Jiangxi-Fujian Soviet
Encyclopedia
The Jiangxi–Fujian Soviet (commonly called the Jiangxi Soviet) was the largest component territory of the Chinese Soviet Republic , an unrecognized state established in November 1931 by Mao Zedong
and Zhu De
during the Chinese civil war. The Jiangxi-Fujian Soviet was home to the town of Ruijin
, the county seat and headquarters of the CSR government.
The Jiangxi-Fujian base area was defended ably by the First Red Front Army
but in 1934 was finally overrun by the Kuomintang
government's National Revolutionary Army
in the Fifth
of its Encirclement Campaigns
. This last campaign in 1934-35 precipitated the most famous of the grand retreats known collectively as the Long March
.
Revolution, the Soviet Union
helped organize a National Soviet People's Delegates Conference in Ruijin
(瑞金), Jiangxi province. Ruijin was the county seat, and was selected as the capital of the new Soviet republic. "Chinese Soviet Republic" (Chinese: "中華蘇維埃共和國") was born, even though the majority of China was still under the control of the nationalist Government of the Republic of China
. On that day, they had an open ceremony for the new country, and Mao Zedong and other Communists attended the military parade. Because it had its own bank, printed its own money, collected tax through its own tax bureau, it is therefore considered as the beginning of Two Chinas
.
With Mao Zedong as both Head of State (国家主席, 'State Chairman' or 'National Chairman') and Head of Government (总理, Prime Minister), the CSR expanded, especially its Jiangxi-Fujian territory, which reached a peak of more than 30,000 square kilometres and a population that numbered more than three million, covering considerable parts of two provinces (with Tingzhou
in Fujian
). Furthermore, its economy was doing better than most areas that were under the control of the Chinese warlords. In addition to the militia and guerrilla, its regular army
alone already numbered more than 140,000 by the early 1930s, and they were better armed than most Chinese warlords' armies at the time. For example, not only did the Chinese Red Army already have modern communication means such as telephones, telegraphs and radios which most Chinese warlords' armies still lacked, it was already regularly transmitting wireless messages in codes and breaking nationalist codes. Only Chiang Kai-shek
's army could match this formidable Communist force.
(KMT), led by Chiang Kai-shek, felt threatened by the Soviet republic and led other Chinese warlords to have the National Revolutionary Army
besiege the various enclaves of the Soviet Republic repeatedly, launching what Chiang and his fellow nationalists called Encirclement Campaigns
(the Communists called their counter attacks counter encirclement campaigns). Chiang Kai-shek's first
, second
and third
military encirclements were defeated by the First Front Red Army
. But the Red Army was nearly halved, with most its equipment lost during Chiang and von Seeckt
's Fifth Encirclement Campaign
, utilising fortified blockhouses.
In an effort to break the blockade, the Red Army under the orders of the three-man committee besieged the forts many times but suffered heavy casualties with little success. The Jiangxi–Fujian Soviet shrank significantly in size due to the disastrous manpower and material losses. By the fall of 1934, the Communists faced total annihilation. This situation had already convinced Mao Zedong and his supporters to believe that the Communists should abandon their bases in the Jiangxi Soviet republic. However, the Communist leadership stubbornly refused to accept the inevitable failure and still daydreamed of defeating the victorious nationalist forces. The three man committee devised a plan of diversions, and then a regroup after a temporary retreat. Once the regroup was complete, a counterattack would be launched in conjunction with the earlier diversion forces, driving the enemy out of the Jiangxi Soviet.
The first movements of the retreating diversion were undertaken by Fang Zhimin
. Fang Zhimin and his deputy, Xun Weizhou, were first to break through Kuomintang lines in June, followed by Xiao Ke
in August. These movements surprised the Kuomintang, who were numerically superior to the Communists at the time and did not expect an attack on their fortified perimeter. However, things did not turn out as the Communists had hoped: Fang Zhimin's force was crushed after its initial success, and with Xun Weizhou killed in action, nearly every commander in this force was wounded and captured alive, including Fang Zhimin himself, and all were executed later by the nationalists. The only exception was Su Yu
, who managed to escape. Xiao Ke fared no better: although his force initially managed to break through and then reached He Long
's Communist base in Hubei
, but even with their combined forces, they were unable to challenge the far superior nationalist force besieging the Jiangxi Soviet, never to return until the establishment of the People's Republic of China
15 years later.
The failure of the diversion forces resulted in their loss of contacts with the Jiangxi Soviet, and the Communist leadership failed to coordinate its next proper move in a timely fashion, still believing that a temporary retreat near or within the Jiangxi Soviet would allow them to recover and counterattack, eventually driving out the nationalist force.
), which detailed the final push to totally annihilate all Communist forces. The plan was to build 30 blockade lines supported by 30 barbed wire
fences, most of them electric, in the region 150 km around Ruijin, to starve the Communists. In addition, more than 1,000 trucks were to be mobilized to form a rapid reaction force in order to prevent any Communist breakout. Realizing the certain annihilation of the Communists, Mo Xiong (莫雄) handed the document weighing several kilograms to his Communist handler Xiang Yunian (項與年) the same night he received it, risking not only his own life, but that of his entire family.
