On September 28, 1937, the songhu battlefield was in full swing, and after many negotiations between the Kuomintang and the Communists and The recommendation of Chen Cheng, the old Chiang finally agreed to the selection of the commander of the New Fourth Army. After General Ye Ting, who had returned from abroad, was appointed, he immediately opened the Preparatory Office of the New Fourth Army Headquarters at No. 26 Taihe Street in Hankou. However, although the sign was hung up and the commander took office, the troops and soldiers under the jurisdiction of this new army were still scattered in the mountains and jungles of the eight southern provinces!
(General Ye Ting)
Negotiations on the reorganization of the Red Army guerrillas in the eight southern provinces into the new Fourth Army of the National Revolutionary Army and then rushing to the anti-Japanese battlefield had actually begun as early as early September 1937, but because the old Chiang Kai-shek had a ghost in his heart, the negotiations were delayed. As far as Lao Chiang was concerned, since the Red Army in northern Shaanxi had already been reorganized into the "Eighth Route Army of the National Revolutionary Army," if he did not agree to the red army guerrillas in the eight southern provinces also being reorganized, it would be unreasonable to say, but he agreed to the reorganization and was worried that the New Fourth Army would take this opportunity to develop and grow, so he delayed it again and again, until the Songhu battlefield gradually became a decline, and old Chiang Could not sit still.
After the failure of the Guangzhou Uprising in 1927, Ye Ting, a famous general of the Northern Expedition, went into exile for a decade and lost contact with the party organization. After returning to China in 1937, he lived in seclusion in Shanghai, and after "August 13", he witnessed the fierceness of the Battle of Songhu, as a soldier, Ye Ting was bent on killing Kou, but he was suffering from no way to serve the country. By chance, Ye Ting and Zhou Enlai met in Nanjing, and Zhou Gong said: "Xiyi, I am negotiating with the Nanjing government, mainly to talk about the reorganization of our Red Army units in northern Shaanxi, and also to discuss the issue of guerrillas in the eight southern provinces.
Speaking of this, Zhou Gong asked whether Ye Ting had any recent contacts with Chen Cheng, Zhang Fakui and others, and some of the words actually did not need to be said explicitly, Ye Ting understood in seconds.
I. Chen Chengli recommended Ye Ting to be the commander of the New Fourth Army.
Ye Ting, Zhang Fakui, and Xue Yue were once known as the "Three Musketeers of the Cantonese Army", which were the three battalion commanders of the Guard Regiment of Sun Yat-sen's Grand Marshal's Palace, or classmates of the Baoding Military Academy. Chen Cheng, the eighth student of Baoding, was acquainted with Ye Ting as early as the Northern Expedition and had great respect for this famous general of the Iron Army, and even during Ye Ting's exile in Hong Kong, the two still exchanged letters. At present, Zhang Fakui and Xue Yue are both serving in important positions such as commander-in-chief of the group army in the Songhu battlefield, and Chen Cheng is even more the commander-in-chief of the former enemy in the third theater of operations, or the first red man in the military circles on whom Chiang Kai-shek is relying more and more.
Therefore, Ye Ting understood the vague meaning in Zhou Gong's words: If Chen Cheng could talk to old Jiang on this matter, then the formation of the New Fourth Army would soon have eyebrows. Without further ado, Ye Ting soon met with Baoding alumnus Chen Cheng, who first talked about the Sino-Japanese war situation, and when they talked about the reorganization of the guerrilla units of the Southern Red Army, Ye Ting said bluntly: "Is it possible for me to come forward and organize an army, and after training, it is also a big anti-Japanese force?" Chen Cheng said: Your idea is very good, I don't know what the chairman of the committee means, Ye Ting hit the iron while it was hot: "You can tell him my idea."
Chen Cheng responded, expressing his willingness to have the opportunity to talk to Old Jiang, and when they were separated, Ye Ting deliberately said: "Then we can fight Japan together again!"
