New Fourth Army Yuetang Underground Transport Station

New Fourth Army Yuetang Underground Transport Station

The New Fourth Army Yuetang Underground Transport Station is a classic red tourism attraction.

The New Fourth Army Yuetang Underground Transport Station is located in Yuetang Town, Yizheng City.

The Yi-Yang region lies along the Yangtze River and was an important passage connecting the Huainan Anti-Japanese Base Area with southern Jiangnan during the War of Resistance. To maintain contact between the political, military, and party organizations of the Central China and Jiangnan base areas, as well as with the underground party in Shanghai, the Yi-Yang Anti-Japanese Democratic Government established an underground transport line shortly after its founding. There were three main routes, all passing through Yuetang, which thus became a vital transit hub for personnel and supplies crossing the Yangtze River.

After the outbreak of the Pacific War, when Japanese forces occupied the British and French concessions in Shanghai, the leadership of the Jiangsu Provincial Committee of the Chinese Communist Party, which had been stationed in the concessions, relocated to the Huainan Anti-Japanese Base Area via Yuetang. Nearly a thousand underground party members traveled from Shanghai to Huainan, including leaders of the Shanghai underground party such as Pan Hannian and Liu Xiao, as well as prominent intellectuals like Hu Feng. In addition, two to three hundred progressive youths passed through the Yuetang Underground Transport Station to reach the base area and join the revolution. In December 1944, Su Yu, commander of the New Fourth Army’s 1st Division, led the 7th Regiment of the 3rd Brigade and over 300 local cadres across the river from Yizheng southward to the border region of southern Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and Anhui. Anti-Japanese base area leaders such as Chen Yi, Tan Zhenlin, Jiang Weiqing, and Chen Guang also traveled through Yizheng to move between northern and southern regions of the Yangtze River.

The underground transport line centered at the Yuetang station was successively led by the East Huainan Road District Committee of the CCP and the Urban Work Department of the Central China Bureau. Both Pan Hannian and Zhang Chengzong visited Yizheng to guide and assist the work. Wu Xueqian, former Vice Premier of the State Council, once served as the head of the transport station here in 1942. In 1944, the Yi-Yang County Anti-Japanese Democratic Government was established, setting up a county-wide transport headquarters with branch stations in various districts to manage underground transport across the Yangtze River.

To ensure the security of the underground transport lines, armed forces from various counties in the Yi-Yang region struck against the enemy in forward areas, punished traitors and spies, divided and disintegrated enemy and puppet personnel, educated local elites, and maintained relative stability in the Yi-Yang area. Thanks to the leadership of the Party, the bravery and wisdom of all fighters on the underground transport front, and the support of the general populace, the Yuetang Underground Transport Station operated without incident from its establishment until the victory of the War of Resistance.