People often refer to our Party's ranks during the anti-Japanese period as the Eighth Route Army. In fact, at that time, our Party had many ranks, but because after the outbreak of the War of Resistance Against Japan, the Kuomintang was the main force, and our Party and the Nationalist Army jointly resisted Japan.
After the outbreak of the War of Resistance Against Japan, the Kuomintang and the Communist Party began to cooperate in the anti-Japanese war, with three divisions under its jurisdiction, the 115th, 120th and 129th, with a total strength of more than 40,000 troops. Then the Eighth Route Army went to the anti-Japanese front, and while fighting the Japanese, the team also developed rapidly, and only two months later, a regiment was expanded into an independent division, so who was the commander of this division at that time?
He is Yang Chengwu, a famous general of our army. Yang Chengwu is a native of Changting, Fujian Province, who joined the ranks of the Red Army very early, because he was brave and good at war, and it took only 5 years to grow from an ordinary soldier to a division commander and political commissar of the Red First Division, becoming one of the few military and political generals in our army. After the outbreak of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, the Red First Division was reorganized into the Independent Regiment of the 115th Division, and Yang Chengwu Company was demoted to two levels as a regimental commander.
Although the Eighth Route Army had an independent first division, it was still said to have only 3 divisions. In November 1937, after the establishment of the Jin-Cha-Ji Military Region, Yang Chengwu's independent First Division was incorporated into the First Military Subdistrict of the Jin-Cha-Ji Military Region, and he was still the commander. Because the number of the independent first division existed for a long time, many people at that time used to call Yang Chengwu the division commander.