1937, the main force of the Red Army in northern Shaanxi was reorganized into the Eighth Route Army of the National Revolutionary Army, of which the 
15th Division was adapted from the original Red Front Army; the 120th Division was adapted from the original Red Second Front Army, and its military and political chiefs were basically inherited from the former Red Army generals.
However, when Red Fourth Front Army was adapted into the 129th Division, its military and political chief changed greatly due to various reasons.
So when the main forces of the three major Red Army were reorganized into the Eighth Route Army, why did the Red Fourth Front Army, which was once the most powerful, face the most problems? How could Chairman Mao carefully arrange the first military and political chief of the 129th Division?
Red Fourth Front Army
The main force of the Red Army was reorganized into three divisions of the Eighth Route Army. The Red Fourth Front Army suffered the minimum number of consecutive losses
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1936 after the three major Red Army main forces met, the number of people recovered, and Shaanxi Northern Red Army increased from more than 50,000 to 74,400. Therefore, when the two sides initially contacted each other in February 1937, our party proposed that the Red Army should be reorganized into four armies and 12 divisions. Of course, the Chiang Kai-shek group did not want our army to have such powerful strength, and the negotiations between the two sides were once stranded.
In fact, even if we calculate 10,000 people per division, the Red Army could be organized into 8 divisions at most, so this is a wonderful move that our army made to compete for organization. Sure enough, our party immediately launched a plan to organize four divisions and the fourth regiment of each division, so that most of the Red Army could be adapted.
Chiang Kai-shek's group reluctantly accepted the reorganization of the Red Army into two divisions, but the differences between the two sides were finally approaching.
But Chiang Kai-shek is capricious in giving the Red Army organization, and what is even more overstated is that he actually proposed to let Chairman Mao, Zhu De and others go abroad.
Chiang Kai-shek, Chairman Mao and others
Chiang Kai-shek attempted to reorganize the Red Army to eliminate our party's absolute leadership over the army. In July, our party even proposed that if Chiang Kai-shek could not come up with a final plan, the Red Army would adapt it into four divisions to go to the front line of the anti-Japanese war in August.
Until the outbreak of " Lugou Bridge Incident " and Songhu Battle , Chiang Kai-shek faced unprecedented pressure and had to show sincerity on the issue of the Red Army's adaptation.
, but in the end, only agreed to reorganize our army into three divisions, and the numbers of these three divisions were all Northeast Army original numbers that were just laid off in 1937.
Perhaps Chiang Kai-shek thought that this would pass on bad luck to our army, but he never thought that the army led by our party never believed in the feudal superstition.
Songhu Battle
According to the final adaptation plan, more than 15,500 Red Front Army members were reorganized into the 115th Division, and the former commander of the Red 1st Army, Lin Biao and political commissar Nie Rongzhen transformed into division commanders and deputy division commanders.
More than 14,000 Red Second Front Army personnel were reorganized into the 120th Division. The former commander and deputy commander of the Front Army, He Long and Xiao Ke, transformed into division commanders and deputy division commanders.
However, the 129th Division adapted from the Red Fourth Front Army actually had only more than 13,000 people, which is far from the 80,000 people who met in the Long March in .
Nie Rongzhen
In May 1935, the Red Fourth Front Army began the Long March 2. When the Red Fourth Front Army was under its jurisdiction, the Red 4th Army, the Red 9th Army, the Red 30th Army, the Red 31st Army and the 33rd Army. After joining the Red First Front Army, Red Fifth Army and the Red Ninth Army took action with them [1].
But then, due to the wrong implementation of the policy of going south, it encountered major setbacks in Sichuan. In July 1936, when he went north again, he dropped sharply to 40,000.
At the end of October, the Central Military Commission formulated the Ningxia battle plan. The Red 4th Army, the Red 9th Army and the adapted Red 5th Army had a total of 21,800 people crossed the west to the Yellow River, trying to open up an international channel connecting the Soviet Union.
However, due to changes in the domestic and international situation, coupled with the wrong decision of Chen Changhao, the political commissar of the Red Fourth Front Army. These three armies encountered fierce attacks from the Ma family cavalry in Qilian Mountains, and in the end a small number of survivors had to scatter their breakthrough.
caused only the Red Fourth Front Army left in northern Shaanxi, the Red 4th Army and the Red 31st Army plus a small number of direct troops, which can be said to be a major loss to the later anti-Japanese cause.
