After the Long March, the Red Army was reorganized into the Eighth Route Army, with a strength of only more than 40,000 troops. At that time, a regimental commander was revolutionary gold. Later founding generals Chen Xilian, Song Shilun, Li Tianyou, Yang Chengwu, Yang Dezhi, and so on, were all the leaders of the regiment, and the famous Wang Jinshan was still the deputy regimental commander.
However, a regimental commander of the Eighth Route Army defected. How could that be? This is Zhang Shaodong, commander of the 687th Regiment of the 344th Brigade. Zhang Shaodong was an old man of the Red Twenty-fifth Army, xu Haidong's old subordinate, who followed Xu Haidong all the way from Eyuwan to northern Shaanxi, from company commander to division commander, and also contributed a lot to the revolution.
At the beginning of the establishment of the Eighth Route Army, the troops were very difficult, and at the instigation of Lan Guoqing, the chief of staff of the regiment, Zhang Shaodong's revolutionary will was shaken, and in 1938 he defected with Lan Guoqing and defected to the Kuomintang. This incident was very bad, and Brigadier Xu Haidong vomited blood on the spot.
Traitors are shameful, Zhang Shaodong and Lan Guoqing later ended up unknown, it can be speculated that there should be no good end. The Kuomintang also did not want to see traitors. In order to eliminate the impact of the "Zhang Lan Incident", Zhu Laozong, commander-in-chief of the Eighth Route Army, personally rectified the 687 regiment.
The most urgent task at the moment is to quickly form a new leadership group of the 687 Regiment. Who will be the head of the regiment and the political commissar? The new regimental commander was Tian Shouyao, a native of Lu'an, Anhui, and an old man of the Red Twenty-fifth Army, whose revolutionary qualifications were completely comparable to Zhang Shaodong's.
When the Eighth Route Army was established, Tian Shouyao was the deputy commander of the 687th Regiment, so it was most appropriate for him to take over as the regimental commander. Tian Shouyao's revolutionary will was very strong, and in the Battle of Pingxingguan, he was wounded but did not go down the line of fire, and insisted on lying on a stretcher to continue to command the battle until the final victory.
(Tian Shouyao)
With a regimental commander, there must also be a political commissar, and who is the new political commissar? Wu Xinquan. Wu Xinquan was not a Red Twenty-fifth Army, he was a general of the Central Red Army, after the Red Army's Long March arrived in northern Shaanxi, Wu Xinquan was sent to the Red Fifteenth Army led by Xu Haidong, the Eighth Route Army was established, and he served as the director of the political office of another regiment of the 344 Brigade, that is, the 688 Regiment.
After the "Zhang Lan Incident" broke out, the commander of the 344th Brigade quickly ordered Wu Xinquan to lead a battalion to chase, hoping to recover some losses, Wu Xinquan chased all night, but failed to catch up with Zhang Shaodong. Later, Wu Xinquan was appointed political commissar of the 687 regiment.
Why Wu Xinquan? First, Wu Xinquan is an old Red Army of the Three Red Armies who has gone through the Long March, and his politics are absolutely reliable. Second, the predecessor of the 687th Regiment was the Seventy-third Division of the Red Fifteenth Army, and Wu Xinquan had been a special commissioner in this division and had a certain understanding of it.
(Lieutenant General Wu Xinquan)
After Tian Shouyao and Wu Xinquan arrived at their posts, they quickly held a meeting, and Zhu Laozong and Huang Kecheng personally came to the scene to expose Zhao Shaodong's defection crimes, unify their thinking, and straighten out the troops. Afterwards, Wu Xinquan talked to the cadres one by one to understand their thoughts, sometimes until late at night.
After rectification, the 687th Regiment quickly eliminated the impact of the "Zhang Lan Incident", morale was high, and it threw itself into the tide of the War of Resistance Against Japan. Under the leadership of Tian Shouyao and Wu Xinquan, the 687th Regiment fought several victorious battles and was praised by the headquarters of the Eighth Route Army.
Later, the 687th Regiment became part of the second column of the Eighth Route Army, went south to the New Fourth Army, became part of the Third Division, went north to the northeast battlefield, and merged into the second column of the Northeast Field Army, and even later the Thirty-ninth Army, Wu Xinquan was the commander of the Thirty-ninth Army, he was the founding lieutenant general, Tian Shouyao unfortunately died in 1943.