In 1937, the Japanese and the Kosovars launched a full-scale war of aggression against China, and in order to strengthen the anti-Japanese forces, according to consultations, the guerrilla units of the Red Army in the eight provinces of Jiangnan were reorganized into the new Fourth Army of the National Revolutionary Army, which was later known as the "New Fourth Army", but this contingent had a bad fate.
At that time, the New Fourth Army was incorporated into the Third Theater, nominally under the jurisdiction of the Kuomintang general Gu Zhutong, but in fact it was still the rank of our party, just like the Eighth Route Army, the commander was the famous Ye Ting, and the new Fourth Army was still very weak in all aspects, especially the lack of backbone generals.
After Ye Ting took office, he discovered this problem, so he asked the chairman for someone, hoping to enrich the backbone of the New Fourth Army, and the chairman agreed to Ye Ting's request and sent three old Red Army soldiers to the New Fourth Army, the three of them ye Daozhi, Chen Kang, and Xu Changsheng.
These three generals were all capable generals in the eyes of the chairman, and sending these three people to Ye Ting also showed the chairman's support for Ye Ting's work, but unexpectedly, unimaginable things happened later, Ye Ting actually shot two of them, and the remaining one escaped.
Ye Ting was shot by Ye Daozhi and Xu Changsheng, neither of whom were idle people, especially Ye Daozhi, who joined the Red Army in 1928 and was the commander of the 92nd Division in 1934 before the Long March.
Why? Let's take a look at Ye Daozhi's partner, in 1936, Ye Daozhi served as the political commissar of the 10th Division of the Red Fourth Army, the commander of the division at that time was Chen Xilian, and Chen Xilian became the founding general after the founding of the Country, so it can be seen that if Ye Daozhi does not die, at least he is also a general!
So why did Ye Ting shoot them? Ye Daozhi entered Yan'an in January 1937 to study, and the next year he was sent to the New Fourth Army, but unexpectedly, after arriving at the New Fourth Army, Ye Ting only let him serve as the battalion commander of the special service battalion, and Chen Kang, who went with him, was even worse, only as a guerrilla training camp instructor.
According to the Red Army's reorganization into the Eighth Route Army, the rank of the general was reduced, which is also understandable, but Ye Daozhi and the other three were also demoted a little too much, and after a long time, the three of them had an opinion on the work arrangement, so on July 31, 1938, the three left the New Fourth Army in the name of surveying the terrain.
They decided to return to the Eighth Route Army and find their old comrades-in-arms, but after the matter was reported to Ye Ting, Ye Ting firmly believed that the three of them were defecting to the enemy, and deputy commander Xiang Ying and chief of staff Zhou Zikun both thought that it was just an internal contradiction and advised Ye Ting to resolve it according to internal contradictions.
However, Ye Ting did not listen at all, sent troops to pursue the three of them, killed Xu Changsheng in the process of pursuit, captured Ye Daozhi, only Chen Kang alone returned to the Eighth Route Army, and later Chen Kang proved that they were only to return to the Eighth Route Army, not to defect to the enemy, but unfortunately Ye Daozhi was also shot.
For this reason, Ye Daozhi's old superior Xu Shuai was heartbroken for Ye Daozhi's sacrifice, and the chairman was also furious, until after the founding of the People's Republic of China, Xu Shuai and others insisted that Ye Daozhi and Xu Changsheng were rehabilitated, and Chen Kang, who escaped alive to the Eighth Route Army, was awarded the rank of lieutenant general in 1955.