The history of the development of the New Fourth Army is beyond imagination, and it is difficult to compare its legend with making up stories.
During the Anti-Japanese War, the New Fourth Army played an important role in the War of Resistance in the South. The predecessor of the New Fourth Army was the guerrillas in the south, and these guerrillas remained in the south and scattered in Jiangxi, Fujian, Zhejiang and other places after the Red Army's Long March.
Although Chiang Kai-shek had been encircling and suppressing the southern guerrillas, the guerrillas persisted in their struggle under difficult circumstances. After the Xi'an Incident and the "77" Incident, the Kuomintang and the Communist Party cooperated to resist Japan, and the southern guerrillas came out of the mountains, reorganized into the New Fourth Army, and incorporated into the ** sequence, becoming an important anti-Japanese force.
The Kuomintang's repression has never been able to destroy the southern guerrillas led by our party. Although the Southern Anhui Incident caused heavy losses to the New Fourth Army in the south of the Yangtze River, our party successfully rebuilt the New Fourth Army in the north of the Yangtze River and grew rapidly.
By the time of the Liberation War, the New Fourth Army had developed into the East China Field Army and became one of the four major field armies. In the Huaihai Campaign, the East China Field Army showed its skills and wiped out 550,000 ** in one fell swoop.
After that, the East China Field Army crossed the Yangtze River and swept through the provinces of East China, making great contributions to China's liberation cause. So, how did the New Fourth Army grow from a guerrilla force deep in the mountains to a heroic division that swept the world?
Huaihai Campaign) The origin of the New Fourth Army: The origin of the New Fourth Army can be traced back to the Long March of the Red Army. After the failure of the fifth anti-encirclement campaign, the Red Army was forced to carry out a strategic retreat, but in fact left a part of the armed forces.
At the same time, the ** branch of the Soviet district was established, which was responsible for leading the struggle in the Soviet area, and the main leaders included Xiang Ying, Qu Qiubai, etc. Subsequently, the ** Military Region was established, with Xiang Ying as the commander and political commissar, under the jurisdiction of Fujian, Jiangxi, southern Jiangxi, Fujian, Jiangxi, Fujian, Zhejiang, and Jiangxi Military Regions, as well as the Tenth Army and the Red 24th Division directly under it.
These personnel and units became the basis of the New Fourth Army.
While pursuing the Red Army, Chiang Kai-shek sent a large number of troops to clear the remaining troops, and the ** Military Region made every effort to break through. After the breakthrough, the troops, under the leadership of Xiang Ying and **, carried out guerrilla warfare on the border of Jiangxi and Guangdong, ** and *** led the guerrillas of western Fujian to conduct guerrilla warfare in southwest Fujian, while Su Yu and Liu Ying led the rest of the Red Tenth Army to conduct guerrilla warfare in southern Zhejiang.
Although the hundreds of thousands of **Red Army are not yet **'s opponents, it is even more difficult for the few troops left behind to confront ** head-on. Therefore, the guerrillas could only retreat to the mountains and engage in a maneuver with **.
* The mountains have been cordoned off, not even salt has been allowed to enter the mountains, and food and clothing are very scarce. The fighters persevered in the struggle under the condition of lack of food and clothing, and the conditions were extremely difficult.
Sometimes the soldiers did not even eat salt for a long time, and many of them developed edema, weakness in their limbs, and they could only eat wild vegetables, so they almost reached their physiological limit.
While closing the mountain, the Kuomintang also implemented a strict armor protection system in order to sever the guerrillas' ties with the masses. The armor protection system is actually a system of joint sitting, and once a certain armor protection unit is found to have ties with the guerrillas, the entire unit is punished.
This harsh system made the population afraid to come into contact with the guerrillas, and the guerrillas were in a difficult situation. Under such circumstances, the team led by Xiang Ying and ** was trapped in the mountains and lost contact with ** for three years, and the guerrillas were basically isolated from each other.
At the end of 1937, Ye Ting and Xiang Ying, after negotiations between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party, decided to establish the New Fourth Army on the basis of the guerrillas in the southern provinces. The New Fourth Army was headed by Ye Ting, and Xiang Ying was the deputy commander.
At the same time, in order to strengthen the party's leadership over the New Fourth Army, the party also established a branch of the New Fourth Army, with Xiang Ying as secretary, and established a **southeast branch, also with Xiang Ying as secretary.
But in fact, Xiang Ying is the real supreme leader of the New Fourth Army. However, in the process of working with Ye Ting, the relationship between the two was not harmonious for a long time, which brought great difficulties to the work of the New Fourth Army and laid the root cause for the later Southern Anhui Incident.
At that time, there were more than a dozen guerrilla units in the south, and when ** sent someone to inform them to go out of the mountains to accept the reorganization, some guerrillas gladly accepted and walked out of the mountainsSome guerrillas expressed suspicion and even killed representatives who had come to work;There were even some guerrillas who refused to accept the adaptation and continued to "occupy the mountain as the king", and were finally exterminated.
After the reorganization, the New Fourth Army was divided into four detachments, and the commanders of each detachment were **, Zhang Dingcheng, Zhang Yunyi, and Gao Jingting, and the whole army had more than 10,000 people.
