The third encirclement campaign () against

Jiangxi Soviet Jiangxi (; ; formerly romanized as Kiangsi or Chianghsi) is a landlocked province in the east of the People's Republic of China. Its major cities include Nanchang and Jiujiang. Spanning from the banks of the Yangtze river in the north into hi ...

was the third campaign launched by the Chinese Nationalist Government in the hope of destroying the

Red Army The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army (Russian language, Russian: Рабо́че-крестья́нская Кра́сная армия),) often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist R ...

Jiangxi Jiangxi (; ; formerly romanized as Kiangsi or Chianghsi) is a landlocked province in the east of the People's Republic of China. Its major cities include Nanchang and Jiujiang. Spanning from the banks of the Yangtze river in the north into h ...

. It was launched less than a month after the previous campaign failed. However, this encirclement was repelled by the Red Army's third counter-encirclement campaign at the Central Soviet (), also called as the third counter-encirclement campaign at the Central Revolutionary Base ().

Strategy

Merely three weeks after the defeat of the second encirclement campaign,

Chiang Kai-shek Chiang Kai-shek (31 October 1887 – 5 April 1975), also known as Chiang Chung-cheng and Jiang Jieshi, was a Chinese Nationalist politician, revolutionary, and military leader who served as the leader of the Republic of China (ROC) from 1928 ...

reached

Nanchang Nanchang (, ; ) is the capital of Jiangxi Province, People's Republic of China. Located in the north-central part of the province and in the hinterland of Poyang Lake Plain, it is bounded on the west by the Jiuling Mountains, and on the east ...

on June 21, 1931 with his foreign military advisory delegations including military advisors from

Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the northwest coast of continental Europe. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the largest European island and the ninth-largest island in the world. It is ...

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG),, is a country in Central Europe. It is the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany lies between the Baltic and North Sea to the north and the Alps to the sou ...

and Japan. The nationalists planned to launch another encirclement campaign in very short time so that their communist enemy would not have enough time to regroup and prepare for the upcoming battles, and Chiang himself became the commander-in-chief of the nationalist force consisting of twenty-four divisions totaling more than three hundred thousand troops. The attacking nationalist forces were divided into two

army group An army group is a military organization consisting of several field armies, which is self-sufficient for indefinite periods. It is usually responsible for a particular geographic area. An army group is the largest field organization handled ...

s, with the

He Yingqing He Yingqin, (; April 2, 1890 – October 21, 1987) also Ho Ying-chin, was a politician and one of the most senior generals of the Kuomintang (KMT) during Republic of China, and a close ally of Chiang Kai-shek. Early years A native of Guizhou, H ...

named as the commander-in-chief of the left flank army group, and

Chen Mingshu Chen Mingshu (; 15 October 1889 – 15 May 1965) was a Chinese general and politician. A Hakka from Hepu, Guangxi, he graduated from Baoding Military Academy and participated in the Northern Expedition. He was briefly premier after Chiang Kai-s ...

as the commander-in-chief as the right flank army group.

Order of battle

Nationalist Nationalism is an idea and movement that holds that the nation should be congruent with the State (polity), state. As a movement, nationalism tends to promote the interests of a particular nation (as in a in-group and out-group, group of peo ...

order of battle (300,000+ total) *Left flank army group commanded by

would attack from Nancheng (南城) **5th Division commanded by Zhou Hunyuan (周浑元) **6th Division commanded by Zhao Guantao (赵观涛) **8th Division commanded by Mao Bingwen (毛炳文) **9th Division commanded by

Jiang Dingwen Jiang Dingwen (; December 30, 1895–2 January 1974), courtesy name Mingsan (銘三), was a KMT general from Zhuji, Zhejiang Zhejiang ( or , ; , also romanized as Chekiang) is an eastern, coastal province of the People's Republic ...

**11th Division commanded by

Luo Zhuoying Luo Zhuoying (; 19 March 1896 – 6 November 1961) was a Republic of China General (二級上將). He was active during the Second Sino-Japanese War and was later the Governor of Guangdong. Military career *1937 Commander in Chief 15th Army Group ...

