| Conflict: | Fifth encirclement campaign against the Jiangxi Soviet |
| Partof: | the Chinese Civil War |
| Date: | 25 September 1933 – 10 October 1934 |
| Place: | Jiangxi province |
| Result: | Nationalist victory
|
| Combatant1: | Nationalist China
Supported by: |
| Combatant2: |
Supported by: |
| Commander2: | Wang Ming Zhou Enlai Bo Gu Otto Braun Lin Biao Peng Dehuai |
| Strength1: | 500,000 under Chiang Kai-shek 300,000 under Chen Jitang 200,000 from various Manchuria Sichuan Hunan Fujian Guangxi. 1,000,000 total mobilized |
| Strength2: | 70,000-150,000 |
| Casualties1: | 1,000 killed |
| Casualties2: | 60,000 killed |
The fifth encirclement campaign against the Jiangxi Soviet was a series of battles fought during the Chinese Civil War from 25 September 1933, to October 1934 between Chiang Kai-shek's Chinese Nationalists (Kuomintang) and the Chinese Communists.[1] During this campaign, the Kuomintang successfully overran the communist Chinese Soviet Republic and forced the Communists on the run, an event later known as the Long March.
After the failure of the fourth encirclement campaign in the spring of 1933, Chiang Kai-shek immediately mobilized troops for the next campaign. Nationalist troops eventually totaled more than one million, mostly forces under various regional warlords, of which the largest part were men from the Guangdong warlord Chen Jitang's army of 300,000+ (or 30% of the total nationalist force). Chen Jitang's troops were mobilized to blockade the southern border of the Jiangxi Soviet. However, most of the warlords were somewhat half-hearted towards the campaign, due to a mixture of only wanting to keep their own power and having already seen four previous campaigns fail. In the end, the majority of warlord troops only participated as block-troops and occupiers of the captured communist regions. Chiang Kai-shek's own Kuomintang troops carried out the majority of the fighting.
In July 1933 the NRA established a review team to identify and rectify mistakes made in previous encirclement campaigns. Divisional level training organisations were formed to improve the capability of NRA forces, foreign advisors namely the German mission were further integrated into operations and their expertise was utilised to improve the tactics and strategies of the NRA forces. The German advisors proposed a more systematic strategy.[2]
Firstly, the Soviet would be surrounded and blockaded, cutting off crucial goods that were important to the logistics of the Red Army such as raw materials, rice, and salt. The second step was to establish a line of blockhouses of concrete and other fortifications to provide fire support and create a strong defensive line to deny the CCP an opportunity to break out, as the line advanced rear blockhouses would be abandoned and forward ones constructed and manned. Lastly, roads were built in rear areas to facilitate the delivery of supplies, these strategies were adopted piecemeal before to varying often limited success.
The KMT recognised that the defeat of the CCP was 70% political and 30% military and a slogan to that effect was widespread. The ancient Baojia system was revived by NRA forces under KMT instruction to provide security teams and create new revived village administrations.[3]
The KMT army was 700,000 strong in total broken down into 4 Armies and supported by 5 air corps. The Northern Army contained 30 divisions and garrisoned the Jishui-Jinzhi-Nangeng-Li'an front. The Southern Army contained 11 Guangdong divisions and one independent regiment it garrisoned the Wuping-Anyuan-Ganxian-Shangyou line. The Western Army contained 9 Hunanese divisions and 3 independent regiments it garrisoned the Gan River preventing a western push from the Red Army. The Eastern Army contained 14 divisions and garrisoned the Fujian-Jiangxi border (following the Fujian incident). The Fujian-Jiangxi-Zhejiang Military Region Headquarters was given 11 divisions and 4 security regiments to block the Northeastern region.
