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What was the scale of the Central Red Army’s Long March? It is often said that the Zunyi Conference made Mao Zedong the key leader of the CCP. What is the truth? |
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See answer below. |
The Luding Bridge, also known as the Dadu Bridge (大渡橋), is a chain bridge across the Dadu River in Sichuan Province (四川). In 1863, Assistant King Shi Dakai (石達開) of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom (太平天國) was blocked by the Dadu River and had his army completely wiped out. Capturing the Luding Bridge ensured the Red Army could cross the Dadu River without repeating Shi’s fate.
Many Red Army soldiers died of hunger and cold when climbing over snow-capped mountains. Supplies were exhausted when they traversed uninhabited grasslands. Coupled with severe high-altitude sickness, hunger and thirst, humidity, cold, the danger of burying alive in swamps, and whatnot, the Red Army suffered severe losses.
In October 1935, the Central Red Army arrived in Wuqi Town (吳起鎮) in northern Shaanxi and ended its Long March. In October 1936, the converge of the Central Red Army, the Second, and the Fourth Front Army of the Red Army marked the completion of the entire Long March. In January 1937, the CCP Central Committee entered Yan’an, northern Shaanxi, which marked the commencement of the CCP’s Yan’an era.
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What was the scale of the Central Red Army’s Long March? It is often said that the Zunyi Conference made Mao Zedong the key leader of the CCP. What is the truth? |
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During its retreat and strategic transfer for approximately one year, the First Front Army of the CCP Red Army engaged in skirmishes every day or two. During the period, it fought in more than 380 battles, seized 62 counties, and defeated hundreds of regiments of the KMT regular army. Around 430 cadres above the battalion in the Red Army with an average age of under 30 years old were killed. Its troops traversed large areas of snow-capped mountains, alpine grasslands, permafrost, and no-man’s-land, covering an area of 11 provinces, 18 large mountains, 24 large rivers, and five continuous snow-capped mountains. The Central Red Army lost 90% of its soldiers when they reached northern Shaanxi from Jiangxi. According to Edgar Snow’s book of Red Star Over China published in 1938, he quoted Mao Zedong’s statement that the total distance of the Long March was 25,000 li (華里, or 12,500 kilometres). Although there were different estimations, the figures were close. Hence, the event was historically known as the “Long March of 25,000 li”. As for the Zunyi Conference, Mao was indeed elected to the leadership (some said he was made a member of the Secretariat, equivalent to the Standing Committee of the Politburo). However, he was yet the key leader. The conference made the following decisions: (1) Zhang Wentian to replace Bo Gu as the person in charge of the CCP (equivalent to the General Secretary of the CCP Central Committee; (2) Zhu De and Zhou Enlai, the highest military chiefs, to be the military commanders, while Zhou to be the party’s entrusted person responsible for making final decisions in commanding military matters. Mao to be Zhou’s helper in military commands. Soon after the Zunyi Conference, Zhou, Mao, and Wang Jiaxiang formed a military command trio (also known as “the new trio”) led by Zhou by the end of March 1935. According to the CCP’s usual practice, the Zunyi Conference in January 1935 opened a new era with Zhang Wentian as General Secretary. Therefore, Zhang was naturally the leader of the Long March while Zhou was the Chairman of the Central Military Commission. It was not until Zhou fell ill in August 1935 that Mao began to be responsible for the military work. However, the transfer of power between Zhang and Mao did not take place until later. The four important leaders of the CCP and the Central Red Army during the Long March period died in 1976: Zhou (8 January), Zhang (1 July), Zhu (6 July), and Mao (9 September). |