(Chen Cheng)
Chen Cheng did not renege on his word, and soon mentioned to Old Jiang that Ye Ting intended to take up the post of reorganized military commander, and Old Jiang did not agree at first, and then asked several confidants, and they all said that Ye Ting was indeed a suitable candidate: Sun Yat-sen's guard battalion commander, a famous general of the Northern Expedition, and not a member of either side of the Kuomintang and the Communist Party, so he changed his mind and was appointed on September 28, 1937. After Ye Ting took office, he also skillfully went to Yan'an with the approval of He Yingqin, and expressed his complete acceptance of the party's leadership in person, and in this way, the formation of the New Fourth Army entered the fast lane.
During that period, General Ye Ting was extremely busy, and he also had to contact two sides at the same time: on the one hand, he had to negotiate with He Yingqin, chief of staff and minister of military affairs, on the specific matters of reorganization; on the other hand, he also maintained close telecommunications contact with Yan'an to receive cadres sent from Yan'an, but the most difficult problem was the details of the downhills, concentration, and dispatch of guerrillas from various places to the reorganization site. Since almost all the guerrillas in the southern provinces had lost radio contact with the Party Central Committee, and these detachments were in a state of independent survival and scattered combat, how easy was it to gather them one by one?
At that time, the leaders of the Red Army guerrillas in the southern provinces, some of whom had learned from the outside world of the news of the second Kuomintang-Communist cooperation in the joint resistance against Japan, were negotiating with the local authorities individually; some were simply unaware of the changes in the situation and continued to fight guerrillas in the deep mountains and old forests; and some were watching from the sidelines because they could not get instructions from their superiors, and the overall situation was very complicated.
(Group photo of Ye Ting, Zhang Fakui, Huang Qixiang, etc.)
Second, the Red Army guerrillas in the eight southern provinces have endured three years of "bloody persistence."
After the main force of the Red Army began the Long March in October 1934, there were more than 16,000 regular troops of the Red Army left behind, and nearly 20,000 wounded and sick and local armed forces, who suffered very heavy losses under the enemy's heavy encirclement and suppression, and the main force was lost, and the remaining parts were scattered in the mountainous areas to carry out guerrilla warfare, preserving a very valuable spark for the revolution. Under the enemy's tight seal, these Red Army guerrillas formed more than a dozen scattered guerrilla zones, and basically fought independently, of which the larger ones included:
Xianggan Border Guerrilla Zone: A guerrilla force of more than 1,100 people led by Fu Qiutao (the founding general).
Gansu-Guangdong Border Guerrilla Zone: a guerrilla force of more than 700 people led by Chen Yi (founding marshal) and Xiang Ying.
Western Fujian Guerrilla Zone: A guerrilla force of more than 1,200 people led by Zhang Dingcheng, Deng Zihui and Tan Zhenlin.
Fujian-Zhejiang Border Guerrilla Zone: Su Yu (founding general), a guerrilla force of more than 600 people led by Liu Ying.
Mindong Guerrilla Zone: A guerrilla force of about 1,000 people led by Ye Fei (the founding general).
(Xiang Ying)
In addition, in the Dabie Mountains in northern Jiangsu, there were more than 1,800 members of the Red 28Th Army led by Gao Jingting and more than 1,300 guerrillas led by Zhou Junming of the Eyu Border Guerrilla Zone. In the revolutionary historical documents, the guerrillas who remained in the southern provinces after the Long March of the main force of the Red Army are often compared to the "southern sparks", and now these sparks must be gathered into the "one fire dragon" of the New Fourth Army. And the most urgent problem among them is to find Comrades Xiang Ying and Chen Yi, who are active in the border areas of Gansu and Guangdong, because these two people hold higher positions in the party and are important leaders who are familiar with and understood by the guerrillas in all the southern provinces.
If the Party Central Committee can restore contact with the two of them, they can raise their arms and complete as soon as possible the transmission of the instructions of the Central Committee and the important task of the reorganization of the guerrillas in various places. However, General Ye Ting was obviously powerless in this matter, he was neither a party member, nor had he experienced the war stage of the development and growth of the Red Army, and he was even less familiar with Xiang Ying and Chen Yi, so the task fell on Ye Jianying and Bogu of the Eighth Route Army's office in Nanjing, but the two asked the comrades in the entire office, and none of them knew Xiang Ying, after all, they were young people from northern Shaanxi.