This gave a total force of 75 divisions and 8 independent regiments. The estimates of the main attack force vary from 400,000 to 500,000 with a total of 1,000,000 men committed to the offensive, the estimates of the 5 air Corps vary from 200 to 270.[4]
The Red Army had prepared little for the encirclement campaign focusing beforehand on recruiting a large army for fighting a conventional war, by late October 1933 the Red army contained some 100,000 soldiers though this strained the logistics system as fielding a large army was beyond the capability of the Soviet. Revenue and supply collection only began in August 1933.[5]
It is alternatively stated to have a strength of 150,000 or 70,000.
| First Division | Fourth Division | Thirteenth Division | Nineteenth Division | Third Division | Twentyfirst division | |
| Second Division | Fifth Division | Fifteenth division | Twentieth Division | Fourteenth division | Twentythird division | |
| Sixth Division | Thirtyfourth division | Twentysecond division | ||||
| Twentyfourth division |
As the commander-in-chief of the Nationalist forces, Chiang Kai-shek established his headquarters in Nanchang. In addition to mobilizing the warlords' troops, Chiang also adopted the strategy of systematic encirclement of the Jiangxi Soviet region with fortified blockhouses. This strategy has been attributed to his German advisers' (Hans von Seeckt and Alexander von Falkenhausen), however this is unlikely. Instead, the Nationalists innovated the strategy themselves.[6]
The blockhouses proved to be very effective. In an effort to break the blockade, the Red Army—under the orders of a three-man committee consisting of Bo Gu, Zhou Enlai and Li De (Otto Braun)—besieged the forts many times, but suffered heavy casualties with little success. The Jiangxi Soviet shrunk significantly due to the Chinese Red Army's disastrous loss of manpower and material throughout the year, and by the end only a handful of towns and cities remained in Communist hands.
The campaign officially began on 25 September 1933, when the first Kuomintang assault on Communist positions was launched. Three days later the Communists lost Lichuan. Although their force managed to stop the Nationalist advance on the southwest of Lichuan, further operations ended in failure: when the 24th division of the Chinese Red Army attempted to take on 9 October 1933, not only did the city remain firmly in Nationalist hands, but the communists were forced to withdraw over the next few days while suffering heavy casualties. Witnessing this success, Chiang Kai-shek issued a new order on 17 October 1933, requiring troops to follow the principle of tactical defense, strategic offense in order to perfect his German advisers' blockhouse strategy. In contrast, the Communist leadership refused to adjust their tactics and stubbornly continued futile attacks on Kuomintang blockhouses. Between September 25, 1933, and mid-November 1933, the Chinese Red Army failed to achieve any major victories and suffered serious losses, not only in battle but from defection and disease.
On 11 December 1933, a total of eight columns of Kuomintang troops ventured out of their fortifications and started the second offensive. The Communist leadership decided to face the numerically and technically superior Nationalist army in open battle. As a result, Communist forces suffered badly. By the end of January 1934, warlord forces began to participate, and men from the Fujian warlord armies struck from the east in coordination with Nationalists from the north and south.
On April 10, 1934, eleven divisions of the National Revolutionary Army began their attack on Guangchang, and the communists decided to concentrate a total of nine divisions in its defense. Due to overwhelming Nationalist superiority, Communist strongholds at Ganzhu, Daluo Mountain (大罗山) and Yanfuzhang (延福嶂) fell. On the dawn of 19 April 1934, the Communists launched a counterattack against the Nationalist force at the Daluo Mountain, only to be driven off. On 27 April 1934, the Nationalists launched their final assault on Guangchang, succeeding in taking it by the evening and inflicting over 5,500 casualties on its Communist defenders. Remnants of the shattered Communist defense fled to the south and west under the cover of darkness.
The three-man committee of the communist leadership divided their force into six different groups in early July 1934. On 5 August 1934, nine Nationalist divisions ventured out of their forts, taking areas north of and adjacent regions. By the late September 1934, the Chinese Soviet Republic was left with only Ruijin, Huichang, Xingguo, Ningdu, Shicheng, Ninghua and Changting.
It was at this point that Zhou Enlai's spy network within Chiang Kai-shek's headquarters in Nanchang passed intelligence to the Communists revealing that Chiang was massing for a final push. The decision was made to abandon the Jiangxi Soviet, resulting in the beginning of the Long March. As a result of the Communist failure to defeat the fifth encirclement, the largest Communist base in China was lost.
Communist failures were mainly due to the policies of the Communist leadership: