A brief overview of the process of the Long March and the significance of the Zunyi Conference

Introduction

In October 1934, due to the erroneous leadership of "Left" dogmatism by Bogu, Li De and others, the fifth counter-campaign against "encirclement and suppression" failed. The main force of the Red Army's First Front Army (Central Red Army) in the Central Revolutionary Base Area (also known as the Central Soviet Area) began the Long March, while part of the Red Army was left to persist in guerrilla warfare on the spot. In August, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the Central Revolutionary Military Commission ordered the Sixth Red Army Corps to withdraw from the Soviet areas of Hunan and Jiangxi and develop guerrilla warfare in central Hunan in order to explore ways for the Central Red Army's strategic transfer. In October, the Sixth Red Army and the Third Red Army (later restored to the Second Red Army) established the Hunan-Hunan-Hubei-Sichuan Soviet Area.

In early October 1934, the main legions of the Central Red Army assembled and set off one after another. The Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the Red Army headquarters and directly affiliated columns left Ruijin, Jiangxi. On October 21, the Central Red Army broke through the first blockade of the Kuomintang army from Wangmudu in Gan County to Xintian in Xinfeng County, and went westward along the Guangdong-Jiangxi border, Hunan-Guangdong border, and Hunan-Guangxi border. On November 15, it broke through the Kuomintang army. The second and third blockade lines; however, leaders such as Li De retreated blindly and passively avoided the battle, leaving the Red Army at a disadvantage. The Central Military Commission decided to cross the Xiangjiang River between Xing'an and Quanzhou. After a bloody battle, they crossed the Xiangjiang River (the fourth blockade line) on December 1. Due to continuous hard fighting, the number of the Red Army dropped sharply from more than 80,000 to more than 50,000. people, with more than 30,000 remaining. In mid-December, when they arrived at the Hunan-Guizhou border, Mao Zedong advocated that the troops abandon their original plan to enter western Hunan to join the Second and Sixth Army Corps; on the 28th, the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China held a meeting in Liping, accepted Mao Zedong's proposal, and decided to The advance in the Sichuan-Guizhou border area centered on Zunyi enabled the Red Army to avoid the danger of collapse. [4]?

From January 15th to 17th, the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China held an enlarged meeting in Zunyi, criticizing Bogu and Li De’s military line errors, and elected Mao Zedong as a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau. Bogu and Li De had the highest military command authority, and entrusted Zhang Wentian to draft a resolution. After the meeting, the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China held consecutive meetings in Tashi, Yunnan (today's Weixin), and decided to replace Bogu with Zhang Wentian to assume the general responsibility of the Central Committee, and reviewed and adopted the "Resolution on the Summary of the Opposition to the Enemy's Five "Encirclement and Suppression Campaigns"". And decided to strengthen the leadership of the Central Soviet Area and the Central Branch, as well as the Second and Sixth Red Army Corps and the Fourth Red Front Army. Subsequently, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China decided to form a new "three-person regiment" composed of Mao Zedong, Zhou Enlai, and Wang Jiaxiang, with Zhou Enlai as the leader and responsible for military operations.

After the Zunyi Conference, in view of the tight defenses of the Sichuan enemy, the Central Red Army decided to evacuate Zunyi and then made detours on the Sichuan-Guizhou-Yunnan border and Guizhou Province. Especially during the fourth crossing of Chishui, the Central Red Army flexibly created fighter opportunities, fought on the move, and annihilated enemies one by one, defeating more with fewer, thereby changing from passivity to initiative. Then, unexpectedly, the main force crossed the Wujiang River southward, approaching Guiyang, and then quickly moved westward. In late April, a force was deployed on the flank to support the enemy. In early May, they rushed to cross the Jinsha River and got rid of the encirclement and interception of hundreds of thousands of Kuomintang troops, achieving a decisive victory in the strategic shift. Due to the implementation of correct ethnic policies, the Red Army successfully passed through the Yi area of ??Daliang Mountain. Then forcefully cross the Dadu River, fly to seize the Luding Bridge, and cross the Jiajin Mountain, which is covered with snow all year round. In mid-June, it joined forces with the Fourth Front Army of the Red Army in Maogong.

The Fourth Red Army was originally based in the Sichuan-Shaanxi base area. In order to develop towards the Sichuan-Gansu border, it won a major victory in the battle of forcibly crossing the Jialing River from March 28 to April 28, 1935. However, Zhang Guotao, the main leader of the Fourth Red Front Army, and others decided to abandon the Sichuan-Shaanxi base area (also known as the Sichuan-Shaanxi Soviet Area) and move westward without authorization. In early May, more than 80,000 Japanese troops began the Long March, and in the middle of the month they occupied a vast area centered on Maoxian (now Maowen) and Lifan (now Lixian).

