Fourth Encirclement Campaign

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Date	December 1931 - March 21, 1932
Location	Jiangxi province
Result	Red Army victory

Combatants

National Revolutionary Army

Chinese Red Army

Commanders

Chiang Kai-shek
Chen Cheng
Cai Tingkai

Zhu De

Mao Zedong
Wang Ming
Zhou Enlai
Bo Gu
Li De

Strength

Around 500,000

70,000

Casualties

30,000

Chinese Civil War
Major engagements in bold Encirclement Campaigns (First - Second - Third - Fourth - Fifth) - Long March (Luding Bridge) - Intermission (Wannan) - Shangdang Campaign - Longhai Campaign - Dingtao Campaign - Zhengtai Campaign - Liaoshen Campaign (Changchun - Jinzhou) - Huaihai Campaign - Pingjin Campaign - Island campaigns (Quemoy - Denbu - Nanri - Dongshan - Yijiangshan - Dong-Yin)

The Fourth Encirclement Campaign (Chinese: 第四次围剿) was the fourth campaign launched by the Chinese Nationalist Government in hope to destroy the Red Army in Jiangxi. The Nationalist headquarter in the provincial border of Jiangxi-Guangdong-Fujian organized nearly 400,000 men, and prepared for another major encirclement on the Jiangxi Soviets. As a response, the Jiangxi Soviet launched the Fourth Counter Encirclement Campaign (Chinese: 第四次反围剿). Although the Red Army achieved victory once again, their counter encirclement was not as successful as the previous ones this time, and the Red Army suffered considerable damage.

[edit] Setup

[edit] Nationalist

Chen Cheng was in charge of twelve divisions of Chiang Kai-shek's direct lineage, a total of 160,000 men. They were divided into three columns, and were assigned to attack from the central route, the main point of the assault. Cai Tingkai was in charge of the 19th Route Army and Fujian Stationed troops was assigned to attack from the left route while Yu Hanmou, a Cantonese warlord who defected to Chiang Kai-Shek would lead his troops was assigned to attack from the right route. They were responsible on clearing the Red Army to coordinate with the operations of Chen Cheng in the central route. Near the end of January 1933, Chiang Kai-shek arrived in Nanchang to command the encirclement. The Cantonese warlord Chen Jitang was ordered to attack from south, but he was much more concerned of keeping his own turf than fighting the communists for Chiang, and as a result, the 100,000 troops Chen Jitang committed did not move into positions until end of the campaign, and once learned the failure of the fourth encirclement, Chen Jitang's troops were immediately withdrawn at a rate faster than any other nationalist forces.

[edit] Communist

After the Jiangxi Soviet achieved victory in the Third Counter Encirclement Campaign, they went on and launched several offensives in nearby cities and expanded their stronghold. The First Area Red Army was expanded to three Army Group with a total of 70,000 men. Under the command of Zhu De and Zhou Enlai, the main force of the Red Army was mainly active in the Lichuan region.