The Rally of the New Fourth Army at Xinqiao

Background and formation

The newly formed New Fourth Army needed a foothold in the enemy's rear in southern Jiangsu. On 24 April 1938 Mao Zedong telegraphed Xiang Ying, instructing the Army to move its main force towards the Jingxian–Nanling area and first send a detachment to reconnoitre around Lishui. In response, one company was drawn from each of the first, second and third columns — some 400 men in all — to form an Advance Detachment, with Su Yu as commander and Zhong Qiguang as head of the political department.

The Advance Detachment left Yanchi in southern Anhui on 28 April and moved along the Anhui–Jiangsu border towards the enemy's rear. In mid-May it entered the Jiangning and Lishui area. A survey by the Jiangsu Provincial Office of Local Gazetteers records that it then split into three columns: reconnoitring towards Danyang and Changzhou, towards Longtan near Xiashu in Jurong towards Nanjing, and from Lishui via Tianwang Temple into the Maoshan area and then towards Baozhen — of the three routes, Lishui was one of the corridors by which the Advance Detachment came from southern Anhui into southern Jiangsu.

The main force followed. On 4 May Mao telegraphed Xiang Ying again that "after the reconnaissance troops have been out for some days, the main force can prepare to follow". Chen Yi was appointed commander of the First Column and Fu Qitao deputy commander, leading the first and second regiments, some 2,300 men, out of southern Anhui; the provincial gazetteer office records their departure from Nanling on 1 June, and after reaching Gaochun Chen Yi and Fu Qitao split their forces, Fu taking the first regiment out past Xiaodanyang to operate in the Jiangning, Lishui and Dangtu areas while Chen led the column headquarters and the second regiment into the Maoshan area.

The rally

On 8 June 1938 the First Column and the Advance Detachment met at Xinqiao in Lishui. The account by Bian Xinhong of the CPC Nanjing Municipal Party History Office and the survey by the provincial gazetteer office give the same date, and the two corroborate each other.

Documentary and historical corroboration

The event is attested by a telegram of the time and by a chronicle, not only by later recollection. On 15 June 1938 Xiang Ying's telegram "On the deployment and tasks of the first, second and third columns, to Mao Zedong and others" records that "the Chen column and the Su advance detachment have already joined at Xinqiao in Lishui". The Chronicle of Chen Yi records the rally on 8 June and notes that Su Yu gave a five-hour report on operations in southern Jiangsu. The History of the 24th Army of the Chinese People's Liberation Army and the Draft History of the struggle in Southern Jiangsu also record the event.

The nature of the material should be stated: the text of the telegram is quoted at second hand in a Party history study, and this library has not seen the archival original. The entries in the telegram and in the two histories agree and can corroborate one another, but a layer remains between the quotation and the original.

Points in Lishui after the rally

Three days after the rally, on 11 June, Su Yu, then stationed at Lijia Mountain in Lishui, received an order from the Third War Zone commander Gu Zhutong and took four companies from the Advance Detachment and the First Column to destroy the railway at Xiashu street, derailing a Japanese supply train and interrupting traffic on the Shanghai–Nanjing line for several hours. The provincial gazetteer office instead dates this action to the dawn of 15 June; the two dates differ and both are given here without choosing between them.

On 17 June Su Yu ambushed a Japanese convoy at Weigang, killing 13 Japanese soldiers and wounding seven or eight, and capturing more than ten rifles and pistols, 7,000 yen in Japanese currency and four carloads of supplies.

Xiashu and Weigang lie in the Danyang area of Zhenjiang, not in Lishui. They are recorded here only for their connection to movements from Lishui and are not counted as events of the war in Lishui.

Scholarly status

The article by Bian Xinhong states on its own account that the Xinqiao rally "for a long time drew no attention from the scholarly world, and there were even people questioning whether the Xinqiao rally ever happened and what its historical value was". That is the author's own rebuttal, and it is written out here rather than only the conclusion being taken. Only one item in this library records that disputed status, so the confidence level is set to medium and is not raised on account of the two corroborating sources.

The same article records that the "Jiangnan Command Headquarters of the New Fourth Army" was founded at Shuixi Village, Liyang, on 7 November 1939. That place is in Liyang, not Lishui, and must not be used for Lishui entries.

Points of doubt

• Both sources give 8 June for the rally, but they differ on the date of the raid on the railway at Xiashu (11 June and 15 June); both are given here.
• The scholarly dispute over the rally appears only in the article by the CPC Nanjing Municipal Party History Office, and there as the author's own statement; this library holds no third-party work recording a contrary view or a reply.
• The text of Xiang Ying's telegram of 15 June is quoted at second hand and the archival original has not been seen; nor have the Chronicle of Chen Yi, the History of the 24th Army or the Draft History of the struggle in Southern Jiangsu been consulted in the original, and this entry records only what they state.
• Neither source gives a date more precise than "mid-May" for the Advance Detachment's entry into Lishui, nor a headcount.
• Neither source records where the meeting place at Xinqiao now stands, or whether any memorial marks it.