With the help of Liu Yafo (劉亞佛) and Lu Zhiying (盧志英), the Communist agents copied the important intelligence onto four dictionaries and Xiang Yunian (項與年) was tasked to take the intelligence personally to the Jiangxi Soviet. The trip was hazardous, as the nationalist force would arrest and even execute anyone who attempted to cross the blockade. Xiang Yunian (項與年) was forced to hide in the mountains for a while, and then used rocks to knock out 4 of his own teeth, resulting in swollen face. Disguised as a beggar, he tore off the covers of the four dictionaries and hid them at the bottom of his bag with rotten food, then successfully crossed several lines of the blockade and reached Ruijin on October 7, 1934. The valuable intelligence provided by Mo Xiong (莫雄) finally convinced the Communists in Jiangxi Soviet to abandon its base and started a general retreat before Chiang could complete the building of his blockade lines with supporting barbed wire fences, and mobilizing trucks and troops, thus saving themselves from total annihilation.
As the result of their catastrophic defeat, Xiang Ying
was removed from his post of the chairman of the communist central military committee, and replaced by Zhou Enlai
. Xiang Ying was put in charge of 20,000 soldiers that were assigned to stay behind in Jiangxi Soviet to continue the fight against the nationalists, after the communist main force consisted of more than 80,000 had broken out. Xiang Ying was assisted by other top ranking communist cadres assigned to stay behind with him, including Chen Yi
, Zeng Shan
, He Chang (贺昌), and Ruan Xiaoxian (阮啸仙), but Xiang had not learned from his previous disastrous blunder and continued his early practice when conducting battles, against the strong objection of Chen Yi
. As a result of another huge blunder committed by Xiang Ying, the Chinese Red Army stayed behind was soon annihilated by the superior nationalist force, Xiang was barely able to escape with his own life, while many of his comrades were killed, including He Chang (贺昌) and Ruan Xiaoxian (阮啸仙). So insignificant was the communist threat left had become that the nationalist reward for capturing Chen Yi was once dropped to 500 dollars in silver, a tiny .25% of its earlier peak of 200,000 dollars in silver.
On October 10, 1934, the three-man committee Communist leadership formally issued the order of the general retreat, and on October 16, 1934, the Chinese Red Army begun what was later known as the Long March
, fully abandoning the Jiangxi Soviet. 17 days after the main Communist force had already left its base, the nationalists were finally aware that the enemy had escaped after reaching the empty city of Ruijin on November 5, 1934. Contrary to the common erroneous belief, the original destination was He Long
's Communist base in Hubei
, and the final destination Yan'an
was not decided on until much later during the Long March, well after the rise of Mao Zedong. To avoid panic, the goal was kept a secret from most people, including Mao Zedong, and the public was told that only a portion of the Chinese Red Army would be engaged in mobile warfare to defeat nationalist forces, and thus this part of the army would be renamed as Field Army.
The 5 armies and the 2 columns had a total of 86,859 combatants when they first left their abandoned base in Jiangxi
.
Other weapons included:
Various weapons were also deployed but their numbers were not counted, and these included:
muzzle-loading rifled muskets and smoothbore muskets
of the Soviet Republic. Most of the stamps are imperforate and are printed on white newspaper-quality paper. The numeral
s printed on the stamp are of the complex style to prevent forgery.
When the Long March
began in October 1934, the Communist bank was part of the retreating force, with 14 bank employees, over a hundred coolies and a company of soldiers escorting them while they carried all of the money and mint machinery. One of the important tasks of the bank during the Long March whenever the Chinese Red Army stayed in a place for longer than a day was to tell the local population to exchange any Communist paper bills and copper coins to goods and currency used in nationalist controlled regions, so that the local population would not be persecuted by the pursuing nationalists after the Communists had left. After the Zunyi Conference
, it was decided that carrying the entire bank on the march was not practical, so on January 29, 1935, at Earth Town (Tucheng, 土城), the bank employees burned all Communist paper bills and mint machinery under order. By the time the Long March
had concluded in October 1935, only 8 out of the 14 original employees survived; the other 6 had died along the way.
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 Zhu De
Zhu De
Zhu De was a Chinese militarist, politician, revolutionary, and one of the pioneers of the Chinese Communist Party. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, in 1955 Zhu became one of the Ten Marshals of the People's Liberation Army, of which he is regarded as the founder.-Early...
during the Chinese civil war. The Jiangxi-Fujian Soviet was home to the town of 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...
, the county seat and headquarters of the CSR government.
The Jiangxi-Fujian base area was defended ably by the First Red Front Army
History of the People's Liberation Army
The history of the People's Liberation Army began in 1927 with the start of the Chinese Civil War and spans to the present, having developed from a peasant guerrilla force into the largest armed force in the world.-Historical background:...
but in 1934 was finally overrun by the Kuomintang
Kuomintang
The Kuomintang of China , sometimes romanized as Guomindang via the Pinyin transcription system or GMD for short, and translated as the Chinese Nationalist Party is a founding and ruling political party of the Republic of China . Its guiding ideology is the Three Principles of the People, espoused...
government's National Revolutionary Army
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...
in the Fifth
Fifth Encirclement Campaign against Jiangxi Soviet
The Fifth Encirclement Campaign against Jiangxi Soviet was a series of battles fought during the Chinese Civil War from September 25, 1933 to October 1934 between Chiang Kai-shek's Kuomintang and the Chinese communists...
of its Encirclement Campaigns
Encirclement Campaigns
Encirclement Campaigns is a term used to describe several different campaigns launched by forces of the Chinese Nationalist Government against forces of the Communist Party of China during the Chinese Civil War. The campaigns were launched between the late 1920s to the mid-1930s with the goal of...