Ye Jianying and Bogu were so anxious that they mobilized everyone to find a way to find a candidate, and the result was really found: At that time, through the efforts of Vice Chairman Zhou, the Nanjing authorities had just released a group of arrested underground party members, including a comrade named Gu Yuliang, who said that he knew Xiang Ying.
(Ye Jianying)
Of course, people were immediately called, and the two leaders asked Gu Yuliang how he knew Xiang Ying, and Gu Yuliang replied: "From 1928 to 1930, when I was a traffic officer in Shanghai, I often went to him to deliver documents, and I was very familiar with him" (Note: Gu Yuliang is a native of Jiading, Shanghai, who served as a traffic officer in the central government and secretary of the Jiangsu Provincial Party Committee, and was arrested in 1933). Ye Jianying and Bogu were very excited to hear this, and solemnly said to Gu Yuliang: I learned from the newspaper that Comrade Xiang Ying, who led the guerrilla unit of the Red Army in the south, was recently active in the Jiangxi area and negotiating with the local authorities of the National Government.
The truth of history is that the Red Army guerrillas in the southern provinces did not fully understand the core policies and principles of our Party on the second Kuomintang-Communist cooperation, and lao Chiang had secretly ordered the conspiracy, which also caused the guerrillas in various localities to grasp the direction of the negotiations with the local Kuomintang authorities, and there were also cases in which they were disarmed or even killed by the enemy because of their paralysis, so it was extremely urgent and important to convey instructions to them.
in Bogu
Third, Gu Yuliang went to Jiangxi alone with the fire paint letter to find Xiang Ying.
Under the arrangement of the Nanjing Office of the Eighth Route Army, Gu Yuliang first went to the street to buy a few clothes and suitcases, then received a brand-new set of military uniforms, and after returning to the office, reported to Ye Jianying, chief of staff of the Eighth Route Army, who solemnly instructed: "Xiao Gu, your public identity in jiangxi this time is that of the lieutenant and lieutenant of the Eighth Route Army office in Nanjing, and the letter is ready." Another heavy envelope is a fire paint seal, which contains four big characters: Xiang Ying Qin Qi.
Ye Jianying gave a special explanation: "When you arrive in Jiangxi, you will go to Nanchang with an official letter to find Xiong Bin, and he will send someone to take you to find Xiang Ying, and the letter must be handed over to Xiang Ying by hand, and it must not fall into the hands of others, in addition, you must also verbally convey the following four instructions to Xiang Ying."
(Gu Yuliang during the Liberation War)
1) The leaders of the guerrillas may go downhill to negotiate, but they cannot bring the troops with them.
2. We must be vigilant against the tricks of the Kuomintang side, the troops should be hidden in the mountains, and if they provoke, they must resolutely fight back and cannot be soft!
3. Expand the ranks and raise supplies while negotiating.
4. After the negotiations are successful, don't act in the name of the Red Army, and wait for Xiang Ying to arrange things there in accordance with the spirit of the instructions of the Central Committee, and then you will come to Nanjing with him.
Gu Yuliang nodded and said yes, and when he put on the brand-new captain's uniform, he found that he could not even salute the military salute, Ye Jianying immediately found a staff officer surnamed Xu in the office to teach Gu Yuliang how to salute, and by the way, he also taught some etiquette and common sense when the soldiers met. On October 3, 1937, after everything was ready, Gu Yuliang took a boat from Nanjing to Jiujiang alone, and then took a train straight to Nanchang.
(Deng Zihui)
Fourth, gu Yuliang arrived in Jiangxi and found Chen Yi first.
After three days of running by car and boat, Gu Yuliang rushed to the "Jiangxi Provincial Security Headquarters" in Nanchang on the morning of October 7 and met with Xiong Bin, chief of staff. Xiong Bin, chief of staff of the Lieutenant General, was not a general of the Central Army, but was born in Feng Yuxiang's Nationalist Army system, and had served as the director of the General Affairs Department of the Nanjing General Staff Headquarters, and his political attitude was still relatively mild; after reading Ye Jianying's handwritten letter, he thought about it for a moment, and then summoned a staff officer named Chen Hongshi and ordered him to accompany Gu Yuliang to Ji'an, Jiangxi, at once, and it was obvious that Xiong Bin knew Xiang Ying's whereabouts.
