The Long March

On October 16, 1934, 100,000 Chinese Communist troops set out on a 9500 km trek from their base in Kiangsi. This trek, later to be known as the Long March, began after Chiang Kai-shek and his Nationalist armies thwarted the fledgling Communist organization in Southeast China. This ‘‘long march’’ took one year and many troops perished. When the Chinese Communist soldiers set out on their journey, morale was extremely low. Twenty thousand troops were injured and had to be left behind in Kiangsi. Many of the people who stayed behind were captured and eventually killed. It was a grueling journey; approximately 90,000 men and women died before it was over. However, communism was not eliminated in China. By narrowly escaping defeat and destruction through the Long March, the Communists were able to re-build support to fight the Nationalists once again… and this time they won.
The communist army was different from the Chinese armies of the past. Traditional Chinese armies were ...