Long March

Long March
Part of Chinese Civil War
Overview map of the route of the Long March Light red areas show Communist enclaves. Areas marked by a blue "X" were overrun by Kuomintang forces during the Fourth Encirclement Campaign, forcing the Fourth (north) and Second (south) Red Armies to retreat westward (dotted lines). The heavy dashed line is the route of the First Red Army from Jiangxi. The withdrawal of all three Red Armies ends in the northeast enclave of Shaanxi.
Date 16 October 1934 – 19 October 1935 (1 year, 3 days)[a] Location Southern, Southwestern, and Northwestern China Result Communists evade Nationalist armies and allied warlords
Belligerents
Nationalist China National Revolutionary Army Allied warlords Military assistance: Germany	Chinese Red Army Supported by:  Soviet Union
Commanders and leaders
Chiang Kai-shek Xue Yue Bai Chongxi Hans von Seeckt	Mao Zedong Zhu De Zhou Enlai Peng Dehuai Lin Biao Deng Xiaoping Otto Braun
Strength
over 300,000	First Front Red Army: 69,000 (October 1934) 7,000 (October 1935)

The Long March (Chinese: 长征; pinyin: Chángzhēng; lit. 'Long Expedition') was a military retreat by the Chinese Red Army from advancing Nationalist forces during the Chinese Civil War in 1934 through 1936.

Several Red Army forces took various routes from Chinese Communist Party (CCP) strongholds being encircled by the Kuomintang (KMT) National Revolutionary Army. Their concurrent retreats took more than a year, traversing thousands of kilometers through western and central China to convene at the new Communist base of operations in Yan'an, in the northwestern province of Shaanxi.

The most famous of these marches was undertaken by the First Red Army under the leadership of Mao Zedong. Departing from their headquarters in the southern province of Jiangxi on 16 October 1934, the 65,000-person First Army marched more than 9,000 kilometres (5,600 mi) in a large clockwise arc through the western frontiers of the country, ultimately meeting with other Communist forces in Yan'an on 19 October 1935. The circuitous route brought the First Army through some of the most difficult terrain in the country while pursued by the Nationalists: at first the NRA under Chiang Kai-Shek, and later by local cliques of Nationalist-aligned warlords. Fewer than 8,000 people traveling with the First Red Army survived the march.^[1][2]

The Second and Fourth Red Armies would continue to retreat under pressure into the following year, ultimately meeting the First Army in Yan'an on 22 October 1936.

Mao's leadership during the retreat brought him immense prestige and support among many within the otherwise-shattered Communist Party. It marked the beginning of Mao's long ascent to primacy within the CCP, and would be featured heavily in his public image, through the founding of the People's Republic.

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