Far East

1934–1935: The Chinese Civil War and the Long March

October 1934 – October 1935 · 1 battle

After five encirclement campaigns, Kuomintang forces compelled the communist Red Army to abandon the Chinese Soviet Republic in Jiangxi in the autumn of 1934. So began the Long March: a retreat lasting many months across the mountains, rivers and marshes of western China, which only part of the army survived. In its course Mao Zedong took over the leadership of the party, and the communists reached northern Shaanxi, from where they were to become the second force, alongside the Kuomintang, fighting Japan.

16 October 1934 – 22 October 1935The Long MarchThe year-long retreat of China's Red Army from Jiangxi to northern Shaanxi (1934–1935). Of over 86,000 men a few thousand arrived; Mao Zedong took the party.