. This last campaign in 1934-35 precipitated the most famous of the grand retreats known collectively as the Long March
Long March
The Long March was a massive military retreat undertaken by the Red Army of the Communist Party of China, the forerunner of the People's Liberation Army, to evade the pursuit of the Kuomintang army. There was not one Long March, but a series of marches, as various Communist armies in the south...
.
Beginning
On November 7, 1931, the anniversary of the 1917 Russian BolshevikBolshevik
The Bolsheviks, originally also Bolshevists , derived from bol'shinstvo, "majority") were a faction of the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party which split apart from the Menshevik faction at the Second Party Congress in 1903....
Revolution, the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
helped organize a National Soviet People's Delegates Conference in 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...
(瑞金), Jiangxi province. Ruijin was the county seat, and was selected as the capital of the new Soviet republic. "Chinese Soviet Republic" (Chinese: "中華蘇維埃共和國") was born, even though the majority of China was still under the control of the nationalist Government of the Republic of China
Government of the Republic of China
The Republic of China was formally established by Dr. Sun Yat-sen in 1912 in Nanjing under the Provisional Constitution of the Republic of China but this government was moved to Beijing in the same year and continued as the internationally recognized government of China until 1928. In the history...
. On that day, they had an open ceremony for the new country, and Mao Zedong and other Communists attended the military parade. Because it had its own bank, printed its own money, collected tax through its own tax bureau, it is therefore considered as the beginning of Two Chinas
Two Chinas
The term Two Chinas refers to the two states with "China" in their official names: People's Republic of China , commonly known as "China", established in 1949, controlling mainland China and two special administrative regions, Hong Kong and Macau...
.
With Mao Zedong as both Head of State (国家主席, 'State Chairman' or 'National Chairman') and Head of Government (总理, Prime Minister), the CSR expanded, especially its Jiangxi-Fujian territory, which reached a peak of more than 30,000 square kilometres and a population that numbered more than three million, covering considerable parts of two provinces (with Tingzhou
Changting 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....
in 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...
). Furthermore, its economy was doing better than most areas that were under the control of the Chinese warlords. In addition to the militia and guerrilla, its regular army
History of the People's Liberation Army
The history of the People's Liberation Army began in 1927 with the start of the Chinese Civil War and spans to the present, having developed from a peasant guerrilla force into the largest armed force in the world.-Historical background:...
alone already numbered more than 140,000 by the early 1930s, and they were better armed than most Chinese warlords' armies at the time. For example, not only did the Chinese Red Army already have modern communication means such as telephones, telegraphs and radios which most Chinese warlords' armies still lacked, it was already regularly transmitting wireless messages in codes and breaking nationalist codes. Only Chiang Kai-shek
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....
's army could match this formidable Communist force.
Encirclement
The KuomintangKuomintang
The Kuomintang of China , sometimes romanized as Guomindang via the Pinyin transcription system or GMD for short, and translated as the Chinese Nationalist Party is a founding and ruling political party of the Republic of China . Its guiding ideology is the Three Principles of the People, espoused...
(KMT), led by Chiang Kai-shek, felt threatened by the Soviet republic and led other Chinese warlords to have the National Revolutionary Army
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...
besiege the various enclaves of the Soviet Republic repeatedly, launching what Chiang and his fellow nationalists called Encirclement Campaigns
Encirclement Campaigns
Encirclement Campaigns is a term used to describe several different campaigns launched by forces of the Chinese Nationalist Government against forces of the Communist Party of China during the Chinese Civil War. The campaigns were launched between the late 1920s to the mid-1930s with the goal of...
(the Communists called their counter attacks counter encirclement campaigns). Chiang Kai-shek's first
First Encirclement Campaign against Jiangxi Soviet
The First Encirclement Campaign against Jiangxi Soviet was a series of battles launched by the Chinese Nationalist Government intended to annihilate the Chinese Red Army, and destroy the Chinese Soviet Republic...
, second
Second Encirclement Campaign against Jiangxi Soviet
The Second Encirclement Campaign against Jiangxi Soviet was a series of battles launched by the Chinese Nationalist Government in the hope of encircling and destroying the Jiangxi Soviet after the previous campaign had failed...
and third
Third Encirclement Campaign against Jiangxi Soviet
The Third Encirclement Campaign against Jiangxi Soviet was the third campaign launched by the Chinese Nationalist Government in hope to destroy the Red Army in Jiangxi. It was launched less than a month after the previous campaign have failed...
military encirclements were defeated by the First Front Red Army
History of the People's Liberation Army
The history of the People's Liberation Army began in 1927 with the start of the Chinese Civil War and spans to the present, having developed from a peasant guerrilla force into the largest armed force in the world.-Historical background:...
. But the Red Army was nearly halved, with most its equipment lost during Chiang and von Seeckt
Hans von Seeckt
Johannes Friedrich "Hans" von Seeckt was a German military officer noted for his organization of the German Army during the Weimar Republic.-Early life:...
's Fifth Encirclement Campaign
Fifth Encirclement Campaign against Jiangxi Soviet
The Fifth Encirclement Campaign against Jiangxi Soviet was a series of battles fought during the Chinese Civil War from September 25, 1933 to October 1934 between Chiang Kai-shek's Kuomintang and the Chinese communists...
, utilising fortified blockhouses.
