Former Sites of the New Fourth Army's 5th Division

Former Sites of the New Fourth Army's 5th Division

The Former Sites of the New Fourth Army's 5th Division are a classic red tourism destination and a base for patriotic education.

Former Sites of the New Fourth Army's 5th Division: Located in Baiguoshu Bay at the southern foot of Dawu Mountain, 34 km south of Dawu County. In February 1939, as the nationwide War of Resistance against Japan entered a stalemate phase, Comrade Li Xiannian was dispatched by the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China to lead a small unit into the enemy-occupied areas of Hubei and Henan, where he established the New Fourth Army Independent Guerrilla Unit. In January 1940, he moved into Dawu Mountain and established the New Fourth Army's Hubei-Henan Advance Column. On April 5, 1941, the Hubei-Henan Advance Column was reorganized into the New Fourth Army’s 5th Division, which announced its formation to the nation. Comrade Li Xiannian was appointed as division commander and political commissar, Liu Shaoqing as chief of staff, and Ren Zhibin as director of the political department. From 1941 to 1942, the headquarters of the New 5th Division was stationed in Xinwupu, and from 1943 to 1945, it moved to Baiguoshu Bay. From there, it conducted arduous armed struggles against Japanese forces and their collaborators, using the area as its center. Over the course of five years, relying on and mobilizing the masses, and skillfully exploiting the contradictions among enemies and collaborators, Comrade Li Xiannian led the division to survive and grow under extremely harsh conditions. The force expanded from an initial 160 troops to a powerful army of 50,000 regular soldiers comprising three field brigades (the 13th, 14th, and 15th), and two military districts by the end of the war. Under Comrade Li Xiannian’s leadership, the New 5th Division, isolated behind enemy lines, held high the banner of resistance, fought tenaciously, and became the backbone and pillar of the Chinese people in the Central China Anti-Japanese Base Area. With a revolutionary spirit of relentless sacrifice and flexible, mobile military tactics, they engaged 150,000 Japanese troops and 80,000 puppet troops in 1,262 battles, capturing 43 artillery pieces, 71 anti-tank guns, 344 heavy and light machine guns, and 15,484 rifles and handguns of various types, achieving significant military victories. They established an anti-Japanese base area spanning over 90,000 square kilometers across five provinces—Henan, Hubei, Anhui, Hunan, and Jiangxi—with a population of 13 million. Stretching from Susong and Taihu in western Anhui in the east, to Jingmen and Yichang in western Xiang in the west, from Ye County in central Henan in the north, to Nan County in northern Hunan in the south, the base encompassed seven administrative districts and thirty-eight counties with anti-Japanese democratic governments, and had over 300,000 local troops. The base was repeatedly praised and commended by the Central Committee and the Central China Bureau for Li Xiannian’s leadership of the Hubei-Henan Advance Column and later the 5th Division, recognized for “achieving the foremost in development work and independent combat,” and for maintaining an invincible position in the Hubei-Henan Border Area. The New 5th Division’s five years of arduous fighting in the Dabie Mountains strengthened the anti-Japanese front in the Central Plains, repeatedly thwarting frequent enemy “mopping-up” operations by Japanese, puppet, and collaborationist forces, and repelling wave after wave of offensives launched by the Kuomintang. Especially notable was the anti-Japanese base area established by the New 5th Division, situated close to the heart of the Kuomintang regime in Nanjing and encircling the strategically important city of Wuhan, which exerted psychological pressure on Chiang Kai-shek and served to monitor his tendencies toward surrendering to Japan and pursuing a passive resistance policy, thereby pressuring him to continue the fight against Japan. The New 5th Division not only effectively resisted the Japanese invaders but also played a proactive and supportive role in pressuring Chiang Kai-shek to resist Japan, consolidating and maintaining the Anti-Japanese National United Front, and coordinating with brother units such as the Eighth Route Army in North China and the New Fourth Army in East China to fight Japanese, puppet, and collaborationist forces. It made immortal contributions to the independence and liberation of the nation.

The New 5th Division not only made immortal contributions to national liberation but also played a prominent role in overthrowing the Chiang Kai-shek regime and establishing New China. After the victory in the War of Resistance, Chiang Kai-shek rushed to monopolize the fruits of victory, provoking a full-scale civil war and fiercely attacking our Central China Liberated Area. The Central China Forces, with the New 5th Division as their main force, demonstrated extraordinary perseverance and heroic fearlessness. They unhesitatingly sacrificed themselves, prioritized the overall situation, and held out for ten months of strategic defense, effectively pinning down 300,000 Nationalist troops. This bought precious time for other forces, and on June 26, 1946, they successfully carried out the world-shocking “Central China Breakout,” firing the first shot of the Liberation War and ushering in its prelude. The operation achieved comprehensive strategic and tactical victories.

There are 28 former sites of the New Fourth Army’s 5th Division (including: residences of the division’s military and political officers, operations office, secretariat, general staff office, quartermaster office, medical office, economic affairs office, management office, political department, liaison department, organization department, propaganda department, the office of QiQi Newspaper, the 10th Division of the Counter-Japanese Military and Political University, headquarters of the 13th Brigade, ruins of the Dashansi Defense Battle, training grounds of the 5th Division, Party committee office, Administrative Office of the Hubei-Henan Border Area, Party School of the Hubei-Henan Border Area, Linan County Government, rectification class, Border Area Construction Bank, Border Area Consumer Cooperative, hospital, paper mill, cigarette factory, munitions factory, and the tomb of martyr Song Bin, among others). These sites are scattered across 11 natural villages within a radius of about 5 km centered on Baiguoshu Bay. They cover a total area of nearly 8,000 square meters, with a total construction area of 4,142.03 square meters. Most of the buildings were civilian structures from the Daoguang and Xianfeng eras of the Qing Dynasty, featuring brick-and-wood construction with flush gable roofs and small blue tiles. Some of the former sites were originally ancestral halls, with exterior walls made entirely of blue bricks, front corridors with coffered ceilings, interior flagstone floors, multiple pillars and beams, and carved stone column bases. Some of the sites have two-story brick-and-wood structures, with upper floors featuring drum-skin panels (a type of wooden panel between columns locally) and ornately decorated interiors. Certain former sites have unique architectural designs, with colorfully painted patterns along the top edges of exterior walls and vivid colors, as well as roof-top stone-carved twin dragons and ventilators that tinkle in the wind. The former site complex showcases a rich traditional folk architectural style, representing some of the finest surviving ancient architecture in Dawu County, and holds significant historical and cultural value from the modern era.