Long March (Little)
Encyclopedia
The Little Long March was a 600-km, two-month withdrawal by Left-Guomindang
forces up the Ganjiang River and down to the coast, subsequent to the successful mutiny and insurrection at Nanchang
on August 1, 1927.
-affiliated Nationalist) regiments moving up from Jiujiang
, the Revolutionary Committee—basically Zhou Enlai
, Li Lisan
and their ComIntern
military advisor Kunanin—decided to evacuate the city and make for the southern port of Shantou
, GD
, in the hope of receiving a Soviet arms shipment. Once supplied they would attempt a return to the provincial capital Guangzhou
and thence a new and proper dissemination of Left-Guomindang/Communist influence throughout the province from which most of the insurrection's soldiery had come. He Long strongly opposed this idea: he pointed out that marching such a great distance and over such terrain in the heat of summer would put a severe strain on the troops. He also pointed out that the popular support for the communists in Guangdong was merely a fraction of what they enjoyed among the peasantry in Hunan
, the province where he had thrived by brigandage since 1913. Resupply and local enlistment were assured. Why should the new base not be established somewhere in its vast border regions?
He Long's suggestion was vetoed—Guangzhou, springboard of the Northern Expedition, was the target set by the ComIntern. Accordingly on August 5 the 25,000 Left-Guomindang troops began the 600 km march to the South China Sea
coast. The Communists would pay a hefty price for their obeisance two months later in the rout known as the Battle of Shantou
.
By the 8th, only three days out, a third of the Uprising troops had deserted. On the 19th, the column entered Ruijin
. Reconnaissance had found Right-Guomindang forces at Huichang, the next county town
to the south. On the following morning the Battle of Huichang pitted brother officers, graduates of the Huangpu (Whampoa) Military Academy
, against one another in close combat. Ye Ting's 11th Army arrived late and He Long's 20th bore the brunt. The Nanchang Mutineers took nearly a thousand casualties, half of them dead. The Right-Guomindang evacuated the town under cover of night. The Left would not pursue them; their route lay east, over the divide into Fujian
.
In the aftermath of battle, He Long swore allegiance to the CPC
, witnessed by Zhou Enlai
, Li Lisan
and Zhang Guotao
. At the other end of Asia, Pravda
hailed the advent of a new, partisan
, Workers' and Peasants' Red Army. For Joseph Vissarionovich Jughashvili this was ample proof that the ComIntern's line was being correct, and Leon Trotsky
thus incorrect to be questioning it.
Down the Tingjiang
Having rested at the headwaters of the Ganjiang, the Liberated troops filed over into Changting Prefecture
. The best combat troops formed the vanguard, they were soon 20 miles and two days' march ahead of the rear. Most of the leaders of the revolutionary committee and Nanchang civilian sympathisers were in the main section. The rearguard, 200 troops under Li Lisan
, had the wounded and the baggage and veteran peasant activist Peng Pai
; it is said that 1000 women of the area, some widowed, perhaps by war, joined them as carriers.
At the prefectural centre
in early September, Li commandeered 100 boats each with her crew of four to take the wounded and weak down the Tingjiang river
to Shanghang county
; not letting the crews sort themselves out resulted in costly accidents. The Chaozhou-Shantou (潮汕)
area, their destination, and the hope of Muscovite reinforcement, lay much further downstream.
In the meantime, other Left-KMT troops had convened at Wenjiashi (文家市, on Jiangxi's western border) ostensibly for a similar Uprising (Autumn Harvest
), this to seize Changsha for the Hankow government. The troops instead found themselves commandeered by Mao Zedong
and marched south up into the Jinggang mountains
.
And so it was that by the end of September, with their Nanchang troops poised above Shantou
, the Communists knew that their Uprisings had yet to take and keep one city from the Rightists. The Jiang
-affiliated KMT or warlord forces were even now moving in to trap the Left Mutineers with the sea at their backs. The Com-Intern's Hong Kong station sent word that they should avoid further battles, forgo Shantou port (where in any event Soviet arms would not be forthcoming) and take cover like the Wenjiashi troops, and furthermore establish a rural soviet in Peng's hometown. There was now, however, no avoiding the Rightist hammer: Ye and He lost two-fifths of their troop strength in battle at Fengshun County-town
. In belated accordance with the Com-Intern directive, Ye circled down to Shanwei
, lending peasant leader Peng a triumphant return to his home town Haifeng.
warlord - though he and fellow communist Chen Yi
thought it best to live incognito while here.
