Order of the Central Revolutionary Military Commission
(August 25, 1937)
[1]
Nanjing has already initiated the war against Japan, and the initial stage of cooperation between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party has proved successful. In order to fulfill the commitment made by the CPC Central Committee to the Kuomintang Third Plenary Session regarding the renaming of the Red Army, so as to transform the Red Army into a model force for the national war of resistance and to elevate this struggle into a revolutionary war of resistance involving the entire nation, thereby securing final and complete victory, and based on the outcomes of political negotiations with the Kuomintang and the Nanjing government, it is hereby announced that the Red Army shall be renamed the Eighth Route Army of the National Revolutionary Army. Accordingly:


The former General Headquarters shall be reorganized as the Eighth Route Army General Headquarters, with Zhu De appointed as Commander-in-Chief, Peng Dehuai as Deputy Commander-in-Chief, Ye Jianying as Chief of Staff, and Zuo Quan as Deputy Chief of Staff.


[1] According to the agreement reached between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party, on August 22, 1937, the Kuomintang Government’s Military Commission announced the reorganization of the Red Army’s main forces into the Eighth Route Army of the National Revolutionary Army and approved the establishment of a General Headquarters, with Zhu De serving as Commander-in-Chief and Peng Dehuai as Deputy Commander-in-Chief, under which three divisions would be placed. On September 11, the Kuomintang Government’s Military Commission upgraded the Eighth Route Army to the Eighteenth Group Army, renaming the General Headquarters as the Command Headquarters, with Zhu De and Peng Dehuai respectively appointed as Commander-in-Chief and Deputy Commander-in-Chief.


[2] On February 10, 1937, the CPC Central Committee had sent a telegram to the upcoming Fifth Plenary Session of the Kuomintang’s Third Central Committee, putting forward a systematic set of proposals concerning inter-party cooperation in the war of resistance. It urged the Kuomintang to enshrine five principles—“cease all civil wars, concentrate national strength, and unite against external enemies”—as state policy. At the same time, the CPC indicated that if the Kuomintang could adopt these policies, it would be willing to provide four guarantees, the third of which was: “The Workers’ and Peasants’ Government shall be renamed the Special Administrative Region Government of the Republic of China, and the Red Army shall be renamed the National Revolutionary Army, coming directly under the leadership of the central government and military commission in Nanjing.”


[3] Refers to the five rounds of negotiations held between CPC representatives and the Kuomintang from February to August 1937 regarding cooperation in the war of resistance.


[4] Refers to the Red Army’s Frontline General Headquarters.