**14th Division commanded by

Chen Cheng Chen Cheng (; ; January 4, 1898 – March 5, 1965) was a Chinese political and military leader, and one of the main commanders of the National Revolutionary Army during the Second Sino-Japanese War and the Chinese Civil War. After moving ...

**24th Division commanded by Xu Kexiang (许克祥) *Right flank army group commanded by

would attack from

Ji'an Ji'an () is a prefecture-level city situated in the central region of Jiangxi province of the People's Republic of China while bordering Hunan province to the west. It has an area of and as of the 2020 census, had a population of 4,469,176, of ...

, Yongfeng (永丰), Yue'an (乐安) **25th Division commanded by

Sun Lianzhong Sun Lianzhong (; 2 February 1893 – 14 August 1990) was a Chinese general during the Warlord Era, Second Sino-Japanese War and Chinese Civil War. Best known for his commanded of the 2nd Group Army in the Battle of Taierzhuang, he had a long ca ...

**27th Division commanded by

Gao Shuxun Gao Shuxun () (1897 – 1972)
The Generals of WWII sometimes written Kao Shu-hsun, was a

(高树勋) **47th Division commanded by

Shangguan Yunxiang Shangguan Yunxiang (; 1895–8 August 1969) was a Kuomintang general from Shanghe County, Shandong. He was the brother-in-law of Kuomintang general Yu Hanmou. Early life Shangguan enrolled in the Infantry Division of Baoding Military Academy ...

(上官云相) **52nd Division commanded by

Han Deqin Han Deqin (; 8 October 1892–15 August 1988) was a KMT general from Siyang County, Jiangsu. He graduated from the Baoding Military Academy. He fought against the Chinese Workers' and Peasants' Red Army in Jiangxi and the forces of the Empi ...

**54th Division commanded by

Hao Mengling Hao Mengling (1892–1937) was a Chinese general who distinguished himself first in the Northern Expedition and then in the Battle of Xinkou. Born on 18 February 1892 into a family of poor farmers, Hao ran away from his apprenticeship at a gro ...

**60th Division commanded by

Cai Tingkai Cai Tingkai (; 1892–1968) was a Chinese general. Cai was in overall command of the 19th Route Army of the Republic of China's National Revolutionary Army and other Chinese forces responsible for holding off the Imperial Japanese Army during t ...

**61st Division commanded by Dai Ji (戴戟) *General Reserve **10th Division commanded by

Wei Lihuang Wei Lihuang () (16 February 1897 – 17 January 1960) was a Chinese general who served the Nationalist government throughout the Chinese Civil War and Second Sino-Japanese War as one of China's most successful military commanders. First joinin ...

**Urban Assault Brigade commanded by

Li Yannian (general) Li Yannian (, 11 March 1904 – 17 November 1974) was a Kuomintang lieutenant-general from Shandong. Early life and career General Li was a member of the first graduate class of the Whampoa Military Academy. His classmate was General Du Yuming. ...

**53rd Division commanded by Li Yunheng (李韫珩) would station at

*Western Flank along the

Gan River The Gan River (, Gan: Kōm-kong) runs north through the western part of Jiangxi before flowing into Lake Poyang and thus the Yangtze River. The Xiang-Gan uplands separate it from the Xiang River of neighboring eastern Hunan. Two similarly sized ...

: **28th Division commanded by Gong Bingpan (公秉藩) **77th Division commanded by Luo Lin (罗霖) **34th Brigade of the 12th Division commanded by Ma Kun (马昆) *Eastern Flank at the border region of

Fujian Fujian (; alternately romanized as Fukien or Hokkien) is a province on the southeastern coast of China. Fujian is bordered by Zhejiang to the north, Jiangxi to the west, Guangdong to the south, and the Taiwan Strait to the east. Its c ...

