In his prizewinning Mountain Fires: The Red Army's Three-Year War in South China, 1934-1938, Gregor Benton traced the fate of the Communist rear guard that stayed behind when the Red Army set off on the Long March. After three bloody years, the survivors regrouped as the New Fourth Army, which later helped to drive the Nationalists from the mainland. In this sequel to Mountain Fires, Benton describes the first three years of this army, and its triangular war with the Nationalists and the Japanese.

Like the Three-Year War from which it stemmed, the New Fourth Army was for many years neglected by historians, mainly because of the absence from it of Mao Zedong, around whom the story of the Chinese Revolution was largely written until his death in 1976. With the downgrading of the Mao cult and the return of some power to the regions (where New Fourth Army veterans held power) in the 1980s, new sources on the New Fourth Army became available. This study, which combines a thematic and a narrative approach, makes exhaustive use of these and other sources to explain the original features of this youthful army, which was no outgrowth or faithful copy of Mao's senior and better-known Eighth Route Army but a body with its own origins and history, and which fought its war in a quite different political, military, and social setting.

班国瑞（Gregor Benton）

班国瑞，一九四四年出生于英国。原名格鲁戈·本顿。一九六八年毕业于英国剑桥大学，获文学士学位，一九七零年又获硕士学位。主修现代中国史。一九七九年又考获英国里兹大学哲学博士学位。论文是：“The origins and early growth of the New Fourth Army, 1934-1941”。

班博士从一九七八年至一九八九年在荷兰阿姆斯特丹大学的人类社会科学研究中心担任副教授职。一九八九年至一九九九年担任里兹大学东亚研究系教授。一九九九年起担任威尔斯加地夫大学历史与考古学系教授。

班教授精通英文、中文、荷兰文和威尔斯文，也通晓法文、德文、意大利文和西班牙文。曾以多种语文撰写有关中国近代史论文刊登于西方学术期刊及书章中。他对中国共产党史、革命史、红军史、中国托洛斯基派人物如陈独秀、郑超麟和王西凡等人及欧洲华人有深入研究。主要的英文著作有新四军（New Fourth Army），遍山战火（Mountain fires），野百合，燎原火（Wild lily, prairie fire）等并与彭轲博士（Dr. Frank N. Pieke）合编了一部“The Chinese in Europe”（欧洲华人概况），也合写了其中一章“The Chinese in the Netherlands”（荷兰华人概况）。班教授的著作野百合，燎原火（Wild lily, prairie fire）曾获一九九二年度最佳“中国历史书籍”奖。为了撰写此书，他曾在厦门大学安排下到龙岩，长汀，瑞金和永定等地作实地考察。目前，他研究的范围是欧洲华人和东南亚华人并致力于搜集有关资料，他于二零零零年九月至十二月到马来西亚，新加坡和澳大利亚等地访问并收集资料。