Ye Ting

Ye was born on April 10, 1896 at Zhoutian village, Danshui town, in Guishan county, located in Guangdong province. Ye's ancestors migrated from Ye county in Henan to the south, through Meizhou and Hingning, eventually settling in Guangdong. Ye's mother's last name is Wu and he is the eighth child in the family. Ye was energetic and helped his father with farming when he was young. He was sent to the nearby Tengyun school to study. Ye also studied at the Sericultural School of Huizhou in 1911. Before he left the school, his teacher Chen Jingru suggested that he change his name to Ye Ting. Under the influence of the Second Guangzhou Uprising, Ye led his schoolmates to cut their queue hairstyles and was expelled by his school. After this experience, Ye entered Huizhou middle school. After the 1911 Revolution, Ye's father made Ye marry Huang Chun, who was 2 years older, in an attempt to encourage his son to settle down. Ye entered into Guangzhou Landforce Primary School in 1912. Ye graduated from the school in December 1914 and traveled north to Hubei, studying military knowledge in Hubei Army Second Preparatory School. At the end of 1916 after earning a place on the Dean's list, Ye was recommended for admission to Baoding Landforce Military Academy. During his studies at the military academy, Ye gained access to a number of new ideas through reading New Youth and other journals and books. Ye wrote to New Youth journal and raised the idea that "the root of morality" is at consciousness", and expressed his ideal of "reviving the dirty world and helped the weaks and the drowns". In 1918, he graduated from Baoding Landforce Military Academy. He planned to study abroad in Europe but failed due to lack of money. At this time, the old Guangxi clique leader Lu Rongting wanted Ye to be the county magistrate of Huiyang, but Ye refused. Ye followed Sun Yat-sen to participate in the revolution of 1919 introduced by He Ziyuan, the general headquarter senate of Sun's Guangdong Army and one of the founding members of the Xinhai revolution. Ye then joined the Guangdong Army in Zhangzhou, Fujian, eventually joining the Kuomintang. ==Military career==

Ye joined the Kuomintang when Sun Yat-sen founded it in 1919, becoming a battalion commander in the National Revolutionary Army in 1921. In 1920, Sun had ordered the Guangdong Army to attack Mo Rongxin of the Old Guangxi clique. Ye's reputation had spread after the Huangpijing battle when his troops defeated an enemy who had four times as many troops as his own army. In October 1920, Ye took office as Deputy Battalion Commander of the Sapper Battalion. In 1921, he was transferred to the position of Battalion Commander of the guard regiment's second battalion of Sun's Marshall House of Land and Naval Forces. In June 1922, troops from the commander-in-chief of the Guangdong army bombarded the Marshall House. Ye was ordered to guard the forecourt of the Marshall House and helped Sun's wife, Soong Ching-ling, to escape danger. The Fourth army then reorganized the 34th regiment to be an independent regiment of the Fourth Army, ordering it to travel to Hunan. In May 1926, Ye led his troops as an advanced force in the Northern Expedition. He left Zhaoqing and Xinhui, then proceeded to the frontline in Hunan to attack Wu Peifu. When the direct attack on Tingsi Bridge was not successful, Ye investigated a small path towards the back of Tingsi Bridge. After the Deputy Commander of the Fourth Army, Chen Keyu, ordered Ye to take a surprising attack on the back of Wu's army, the army achieved a complete win. After this battle, the independent regiment attacked and occupied several territories, including Taolinpu and Yindoushan. On August 30, the Fourth and Seventh Army of the National Revolutionary Army started to battle with Wu's Army. Ye was the first one to attack the position of Wu's army, with other troops following in an attempt to improve the outcome of the battle, eventually taking Hesheng Bridge. The Kuomintang government moved from Guangzhou to Wuhan in January 1927. The National Revolutionary Army was expanded and Ye was appointed as the Deputy Division Commander of the 25th Division, and Division Commander of the 24th Division of the 11th Army. In May 1927, the Nanjing-Wuhan Split occurred. On May 13, the commander of the Independent 14th Division, Xia Douyin, announced through a phone call a crusade in the communist party against the KMT and attacked Wuhan, which was controlled by the left-wing KMT. In the meantime, the Wuhan government was expanded north to attack Henan. Ye led to counter the attack and he soon defeated Xia. When he returned to Asia, Ye went into hiding in Macau. ==New Fourth Army and death==

In 1937, Ye served as commander of the New Fourth Army. During the New Fourth Army Incident, Ye, wanting to save his men, went to Shangguan Yunxiang's headquarters on January 13, 1941 to negotiate terms. Upon arrival, Ye was detained by the 52nd division of the 156th regiment. Chiang Kai-shek ordered the New Fourth Army disbanded on January 17 and sent Ye to a military tribunal. Ye was then jailed for five years, until 1946. On April 8, 1946, after he was released, Ye died in a plane crash en route from Chongqing to Yan'an. Among the victims were his wife Li Xiuwen, daughter Ye Yangmei, son, Ye Ajiu, and the nanny for his children, Gao Qiong, as well as several senior CCP leaders such as Bo Gu, Deng Fa, and Wang Ruofei. There are rumors that Chiang Kai-shek arranged the crash. On April 17, the Jin Sui branch of the Central Committee of the CCP () held a public memorial at the Lan County airport. Ye had a total of nine children including aircraft designer Lt. Gen. Ye Zhengda. One of his granddaughters, Ye Xiaoyan (叶小燕), through Ye's second son Ye Zhengming (叶正明), is married to Li Xiaoyong (李小勇), son of former Chinese premier Li Peng. ==Further reading==