Commemorating the 90th Anniversary of the Victory of the Workers' and Peasants' Red Army's Long March | The Wisdom of Victory in Adversity

This year marks the 90th anniversary of the victory of the Chinese Workers' and Peasants' Red Army's Long March. From October 1934 to October 1936, under the resolute leadership of the Communist Party of China, the First, Second, and Fourth Front Armies and the 25th Army of the Red Army carried out the great Long March. The officers and soldiers of the Red Army, with extraordinary wisdom and dauntless heroism, overcame countless hardships and made tremendous sacrifices to successfully complete the Long March—a feat that shook the world and will shine forever in the annals of history—creating a human miracle of earth-shattering magnitude. To commemorate this great undertaking, carry forward and promote the great Long March spirit, and draw deeply on the military wisdom embedded within it, this section will publish a series of related articles to revisit and interpret this world-shaking revolutionary feat and great victory, providing intellectual inspiration for the great practice of strengthening and revitalizing the military.

The Red Army's Long March is a great feat in human history—a military textbook forged in extreme adversity that shines with the brilliance of defeating the strong with the weak. Confronting the manifold difficulties of a stronger enemy, treacherous terrain, and scarce supplies, the officers and soldiers of the Red Army, with iron will and outstanding wisdom, fought more than 600 campaigns and battles, crossed nearly 100 rivers, and scaled more than 40 high mountains and dangerous peaks. Through the baptism of blood and fire, they corrected the military line, innovated strategic and tactical approaches, and forged a treasury of military wisdom that transcends time and remains ever fresh.

"Devote one's heart to the Party; cast the soul of the military forever." The Party's absolute leadership over the military was the fundamental guarantee of the Red Army's victory in perilous circumstances during the Long March.

The most core and profound military lesson of the Long March lies in the fact that it demonstrated through ironclad evidence that the Party's absolute leadership over the military is the founding principle and the soul of strengthening the people's army—an unshakable fundamental principle for defeating the enemy. In the early stages of the Long March, the errors of "Left" opportunist dogmatism weakened the Party's collective leadership; individual arbitrariness caused military decision-making to become divorced from reality, resulting in heavy losses for the Red Army in battles such as the Xiangjiang River campaign. The Zunyi Conference was a turning point of life-and-death significance in the history of our Party. This conference began to establish the leading position of the correct Marxist line represented primarily by Comrade Mao Zedong within the Party Central Committee, restored the centralized, unified, scientifically sound, and efficient command system of the Party over the military, and at an extremely critical historical juncture, saved the Party, saved the Red Army, and saved the Chinese revolution.

"Upholding the principle that the Party commands the gun and building our own people's army is an irrefutable truth the Party arrived at through struggle in blood and fire." The supreme leadership and command authority over the military must be unconditionally and absolutely concentrated in the Party Central Committee and the Central Military Commission (CMC). Major strategic decisions and campaign deployments must strictly follow the principle of democratic centralism, ensuring scientific authority and strict compliance with orders. The more severe and complex the situation, the more the Party's centralized and unified leadership must be emphasized, ensuring the entire military maintains unified will, unified command, and unified action. On the new-era journey of building a strong country and a strong military, we must profoundly understand the decisive significance of the "Two Establishes" (两个确立), strengthen the "Four Consciousnesses" (四个意识), firm up the "Four Confidences" (四个自信), achieve the "Two Upholds" (两个维护), implement the CMC Chairman Responsibility System, and ensure that the barrel of the gun forever obeys the Party's command.

"Follow the ink [i.e., the plan] and adapt to the enemy to decide the outcome of battle." Seeking truth from facts in military guidance was the solid foundation on which the Red Army turned danger into safety during the Long March.

The Long March demonstrated through hardship and victory that war is an art full of uncertainty, and that the soul of military guidance lies in adhering to seeking truth from facts and proceeding from reality in all things. In the early stages of the Long March, due to the erroneous leadership of dogmatism within the Party, "Left" adventurism was practiced militarily: disregarding the Red Army's actual conditions, mechanically executing positional defense and short, sharp attacks, and engaging in attrition warfare against a stronger enemy, falling into a passive position. After the Zunyi Conference, the Red Army returned to the essence of war guidance—"you fight your way, I fight my way" (你打你的，我打我的)—discarding dogma and giving full play to the strengths of mobile warfare and guerrilla warfare. Crossing the Chishui River four times with a surprise force, cleverly crossing the Jinsha River to avoid the enemy's sharp edge, and seizing the Luding Bridge in a flying assault to create a miracle—all were exemplary demonstrations of accurately grasping enemy and friendly conditions, terrain, and weather, and flexibly applying strategy and tactics.