In 1928 April Zhu's force had expanded to 10,000 and he marched them into the Jinggang (井冈) stretch of the borderlands, there to join the survivors of Mao's Uprising.
(and some say Ye Ting too) made it to Hong Kong
, the largest and safest of China's foreign concessions. Nie Rongzhen too arrived there.
Zhang Guotao and Li Lisan holed up in the small fishing port of Tiazugang but soon also arrived in Hong Kong. They were made to write reports on the Nanchang Uprising
--in Li's case this was preparatory to his taking the blame for the entire episode. Disguised as businessmen, they took a passenger liner to Shanghai, there to be held in a safe house on Chungking (Chongqing) Road. Eventually they, along with Zhou, were expelled from the Politburo.
Other fugitives of the rout at Fengshun included Liu Bocheng, who hooked up with communist sympathisers and was eventually sent to Moscow for military training. Lin Biao
, incommunicado for a time, returned to the surviving Uprising force in flight from hostile locals. Guo Moruo
sailed to Japan.
National Revolutionary Army
The National Revolutionary Army , pre-1928 sometimes shortened to 革命軍 or Revolutionary Army and between 1928-1947 as 國軍 or National Army was the Military Arm of the Kuomintang from 1925 until 1947, as well as the national army of the Republic of China during the KMT's period of party rule...
forces up the Ganjiang River and down to the coast, subsequent to the successful mutiny and insurrection at Nanchang
Nanchang Uprising
The Nanchang Uprising was the first major Kuomintang-Communist engagement of the Chinese Civil War, in order to counter the anti-communist purges by the Nationalist Party of China....
on August 1, 1927.
Withdrawal of Liberated Troops
Facing a counter-attack from Right-Guomindang (Jiang KaishekChiang Kai-shek
Chiang Kai-shek was a political and military leader of 20th century China. He is known as Jiǎng Jièshí or Jiǎng Zhōngzhèng in Mandarin....
-affiliated Nationalist) regiments moving up from Jiujiang
Jiujiang
Jiujiang , formerly transliterated Kiukiang, is a prefecture-level city located on the southern shores of the Yangtze River in northwest Jiangxi Province, China. It is the second-largest prefecture-level city in Jiangxi province, the largest one being Nanchang...
, the Revolutionary Committee—basically Zhou Enlai
Zhou Enlai
Zhou Enlai was the first Premier of the People's Republic of China, serving from October 1949 until his death in January 1976...
, Li Lisan
Li Lisan
Lǐ Lìsān was an early leader of the Chinese communists, and the top leader of the Chinese Communist Party from 1928 to 1930, member of Polit Bureau, and later member of Central Committee.-Early years:...
and their ComIntern
Comintern
The Communist International, abbreviated as Comintern, also known as the Third International, was an international communist organization initiated in Moscow during March 1919...
military advisor Kunanin—decided to evacuate the city and make for the southern port of Shantou
Shantou
Shantou , historically known as Swatow or Suátao, is a prefecture-level city on the eastern coast of Guangdong province, People's Republic of China, with a total population of 5,391,028 as of 2010 and an administrative area of...
, GD
Guangdong
Guangdong is a province on the South China Sea coast of the People's Republic of China. The province was previously often written with the alternative English name Kwangtung Province...
, in the hope of receiving a Soviet arms shipment. Once supplied they would attempt a return to the provincial capital Guangzhou
Guangzhou
Guangzhou , known historically as Canton or Kwangchow, is the capital and largest city of the Guangdong province in the People's Republic of China. Located in southern China on the Pearl River, about north-northwest of Hong Kong, Guangzhou is a key national transportation hub and trading port...
and thence a new and proper dissemination of Left-Guomindang/Communist influence throughout the province from which most of the insurrection's soldiery had come. He Long strongly opposed this idea: he pointed out that marching such a great distance and over such terrain in the heat of summer would put a severe strain on the troops. He also pointed out that the popular support for the communists in Guangdong was merely a fraction of what they enjoyed among the peasantry in Hunan
Hunan
' is a province of South-Central China, located to the south of the middle reaches of the Yangtze River and south of Lake Dongting...