Chen Changhao
The God of Army Liu Bocheng has been the chief of staff of our army for a long time. He ordered him to serve as the commander of the 129th Division
When the Red Army was at the end of his life in Gansu, the main force of the Red Army was unable to rescue him in order to deal with the "Xi'an Incident". The Party Central Committee decided to organize the Red 4th Army, the Red 31st Army, the Red 29th and 30th Army in northern Shaanxi into the Western Army. As long as the time is right, cross the Yellow River to meet your comrades.
Unfortunately, due to the constraints of the domestic situation after the "Xi'an Incident", aid to the Western Army was ready to be prepared but it had completely failed.
However, this to a certain extent prevented the Red Army from continuing to consume unnecessary consumption of civil war , and also laid the foundation for Liu Bocheng, the commander of the Western Army, to the later become the commander of the 129th Division.
mentions Liu Bocheng among the top ten marshals. Many people know that he has the title of "one-eyed military god" [2]. Liu Bocheng was born in Kaixian, Sichuan in 1892 and became a famous general of the Sichuan Army during the warlords' melee.
Liu Bocheng
Liu Bocheng secretly joined the Communist Party of China in 1926 and was appointed as the commander of the 15th Army of the National Revolutionary Army during the period of cooperation between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party. He also became the first of all founding generals to be officially appointed as the commander of the army.
However, the temporary 15th Army was soon disbanded. Liu Bocheng moved to Wuhan and later served as the head of the staff in Nanchang Uprising . Taking this as a starting point, Liu Bocheng and Ye Jianying served as Chief of General Staff in our army for a long time, playing an important role in the development of the Red Army and the victory of the Long March.
After the Red First Front Army arrived in Sichuan in June 1935, the First Front Army finally met with the Fourth Front Army in victory. The two armies mixed into left and right armies, respectively, crossing grasslands and hiking northward.
As the chief of staff of the Red Army, Liu Bocheng, commander-in-chief Zhu De, the Red Fifth and Red Ninth Army, was organized into the Left Route Army with Zhang Guotao and the main force of the Red Fourth Front Army. Xu Xiangqian, commander-in-chief of the Red Fourth Front Army, and Chen Changhao, political commissar, went north with the Party Central Committee.
Liu Bocheng
However, after the right army successfully crossed the grassland, Zhang Guotao insisted on leading the entire Red Fourth Front Army to the south.
At the critical moment, Zhu De and Liu Bocheng jointly convinced the commanders and fighters of the 5th and 9th Legions to take the overall situation into consideration and fight with the officers and soldiers of the Red Fourth Front Army.
It was with the efforts of Liu Bocheng and Zhu De that the Red Fourth Front Army later returned to the correct route. Liu Bocheng was also recognized by the commanders and fighters of the Red Fourth Front Army during this period.
In this way, after Xu Xiangqian and Chen Changhao led their troops to the west in 1936, the Red Fourth Front Army system in northern Shaanxi had actually no longer had the highest commander.
Zhang Guotao
After being appointed as the commander of the Western Army, Liu Bocheng's qualifications, prestige and command and combat capabilities were unattainable in the original Red 4th Army and the Red 31st Army.
Therefore, when it was finally confirmed that the Red Fourth Front Army was reorganized into the 129th Division, Liu Bocheng was the best candidate whether it was commanding operations or from the perspective of uniting the commanders and fighters of the Red Fourth Front Army.
Liu Bocheng delivered an important speech at the 129th Division's expedition meeting, greatly appeaseing many officers and soldiers who were temporarily unable to accept the Kuomintang army's anti-Japanese resistance.
Liu Bocheng later led the 129th Division to grow and grow to 300,000 people. After the outbreak of the War of Liberation, he led the Central Plains Field Army adapted from the main force of the 129th Division to gallop across the Central Plains.
129 Division
Xu Xiangqian has been in close contact with the Red Fourth Front Army for a long time, and has completely considered the temporary appointment of deputy commander of the 129th Division
During the reorganization of the Red First Front Army and the Red Second Front Army, the military chief organization was basically retained in the Red Army era. However, Xu Xiangqian, commander-in-chief of the Red Fourth Front Army, could only be appointed as deputy commander of the 129th Division, which was largely due to his care.
Xu Xiangqian is the only northerner among the top ten marshals. He was born in Wutai, Shanxi in 1901. When he was young, he studied at the Shanxi National Normal School founded by Yan Xishan , but finally decided to give up his pen and join the army and was admitted to the first phase of the Whampoa Military Academy in 1924.
