The August Defeat (Part 1)

People's History of Ideas Podcast

The 29th Regiment goes against Mao’s orders and decides to stay in Hunan, with disastrous results for the Communists.
Further reading:
Stephen Averill, Revolution in the Highlands: China’s Jinggangshan Base Area
Agnes Smedley, The Great Road: The Life and Times of Chu Teh [Zhu De]
Jurgen Domes, Peng Te-huai: The Man and the Image
Stuart Schram, ed., Mao’s Road to Power, vol. 3: From the Jinggangshan to the Establishment of the Jiangxi Soviets, July 1927-December 1930
Pang Xianzhi and Jin Chongji, Mao Zedong: A Biography, vol. 1: 1893-1949
Some names from this episode:
Wang Zuo, Bandit leader who joined with Mao Zedong
Yuan Wencai, Bandit leader who joined with Mao Zedong
Hu Shaohai, Commander of the 29th regiment of the 4th Red Army
Du Xiujing, Inspector sent to the Jinggangshan by the Hunan Provincial Committee in May 1928 and who returned in June
Fan Shisheng, Guomindang general and old friend of Zhu De
Yuan Chongquan, 28th Regiment battalion commander who mutinied
Yuan Desheng, Representative of the Hunan Provincial Committee
Peng Dehuai, Guomindang colonel who was secretly a Communist and who launched an uprising in July 1928

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