, the province where he had thrived by brigandage since 1913. Resupply and local enlistment were assured. Why should the new base not be established somewhere in its vast border regions?
He Long's suggestion was vetoed—Guangzhou, springboard of the Northern Expedition, was the target set by the ComIntern. Accordingly on August 5 the 25,000 Left-Guomindang troops began the 600 km march to the South China Sea
South China Sea
The South China Sea is a marginal sea that is part of the Pacific Ocean, encompassing an area from the Singapore and Malacca Straits to the Strait of Taiwan of around...
coast. The Communists would pay a hefty price for their obeisance two months later in the rout known as the Battle of Shantou
Battle of Shantou (1927)
The Battle of Shantou was an incident in the first phase of the Chinese Civil War.- Time & Place :...
.
By the 8th, only three days out, a third of the Uprising troops had deserted. On the 19th, the column entered Ruijin
Ruijin
Ruijin is a county-level city of Ganzhou in the mountains bordering Fujian Province in south-eastern Jiangxi.The name derives from the ancient God, Rui Jin. It is most famous as one of the earliest centers of Chinese communist activity...
. Reconnaissance had found Right-Guomindang forces at Huichang, the next county town
County town
A county town is a county's administrative centre in the United Kingdom or Ireland. County towns are usually the location of administrative or judicial functions, or established over time as the de facto main town of a county. The concept of a county town eventually became detached from its...
to the south. On the following morning the Battle of Huichang pitted brother officers, graduates of the Huangpu (Whampoa) Military Academy
Whampoa Military Academy
The Nationalist Party of China Army Officer Academy , commonly known as the Whampoa Military Academy , was a military academy in the Republic of China that produced many prestigious commanders who fought in many of China's conflicts in the 20th century, notably the Northern Expedition, the Second...
, against one another in close combat. Ye Ting's 11th Army arrived late and He Long's 20th bore the brunt. The Nanchang Mutineers took nearly a thousand casualties, half of them dead. The Right-Guomindang evacuated the town under cover of night. The Left would not pursue them; their route lay east, over the divide into Fujian
Fujian
' , formerly romanised as Fukien or Huguing or Foukien, is a province on the southeast coast of mainland China. Fujian is bordered by Zhejiang to the north, Jiangxi to the west, and Guangdong to the south. Taiwan lies to the east, across the Taiwan Strait...
.
In the aftermath of battle, He Long swore allegiance to the CPC
Communist Party of China
The Communist Party of China , also known as the Chinese Communist Party , is the founding and ruling political party of the People's Republic of China...
, witnessed by Zhou Enlai
Zhou Enlai
Zhou Enlai was the first Premier of the People's Republic of China, serving from October 1949 until his death in January 1976...
, Li Lisan
Li Lisan
Lǐ Lìsān was an early leader of the Chinese communists, and the top leader of the Chinese Communist Party from 1928 to 1930, member of Polit Bureau, and later member of Central Committee.-Early years:...
and Zhang Guotao
Zhang Guotao
Zhang Guotao was a founding member and important leader of the Chinese Communist Party and bitter rival to Mao Zedong. During the 1920s he studied in the Soviet Union and became a key contact with the Comintern and organized the CCP labor movement in the United Front with the Guomindang...
. At the other end of Asia, Pravda
Pravda
Pravda was a leading newspaper of the Soviet Union and an official organ of the Central Committee of the Communist Party between 1912 and 1991....
hailed the advent of a new, partisan
Partisan (military)
A partisan is a member of an irregular military force formed to oppose control of an area by a foreign power or by an army of occupation by some kind of insurgent activity...
, Workers' and Peasants' Red Army. For Joseph Vissarionovich Jughashvili this was ample proof that the ComIntern's line was being correct, and Leon Trotsky
Leon Trotsky
Leon Trotsky , born Lev Davidovich Bronshtein, was a Russian Marxist revolutionary and theorist, Soviet politician, and the founder and first leader of the Red Army....
thus incorrect to be questioning it.