In an effort to break the blockade, the Red Army under the orders of the three-man committee besieged the forts many times but suffered heavy casualties with little success. The Jiangxi–Fujian Soviet shrank significantly in size due to the disastrous manpower and material losses. By the fall of 1934, the Communists faced total annihilation. This situation had already convinced Mao Zedong and his supporters to believe that the Communists should abandon their bases in the Jiangxi Soviet republic. However, the Communist leadership stubbornly refused to accept the inevitable failure and still daydreamed of defeating the victorious nationalist forces. The three man committee devised a plan of diversions, and then a regroup after a temporary retreat. Once the regroup was complete, a counterattack would be launched in conjunction with the earlier diversion forces, driving the enemy out of the Jiangxi Soviet.
The first movements of the retreating diversion were undertaken by Fang Zhimin
Fang Zhimin
Fang Zhimin was a Chinese communist military and political leader.Born in a poor peasant household in Yixian, Jiangxi Province, he joined the CPC in 1924 and assisted in setting up a provincial Party organization. After the failure of the Shanghai Uprising in 1927, Fang returned to Jiangxi, where...
. Fang Zhimin and his deputy, Xun Weizhou, were first to break through Kuomintang lines in June, followed by Xiao Ke
Xiao Ke
Xiao Ke was a general in the People's Liberation Army of China, former vice chairman of the CPPCC, as well as principal of the University of Military and Politics.-Early life:Xiao was born in Jiahe County, Hunan Province of China....
in August. These movements surprised the Kuomintang, who were numerically superior to the Communists at the time and did not expect an attack on their fortified perimeter. However, things did not turn out as the Communists had hoped: Fang Zhimin's force was crushed after its initial success, and with Xun Weizhou killed in action, nearly every commander in this force was wounded and captured alive, including Fang Zhimin himself, and all were executed later by the nationalists. The only exception was Su Yu
Su Yu
Su Yu was a Chinese Communist military leader. He was considered by many to be among the best commanders of the PLA only next to Lin Biao and Liu Bocheng. Su Yu fought in the Sino-Japanese War and in the Chinese Civil War...
, who managed to escape. Xiao Ke fared no better: although his force initially managed to break through and then reached He Long
He Long
He Long was a Chinese military leader. He rose to the rank of Marshal and Vice Premier after the founding of the People's Republic of China.-Early life:He Long was a member of the Tujia ethnic group...
's Communist base in Hubei
Hubei
' Hupeh) is a province in Central China. The name of the province means "north of the lake", referring to its position north of Lake Dongting...
, but even with their combined forces, they were unable to challenge the far superior nationalist force besieging the Jiangxi Soviet, never to return until the establishment of the People's Republic of China
People's Republic of China
China , officially the People's Republic of China , is the most populous country in the world, with over 1.3 billion citizens. Located in East Asia, the country covers approximately 9.6 million square kilometres...
15 years later.
The failure of the diversion forces resulted in their loss of contacts with the Jiangxi Soviet, and the Communist leadership failed to coordinate its next proper move in a timely fashion, still believing that a temporary retreat near or within the Jiangxi Soviet would allow them to recover and counterattack, eventually driving out the nationalist force.
Collapse
In late September 1934, Chiang distributed his top secret plan named "Iron Bucket Plan" to everyone in his general headquarter at Lushan (the alternative summer site to NanchangNanchang
Nanchang is the capital of Jiangxi Province in southeastern China. It is located in the north-central portion of the province. As it is bounded on the west by the Jiuling Mountains, and on the east by Poyang Lake, it is famous for its scenery, rich history and cultural sites...
), which detailed the final push to totally annihilate all Communist forces. The plan was to build 30 blockade lines supported by 30 barbed wire
Barbed wire
Barbed wire, also known as barb wire , is a type of fencing wire constructed with sharp edges or points arranged at intervals along the strand. It is used to construct inexpensive fences and is used atop walls surrounding secured property...
fences, most of them electric, in the region 150 km around Ruijin, to starve the Communists. In addition, more than 1,000 trucks were to be mobilized to form a rapid reaction force in order to prevent any Communist breakout. Realizing the certain annihilation of the Communists, Mo Xiong (莫雄) handed the document weighing several kilograms to his Communist handler Xiang Yunian (項與年) the same night he received it, risking not only his own life, but that of his entire family.
With the help of Liu Yafo (劉亞佛) and Lu Zhiying (盧志英), the Communist agents copied the important intelligence onto four dictionaries and Xiang Yunian (項與年) was tasked to take the intelligence personally to the Jiangxi Soviet. The trip was hazardous, as the nationalist force would arrest and even execute anyone who attempted to cross the blockade. Xiang Yunian (項與年) was forced to hide in the mountains for a while, and then used rocks to knock out 4 of his own teeth, resulting in swollen face. Disguised as a beggar, he tore off the covers of the four dictionaries and hid them at the bottom of his bag with rotten food, then successfully crossed several lines of the blockade and reached Ruijin on October 7, 1934. The valuable intelligence provided by Mo Xiong (莫雄) finally convinced the Communists in Jiangxi Soviet to abandon its base and started a general retreat before Chiang could complete the building of his blockade lines with supporting barbed wire fences, and mobilizing trucks and troops, thus saving themselves from total annihilation.
As the result of their catastrophic defeat, Xiang Ying
Xiang Ying
Xiang Ying was a war-time Chinese communist leader reaching the rank of political chief of staff of the New Fourth Army during World War II until his assassination by a member of his staff in 1941.- Biography :...
was removed from his post of the chairman of the communist central military committee, and replaced 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...