"Proceeding from reality in all things is the starting point and the ultimate goal of how we think about problems, make decisions, and handle affairs." Military construction and operational guidance must be grounded in the realities of national and military conditions, rooted in the country's own political, economic, cultural, and geographic characteristics and the military's own strengths. We must absolutely never copy foreign models or blindly trust textbook dogma. Strategy and tactics must change with the situation, change with the enemy, and change with the terrain. We must keenly observe the battlefield situation, accurately capture the opponent's weaknesses, make full use of environmental conditions, persist in flexible maneuvering and striking the enemy where he is weak while avoiding where he is strong, and firmly grasp the battlefield initiative in dynamic confrontation.

"Contending for military advantage brings benefit; contending for military advantage brings danger." Doing everything possible to seize battlefield initiative was the key to the Red Army's breaking out of adversity during the Long March.

The entire Long March was an epic of seizing, creating, and maintaining strategic initiative while surrounded by a powerful enemy. The Nationalist Army, relying on absolute superiority, attempted to annihilate the Red Army on a predetermined battlefield. The Red Army, with extraordinary strategic vision and maneuver capability, repeatedly turned danger into safety and transformed passivity into initiative through decisively adjusting the direction of advance and executing large-scale strategic envelopments. The Tongdao turn brought a sudden reversal; feinting east while striking west across Sichuan, Guizhou, and Yunnan; and ultimately moving north to take root in Shaanxi-Gansu—each critical turning point was the Red Army seizing the initiative at the strategic level, winning both military victory and strategic initiative by changing routes of march, timing of operations, and strike objectives.

"When strategic judgments are accurate, strategic planning is scientific, and strategic initiative is won, the cause of the Party and the people holds great promise." Strategic planning must possess a global perspective and forward-looking vision, accurately anticipate the enemy's strategic intentions, and avoid falling into preset traps. When the balance of forces is unfavorable and the situation is disadvantageous, hard attrition warfare should be avoided. Strategic maneuver must be executed decisively, trading space for time and seeking opportunities to build momentum in movement. We must be adept at exploiting and widening the enemy's internal contradictions, command errors, and gaps in deployment, and actively creating a posture favorable to ourselves.

"Military forces have no constant disposition; water has no constant form." Flexible and mobile warfare was the trump card by which the Red Army defeated the strong with the weak during the Long March.

The Long March honed mobile warfare—the people's army's signature skill—to a state of consummate mastery. Through large-scale, high-intensity maneuver, the Red Army mobilized, exhausted, and dispersed the enemy; created local superiority in movement; concentrated forces to fight battles of annihilation; and sought quick, decisive victory. The four crossings of the Chishui River employed highly deceptive feints and repeated envelopments, threading through hundreds of thousands of enemy troops to actively seek opportunities for battle. Throughout the entire Long March, all units implemented the principle of flexible maneuvering—"fight when you can win, withdraw when you cannot"—skillfully unifying strategic withdrawal with the destruction of the enemy's effective strength.

"The highest realm of the art of war guidance is: you fight your way, I fight my way." Battlefield competition cannot be a matter of "competing with the Dragon King for treasures." The weaker side must not be bound to deploying imposing formations on the frontal battlefield or engaging in tit-for-tat confrontation; instead, it must leverage strengths and avoid weaknesses through flexible battlefield maneuver to create and form local battlefield superiority. High importance must be attached to strategic, campaign, and tactical deception; we must be adept at using feints, camouflage, information concealment, and other means to confuse and disrupt the enemy. We must strive to create opportunities for battle in movement, concentrate absolutely superior forces, fight quick-decision battles and battles of annihilation, and achieve the effect of "better to cut off one finger than to wound ten" (伤其十指不如断其一指).

"Those resolved to die will live; those hoping merely to survive will die." Strict discipline and tenacious fighting style were the strong pillars sustaining the Red Army's combat effectiveness during the Long March.