*)* After studying the situation in the south, it was believed that the Maoshan Mountains were an ideal place for the development of the New Fourth Army. He quickly issued a telegram instructing the New Fourth Army to enter the Maoshan area, and sent troops across the river to the north, setting up the Jiangbei Command Headquarters under the command of Zhang Yunyi.
At the same time, the Jiangnan region has also set up a command headquarters under the command of **. The New Fourth Army continued to develop eastward, westward, southern, and northern, creating a number of anti-Japanese base areas, such as eastern Anhui, Hubei-Henan-Anhui, Henan-Anhui, and Suzhou-central Jiangsu.
With the development and growth of the New Fourth Army, its number increased from 10,000 in the early days of its establishment to 90,000. The strength of the New Fourth Army not only frightened the Japanese but also uneasy the Kuomintang.
The Kuomintang repeatedly created friction in an attempt to prevent the development of the New Fourth Army. Among them, Jiangsu Han Deqin's troops launched an attack on the New Fourth Army in Huangqiao, and were severely taught a lesson by the New Fourth Army, and this incident was called the "Battle of Huangqiao".
The New Fourth Army in the Southern Anhui Incident) ** led the Jiangnan Command into Jiangbei, joined several teams, and established the Jiangbei Command, which was commanded by **. At this time, Jiangnan was mainly composed of the military headquarters and some directly subordinate troops.
3. The Kuomintang has always been obsessed with the development of the New Fourth Army, and their fear of the New Fourth Army even exceeds their fear of the Japanese army. In October 1940, He Yingqin ordered the New Fourth Army to go north of the Yellow River, and Commander-in-Chief Zhu, while refuting its absurdity, still ordered 9,000 people of the New Fourth Army in Jiangnan to cross the river and go north, taking into account the overall situation.
However, the Kuomintang created the Southern Anhui Incident that shocked China and the rest of the world, and the New Fourth Army was ambushed by the ** that had already been ambushed when passing through the Maolin area of southern Anhui.
Ye Ting convened everyone at a military meeting to discuss strategies to deal with the sudden change, but due to disagreement with Xiang Ying, he was unable to make a quick decision. When the situation on the battlefield became dangerous, Xiang Ying suddenly disappeared, which made the breakthrough even more passive.
In the end, under the powerful offensive of 80,000 Kuomintang troops, the New Fourth Army was scattered, and only more than 2,000 people managed to break through. Xiang Ying and several other high-ranking military officials were killed in the breakout, while Ye Ting was detained during negotiations with the Kuomintang army and was not released until the end of the war, but unfortunately died in a plane crash.
The Southern Anhui Incident was a major incident created by the Kuomintang, which caused huge losses to the New Fourth Army and also brought heavy losses to the cause of the War of Resistance.
The perverse actions of the Kuomintang failed to stop the development of the New Fourth Army. After the Southern Anhui Incident, our party rebuilt the military headquarters of the New Fourth Army and appointed ** as the acting army commander and ** as the political commissar.
The New Fourth Army persisted in the War of Resistance in Central China, fought more than 8,000 battles against the Japanese puppet army, annihilated more than 90,000 enemies, and also fought against the Kuomintang diehards. In the course of the arduous struggle, the New Fourth Army continued to expand its base areas in Central China and laid a solid foundation for defeating the Japanese invaders.
After Japan's surrender, the headquarters of the New Fourth Army went north to Shandong, and the 3rd Division of Huang Kecheng entered the northeast. In 1947, based on the New Fourth Army, our army established the East China Field Army, that is, Sanye, with ** as the commander and political commissar, and Su Yu as the deputy commander.
After a long period of tempering, Su Yu became one of the most capable generals. In contrast, his old superior's skills are slightly inferior, and the Military Commission knows people well, makes ** responsible for the overall work, and hands over the command of the army to Su Yu.
In mid-May 1947, Su Yu commanded the famous Battle of Menglianggu in Shandong, which was actually mainly commanded by Su Yu. This battle was not only a wonderful battle of annihilation in Su Yu's military career, but also a classic battle in the history of our army.
This battle proved that Huaye had been able to confront the 74th Division, the head of the five main forces, and the guerrillas who were chased all over the mountain actually drove the well-equipped 74th Division to the top of Menglianggu Mountain, and successfully annihilated them all.
The Battle of Huaihai can be called a classic, and the four columns of Huaye and Nakano participated in the battle together. The commander and political commissar of Huaye were served by Su Yu, who was also the main figure in planning and specifically directing the Huaihai Campaign.
Although our army is inferior in numbers, there are millions of migrant workers behind it to support the front line and fight a people's war. Under the genius command of Su Yu, the PLA successfully defeated ** and annihilated 550,000 people, which is equivalent to the number of our army participating in the battle.
This victory fully demonstrated Huaye's strong combat effectiveness and Su Yu's outstanding command ability. After that, Huaye was reorganized into Sanye, and participated in the battle of crossing the river together with a part of the second and fourth fields.
Sanye swept through East China and liberated Nanjing, Shanghai and other large cities, as well as southern Anhui, southern Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Fujian and other places.
By the end of 1949, the army had more than 820,000 troops, making it one of the four major field armies of the PLA. Looking back at the history of the development of the New Fourth Army, it can be seen that it has gone from fighting separately at the beginning to eventually becoming a strong division of nearly one million.