Down the TingjiangTingjiang riverThe Ting River flows 300 km from Changting County in western Fujian south to the port and Special Economic Zone of Shantou, Guangdong.The former prefecture of Tingzhou fu or T'ingchow-fu was administered from a centre on the upper river, now the town of Tingzhou in Changting County; all these...
to Doom
Having rested at the headwaters of the Ganjiang, the Liberated troops filed over into Changting PrefectureChangting Prefecture
Changting was a prefecture in western Fujian during the Chinese Republic . Its centre was the city on the upper Tingjiang River now called Tingzhou....
. The best combat troops formed the vanguard, they were soon 20 miles and two days' march ahead of the rear. Most of the leaders of the revolutionary committee and Nanchang civilian sympathisers were in the main section. The rearguard, 200 troops under Li Lisan
Li Lisan
Lǐ Lìsān was an early leader of the Chinese communists, and the top leader of the Chinese Communist Party from 1928 to 1930, member of Polit Bureau, and later member of Central Committee.-Early years:...
, had the wounded and the baggage and veteran peasant activist Peng Pai
Peng Pai
Peng Pai born in Haifeng County , Guangdong Province, China, was a pioneerIn the Preface, the author called Peng Pai "the father of Chinese rural communism"...
; it is said that 1000 women of the area, some widowed, perhaps by war, joined them as carriers.
At the prefectural centre
Tingzhou (town)
The town of Tingzhou is the seat of the Changting County government, Party and police.-History:For information on Tingzhou Town's colorful past, see the wiki pages on the county it seats and on the former prefecture it seated.-Reference of Place-name:...
in early September, Li commandeered 100 boats each with her crew of four to take the wounded and weak down the Tingjiang river
Tingjiang river
The Ting River flows 300 km from Changting County in western Fujian south to the port and Special Economic Zone of Shantou, Guangdong.The former prefecture of Tingzhou fu or T'ingchow-fu was administered from a centre on the upper river, now the town of Tingzhou in Changting County; all these...
to Shanghang county
Shanghang County
Shanghang is a populous county of Longyan Municipality in Fujian Province.-Transportation:Part of Shanghang County is accessed by National Route 319, coming west from Xinluo , the municipal seat...
; not letting the crews sort themselves out resulted in costly accidents. The Chaozhou-Shantou (潮汕)
Chaoshan
Cháoshàn refers to the linguistic and cultural region in the east of Guangdong, a southeastern province of China. This region is the origin of the Min Nan dialect Teochew. The area is known as Teochew for most people overseas, although it also consists of the cities of Shantou and Jieyang...
area, their destination, and the hope of Muscovite reinforcement, lay much further downstream.
In the meantime, other Left-KMT troops had convened at Wenjiashi (文家市, on Jiangxi's western border) ostensibly for a similar Uprising (Autumn Harvest
Autumn Harvest Uprising
The Autumn Harvest Uprising was an insurrection that took place in Hunan province and Jiangxi province, China on September 7, 1927, led by Mao Zedong, who established a short-lived Hunan Soviet....
), this to seize Changsha for the Hankow government. The troops instead found themselves commandeered by Mao Zedong
Mao Zedong
Mao Zedong, also transliterated as Mao Tse-tung , and commonly referred to as Chairman Mao , was a Chinese Communist revolutionary, guerrilla warfare strategist, Marxist political philosopher, and leader of the Chinese Revolution...
and marched south up into the Jinggang mountains
Jinggangshan
Jinggangshan is located in the Luoxian Mountains , in the remote border region between Jiangxi and Hunan provinces of China. It lies at the junction of four counties - Ninggang, Yongxing, Suichuan and Lingxian. The mountains cover some 670 km², with an average elevation of 381.5 m above sea...
.
And so it was that by the end of September, with their Nanchang troops poised above Shantou
Shantou
Shantou , historically known as Swatow or Suátao, is a prefecture-level city on the eastern coast of Guangdong province, People's Republic of China, with a total population of 5,391,028 as of 2010 and an administrative area of...
, the Communists knew that their Uprisings had yet to take and keep one city from the Rightists. The Jiang
Chiang Kai-shek
Chiang Kai-shek was a political and military leader of 20th century China. He is known as Jiǎng Jièshí or Jiǎng Zhōngzhèng in Mandarin....
