Let me tell you how the name of the New Fourth Army disappeared in the long river of history.
After the July 7 Incident, the Red Army, which Chiang Kai-shek had encircled and suppressed for more than ten years, suddenly became the legitimate army of the Nanjing government, and the old Chiang gave the number: Tens of thousands of Red Army in the north were reorganized into the Eighth Route Army of the National Revolutionary Army, which is what we call the Eighth Route Army; The guerrillas who persisted in guerrilla warfare in the south were reorganized into the newly organized Fourth Army of the National Revolutionary Army, referred to as the New Fourth Army.
During the eight years that our party cooperated with the Kuomintang to resist Japan, there were only these two armies under its control, and the distinction was very simple: the Eighth Route Army in the north and the New Fourth Army in the south.
However, in our impression, the existence of the New Fourth Army is not so great, and it seems that our understanding of the New Fourth Army is very vague except for the "Southern Anhui Incident" that we have heard about in detail. is not at all like the Eighth Route Army, what is the great victory of Pingxingguan and the battle of 100 regiments, and the appearance rate is quite high.
They are also all armies under the leadership of our party, why is there such a big difference?
Today, let's talk about the things before and after the New Fourth Army.
The Red Army that remained became partisans
If we want to talk about the New Fourth Army, we have to start before the Long March.
In 1934, the fifth anti-encirclement campaign failed, and the Red Army could no longer stay in the central Soviet area, and planned to move to Xiangxi to find He Long's Red Second Army Corps and reopen a new base area.
However, before the large force was to be withdrawn, the Soviet area had not completely fallen, and it was necessary to leave a part of the people to continue the battle so that the large force could move smoothly. Of course, there is another theory that it is to prepare for the call back after a while, and this reason is to listen to it, and I can't say it explicitly. If you look at what people were left at that time, you can generally understand.
The main force was all taken away, and a total of about 16,000 people remained, of which more than 2,000 were seriously wounded, and they could not follow the large army to break through at all. Most of the others are non-main forces with broadswords, shuttles, and darts, and you let these people fight against hundreds of thousands of troops with planes, cannons, and machine guns with Lao Chiang?
And looking at the few bigwigs left, you can better understand what is going on. Chen Yi was injured in his leg and couldn't walk, while Xiang Ying, Qu Qiubai, He Shuheng, He Chang and others had conflicts of opinion with Bogu and Li De. In other words, these people who were left behind at that time were faced with a suicidal mission.
And this is indeed the case, in the end, only a few people broke through and ran out, including Xiang Ying and Chen Yi, as well as Su Yu, who was bitter about the national army that fought in the earthquake in the future. Su Yu left behind a different situation, he was the chief of staff of the Red Seventh Army, at that time, in order to disrupt the deployment of the Kuomintang army, he led the team to expand north, and missed the opportunity to follow the long march of the large army. Revolution is like this, and it is understandable that the whole is sacrificed for the sake of the part.
Didn't the leaders also say that the revolution is not a dinner party? It's just that Bogu and Li De, out of personal preference, excluded their comrades who they don't like from the scope of the Long March, which is indeed a bit unauthentic. It needs to be said that the leaders at that time were also left behind. The contradictions between the leaders and Bogu and Li De are well known.
It's just that many people disagreed, Zhou Enlai came forward to coordinate repeatedly, and the leaders set off with the big army. Otherwise, history will go in a different direction. Of the nearly 30,000 remaining in the Soviet district, only more than 1,400 broke through in the end. From October 1934, the Red Army who remained in the South began a three-year arduous guerrilla career. They have been cut off from the central authorities and the higher-level party organizations, have no base areas, no materials, and no assistance, and are operating in areas ruled by the Kuomintang, and they are faced not only with the question of how to survive, but also with how to evade encirclement, suppression, and search.
Chen Yi wrote a set of "Guerrilla Words in Southern Gansu" at that time, which vividly described the difficult situation at that time. The day will dawn, and the team members will wake up early. The clothes were cold in the summer, and the chirping among the trees knew it. Covered in weeds. It was almost noon, and the hungry bowels were beating like drums. The food blockade has been going on for three months, and there is a lot of rice in the pocket. Wild herbs and boiled. It is difficult to walk at night, and the rain is bitter and bitter. The camping has no tents, and the big trees are waiting for dawn. Several dreams came true. Sigh for lack of food, and don't taste meat in March. Eat bayberry in summer and peel bamboo shoots in winter, and hunt wild boars all over the mountains. Snake Catch II is longer. The mountains are full of scorching, and the grass and trees are scorched. The enemy slaughtered an unprecedented massacre, and the people's resistance was even higher. Please hand over the troops again. In the face of this hopeless situation, the guerrillas in the eight southern provinces held out for three years.
These guerrillas were the predecessors of the New Fourth Army.