Guangdong Guangdong (, ), alternatively romanized as Canton or Kwangtung, is a coastal province in South China on the north shore of the South China Sea. The capital of the province is Guangzhou. With a population of 126.01 million (as of 2020 ...

province A province is almost always an administrative division within a country or state. The term derives from the ancient Roman ''provincia'', which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire's territorial possessions outsi ...

s: **49th Division commanded by Zhang Zhen (张贞) **56th Division commanded by Liu Heding (刘和鼎) **Newly Organized 14th Brigade commanded by Zhou Zhiqun (周志群) *Counterguerrilla garrisons in the regions including

Zhangshu Zhangshu (), formerly Qingjiang County (Tsingkiang) (), is a county-level city under the administration of the prefecture-level city of Yichun, in the west-central part of Jiangxi Province. It has an area of with a population of 536,500. It is ...

Fuzhou, Jiangxi Fuzhou (,), also known as Gandong (), is a prefecture-level city in the northeastern part of Jiangxi province, People's Republic of China. Fuzhou is located to the south of the provincial capital Nanchang, bordered in the east by Fujian Province ...

, Yihuang (宜黄), Nancheng, (南城), Lichuan (黎川): **1st Cavalry Division commanded by Guan Shuren (关树人) **23rd Division commanded by Li Yunjie (李云杰) **79th Division commanded by Lu Xiaochen (路孝忱) *5

wing A wing is a type of fin that produces lift while moving through air or some other fluid. Accordingly, wings have streamlined cross-sections that are subject to aerodynamic forces and act as airfoils. A wing's aerodynamic efficiency is exp ...

of RoCAF: **1st

**3rd

**4th

**5th

**7th

*Other nationalist forces mobilized as the second line units.

Communist Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a ...

order of battle In modern use, the order of battle of an armed force participating in a military operation or campaign shows the hierarchical organization, command structure, strength, disposition of personnel, and equipment of units and formations of the armed ...

: (30,000+ total) *First Front Army of

Chinese Red Army The Chinese Workers' and Peasants' Red Army or Chinese Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army, commonly known as the Chinese Red Army or simply the Red Army, are the armed forces of the Chinese Communist Party. It was formed when Communis ...

Campaign

On July 1, 1931, the nationalists began their offensive. The communists had not fully recovered yet from the last encirclement campaign and

Wang Ming Wang may refer to: Names * Wang (surname) (王), a common Chinese surname * Wāng (汪), a less common Chinese surname * Titles in Chinese nobility * A title in Korean nobility * A title in Mongolian nobility Places * Wang River in Thail ...

's protégés including

Xiang Ying Xiang Ying (; 1895(?) – 1941) was a war-time Chinese communist leader reaching the rank of political chief of staff of the New Fourth Army during World War II until his assassination by a member of his staff in 1941. Biography Initially a lab ...

had to agree with

Mao Zedong Mao Zedong pronounced ; also Romanization of Chinese, romanised traditionally as Mao Tse-tung. (26 December 1893 – 9 September 1976), also known as Chairman Mao, was a Chinese communist revolutionary who was the List of national founde ...

's decision to adopt the proven strategies in the earlier campaigns by letting the nationalists penetrate deep into the communist base and then to counterattack individual isolated enemy formations as they were dispersed. On July 10, 1931, the communist main force left western

and traveled more than five hundred kilometers back to

Xingguo Xingguo County () is a county in south central Jiangxi province, People's Republic of China. It is under the administration of and located in the north of the prefecture-level city of Ganzhou, with a total area of . Its population was 719,830 at t ...

in southern

and waited their opportunities to counterattack. By the end of July 1931, nationalists had discovered that the communist main force had withdrawn to

, and

immediately ordered his troops to simultaneously attack southward from north and westward from east, so that communists would be forced onto the eastern bank of

and annihilated. The communists, in turn, decided to avoid direct clash with main nationalist force but instead, attack the weaker ones by outflanking the nationalists. To achieve their goal, communists planned to strike Futian (富田) from

via Wan'an (万安), and then to strike eastward from the west to sever the nationalist communication/supply lines while the main nationalist force was trapped deep inside the communist base. As the main communist force moved toward Futian (富田), its intent was discovered by the nationalists and the nationalist 11th and 14th Division reached Futian (富田) ahead of the communists, resulting in the communist main force being blocked by the

