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N0KFQ > TODAY 16.10.16 16:56l 79 Lines 3895 Bytes #999 (0) @ WW
BID : 10554_N0KFQ
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Subj: Today in History - Oct 16
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Sent: 161016/1448Z 10554@N0KFQ.#SWMO.MO.USA.NA BPQ6.0.13
1934
The Long March
The embattled Chinese Communists break through Nationalist enemy
lines and begin an epic flight from their encircled headquarters
in southwest China. Known as Ch'ang Cheng_the "Long March"_the
retreat lasted 368 days and covered 6,000 miles, nearly twice the
distance from New York to San Francisco.
Civil war in China between the Nationalists and the Communists
broke out in 1927. In 1931, Communist leader Mao Zedong was
elected chairman of the newly established Soviet Republic of
China, based in Kiangsi province in the southwest. Between 1930
and 1934, the Nationalists under Chiang Kai-shek launched a
series of five encirclement campaigns against the Soviet
Republic. Under the leadership of Mao, the Communists employed
guerrilla tactics to resist successfully the first four
campaigns, but in the fifth, Chiang raised 700,000 troops and
built fortifications around the Communist positions. Hundreds of
thousands of peasants were killed or died of starvation in the
siege, and Mao was removed as chairman by the Communist Central
Committee. The new Communist leadership employed more
conventional warfare tactics, and its Red Army was decimated.
With defeat imminent, the Communists decided to break out of the
encirclement at its weakest points. The Long March began at 5:00
p.m. on October 16, 1934. Secrecy and rear-guard actions confused
the Nationalists, and it was several weeks before they realized
that the main body of the Red Army had fled. The retreating force
initially consisted of 86,000 troops, 15,000 personnel, and 35
women. Weapons and supplies were borne on men's backs or in
horse-drawn carts, and the line of marchers stretched for 50
miles. The Communists generally marched at night, and when the
enemy was not near, a long column of torches could be seen
snaking over valleys and hills into the distance.
The first disaster came in November, when Nationalist forces
blocked the Communists' route across the Hsiang River. It took a
week for the Communists to break through the fortifications and
cost them 50,000 men_more than half their number. After that
debacle, Mao steadily regained his influence, and in January he
was again made chairman during a meeting of the party leaders in
the captured city of Tsuni. Mao changed strategy, breaking his
force into several columns that would take varying paths to
confuse the enemy. There would be no more direct assaults on
enemy positions. And the destination would now be Shensi
Province, in the far northwest, where the Communists hoped to
fight the Japanese invaders and earn the respect of China's
masses.
After enduring starvation, aerial bombardment, and almost daily
skirmishes with Nationalist forces, Mao halted his columns at the
foot of the Great Wall of China on October 20, 1935. Waiting for
them were five machine-gun- and red-flag-bearing horsemen.
"Welcome, Chairman Mao," one said. "We represent the Provincial
Soviet of Northern Shensi. We have been waiting for you
anxiously. All that we have is at your disposal!" The Long March
was over.
The Communist marchers crossed 24 rivers and 18 mountain ranges,
mostly snow-capped. Only 4,000 troops completed the journey. The
majority of those who did not perished. It was the longest
continuous march in the history of warfare and marked the
emergence of Mao Zedong as the undisputed leader of the Chinese
Communists. Learning of the Communists' heroism and determination
in the Long March, thousands of young Chinese traveled to Shensi
to enlist in Mao's Red Army. After fighting the Japanese for a
decade, the Chinese Civil War resumed in 1945. Four years later,
the Nationalists were defeated, and Mao proclaimed the People's
Republic of China. He served as chairman until his death in 1976.
73 - K.O., n0kfq
N0KFQ @ N0KFQ.#SWMO.MO.USA.NA
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