as director of the academy's political department in 1924 The Chinese faculty included graduates from the
Baoding Military Academy, the
Yunnan Military Academy, and the
Imperial Japanese Army Academy. There were also a small number of Soviet instructors trained at the
Frunze Military Academy; they were the academy's primary instructors. Members of the
Chinese Communist Party (CCP) were admitted as faculty and students as part of the
First United Front. The political instructors were mostly Communists, as was their director,
Zhou Enlai. The later
People's Liberation Army also recruited Whampoa graduates. The academy's provided a 6-12 month military-political program incorporating Western pedagogical methods and practical exercises. Military training was primarily infantry-focused, but also included classes for artillery, engineers, logistics, and heavy weapons. Political training was based on
Sun Yat-sen's
Three Principles of the People, KMT history, and Western politics and economics. The program was inferior to those provided by contemporary professional armies, but it gave the NRA an advantage over the less professional Chinese armies of the
Warlord Era. The first class of 490 graduated in November. The academy formed the first "model" regiment in October 1924, which suppressed an insurrection of angry merchants and their private militia forces late that month. The Whampoa force operated successfully during the
Guangdong–Guangxi War and the
Yunnan–Guangxi War before becoming the foundation of the NRA. By the start of the
Second Sino-Japanese War in 1937 the majority of Chinese divisions were commanded by Whampoa graduates. ==Relocations==