-affiliated KMT or warlord forces were even now moving in to trap the Left Mutineers with the sea at their backs. The Com-Intern's Hong Kong station sent word that they should avoid further battles, forgo Shantou port (where in any event Soviet arms would not be forthcoming) and take cover like the Wenjiashi troops, and furthermore establish a rural soviet in Peng's hometown. There was now, however, no avoiding the Rightist hammer: Ye and He lost two-fifths of their troop strength in battle at Fengshun County-town
Battle of Shantou (1927)
The Battle of Shantou was an incident in the first phase of the Chinese Civil War.- Time & Place :...
. In belated accordance with the Com-Intern directive, Ye circled down to Shanwei
Shanwei
Shanwei is a prefecture-level city in Guangdong province of Southern China, People's Republic of China. It borders Jieyang to the east, Meizhou and Heyuan to the north, Huizhou to the west, and looks out to the South China Sea to the south...
, lending peasant leader Peng a triumphant return to his home town Haifeng.
Refugee Force
Zhu, who in the battle had minded the northern front, marched his 1,000 troops back up into Jiangxi and over its western ridges into Hunan. Zhu finally found refuge for his mutineers' regiment with the Yizhang CountyYizhang County
Yizhang County in Hunan province's far south and projecting into Guangdong, is part of the municipality of Chenzhou. The 1902-meter peak of Shikengkong , on the interprovincial border, stands some 50 km south of the county town....
warlord - though he and fellow communist Chen Yi
Chen Yi (communist)
Chen Yi was a Chinese communist military commander and politician. He served as the 2nd Mayor of Shanghai and the 2nd Foreign Minister of China.-Biography:Chen was born in Lezhi, near Chengdu, Sichuan, into a moderately wealthy magistrate's family....
thought it best to live incognito while here.
In 1928 April Zhu's force had expanded to 10,000 and he marched them into the Jinggang (井冈) stretch of the borderlands, there to join the survivors of Mao's Uprising.
Down but Not Out in Hong Kong
Other surviving members were much less fortunate; all became fugitives. Zhou Enlai, now seriously ill, unarmed save for a pistol or two and incommunicado save for the company of Ye JianyingYe Jianying
Ye Jianying was a Chinese communist general and the chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress from 1978 to 1983.-Biography:...
(and some say Ye Ting too) made it to Hong Kong
Hong Kong
Hong Kong is one of two Special Administrative Regions of the People's Republic of China , the other being Macau. A city-state situated on China's south coast and enclosed by the Pearl River Delta and South China Sea, it is renowned for its expansive skyline and deep natural harbour...
, the largest and safest of China's foreign concessions. Nie Rongzhen too arrived there.
Zhang Guotao and Li Lisan holed up in the small fishing port of Tiazugang but soon also arrived in Hong Kong. They were made to write reports on the Nanchang Uprising
Nanchang Uprising
The Nanchang Uprising was the first major Kuomintang-Communist engagement of the Chinese Civil War, in order to counter the anti-communist purges by the Nationalist Party of China....
--in Li's case this was preparatory to his taking the blame for the entire episode. Disguised as businessmen, they took a passenger liner to Shanghai, there to be held in a safe house on Chungking (Chongqing) Road. Eventually they, along with Zhou, were expelled from the Politburo.
Elsewhither
He went home alone after the defeat. Reduced from an army commander in charge of tens of thousands of men to a beggar, he was not well received by his family except a few who were already communists. He was to raise another 3000 soldier-strong force in his homeland but it too would be wiped out by the Right-KMT (with just over 30 survivors). Only a year later would He Long again command a formidable force.Other fugitives of the rout at Fengshun included Liu Bocheng, who hooked up with communist sympathisers and was eventually sent to Moscow for military training. Lin Biao
Lin Biao
Lin Biao was a major Chinese Communist military leader who was pivotal in the communist victory in the Chinese Civil War, especially in Northeastern China...
, incommunicado for a time, returned to the surviving Uprising force in flight from hostile locals. Guo Moruo
Guo Moruo
Guo Moruo , courtesy name Dingtang , was a Chinese author, poet, historian, archaeologist, and government official from Sichuan, China.-Family history:Guo, originally named Guo Kaizhen, was born on November 10 or 16, in the small town of Shawan...
sailed to Japan.