Throughout the Long March, the entire army obeyed orders without exception; officers and soldiers shared hardships and depended on each other through life and death. In the extreme conditions of crossing snow mountains, traversing grasslands, suffering hunger and cold, and facing relentless pursuit, the Red Army could not be worn down, could not be scattered, and grew more courageous with each setback—this was due to iron discipline, a tenacious fighting style, and firm ideals and convictions. In the dense fire of the flying seizure of Luding Bridge, on the sheer cliffs of the assault on Lazikou Pass, and in the arduous trek across the vast grasslands, the officers and soldiers of the Red Army, relying on "the heroism and revolutionary spirit of overcoming all enemies without being overcome by any enemy, and conquering all difficulties without being conquered by any difficulty," repeatedly surpassed the limits of physical endurance and created miracles in the history of warfare.

"Strengthen discipline, and revolution is invincible." Strict discipline is the lifeline of the military and the fundamental guarantee of unified will and unified action. "Military orders are as immovable as a mountain" and "strict compliance with orders" must be infused into the lifeblood of the military. Harsh environments are the furnace for tempering the fighting spirit; troops must be tested under complex and difficult conditions to forge officers and soldiers with the solid fighting style of not fearing a strong enemy, daring to sacrifice, overcoming fortified positions and difficulties, and sustaining continuous operations. Powerful spiritual strength is the deep-level support for defeating the enemy; we must continuously strengthen the education of officers and soldiers in ideals and convictions, consolidate the foundation of faith, and inspire an indomitable fighting will.

"Water can carry a boat, and it can also capsize it." The support and backing of the people was the source of strength that sustained the Red Army's ten-thousand-li march during the Long March.

Wherever the Long March went, the Party's mass work took root there—connecting with the masses, propagating among the masses, arming the masses, uniting the masses, and relying on the masses. The Red Army strictly implemented the "Three Main Rules of Discipline and Eight Points for Attention" (三大纪律八项注意), respected the customs of all ethnic groups, and sincerely worked for the benefit of the masses. Discipline that left not a single needle or thread untouched and actions serving the people won the wholehearted support of the peoples of all ethnic groups along the route. The masses proactively served as guides for the Red Army, provided intelligence, gathered food and fodder, rescued the wounded, and enthusiastically joined the army. The "Yi Sea Alliance" (彝海结盟) successfully applied the Party's ethnic policy, transforming potential resistance into powerful assistance, vividly interpreting the high degree of unity between political work and military action.

"The military wins battles; the people are the backing." The deepest source of the mighty force of war lies among the masses. We must always adhere to the strategic thinking of people's war and unswervingly follow the mass line. Rock-solid unity between the military and the government and between the military and the people is our army's unique strategic advantage. We must strictly observe mass discipline, safeguard the interests of the masses, always maintain a flesh-and-blood connection with the people, and continuously consolidate and enhance the integrated national strategic system and capabilities. We must be adept at wielding the magic weapon of the united front, uniting all forces that can be united, isolating the enemy to the maximum extent, and strengthening ourselves.

Under conditions of extreme hardship, the officers and soldiers of the Red Army, with extraordinary wisdom and tenacity, creatively explored a set of logistical and survival modes adapted to operations without a rear area and with large-scale maneuver: relying on "local resupply" (就地补给) through methods such as expropriating from local despots and battlefield capture; implementing strict material management, practicing strict economy, and traveling light; and adapting to local conditions—in extreme environments such as snow mountains and grasslands, working out invaluable survival skills such as cold prevention during marches, disease prevention, field camping, and identifying edible plants. This logistical model became the solid support for completing the great strategic transfer.

"In a certain sense, fighting a war means fighting logistics." The ancient maxim that "an army without baggage trains will perish, without food will perish, without accumulated stores will perish" remains applicable under the conditions of informatized and intelligentized warfare, and the requirements are even higher. We must build a modernized logistics and equipment support system with the capabilities of all-domain maneuver, rapid response, precise efficiency, and survivability under attack. We must, based on complex and harsh battlefield environments, strengthen training in troops' sustained operational capabilities including field survival, emergency resupply, treatment of casualties and illness, and equipment maintenance. We must optimize troop organization and equipment systems, emphasizing modularity, lightweight design, and multi-functionality, and enhance strategic and campaign maneuver and rapid response capabilities.

"The passes are iron-strong, yet we stride forward from the start." The precious experiences forged by the Red Army in adversity profoundly reveal the internal laws by which the people's army grew from small to large, from weak to strong, and overcame all hardships and obstacles. They will forever be the fertile spiritual soil and source of wisdom nourishing the people's army as it advances from victory to victory, inspiring us to continuously win new and greater victories on the new great journey.