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.

班國瑞（Gregor Benton）

班國瑞，一九四四年齣生於英國。原名格魯戈·本頓。一九六八年畢業於英國劍橋大學，獲文學士學位，一九七零年又獲碩士學位。主修現代中國史。一九七九年又考獲英國裏茲大學哲學博士學位。論文是：“The origins and early growth of the New Fourth Army, 1934-1941”。

班博士從一九七八年至一九八九年在荷蘭阿姆斯特丹大學的人類社會科學研究中心擔任副教授職。一九八九年至一九九九年擔任裏茲大學東亞研究係教授。一九九九年起擔任威爾斯加地夫大學曆史與考古學係教授。

班教授精通英文、中文、荷蘭文和威爾斯文，也通曉法文、德文、意大利文和西班牙文。曾以多種語文撰寫有關中國近代史論文刊登於西方學術期刊及書章中。他對中國共産黨史、革命史、紅軍史、中國托洛斯基派人物如陳獨秀、鄭超麟和王西凡等人及歐洲華人有深入研究。主要的英文著作有新四軍（New Fourth Army），遍山戰火（Mountain fires），野百閤，燎原火（Wild lily, prairie fire）等並與彭軻博士（Dr. Frank N. Pieke）閤編瞭一部“The Chinese in Europe”（歐洲華人概況），也閤寫瞭其中一章“The Chinese in the Netherlands”（荷蘭華人概況）。班教授的著作野百閤，燎原火（Wild lily, prairie fire）曾獲一九九二年度最佳“中國曆史書籍”奬。為瞭撰寫此書，他曾在廈門大學安排下到龍岩，長汀，瑞金和永定等地作實地考察。目前，他研究的範圍是歐洲華人和東南亞華人並緻力於搜集有關資料，他於二零零零年九月至十二月到馬來西亞，新加坡和澳大利亞等地訪問並收集資料。