Former Site of the New Fourth Army’s Central China Grenade Factory

Former Site of the New Fourth Army’s Central China Grenade Factory

The former site of the New Fourth Army’s Central China Grenade Factory is a cultural relic protection unit of Baoying County.

The former site of the New Fourth Army’s Central China Grenade Factory is located at Tongshan’an in Daibao Village, Sheyanghu Town, Baoying County. The site was established in 1943, covering an area of 200 square meters, with a protected area of the same size.

The New Fourth Army’s Central China Grenade Factory was first built in 1943. In the spring of 1944, the CPC Central China Regional Committee, the Central China Administrative Office, the headquarters of the New Fourth Army’s 1st Division, and the Party, government, and military leadership organs of the Central China Military District successively relocated from the Santunhe area of Dongtai to the Gujin area of Xi’anfeng in Baoying to set up offices, after which the grenade factory moved to Tongshan’an in Daibao Village, Sheyanghu Town. The factory had a management structure including a factory director, technicians, political instructors, and administrators, along with production units such as casting, assembly, chemistry, carpentry, and weapons repair. In the early days of its establishment, the 18th Brigade of the New Fourth Army’s 6th Division assigned Comrade Zhu Zhaoyan, head of the Work Section of the Ordnance Department, to lead key ordnance personnel such as Ye Lingui, Pan A’hua, and Zhang Jianzhi in guiding the factory’s operations. Over the course of two years, the factory successfully fulfilled the grenade production tasks assigned by its superiors, repaired a large number of firearms for the troops and militias, and contributed to the victory of the War of Resistance Against Japan. Six comrades, including Qi Yifu, Fu Bingsheng, and Feng Mingsheng, sacrificed their lives in the line of ordnance production. Villagers of Daibao Village later built a hexagonal memorial tower in their honor, which was destroyed during the Cultural Revolution.

The former site of the New Fourth Army’s Central China Grenade Factory is a cultural relic protection unit of Baoying County.