed in the policy of joint resistance, and he sincerely apologized to Chen Yi and went down the mountain to accept the adaptation.
Two other guerrilla groups completely refused to reorganize, killed comrades who came to contact them, and stubbornly insisted on fighting the Kuomintang to the end.
The first guerrilla brigade in northeast Jiangxi was originally Fang Zhimin's unit, led by Guan Ying, secretary of the Fujian-Zhejiang-Gansu Provincial Party Committee. In the three years of guerrilla warfare, the commander of the military region, Tang Zaigang, was killed in battle, Zou Qi, chief of staff of the military region, was captured and killed, and Guan Ying was also separated from the troops and stood out from the siege. After the death of several leaders, Propaganda Minister Yang Wenhan became the leader of the guerrillas. By 1937, the unit had grown to 500 men, with more than 200 rifles and one machine gun.
In September 1937, the local county party committee sent personnel up the mountain to convey the news of the cooperation between the Kuomintang and the Communists to resist Japan, and Yang Wenhan shot the two comrades. Soon, the comrades sent for contact for the second and third time were shot by him again. The fourth time, the superiors sent Guan Ying, the old leader of this unit, to contact him, and he shot him again.
The second was the Ganbei guerrillas, led by Liu Weisi. In late September 1937, Ming Anlou, political commissar of the Red 16th Division, and Lin Meijin, secretary of the Edongnan Special Committee, arrived at Minshan Mountain in Ganbei to convey to Liu Weisi the "Ten Guidelines for Resisting Japan and Saving the Country" and other documents. Liu Weisi believed that the enmity between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party was not shared, refused to accept the order of reorganization, and killed the two.
According to the statistics of the National Government, before the establishment of the New Fourth Army, the number of guerrillas in the southern provinces was 16,400, and the number of guns was 9,260. After assembling from August 1937 to May 1938, the number of people reorganized into the New Fourth Army was only 10,300 men and 6,200 guns (Note: The Qiongya guerrillas failed to participate in the reorganization due to Kuomintang obstruction).
The Red Army guerrillas suffered various difficulties and losses in the reorganization, some troops were disarmed and dismissed by the Kuomintang, and 2 guerrilla units that refused to be reorganized finally broke away from the leadership of the higher-level party organizations.
The two guerrilla groups that refused to be reorganized were then surrounded and suppressed by the Kuomintang army and collapsed in the War of Resistance. In 1943, Yang Wenhan was captured and killed by the Kuomintang.