II. The establishment of the New Fourth Army
After the Xi'an Incident in 1936, the Kuomintang and the Communist Party did not reach an agreement on the reorganization of the Red Army.
But by the time of the Lugou Bridge Incident in 1937, China had reached a life-and-death point. The Red Army in northern Shaanxi already had a scale of several tens of thousands, and even if Chiang Kai-shek was unwilling to do so, it would be impossible for him to consider exterminating it.
As a result, after the Xi'an Incident, there was a breakthrough in the negotiations between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party, which had been suspended at once, and the two sides reached an agreement on joint resistance against Japan, and the Shaanxi Red Army became the Eighth Army of the Revolutionary Army of the Nationalist Government. But what about those who are still fighting guerrillas in the south? These guerrillas in the eight southern provinces have been persistently fighting guerrilla warfare in the deep mountains and old forests for several years, have no communication equipment, and have long lost contact with the central authorities.
In spite of this, it is impossible for our party to leave behind these comrades who remained in the Soviet area in those years. Although Chiang Kai-shek did not have the idea of reorganizing this part of the people at first, at the insistence of our party, as one of the conditions for negotiations, he finally agreed to reorganize the southern guerrillas into the new Fourth Army of the National Revolutionary Army. As for the new Fourth Army, the name has a history. This number was suggested by Ye Ting and Lao Jiang, and was finally recognized by both the Kuomintang and the Communist Party.
Chiang Kai-shek recognized the "New Fourth Army" because when he was the commander-in-chief of the Northern Expedition, there was a Fourth Army in the Northern Expeditionary Army. The leader's recognition of the name "New Fourth Army" is because the first army he founded the Red Army was called the Red Fourth Army.
Thus, the name of the southern guerrillas after they were assembled was thus determined with the approval of both parties. Speaking of Ye Ting here, let's talk about the most aggrieved commander in the history of the New Fourth Army by the way.
Ye Ting's qualifications were deep enough, and the main force during the Nanchang Uprising had Ye Ting's five regiments, and Marshal Zhu, the later "father of the Red Army," was still the director of public security in Nanchang at that time, and there were only a few hundred people in his hands, and his role in the Nanchang Uprising was far inferior to that of Ye Ting and He Long. However, Marshal Zhu's greatest merit was to collect the remnants of the army and bring them to Jinggangshan, thus preserving the fire for the revolution, which was quite difficult under the defeat of the army at that time. Ye Ting was a cattle man, who was the head of the Independent Regiment of the Fourth Army during the Northern Expedition, and had the reputation of "Famous General of the Northern Expedition".
Later, he served as the commander-in-chief of the former enemy in the Nanchang Uprising, and played a huge role, so he became one of the founders of our army, but later did a foolish thing. When he went to the Soviet Union in 1928 to report on the situation, because Wang Ming, Li Lisan and others made groundless accusations against Ye Ting, blamed him for the failure of the Guangzhou Uprising, and he was not used to some problems within the party, so he chose to quit the party. This incident of leaving the party also seriously affected his later position and work in the New Fourth Army.
When the New Fourth Army was formed, the Kuomintang and the Communist Party worked again on the issue of selecting army commanders. According to Chiang Kai-shek's intentions, it must be appointed by the Nationalist Government. Of course, our party does not agree with such a plan. The selection of the commander of the army involves the question of whether the follow-up New Fourth Army is the control of the country or the Communist Party, and Yan'an will never give in on this issue. However, Chiang Kai-shek also did not agree to the appointment of a military commander by our party, and the matter reached a stalemate.
Ye Ting, who had previously lived in seclusion in Macau, had returned to China due to the outbreak of the Anti-Japanese War in China, hoping to serve the country.
Chiang Kai-shek admired his former subordinate, so he decided to appoint Ye Ting as the commander of the New Fourth Army, and unilaterally issued a letter of appointment without confirming it with the CCP. This made the Chinese communists very angry.
However, Ye Ting, after all, was a member of our party who had participated in the Nanchang Uprising, and he had a certain degree of popularity in the upper echelons of the CPC, and later went to Yan'an at the invitation of the leader, where he was warmly welcomed, which made Ye Ting very moved, and also assured Yan'an that in the future, the military power of the New Fourth Army would be handed over to the CCP. As a result, after mutual consultation and concession between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party, Ye Ting, designated by the Nationalist Government, assumed the post of army commander, and Xiang Ying, who was designated by the Chinese Communists, assumed the post of deputy army commander.
At the end of the day, both the Kuomintang and the Communist Party wanted to take control of the army. This also led to the tragedy of southern Anhui in the future.
Three Xiang Ying's two questions
Let's talk about the relationship between Ye Ting and Xiang Ying first.
