New Fourth Army

thumb|Headquarters of New Fourth Army in Jing County, Anhui

thumb|right|280px|1940 group photo of New Fourth Army commanders who had participated in the [[Nanchang Uprising of 1927. Front row from left: Zhou Zikun, Yuan Guoping, Ye Ting, Chen Yi and Su Yu.]]

The New Fourth Army (N4A; ) was a military unit nominally under the banner of the National Revolutionary Army (NRA) of the Republic of China, established in 1937 as part of the Second United Front during the Second Sino-Japanese War. However, in practice, the New Fourth Army was under the exclusive command of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and operated independently of the Kuomintang (KMT)'s central military command. Unlike most NRA units, which were directly overseen by the Nationalist Government, the N4A maintained separate political and operational structures aligned with CCP objectives.

The New Fourth Army and the Eighth Route Army were the two main CCP military forces from 1938. The New Fourth Army was active south of the Yangtze River (Chang Jiang), while the Eighth Route Army was based in Yan'an in the northwest. Members of the New Fourth Army wore their badges on the left arm, with "N4A" and the soldier's unit and name listed on the badge.

After the Xi'an Incident, the Kuomintang led by Chiang Kai-shek and the Chinese Communist Party led by Mao Zedong formed a United Front against Japan, which was already in control of Manchuria and pushing into North China. The Marco Polo Bridge Incident in July 1937 marked the beginning of the Sino-Japanese War (1937–1945).

In October 1937, an announcement was made that Red Army soldiers active in the eight provinces in southern China — those who did not embark on the Long March would be part of the New Fourth Army. The New Fourth Army was established on December 25, 1937 in Hankou, moving to Nanchang on January 6, 1938, when the detachments began marching to the battlefront. At the beginning, the New Fourth Army had four detachments and one task force battalion and numbered roughly ten thousand. Later the army moved to Anhui province. Ye Ting was the army commander, Xiang Ying the deputy army commander.

It was in theory a united front against Japan but in practice there was friction between Nationalist and CCP forces, which intensified in the fall of 1940, culminating in the New Fourth Army Incident with a full-fledged battle between the New Fourth Army and KMT National Revolutionary Army forces. Up until that point, most of the battles had been skirmishes. The army was fully reorganized after the incident and remained in active combat until the end of the war.

History

The Second Sino-Japanese War began on 7 July 1937 with the Marco Polo Bridge incident.

During the Second Sino-Japanese War, there were frequent frictions between Communist and Nationalist troops. From March 1940 to June 1945, the New Fourth Army fought in 3,212 battles in Anti- operations, claiming to have annihilated 143,320 troops and suffered 30,544 casualties. On March 5, 2013, it was named a Major National Historical and Cultural Sites.

Main leadership

{| class="wikitable"

! military posts

! First term

! Second term

! Third term

| Commander

| Ye Ting (1938.2 - 1941.1)

| Chen Yi (1941.2 - 1947.1)

| Deputy Commander

| Xiang Ying (1938.2 - 1941.1)

| Zhang Yunyi (1941.2 - 1947.1)

| Political Commissar

| vacancy

| Liu Shaoqi (1941.2 - 1943.11)

| Rao Shushi (1943.12 - 1947.1)

| Chief of Staff

| Zhang Yunyi (1938.2 - 1941.1)

| Lai Chuanzhu (1941.2 - 1945.12)

| Chen Shiqu (陈士渠, 1946.1 - 1947.1)

| Deputy Chief of Staff

| Zhou Zikun (1938.2 - 1941.1)

| vacancy

| Yuan Zhongxi (袁仲希, 1946.1 - 1947.1)

| Director of Political Department

| Yuan Guoping (1938.2 - 1941.1)

| Deng Zihui (1941.2 - 1945.12)

| Shu Tong (1946.1 - 1947.1)

| Deputy Director of Political Department

| Deng Zihui (1938.2 - 1941.1)

| vacancy

| Tang Liang (1946.1 - 1947.1)

Personnel

Guerrillas

Most of the New Fourth Army's military officers were guerrillas of the Chinese Red Army, others being from the 8th Route Army. Experience from China's Civil War led to them rapidly expanding their forces at the beginning of the Second Sino-Japanese War. During the eight years of the war officers with excellent abilities were usually promoted faster. For example, general Zhang Aiping was only a battalion commander of Chinese Red Army in 1934 but had become a division commander of the New Fourth Army by 1945.

Military education

With the rapid expansion of the size of the army a large number of junior officers and newly recruited students needed training. Because of a lack of teachers the Eighth Route Army dispatched hundreds of military instructors to the New Fourth Army in two separate occasions. From 1940 to 1942 the New Fourth Army built and established six military training schools in the battlefield. These military training schools were collectively referred to as branches of the Counter-Japanese Military and Political University.

{| class="wikitable"

! School

! Principal

! Establishment time

! belongs to

! Number of periods

! Number of the Cadets

| 4th branch school

| Peng Xuefeng

| 1940.3

| 4th Division

| 7

| 5000

| 5th branch school

| Chen Yi

| 1940.11

| 3rd Division

| 4

| 3000

| 8th branch school

| Zhang Yunyi

| 1941.5

| 2nd Division

| 4

| 3000

| 9th branch school

| Su Yu

| 1942.5

| 1st Division

| 5

| 3300

| 10th branch school

| Li Xiannian

| 1942.2

| 5th Division

| 5

| 5000

| 10th branch school (Anhui)

| Tan Xilin

| 1945.3

| 7th Division

| 1

| 600

Organization

In the first three years of its existence the New Fourth Army operated independently with the regiment as its basic unit. After the New Fourth Army Incident the army was reorganized into seven divisions and nineteen brigades.