. Xiang Ying was put in charge of 20,000 soldiers that were assigned to stay behind in Jiangxi Soviet to continue the fight against the nationalists, after the communist main force consisted of more than 80,000 had broken out. Xiang Ying was assisted by other top ranking communist cadres assigned to stay behind with him, including 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....
, Zeng Shan
Zeng Shan
Zeng Shan was a Chinese Communist military commander and security minister. His wife, Deng Liujin, was one of the handful of women to participate in the Long March, and later ran a school for the children of high cadres...
, He Chang (贺昌), and Ruan Xiaoxian (阮啸仙), but Xiang had not learned from his previous disastrous blunder and continued his early practice when conducting battles, against the strong objection of 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....
. As a result of another huge blunder committed by Xiang Ying, the Chinese Red Army stayed behind was soon annihilated by the superior nationalist force, Xiang was barely able to escape with his own life, while many of his comrades were killed, including He Chang (贺昌) and Ruan Xiaoxian (阮啸仙). So insignificant was the communist threat left had become that the nationalist reward for capturing Chen Yi was once dropped to 500 dollars in silver, a tiny .25% of its earlier peak of 200,000 dollars in silver.
On October 10, 1934, the three-man committee Communist leadership formally issued the order of the general retreat, and on October 16, 1934, the Chinese Red Army begun what was later known as the Long March
Long March
The Long March was a massive military retreat undertaken by the Red Army of the Communist Party of China, the forerunner of the People's Liberation Army, to evade the pursuit of the Kuomintang army. There was not one Long March, but a series of marches, as various Communist armies in the south...
, fully abandoning the Jiangxi Soviet. 17 days after the main Communist force had already left its base, the nationalists were finally aware that the enemy had escaped after reaching the empty city of Ruijin on November 5, 1934. Contrary to the common erroneous belief, the original destination was He Long
He Long
He Long was a Chinese military leader. He rose to the rank of Marshal and Vice Premier after the founding of the People's Republic of China.-Early life:He Long was a member of the Tujia ethnic group...
's Communist base in Hubei
Hubei
' Hupeh) is a province in Central China. The name of the province means "north of the lake", referring to its position north of Lake Dongting...
, and the final destination Yan'an
Yan'an
Yan'an , is a prefecture-level city in the Shanbei region of Shaanxi province in China, administering several counties, including Zhidan County , which served as the Chinese communist capital before the city of Yan'an proper took that role....
was not decided on until much later during the Long March, well after the rise of Mao Zedong. To avoid panic, the goal was kept a secret from most people, including Mao Zedong, and the public was told that only a portion of the Chinese Red Army would be engaged in mobile warfare to defeat nationalist forces, and thus this part of the army would be renamed as Field Army.
First Front Red Army
However, the so-called the portion of the Chinese Red Army engaged in the mobile warfare was actually the majority portion of the Communist force making a general retreat, but the bulk of this force was only a fraction of what used to be more than 140,000 men army at its peak. With most of its equipment lost, many of the surviving members of the Chinese Red Army were forced to arm themselves with ancient weaponry. According to the Statistical Chart of the Field Army Personnel, Weaponry, Ammunition, and Supply completed by the Chinese Red Army on October 8, 1934, two days before the Long March begun, the Communist Long March force consisted of:Order of battle
The escaping communists included a total of 72,313 combatants, and additional noncombatants, and they were organized into 7 formations, 5 armies (called legions by the communists) and 2 divisions (called columns by the communists), and these included:- (Communist) Central Military Committee ColumnColumn (formation)A military column is a formation of soldiers marching together in one or more files in which the file is significantly longer than the width of ranks in the formation...
(1st Column)- Committee chairman / Commander-in-Chief: Zhu DeZhu DeZhu De was a Chinese militarist, politician, revolutionary, and one of the pioneers of the Chinese Communist Party. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, in 1955 Zhu became one of the Ten Marshals of the People's Liberation Army, of which he is regarded as the founder.-Early...
- Deputy committee chairmen: Zhou EnlaiZhou EnlaiZhou Enlai was the first Premier of the People's Republic of China, serving from October 1949 until his death in January 1976...
and Wang JiaxiangWang JiaxiangWang Jiaxiang , one of the senior leaders of the Communist Party of China in its early stage and a member of the 28 Bolsheviks, with his life of up and down indicating the cruel reality of politics.-Biography:... - Chief-of-general-staff: Liu BochengLiu BochengLiu Bocheng was a Chinese Communist military commander and Marshal of the People's Liberation Army.Liu is known as one of the "Three and A Half" Strategists of China in modern history...
- Director of the General Political Directorate: Li Fuchun (李富春)
- Committee chairman / Commander-in-Chief: Zhu De
- (Communist) Central (Committee) ColumnColumn (formation)A military column is a formation of soldiers marching together in one or more files in which the file is significantly longer than the width of ranks in the formation...
(2nd Column)- Commander: Zhou EnlaiZhou EnlaiZhou Enlai was the first Premier of the People's Republic of China, serving from October 1949 until his death in January 1976...
- Political commissar: Li WeihanLi WeihanLi Weihan was a Chinese Communist politician who was the first principal of the Party School of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, the highest training center for party workers and leaders. Li served as principal from 1933 to 1935 and again from 1937 to 1938.-External links:*...