It was already dusk when the security headquarters's car drove to Ji'an, and this Staff Officer Chen took Gu Yuliang to a very shabby hotel and said to Gu Yuliang: "Xiang Ying lives here." The two men walked into a room and saw a person inside who was writing something on his desk, and Chen Hongshi introduced: "His name is Chen Yi, and he is also the person in charge here." Chen Yi looked up and enthusiastically walked over to shake hands with Gu Yuliang, at this time the Chen staff officer introduced Gu Yuliang's identity and intentions to him, Chen Yi said cheerfully: "Xiang Ying has gone to Dayu County, it will take some days to come back, if you have any letter, just give it to me!"
Gu Yuliang gave some briefings, and Chen Yi was very happy: "This is good, but we can get in touch with the central authorities." He turned around and called for the guards to arrange accommodation for Gu Yuliang, and then said to Chen Hongshi: "Counselor Chen, thank you for escorting Deputy Gu to come and go back to greet Chief of Staff Xiong." Chen Hongshi nodded his head and resigned and left. As a result, Chen Hongshi had just walked out of the hotel, Chen Yi's face immediately changed, and he lowered his voice and said to Gu Yuliang: "This boy is a traitor, you can use him, but you can't believe him!"! This startled Gu Yuliang, who did not expect that the situation in Jiangxi was so complicated.
Chen Yi then asked, "Do the Central Committee have any other letters?" Gu Yuliang replied: "Yes, but it must be handed over to Xiang Ying personally." Chen Yi did not want to say anything more, so he talked about how the current negotiations with the local authorities in Jiangxi had begun, and Chen Yi explained: "It only started not long ago, first the comrades in Gansu and Guangdong saw the full text of the telegram sent by the Party Central Committee to Nanjing in Hong Kong's "Industry and Commerce Times", and many comrades thought it was false, and Xiang Ying and I could not make up our minds, and did not dare to put it forward in the party, for fear of making a mistake and not being able to clean it up."
(Xiang Ying and Chen Yi)
"Around the middle of July, I got a batch of newspapers and periodicals published in Hong Kong, including a magazine called "New Theory", which published Chairman Mao's report at the Yan'an Soviet District Congress (Note: The May 1937 meeting was held), which was the first time that Xiang Ying and I had indirectly received new information about the Party since we lost contact with the Central Committee in March 1935. After that, the Gansu-Guangdong Border Special Committee held a meeting of cadres on the hills north of the Chijiang River, decided to reorganize the Red Army into an anti-Japanese volunteer army, and also published a "Letter to the People of Gannan Province." Xiang Ying and I also decided to go down the mountain and negotiate with the local military and political authorities in Jiangxi."
Gu Yuliang was deeply touched by the hardships of the Red Army guerrillas over the past three years, and also introduced the relevant situation of the high-level negotiations between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party and the Nanjing office of the Eighth Route Army.
(Ye Ting and Zhou Zikun)
After three years, Chen Yi finally saw the instruction letter from the central authorities.
The next morning, Gu Yuliang accompanied Chen Yi to the Kuomintang-Communist talks in Ji'an, where the other side unreasonably demanded that the Red Army guerrillas stop their activities and not to raise grain and raise funds, etc. Chen Yi confronted each other and rebuked them bitterly: "You have gone around propagating that my troops have surrendered to you, which has aroused the dissatisfaction and disgust of some commanders of our department, and that you have not yet lifted the siege of our army, which has further increased their doubts.
Chen Yi said sadly: "The liaison officers I sent have already killed many people by them by mistake, and you say in good conscience, who should be blamed for this?"
The other side not only argued, but threatened: "Mr. Chen, the troops do not obey the command, you have no way to govern the army, if you agree, my troops can eliminate them within a few days." Gu Yuliang took the case and told the other side one by one the contents of the agreement reached by the top level of the KUOMINTANG and the COMMUNISTS, and at the same time conveyed the opinions of Vice Chairman Zhou and Chief of Staff Ye in Nanjing, and finally said to them: "The iron hooves of the Japanese have already stepped into half of China, and you are turning your guns at your own people, are you fulfilling the agreement?" The other party was resigned, and he was intimidated by the fame of the two chiefs of Zhou and Ye, so his attitude began to soften.
