Where did the Eighth Route Army come from?

The full name of the Eighth Route Army is the "Eighth Route Army of the National Revolutionary Army". In 1928, during the Second Northern Expedition of the National Revolutionary Army, the designation "Road Army" began to appear. Why? Road first appeared in the Song Dynasty. It was an administrative district and a military district unit. Each route has a number of troops, controlled by commanders (Jiedushi). Later, during the Second Northern Expedition, the military command department at that time created a unique army organization and designation in the world - the Route Army based on the roads of the Song Dynasty. The difference is that it is no longer an administrative region and a military region, but the designation of the military stationed in a certain area. Under normal circumstances, a route army has a commander-in-chief and a deputy commander-in-chief, each with the rank of general. ?

This designation is not the first of its kind. Before this designation was given to the troops led by the Communist Party, it belonged to Li Jitang’s old Guangdong Army sequence. The original Eighth Route Army was reorganized from the Guangdong Army troops left behind in Guangdong during the Northern Expedition of the Guangdong National Government.

The Red Army reorganized and marched to the Anti-Japanese Frontline Oath-taking Mobilization Meeting

Therefore, the Eighth Route Army has always been under the designation of the Guangdong Army, with Li Jishen and Chen Jitang serving as commander-in-chief successively. If we had to find out who named the Eighth Route Army, it should have been the National Government.

In 1936, Chen Jitang united with the Guangxi clique to launch the "Guangdong and Guangxi Incident" against Chiang Kai-shek. After the failure of the incident, Chiang Kai-shek disbanded the Eighth Route Army. It was not until August 25, 1937, when the three major front armies of the Red Army were reorganized into the National Revolutionary Army, that the designation of the Eighth Route Army was given to the Communist Party.

Chen Jitang

The reason why the Eighth Route Army is called the "Road Army" is because during the ten-year civil war of the Kuomintang, the Kuomintang preserved the "Road Army" as a first-level combat unit. . It is equivalent to corps level or slightly larger than corps level. In fact, the "Road Army" was originally a temporary establishment unit. However, due to the numerous factions and complicated designations in the Kuomintang army, and the fact that the Kuomintang was always at war, the reorganization task was never completed.

Therefore, in the Kuomintang army, the Route Army and the Army existed at the same time. For example, General Yang Hucheng who launched the Xi'an Incident, the Northwest Army under his command was designated the 17th Route Army.

General Yang Hucheng

The three divisions under the Eighth Route Army used by the communist troops are not the designations of the original divisions under the Eighth Route Army, but came from the Northeast military. After the Xi'an Incident, Chiang Kai-shek disbanded and downsized the Northeast Army, which was originally an integrated unit. The 115th Division, the 120th Division, and the 129th Division, these three designations that originally belonged to the Northeast Army were all given to the Eighth Route Army led by the Communist Party of China.