In late autumn of 1937, Commander Ye Ting and military doctor Shen Qizhen walked through the abandoned Japanese concession in Hankou. They stopped at a vacant residential compound built in 1930 for the Nihua Oil Company. Reaching out, they tore away the official paper seals pasted across the doors, claiming the empty rooms. This act of quiet defiance established the first headquarters of the New Fourth Army.

On December 25, 1937, Ye Ting and Deputy Commander Xiang Ying gathered their officers here, hanging a bold yellow-and-black wooden plaque to declare their presence. Wartime bombing later destroyed the building where the plaque hung. The two adjacent two-story brick-timber residences at No. 332-352 Shengli Street survived.

These surviving structures blend Western and Japanese design. Gray cement plaster covers the load-bearing brick walls, accented by green-painted wooden doors and windows. Overhead, a triangular wooden roof truss supports a sloped roof of red tiles. Inside, the scent of fir wood flooring lingers over raw wood floor joists. The layout mirrors traditional Japanese homes, complete with hidden escape doors built into the partition walls to allow quick movement between units during emergencies. On the balconies, operable glass windows sit above movable wooden baffle plates, which slide with a dry click.

For decades after the war, the building faded into the background of a changing Wuhan. From 1949 to 2005, it served as dormitories for the workers of the 710 Factory. Families cooked in the hallways where generals once planned campaigns. In 2006, the Wuhan government restored the compound to its 1937 appearance, opening it as a museum. Today, visitors walk the same fir floorboards, standing where a scattered guerrilla force transformed into a unified army.