However, Xu Xiangqian was taciturn by nature and the language problems made Chiang Kai-shek, who was determined to develop his power among the students of Huangpu , not noticed him.
1927 After Xu Xiangqian participated in the Guangzhou Uprising failed, he came to Hubei, Henan and Anhui Soviet Area according to the unified arrangement of the Party Central Committee and soon became the commander-in-chief of the Red Fourth Front Army [3].
Xu Xiangqian has excellent combat command capabilities in large corps. It is precisely under his planning that the Red Fourth Front Army can defeat the more with fewer times. Especially after the western expedition to eastern Sichuan, the encirclement and suppression of more than 200,000 enemies was smashed, thus establishing a Sichuan-Shaanxi Revolutionary Base with a population of 5 million.
Red Fourth Front Army
Faced with the wrong decisions of Zhang Guotao and Chen Changhao after crossing the grassland in the Long March, Xu Xiangqian was forced to choose to be with the commanders and fighters of the Red Fourth Front Army. After that, the main force of the Red Fourth Front Army went south to try to gain a foothold in Chengdu Plain . Although the commanders and fighters fought bloody battles, they could not change the strategic mistakes and led to failure.
After the popular Fourth Front Army finally arrived in northern Shaanxi, Xu Xiangqian became the commander-in-chief again, but was also disturbed by Chen Changhao's wrong decision and led to his defeat.
But what is amazing is that after the final failure, unlike Chen Changhao who sneaked back to his hometown; Xu Xiangqian disguised himself as a beggar and wandered around in the morning and night, escaped the enemy's interception and became the highest-level general back to northern Shaanxi.
In fact, in July 1937, our party still insisted that the Red Army should be reorganized into four divisions, which was to consider letting Xu Xiangqian serve as the commander of a division adapted from the Red Fourth Front Army. But in the end, when the two sides could only reach an agreement on the adaptation of the three divisions, how to make a choice would test the wisdom of Chairman Mao and others.
Xu Xiangqian
Lin Biao has no objection to become the commander of the 115th Division as the commander of the Red 1st Army. He Long, as the commander-in-chief of the Red 2nd Front Army, is also the best candidate for the commander of the 120th Division.
Although Liu Bo can be the Chief of Staff of the Eighth Route Army, Chairman Mao considered that although Xu Xiangqian was the commander-in-chief of the Fourth Red Front Army before, his southward and failure in combat had seriously affected his reputation, and he was once depressed after returning to northern Shaanxi.
Moreover, his previously weak body became even worse after this failure, and it was difficult to meet the burden of the military chief in a short period of time. Although Xu Xiangqian still has a high reputation among the Red 4th Army and the Red 31st Army, these two armies have actually been under the leadership of Liu Bocheng for a long time.
Finally, Chairman Mao decided that Xu Xiangqian, who was more familiar with the Red Fourth Front Army, would first serve as the deputy commander of the 129th Division, and would be reused when the time is ripe in the future.
Xu Xiangqian
Zhang Hao facilitated the unity of the Red Army to become the first political commissar. Deng Xiaoping took over and started the legend of Liu Deng cooperation
Starting from the " Sanwan Adaptation " in 1927, the party's absolute leadership over the army has become an important symbol that distinguishes the people's army from any previous armed forces. Because Chiang Kai-shek's group intends to weaken our army, the two sides finally reached an agreement, and the three divisions of the Eighth Route Army did not have political commissars but were the director of the political department to play a similar role.
However, in October 1937, our army had already gained a foothold behind enemy lines, and the Party Central Committee decided to restore the position of political commissar among the three divisions.
115 Division Director/Political Commissar is Luo Ronghuan, former Director of the Political Department of the Red 1 Corps. At 120, the Political Department Director/Political Commissar is Guan Xiangying, the former Political Commissar of the Red 2 Front Army.
is Chen Changhao, the former political commissar of the Red Fourth Front Army, who was delayed from returning to northern Shaanxi on the excuse of recuperation; in addition, Zhang Guotao is not suitable to lead the work of the Red Fourth Front Army again, so the political commissar of the 129th Division became the most variable position.
129 Division
Fortunately, when the Western Army was formed before, the Party Central Committee had appointed Zhang Hao as the political commissar, which provided a solution for the candidates for the political commissar of the 129th Division.
mentioned Zhang Hao today, and most people know nothing about him. But if everyone knows that his real name is Lin Yuying and Lin Biao's real name is Lin Yurong, you can immediately understand the relationship between them.
