Documents show that the Red Army's efforts to improve commanders' tactical skills helped them draw advanced strategies and tactics to secure continuous victories in the Long March, a military expert said.
The Red Army commanders had mastered the world advanced military theory during the Long March according to two documents from the People's Liberation Army Archives made public recently, the military expert from the news website guancha.cn said.
One document is a combat plan issued on Jan 20, 1935, by the Red Army's general headquarters on crossing Chishui River and Jinsha River, the upstream of the Yangtze River.
The combat plan says: "(The Red Army) crosses the Chishui River to occupy the ferries in Lantian, Dadu and Jiang'an along the Jinsha River … when the Red Army has trouble in crossing the River in time as it faces the pursuing enemies, the Red Army should prepare assault and destroy the pursuing enemies …"
In January 1935, the Red Army took over Zunyi in Guizhou province, where the Communist Party of China held an important meeting to set up a new central leadership represented by Mao Zedong. The Red Army made the plan after the Kuomintang government mobilized more troops to Zunyi.
The Red Army took a highly flexible warfare approach to get rid of the pursuing enemies by crossing the Chishui River for four times back and forth. In May 1935, it crossed the Jinsha River in Yunnan province and crossed the Dadu River in Sichuan province to break the encirclement.
The other document is a summary issued in Sept 1935 by the Red Army's general headquarters on the experiences of the arrangements, skills and defense tactics in crossing rivers.
The Red Army usually held meetings to sum up the experiences after every battle, and positive experiences were promoted rapidly in the army, the expert said. The graphics on the documents were very simple but showed basic military tactical instructions, confirming the quality and depth of knowledge of commanders.
Some Red Army commanders received basic tactical training at the Whampoa Military Academy (1924-30) before Chiang Kai-shek betrayed the revolution in 1927 and military personnel from Soviet Union left. The Red Army continued the training by setting up schools in 1929.
Liu Bocheng, one of famous military leaders, made great contributions to the Red Army's military tactical training by translating the infantry combat doctrines of the Soviet Red Army and introducing the advanced experiences of the Frunze Military Academy in the Soviet Union.
In contrast, the Kuomintang army resumed the military tactical training under suggestions from the German military advisory group in 1933, but its inner political troubles left the training unfinished.
The Red Army started the Long March 82 years ago, making flexible and tactical moves to break the blockades and pursuits of the Kuomintang army, and arrived at the country's northwest two years later in victory.