in the west, and facing the nationalist forces in the east, south and north. The communist high command decided to change their strategy by breaking through in the center and move eastward to the regions of Liantang (莲塘), Liangcun (良村), and Huangbi (黄陂). In order to hide their true objective, the 35th Army and the 35th Division of the 12th Army of the

pretended to be the communist main force and moved towards the

to fool nationalists. The main communist force, meanwhile, swiftly moved to the region of Liantang (莲塘) at the night under the cover of the darkness on August 4, 1931 via passing through a twenty-kilometer gap in the nationalist lines between the nationalist divisions commanded

and

. On August 7, 1931, communists succeeded in annihilating more than a brigade of troops from the nationalist 47th Division in the region of Liantang (莲塘), and soon afterward, badly mauling the nationalist 54th Division in Liangcun (良村). On August 11, 1931, communists succeeded in completely destroying four regiments of the nationalist 8th Division at Huangbi (黄陂), and after three consecutive defeats, the nationalist advance was checked temporarily. Realizing the communist main force was moving eastward, the nationalist troops moving southward and westward were ordered to move eastward on August 9, 1931, in an attempt to sounding the communist main force in the region to the east of Junbu (君埠). The communists ordered their 12th Army (missing its 35th Division) of the Chinese Red Army to move toward Yue'an (乐安) to lure the nationalists northeastward, while the communist main force secretly returned to

by quietly passing a ten kilometer-wide gap in the nationalist encirclement in the mountain. Half a month later, nationalists chasing the communist 12th Army realized they were after the wrong target and abandoned the chase. As the over stretched nationalist forces attempted to regroup, the communists already had plenty of time to rest and regrouped already, and the nationalist morale dropped to a new low while their supplies had run out. Realizing further fighting was impossible, nationalists were forced to abandon their plans by starting to withdraw in early September, 1931. Taking the opportunity, communists counterattacked, and the only nationalist offensive still remaining was successfully checked when the nationalist 60th Division and 61st Division were forced to be on the defensive and abandoned all offensive attempts. Communists were not satisfied with this success and did not consider it a victory, but a draw instead, and continued their offensive on other fronts. On September 7, 1931, they succeeded in destroying an entire brigade of the nationalist 9th Division in the region of Laoyingpan (老营盘), and on September 15, 1931, another brigade of the nationalist 9th Division and the entire nationalist 52nd Division were completely destroyed by the communists in the region of Fangshiling (方石岭). The nationalist commander of the 52nd Division,

, was captured alive together with his staff, becoming the highest ranking nationalist commander captured, but they had successfully avoided being identified by disguising themselves as ordinary soldiers and each received two dollars in silver when released after the campaign. A total of seven nationalist divisions were badly mauled in the six battles, which communists themselves labeled as five victories and one draw, and nationalists suffered over 30,000 casualties. In addition, the communists also captured more than 20,000 rifles in their victory.

Aftermath

Capitalizing on their victory, communists launched their offensives into the nationalist dominated regions, further expanding their communist base in

, resulting in previously two separate communist bases in southern

and western

joining together into a larger one, covering twenty-one counties totaling more than fifty square kilometers, with permanent residents totaling more than two and half a million. The communist success paved the way for the communist base to later expand to its ultimate size with population over three million. It was worth to note that though

was still viewed by many communists as the supreme commander, his positions had already been actually reduced significantly since the last encirclement campaign, and it was only because

's protégés had not yet fully established their absolute authority, plus the fact that Mao's previous proven strategies had once more been applied in this campaign that created the false impression that Mao was still the supreme leader. After this campaign, Mao soon fell from power as the internal political power struggle intensified and

emerged victorious. The encirclement stopped because the Japanese launched the

Mukden Incident The Mukden Incident, or Manchurian Incident, known in Chinese as the 9.18 Incident (九・一八), was a false flag event staged by Japanese military personnel as a pretext for the 1931 Japanese invasion of Manchuria. On September 18, 1931, L ...

Strategy

Order of battle

Campaign

Aftermath

See also