(using alias Luo Mai 罗迈参 at the time) - Chief-of-staff: Zhang Yunyi (张云逸)
- Security Bureau chief: Deng FaDeng FaDeng Fa was a Chinese Communist politician who was the fifth president of the Party School of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, the highest training center for party workers and leaders. Deng served as principal from 1939 to 1942.-External links:*...
- Senior Cadres Regiment consisted of Chinese Red Army University cadets:
- Commander: Xiao Jingguan (萧劲光)
- Cadres Regiment consisted of Chinese Red Army (Junior) Academy cadets:
- Commander: Chen GengChen GengChen Geng was a Chinese communist military leader.-Early life:Born in Hunan province, Chen was second of 12 siblings. However, because his elder brother died early due to illness, Chen became the eldest son. His grandfather, Chen Yiqong was an officer in the imperial Chinese army and was rewarded...
- Political Commissar: Song RenqiongSong RenqiongSong Renqiong was a general in the People's Liberation Army of the People's Republic of China .Song was born in Liuyang, Hunan Province....
- Chief-of-staff: Bi Shiti (毕士悌), aka Yang Lin (杨林, a Korean communist)
- Director of the Political Directorate: Mo Wenhua (莫文骅)
- Commander: Chen Geng
- National Garrison Regiment
- Commander: Yao Zhe (姚喆)
- Political commissar: Zhang Nansheng (张南生)
- Commander: Zhou Enlai
- The 1st Legion (The largest of the five armies, with 19,880 combatants)
- Commander: Lin BiaoLin BiaoLin Biao was a major Chinese Communist military leader who was pivotal in the communist victory in the Chinese Civil War, especially in Northeastern China...
- Political commissar: Nie RongzhenNie RongzhenNie Rongzhen was a prominent Chinese Communist military leader, and one of ten Marshals in the People's Liberation Army of China. He was the last surviving PLA officer with the rank of Marshal.-Biography:...
- Chief-of-staff: Zuo Quan (左权)
- (Communist) Central (Committee) Local Work Regiment commander:
- Security Bureau special appointee: Luo RuiqingLuo Ruiqing-Biography:Luo Ruiqing was born in Nanchong, Sichuan in 1906. He joined the Communist Party of China in 1928. He was the eldest son of a wealthy landlord named Luo Chunting , who had a total of six kids...
- Secretariat political secretary: Fang Qiang (方强)
- Commander: Lin Biao
- The 3rd Legion
- Commander: Peng DehuaiPeng DehuaiPeng Dehuai was a prominent military leader of the Communist Party of China, and China's Defence Minister from 1954 to 1959. Peng was an important commander during the Second Sino-Japanese War, the Chinese civil war and was also the commander-in-chief of People's Volunteer Army in the Korean War...
- Political commissar: Yang ShangkunYang ShangkunYang Shangkun was President of the People's Republic of China from 1988 to 1993, and was permanent Vice-chair of the Central Military Commission...
- Chief-of-staff: Deng Ping (邓萍)
- Director of the Political Directorate: Yuan Guoping (袁国平)
- (Communist) Central (Committee) Local Work Regiment commander: Guo Qian (郭潜), later defected to the nationalist side and changed his name to Guo Qianhui (郭乾辉)
- Security Bureau special appointee: Zhang Chunqing (张纯清)
- Commander: Peng Dehuai
- The 5th Legion
- Commander: Dong Zhengtang (董振堂)
- Political commissar: Cai Shufan (蔡树藩)
- Chief-of-staff: Chen Bojun (陈伯钧)
- Director of the Political Directorate: Li Zhuoran (李卓然)
- (Communist) Central (Committee) Local Work Regiment commander: Zheng Zhenxun (郑询振)
- The 8th Legion (The newest and smallest of the five, with 10,922 combatants)
- Commander: Zhou Kun (周昆)
- Political commissar: He Kequan (何克全)
- Chief-of-staff: Zhong Weijian (钟伟剑)
- Director of the Political Directorate: Liu ShaoqiLiu ShaoqiLiu Shaoqi was a Chinese revolutionary, statesman, and theorist. He was Chairman of the People's Republic of China, China's head of state, from 27 April 1959 to 31 October 1968, during which he implemented policies of economic reconstruction in China...
- (Communist) Central (Committee) Local Work Regiment commander: Liu Xiao (刘晓)
- The 9th Legion
- Commander: Luo Binghui (罗炳辉)
- Political commissar: He Changgong (何长工)
- Chief-of-staff: Zhang ZongxunZhang ZongxunZhang Zongxun was a general of the People's Liberation Army of China.Zhang was born in Weinan, Shaanxi Province in 1908...
- Director of the Political Directorate: Wang Shoudao (王守道)
- (Communist) Central (Committee) Local Work Regiment commander: Feng Xuefeng (冯雪峰)
The 5 armies and the 2 columns had a total of 86,859 combatants when they first left their abandoned base in Jiangxi
Jiangxi
' is a southern province in the People's Republic of China. Spanning from the banks of the Yangtze River in the north into hillier areas in the south, it shares a border with Anhui to the north, Zhejiang to the northeast, Fujian to the east, Guangdong to the south, Hunan to the west, and Hubei to...
.
Weaponry
The Statistical Chart of Field Army Personnel, Weaponry, Ammunition, and Supply (Currently kept at the People's Liberation Armys Archives) also provided the weaponry and provisions prepared for the Long March, and the weapons deployed included:- ArtilleryArtilleryOriginally applied to any group of infantry primarily armed with projectile weapons, artillery has over time become limited in meaning to refer only to those engines of war that operate by projection of munitions far beyond the range of effect of personal weapons...
