There is a common saying that in August 1937, before the Chinese Workers' and Peasants' Red Army in the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia region was reorganized into the Eighth Route Army of the National Revolutionary Army, the strength of the whole army was "about 30,000 people", which is actually incorrect.
When the Long March of the Red Army, the Red Second Front, and the Red Fourth Front reached the Shaanxi-Gansu region, the actual strength of the Red Army, excluding the Western Route Army to the Hexi Corridor, had a strength of about 25,900 people; while the Red 25th Army, which arrived in northern Shaanxi earlier, and the local Red Army led by Liu Zhidan and others, according to the statistics of early 1937, had 4,328 people; the sum of the two was more than 30,000. After that, except for the unfortunate defeat of the Western Route Army, all units developed to varying degrees. Before the reorganization of the Red Army in August 1937, the actual strength of the troops reached more than 70,000. According to the article "Overview of the Red Army When It Was Reorganized into the Eighth Route Army" compiled by the Organization Department of the General Political Department of the Central Military Commission in 1939, before the reorganization of the Red Army in the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia region, there were actually 74,404 troops, and the troops were divided into four command systems, which were under the command of the Central Military Commission and had a former enemy general headquarters.
Red Army: 24,000 people, including 5,000 troops, of the First Army (11,000 men), the Fifteenth Army (8,000 men), and the Front Army Headquarters (which is also the general headquarters of the former enemy, including the Special Service Regiment).
Red Second Front: Under the jurisdiction of the Second Army (4500 people), the Sixth Army (3500 people), the 32nd Army (that is, the former Red Army Ninth Army, 2000 people), the front army directly under the command of the 1500 people, a total of 11500 people.
Fourth Front: Remaining in the Shaanxi-Gansu region, there were the 4th Army (6,000 people), the 31st Army (8,000 people), and the direct subordinate units of the Western Aid Army (including a cavalry regiment, 800 people), a total of 14,800 people.
Northern Shaanxi troops and organs directly under the Central Military Commission: the main force in northern Shaanxi, a total of 8782 people. There are 5,322 local troops in northern Shaanxi; 5,000 people in the Red Army University and Infantry School (i.e., teaching instructors) directly under the Central Military Commission; and 2,000 people in various disabled hospitals. There are 3,000 people in the organs and troops directly under the Central Military Commission.
The above four systems, a total of 74,404 people, 40,584 guns. This was the full force of the Red Army before its reorganization.
There are two other circumstantial evidences of this data: 1. On June 22, 1944, Ye Jianying, chief of staff of the Eighteenth Army, talked with a delegation of Chinese and foreign journalists and introduced the general situation of the Chinese Communist War of Resistance: "The predecessor of the Eighth Route Army was the Chinese Red Army. From 1935 to 1936, when they met in northern Shaanxi, there were 80,000 officers and soldiers. When the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression broke out in 1937, the Red Army was reorganized into the National Revolutionary Army on the orders of the High Command, but only 45,000 people were recognized." 2, Lin Boqu on September 15, 1944 at the Chongqing National Participation Conference, the report on the kuomintang-communist negotiations pointed out: "In the early days of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, when there were 80,000 Red Army troops, the government only recognized the formation of three divisions." The above historical materials strongly show that when the Red Army in the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia region was reorganized, it actually had a strength of 70,000 to 80,000 troops, not 30,000.
At the beginning of August 1937, the Red Army automatically concentrated, adjusted its personnel and equipment, and reorganized it. On August 6, Ye Jianyingdian and the Nanjing government promulgated the designations of the three divisions, recognizing 45,000 people. In order to strengthen the combat effectiveness of the troops, the Red Army selected capable people and organized them into three divisions, six brigades, and twelve regiments. The local Red Army in Shaanxi, Gansu, and Ningxia was organized into three main divisions as direct subordinate units of the division, such as artillery battalions, engineer battalions, special service battalions, and heavy battalions. The strength of the reorganized troops: 15,500 people in the 115th Division, 14,000 in the 120th Division, 13,000 in the 129th Division, and more than 3,000 people in the headquarters and directly subordinate units of the Eighth Route Army, a total of nearly 46,000 people.
In order to defend the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Region, the Central Military Commission decided to set up a rear garrison of the Eighth Route Army, which would be organized into three main divisions of the former Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia local troops, as well as the 385th Brigade Brigade Headquarters of the 129th Division, the 770th Regiment of the Brigade, and the 718th Regiment of the 359th Brigade of the 120th Division, with a total of about 9,000 people, remaining in Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia. In fact, the troops who went to the front line were 8,200 men in the 120th Division (after crossing the river, the strength statistics in September were 9,047 people), the 129th Division was more than 9,160 people, and the 115th Division was 14,500 people, a total of about 32,000 people, plus the headquarters and direct subordinate units, the total strength of the troops was close to 36,000 people.
In summary, it can be summed up as follows: Before the reorganization of the Red Army, there were actually 74,000 troops in the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia region; when it was reorganized into the Eighth Route Army, the Kuomintang only recognized 45,000 people, and 46,000 people were actually incorporated into the order of troops; after the reorganization, the troops who went to the anti-Japanese front in Shanxi were 36,000. After 8 years of arduous struggle, the Eighth Route Army has achieved brilliant achievements, paid great sacrifices, and also achieved great development and became a million-strong division.