These two people are like people from two worlds, and they just don't deal with each other at all. Xiang Ying was a very old person, who was engaged in the workers' movement in the early days, and later had a very high status in the Central Soviet District, and was known to the outside world at that time as one of the three leading figures in the Soviet District, along with the leader and Zhu De.
Xiang Ying is a typical "old-fashioned" type who mingles with soldiers, who is not particular about appearance, has a big bald head, and speaks with a big grin. Every day, he squatted on the ground with a big bowl with the soldiers to eat, and he was very approachable and loved by the soldiers. Ye Ting is completely different, he is extremely particular about his appearance and life, he is the kind of person who is very bourgeois now. Ye Ting was born in a regular military academy and wore a general's uniform and white gloves all day long, and he was the image of a Prussian aristocratic officer, which was completely different from the "old-fashioned" people of the New Fourth Army who had just come out of the mountains.
Moreover, he has lived abroad for many years, likes photography, and is particular about food, so he is completely incompatible with the soldiers of the New Fourth Army.
We must have seen that Xiang Ying and Ye Ting are designated as no one to look down on, and it is basically a fantasy to make two people who are completely incompatible become friends.
However, the most fundamental reason for their contradictions is not the difference in their personalities and hobbies, but the contradiction in their concepts and ideological understanding, especially the contradiction in their control over the armed forces.
As we mentioned earlier, when the New Fourth Army was founded, it was itself temporarily assembled from guerrillas in eight provinces and 15 districts, which was very different from the Shaanxi Red Army, which had always been under the leadership of the party. These guerrillas have long lost contact with the Party Central Committee for many years, and in the cruel environment, many guerrillas are actually like bandits, and they do not understand many changes in the Party's principles and policies.
Therefore, such a contingent that is not completely controlled by the CCP and that both the KMT and the CCP want to gain control is very embarrassing for Ye Ting and Xiang Ying, who are the chief and deputy commanders of the army. And the most embarrassing person is Ye Ting, why? He is a bare-bones commander, and people like Xiang Ying, deputy army commander, Zhang Yunyi, chief of staff, and Yuan Guoping, director of the Political Department, are all members of our party. How else to play?
Originally, Ye Ting was a person outside the party, and the leaders of the New Fourth Army, including the Central Committee, did not trust him very much, that is to say, they did not treat him as their own. Although Ye Ting went to Yan'an once before taking office and had a good conversation, after all, there was a little bit of information through such a layer of window paper.
In addition, Ye Ting is incompatible with everyone in terms of living habits, so Ye Ting has become a guest in the New Fourth Army, everyone is polite to him, but it is difficult to get along with others.
Ye Ting is a famous general of the Northern Expedition, and he is very familiar with the upper echelons of the national army, such as Gu Zhutong and others, and can directly talk to Chiang Kai-shek, which is a double-edged knife. On the one hand, Ye Ting can use this relationship to win benefits for the New Fourth Army, such as weapons and materials, and Ye Ting has indeed made great contributions to the New Fourth Army by using his connections. But on the other hand, because of his close relationship with the Kuomintang, it has led to a sense of distrust among our party comrades.
Hence the occurrence of such a phenomenon. In the early days of the founding of the army, most of the telegrams sent by the central government to the New Fourth Army Department were sent to Xiang Ying, and very few were sent to Ye Ting by name. However, there are some contents that Ye Ting, as a military commander, needs to know, and if he shows Ye Ting directly the original, there is no Ye Ting's name on it, this will make the sensitive Ye Ting feel embarrassed; if it is directly relayed orally by Xiang Ying, it will further increase Ye Ting's feeling that he is an outsider. However, this situation mostly appeared in the early stage, and in the later stage, the central government also discovered the problem and gradually improved.
What problems did the central authorities find? That is, Xiang Ying's implementation of the central authorities' instructions and Xiang Ying's inability to reconcile his relationship with Ye Ting. Due to the relationship problems between the two, the normal development of the New Fourth Army was affected in some policy decisions. For example, when discussing a matter, Xiang Ying, Zhang Yunyi, and others usually finish the discussion, and then send a staff officer to inform Ye Ting, saying that the army commander has just discussed what is going on, and the deputy army commander and the chief of staff have just discussed, so I will ask for your opinion, is this okay? Ah, you have to think about it? Don't think about it, then the squad has already set off, or this time it will be decided...... How else can this be played? Ye Ting's anger can be imagined, but it is not good to fall out directly
If we substitute ourselves for Ye Ting at that time, we can probably experience Ye Ting's angry and helpless mood. Therefore, when Ye Ting was imprisoned after the Southern Anhui Incident, he wrote down the lament of "three years as a military commander, four resignations, one dismissal, and life imprisonment." Another problem for Xiang Ying is the problem of route execution.
