Fifth encirclement campaign against the Jiangxi Soviet

Belligerents

Nationalist China
- Nationalist Army
  - Air Force
Allied Clique Troops

Supported by:
Germany

Chinese Soviet
- Red Army

Supported by:

Soviet UnionCommanders and leaders

Alexander von Falkenhausen

Yang YoulinStrength

1,000,000 total mobilised
- 500,000
  Chiang Kai-shek regime
- 300,000
  Chen Jitang Clique
- 200,000 from various
～1000 trucks
～500 artillery pieces
～270 aircraft

70,000–150,000Casualties and losses 2,626 total casualty
~1,000 killed
1 aircraft lost in accident ~60,000 total casualty
About 9600 people were killed
1,000+ POW

The fifth encirclement campaign against the Jiangxi Soviet was a series of military operations undertaken during the Chinese Civil War, spanning from September 1933 to October 1934. The conflict pitted the forces of Chiang Kai-shek's Chinese Nationalist Party (Kuomintang) against the Chinese Communists.

Unlike earlier attempts to crush the Chinese Soviet Republic, the fifth campaign was marked by a more methodical strategy. Chiang Kai-shek implemented a policy of gradual advance fortified by the construction of blockhouses, aiming to systematically isolate and annihilate Communist-controlled areas. This tactic ultimately proved effective in tightening the Nationalist stranglehold over the Jiangxi region.

Despite fierce resistance, the Communist forces—under increasingly constrained circumstances—suffered significant losses. By October 1934, the Nationalist Forces had succeeded in overrunning the principal Communist base areas. This defeat forced the Communist leadership to initiate a massive strategic retreat, later memorialised as the beginning of the Long March.

The campaign represented a turning point in the civil conflict, not only due to its military consequences but also for how it reshaped the Communist Party's internal leadership and strategic doctrine in the years that followed.