: 39 total- MortarMortar (weapon)A mortar is an indirect fire weapon that fires explosive projectiles known as bombs at low velocities, short ranges, and high-arcing ballistic trajectories. It is typically muzzle-loading and has a barrel length less than 15 times its caliber....
: 38 - Mountain gunMountain gunMountain guns are artillery pieces designed for use in mountain warfare and areas where usual wheeled transport is not possible. They are similar to infantry support guns, and are generally capable of being broken down into smaller loads .Due to their ability to be broken down into smaller...
: 1 (originally not included, but was added later on) - Breechloading FirearmsBreech-loading weaponA breech-loading weapon is a firearm in which the cartridge or shell is inserted or loaded into a chamber integral to the rear portion of a barrel....
: 33,244 total (with 1,858,156 rounds of munition), and of these, a total of 29,016 were distributed to the 5 corps, including:- RifleRifleA rifle is a firearm designed to be fired from the shoulder, with a barrel that has a helical groove or pattern of grooves cut into the barrel walls. The raised areas of the rifling are called "lands," which make contact with the projectile , imparting spin around an axis corresponding to the...
s: 25,317 - Heavy machine gunHeavy machine gunThe heavy machine gun or HMG is a larger class of machine gun generally recognized to refer to two separate stages of machine gun development. The term was originally used to refer to the early generation of machine guns which came into widespread use in World War I...
s: 333 - Light machine gunLight machine gunA light machine gun is a machine gun designed to be employed by an individual soldier, with or without an assistant, as an infantry support weapon. Light machine guns are often used as squad automatic weapons.-Characteristics:...
s: 285 - Submachine gunSubmachine gunA submachine gun is an automatic carbine, designed to fire pistol cartridges. It combines the automatic fire of a machine gun with the cartridge of a pistol. The submachine gun was invented during World War I , but the apex of its use was during World War II when millions of the weapon type were...
s: 28 - HandgunHandgunA handgun is a firearm designed to be held and operated by one hand. This characteristic differentiates handguns as a general class of firearms from long guns such as rifles and shotguns ....
s: 2,804
- Rifle
- Mortar
Other weapons included:
-
- LanceLanceA Lance is a pole weapon or spear designed to be used by a mounted warrior. The lance is longer, stout and heavier than an infantry spear, and unsuited for throwing, or for rapid thrusting. Lances did not have tips designed to intentionally break off or bend, unlike many throwing weapons of the...
: 6101 - Chinese saberDao (sword)Daois a category of single-edge Chinese swords primarily used for slashing and chopping , often called a broadsword in English translation because some varieties have wide blades. In China, the dao is known as one of the four major weapons, along with the gun , qiang , and the jian , and referred...
: 882
- Lance
Various weapons were also deployed but their numbers were not counted, and these included:
muzzle-loading rifled muskets and smoothbore muskets
-
- FlintlockFlintlockFlintlock is the general term for any firearm based on the flintlock mechanism. The term may also apply to the mechanism itself. Introduced at the beginning of the 17th century, the flintlock rapidly replaced earlier firearm-ignition technologies, such as the doglock, matchlock and wheellock...
and SnaphanceSnaphanceA Snaphance or Snaphaunce is a particular type of mechanism for firing a gun . The name is Dutch in origin but the mechanism can not be attributed to the Netherlands with certainty. It is the mechanical progression of the wheel-lock firing mechanism and the predecessor of the flintlock firing...
guns - MatchlockMatchlockThe matchlock was the first mechanism, or "lock" invented to facilitate the firing of a hand-held firearm. This design removed the need to lower by hand a lit match into the weapon's flash pan and made it possible to have both hands free to keep a firm grip on the weapon at the moment of firing,...
and WheellockWheellockA wheellock, wheel-lock or wheel lock, is a friction-wheel mechanism to cause a spark for firing a firearm. It was the next major development in firearms technology after the matchlock and the first self-igniting firearm. The mechanism is so-called because it uses a rotating steel wheel to provide...
guns - SpearSpearA spear is a pole weapon consisting of a shaft, usually of wood, with a pointed head.The head may be simply the sharpened end of the shaft itself, as is the case with bamboo spears, or it may be made of a more durable material fastened to the shaft, such as flint, obsidian, iron, steel or...
s and rakesRake (tool)A rake is a broom for outside; an horticultural implement consisting of a toothed bar fixed transversely to a handle, and used to collect leaves, hay, grass, etc., and, in gardening, for loosening the soil, light weeding and levelling, removing dead grass from...
(though later during the Long MarchLong MarchThe Long March was a massive military retreat undertaken by the Red Army of the Communist Party of China, the forerunner of the People's Liberation Army, to evade the pursuit of the Kuomintang army. There was not one Long March, but a series of marches, as various Communist armies in the south...
