"The Contest between the New Fourth Army and the Kuomintang in the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression"
After the outbreak of the All-Out War of Resistance in 1937, the armed forces led by the Communist Party of China were reorganized into the National Revolutionary Army to go to the country to fight together. However, the Chiang Kai-shek clique has always been hostile to the people's army, especially to limit or even eliminate the New Fourth Army in Jiangnan. The Nationalist army, which was monitoring the New Fourth Army in Jiangnan, even asked the New Fourth Army to help transport 50 cadres to Jiangbei. However, after one month of hearing and witnessing the New Fourth Army garrison, these people turned out to be communist supporters, which fully proved the influence of our party in the war of national resistance wholeheartedly.
Since the peaceful settlement of the "Xi'an Incident" at the end of 1936, Chiang Kai-shek was forced to recognize the legitimate status of our party regime and the armed forces under his leadership. However, he first repeatedly resorted to trickery on the issue of reorganizing the Northern Shaanxi Red Army, and our Party fought hard to ensure that the Northern Shaanxi Red Army was reorganized as a whole into the Eighth Route Army of the National Revolutionary Army. However, when it came to how to reorganize the Jiangnan guerrillas, Chiang Kai-shek did his best to get back the game. He expected that these people had been separated from the direct leadership of our party for a long time, and that they were scattered in various places and could easily be defeated by each other. Therefore, the Nationalist government deliberately put forward harsh conditions when reorganizing these armed forces, and some guerrillas were even eliminated by the Nationalist army during this period. It was not until October 12, after the Battle of Songhu began, that Chiang Kai-shek agreed to reorganize the surviving Red Army guerrillas in the eight southern provinces into the newly organized Fourth Army of the National Revolutionary Army, with Ye Ting, acceptable to both the Kuomintang and the Communist Party, as the commander of the New Fourth Army.
In March 1938, Ye Ting led the New Fourth Army headquarters to southern Anhui, and the various teams were assembled and reorganized into four detachments, about 10,300 people. Compared with the Eighth Route Army in northern Shaanxi, the New Fourth Army was not only weaker, but the Kuomintang authorities were unwilling to even provide military uniforms in the early days of reorganization, and the monthly military expenditure allocated to the New Fourth Army was only 80,000 yuan, which was less than the maintenance fee of a division of the Nationalist Army. The activity space of the New Fourth Army in southern Anhui was surrounded by the main forces of the Third Theater of the Nationalist Army and the Japanese army at the same time, and the situation was very difficult. In order to survive and develop stronger, the New Fourth Army began to develop towards northern Soviet Union.
During this critical period, Chiang Kai-shek sent Leng Xin to Maoshan to monitor the Jiangnan troops of the New Fourth Army nearby. Leng Xin was a first-term student in Whampoa, and although his reputation was not as good as that of Hu Zongnan and Xu Qianqian, he had become the commander of the 3rd Reserve Division when the Anti-Japanese War broke out in 1937. Although Leng Xin was patriotic and did not oppress the people, he was extremely hostile to the Communist Party. Chiang Kai-shek and Gu Zhutong hoped that Leng Xin would develop and grow in southern Jiangsu, so as to squeeze out the New Fourth Army and even join forces with the Japanese army to annihilate it.
After Leng Xin arrived in office, he chose Tianlige Village in Guangde County as his station, which was only a dozen miles away from the Jiangnan headquarters of the New Fourth Army. He hoped to be able to detect the movements of the New Fourth Army at any time and be protected by the New Fourth Army. He also took the initiative to visit Chen Yi and Su Yu, and held several parties with the New Fourth Army. However, with Chiang Kai-shek assigning the three main divisions to Leng Xin, the New Fourth Army was at a disadvantage. Su Yu realized that Chiang Kai-shek was trying to trap the New Fourth Army in southern Jiangsu as he did in southern Anhui. In order to protect the development of the New Fourth Army, Su Yu ordered the strengthening of military training and requested that each company be quickly expanded to 120 men to prepare for the challenges of the Japanese and Nationalist forces.
The New Fourth Army volunteered to help 50 Nationalist Army cadres cross the river to northern Jiangsu, which made Chen Yi and Su Yu both welcome and vigilant. Although this task has certain risks, in order to have a good relationship with Leng Xin, Chen Yi and Su Yu decided to take this task. These 50 cadres of the national army live with the New Fourth Army, train together, and exercise together every day. During their time together, these people were infected by the spirit of the New Fourth Army and eventually became communists. This fully demonstrates our party's influence on the national war of resistance.
The hostility of the Nationalist Army to the New Fourth Army has never been able to stop the development of the people's army under the leadership of our Party in the War of Resistance. Although the Chiang Kai-shek clique repeatedly tried to rebel against our party's generals and cadres, our party adhered to its original aspiration and took the principle of wholeheartedly fighting the national resistance war as its principle, and finally won the support of the people's army. In contrast, the repeated attempts by the Chiang Kai-shek clique to restrict and eliminate the people's army out of selfish interests eventually became a shame in history. After the victory of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, our Party's achievements in the War of Liberation proved the loyalty and strength of the people's army and won respect and support at home and abroad.