After the Kuomintang and the Communist Party jointly resisted Japan, Wang Ming put forward the principle of "everything goes through the united front and everything obeys the united front." Naturally, this is completely inconsistent with the philosophy of the leader.
But in the circumstances, this was a typical political correctness, and you can't say that this policy was wrong. At that time, I thought that this policy was correct There were not a few high-level leaders of the CPC, and the leaders were even in the minority for a time. But the leaders have long understood that if they really do this, according to Lao Chiang's usual methods, they will definitely arrange the CCP army to the front line to fight hard against the Japanese army, and the CCP's army will be wiped out in a few days.
In the end, the central authorities still unified their thinking, that is, on the premise of the united front, they insisted on the independence and autonomy of the CCP. In this way, there is a lot of flexibility. In sharp contrast, the New Fourth Army was about 10,000 when it was established in October 1937, but by the time of the Southern Anhui Incident in 1941, it had only 25,000 men, which was basically not much development. What is the reason?
On the one hand, of course, we cannot deny the influence of the region, because the location of the New Fourth Army has not yet completely fallen, and there are Kuomintang troops stationed there, so it is understandable that there are difficulties in development, but the most important problem is that Xiang Ying adheres to Wang Ming's line, takes pride in obeying the united front, and shirks the policy of advancing eastward and northward as instructed by the central authorities on various grounds. This can be seen from the fact that after the reconstruction of the New Fourth Army after the Southern Anhui Incident, it grew to more than 100,000 people in a few years.
At that time, for the sake of the normal development of the New Fourth Army, Zhou Enlai tried to coordinate the relationship between Xiang Ying and Ye Ting on many occasions, hoping that they would put the overall situation first and sincerely cooperate for common development. There's no way around it, because you can't replace either of these two. Not to mention Xiang Ying. Not to mention that when the New Fourth Army was formed, it was Xiang Ying, relying on his tremendous prestige among the southern guerrillas, who integrated the guerrillas from eight southern provinces into southern Anhui in just three months, and was the greatest contributor to the founding of the New Fourth Army.
By the way, at that time, the guerrillas in the south were all fighting in the deep mountains and old forests, lacking food and clothing, not to mention any foreign aid, and they had even lost contact with the central authorities. At that time, when these people were gathered together and told them that they would be a family with the Kuomintang in the future, and that they would fight the Japanese devils together, many people would not be able to turn their minds at all. Therefore, Xiang Ying's ability to integrate these people together in a short period of time is indeed a great achievement, so he is also known as the "soul of the New Fourth Army".
But in 1940, the central government couldn't stand it anymore, and made up its mind to transfer Xiang Ying back to Yan'an, so that Ye Ting could hold real power and develop well in the south. But Xiang Ying still shirked left and right, and later because Chiang Kai-shek did not agree to Xiang Ying to go to Yan'an, it was finally over.
This result eventually led to the tragedy of the Southern Anhui Incident.
There was constant friction between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party
We have been talking about the 14-year War of Resistance, but in fact it was in 1937 and 1938 that the real fighting was fierce, and after 1939 the Japanese slowly stopped.
There are two reasons, one is the lack of oil and the other is the shortage of soldiers. The Japanese army is a mechanized army, and all cars and tanks need oil, not to mention the oil-eating ancestors of the navy. However, Japan itself does not produce oil, and originally thought that China has a vast land and abundant resources, and has spent great efforts to capture half of China and explore for oil everywhere, but tragically discovers: I X, China does not even have oil!
At that time, 80 percent of Japan's oil was bought from the United States, and after that, it slowly ran out of foreign exchange, so I wanted to negotiate with the United States whether it would be possible to extend the payment period.
The American sub-capitalists are not stupid, and when they saw that Japan was also out of money, they did not agree. In addition, the United States later began to impose an oil embargo on Japan, and oil suddenly became the most scarce thing for the Japanese army. So later, the Japanese couldn't stand it anymore, so they took the risk to attack Pearl Harbor in the United States, and as a result, they killed themselves.
Of course, that's another story. What if you don't have oil? Therefore, without mentioning the end of the Great Battle, the Japanese army basically retreated to big cities and major transportation routes, and if they could, they would not go out. You have to spend gas when you go out for a walk, don't you?
Another reason is the problem of troops. It is said that Japan invested 1 million troops in the invasion of China, and I heard that there were so many wows, but it couldn't stand the size of China. The average of these million people to all the occupied areas is like sprinkling a handful of sand in a river, and soon it will disappear. So by 1939, the Japanese army was basically unable to hold on except for the places that had already been defeated, and even if they were defeated, they could not hold it. As a result, there was a peculiar phenomenon of peaceful coexistence. The cities around the railway were occupied by the Japanese army, the cities far away from the railway were occupied by the Nationalist army, and the vast countryside was occupied by the Eighth Route Army and the New Fourth Army. No one can help anyone, so it's consumed.