, spearSpearA spear is a pole weapon consisting of a shaft, usually of wood, with a pointed head.The head may be simply the sharpened end of the shaft itself, as is the case with bamboo spears, or it may be made of a more durable material fastened to the shaft, such as flint, obsidian, iron, steel or...
s were most useful as canes) - AxeAxeThe axe, or ax, is an implement that has been used for millennia to shape, split and cut wood; to harvest timber; as a weapon; and as a ceremonial or heraldic symbol...
s and polePole weaponA pole weapon or polearm is a close combat weapon in which the main fighting part of the weapon is placed on the end of a long shaft, typically of wood, thereby extending the user's effective range. Spears, glaives, poleaxes, halberds, and bardiches are all varieties of polearms...
s (though later during the Long MarchLong MarchThe Long March was a massive military retreat undertaken by the Red Army of the Communist Party of China, the forerunner of the People's Liberation Army, to evade the pursuit of the Kuomintang army. There was not one Long March, but a series of marches, as various Communist armies in the south...
, poles were most useful as building material such as that for stretchers) - daggerDaggerA dagger is a fighting knife with a sharp point designed or capable of being used as a thrusting or stabbing weapon. The design dates to human prehistory, and daggers have been used throughout human experience to the modern day in close combat confrontations...
s and knivesKnifeA knife is a cutting tool with an exposed cutting edge or blade, hand-held or otherwise, with or without a handle. Knives were used at least two-and-a-half million years ago, as evidenced by the Oldowan tools...
- Flintlock
- Provision
- Winter clothing: 83,100 sets
- HorseHorseThe horse is one of two extant subspecies of Equus ferus, or the wild horse. It is a single-hooved mammal belonging to the taxonomic family Equidae. The horse has evolved over the past 45 to 55 million years from a small multi-toed creature into the large, single-toed animal of today...
s: 338 - Herbal medicine: 35,700 kgKilogramThe kilogram or kilogramme , also known as the kilo, is the base unit of mass in the International System of Units and is defined as being equal to the mass of the International Prototype Kilogram , which is almost exactly equal to the mass of one liter of water...
- SaltSaltIn chemistry, salts are ionic compounds that result from the neutralization reaction of an acid and a base. They are composed of cations and anions so that the product is electrically neutral...
: 17,413 kg
Economics
1.642 million dollarsChinese yuan
The yuan is the base unit of a number of modern Chinese currencies. The yuan is the primary unit of account of the Renminbi.A yuán is also known colloquially as a kuài . One yuán is divided into 10 jiǎo or colloquially máo...
of the Soviet Republic. Most of the stamps are imperforate and are printed on white newspaper-quality paper. The numeral
Chinese numerals
Chinese numerals are characters for writing numbers in Chinese. Today speakers of Chinese use three numeral systems:the ubiquitous Arabic numerals and two indigenous systems....
s printed on the stamp are of the complex style to prevent forgery.
- They are quite rare today, with prices ranging from US$1,000 to over $25,000.
When the Long March
Long March
The Long March was a massive military retreat undertaken by the Red Army of the Communist Party of China, the forerunner of the People's Liberation Army, to evade the pursuit of the Kuomintang army. There was not one Long March, but a series of marches, as various Communist armies in the south...
began in October 1934, the Communist bank was part of the retreating force, with 14 bank employees, over a hundred coolies and a company of soldiers escorting them while they carried all of the money and mint machinery. One of the important tasks of the bank during the Long March whenever the Chinese Red Army stayed in a place for longer than a day was to tell the local population to exchange any Communist paper bills and copper coins to goods and currency used in nationalist controlled regions, so that the local population would not be persecuted by the pursuing nationalists after the Communists had left. After the Zunyi Conference
Zunyi Conference
The Zunyi Conference was a meeting of the Communist Party of China in January of 1935 during the Long March. This meeting involved a power struggle between the leadership of Bo Gu and Otto Braun and the opposition led by Mao Zedong. The result was that Mao left the meeting in position to take...
, it was decided that carrying the entire bank on the march was not practical, so on January 29, 1935, at Earth Town (Tucheng, 土城), the bank employees burned all Communist paper bills and mint machinery under order. By the time the Long March
Long March
The Long March was a massive military retreat undertaken by the Red Army of the Communist Party of China, the forerunner of the People's Liberation Army, to evade the pursuit of the Kuomintang army. There was not one Long March, but a series of marches, as various Communist armies in the south...
had concluded in October 1935, only 8 out of the 14 original employees survived; the other 6 had died along the way.
- China Soviet Silver Dollars were made at that time. These dollars do have the full name of China Soviet Republic and the hammer and sickle on the other side. Some coins also have the slogan of "People around the world with no properties should gather together". The hammer and sickle is a symbol inside a globe-like shape on the reverse of the coin. China Soviet Silver coins are rare and in November 2008, a copy (not real) China Soviet Dollar was sold on Ebay for US$695. The seller stated clearly that it is just a replica or counterfeit but it still had a good ending value. The fair retail value for that piece is around US$5000 without mentioning of the word "copy". A genuine China Soviet Silver coin should have a fair market value of US$20000-25000 (200,000 China yuan). China Soviet Silver coin is like the Cultural Revolution type of China stamps - historic or cultural item of the PRC. For example, a W7 China Cultural Revolution stamp set has a value of around US$2500–3000. A genuine coin of China Soviet is 8-10 times more expensive but 100 times more difficult to find than the W7 stamp set. China Soviet Republic Silver Coins are truly a very special type of treasure coins of China. Only time can tell when Chinese and other people can truly understand and give them the true value as the current value is still low compared with China stamps and coins of same rarity in other countries like USA and Canada.
External links
- Preface to Fundamental Laws of the Chinese Soviet Repub
- 2 photos of a handwritten official declaration document and the Conference
- flags from FOTW website
- coins
- 12 stamps (explanatory caption in Simplified Chinese)
