During the period of the Agrarian Revolutionary War, the Red Fourth Front, as one of the three main forces of the Red Army, was strong in strength, and after the three main forces of the Red Army met the divisions, the Central Committee formed the Western Route Army on the basis of two corps of the Red Fourth Front, one army of the Red Army and one cavalry division of the Red Army in northern Shaanxi. After the Western Route Army marched west, after several months of bloody fighting, the main force was lost, and almost the entire army was destroyed. This caused the Red Fourth Front to suffer very heavy losses, but it did not hurt the bones.
Two corps of the Red Fourth Front did not join the Western Route Army, and these two armies were later merged with other units to form the 129th Division of the Eighth Route Army, which can be regarded as the Red Fourth Front retaining the "revolutionary bloodline". After the founding of the People's Republic of China, Xu Xiangqian, commander-in-chief of the Red Fourth Front, became the founding marshal and the highest rank in the Red Fourth Front system, and in the sequence of founding generals under the marshal, the Red Fourth Front also produced many founding generals, including major generals, admirals, lieutenant generals and major generals.
Among the founding generals, three people who had served in the Red Fourth Front were Wang Shusheng, Chen Geng and Xu Haidong. These three people are also regarded as the representatives of the generals of the Red Fourth Front, but some people believe that General Xu Haidong should not be regarded as a representative of the Red Fourth Front, but should be regarded as a representative of the Red 25th Army.
During the Red Army period, the Red Fourth Front had two main positions, the early stage was the Eyu-Anhui Soviet Area, and the later period was the Sichuan-Shaanxi base area. During the Eyu-Anhui Soviet Period, Xu Haidong served as regimental commander and division commander in the Red Fourth Front, and later the main force of the Red Fourth Front shifted to the west, opening up the Sichuan-Shaanxi base area. This included part of the 25th Army under the jurisdiction of the Red Fourth Front, the 25th Army had 3 divisions, one division was crippled and abolished, and one division left the Eyu-Anhui Su Area with the main force of the Red Fourth Front, leaving only one division in the Eyu-Anhui Su District.
Later, based on a division left by the 25th Army, a new unit was formed to continue to hold the Eyu-Anhui Soviet area. The name of the department is still the Red 25th Army, although the name is the same as the original 25th Army, but in fact it is two completely different units, the original 25th Army is an army under the jurisdiction of the Red Fourth Front, and the newly formed Red 25th Army has little to do with the Red Fourth Front, nor is it under the leadership and moderation of the Red Fourth Front.
After the establishment of the New Red 25th Army, Xu Haidong served as a division commander in the 74th Division under the red 25th Army, and was later promoted to deputy commander of the Red 25th Army for military merit, while still serving as the commander of the 74th Division. The Red 25th Army continued to negotiate with the Kuomintang army in the Eyu-Anhui Soviet area, and the losses were relatively large, and even the unit was once cut into two parts by the enemy, one part led by Xu Haidong and the other part led by Wu Huanxian and Dai Jiying.
In April 1934, the Red Army led by Xu Haidong and the Red Army led by Wu Huanxian were reunited, and the unit number was still the Red 25th Army, with Xu Haidong as the commander and Wu Huanxian as the military political commissar. In November of that year, Cheng Zihua, who had previously been serving in the Central Red Army, was ordered to come to the Eyu-Anhui Soviet Region and reorganize the Red 25th Army, with Cheng Zihua as the commander of the Red 25th Army, Xu Haidong as the deputy commander, and Wu Huanxian as the political commissar of the 25th Army.
Not long after this reorganization, the Red 25th Army embarked on a long march, leaving the Eyu-Anhui Soviet Region and marching toward northern Shaanxi. On the long march road, the Red 25th Army was also a large and small battle, and under the tempering of the war, Xu Haidong's military talent became more and more outstanding. Every time there was a war, he always took the lead and was wounded many times. Although the weapons and equipment were inferior to those of the enemy, under the strong command of Xu Haidong and Wu Huanxian, the Red 25th Army was almost always able to defeat the enemy and even captured many heavy weapons of the enemy, and on the Long March, the Red 25th Army also established a base area, and there was no downsizing. This was extremely rare at that time, and the Three Main Long Marches of the Red Army, whether it was the Red Front, the Red Second Front, or the Red Fourth Front, did not create such a miracle.
When the Red 25th Army entered Jingchuan, Gansu, it was ambushed by the enemy army, and Wu Huanxian was unfortunately shot and killed in the process of commanding the battle, at this time it was very close to the base area in northern Shaanxi, but Wu Huanxian died, which was a pity. After Wu Huanxian's death, Xu Haidong became the commander of the Red 25Th Army, Cheng Zihua became the political commissar of the army, the two continued to lead the Red 25th Army, and a month later, they met with the Red Army of Northern Shaanxi led by Liu Zhidan, and the two armies were merged into the Red 15th Army, with Xu Haidong as the commander of the army and Liu Zhidan as the deputy commander and chief of staff.
