and Shandong Military Region of the People's Liberation Army were merged into the East China Field Army. Headquarters The New Fourth Army Headquarters () was located at No. 332-352, Shengli Street, Jiang'an District, Wuhan. The site was renovated by the Wuhan People's Government in 2005. On March 5, 2013, it was named a Major National Historical and Cultural Sites. Main leadership Personnel Guerrillas Most of the New Fourth Army's military officers were guerrillas of the Chinese Red Army, others being from the 8th Route Army. Experience from China's Civil War led to them rapidly expanding their forces at the beginning of the Second Sino-Japanese War. During the eight years of the war officers with excellent abilities were usually promoted faster. For example, general Zhang Aiping was only a battalion commander of Chinese Red Army in 1934 but had become a division commander of the New Fourth Army by 1945. Military Education With the rapid expansion of the size of the army a large number of junior officers and newly recruited students needed training. Because of a lack of teachers the Eighth Route Army dispatched hundreds of military instructors to the New Fourth Army in two separate occasions. From 1940 to 1942 the New Fourth Army built and established six military training schools in the battlefield. These military training schools were collectively referred to as branches of the Counter-Japanese Military and Political University. Organization In the first three years of its existence the New Fourth Army operated independently with the regiment as its basic unit. After the New Fourth Army Incident the army was reorganized into seven divisions and nineteen brigades. 1938 In the spring of 1938 the Chinese Red Army's surviving guerrillas in the South were organized into the New Fourth Army's four detachments. 1941 After the New Fourth Army Incident the New Fourth Army was rebuilt in January, 1941. 1945 By the end of World War II the New Fourth Army had grown to 268,000 men. See also New Fourth Army Memorial Hall References with Eighth Route Army25 August 1937-1 November 1948 Smedley, Agnes. Battle Hymn of China. Alfred A. Knopf, 1943. 04 Armies led by the Chinese Communist Party in World War II