Hashasheen
Banned
The Fourth Red Army under Zhang Guotao was crushed because it had taken a seperate route besides the forces under Mao. Zhang lost all political power in the CCP because of this loss, which gave Mao and his followers a better stranglehold. So what if Zhang managed to link up with the others with more of his army intact, or agree with Mao on strategy?
Here's what I read on wiki that had me write this:
Here's what I read on wiki that had me write this:
In October 1934, the communist First Red Army took advantage of gaps in the ring of blockhouses (manned by the troops of a warlord ally of Chiang Kai-shek's, rather than the Nationalists themselves) to escape Jiangxi. The warlord armies were reluctant to challenge communist forces for fear of wasting their own men, and did not pursue the communists with much fervor. In addition, the main Nationalist forces were preoccupied with annihilating Zhang Guotao's Fourth Red Army, which was much larger than Mao's. The massive military retreat of communist forces known as the Long March over a year and covered thousand of kilometers, ending when the Communist armies linked up in the interior of Shaanxi province in northwest China. Along the way, the Communist armies confiscated property and weapons from local warlords and landlords, while recruiting peasants and the poor, solidifying its appeal to the masses.
Of the 80,000 people who began the Long March from the Soviet Chinese Republic, only around 7000 made it to Shaanxi, including those who joined the Red Army en route. In November 1935, the Second Red Army, led by He Long, set out on its own Long March, driven further west than the First Red Army, all the way to Lijiang in Yunnan province, then across the Jade Dragon Snow Mountain massif and through the Tibetan highlands of western Sichuan. Zhang Guotao's Fourth Red Army, which took a different route through northwest China, was largely destroyed by the forces of Chiang Kai-shek and his Chinese Muslim ally, the Ma clique. The remnants of Zhang's forces eventually joined Mao in Shaanxi, but with his army destroyed, Zhang, even as a founding member of the CCP, was never able to challenge Mao's authority. The Red Army's exploits during the Long March became a potent symbol of the spirit and prowess of the Red Army and its successor, the PLA. During the Long March, Mao's political power and his strategy of guerrilla warfare gained ascendancy in the party and the Red Army and made Mao and his proteges the undisputed leaders of the Chinese Communist Party.
In 1932 Zhang led the 4th Red Army into Sichuan and set up another base. Slowly he turned it into a prosperous autonomous region by way of land reform and enlisting the support of locals. However, once the prosperity was in reach, Zhang repeated the Stalinist style purges again, as a result, he and the Red Army lost the popular support, and was driven from the Red base and had to start their part of the Long March. In 1935 Zhang and his troops of more than 80,000 reunited with Mao's 7,000 troops in Sichuan after the Long March. It was Zhang's arrogance due to his superior strength at this time which sowed the seeds of conflict between the two men. It was not long before Mao and Zhang were locked in disagreements over issues of strategy and tactics, causing a split in the Red Army. The main disagreement was the Zhang's insistence on moving southward to establish a new base in the region of Sichuan that are populated by minorities. Mao correctly pointed out the flaws of such move, pointing out the difficulties to establish any communist base in regions where the general populace was hostile, and insisted on moving northward to reach the communist base in Shaanxi.
Zhang tried have Mao and his followers arrest and killed if needed, but his plan was foiled by his own staff member Ye Jianying and Yang Shangkun, who fled to Mao's headquarter to inform Mao about Zhang's plot, taking the all of the code books and maps with them. As a result, Mao immediately moved his troop northward and thus escaped arrest and possible death.
Zhang decided to carry out his plan on his own, with disastrous results: over 75% of his original 80,000 + troops were lost in his adventure. Zhang was forced to admit defeat and retreat to the communist base in Shaanxi, as Mao had predicted. More disastrous than losing most of his troops, the failure discredited Zhang among his own followers, who turned to Mao. Furthermore, because all of the code books were obtained by Mao, Zhang lost contact with Comintern while Mao was able to establish the link, this coupled with the fact of Zhang's disastrous defeat, discredited Zhang within Comintern, which begun to give greater support for Mao.
Zhang's remaining troops of 21,800 were later annihilated in 1936 by the superior force of more than 100,000 combined troops of warlords Ma Bufang, Ma Hongbin and Ma Zhongying during efforts to cross the Yellow River and conquer Ma's territory. Zhang lost the power and influence to be able to challenge Mao and had to accept his failure as a result of the disaster which only left him 427 surviving troops from the original 21,800.