The Struggle for the Control of the Red Army in Jiangxi: Mao vs. Zhou Enlai

Abstract

In January 1931, a group of retumed Chinese students from Moscow, led by Chen Shaoyu, took over the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party in Shanghai. Seeking to impose their authority over the revolutionary bases then existing in Chi- na, they sent Zhou Enlai into the Jiangxi Soviet with the task of seizing control of the Jiangxi Red Army under the influence of Mao. Zhou, like many other communist military leaders, advocated the occupation of key towns in the Gan river valley while Mao preferred expansion towards Fujian province. The struggle between the two men for the control of the Red Army was a harsh one and it was only at the Conference of Ningdu in August 1932 that Zhou gained the upper hand. After the Ningdu Conference, Zhou took over the Jiangxi Red Army as general political commissar. He then conducted the fourth counter-campaign characterized by an offensive into the white area in order to disorganize the enemy dispositions before they were ready to launch their fourth encirclement campaign. This strategic plan represented a total break with the maoist strategy, employed during the first three encirclement campaigns, of luring the enemy deep into Soviet territory before annihilating him.