As early as three years ago, he formed the first revolutionary armed force led by our party - the "Army and Navy Generalissimo's Mansion Ironclad Convoy". Having traveled in Europe for many years, he was well aware of the importance of the armed forces, so he strongly advocated the establishment of his own armed forces, and made this proposal to Chen Yannian. However, Chen Duxiu, the supreme leader at that time, had a negative attitude towards this, believing that in the cooperation between the KMT and the Communist Party, the KMT was the main and the Communist Party was the guest, and should not take the lead. In the face of this resistance, ** and Chen Yannian did not give up, but turned directly to Sun Yat-sen for help. After the suggestion of *** and the support of Sun Yat-sen, he finally obtained Sun Yat-sen's warrant, and received the support and funding of Liao Zhongkai and Chiang Kai-shek.
With the support of Sun Yat-sen, ** summoned Xu Chengzhang, Zhou Shidi, Zhao Zixuan and others from the Whampoa Military Academy, and together with Cao Ruqian, Liao Qianwu and others from the Guangdong District Party Committee, they became the leaders of the ironclad team. Xu Chengzhang was the captain, Liao Qianwu was the party representative, Zhou Shidi was the deputy captain, Zhao Zixuan was in charge of military education, and Cao Ruqian was in charge of political education. The soldiers of the ironclad convoy came from workers and peasants, and they were all motivated young people. Zhou Shidi recalled: "The military training content of the ironclad convoy mainly included shooting, bomb throwing, assassination, and some squad, platoon, and company tactics, which was almost indistinguishable from the general infantry training at that time.
In terms of political education, political classes are held for two hours every day, and discussions are organized in the evenings for each class, the main contents of which involve various aspects such as the Three People's Principles, the workers' and peasants' movements, and the situation at home and abroadThe political quality of the whole team was rapidly improved, and soon a group of party members were developed. For example, the first platoon leader of the team, Mo Qibiao, the second platoon leader, Li Haitao, the third platoon leader, Gao Chao, and some squad leaders and team members have successively become members of the team, and the party's control over the ironclad team has been further strengthened. "There are 3 platoons in the ironclad convoy, each platoon has 3 squads, with a total of 163 people. Although they were small in number, they were very strong in combat after being nurtured by revolutionary ideas.
In 1925, the ironclad convoy participated in major military operations such as the Eastern Expedition against Chen Jiongming, the pacification of the Yunnan-Guizhou warlord rebellion, the purging of counter-revolutionary forces, and the support for the general strike in Guangdong and Hong Kong. At the end of 1925, the Guangdong District Party Committee decided to expand the ironclad convoy into a regiment, and selected a group of outstanding cadets from the Whampoa Military Academy to join the ironclad convoy, with Ye Ting as the regiment leader, so the "Ye Ting Independent Regiment" was formally established. The total number of Ye Ting's independent regiment exceeded 2,000, although it was nominally subordinate to the 4th Army of the National Revolutionary Army, but in fact it was directly led by the Guangdong District Committee of the Communist Party of China.
For a long time, the "Ye Ting Independent Regiment" has enjoyed a high reputation and has been praised as "the first regular armed force led by our party", but in fact, the Ye Ting Independent Regiment was established on the basis of the ironclad convoy, and it was the ironclad convoy that became the first armed force under the leadership of our party. ** is the founder of the ironclad team, which is unparalleled.