As the first generation of ace troops in our army, the three Fourth Red Army troops with the same numbers in history deserve the honor.

The three main cadre troops of the Red Army, and later the First Red Army, the Second Red Army, and the Fourth Red Army were all developed on the basis of these three Fourth Red Army. They served as the foundation for New China. The establishment has made great contributions.

The trump card troops of the First Red Army—Zhu and Mao’s Fourth Red Army

Among the three Red and Fourth Armies, the most famous are Zhu and Mao’s Fourth Red Army.

In April 1928, Zhu and Mao’s armies met on Jinggang Mountain.

On May 4, the two armies held a celebration meeting in Long City, Ninggang County, Jiangxi Province. At the meeting, they formally announced the establishment of the Fourth Army of the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army (renamed the Fourth Army of the Workers' and Peasants' Red Army in June). He was appointed army commander Zhu De, the party representative was ***, and the chief of staff was Wang Erzhuo.

When the Fourth Red Army was first formed, it had three divisions and nine regiments, which were later reduced to two divisions and six regiments.

At the end of May 1928, due to difficulties in providing supplies on the mountain and too few guns, the 30th and 33rd regiments returned to Hunan and separated from the Fourth Red Army as local armed forces to persist in the revolution on the spot.

At the same time, the Fourth Red Army abolished the division establishment and directly administered the 28th Regiment, the 29th Regiment, the 31st Regiment, and the 32nd Regiment. More than a thousand people.

Among the four regiments, the 28th Regiment has the highest status, and Wang Erzhuo, chief of staff of the Fourth Red Army, personally serves as its commander.

The regiment was adapted from the officers and soldiers of the 25th Division of the Fourth Army who participated in the Nanchang Uprising. The regiment has rich combat experience and the best weapons and equipment. At the most critical moment of the battle, the Red 28th Regiment served as the The "killer trump card" is here to use.

In the month when the Fourth Red Army was established, Yang Ruxuan, commander of the 27th Division of the Communist Party of China, launched an "invasion and suppression" campaign with two regiments. This was the first battle of the Fourth Red Army since its establishment. , the Fourth Red Army first showed its strength in this battle.

Annihilated three enemy battalions in Huang'ao and Suichuan, repelled the enemy troops, and occupied Yongxin County. This was the first county occupied by the Fourth Red Army since its formation.

A few days after the victory, Jiangxi warlord Zhu Peide launched the second "suppression campaign" against the Fourth Red Army with the entire 27th Division and one regiment each of the 7th and 9th Divisions. ”, the Fourth Red Army used the guerrilla tactics of “the enemy advances and we retreat” and “claiming in the east and attacking in the west” to completely wipe out the enemy’s 79th Regiment in Caoshi’ao, as well as the enemy’s general headquarters and one battalion of the 27th Regiment.

This battle was the first time the Fourth Red Army was organized to annihilate an enemy regiment.

On March 14, 1929, except for the 29th Regiment and the 32nd Regiment remaining in the Jinggangshan area, the main forces of the Fourth Red Army entered Fujian Province.

In Changling Village, south of Changting, Fujian Province, the *** was annihilated. The Fujian Provincial Defense Force temporarily established a second mixed brigade of more than 2,000 people. They killed the brigade commander Guo Fengming and seized a large amount of weapons and ammunition. In the history of the Fourth Red Army's battles, it was the first example of a complete annihilation of an entire enemy brigade.

After entering Changting County, using the army clothing factory left by the enemy, the Fourth Red Army sent special personnel to design the style of Red Army uniforms, ordered them in large quantities, and distributed them to the troops, unifying the uniforms of the entire army for the first time. Military uniforms, this is how we often see the Red Army troops wearing red five-stars, octagonal hats, red collar badges, and blue cloth coats that we often see in movies.

In June, the Fourth Red Army wiped out the first mixed brigade of the Fujian Provincial Defense Force.

In September, the Fourth Red Army captured Shanghang and wiped out more than 2,000 people from Lu Xinming's temporary second brigade.

Through these three major battles, the Fourth Red Army successfully gained a foothold in western Fujian and opened up a revolutionary base in western Fujian.

At that time, the number of the Fourth Red Army in Fujian alone had grown to 8,000.

The victory of the Fourth Red Army in the battlefields of southern Jiangxi and western Fujian promoted the development of the Fourth Red Army itself.

In May 1930, the National Red Army Representative Conference was held and promulgated a draft for the establishment of the Chinese Workers' and Peasants' Red Army in order to unify the military system. It was determined that the Red Army in various regions would be concentrated into legions. Below the legion, corps, divisions and regiments were established according to the three-three system. , battalion, company, platoon and other organizations.

