New Fourth Army Incident

New Fourth Army Incident
Part of the Chinese Civil War
Date 7 January 1941 - 13 January 1941 Location Maolin, Jing County, Anhui Province Result Nationalist victory
Belligerents
National Revolutionary Army	New Fourth Army
Commanders and leaders
Shangguan Yunxiang Huang Baitao Gu Zhutong	Ye Ting (POW) Xiang Ying  †
Strength
80,000	9,000
Casualties and losses
minimal	7,000 dead, captured, or missing

The New Fourth Army Incident (新四軍事件), also known as the Wannan Incident (皖南事变), occurred in China in January 1941 during the Second Sino-Japanese War, during which the Chinese Civil War was in theory suspended, uniting the Communists and Nationalists against the Japanese. It is significant as the end of real cooperation between the Nationalists and Communists.

Today, ROC and PRC historians view the New Fourth Army Incident differently. From the ROC point of view, it was punishment of Communist insubordination; from the PRC view, it was Nationalist treachery.

In the fall of 1940, the Communist New Fourth Army attacked Nationalist forces under Han Deqin. However, Benton's book New Fourth Army argues the Communist attack was a counterattack, a response to an initial attack by Han Deqin, and that this initial attack was the result of Chen Yi's goading and harassment of Nationalist forces. Regardless, the conflict led to heavy losses for the Communists.

For PRC historians the incident began in December 1940, when Chiang Kai-shek ordered Eighth Route Army and the New Fourth Army to withdraw from Anhui and Jiangsu to the north of the old Yellow River track in a month. In response, the Communist Party only agreed to move the New Fourth Army troops in Southern Anhui (Wannan) to the northern shore of the Yangtze River. On 4 January, the 9000-strong force started to move from Yunling Township in Jing County towards Jiangsu, planning to cross the river along three routes.

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