(Ye Shuai in Yan'an)
Throughout the negotiations, Chen Yi continued to reason, while Gu Yuliang interjected in the name of the Nanjing Office of the Eighth Route Army; after a whole day of fierce debate and confrontation, the other side had to reluctantly say that it would stop the erroneous propaganda and withdraw the troops searching for the mountains, and Chen Yi and Gu Yuliang won a preliminary victory in the negotiations! After returning to the hotel, Chen Yi praised Gu Yuliang's negotiation ability, the two people exchanged tea while drinking tea, the relationship gradually deepened, Chen Yi said to Gu Yuliang: "Xiao Gu, your task of coming to Ji'an has not been completed, I don't want to leave you here anymore, tomorrow send someone to send you to Dayu to see Xiang Ying", Gu Yuliang happily agreed.
Chatting and chatting, Chen Yi suddenly asked, "Yuliang, do you believe me or not?"?
Gu Yuliang immediately replied that you are the director of the Central Office of the Chinese Soviet Government, and of course I believe you!
Chen Yi said bluntly: "I mean can I see the letter to Xiang Ying first"?
Gu Yuliang said frankly: "No, the letter was sealed with fire paint and stamped, and before leaving, Chief of Staff Ye repeatedly confessed that no one but Xiang Ying could open it!"
Chen Yi was anxious: "But I am negotiating with the Kuomintang and urgently need to know the spirit of the Central Committee!"
(Female soldier of the New Fourth Army)
Gu Yuliang was very embarrassed, and used silence to say that he really had to abide by discipline and could not agree, Chen Yi no longer spoke, just lowered his head and smoked, and the two of them sat silently for a long time. According to the situation of the daytime negotiations, Gu Yuliang also knew very well that what Chen Yi said was not false, and if he did not understand the accurate opinions of the central authorities, it would be easy to deviate on the issue of negotiations and downhill reorganization; after a long period of hesitation and consideration, he proposed a compromise method: Chen Yi could read the letter, but after reading it, he had to reseal it, and at the same time it was necessary to indicate on the back of the envelope that Chen Yi had opened and read the letter.
Chen Yi daxi complied, and after carefully reading the instruction letter from the central authorities, he had answers to many questions in his heart, so he repeatedly thanked Gu Yuliang for his reasonableness, and the next day sent guards to escort Gu Yuliang to Chijiang Town, Dayu County, where Xiang Ying was negotiating with the other side.
(Chen Yi)
Sixth, the Red Army guerrillas in the southern provinces have finally converged to become "fire dragons."
Xiang Ying was the secretary, commander and political commissar of the Central Bureau of the Soviet District, who was urgently appointed by the main force of the Red Army before the Long March, and was ordered to lead the few remaining Red Army and local armed forces to persist in the struggle, so he was also the supreme leader of the party and the Red Army guerrillas in the southern provinces, which was also the reason why Ye Jianying asked Gu Yuliang to hand over the fire paint letter to Xiang Ying. Even after the formal establishment of the New Fourth Army, although Xiang Ying was only a deputy commander, his party position was "political commissar and secretary of the New Fourth Army Branch of the Central Military Commission", and he still had the final decision- power.
Chijiang Town, Dayu County, Jiangxi Province, is also a place for the two sides to openly negotiate, so Gu Yuliang did not take much effort to find Xiang Ying's location, and Xiang and Gu were more familiar with each other before, and did not need any courtesy at all, Xiang Ying opened the letter and looked carefully, while listening to the four instructions conveyed verbally by Gu Yuliang, and then appeared very excited, instructed Gu Yu to rest well, and then hurriedly took the guards out.
After more than two years of completely losing contact with the Central Committee, the sudden ability to receive a letter of instruction from the Central Committee was simply "a long drought and a sweet rain" for Xiang Ying and the comrades of the Southern Red Army guerrillas.
(Group photo of the main cadres of the New Fourth Army)
Xiang Ying spent almost two days arranging things for Ji'an, and then rushed to Nanchang by car with Gu Yuliang, and after obtaining the pass issued by Xiong Bin, Xingchong rushed to Nanjing. In the three years of guerrilla warfare in the south, Xiang Ying and Chen Yi faced desperate situations many times, and finally all of them broke through without danger, such as the "Three Chapters of Meiling", which we were familiar with when we were young, and now we can finally see our comrades-in-arms again, Xiang Ying feels particularly excited and excited, and when he traveled to Xingguo, he also specially bought a set of decent clothes, which was something he had never done in his revolutionary career.
