Long March
On 12th March 1925, Sun Yat-sen, the leader of the Kuomintang died. He was replaced by Chaing Kai-Shek
who now carried out a purge that eliminated the communists from the
organization. Those communists who survived managed to established the
Jiangxi Soviet.
The nationalists now imposed a blockade and Mao Zedong decided to evacuate the area and establish a new stronghold in the north-west of China. In October 1934 Mao, Zhou Enlai, Lin Biao, Zhu De, and some 100,000 men and their dependents headed west through mountainous areas.
The
marchers experienced terrible hardships. The most notable passages
included the crossing of the suspension bridge over a deep gorge at
Luting (May, 1935), travelling over the Tahsueh Shan mountains (August,
1935) and the swampland of Sikang (September, 1935).
The marchers
covered about fifty miles a day and reached Shensi on 20th October 1935.
Only around 30,000 survived the 8,000-mile march.