During the Long March, the Red 25th Army effectively responded to the Central Red Army, forcing the enemy army to withdraw a part of its troops to "deal" with the Red 25th Army, alleviating the military pressure on the Long March of the Central Red Army. When the Red 15th Army was established, the Central Red Army was still on the Long March Road, and Xu Haidong commanded the Red 15th Army to attack the Kuomintang troops invading the base areas in northern Shaanxi, clearing the obstacles for the Central Red Army to enter northern Shaanxi, and making great contributions to welcoming the arrival of the Central Red Army.
After the Arrival of the Central Red Army in northern Shaanxi, it restored the name of the Red Army, which had two corps under its jurisdiction, one of which was the Red First Army, the starting unit of the Central Red Army, and the other was Xu Haidong's Red 15th Army. From this time on, Xu Haidong became a member of the Red Army, and thus he became a senior general with experience in the Red Fourth Front, the Red 25Th Army, the Northern Shaanxi Red Army, and the Red Army.
After the outbreak of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, the Red 15th Army was reorganized into the brigade commander of the 344th Brigade of the 115th Division of the Eighth Route Army, and Xu Haidong served as the brigade commander, but due to physical reasons, he was recuperated for a long time, absent from the War of Resistance Against Japan and the later War of Liberation, and after the founding of the People's Republic of China, there was no party, government and military system to hold a real position. When he was awarded the title in 1955, Xu Haidong became the second-ranked founding general, second only to the first general Su Yu.
So the question is, as one of the founding generals, Xu Haidong, did he represent the Red Fourth Front or the Red 25th Army? As mentioned earlier, Xu Haidong has a record of service in the Red Fourth Front, the Red 25th Army, the Northern Shaanxi Red Army and the Red Army, but his relationship with the Northern Shaanxi Red Army is very shallow, and the origin with the Red Army is also very shallow, so Xu Haidong cannot represent the Northern Shaanxi Red Army and the Red Army.
The focus is on the Red Fourth Front and the Red 25th Army, Xu Haidong as an old Red Army from the Eyu-Anhui Soviet District, these two units were born and fought in the Eyu-Anhui Soviet Region, and he has a deep relationship. The founding generals from the Red Fourth Front already had Wang Shusheng and Chen Geng, plus a Xu Haidong, and it was also okay not to count him as the Red Fourth Front. If he is not a general of the Red Fourth Front, then he can only be a general from the Red 25 Army.
Personally, I believe that Xu Haidong represents the Red 25th Army, not the Red Fourth Front. This can be seen from the list of editorial boards of the "War History of the Red Fourth Front."
This picture is a list of all the members of the editorial board of the "War History of the Red Fourth Front", these people are all cadres of the former Red Fourth Front, and the founding generals from the Red 25, including General Xu Haidong, General Han Xianchu, General Liu Zhen and others, do not appear on this list. It can be seen that from the organizational point of view, the Red 25 Army led by Xu Haidong does not belong to the red fourth front.
Since the main force of the Red Fourth Front left the Eyu-Anhui Soviet Region, the Red 25th Army broke away from the sequence of the Red Fourth Front and became a Red Army unit independent of the three main forces of the Red Army, which can be regarded as a small "mountain". The combat history of the Red Fourth Front Army is mainly divided into the Eyu-Anhui Soviet Period, the Sichuan-Shaanxi Base Area Period and the Long March Period, and Xu Haidong and the Red 25th Army only experienced the Eyu-Anhui Soviet Period, and missed the later Sichuan-Shaanxi Base Area Period and the Long March Period.
In addition to General Xu Haidong, the founding generals who came out of the Red 25Th Army, such as General Han Xianchu, General Liu Zhen, Lieutenant General Zhang Tianyun, Lieutenant General Zhang Chiming, Lieutenant General Chen Xianrui, Lieutenant General Lin Weixian, Lieutenant General Liang Congxue, and others, all belonged to the Red 25 Army system, not the Red Fourth Front.
The Red 25th Army worked hard during the Red Army period, and its merits were very great, and the organization believed that it was necessary to give a quota of generals. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, Cheng Zihua, another important leader of the Red 25 Army, did not participate in the awarding of titles after transferring to the party and government system, and only Xu Haidong still held the title of "Member of the Central Military Commission" in the army, so this quota of generals was given to Xu Haidong.