On October 14, 1937, Xiang Ying arrived at the Nanjing office of the Eighth Route Army, where he was warmly welcomed by Bogu and Ye Jianying, who, due to the tight time constraints, stayed in Nanjing for only one night and flew to Yan'an, and then returned to Nanchang in early 1938 to be officially appointed deputy commander of the New Fourth Army.
(Deputy Chief of Staff Zhou Zikun)
After returning to Nanjing, Ye Jianying spoke highly of his trip to Jiangxi, and at the end of 1937, he was again entrusted by Comrades Bogu, Ye Jianying, and Li Kenong to contact the Red Army guerrillas in Jiangxi's Leadshan and eastern Fujian regions, at which time the New Fourth Army Headquarters had been proclaimed, and his identity became "Major Staff Officer of the New Fourth Army." In Jiangxi Province, he trekked more than 100 miles to find comrades such as the guerrilla leader Huang Dao (who died in 1939), Zeng Jingbing (who was the commander and political commissar of the Ganbian Column in Fujian, Zhejiang, and Gansu during the Liberation War), and brought them party documents and instructions.
After that, Gu Yuliang rushed to Fujian without stopping, and first went to Fuzhou to meet with Chen Yi, chairman of Fujian Province, chen Yi and General Ye Ting were old friends, and when they saw that it was the liaison officer of the New Fourth Army Headquarters who came, they also gave great convenience and cooperation, so that Gu Yuliang could smoothly find Ye Fei and other guerrilla leaders in the Ningde area. Under Chen Yi's orders and Gu Yuliang's mediation, the Mindong guerrillas led by Ye Fei quickly completed negotiations with the local authorities and signed an agreement with five clauses, alleviating the tense situation.
(Zhang Dingcheng)
On January 8, 1938, the Military Commission of the National Government issued another circular stipulating that the establishment of the New Fourth Army was as follows:
First, the army was organized into four guerrilla detachments in the first, second, third, and fourth, and was paid a monthly fund of 15,000 yuan and a total of 16,000 yuan in military funds.
Second, Chen Yi, Zhang Dingcheng, Zhang Yunyi, and Gao Jingting were invited to appoint commanders of the first, second, third, and fourth guerrilla detachments to be approved.
Third, the allocation of repatriation fees is allowed to be 30,000 yuan.
Fourth, the so-called advance borrowing of food expenses shall be handled separately.
Fifth, the allocation fee is allowed to be issued to 10,000 yuan.
Six, five five five-watt radios were issued.
Seventh, the army came under the command of Commander-in-Chief Chen Cheng.
Through the unremitting efforts of the party organization, the Nanjing office of the Eighth Route Army, and comrades like Gu Yuliang, in the spring of 1938, more than 10,000 Red Army guerrillas from fourteen guerrilla zones in eight southern provinces began to concentrate in batches in the Yansi area in southern Anhui, and the New Fourth Army finally completed the assembly and reorganization of its troops and was about to rush to the anti-Japanese battlefield.
End:
After the outbreak of the "Anhui Southern Incident" in 1941, General Ye Ting was unjustifiably detained by the Chongqing authorities, Xiang Ying was killed by traitors during the breakout, and Yan'an issued an order to rebuild the New Fourth Army Headquarters, with Chen Yi as the acting commander, and the troops were expanded into seven divisions, becoming the backbone anti-Japanese force in the battlefield behind enemy lines in East China. After the formation of the New Fourth Army, Comrade Gu Yuliang was sent to Zhejiang to work as a member of the Standing Committee of the Zhejiang Provisional Provincial CPC Committee and secretary of the Ningshao Special Committee, and later as the secretary of the Zhejiang West Special Committee.
During the Liberation War, Gu Yuliang served as the chief of the cadre section of the Organization Department of the East China Bureau, and after the liberation of Shanghai, he served as the deputy director of the Organization Department of the Municipal Party Committee, and died of illness in 1993.
(Bogu in the Yan'an period)