In June, the Front Committee of the Fourth Red Army held a meeting in Tingzhou (i.e. Changting). According to the instructions of the Party Central Committee, the Red Army in the base areas of southern Jiangxi and western Fujian was reorganized into the Fourth Red Army. The First Army (initially called the First Route Army) has five armies: the Fourth Red Army, the Sixth Red Army, the 12th Red Army, the 20th Red Army and the 22nd Red Army.

Later, considering that the Sixth Red Army of Huang Gonglue had the same name as the Sixth Red Army of He Long and Zhou Yiqun, Huang Gonglue's Sixth Red Army was renamed the Third Red Army.

Among the five armies of the Red Army, there are actually no divisions or regiments below the army. Each army has several columns under its jurisdiction, and each column has several battalions under its jurisdiction, so the columns here are Equivalent to a brigade.

The commander of the Fourth Red Army at this time was Lin Biao. Lin Biao was the second commander of the Fourth Red Army.

Considering that the Fourth Red Army was expanded based on the Fourth Red Army of Zhu and Mao, the Fourth Red Army under the First Red Army should be regarded as the second generation of the Fourth Red Army in the Jinggangshan Revolutionary Base Area.

Among the First Red Army at that time, although the Fourth Red Army only had three columns, which were not as many as the five columns of Chen Yi’s 22nd Red Army, each column of the Fourth Red Army had the strongest troops and the most equipment. Okay, so the Fourth Red Army is still the main ace of the First Red Army.

The trump card of the Second Red Front Army - He Long's Fourth Red Army

He Long's Fourth Red Army has used the "Fourth Red Army" designation for the shortest time among the three Fourth Red Armies. , from July 1928 to July 1930. The total time is only two years.

After the failure of the Nanchang Uprising, He Long and Zhou Yiqun returned to their hometown and participated in the "New Year's Eve Riots" in Honghu area.

Later, He Long used his relationships with relatives, friends, old ministries and gangs to contact more than a dozen indigenous armed groups organized by local forces and mobilized 3,000 people to launch an armed uprising on the Hunan-Hubei border and occupy Sangzhi County.

According to the instructions of the Hunan Provincial Party Committee, in early July 1928, this uprising force was reorganized into the Fourth Army of the Red Army. He Long was appointed as the commander, with the first division and several detachments under his jurisdiction, and He Jinzhai was appointed as the fourth army. Commander of the First Division.

The newly formed He Long Fourth Red Army can be said to be the least successful among the three Red Fourth Armies.

Less than two months after the founding of the army, He Longhong’s Fourth Army suffered heavy losses under the attack of Li Yunjie, the instructor of the Fourteenth Army of the Communist Party of China, and the Shimen County regiment defense team, with only more than 200 people left. , Army Chief of Staff Huang Ao and First Division Commander He Jinzhai died successively.

Considering that this failure was, on the one hand, related to improper command by the commander; on the other hand, it was also because most of the troops were adapted from old-style armed forces, and the composition of the team was impure and mixed, so He Long had to reorganize the army.

After reorganization and dismissal of the old, weak and opportunists, there were only 91 men and 72 guns left in the army.

Later, He Long led the Fourth Red Army with less than a hundred people to fight in Xuanen, Xianfeng, Lichuan, Jianshi and other counties, absorbing workers and poor farmers into the army, and won over some of the Broadsword Club and the Red Spear Club. "Magic Soldiers" to develop troops.

In early 1929, in preparation for the war with Chiang Kai-shek, Li Zongren, the Guangxi faction that controlled the two lakes, transferred a brigade stationed in Hefeng County to the Chiang Kai-shek battlefield.

Taking advantage of the emptiness of Hefeng's defenders, He Longhong's Fourth Army captured Hefeng County.

After that, He Longhong’s Fourth Army, with the cooperation of local mass armed forces, smashed the joint attack of the regiment defense teams of the three counties of Hefeng, Sangzhi, and Wufeng, and moved towards Sangzhi. On the second day of May, Occupied Sangzhi County for the first time.

After more than a month of hard work, the base areas in Sang and He counties were connected, and the Hunan-Hubei border base area was initially formed.

At the end of June 1929, in order to restore his rule over Sangzhi, the warlord Chen Quzhen of western Hunan sent his subordinate, Brigadier Xiang Ziyun, to lead his officers and soldiers to attack Sangzhi.

Due to proper command, He Longhong's Fourth Army first annihilated Zhou Han's regiment of the brigade in Nancha and surrendered hundreds of guns.

