Long March - outset, battles, outcomes Flashcards
LM reasons for leaving - Nationalist pressure
11-16 April 1934 – Battle of Guangchang, CCP
defeated with 4,000 dead and 20,000 wounded
- September 1934 – 60 of 70
Communist-held counties had been
conquered
- Ruijin was abandoned; a soviet had been
established 550 kilometres to the west in
Hunan by He Long; Red forces at Jianxsi
prepared to leave and join that base.
- Over 1,000,000 Nationalist troops, 200 aircraft
LM reasons for leaving - Japanese
CCP announced that ‘the Chinese Red Army of
workers and peasants has chosen to march north to
resist the Japanese incursion.’
- Anti-Japanese Vanguard COlumn
- led by Fang Zhimin
- 6000 men
- thought they were fighting the Japanese, instead used
to deflect Chiang’s troops and give the Red Army a
chance to escape from Jiangxi
- “the anti-Japanese propaganda turned a
dispirited retreat of the Red Army into a lofty
march of salvation for the whole nation”
LM outset
- 16 October 1934 – 80,000 soldiers and 20,000 support staff
beign the Long March
Xiang river battle
25 November-3 December
- 1st Army reduced from 86,000 to 30,000 in the first six weeks of March
- at most 15,000 died “the majority almost certainly deserted” Sun Shuyun
- Mao said hampered by too much equipment and a predictable route
Luding Bridge battle
• destination was huge loop through
Yunnan to meet up with Fourth Front Army
under Zhang Guotao
- • when they arrived at bridge on 29 May, it had been torn up,
leaving only chains swaying – four men fell to their deaths but
the bridge was captured; main body of the First Front Army
arrived and crossed a few days later
Luding Bridge warlord support
- Liu Wenhui
- overlord of Sichuan
- Zhu De and Liu Bocheng sent him money
and a letter asking for safe passage through
his territory, including the Luding Bridge, he
happily obliged - told his men to put up only a half-hearted resistance
Western Legion (4th Front Army) separation
- early September1936, Stalin approved a shipment of arms to
the Red Army Soviet - delivery would be near Ningxia - Ningxia battle began October 24, 1936
- Mao moved the troops back and forth constantly, kept the
bulk of the Red Army - the 1st, 2nd armies and crack corps
of 4th - south of the river, when the decisive battle was to
take place north of it - exposed 4th Army to the brunt of the enemy’s attack
- attle had to be abandoned – hq of 4th army not
informed, had already crossed the river and continued
west - dispatched across Yellow River to
get aid from Russia
Western Legion decimation
- all but 400 of the 20,800 men and women were either killed or captured (2/5ths of RA)
- told to build a base in Yongchang, forget Soviet aid
- Ma army 6 times the size of WL
- Mao insisted, Chiang’s troops would be diverted,
relieving pressure on the Red Army in Shaanxi
so they could escape and continue the Long
March - help mission intially sent, but cancelled
after 5 days, Xu and Chen not informed
Western Legion blame
- Mao blamed Zhang
- “was not carrying out Zhang Guotao’s
scheme but was fully under the command
of the Central Committee” Sun - “Mao wanted the WL out of the way; otherwise Zhang
Guotao would be in too strong a position in the final
power struggle” - blamed the losses and hardships of the Red Army not on
military but political mistakes (staying with Soviet base
strategy) (Mao had argued opposite at Zunyi) - Stalin made the same point at the 7th Congress of the Comintern, ordeing the Chinese to give up the failed
system of bases
LM outcome
- 60 towns and cities occupied
- in a year traveledd 12,000 km through 11 provinces
- crossed 24 rivers and 18 mountain ranges
- Yan’an would the capital from which Mao would clarify his
revolutionary programme, rebuild the Red Army and ultimately
conquer china
