CynthiaLM

 The Chinese Communists' six-thousand-mile journey of retreat (1934–1935) across provinces such as Hunan, Guangxi, Guizhou, Yunnan, Sichuan, and Shaanxi has been glorified by the leaders of the Communist Party of China (CCP) as the "Long March." The strategic operation was undertaken following defeat at the hands of the Nationalists at Guangchang in April 1934. The nationalist’s positional warfare (a system of concrete blockhouses around the soviet) proved to be more successful than the orthodox military tactics of the CCP. Thus, the CCP planned a breakout of the Jiangxi Soviet in Ruijin with the aim of the march was a 550 kilometre trek to the soviet established by He Long in Hunan province. The march was under the command of Bo Gu, Zhou Enlai and Comintern agent Otto Braun (Li De). Zhu De was the commander-in-chief, while Mao was merely the chairman of a non-existent soviet republic.
 * Research Report: The Heroic Story of the Red Army's Long March **

On October 10, 1934, approximately 86,000 Red Army troops, 11,000 administrative personnel and thousands of civilian porters left Ruijin and Gucheng in Jiangxi Province on the Long March. However, the retreat was not executed by the CCP masses as an entirety. The remainder, largely wounded or ill soldiers, continued to fight a delaying action after the main force had left, and then dispersed into the countryside.

Zhou Enlai’s most successful moment during the Long March was his negotiations with the GMD warlord, Chen Jitang. Chen feared that the success of the GMD would allow Chiang Kai-shek to threaten his own independence. Therefore, Chen allowed Zhou and the Red Army to pass through his lines also aiding them with communications equipment and medical supplies.

Between 21October and 13 November 1934, a force of 130,000 under Bo Gu and Li De attacked the line of Kuomintang positions near Yudu. The resistance of this rearguard misled the GMD to believe that they had trapped the entire CCP army; it gave the marchers a three week start. Several prominent members of the Chinese Soviet who remained behind were captured and executed by the Kuomintang after occupation of Ruijin in November 1934, including Qu Qiubai and the youngest brother of Mao Zedong, Mao Zetan. Throughout the Long March the Red Army was welcomed by the peasants; the CCP confiscated the land of the landlords and militarist officials and distributed spare food to the peasants and urban poor. The army also conducted mass meetings to train the people in the Soviet Constitution through songs and slogans also teaching them to write six characters: ‘Destroy the Tuhao’ (landlord) and ‘Divide the Land’. As Mao stated in 1935, the Red Army acted as ‘agitation corps and a seeding machine’.

Attack by the GMD was not limited to those left behind; the Marchers suffered constant bombing raids by the GMD air force and sustained 30 000 casualties while crossing the Xiang river after as 5 day battle (between 25 November and 3 December). At this point, the destination of the Long March changed from Hunan province to Guizhou under Mao’s instruction after his prevailing critic of the current leadership.

The town zunyi was captured by the CCP on 7 January and where a conference was held. The damage of the battle of the Xiang river had destroyed the reputation of the official leadership and circumstances were now in favour of Mao. Zhou Enlai nominated Mao to take his place recalling his success with guerrilla tactics and a need to change tactics. Mao was thus elected as supreme military leader and in effect, the leader of the CCP. At Mao’s proposition, the CCP adopted the slogan ‘March North to Fight Japan’.

The Long March was revived with it new political mission and during 29 April to 8 May 1935, the marchers were able to cross the Yangzi River at the Golden Sands River Crossing by dividing their forces and deceiving the GMD.

Following this was the Red Army’s success in crossing the Luding Bridge Crossing in May 1935. This was succeed by the struggle over the Great Snowy Mountains on the Jianjin range and the over high grasslands in August 1935; the soldiers suffered from starvation, volatile weather and disease. It is estimated that 32 000 of the 40 000 Red Army died in the seven day crossing of the high grasslands.

Finally, the CCP manoeuvred its way past the GMD at the Lazikou pass on 16 September (following a surprise attack that shattered the GMD resistance) and moved onto Gansu province. On 19 October Mao led the survivors into the town of Wuqi and were then formally welcomed by the leaders of the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningsia Soviet in Yanan. The harsh struggle of the Long March was completed by only one-tenth (5000 of the original 100 000) of the force that left Jiangxi. As a result of the retreat, the Communist revolutionary base was relocated from southeast to northwest China, an area beyond the control of the Nationalist troops under Chiang Kai-shek.  Historians have considered the march a milestone in the history of modern China—the point at which the Chinese Communist movement began to forge its own path and the period during which Mao Zedong (1893–1976) became the undisputed leader of the CCP. 