Later, at Chixi Ferry, the brigade was completely wiped out and more than a thousand guns of various types were surrendered.

As a result, He Long and the Red Fourth Army achieved an unprecedented victory since the founding of the army, consolidated their base areas, and rapidly expanded their troops to nearly 4,000 people.

While He Long, Zhou Yiqun and He Jinzhai formed and developed the Fourth Red Army on the border of Hunan and Hubei, the three of them also formed and developed the Sixth Red Army in northwestern Hunan.

The Sixth Red Army was originally composed of three guerrilla groups: He Jinzhai, Wu Xianzhou, and Deng Chizhong.

However, later on, Zhou Yiqun was mainly responsible for the Sixth Red Army. He Long and He Jinzhai, as commanders of the Fourth Red Army and the only division commanders, focused their main attention on running the Fourth Red Army.

In July 1930, the Fourth Red Army and the Sixth Red Army joined forces and formed the Second Army in Pujiguan, Jiangling County.

Considering that He Long's Fourth Red Army had the same designation as Zhu's and Mao's Fourth Red Army, He Long's Fourth Red Army was renamed the Second Red Army. This is the end of the history of He Long's Fourth Red Army using the designation "Fourth Red Army".

The trump card of the Fourth Red Army - Xu Xiangqiang's Fourth Red Army

Compared with Zhu and Mao's Fourth Red Army and He Long's Fourth Red Army, Xu Xiangqiang's Fourth Red Army has existed the longest. It lasted 7 years and 7 months, and was the only Fourth Red Army that was reorganized after the outbreak of the Anti-Japanese War.

*** During the first "encirclement and suppression" campaign launched by the army against the Hubei-Henan-Anhui revolutionary base areas, in mid-January 1931, the First Red Army and the Fifteenth Red Army met in Changzhuyuan in Shangnan. According to Under the instructions of the Party Central Committee, it was jointly organized into the Fourth Red Army. The commander was Kuang Jixun. Xu Qianqian, the former deputy commander of the First Red Army, served as the chief of staff. The army had jurisdiction over the 10th and 21st divisions and an independent regiment. The entire army* **About 12,500 people.

Compared with the other two Fourth Red Army, the Fourth Red Army was the largest Fourth Red Army when the army was founded, and it was also the only Fourth Red Army approved by the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China. He Long's Fourth Red Army was established with the approval of the Hunan Provincial Party Committee, while Zhu and Mao's Fourth Red Army were established by themselves first and then reported to the Hunan Provincial Party Committee for filing.

This situation occurred not because of disrespect for the central government or the superior provincial party committee, but because the transportation and communication conditions at that time were primitive and backward, making it impossible to report to superiors in time.

In the battle of Shuangqiao Town where the Fourth Red Army was not long established, the Fourth Red Army wiped out the 34th Japanese Division, captured the division commander Yue Weijun alive, and seized more than 6,000 long and short guns. An unprecedented victory after the establishment of the Fourth Army.

By the end of the second counter-"encirclement and suppression" campaign, the Fourth Red Army had grown to four divisions with nearly 20,000 people.

On the eve of the third anti-"encirclement and suppression" campaign, Zhang Guotao was sent by Wang Ming to the Hubei-Henan-Anhui base area where the Fourth Red Army was located. Zhang Guotao reorganized the superior leadership organization of the Fourth Red Army-*** Hubei-Henan-Anhui The branch and the Hubei-Henan-Anhui Revolutionary Military Commission took control of the leadership of the Party and the Red Army in Hubei-Henan-Anhui.

At this time, the commander of the Fourth Red Army was Xu Xiangqian, and the political commissar was Zeng Zhongsheng.

In October 1931, the 12th Division of the Fourth Red Army was expanded into the 15th Red Army (which had a 73rd Division adapted from the 12th Division), and the 13th Division was changed to the new The 12th Division.

In November, the Fourth Red Front Army was announced in Qiliping, Huang'an, under the jurisdiction of the Fourth Red Army and the 25th Red Army, with a total strength of nearly 30,000 people.

The former Fourth Red Army Military Headquarters was changed to the Front Army Headquarters, with the 10th, 11th, and 12th Divisions under its jurisdiction, under the direct command of the headquarters. Xu Xiang was the commander-in-chief, and Chen Changhao was the political commissar.

Due to the occurrence of the "September 18th" Incident, the conflict between the former Northwest Military Faction and Chiang Kai-shek deepened on the issue of anti-Japanese and "suppression of the Communist Party", and the Communist Party of China organized the third "encirclement and suppression" campaign. Ji Hongchang, the commander-in-chief of the 22nd Route Army, resigned because he opposed the "suppression of the Communist Party" and insisted on resisting Japan. As a result, the military deployment of the Communist troops for the third "encirclement and suppression" campaign in Hubei, Henan, and Anhui was aborted.