Zhang Hao 1897 was born in Tuanfeng County, Huanggang, Hubei Province. He is cousin of Lin Biao and Lin Yunan. Although Zhang Hao was not a famous general, he joined the Communist Party of China as early as 1922 and had a much higher qualification in the party than Lin Biao and other marshals except Zhu De.What’s more important is that due to his special working relationship, Zhang Hao has long assumed the important task of connecting the Communist Party of China with Communist International .
Lin Biao, Lin Yuying and Chairman Mao
1934 Central Red Army On the eve of the Long March, due to the destruction of Shanghai's high-power radio station, the Party Central Committee completely lost contact with the Communist International in the next year.
After the Seventh Congress of the Communist International in July 1935, Zhang Hao was ordered to return to China to re-establish contact with the radio station and the password book. He disguised himself as a businessman and traveled thousands of kilometers, escaped the reactionary military and police search, and finally successfully sent the precious radio station to northern Shaanxi.
At this time, Chairman Mao was trying his best to persuade Zhang Guotao to go north. Although Zhang Hao did not know the changes in the country at that time, he firmly supported the Party Central Committee headed by Chairman Mao.
He sent a telegram to Zhang Guotao as a special commissioner of the Communist International, advising him to maintain the unity of the Red Army. Xu Xiangqian, Liu Bocheng and others also had the support of Zhang Hao, and finally achieved the entire army going north to meet.
Although Zhang Hao has not worked in the army for a long time, he has established prestige among the commanders and fighters of the Red Fourth Front Army.
Lin Yuying
0After the Red Fourth Front Army was reorganized into the 129th Division, Zhang Hao naturally became the director/political commissar of the Political Department. However, Zhang Hao was tortured by reactionary military and police before and was seriously injured. The reorganization process of the 129th Division was more difficult than the other two troops; Zhang Hao had to work hard to overdraw his body, and fell completely ill in early 1938.
Liu Bocheng sent a report to the Party Central Committee to request that Xu Xiangqian be the division commander and himself serve as the political commissar. But Chairman Mao wanted Xu Xiangqian to serve as the military chief in another strategic area, so the candidates for political commissar could only be re-discussed.
However, Deng Xiaoping, as the deputy director of the General Political Department of the Eighth Route Army, happened to work in Shanxi. After some thought, Chairman Mao decided to let Deng Xiaoping serve as the political commissar and obtained Liu Bocheng's consent.
In Chairman Mao’s view, Deng Xiaoping has the characteristic of "lifting weights as light as light", which is exactly a high degree of complementarity with Liu Bocheng’s "lifting lightly as heavy as heavy".
. In Liu Bocheng's view, Deng Xiaoping is a Sichuan native , which is conducive to carrying out work in the former Red Fourth Front Army, which is mainly Sichuan natives. At the same time, Deng Xiaoping is 12 years younger than him and has more energy to share complicated work. At the same time, Deng Xiaoping also proved his outstanding command ability in leading the Baise Uprising and creating the base.
Chairman Mao and Deng Xiaoping
In January 1938, Deng Xiaoping was changed from director of the Eighth Route Army Political Training Department to serve as the political commissar of the 129th Division, and led the arduous struggle behind enemy lines with Liu Bocheng in the Taihang Mountain Base. After
Deng Xiaoping and Liu Bocheng went through four historical periods: the 129th Division, the Shanxi-Hebei-Shandong-Henan Field Army, the Central Plains Field Army and the Second Field Army. "Liu-Deng's No Dividing Family" has become a beautiful story in the history of our army.
What is heartbreaking is that Zhang Hao's health has not improved significantly after returning to Yan'an. His unfortunate death on March 6, 1942 became a major loss in the history of our party.
Overall, Liu Bocheng and Xu Xiangqian are both outstanding military strategists in our army, and they deserve to become the top ten marshals in 1955. Although Deng Xiaoping did not participate in the awarding of the title, he became the second generation of leadership core of our party and made outstanding contributions to the development of our party and our army.
References
[1] Chinese Military Encyclopedia Editorial Office. China Encyclopedia·Military. China Encyclopedia Publishing House. 2007
[2] Liu Bocheng: The "Military God" with a will as steel - Party History Channel - People's Daily. People's Daily. 2019-11-06
[3] Xu Xiangqian is connected with the Four Front Army's bloodline--China Communist Party News--China Communist Party News--People's Daily. 2021-06-17
