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| Nanchang uprising | |||||||
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| Part of theChinese Civil War | |||||||
 Location of the Nanchang uprising | |||||||
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| Nanchang uprising | |||||||||||||
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| Traditional Chinese | 南昌起義 | ||||||||||||
| Simplified Chinese | 南昌起义 | ||||||||||||
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| Alternative Chinese name | |||||||||||||
| Traditional Chinese | 八一起義 | ||||||||||||
| Simplified Chinese | 八一起义 | ||||||||||||
| Literal meaning | 1 August Uprising | ||||||||||||
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TheNanchang Uprising[a] of August 1927 was the point at which conflict between theChinese Communist Party and theNationalist Party of China (Kuomintang) became an outright rebellion. This began theChinese Civil War. It was initiated by the Communists in response to themassacre of their party comrades in Shanghai by the Kuomintang four months before.
TheKuomintang (KMT)left wing established a "Revolutionary Committee" atNanchang to plant the spark that was expected to ignite a widespread peasant uprising.Deng Yanda,Song Qingling andZhang Fakui (listed nominally, who later crushed the uprising) were among the political leaders.[4]
Military forces inNanchang under the leadership ofHe Long andZhou Enlai rebelled in an attempt to seize control of the city after the end of thefirst Kuomintang-Communist alliance. Other important leaders in this event wereZhu De,Ye Ting, andLiu Bocheng.
Communist forces successfully occupiedNanchang and escaped from the siege of Kuomintang forces by 5 August, withdrawing to theJinggang Mountains of westernJiangxi. 1 August 1927 was later regarded as the anniversary of the founding of thePeople's Liberation Army (PLA) and the first action fought against the Kuomintang and theNational Revolutionary Army (NRA).
Communist forces at their peak during theNanchang Uprising totaled over 20,000, though some of them did not join the battle until a day later. The entire Communist force was organized into the 2nd Front Army, and over half of it was underHe Long's command. He was also named Commander-in-Chief of the 2nd Front Army, andYe Ting as deputy Commander-in-Chief and acting front-line Commander-in-Chief. Communist representative wasZhou Enlai, chief of staff wasLiu Bocheng and Director of the Political Directorate of the 2nd Front Army wasGuo Moruo. The following is theorder of battle for the Communist forces:
On the morning of 1 August 1927, at exactly 2:00 a.m., Zhou Enlai, He Long,Nie Rongzhen, Ye Ting,Ye Jianying,Lin Biao, Zhu De,Chen Yi and Liu Bocheng led their troops and attacked the city ofNanchang from different directions. Four hours later they took the city, capturing 5,000 small arms and around 1,000,000 rounds of ammunition.
Facing a counterattack from the Nationalists, the Communists decided to retreat south towards the province ofGuangdong. Once there they would try to take over the city ofGuangzhou while spreading their influence to the peasants and farms in that area.
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Guangzhou was the target set by the SovietComintern and, on August 3, Communist troops pulled out of Nanchang. TheirLittle Long March came to an end at the beginning of October, as they came down out of theHakka uplands and into theChaoshan area. InChaozhou they were defeated by Nationalist-affiliated troops. Communist forces were broken up and traveled in two general directions, one heading toShanwei where they engaged the Nationalists in guerrilla warfare underPeng Pai, and the other to southernHunan, where they eventually joined a force underMao Zedong, whose abortiveAutumn Harvest Uprising had been no more successful.
The Communist forces had suffered such a decisive and disastrous defeat that only 1,000 soldiers remained as a complete unit, reforming into a regiment. Under the command of Zhu De andChen Yi, who had faked their names, the regiment went to a local Hunan warlord and sought refuge. From this humble beginning the force eventually grew to 10,000 strong, traveling to Jiangxi and joining Mao Zedong atJinggangshan in April 1928.
Liu Bocheng became a fugitive but was lucky enough to find other Communists who helped him and eventually sent him to theSoviet Union for military training, while Lin Biao deserted after the defeat. However, he had to return to the Communist force because of his fear that locals hostile to his side would turn him over to his enemies or kill him.Guo Moruo fled to Japan after the defeat.
Other surviving members were much less fortunate; all became fugitives. Zhou Enlai,Ye Jianying and Ye Ting lost contact with the others and fled toBritish Hong Kong, with Zhou seriously ill. The three had two pistols with them and were successful in reaching Hong Kong. Nie Rongzhen, the other communist leader, also successfully escaped to Hong Kong.
He Long had strongly opposed the retreat plan, accurately pointing out that marching 1000 miles in the heat of summer would put a severe strain on the troops, and that popular support for the Communists in Guangdong was merely a fraction of the huge support they had among the peasantry inHunan. His opinion was that the new Communist base should be established in the border region ofHunan, suggesting that in Hunan the Communist troops would be easily resupplied and their numbers increased by the enlistment of the local populace. However, his suggestion was vetoed.
He Long went home alone after the defeat. Demoted from his position as an army commander in charge of tens of thousands of men to that of a beggar, he was not well received by his family except for a few who were already Communists. He would soon raise another force of Communist soldiers, this time more than 3000 strong, but it would be wiped out by the Nationalists, with less than three dozen members surviving. It would take a year for He Long's force to recover for the third time.
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