After the outbreak of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, the Kuomintang and the Communist Party once again reached cooperation to jointly resist the invaders and defend the country. The Red Army units that arrived in northern Shaanxi were unified and reorganized into the Eighth Route Army, while the Red Army guerrillas that held in the southern provinces were unified and reorganized into the New Fourth Army. These two troops are the two anti-Japanese armed forces under the command of our party during the eight-year War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression.
The commander-in-chief and deputy commander-in-chief of the Eighth Route Army were Commander-in-Chief Zhu and General Peng, one of the ten marshals of the founding of the People's Republic of China. The chief of staff is Comrade Jianying, and the deputy chief of staff, Zuo Quan, who died heroically during the eight-year Anti-Japanese War. Ren Bi was the director of the Political Department at the time, and Deng Gong was the deputy director (later transferred to the 129th Division as political commissar).
The above people are important members of the command of the Eighth Route Army, except for General Zuo Quan, who was martyred abroad, the rest of them have witnessed the victory of the revolution and become the founding marshal of New China, and the founding of the country has made meritorious contributions.
The main member of the military headquarters of the New Fourth Army: Army Commander Ye Ting, at this time he was a non-party person. Due to his special identity, in the early days of the Anti-Japanese War, Ye Ting became the commander of the New Fourth Army. Although he did not join our party at that time, he participated in and led the famous Nanchang Uprising and was the former enemy commander-in-chief of this uprising.
Presumably friends who know history know that General Ye Ting joined our party at the beginning, but later due to various reasons, he finally chose to quit the party and wandered overseas for ten years, until the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression broke out, Ye Ting returned to China, devoted himself to the cause of the War of Resistance, and served as the commander of the New Fourth Army.
Xiang Ying, deputy commander of the New Fourth Army, was a very old proletarian revolutionary. After the Long March of the main force of the Red Army, Xiang Ying became the de facto supreme person in charge of the Ruijin base area, and at the same time the supreme person in charge of the Red Army guerrillas in the eight southern provinces.
In this way, after the establishment of the New Fourth Army, Xiang Ying became the deputy commander of the army. In fact, within the New Fourth Army, Xiang Ying's right to speak has a certain degree of authority, and his words carry a lot of weight.
Zhang Yunyi, chief of staff of the New Fourth Army, is also the commander of the third detachment of the New Fourth Army. Zhang Yunyi is also a very old Red Army general, during the Agrarian Revolutionary War, he served in the base camp for a long time, serving as the deputy chief of the general staff of the Red Army, with rich work experience.
Zhou Zikun, deputy chief of staff of the New Fourth Army, is one of the few generals of the New Fourth Army who has experienced the Northern Expedition, and once served as the platoon commander of the 4th Company of the 2nd Battalion of the Ye Ting Independent Regiment. In 1927, he participated in the Nanchang Uprising, and then followed Mr. Zhu to fight on the border of Fujian, Jiangxi, Guangdong, and Hunan provinces.
Zhou Zikun, who has strong personal military ability, was arranged by his superiors to serve as deputy chief of general staff of the New Fourth Army after the outbreak of the Anti-Japanese War, and became one of the important members of the military headquarters of the New Fourth Army.
Yuan Guoping, director of the Political Department of the New Fourth Army, was a native of Shaodong, Hunan, and graduated from the Hunan Provincial First Normal School, and was later admitted to the Fourth Political Department of the Huangpu Military Academy. It can be seen that Yuan Guoping is an excellent political cadre. During his revolutionary career, he experienced the Nanchang Uprising and the Guangzhou Uprising, and also participated in the struggle for the establishment of the Dongjiang Revolutionary Base Area. After that, Yuan Guoping was in charge of political work in the ranks of the Red Army.
At the same time, Yuan Guoping, who was very capable, also served as a teacher at the Anti-Japanese Military and Political University, and trained a large number of political cadres for the Red Army.
Deng Zihui, deputy director of the Political Department of the New Fourth Army, must be familiar to everyone! He is a native of Longyan, Fujian, the founder of the revolutionary base area in western Fujian, an outstanding proletarian revolutionary, and an outstanding political worker.
Summary: Of the six important members of the military headquarters of the New Fourth Army, only Zhang Yunyi, chief of staff, was awarded the rank of general in 1955, after the founding of New China.
On April 8, 1946, Ye Ting, commander of the New Fourth Army, was on his way back to Yan'an by plane, and the plane was involved in an accident and unfortunately died.
Xiang Ying, deputy commander of the New Fourth Army, Zhou Zikun, deputy chief of staff, and Yuan Guoping, director of the Political Department, were betrayed and killed by traitors in the 1941 Southern Anhui Incident. If these three had not sacrificed, I believe that after the founding of the country, the military rank they obtained would definitely not be low.
Deng Zihui, deputy director of the Political Department, is a founding meritorious service with the rank of general. However, due to the fact that in 1955 after the founding of the People's Republic of China, Deng Zihui devoted himself to local construction, so he missed the rank of general.