1938

In the spring of 1938 the Chinese Red Army's surviving guerrillas in the South were organized into the New Fourth Army's four detachments.

{| class="wikitable"

! Detachment

! Commander

! Order of battle

! Commander

! Troop strength

|rowspan="2"|1st Detachment

|rowspan="2"| Chen Yi

| 1st regiment

| Fu Qiutao

|rowspan="2"| 2300

| 2nd regiment

|rowspan="2"|2nd Detachment

|rowspan="2"| Zhang Dingcheng

| 3rd regiment

|rowspan="2"| 1800

| 4th regiment

| Lu Sheng

|rowspan="2"|3rd Detachment

|rowspan="2"| Zhang Yunyi

| 5th regiment

| Rao Shoukun

|rowspan="2"| 2100

| 6th regiment

| Ye Fei

|rowspan="4"|4th Detachment

|rowspan="4"|

| 7th regiment

| Yang Kezhi (杨克志)

|rowspan="4"| 3100

| 8th regiment

| Zhou Junming (周骏鸣)

| 9th regiment

| Gu Shiduo (顾士多)

| Pistol regiment

1941

After the New Fourth Army Incident the New Fourth Army was rebuilt in January, 1941.

{| class="wikitable"

! Division

! Commander

! Order of battle

! Commander

! Troop strength

|rowspan="3"|1st Division

|rowspan="3"| Su Yu

| 1st Brigade

| Ye Fei

|rowspan="3"| 12000

| 2nd Brigade

| 3rd Brigade

| Tao Yong

|rowspan="3"|2nd Division

|rowspan="3"| Zhang Yunyi

| 4th Brigade

|rowspan="3"| 18000

| 5th Brigade

| 6th Brigade

| Tan Xilin

|rowspan="3"|3rd Division

|rowspan="3"| Huang Kecheng

| 7th Brigade

| Peng Mingzhi

|rowspan="3"| 20000

| 8th Brigade

| Tian Shourao (田守饶)

| 9th Brigade

| Zhang Aiping

|rowspan="3"|4th Division

|rowspan="3"| Peng Xuefeng

| 10th Brigade

| Liu Zhen

|rowspan="3"| 15000

| 11th Brigade

| Teng Haiqing (腾海清)

| 12th Brigade

|rowspan="3"|5th Division

|rowspan="3"| Li Xiannian

| 13th Brigade

|rowspan="3"| 14000

| 14th Brigade

| 15th Brigade

|rowspan="2"|6th Division

|rowspan="2"| Tan Zhenlin

| 16th Brigade

|rowspan="2"| 8000

| 18th Brigade

| Jiang Weiqing

|rowspan="1"|7th Division

|rowspan="1"| Zhang Dingcheng

| 19th Brigade

|rowspan="1"| 3000

|rowspan="1"| Others

|rowspan="1"|

| Independent Brigade

| Liang Xingchu

|rowspan="1"| 1000

1945

By the end of World War II the New Fourth Army had grown to 268,000 men.

{| class="wikitable"

! Division

! Commander

! Order of battle

! Commander

! Troop strength

|rowspan="7"| Jiangsu and Zhejiang Military Region

|rowspan="7"| Su Yu

| 1st Detachment

|rowspan="7"| 26000

| 2nd Detachment

| 3rd Detachment

| Tao Yong

| 4th Detachment

| 1st Military Subarea

| 2nd Military Subarea

| 3rd Military Subarea

|rowspan="6"| Middle Jiangsu Military Region

|rowspan="6"|

| 1st Military Subarea

|rowspan="6"| 11000

| 3rd Military Subarea

| 4th Military Subarea

| Lu Sheng

| 5th Military Subarea

| 6th Military Subarea

| Bao Houchang

| Teaching Brigade

| Liu Fei

|rowspan="4"|2nd Division Southern The Huai River Military Region

|rowspan="4"|

| 4th Brigade

|rowspan="4"| 40000

| 5th Brigade

| 6th Brigade

| Eastern Route Military Subarea

|rowspan="4"|3rd Division Northern Jiangsu Military Region

|rowspan="4"| Huang Kecheng

| 7th Brigade

| Peng Mingzhi

|rowspan="4"| 50000

| 8th Brigade

| 10th Brigade

| Liu Zhen

| Independent Brigade

|rowspan="3"|4th Division Northern Huai River Military Region

|rowspan="3"| Zhang Aiping

| 9th Brigade

| Teng Haiqing (腾海清)

|rowspan="3"| 50000

| 11th Brigade

| Zhang Zhen

| 12th Brigade

|rowspan="10"|5th Division Hubei, Anhui and Henan Military Region

|rowspan="10"| Li Xiannian

| 13th Brigade

|rowspan="10"| 47000

| 1st Military Subarea

| 2nd Military Subarea

| Wang Haishan

| 3rd Military Subarea

| He Bingyan

| 4th Military Subarea

| 5th Military Subarea

| 6th Military Subarea

| Middle Henan Military Subarea

| Southern Hubei Military Subarea

| Zhang Tixue

| Hubei and Anhui Command

| Huang Shide (黄世德)

|rowspan="3"|7th Division Wanjiang River Military Region

|rowspan="3"| Tan Xilin

| 19th Brigade

|rowspan="3"| 27000

| Southern Anhui Military Subarea

| Hanhe Military Subarea

Media

A documentary on the women of the New Fourth Army titled My Mother: The Stories of Three Women Soldiers of the N4A aired in 2010. Created by the children of New Fourth Army Veterans, the documentary explores the experiences of women in the New Fourth Army, focusing on the lives of three of them from childhood to their old age.