After the First and Fourth Red Front armies joined forces, the Red Army took the strategic policy of moving north to establish the Sichuan-Shaanxi-Gansu base area. The Central Committee of the Communist Party of China decided to mix the two front armies into left and right armies and march north across the grassland. The Central Committee of the Communist Party of China crossed the grassland with the right route army and arrived in the Banyou and Brazil areas. At the end of August, the First Department of the Right Route Army opened the door to advance to Gannan after annihilating about 5,000 people in the 49th Division of the Kuomintang Army. After Zhang Guotao led the Left Route Army to the Aba area in September, he refused to implement the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China's northward policy and threatened the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the Right Route Army to go south.

Mao Zedong and others hurriedly led the First and Third Armies (later formed the Shaanxi-Gansu Detachment) to continue northward on September 10, captured Lazikou, broke through the Kuomintang army's Weihe River blockade, crossed the Liupan Mountains via Guyuan, and arrived in northern Shaanxi on October 19 Wuqi Town (now Wuqi County) ended the Long March early. The victory in the Battle of Zhiluo Town was won from November 21st to 24th, laying the foundation for the Party Central Committee and the Red Army to take root in northern Shaanxi.

When the Kuomintang heavily besieged the Hubei-Henan-Anhui base area, the 25th Red Army and the Hubei-Henan-Anhui Provincial Committee followed the instructions of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and started from Luoshan County, Henan in November 1934. Moved westward, established base areas on the borders of Hubei, Henan and Shaanxi, and crushed two "encirclement and suppression" campaigns by the Kuomintang army. Passed through Longdong in July of the following year, and joined forces with the 26th and 27th armies in the Shaanxi-Gansu base area in September to form the 15th Army. After the arrival of the First and Third Army Corps, they were combined into the First Red Army.

The Second and Sixth Army Corps of the Red Army in the Hunan, Hubei, Sichuan and Guizhou base areas set out from Sangzhi, Hunan, in November 1935, and fought in Hunan, Guizhou, and Yunnan provinces. They defeated the interception of the Kuomintang army and crossed the Jinsha River. Passing through Xikang and Sichuan, it arrived at Garze at the end of June 1936, and joined forces with the Fourth Red Army led by Zhang Guotao, who was frustrated in its southward march. The Second and Sixth Army Corps were combined into the Second Front Army. In July, the Second and Fourth Front Armies moved north together. With the support of the First Red Army, they joined forces with the First Red Army in Huining County and Jiangtaibao in Jingning County, Gansu Province in October. At this point, the Red Army's Long March ended. (Please refer to the TV series "The Long March") In October 1933, the National Government of the Republic of China mobilized nearly 1 million National Revolutionary Army troops to encircle and suppress rural base areas controlled by the Communist Party of China, and focused on attacking the Central Soviet Area (Chinese Soviet Union) with 500,000 troops. *Mainly controlled areas by the People's Republic of China).

In the first four battles, due to the implementation of Mao Zedong's mobile warfare policy, the National Government troops failed to achieve their intended goals and all ended in retreat. In the fifth battle, due to Mao Zedong's loss of leadership, Bo Gu (formerly known as Qin Bangxian), the interim head of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, adopted the advice of German military adviser Li De and abandoned the active defense policy of the past four anti-"encirclement and suppression" struggles. This war was defined as a decisive battle between the Kuomintang and Kuomintang. It adopted military adventurism and put forward the slogan of "defending the enemy outside the country's gates." It required the Red Army to resist the National Revolutionary Army outside the base area and decided to take action before the Kuomintang. Launch all the Red Army to launch a full-scale offensive and strive for Soviet victory throughout China. However, there were only about 100,000 regular troops and tens of thousands of guerrillas in the Central Soviet Area, and they suffered huge losses soon after the preemptive attack. At this time, the Communist Party decided to conduct positional defense, supplemented by "short assault" (short-range attack), in order to resist the advance of the National Revolutionary Army. But this action did not have the desired effect. Soon, Guangchang, the north gate of Ruijin, the capital of the Chinese Soviet Union, fell, and the Red Army suffered more than 10,000 casualties.

Basic route

Ruijin→break through the enemy’s four lines of defense→forcibly cross the Wujiang River→occupy Zunyi→cross Chishui four times→cross the Jinsha River→cross the Dadu River skillfully→fly to seize the Luding Bridge→ Climbing the snowy mountains → crossing the grassland → joining forces with Wu Qi in northern Shaanxi (October 1935) → joining forces at Huining, Gansu (October 1936), announcing the successful end of the Long March.

The significance of the Zunyi Conference

The Zunyi Conference ended the rule of Wang Ming's "Left" opportunist line in the Party Central Committee and established the new correct leadership of the Central Committee represented by Mao Zedong. The party's line shifted to the track of Marxism-Leninism. The Zunyi Conference saved the party, the Red Army, and the Chinese revolution at a critical juncture of the Chinese revolution. It was a life-and-death turning point in the history of our party. The Zunyi Meeting was the first meeting in which the Communist Party of China independently applied the basic principles of Marxism-Leninism to resolve its own line, principles and policies. It is a sign that the Communist Party of China has grown from a young party to a mature party. Since then, the Chinese revolution has embarked on the path of successful development under the guidance of the correct line represented by Mao Zedong.