After Chiang Kai-shek turned against the Communists at the Shanghai massacre in 1927, Ye participated in the Guangzhou Uprising (1927) and the Baise Uprising (1929) led by Deng Xiaoping. He was a co-founder of the Seventh Army of the Chinese Red Army and served as Director of its Political Department. After the Seventh Army reached the Jiangxi Soviet, the central Communist base, he was appointed Director of the Logistics Department of the Red Army.