The encirclement campaign against the Hunan-Hubei-Jiangxi Soviet was a military campaign launched by the

Kuomintang The Kuomintang (KMT) is a major political party in the Republic of China (Taiwan). It was the one party state, sole ruling party of the country Republic of China (1912-1949), during its rule from 1927 to 1949 in Mainland China until Retreat ...

Nationalist Government The Nationalist government, officially the National Government of the Republic of China, refers to the government of the Republic of China (1912–1949), Republic of China from 1 July 1925 to 20 May 1948, led by the nationalist Kuomintang (KMT ...

against the

communist Communism () is a sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology within the socialist movement, whose goal is the creation of a communist society, a socioeconomic order centered on common ownership of the means of production, di ...

Soviet force in the Hunan-Hubei-Jiangxi. It was responded to with the Communists' Counter-encirclement campaign at the Hunan-Hubei-Jiangxi Soviet (), also called their Counter-encirclement campaign at the Hunan-Hubei-Jiangxi Revolutionary Base (). The local

red army The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army, often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Republic and, from 1922, the Soviet Union. The army was established in January 1918 by a decree of the Council of People ...

successfully defended this soviet republic against the government attacks from December 1930 through to May 1931. The communist 16th Army, commanded by Vice Chairman

Yang Youlin Yang Youlin (, ''Youlin Yang'', 1899–1935), nickname Shifu (), was a Chinese politician and a member of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), being the Vice Chairman and Acting Chairman of the Hunan Hubei Jiangxi Soviet Provincial Government befo ...

, stationed at the Hunan-Hubei-Jiangxi Soviet launched a preemptive strike against the Nationalist forces and annihilated an entire Nationalist regiment in Tongcheng (通城), Hubei in December - just before the Nationalists could begin the first attack of the campaign. The Nationalists had to withdraw temporarily to regroup. Reinforcement troops from other regions came to the Soviet area to avenge the defeat at Tongcheng, leaving these other regions vulnerable to Communist attacks. Pouncing on the opportunity, the forces of the Hunan-Jiangxi Soviet decided to help their comrades in the Hunan-Hubei-Jiangxi Soviet by striking the government in two fronts, in the west and in the southeast of

Hunan Hunan is an inland Provinces of China, province in Central China. Located in the middle reaches of the Yangtze watershed, it borders the Administrative divisions of China, province-level divisions of Hubei to the north, Jiangxi to the east, Gu ...

. Both Communist offensives in Hunan were successful. In addition to obtaining more land, weaponry, money and supplies, the Hunan-Jiangxi Soviet force also linked up with the Red 7th Army at the province's border with

Guangdong ) means "wide" or "vast", and has been associated with the region since the creation of Guang Prefecture in AD 226. The name "''Guang''" ultimately came from Guangxin ( zh, labels=no, first=t, t= , s=广信), an outpost established in Han dynasty ...

. The Nationalists were forced to redeploy their troops to face these new, more urgent threats; as a result the planned offensives against the Hunan-Hubei-Jiangxi Soviet. However, the Red 16th Army launched another round of assaults on the retreating Nationalist troops, annihilating eleven companies. After this victory, the 16th Army was joined by the Independent 3rd Division; together they succeeded in annihilating two more Nationalist regiments. The encirclement campaign against the Hunan-Hubei-Jiangxi Soviet was a failure. The Nationalists decided to discontinue the effort and concentrate their energy and resources on other

encirclement campaigns The encirclement campaigns of the Chinese Civil War were Republic of China (ROC) offensives against Chinese Communist Party (CCP) revolutionary base areas in China from the late-1920s to 1934 during the Chinese Civil War. The climax were the fiv ...

against major communist bases - Soviet Republics of much larger size - reasoning that as the larger bases were eliminated the smaller ones would not last long. As a result of the government retreat, the Hunan-Hubei-Jiangxi Soviet declared victory and continued to expand and consolidate their Soviet territory.

See also