Ye Ting

Early Years and the "Iron Army"

Ye Ting, born Ye Weixun, was born in 1896 into a farming family in Huiyang, Guangdong; his first teacher renamed him "Ting" (upright). He studied at the Guangdong Army Primary School, the Hubei Army Second Preparatory School and the Baoding Military Academy, and in 1917 published a long letter in New Youth declaring his resolve to "cleanse a corrupt world and lift up the weak". In 1924 he went to study in the Soviet Union, joining the Socialist Youth League that October and the CCP that December. Returning in 1925, he became head of the staff department of the 4th Army of the National Revolutionary Army and then commander of its Independent Regiment. On the Northern Expedition the regiment took Youxian, Liling, Pingjiang, Tingsiqiao and Hesheng Bridge, and its fame as the "Iron Army" spread far and wide.

The Nanchang and Guangzhou Uprisings, and Years in Europe

In August 1927, as commander of the 24th Division of the 11th Army, Ye Ting took part in the Nanchang Uprising as front commander. In December he helped lead the Guangzhou Uprising as commander-in-chief of the Red Army. After it failed he was subjected to what the CCP later called improper disciplinary treatment, left for Europe and broke contact with the Party; according to People's Daily Online he studied military affairs in Germany, ran a restaurant when money was short, and returned to Macau after five years abroad.

Commander of the New Fourth Army

When full-scale war with Japan broke out in 1937, Ye Ting went to Yan'an and, entrusted by the CCP Central Committee, negotiated with the Nationalists as a non-Party member to reorganise the Red Army guerrilla units of eight southern provinces into the New Fourth Army, becoming its commander. According to People's Daily, under his command the army waged guerrilla war and built base areas behind Japanese lines, fighting more than 500 engagements in a year. His relations with deputy commander Xiang Ying were strained; Zhou Enlai intervened in person, and Ye Ting stayed on.

The South Anhui Incident and Five Years in Prison

In the South Anhui Incident of January 1941, Ye Ting was detained when he went down to negotiate with the Nationalist forces, and was held for more than five years in Shangrao (Jiangxi), Chongqing, Enshi (Hubei) and Guilin (Guangxi). According to People's Daily Online, the Nationalist authorities offered him senior posts if he would blame the CCP for the incident, which he refused; he told Chiang Kai-shek in a telegram that he was "willing to give my life to redeem those of my men", and in prison wrote his "Prison Song".

Release and Death

Ye Ting was released in March 1946 and the next day cabled the CCP Central Committee asking to rejoin the Party, which agreed. On 8 April he was flying from Chongqing to Yan'an with Wang Ruofei, Qin Bangxian, Deng Fa and others when the plane crashed at Heichashan in Xing County, Shanxi, killing him and his fellow passengers; he was buried in the April 8 Martyrs' Cemetery in Yan'an.