In view of this, the Fourth Red Army took the initiative to attack the Japanese troops. In the Battle of Huang'an, the Fourth Red Army wiped out the enemy's 60th Division, with more than 15,000 Japanese soldiers, surrendered more than 7,000 guns, and captured the enemy alive. Division commander Zhao Guanying.

In the following battles of Shangman, Sujiabu and Huangguang, the Fourth Red Army annihilated another 45,000 enemy troops and captured the enemy's commander-in-chief Li Shiding, five brigade commanders, 11 regiment commanders and There are more than 20,000 officers and soldiers below, more than 22,000 guns, 43 various guns, and 171 machine guns.

At this time, the Fourth Red Front Army had grown to four divisions and a young *** international regiment, with a total strength of 45,000 people.

But the good times did not last long. Due to Zhang Guotao's command errors and the suppression of counter-revolutionaries within the army, the fourth anti-"encirclement and suppression" campaign failed. Xu Qianqian's Fourth Red Army suffered heavy losses. Cai Shenxi, commander of the 25th Red Army, and the Red Army Gan Jishi, political commissar of the 11th Division, died.

The Fourth Red Front Army led the four divisions of the Fourth Red Army and more than 20,000 people from the International Regiment of Major League Baseball to move to the west of Pinghan Road.

By the time they arrived in northern Sichuan, there were only 15,000 troops left out of 45,000.

On June 12, 1935, the Fourth Red Army and the First Red Army, which had voluntarily abandoned their Sichuan-Shaanxi base areas, met in the Maogong Dawei area.

Due to the serious power imbalance between the First Red Army and the Fourth Red Army, this situation *** and expanded Zhang Guotao's ambitions.

After the reunification, the First Red Army and the Fourth Red Army were mixed into the left and right armies, which were developed from Zhu and Mao’s Fourth Army. Lin Biao’s First Red Army and Xu Xiangqian’s second-generation Fourth Red Army happened to be both Organized into the Right Army.

Lin Biao’s First Red Army Corps was reorganized into the First Red Army because its strength was severely weakened during the Long March. The designation of the First Red Army happened to be the designation used by Xu Xiangqian and the main force of the Fourth Red Army before January 1931. .

At this time, Xu Shiyou was the second generation commander of Xu Qianqian's Fourth Red Army.

While passing through the Brazilian region, the Communist Party of China intercepted a secret message sent by Zhang Guotao to Chen Changhao in an attempt to harm the Party Central Committee. That night, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China led Lin Biao's First Army and Peng Dehuai's Third Army out of danger.

Later, due to Xu Xiangqian's words, "How can the Red Army fight against the Red Army in the world? It cannot be fought no matter what." Chen Changhao's attempt to send Xu Shiyou to lead the Fourth Red Army to pursue the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China was prevented and avoided. It is a tragedy in history that two famous Red and Fourth Armies fought against each other.

After Zhang Guotao canceled the Second "Central" and the three main forces joined forces, all five armies of the Red Fourth Front Army should have crossed the Yellow River westward as planned to carry out the Ningxia Campaign. However, after three of the armies crossed the Yellow River, , because our army's crossing ports were occupied by the enemy, the Fourth Red Army was divided into two by the Yellow River. Three armies in Hexi later formed the West Route Army, with more than 21,800 people killed. Due to improper command by the top decision-makers at the time, the whole army was brutally destroyed. The army was destroyed.

They are composed of the 30th Army (developed from the 11th Division of the 4th Red Army under Xu Qianqian), the 9th Army (developed from the 12th Division of the 4th Red Army under Xu Qianqian), and the 5th Army (developed from the 12th Division of the 4th Red Army under Xu Qianqian). The original 33rd Red Army formed by the Fourth Front Army in Sichuan), only the 4th Red Army (the first generation Xu Xiangqian and the 2nd generation Red 4th Army developed from the 10th Division of the 4th Red Army) and the 31st Army (the 31st Red Army The 73rd Division (developed from the 73rd Division) remained in Hedong until the outbreak of the Anti-Japanese War. The Fourth Red Army was mainly reorganized into the 129th Division of the Eighth Route Army. Among them, Xu Shiyou's Fourth Red Army was reorganized into the 129th Division of the Eighth Route Army. Division 385th Brigade.

Xu Xiangqian, the former commander-in-chief of the Fourth Red Front Army, serves as the deputy commander of the 129th Division.

(Recommended by Yang Song from "World of Literature and History")