Red Army’s Long March

Long March was a strategic transfer of the Chinese Workers’ and Peasants’ Red Army. It was carried out under extremely difficult and dangerous conditions.

In October 1934, the Red Front Army, the Second Army of the Front Army, the Fourth Army of the Front Army, and the 25th Red Front Army under the leadership of the Communist Party of China began a strategic retreat and transfer from various to the Shaanxi-Gansu Soviet area. The total mileage of the four Red Army Long March reached 32,500 km, of which the Red Front Army Long March was the farthest, at 12,500 km. Due to the military command mistakes of Bo Gu, Li De, and others, the Red Army failed in the fifth counter-“encirclement” and had to withdraw from the southern base areas and carry out a strategic transfer.

In October 1934, the Red Front Army started the Long March from Changting and Yudu in Fujian and Ruijin in Jiangxi. The Red Army's initial plan was to break through the KMT blockade from the southern front and reach western Hunan to join up with the Second and Sixth Red Army Corps. Because the leaders of the Provisional Central Committee, in commanding the Central Red Army to carry out the strategic transfer and breakout, made the mistake of escapism in retreat, and treated the transfer as a “mobile operation”, without light equipment, resulting in a sluggish and slow march. After forcibly crossing the Xiangjiang River and breaking the fourth blockade, the Red Army and the central organs were sharply reduced to more than 30,000 personnel from more than 860,000 at the time of departure.

The harsh facts educated the majority of Communists and Red Army commanders, who began to have doubts and dissatisfaction with the wrong leadership and turned to support Mao Zedong's correct proposition to advance to Guizhou, where the enemy's defenses were weak. After capturing the important town of Zunyi in northern Guizhou, they held a meeting of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee (known as the “Zunyi Conference”) from January 15 to 17, 1935.

The Zunyi Conference concentrated on correcting the military and organizational “Left” mistakes of Bo Gu and others; affirmed Mao's correct ideas; elected Mao Zedong to the Standing Committee of the Politburo, and finally abolished the military line of “pure positional defense” advocated by Bo Gu and Li De (Otto Braun, the military advisor from Comintern). The Zunyi Conference established the leadership of Mao Zedong in the Red Army and the Party Central Committee, thus saving the CPC, the Chinese Workers' and Peasants' Red Army, and the Chinese Revolution at an extremely critical juncture, which marked a life-or-death turning point in the history of the CPC. After the Zunyi Conference, the Red Army was reorganized and improved its combat effectiveness.

Mao Zedong commanded the Red Army, threatened the east and stroke to the west, crossed the Chishui River four times, disrupted the enemy's pursuit plan, then crossed the Jinsha River and broke out of the enemy's encirclement. The Red Army continued to move north, forced its way to pass across the Dadu River, defeated the enemy in the Luding Bridge Battles and seized this bridge, passed the Dadu River, and afterwards crossed the frozen and snow-capped Jiajin Mountain range, passed through the uninhabited grasslands, and finally entered Gansu and later arrived at Shaanxi.

In October 1935, the Central Red Army reached the town of Wuqi in Northern Shaanxi and joined up with the 15th Red Army Corps, which had arrived in Northern Shaanxi earlier, and the 12,500 km march of the Central Red Army ended victoriously.

In October 1936, the Second and Fourth Red Front Armies met with the Red Front Army in Huining and Jingning, Gansu Province. Thus, the Long March of the three main Red Armies came to a victorious end.

The victory of the Long March has great historical significance. Firstly, the Red Army crushed the attempt of the KMT reactionaries to “encircle” the Red Army and stifle the Chinese revolution, thus securing the crisis of the Chinese revolution.

Secondly, the Red Army broke the siege of the KMT reactionaries, survived the natural hazards of the snowy mountains and grasslands. The Red Army overcame the crisis of the split within the Party and finally reached Northern Shaanxi, preserving the revolutionary backbone, on which the Communist Party of China relied to gradually restore, develop and expand its revolutionary power until it achieved national victory. Once again, the Long March of the Red Army is a great epic of revolutionary heroism, which proclaims to China and the whole world that the CPC and its army are invincible forces.

Finally, the Long March of the Red Army has created the great spirit of the Long March, which is the spirit of firm revolutionary ideals and beliefs, the spirit of sacrifice and struggle, the spirit of considering the overall situation, strict discipline, and close unity, the spirit of independence and seeking truth from facts. The great spirit of the Long March has become a powerful motivation for the Chinese Communists and the People's Army to continue to advance.

Mao Zedong spoke highly of the great significance of the Long March: “Long March is the first of its kind in the annals of history, that it is a manifesto, a publicity force, a seeding-machine. In a word, the Long March has ended with victory for us and defeat for the enemy.” As soon as the Long March ended, a new situation of the Chinese revolution began.